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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029205255 
 
HISTOM AND PHILOSOPHY OF EVIL; 
 
 WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR 
 
 laxt €nito!iIiitg |nditntions, 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 ANDEEW JACKSON DAYIS. 
 
 'Let no one call God his Father, 
 Wlio calls not man his brother." 
 
 THIRD EDITION, 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 BELA MARSH, PUBLISHER, 14 BROMFIELD ST. 
 
 18 66. 
 
CORNEL?^ 
 
 UMfVERSITYf 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18B8, bjr 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 d^^ 
 
 STBBBOTTPED BY 
 
 HOBART & KOBBINS, 
 
 HEW ENGLAND TYpfl AHI> STBIt^QTYFE FODNDBBY, 
 BOSTON. 
 
/AUTHOR'S PREIACE. 
 
 PHILANTHEOPIC CONVENTION, 
 
 TO OTEKCOME ETIt WITH GOOD. 
 
 To he held in Mechanics^ Hall, JJtica, Oneida Co., JV. Y., on the 10th 
 llth and \2th of September, 1858. 
 
 " Let no one call God his Father, 
 Who calls not man hia brother." 
 
 The fact cannot be disguised, that modern theories of sin, 
 evil, crime, and misery, are numerous and extremely conflicting 
 Not less antagonistic are existing laws, systems and institu 
 tions, respecting the rearing of children, and the treatment of 
 criminals. The Tindictive and coercive code has been for cen- 
 turies administered to the workers of iniquity ; yet vice and 
 crime seem to be increasing, in proportion to the spread of 
 civilization. The intelligent and benevolent everywhere beg^in 
 to believe that this prevalence of crime and suffering is mainly' 
 traceable to erroneous doctrines, respecting man and his acts, 
 out of which have been evolved equally erroneous systems of 
 education, tyrannical institutions, and depraving plans of pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 Therefore, we, the undersigned, believing that a true philoso- 
 phy of human existence and conduct will ultimate in more 
 ennobling institutions and philanthropic systems of education, 
 hereby invite all thoughtful and humane persons of every pro- 
 
fession, or form of faith, to be present and take part in a con- 
 vention, with a platform perfectly free to all who can throw 
 what they believe to be true light upon The Cause and Cure of 
 Evil. 
 
 We desire the question presented in all its aspects. It is 
 hoped, therefore, that minds will come prepared to treat this 
 subject with dignity and wisdom, from every stand-point of 
 observation and discovery, — the physical, social, political, 
 intellectual, theological, and spiritual. We very earnestly 
 invoke the presence and influence of all who believe themselves 
 to be true friends of Humanity ; both to speak and to hear dis- 
 passionately upon the causes of evil and misery ; to the end 
 that the best principles and truest remedies may be discovered 
 and applied. 
 
 The above-named Convention was held at the time and place 
 appointed. It was a gathering of immense importance and 
 profit. There was in constant attendance and acceptable 
 cooperation a vast multitude of intelligent and benevolent per- 
 sons of both sexes — representatives from the various states 
 of the American continent. 
 
 The object of this little volume is, first, to embody in con- 
 secutive form the discourses delivered in part by the author 
 at the Philanthropic Convention; and, second, to agitate the 
 public miad upon the most sacred and sublime of all subjects 
 and labors, namely, to ascertain how, individually and col- 
 lectively, we may "overcome evil with good." In order to 
 aid in the accomplishment of these objects, the discourses are 
 sent hopefully forth to the wide world, with a " God speed the 
 right 1 " 
 
 That the earnest reader and philosophic humanitarian may 
 know what is to come of this "nucleus" Convention, it is 
 deemed appropriate to put on record the Eesolve of the entire 
 congress of philanthropists and reformers assembled. 
 
Mb. Giles B. Stebbins, of Eochester, offered the following 
 resolution, which was unanimously adopted : 
 
 Besolved, That this Convention become AN ANNUAL AN- 
 NIVERSARY, of all who seek wisdom to overcome " evil with 
 good," and that the time, place, and arrangements for the next 
 meeting be left to a Committee consisting of Ira S. Hitchcock, 
 of Oneida, De. Robert T. Hallock and Andrew Jackson Davis, 
 of New York, and Amos Rogers, of Utica. 
 
 Speciai. Notice ! — All persons interested in the objects of the proposed 
 " Anniyersary " are hereby invited very particularly to collate all facts in their 
 State or community, relating to the several palpable or supposed causes of 
 human suffering, and especially also to gather all useful information respecting 
 the mode of treatment adopted, the expense, the results, &c. Such persons are 
 earnestly requested to write out or memorize authentic facts, accompanied with 
 their opinions respecting the shortest road to human happiness, and to be indi- 
 vidually present, if possible, at the next annual gathering. Those who wish 
 to become spealsers or private aids at this free Cosmopolitan Movement, called 
 " The Philantheopic Convention," are hereby' solicited to address the author 
 ofthe following discourses, ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 
 
 Care of J S. Bkown, JVo. 274 Canal Street, JVew York. 
 
 1* 
 
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. 
 
 i. THE UNITY OF TRUTH. 
 
 n. THE ANTE-HUMAN THEORY OF EVIL. 
 IIL THE INTEIUHUMAN THEORY OF EVIL. 
 IV. THE SUPER-HUMAN THEORY OF EVIL. 
 
 V. THE SPIRITUAL THEORY OF EVIL. 
 VI. THE HARMONIAL THEORY OF EVIL. 
 VIL THE CAUSE OF CIVILIZATION. 
 VIH. THE WORLD'S TRUE SAVIOUR DISCOVERED. 
 IX. THE HARMOMAL CURE OF EVIL. 
 
. THE UNITY OF TRUTH. 
 
 The law op Progress is a ready writer ; its iak is 
 life ; its pen, all the human world ; its volume, Experi- 
 ence. The accumulated experiences of countless gen- 
 erations start iuto living present facts, when touched by 
 the deathless magic of his pen, and the nineteenth cen- 
 tury is thereby made the Compendium of all the dark 
 and dreamy Past. The exact image of numberless ages, 
 with all their sublime freight, is magically photographed 
 by wisdom's sun upon the spread canvas of this very 
 hour — behold ! can you not see it ? — and the variable 
 voices of the long-forgotten myriads of Humanity, are 
 heard within and between the words of all who now 
 exist — listen ! can you not hear them ? 
 
 Development is that process by which substances and 
 shapes famUiar to the earlier inhabitants, are transmuted 
 and promoted to the teeming heights of present being. 
 The gradual transformation of granite rocks into tillable 
 soil, of dirty iron into knives and forks, of worm-dis- 
 gorgements into silken raiment, of mythology into the- 
 ology, of savages into civilizees, is no longer wonderful. 
 We reflect a moment, and the perception comes, that 
 modem Axts and popular Sciences are but the fulfilment 
 
8 
 
 of Ideals natural to the human mind ; that the mechan- 
 ical facts and physical achievements of to-day are 
 embodiments of oriental imaginations. We have urged 
 this before, and so we shall again. 
 
 History is present biography ; for nothing is ever lost ; 
 and essences are omnipresent. Hence, then, whatsoever 
 happened thirty months or thirty hundred generations 
 ago is possible now, this very moment ; because the pro- 
 ducing Law is immutable and unrepealed ; and because, 
 also, the conditions, as a fulcrum, over which the lever- 
 power of Law is uniformly displayed, may be summoned 
 from their silent slumber in the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 This unitary philosophy of mankind's external history, 
 is equally apphcable to the biography of human Thoughts. 
 Many grotesque and h3iperbohc conceptions cherished by 
 the so-called entombed heathen of Persia, twenty-five 
 hundred years ago, are entertained as living religious 
 truths this very hour by people civilized and powerful 
 in America. Egjrptian darkness and Jersey lightning 
 are the same ! The gregarious Ladians of the east- 
 em hemisphere had Pagodas held firmly to earth and 
 sacredly to heart by ties, gravitational and mechanical 
 and spiritual, identical with those which bind and sus- 
 tain costly sanctuaries upon the soil and soul of Mas- 
 sachusetts. Mankind do not differ essentially ; they 
 remain the same from age to age ; improving only in the 
 form and application. And thus it happens, that pre 
 vailing ideas of truth and several popular standards of 
 righteousness, are lovLugly homogeneous with errors 
 openly exposed by Socrates and repudiated by Jesus. 
 
 Supported by this palpable principle of relationship 
 between the essence of the Past and the essence of the 
 Present — the form alone being incessantly changeable 
 
and dissimilar — we may afiirm, without fear of contradic- 
 tion, that modern churchianity is merely ancient poly- 
 theism blossomed out. This is true an,d self-evident to 
 the impartial interrogator of history, just as To-day is 
 the baby-offspring of its progenitor. Yesterday ; as the 
 stem oak tree is the acorn openly manifested ; or, per- 
 haps, as growliQg dogmatism is whining puppyism gone 
 to seed. With these prefatory words, volunteered def- 
 erentially as hints to the thinker, I proceed to consider 
 our theme. We must freely explore and deliberately 
 interrogate history. Let us get at the world's differ- 
 ent theories of evil ; and at what the advocates of each 
 theory have proposed to extirpate misery. 
 
 Before embarking upon this bewitching enterprise, 
 however, I must whisper "loud enough to be heard" 
 a few fundamental suggestions. Pictured upon my 
 understanding is a vast hand-shaped conception of the^ 
 metaphorical Hand of Providence ! This hand fills all 
 the boundless space without, and its five fingers extend 
 fan-like every way, resembhng mighty yet beautiful 
 columns of celestial fire. This terrible emblem of 
 omnipotence, with its quinary images of fingers, is omni- 
 present — under the earth, in the sea, upon aU con- 
 tinents, through all forms of hfe, beneath all humanity, 
 around all the nations — in short, the "Hand" represents 
 the universe of Matter, and the " fingers" are the fixed 
 Principles of Mind. Obedient to the noiseless fiat of 
 that Divine Father who moves this " five-membered 
 hand" through infinite space, everything comes into 
 being, grows up to form, gains strength, performs its 
 allotted mission, then sleeps for a little season, and finally 
 vanishes away into the dreamy empire of Change, 
 
 And if at any place or period of the world, under the 
 
10 
 
 disentangling and noiseless operation of these quintuple 
 Laws, ' ' five of them [persons] were wise and five were 
 foolish," no man may presume to complain at the 
 obvious inequality or apparent unrighteousness. For 
 who would openly, or in secret, denounce babyhood? 
 Or, who dare defame and ridicule the estate of youth ? 
 It is the solid rock on which is founded the holy house 
 of Manhood. Yet more : who is there so destitute of 
 filial grace as to disregard and desecrate old Age ? Not 
 one of the five who are "wise" would thus do ; and if 
 "the five foolish" denounce and blaspheme, who will 
 say that such minds are false to their condition ? 
 
 As the five phases known as babyhood, childhood, 
 youth, manhood, and maturity, are marked steps in the 
 journey of radividual life ; so also are the five historic 
 doctrines of the "cause and cure of evil" remarkable in 
 the progressive development of the life of mankind. 
 These five doctrines, which have been successively 
 evolved in humanity's growth, may be denominated : 
 first, THE Ante-human ; second, the Intek-human, third, 
 THE Super-human ; fourth, the Spiritual ; and fifth, the 
 Habmonial. The first was feminine ; the second, mas- 
 culine ; the third, feminine ; the fourth, masculine ; the 
 fifth is feminine : each corresponding to a finger upon 
 the Hand of Providence. We wUl consider, first, 
 
 the ante-hujian theory. 
 
 The babyhood of the whole human race, like the 
 infant state of individual man, is characterized by phys- 
 ical weakness and mental simplicity. In this condition 
 there is no coherent reflection, no contemplative fore- 
 cast, no duplicity of motive or sophistication ; but, 
 instead, the most interior impulses bubble uncom- 
 
11 
 
 pounded to the upper surface, and dVery latent propen- 
 sity or attribute gains the most unmixed expression. 
 Babyhood is the elementary school of every masterly 
 attainment ; a state of promise, of poetry, and proph- 
 ecy. From the dizzy heaven-capped summit of this 
 the century of centuries, we may look down into the 
 world's profoundest Infancy. At once the best germs 
 of eternal Truth glimmer, and shed their mild radiance 
 upon the inspecting vision. Like immortal jewels 
 dropped from the divine Crown, harmoniously set in the 
 earthen ring of the familiar microcosm ; so man's facul- 
 ties shine forth practically, throughout the life and hp 
 and deeds of all the after ages. 
 
 Implicit and immeasurable Faith, not reason, is the 
 characteristic flower of infancy. Of the individual ; 
 so, also, of the race. The thinking principle, the 
 future mind, is folded lovingly within the heart. The 
 only brain is the bosom. Impulse is the first principle ; 
 and the first argument is Necessity. Coming Wisdom 
 is prophesied in the foregleams of Intuition ; and the 
 inward faith whispers of future Reason, without jargon 
 of words or confusion of testimony. Viewing man- 
 kind's infancy in this light, how startHng yet pleasur- 
 able is the announcement that man's first thoughtless 
 theory of Evil's origin was, or is, Ante-Human. It 
 comes from the interior ; in sex and character, it is 
 fetninine. 
 
 The earliest theology, or doctrine of God, was mono- 
 theistic. (Historians do not thus classify, but I am 
 wilUng to wait for a better class of writers.) God was 
 asleep in secret impenetrable. He was robed in the 
 manifolds of eternal Night. There were slumbering 
 profoundly within Him the purposes and adequate ener- 
 
12 
 
 gies of creation universal. At length the great Being 
 roused to the work, creation was miraculously consum- 
 mated, but the Creator remained totally invisible. He 
 was still sequestered within golden cities countless, and 
 slept in a bed of light behind the gorgeous curtains of 
 infinitude. Of His immense but beautiful person, or 
 plans and meditations, no . earthly creature could ever 
 know anything. His celestial concealments were abso- 
 lute, and the awful secrets of His wiU were eternally 
 shut from man's observation. Of Him knew no man, 
 " not even the angels in heaven," but with Himself he 
 was all expression. 
 
 These opinions were vaguely entertained by the first 
 human family on earth. But, anon, there were devel- 
 oped many evils among the tribes — selfishness, jealousy, 
 hatred, insult, crime, revenge, murder ! These social 
 disorders were very soon succeeded by diverse physical 
 calamities — excess, destitution, pain, sickness, insanity, 
 corruption, unnatural death ! There were also remark- 
 able changes in the earth itself (for this was the volcanic 
 era just closing), and atmospheric discords coextensive 
 with human observation, such as heat, cold, storms, tor- 
 nadoes, ground-tremblings, thunder, lightning, famine, 
 pestilence, stinging flies, poisonous reptiles, disappear- 
 ance of fertile plains, destructive floods, and eclipses of 
 the mysterious sun and beloved moon. The existence 
 of these alarming diseases, and the unexpected recur- 
 rence of overwhelming physical derangements, necessi- 
 tated the formation of a hypothesis, a theory of the 
 cause of the evils, which was simply and wholly Ante- 
 Human. Children will conjecture images, and assign 
 imaginary causes, to explain what they do not compre- 
 hend. The Ante-human theory was briefly this : — 
 
13 
 
 The unknown mental Mystery, the concealed and in- 
 comprehensible Grod, premeditated in secret and stealth- 
 ily accomplished every good and evil thing. He was 
 before all things, and in Him did all things consist. 
 Day came out of His countenance, and Night was the 
 shadow of His hand ; Good was the smile of His mouth, 
 and Evil the frown of His brow. With the right hand 
 He recompensed the righteous, and with the left foot 
 He punished the guilty. Why He did contradictory 
 deeds, sent forth waters both bitter and sweet from His 
 one fountain, was no question to be entertained by man. 
 It was rebellion to hestitate. The Incomprehensible 
 alone knew all things. And thus the early poets sung 
 (see Prov. xxv. 2) : " It is the glory of God to conceal 
 a thing." And later poets, following the thoughts of 
 their predecessors, wrote : " Great is the Lord, and 
 greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearch- 
 ■able." (Psahn cxlv. 3.) And still another subse- 
 quently exclaimed, " 0, the depth of the riches both of 
 the wisdom and the knowledge of God ! How unsearch- 
 able are His judgments, and His ways past finding out." 
 (Romans xi. 33 and 34.) All this is simply a repeti- 
 tion of the Ante-Human theory, known in the world for 
 thousands of years before Paul ; in fact, the hypothesis 
 is pre-Adamite, and reaches down into humanity's very 
 first cradle. 
 
 In the Infant age of the world, as with all untram- 
 melled simplicity of understanding, there was no com- 
 plexity. The hypothesis was uncomplicated and weak ; 
 but yet, in a finer light, such infancy is a promise of 
 the best. Hence, in this theory, God had no compeers, 
 no equals, no accomplices, no scapegoats, upon which to 
 saddle the origin and causes of evil. He had created 
 2 
 
14 
 
 all ; held an undisputed title to " mansions in the sky;" 
 was sole proprietor of the earthy footstool ; introduced 
 and repealed laws ; acted natural or unnatural at pleas- 
 ure ; blessed the good ; cursed the wicked whom he also 
 made ; " warmed in the sun ;" chilled in the appalling 
 storm; "glowed in the stars;" muttered and threat- 
 ened in the thunder ; ^' blossomed in the trees ;" blasted 
 in the tornado's breath ; acted out individual sovereignty 
 at His own cost ; and took the responsibility ! Such, in 
 short, was the Ante-human theory of evil. Let us now 
 examine the world's condition at the period under 
 review. 
 
 The human mind, at this, stage of its growth, was 
 necessarily impressible and enveloped in every kind of 
 ignorance. Ignorance married to mind begets that most 
 helpless and wretched of psychological children, called 
 " Fear." This miserable imbecile is allowed to inter- 
 marry with his twin sister, called " Mystery," and thus 
 is begotten that most deplorable and diabolical of mental 
 Despots, known as " Superstition." Superstition, how- 
 ever, is more bright-minded than either of his parents. 
 He first ruled among " the armies of heaven and the 
 inhabitants of earth;" and suggested, like a doctor, 
 the first theory of curing evils individual, social, and 
 terrestrial. And one thing is remarkable : the theory 
 of treatment was logically blended with the hypothesis 
 of disease. Superstition (which was the first form of 
 spiritualism among men) declared meekly and trem- 
 blingly that. Men were not granted permission to ask 
 why the unfathomable God originally sent into the world 
 disease, misery, and death ; but only this was allow- 
 able : to acknowledge on bended knees the prompt 
 receipt of the afflictive dispensation, and then proceed 
 
15 
 
 uncomplainingly to scatter incense and offer every 
 costly sacrifice. 
 
 Here, then, was developed the Ante-human system 
 of healing the sores of sin. Evil came from God, and 
 the cure consisted in sacrifice. And the administration 
 of this mysterious " cure " was very mysteriously con- 
 fined to the magicians. These were the divine wise 
 men, the first mediums, with a sacred function unintel- 
 ligible to the tribes round about them. Patriarchs, 
 poets, musicians, chieftains, rulers, and warriors, selected 
 certain ones of their number to act as "medicine men" 
 or mediums ; and these, the mysterious persons, very 
 soon obtained exclusive control of religious rites and 
 curative ceremonies. They were the "magi" of after 
 ages. The serpent, the bird, the beast, the bullock, 
 the lamb, yea, the human babe, was ever and anon 
 selected by the chief priests and then consecrated sol- 
 emnly by the medicine men ; whereupon the poor herds- 
 men and affrighted supplicants, numbering many thou- 
 sands, would slavishly bow down in worshipful homage, 
 about the burning sacrifice ! Or, obedient to the recog- 
 nized authorities, some parties would set out to wander 
 here and there upon aimless pilgrimages, away into the 
 interminable wildernesses, and wUlingly perish there 
 unwept among the beasts of prey ; while others, obey- 
 ing the same dictation, would assume constrained and 
 painful attitudes before wooden images, at the base of 
 artificial crosses, or handle deadly serpents, and prostrate 
 themselves hopelessly in burning sand till death ; all to 
 placate the imaginary wrath, or else to purchase the 
 eternal pleasure of the Divine Mystery, who lived and 
 worked in secret behind the stars, who created light 
 and darkness, good and evil, and held as a pebble the 
 
16 
 
 moss-covered earth in the hollow of his hand. We come 
 now to another development, namely : 
 
 THE INTEK-HUMAN THEORY. 
 
 Contemporary with the evolution and establishment 
 of the sacred order of medicine men, between the evils 
 of mankind and the mysterious pharmacopoeia of reme- 
 dies, there came slowly into existence a newer class of 
 convictions. A few minds centrifugated the existing 
 superstitions, and adopted their higher impressions 
 respecting the "cause" of evil, and recommended to the 
 world what they considered a more certain " cure" of 
 human ills and misfortunes. 
 
 Mankind at this period, through the medium of a few 
 representative minds, was just emerging from Infancy 
 into Childhood. Childhood is distinguished from its 
 predecessor by impetuous sensuosity and unrestrained 
 integrity to physicalism. The state is characterized in 
 particular by a definite development of the perceptive 
 faculties, and not less by an emphatic exercise of the 
 corporeal organization. This description is of the 
 healthy, normal, proper state. Children devote them- 
 selves, as Mother Nature meant they should, to their 
 bodily organs and physical senses ; to hear, to see, to 
 taste, to smell, and to feel everything and everybody 
 beautiful, is childhood's sovereign attraction and in- 
 alienable prerogative. 
 
 What is true of the individul is true of the race uni- 
 versally. As childhood is perpetually conscious of its 
 dependency — a fact in nature of which unreasoning 
 infancy is wholly unconscious — even so its impres- 
 sions of existence resolve themselves into a doctrine of 
 Fatalism. Fatality or obvious dependency is the natu- 
 
17 
 
 ral theory of childhood ; and therefqfe, respecting the 
 doctrine of Evil's origin, this condition develops the 
 Inter-human hypothesis. In sex and character this 
 theory of evil is masculine^ or sensuous. 
 
 By this theory I mean the early belief which pre- 
 vailed among what in modern times would be termed 
 " the educated class; "to the effect, that aU evil is a 
 necessity or natural accompaniment of human existence. 
 Man was viewed as the helpless subject of fortuitous 
 circumstances. He was considered the favored or the 
 condenmed of Fate ; and the object, like a tree or the 
 brute, of forces fixed and causes irresistible. 
 
 The most advanced minds, those who entertained this 
 self-evident sensuous hypothesis, did openly repudiate 
 and ridicule the silly doctrines and senseless mummeries 
 of the medicine men. A new and more definite author- 
 ity was herein conceived ; the insemination and gesta- 
 tion began ; and the first child of fatalism. Physical 
 Science, was born into the world's oriental lap. Stoutly 
 repelling the superstitions of the mediums and medical 
 magi, and resolutely priding themselves exclusively 
 upon the testimony of their physical senses, the thinkers 
 began the study of physical objects and slowly classified 
 a few mechanical forces. The phenomena of lingual 
 sounds, or language, came within the circle of their 
 inquiries. . And out of the whole period considerable 
 progress was really made in philology, astronomy, 
 mineralogy, atomology, cosmology, in the wonders of 
 acoustics, music also, and much was done in certain 
 departments of mechanics and architecture. Thus were 
 begotten the germs of subsequent Egyptian civilization ; 
 so, also, was conceived the progress of ancient Persia 
 and Chaldea ; the CMna kingdom was thus founded ; 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 and the Hindoo world was rocked in a cradle of comnaon 
 science, based upon physicalism and fatality. 
 
 Among other- investigations came this Inter-human 
 hypothesis of evil ; its cause and remedy. Human 
 sense could easily mark this fact : all people, whether 
 living isolated in countries or huddled together in set- 
 tlements and cities, would be selfish, envious, thievish, 
 and murderous. Wars would come, and men woulJ 
 fight. Death walked unbidden through human habita- 
 tions, stalked arm in arm with pestilence, and feasted 
 like a grim monster upon the victims of famine. The 
 distracted people, suffering and dying, asked : ' ' Why 
 are we thus sorely afflicted?" The physicaHsts heard 
 the question, and, being the disciples of blind forces and 
 fate, they replied: "Man suffers from Necessity." 
 " Who made Necessity?" asked the law-abiding multi- 
 tude. " The Fates," returned the philosophers. " But 
 who made the Fates?" persisted the inquisitive people. 
 AU the wise men were for the time confounded. But 
 in less than twelve moons, they instituted a new phase 
 of religious belief. 
 
 The physicalists or fatalists, stiU ignorant of great 
 general principles, began a childish classification of the 
 diverse evils and also of their opposites — the misfor- 
 tunes on one hand, on the other all known bless- 
 ings — with imaginary names attached to the several 
 FORCES employed by Fate in bringing the effects among 
 men. This was essentially identical with the Ante- 
 human hypothesis — differing only in its polytheistic 
 tendencies, and in its painful suggestions of inidncible 
 Fatality. 
 
 Here it may be remarked, en passant, that this doc- 
 trine of the early physicalists became, in subsequent 
 
19 
 
 generations, the justifiable basis of all mythology. 
 Ninus, the first king of Assyria, promoted his father, 
 Nimrod, to the representative of a divine Force ! Long 
 after his father's death the ambitious son, then king, 
 caused him to be pubhcly worshipped. The very igno- 
 rant population, confounding the image with the imag- 
 ination, and taking the form instead of the spirit 
 intended by the wise men, soon prostrated the whole 
 system into a weak and pitiful Idolatry. The more 
 superstitious among the Egyptians instituted the wor- 
 ship of onions, garUc, dogs, cats, hawks, and crocodiles, 
 the sacredness of which by means of example and tradi- 
 tion was unconsciously received by after generations. 
 But different people adopted different objects of relig- 
 ious adoration. Thus the Syrophenicians adored doves ; 
 the Thessalonians, storks ; the Mendes, a goat ; the 
 Lybians, the sun and moon ; fire, wind, and water, 
 were worshipped by the Persians ; while the most 
 ancient Indians bowed down and paid holy vows only 
 to the illimitable firmament. Later generations pre- 
 sumed to believe still more : that the so-called blind 
 Forces of Fate were not only sacred but intelhgent. 
 This conception being more congenial to the spiritual 
 faculties, led to another and higher classification: the 
 Forces took upon themselves Forms, and imaginary 
 Persons, as poetic embodiments, came forth by hundreds. 
 And now polytheism, or the doctrine of many gods, 
 was fully confirmed. 
 
 There were gods celestial and gods terrestrial ; and to 
 each gbd there was a goddess ; and each deity was 
 appropriate in character to his or her station, and beau- 
 tiful. These gods and goddesses swarmed the woods, 
 roamed through the submarine abodes, dwelt in crystal 
 
20 
 
 palaces, populated sequestered bowers, congregated in 
 airy castles, waltzed in rural retreats, animated the 
 unfathomable abysses of regions infernal, and were ever 
 present in all places public or pri,vate. And in the pleni- 
 tude of mythological developments, the fact should not be 
 forgotten that, every known human state and condition, 
 either mental or corporeal, had assigned to it a particu- 
 lar superintending deity. Night, Sleep, Death, Hell, 
 Elysium, Vice, Virtue, Disease, Health, Summer, Win- 
 ter, Seed-time, Harvest, War, Peace, Jealousy, Mahce, 
 Revenge, Drunkenness, Murder — each had a presiding 
 god ! The gods Avere legionary. 
 
 But let us now return, and ask : " What cure of evil 
 did the Childhood wise men suggest ? " These physical- 
 ists did not sympathize with the idolatry of the igno- 
 rant, neither did they look with any favor upon the 
 thoughtless jargon and cruel sacrificial ceremonies of the 
 medicine men of the Infancy school, but did openly 
 denounce their theory of evil and repudiated their bar- 
 barous remedies. But as the Childhood-wise-men's 
 philosophy of Evil was sensuous, so also was their 
 prescription of remedies — physical, fatal, mechanical, 
 abortive, and unfit to meet the want felt everywhere by 
 everybody. What the wise-men prescribed may be 
 briefly told : 
 
 They set out with the afi&rmation, based upon obser- 
 vation and personal sensation, that maiCs will is never 
 free ; that he is impelled by fortuitous circumstances, 
 and necessitated in each act and every station. Happi- 
 ness, they taught, was the evidence of right feeling and 
 right action. " Bodily ease" was the most important, 
 they affirmed ; for out of that contentment issued 
 " mental tranquillity." If mankind wanted to reach 
 
21 
 
 heaven before death, they must tread»a physical path- 
 way. Physical indulgence, sensuous delight, outward 
 fascination, circumstantial propitiousness, and objective 
 constructiveness, were prescribed as positive cures of 
 discord tod misery. 
 
 Believing what the wise-men or physicalists said, 
 the people and their chief rulers began the utopian task 
 of building for the accommodation of all mankind, a 
 mighty circular or spiral Tower, whose top was to pene- 
 trate the clouds, and terminate where the land of the 
 gods commenced. Let your kings build golden temples 
 to gratify and elevate their fancy, said the wise-men ; 
 let your noblemen and princes fortify themselves within 
 strong palaces ; let them possess musicians to please, 
 wives to serve, magicians to alarm the superstitious, 
 soothsayers to teach wisdom, and innumerable armies for 
 protection against enemies ; let the proud pyramids be 
 built to flatter the ambition of Heroes, and to perpetu- 
 ate the memory of the mighty and royal favorites ; and, 
 lastly, educate the senses of your princes, convert your 
 grave young men into magi, and obtain the wisdom of 
 the learned, that you may master the lesser forces of 
 Necessity by a knowledge of the higher laws of Fate. 
 This is the road to happiness, said the physicahsts ; and 
 such is the infallible cure of Evil. Whereupon there 
 were successively constructed temples of barbaric gran- 
 deur, glittering with gold and sparkling with a profusion 
 of precious stones ; Babel towers and lofty colunons were 
 suggested and founded in many places ; and pleasure- 
 palaces, like the temple of Solomon, obtained a hiero- 
 glyphic or pictorial existence. But many of these 
 plans never came out of oriental imagination ; although 
 sacred history records them as positive outward verities. 
 
22 
 
 But vast armies were really organized and furnished to 
 the king's royal pleasure ; the mysterious Theraputa 
 became once more enthusiastic, and renewed with 
 delight their occult studies ; the departing race of 
 giants, afterwards termed Athleta, increased their 
 bodily strength ; and, better than all, there were, here 
 and there, some true signs of college-schools and tem- 
 ples of intellectual education. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the Inter-human theory of evil ; 
 also of its counterpart or remedy. To trace historically 
 out the multiform ultimations of this fatalistic hy- 
 pothesis, as it cropped out through the religions and 
 governments of subsequent nations and generations ; to 
 observe and mark the stealthy embodiments of this 
 sensual faith, its spontaneous ripening up and applica- 
 tions, in the political liberties, in the sensuous arts, in 
 the materialistic philosophies, in the fatalistic theories, 
 in the voluptuousness, and warful tendencies of ancient 
 Greece ; to follow its labyrinthine windings and legiti- 
 mate workings through the superstition, the art, the 
 eloquence, the law and the sensualities of proud and 
 mighty Rome ; to keep step with its irregular march 
 backwards and forwards all the way from ancient 
 Egypt to modern England, from king Pharaoh to 
 emperor Constantine, from the great Xerxes to the good 
 Charlemagne, from strong Lycurgus the Spartan law- 
 giver to Robert Owen the venerable circumstantialist ; 
 did the work comport with the object of this Conven- 
 tion, and if this discourse did not aim at another result, 
 the historical work would render a rare harvest of psy- 
 chologic knowledge. But I must away to the contem- 
 plation of a still higher phase, namely : 
 
23 
 
 THE SUPER-HUMAN THEORY. 
 
 The aggregate life of mankind, true as ever to the 
 Law of Progress, ere long graduated from a healthy 
 and vigorous Childhood into the flush and surge of 
 Youth. One might be led to imagine, perhaps, because 
 thousands of throbbing centuries had already left their 
 mark upon man, that the race as a whole was advanced 
 in experience sufficient to be christened " A superan- 
 nuated Methuselah ;" that, at the date under consider- 
 ation, the world's beardless juvenescence had been 
 superseded by sexagenarian maturity ; that, instead of 
 vernal freshness and youthful eccentricity, the earth's 
 inhabitants would now be stricken in years and whitened 
 with holy wisdom ; all this might be imagined of an 
 individual, but of the globe's population nothing could 
 be more foreign to the fact, for mankind was yet in the 
 morning prime of its rudimental life and pilgrimage. 
 
 But the human race had thus far been finely run ; it 
 had arrived at an important crisis in its onward career. 
 The best and most deliberate people were "quick in 
 quarrel," impatient, precocious, precipitous in habit, 
 and jealous of restrain^ Science had already revealed 
 many wonderful facts, had classified several mechanical 
 and a few sublime, because celestial, forces ; master war- 
 riors had triumphed over prodigious obstacles, had sur- 
 mounted formidable impediments, and felt the sublime 
 emotion of self-containing-power unconquerable; and 
 thus, at this particular crisis in humanity's history, the 
 doctrine was born that Man is a free moral agent, 
 irresistible in his attempts, godlike in his capacities, 
 and that in his facilities to accomplish either good or 
 evil, he is mighty as Jove and certain as the sun. i 
 
24 
 
 It should now be observed that healthy Youth is con- 
 tra-distinguished from Childhood by its enlarged imagin- 
 ation and inflammable wilfulness. Childhood is physical 
 and masculine in character ; while Youth is poetical 
 in disposition, and feminine. The sensuous limit- 
 ations and entangling helplessness of Childhood are 
 displaced or superseded in Youth by dreams of bound- 
 less liberty and of triumphs stupendous. No conceiv- 
 able enterprise is too presumptuous ; no attempt is too 
 hazardous ; no project is too formidable ; no daring 
 exploit rises too sublime. A proud feeling of individ- 
 ual responsibility supplants, the previous slavish sub- 
 serviency to outer circumstances. The expanding 
 inspirations of deathless Hope glow potentially within 
 the surging soul. The energetic desire of selfish con- 
 quest swells these imaginations into mountains of 
 uncontrollable enthusiasm. And thus, in the youthful 
 period, the^werld's leaders dreamed loftier than the self- 
 destructive ambition of Phaeton ; they aspired to feats 
 ; of wilful strength grander than those of Jupiter or 
 1 Hercules, and assumed powers equal to the greatest 
 \ and mightiest of the gods ! 
 
 ) And herein was originated the Super-human theory of 
 ^Jjvil. Because it was spiritually or poetically derived, 
 i^was based upon consciousness rather than reflection, — 
 i^ may be considered feminine. A religious revolution 
 was at hand. Mythology and proud polytheism, as 
 entertained by the multitude and taught by the learned, 
 were unsparingly repudiated and ridiculed. None of 
 the gods had caused man to sin ! " There is but one 
 Grod," said the new comers. "He makes laws to be 
 obeyed by man. These laws are expressed, by inspired 
 minds, in the form of divine commandments. uBut 
 
25 
 
 individual man is independent of these requirements. 
 He is wilful and self-governing, and can disobey all the 
 gods at fince ! " 
 
 Such was the fiu]pfiX=h]j,K!aE hypothesis : Grod com- 
 manded obedience, but Man wilfully transcended God's 
 designs, violated the heavenly commandments, and went 
 forth like a G-ddr^knowing..good and evil," to take the 
 cost and consequences. This extravagant doctrine 
 taught that Man is God's equal in this life ; in will and 
 power to accomJ)lisli7each is presumed to be independ- 
 ent of the other. By way of justification, timid Child- 
 hood said : " The woman thou gavest me tempted me, 
 and I did eat." But Youth, being self-sufficient and 
 spiritually vain, indignantly repelled the impeachment 
 of weakness and fatality, and said : " Sin is the wilful 
 transgressionof the law." ' '" 
 
 The Creator is practically overthrown by the creature, 
 under this hypothesis ; and the divine government, if 
 not hurled into the sea, is in effect indefinitely post- 
 poned. Babyhood, as I have shown, very naturally 
 whispers the doctrine, that God exerts in secret 
 almighty power over man's private will. The potter 
 hath power over the moistened clay, and the parent 
 hath power over the child ; even so the Omnipotent 
 Mind overrules individual destiny, by immutable 
 codes of prescience and foreordination. Pedantic and 
 extravagant Youth, however, permits no such bounds 
 set to the weapons of human determination. And 
 when in moments of hyperbolic exultation, over the 
 god-like thunderbolts of private will, the young world 
 asserted, without a breath of qualification, that the 
 one God was rendered absolutely unhappy by the 
 wicked conduct of his earthly children ! 
 3 
 
26 
 
 In harmony Avith this impression, the inspired Zoro- 
 aster wrote his celestial and infernal theology. Cos- 
 mopolitan evil and misery were traceable : first, to an 
 angel's conflict with God's government ; second, to a 
 man's opposition to God's will. The Super-humanities 
 affirmed, in evidence of what they taught, that long 
 ages prior to the advent of mankind on the globe, a 
 terrible war was waged in the very pr.esence of God. 
 The story was replete with oriental imagery : Ahri- 
 man was wilfully and wickedly and magnificently 
 ambitious. He one day refused, with the greatest 
 indignation, to serve so-called higher angels in the 
 kingdom of Ormuzd. His rebellion was followed by a 
 celestial combat of indescribable horrors, during which 
 the colossal rebel was vanquished, and forthwith, swell- 
 ing with the igneous rage of a mighty fiend, he left 
 for parts unknown. Of the dwelling-place and local 
 circumstances of this renegade angel nothing was 
 authentically ascertained, until about 500 years after 
 the death of Zoroaster. At length we get some (figur- 
 ative) information, supposed to be reliable, in the pas- 
 sage of a more modern writer : " Depart from me, ye 
 cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and 
 his angels." "Into outer darkness; there shall be 
 weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. xxv. 30 
 and 41.) The "devil" here alluded to is none other 
 than the veritable " Ahriman " of Zoroaster, and the 
 pit of " everlasting fire " is the genuine imagination of 
 the Super-humanities, fixing the " local habitation" of 
 the wicked only a few miles below the earth's surface, 
 not far from certain well-known volcanic and burning 
 mountains. 
 
 What was at first merely a religious enthusiasm or 
 
27 
 
 youthful extravagance — very natural to an unrestrained 
 indulgence of the poetic, intuitive, and semi-intellect- 
 ual faculties — ere long impressed the unreasoning and 
 wonder-loving multitude with all the validity and dig- 
 nity of an inspiration. Before the venerable teachers 
 of this theory, the believers became reverently super- 
 stitious ; they bowed their private wills, with slavish 
 veneration to the arbitrary dictum of several theocratic 
 chieftains. In after years this additional doctrine was 
 proclaimed : that, although the Divine will was tem- 
 porarily curtailed of its inherent almightiness by the 
 co-potential will of the creature man, yet the Paternal 
 Bosom was boundless in the quality of Merc?; He 
 wished and longed to exercise this saving, attribute,, if 
 man would but a,ll©w him the happiness, to an extent 
 unrestrained save by the limits of humanity itself. 
 y Thus was inaugurated a system of Super-human med- 
 /icine to cure the evils of Super-human origin. It was an 
 y^ecclesiastical hypothesis altogether — a scheme of arbi- 
 trary benefits as rewards, and of arbitary penalties as 
 punishments — assumed to be revealed in an arbitrary 
 manner, by an arbitrary God, to accomplish the arbi- 
 'trary ends of divine government. 
 
 Many ancient Eomans, being advanced in almost 
 everything that could gratify pride and yield bodily 
 happiness, were mentally prepared to adopt the Super- 
 human theory of evil. They were successful warriors, 
 were irresistible in the higher branches of rhetoric, and 
 marvellously perfect in Art. But this^aitering concep- 
 tion, that man's-wilLcQuld and did transcend tFe will of 
 the mightiest god, fired them with new laws. The 
 Roman population was forthwife marked down and ^s-^ 
 tributed into arbitrary divisions. AH society henceforth 
 
28 
 
 was composed of three classes — Senators, Knights, 
 Plebeians — each amenable to the laws and govern- 
 ment, which were at once democratic and tyrannical. 
 Noblemen were esteemed as superior to Gentlemen, and 
 the latter as higher than Citizens, for the patrician 
 blood was influential at the forum ; and the systematic 
 laws — to protect persons and property, to reward noble 
 deeds and to punish vice and crime — were, like the 
 social distinctions, arbitrary and vindictive. How 
 could the effect be otherwise ? The SHper-human doc- 
 trine was, that every man is wilfully wicked and per- 
 sonally responsible. Evils of temperament inherited, 
 or vices arising from circumstantial temptations, were of 
 little moment. The gods took record of every human 
 act, and the Roman laws executed their will ; and thus 
 - society grew rapidly favorable to the doctrine of free 
 ^ ■'--jadoral agency. ""' '"" 
 
 To fulfil the atrocious requirements_of this Super-hu- 
 man theory of man and~his~acts, thousands of infernal 
 systems of punishment have been invented, and mil- 
 lions of human beings" Tiave" been inhumanly sacri- 
 ficed ! Particularly is this true of more recent periods 
 in history, since the so-called Christian sceptre has 
 swayed the western world. But we will part with liis- 
 torical miseries which are " dead and gone," and pro- 
 ceed to enumerate the Super-human remedies for evils 
 and sufferings existing. These are : 
 
 First, arbitrary laws and coercive administration; 
 second, an arbitrary atonement, as a remnant of the 
 ancient system of sacrificial offerings ; third, an arbi- 
 trarily enforced "faith" in the saving quality of the 
 atonement; fourth, an arbitrary "ne w bjj jyj /' or 
 regeneration, by .meana. of -Jsdiick.tlieiiidividuaL is .r.s§- 
 
29 
 
 cued_from well-deserved, hell-misery ; fifth, arhitrary 
 prayer to influence the divine will, and to obtain the 
 divine favor ; sixth, arbitrary special providential op- 
 erations of the divine will in behalf of an individual, or 
 perchance of a nation ; seventh, the arbitrary establish- 
 ment of churches, by duty and not pleasure ; eighth, 
 the dogmatic preaching of the Super-human hypothesis 
 as if it were an inspiration; ninth, the arbitrary distri- 
 bution of religious publications all over the world ; 
 tenth, the arbitrary deprivation of an individual of his 
 life, being supposed a just punishment for a similar 
 crime committed by him, and as a warning to others 
 not yet guilty of murder ; eleventh, the utility and 
 equity of African slavery in Christendom, as a mysteri- 
 ous method adopted by an arbitrary Providence to 
 bring sin-sick and colored souls to the fold of Christ ; 
 twelfth, the wholesale repudiation of all forms of prog- 
 ress and ethical innovation, as being safest and best, 
 in the opinion of an arbitrary conservatism, to aid the 
 Super-human church in its arbitrary exertions in behalf 
 of a straying world. But a yet more impressive devel- 
 opment in this direction is at hand ; that is — 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL THEORY. 
 
 The impulsive spirit of uncharitable and revengeful 
 condemnation, of complaint, of restlessness, of war and 
 bloodshed, of anarchy and rebellion to the divine will 
 — this spirit, under the Super-human doctrine of sin and 
 its remedy, is greatly aggravated and strengthened. 
 Prisons are designed not to defend society against its 
 foes, but they are meant as places for the vindictive 
 ministration of arbitrary punishments. Many schools 
 are ruled as with a rod of iron. Heads of families and 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 honored magistrates, regarded as the sources and friends 
 of law and order, impose inhuman duties and uiijust 
 restrictions. Kings put forth every atom of power to 
 widen the margin of their possessions. The arbitrary 
 law of Force is fashionable and incorporated in the 
 Christian State, because the people have not outgrown 
 it, and ministers therefore advocate it in the Christian 
 Church. Force is everywhere deemed an indispensable 
 remedy for individual transgression and national crimes. 
 Such is the legitimate effect of the Super-human theory 
 of free moral agency. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this Christian theory, however, 
 which is coupled with Mosaic practice, one fact 
 remains : vice and crime and multiform miseries seem 
 to be increasing proportionally to the spread of Super- 
 human civilization ! And in full view of the past and 
 present on this subject what wonder is it, that the intelli- 
 gent and benevolent everywhere, in Europe as in Amer- 
 ica, begin to believe that most of this evil and suffering 
 is traceable to the vitiating influence which certain erro- 
 neous doctrines have exerted, and do exert, upon indi- 
 vidual inembers of society throughout all civil nations? 
 We do not marvel that ever and anon the startling war- 
 cry is sounded — " Eevolution ! Revolution ! ! Revo- 
 lution ! ! ! " Humanity's innumerable ranks march up 
 to the mouth of "the sacred canon" (the Bible), not 
 to seek " the bubble reputation " there, but afresh to 
 investigate the origin of evil, its nature, and the 
 remedy. And this brings us to the fourth theory under 
 examination. 
 
 Healthy Manhood is distinguished from Youth by 
 serenity and intelligence. Strength, proportion, sys- 
 tem, purpose, reflection, and action well-timed, all 
 
31 
 
 these belong to manhood. From tj^is estate the soul 
 of the race realizes somewhat of its mundane business 
 and celestial destiny. Science leads Jndustry to the 
 altar ; they are duly wedded by Mother Nature ; and 
 their first-born is " Mechanical Conquest," a fine 
 strong boy ! The countless occult and imponderable 
 forces yield one-by-one to the persuasive magnet- 
 ism of mind. ■ The magical sceptre of King Chem- 
 istry has been slowly moved over the Kingdom of 
 Minerals, so long subterranean and mysterious ; and 
 lo ! behold how pound-by-pound, and link-by-link, the 
 metallic marvels come above ground to bless and adorn 
 the world's outer being. The mineral empire sends to 
 man the materials necessary for every success conceiva- 
 ble. Thread by thread the once inert matter now 
 stretches itself from pole to pole across the prairie, or 
 around the globe, just as man's skill and deductive 
 industry may determine. — Or, less ambitious of a broad- 
 day-light notoriety, and desiring less polarity observ- 
 able but more in fact, it creeps away quietly far down 
 below the ocean's mountainous wave of majestic power, 
 noiselessly arrests and binds in irons the estranged con- 
 tinents with ties suggestive of Eternal Peace ; and 
 thus meekly, and without exhaustion, it cheerfully and 
 brilliantly discharges (but in a manner positively shock- 
 ing physically to_ realize) innumerable electric duties for 
 private relief and national prosperity. 
 
 Does not all this look consistent with humanity's 
 Manhood ? Does it not seem to promise somewhat 
 nobler in our conceptions of man? Will we not be 
 impelled forward into a broader, higher, more saving 
 hypothesis of evil's origin and remedy ? Surely, yes, 
 if social science keeps step with sciences mechanical. 
 
32 
 
 "Does it not seem all but a miracle of art," said 
 Edward Everett, ' ' that the thoughts of living men — 
 the thoughts we think up here on the earth's surface in 
 the cheerful light of day — about the markets, and the 
 exchanges, and the seasons, and the elections, and the 
 treaties, and the wars, and all the fond nothings of 
 daily life, should clothe themselves with elementary 
 sparks, and shoot with fiery speed, in a moment, in the 
 twinkling of an eye, from hemisphere to hemisphere, 
 far down among the uncouth monsters that wallow in 
 the nether seas, along the wreck-paved floor, through 
 the oozy dungeons of the rayless deep ? — that the last 
 intelligence of the crops, whose dancing tassels will in 
 a few months be coquetting with the west wind on the 
 boundless prairies, should go flashing along the slimy 
 decks of old sunken galleons, which have been rotting 
 for ages ? — that messages of friendship and love from 
 warm living bosoms should burn over the cold green 
 bones of men and women whose hearts, once as warm 
 as ours, burst as the eternal gulfs closed and roared 
 over them, centuries ago ? " We answer, yes, a thou- 
 sand times ! it does seem a miracle ; but we long for 
 a greater miracle — a corresponding development in the 
 constructive science of "overcoming evil with good." 
 But let us not indulge lukewarmness amid these mechan- 
 ical triumphs ! We are enthusiastic and thankful. 
 Methinks the tented and fertile field of Cyrus, the 
 Persian conqueror only in human slaughter and speech- 
 less misery, was as a grain of sand compared with that 
 heart-expanse of grateful affection just now occupied 
 by the image of Cyrus W. Field, whose person is poet- 
 ically adorned with the golden symbols suggested by 
 the iron threads of the Atlantic Cable ! 
 
33 
 
 Scientific conquest is utilitarian in *thics, as well as 
 in corporeal spheres of being. The more man obtains a 
 practical mastery of forces hitherto supposed to be wholly 
 confined to the Eternal Mind, the more does individual 
 faith increase in his own mission, and in the latent 
 capacity of his will-power to conquer every foe to his 
 bodily ease and spiritual happiness. But this holy 
 gleam of redemptive faith in immutable Laws, is influ- 
 ential only with the cultured and thinking few ; the 
 world's ignorant and doubtful and distracted millions 
 are still superstitious. Searching intellects discover 
 that mind and matter are afiectionately intertwined and 
 fixedly married by subtle vital life principles. To such 
 minds all finite bodies and local bearings rise sublimely 
 toward the illimitable and diviae ; while the so-called 
 "unfathomable" and the "immeasurable" modestly 
 yield to man's invitation, and nestle lovingly within 
 the embrace of his comprehension. But the serene 
 Manhood of Mind is less conceited, less ecstatic, less 
 sanguine, than sentimental Youth. The lofty daring of 
 a jubilant age is gradually softened and simmered down 
 to a care-ta.king investigation and analysis ; by means 
 of which is practically discovered the interchained 
 dependencies, the dynamic amities divine and death- 
 less, subsisting between each known effect and its pro- 
 ducing cause. 
 
 One revolutionary discovery in Science has of late 
 so rapidly succeeded another, each revealing yet more 
 of the magnetic connections of phenomena and prin- 
 ciples unalterable, that mankind (at least the feeling 
 portion) begin to acknowledge a greater fatalism and a 
 more child-like reliance upon the Infinite. Before the 
 awful magnitude of our own integral mightiness, we 
 
34 
 
 TOW reverent and religious. Self-esteem is not inflated ; 
 but it is very devout and sacredly inspired. Our alarm- 
 ingly lofty altitude develops an extra cautiousness. 
 Yea, this mental power, this spiritual exaltation, opens 
 within a vale of sweet humility ! The difference, how- 
 ever, between man and man ■ — in the character of one 
 and the genius of another, in the ability of one to be 
 and of another only to appear — has in late years 
 started a fresh theory of many evils existing. 
 
 Among the manliest of the so-called civilized, on 
 both sides and ends of the globe, there is slowly matur- 
 ing a doctrine of individual dependence upon and bond- 
 age to the proclivities of temperaments inherited. The 
 obvious propitiousness or incumbrances, not to say abso- 
 lute entanglements, of a physical organization obtained 
 and fixed at birth — including the most delicate and 
 important part, the sensitive brain with its varied ram- 
 ifications — impresses even the Manhood of the race 
 with a crushing weight, a sort of paralysis, scarcely 
 controllable. Physiologists are familiar with these 
 native deformities, and anthropological Phrenologists 
 are not less shocked with the thought of fatality, pre- 
 senting itself pale and ghastly upon the very threshold 
 of individual existence. The fact that one's body and 
 mind are "got up," so to speak, with culpable care- 
 lessness, and fixed good, bad, or indifferent, ere con- 
 sciousness is individualized, is indisputable and mourn- 
 ful indeed. It is monstrously and alarmingly true ! 
 and what wonder the world is teeming with stinging 
 and stormy Rebels ? It is a hopeless destiny when one 
 is born perchance with a white soul hid away heneath 
 " a black skin "-^for who will penetrate the thin sur- 
 face ? Who will behold within a brother or a sister 
 
35 
 
 immortal ? Who will honor the concgaUd jewel, and 
 who save the casket from Slavery ? And what is 
 unutterably worse : to be born, as thousands are in 
 every age, with a snow- white -skin covering a black- 
 marked-soul ! What fatalism it is ! Because it is 
 ascertained that the natural Laws of parentage cannot 
 be reversed ; no man can return whence he came to 
 take another and a wiser start ; but the hereditarily 
 unfortunate must " grin and bear it to the end of life." 
 Wljo wishes to be defectively stereotyped in solid bone, 
 or to have one's inherited inequalities moulded in clay, 
 perishable though it be, by the inexorable hands of 
 mysterious Fate ? 
 
 This gloomy doctrine, although earnestly revived by 
 modern thinkers, can be traced, like the "facts" on 
 which it rests, backwards through many generations. 
 Roman philosophers conceded the proposition, that the 
 gods were stealthily instrumental in fixing tempera- 
 ments and bestowing disposition upon persons. Celes- 
 tial gods and goddesses were supposed to be counter- 
 balanced, in power, by an equal number of deities 
 defective and infernal. The mysterious and magic- 
 loving scholars of those days, the Alchemists, taught 
 the same doctrine from different premises ; so, also, did 
 the elder students of the holy stars, the Astrologers, 
 account for individual differences by reference to the 
 good and evil influences emanating from corresponding 
 planets. These influences were supposed to descend 
 upon and ^pervade the newly-born child ; thus to fix the 
 disposition, and- to map out the individual's life-long 
 destiny ! Swedenborg, too, from different premises 
 and with peculiar phraseology, inculcated the same 
 doctrine. And this, in brief, is — 
 
36 
 
 The spiritual theory of evil ; and because it is 
 Baconian, sensuous, and inductive, I call it masculine. 
 Upon the more recently-grown tree, in the world of 
 spiritual unfoldments, are prominently visible two 
 branches : 1. Those who superstitiously accept the 
 facts of Spiritualism as God's method of fixing atten- 
 tion and faith upon the ancient record ; and, 2. Those 
 who materialistically adopt modern facts as the ele- 
 ments of a new religious Authority, and yet sceptically 
 reject the elder experience as fictitious. But both 
 branches are useful and fruitful. 
 
 The dark ahd deathly theological spell, which has so 
 long trammelled and stultified all faith in a reasonable 
 existence after death, is now almost dispelled. Mor- 
 tality and immortality are equally natural. The great- 
 est of achievements and the holiest of demonstrations 
 is, the actual passage of private love-messages to and, 
 fro, between this rock-bound stormy shore and that 
 vernal margin just beyond the floating clouds ! Than 
 this I know of nothing more entitled to man's unbounded 
 gratitude and enthusiasm. Come, now, let us cele- 
 brate ! Let the windows of every human mind be 
 simultaneously illuminated with the trimmed lamps of 
 eternal delight ! Let all our country and city belles be 
 rung in chiming accord to the spheral music ! Let all 
 Eoman Catholic and Protestant " soldiers of the cross " 
 be summoned to march to the triumphant song of 
 unending Progress ! Let every known " sacred canon " 
 be at once and forever discharged ! Yes, let us cele- 
 brate the perfect workings of our trans-mundane spirit- 
 ual cable ! And I am certain that the joyous and 
 honest outbursts of the world's long-waiting heart 
 would instantly explode and scatter earthward every 
 
37 
 
 false and foolish notion ! Let us rejoice ! " Nothing 
 holds me ! " exclaimed the impassioned Kepler at a 
 moment when the wholeness of the Ilniverse flashed 
 vividly upon his reason. " I wiU exult in my pleasure, 
 and triumph over mankind hy the honest confession 
 that I have stolen the golden vases of the Egyptians to 
 build up a tabernacle for my God far away from the 
 confines of Egypt. The die is cast ! The book is 
 written ; to be read now or by posterity, I care not 
 which. It may well afford to wait a century for a 
 reader ; as God has waited these six thousand years 
 for an observer ! " 
 
 This intercommunication between two worlds equally 
 substantial — as between the bedarkened basement story 
 and the flower-carpeted drawing-room in a holy man- 
 sion " not made with hands " — was very soon regarded 
 as a panacea for human evil and misery. The believers 
 affirmed that good and evil affections, in mankind, 
 attract earthward corresponding qualities and influences 
 from persons in the Spirit Land. Wilfully wicked 
 affections, not more than wicked affections innocently 
 imposed and inherited prior to the possibility of willing, 
 obtain their pabulum from spiritual fountains. So says 
 the purely spiritual hypothesis, and further : voluntary 
 drunkards, and voluptuaries on earth very soon become 
 "mediums" for the gratification of those unsatiated 
 appetites which survive the ordeal of death. Heredi- 
 tary viciousness is believed (by many) to be stimulated 
 ind confirmed by wicked spirits ; while, on the other 
 hand, the spirits of goodness and purity and truth, 
 exert all their power to inspire man's better nature, to 
 rescue and to elevate. 
 
 Here, then, is divulged the spiritual theory of evil ; 
 4 
 
38 
 
 to wliich is very logically attached the remedies. If 
 we compreherLd every branch of the purely spiritual 
 development, with its remedies for evil and suffering, 
 the prescription would consist of — first, a belief in 
 personal immortality ; second, sitting in circles for 
 demonstrations ; third, in becoming mediums for com- 
 munications ; fourth, closeted prayer for silent commun- 
 ions ; fifth, personal goodness based upon wilful affec- 
 tion for moral and religious truth ; sixth, in giving the 
 young a spiritual education ; seventh, abstaining from 
 all organizations and constructive reforms, except for 
 religious development ; eighth, allowing personal evils 
 and national injustices to have their perfect work ; 
 ninth, believing in a personal God's supervision at all 
 times ; tenth, believing in special providences both from 
 God and his angels ; eleventh, and lastly, waiting like 
 the orthodox world for the inhabitants or powers celes- 
 tial to inaugurate, in some sudden and supernatural 
 and universal manner, the long-prayed-for kingdom of 
 heaven on earth. But we have now arrived at a still 
 higher phase of cosmopolitan progress, which eliminates 
 
 THE HAEMONIAL THEORY. 
 
 Healthy mental maturity, as with outward forms and 
 visible organs, is characterized by legitimate fruition. 
 The brow is not wrinkled. Integral qualities are 
 exhibited with order ; and the once latent quantities are 
 expressed and firmly fixed. The reflective faculties, 
 relaxing their hold upon passing events, repose serenely 
 within the flowery solitudes of wisdom. Erom the 
 holy mountain of moral meditation — whereon there is 
 an intuitive perception and realization of eternal prin- 
 ciples — the matured mind calmly contemplates the 
 
39 
 
 world. Longingly and lovingly it looks historically 
 tad inductively down into the cradle, at the hottom of 
 the hill of all life, and deductively returns upward and 
 lives over and again every event and circumstance to 
 the present moment. Like the successive pictorial 
 flow of a spiritual panorama, infancy, childhood, youth, 
 manhood, with their attendant pains and immortal 
 pleasures, pass through the limpid memory of the 
 patriarchal intelligence. Lights and shades, in this 
 retrospective picture, are equally impressive ; here is a 
 joy, there a calm, yonder a sorrow ; each fixing the 
 conviction that life's pilgrimage had heen an intermit- 
 ting fever, of day and night, of good and evil. Irre- 
 pressible gratitude for the pleasure and inexpressible 
 regret for the pain — a consciousness of having done 
 praiseworthy deeds, coupled with wilfully unworthy 
 motives, and a memory of acts hateful and blamable 
 — bring a fearful equilibrium of mixed experience to 
 the ripened comprehension. Yet the mind is very 
 tranquil. The sun of wisdom at length has dawned 
 upon the fields of individual existence. The stormy 
 heart is stilled by the master's voice. Passion's sway- 
 ing and surging sea is now calm as Reason is ; and the 
 proud pre-judgments and foolish conceits, of by-gone 
 years, contend with persons and principles no more. 
 
 Not less true is all this with the healthy and honor- 
 able Maturity of mankind. Past eras of ignorance 
 and superstition, of selfishness and war, of progress 
 and growth, are fearlessly and fully reviewed. Multi- 
 tudinous mistakes and occasional victories are duly 
 recorded by the Genius of History. Presently the 
 "Judgment Day" dawns with consuming fire. All 
 persons and peoples, of every age and clime and career, 
 
40 
 
 are publicly interrogated. The lengthened columns of 
 profit and loss, of good and evU, are added up and 
 balanced ; the credits are exhibited, and the indebted- 
 ness acknowledged and forgiven ; and, lastly, in keep- 
 ing with a clearer preamble, there is framed a new 
 constitution of Brotherhood more adapted- to the years, 
 needs, and capacities of universal man. 
 
 " Philosophy is patient," says Cousin. " She knows 
 what was the course of events in former generations, 
 and she is full of confidence in the future." Is it too 
 much to affirm that the Race has now reached, through 
 a few of its thousand millions of branches, an age of 
 comparative Maturity ? Is it presumptuous to proclaim 
 that the world has recently evolved a bourfdless pre- 
 amble, in three words — Association, Progression, 
 Development ? Is it too soon publicly to declare that 
 the divided and estranged Nations do utter one prayer 
 only, for the universal distribution of those celestial 
 magnetisms which flow from the Omnipotent " Hand 
 of Providence," the fingers of which are principles — 
 Love, Wisdom, Liberty, Justice, Happiness? Is it 
 unwise and irreverent to tell the truth, and therefore 
 openly to bear witness for the absent and speechless 
 millions, that the popular systems of government are 
 unjust and tyrannical, that civil laws are yet barbarous 
 and uncivil, and that prevailing religion has utterly 
 failed in the assumed work of overcoming evil with 
 good ? No ! Let all this be proclaimed throughout 
 every earthly kingdom. The world has spontaneously 
 eliminated its own dreaded " Day of Judgment ; " has 
 voluntarily turned " State's evidence ; " it has pleaded 
 guilty ; the verdict of condemnation has been ren ■ 
 dered ; it has petitioned to its6lf for pardon, which it 
 
41 
 
 may perchance obtain ; and all we have affirmed, 
 therefore, is timely and truthful an(J susceptible of 
 immediate application. 
 
 Here, then, is born the Harmonial Theory of Evil. 
 Reverently and dispassionately, with the firm step of 
 maturity, this Philosophy enters the Pantheon of His- 
 tory. " Let us throw open the gates of philosophical 
 investigation," says a popular writer, " as widely and 
 freely as Bacon threw open the gates of physical inves- 
 tigation. Let no one be frightened away from think- 
 ing." Being antecedent to human life, it follows the 
 intuitions of thoughtless Infancy into the awful soli- 
 tudes of Divine Mystery. Truth is eternal backwards 
 as well as forward, and, prior to planet or population. 
 His deathless evangels began their journey earthward. 
 
 Thither we reverently go to search out the origin of 
 Evil. But absolute goodness is the only element about 
 the Holy Centre. Superlatively perfect Love and Wis- 
 dom ! Inexhaustible depths of Power and Good ! 
 Illimitable expansions of Justice and Truth ! Before 
 the imagined JCentee of the immeasurable univercee- 
 lum, the Infancy and the Maturity of the Race are 
 equally appalled — the infant with an overwhelming 
 sense of dependence upon an awful Mystery, the old 
 man with an oppressive knowledge of his boundless 
 ignorance ; but of the two periods a healthy maturity 
 is infinitely preferable, because the latter is blest with 
 the calm resolve to conquer the darkness, while the 
 former is paralyzed with the hopeless acceptance of a 
 fearful and mysterious Fate. Incapacity or failure of 
 present comprehension, however, is no cause of scepti- 
 cism with unfolded minds. But no earthly intelligence 
 
 can separate the Eternal Mind from the laws of Nature 
 4* 
 
42 
 
 These universal natural laws flow through all gradations 
 and delicate forms of being with that unweariahle 
 strength and precision of immutability which must 
 characterize the central Fountain Mind. In short, the 
 Laws of Nature appear to be not the legislative enact- 
 ments of an abstract Intelligence, but, on the contrary, 
 the automatic vital-life-principles by which the Divine 
 Mind is himself organized and unerringly regulated 
 forever. 
 
 One truth is certain : that the laws of the outward 
 universe are concisely summed up within and written 
 legibly out upon the human constitution. And there is 
 another truth equally emphatic : that these fixed natu- 
 ral principles progressively ultimate themselves into 
 grades or degrees of countless variety not only, but 
 that upon each of these degrees or planes the varieties 
 of life and diversities of organization are well-nigh 
 innumerable. Now, observe, this boundless truth under- 
 lies the Harmonial Philosophy, of Evil. It is impress- 
 ively the " Word of God " heard in the garden of the 
 universe. Out of these innumerable planes and varie- 
 ties there issue forth the countless differences of form, 
 function, and mission. These radical differences neces- 
 sitate parallel dissimilarities of essence, of quality, of 
 position, and office, in the empire of animation. For 
 example — 
 
 Tour admirable and orderly garden contains the 
 beautiful rose and the ugly weed ; your field exhibits 
 the fertile grassy plain, and the sterile stony knoll ; 
 your white fleece reveals a " black sheep " in the 
 flock ; and so on, in doors as well as out, through the 
 whole circle of your possessions. These contrasts, 
 these differences an'd varieties, are necessary. Our 
 
43 
 
 youthful ancestors made long prayers and offered costly 
 sacrifices to prevent a thunder-storm ; but we, their 
 posterity, with a maturer knowledge of science, are 
 almost tempted to institute similar ceremonies to obtain 
 the effects they so dreaded. We discover that ele- 
 mental wars and physical changes, in earth and water 
 and air, are absolutely indispensable to-human pregress. 
 Once that was believed to be "evil" which now is 
 known to be "good" and beautiful. The inly burn- 
 ing earth is saved from a tragic end by simply breath- 
 ing now and then through the terrible volcano. The 
 killing frost of the third day giveth life to the sick with 
 fever and epidemic. 
 
 Not less impressive is all this, on a yet more intimate 
 plane, in the human world. The energizing law of 
 Association actuates individuals into groups ; groups 
 multiply and combine themselves into tribes ; tribes 
 expand and colonize themselves into a race or people ; 
 a people, moved onward by the law of Progression, 
 soon consolidates into a nation. And then each plane 
 — the individual, the group, the tribe, the race, the 
 nation — impelled by the inspiring law of Development, 
 eliminates its own well-adapted Religion, legislates its 
 ovra best Laws, and in its own way enforces the decrees 
 of Government. Each in its own place is good ; but 
 out of its adaptations is evil. Anarchy, Patriarchalism, 
 Theocracy, Despotism, Oligarchy, Feudalism, Democ- 
 racy, Republicanism — how naturally legitimate is each 
 in its own sphere !,how beneficently beautiful, too, is 
 each development of the Divine in Humanity when 
 seen with its own parents, and performing for their 
 good its own dispensational mission ! Not more sym- 
 metrical, and not less righteous is each of these forms 
 
44 
 
 of government in its adaptations to the human combi- 
 nation that required and evolved it, than are Idolatry, 
 Polytheism, Pantheism, Dualism, and Monotheism to 
 the spiritual dispensations out of which each of these 
 religious developments was progressively eliminated 
 and established. These Governments and these Relig- 
 ions, diiFerent and antagonistic as they are when out of 
 their adaptations, are seen to be {not evils and vices of 
 a depraved humanity, but) the sublime inevitable 
 work of Father God and Mother Nature. 
 
 The fact should be perceived that Childhood, Youth, 
 and Manhood — the three middle stages of mankind's 
 growth, like the three sections of a bridge connecting 
 the opposite banks of a river — are (or were) distin- 
 guished by superstition, extravagance, sensuality, bar- 
 baric cruelties, religious scepticism, 'legalized injustice, 
 and war ; while Infancy and Maturity, which are the. 
 opposite margins of the life-stream, are (or will be) 
 characterized by dependence, gentleness, simplicity, 
 sexual purity, science, industry, boundless faith, instan- 
 tial philosophy, distributive justice, universal love, 
 serene wisdom, and liberty absolute. But you must 
 not be impatient and blaspheme, if Humanity should 
 continue yet longer to live and move, to love and hate, 
 and to grow all its contradictory varieties on the same 
 hemisphere. 
 
 Throughout creation the lesson is inculcated that 
 Civilization — the preponderance of mind'over matter, 
 or of spirituality over animality — is the result of man- 
 kind's progression toward the common destiny of univer- 
 sal industry, abundance, and unity. The fundament^-l 
 law of all existence is Association, All refinements and 
 virtue, all moral powers and heroism, every blessing of 
 
45 
 
 the present century, together with aU the manifold pro- 
 pensities and potencies hereafter to be developed, flow 
 primarily from the one associative principle, the first 
 effective expression of which is, Marriage. 
 
 Marriage is the fountain or basic manifestation out 
 of which is unfolded every other known human con- 
 dition. This is true because, simply, it is that relation 
 which precedes the existence and progress and growth 
 of the universal world. Let us examine this propo- 
 sition : Marriage precedes the development of our 
 species. The young are tender, and must have cloth- 
 ing and a domicile. This imperative demand, which is 
 made by infallible Nature upon the parents, very soon 
 develops Mechanism. Mechanism compels the develop- 
 ment of constructiveness, precision, mathematics, geom- 
 etry, .and subsequently leads to the cultivation of the 
 several Arts that protect, refine, surprise, fascinate, 
 beautify, and adorn. Marriage and mechanism, thus 
 wedded, beget the giant Selfishness. The isolated 
 family relation and personal property systems are rap- 
 idly established. The recognition and perpetuation of 
 individual "rights," among those of famous family, 
 are important steps next in order ; the ambition to teach, 
 guard, and strengthen which, leads to the invention of 
 citadals, fire-arms, and other weapons of defence. 
 This individual condition gives rise to societary or con- 
 federated interests. And the same law, being alike 
 applicable to national rights and interests, compels the 
 science of confederated defence. The instinct of self- 
 aggrandizement is now exercised as a protection against 
 hunger, cold, and physical adversities. The art of 
 war is next developed. Then follow the effects of the 
 doctrine that "Might is Right" — spoliations, com- 
 
46 
 
 pelled servitude, the subjugation of one nation by tbe 
 superior military force and mental skill of another — 
 ofttimes in the name of the great Jehovah, the jealous 
 " G-od of Battle." But who will say that these lower 
 events are evil ? that they did not occur in accord with 
 Father God and Mother Nature ? Marriage and Mech- 
 anism are certainly at the very basis of human history. 
 And did not all events regularly result, just as the wolf 
 kills the deer ; as the bee (assassin-like) extracts the 
 very life from the defenceless wild flower to fill its own 
 selfish hive with honey ; jugt as the graceful gray 
 squirrel purloins the heart's core from the forest nuts ; 
 as the spider entraps and murders the winged ignorant 
 traveller ; just as one kingdom in nature is organized 
 for progress, and equipped with instruments of destruc- 
 tion, to eat its way into and through every opposing 
 obstacle ? In the future of this planet all this discord 
 will cease, when creeping things and inferior grades of 
 life have performed their mission and died the everlast- 
 ing death, even as every kind of preying (praying) 
 upon the neighbor will cease ; when, and only in pro- 
 portion as, individual " rights " and isolated " inter- 
 ests" shall become, through a unitary organization of 
 society and a harmonial form of government, insepa- 
 rably identified and lovingly interlinked with the rights 
 and interests of the world's Brotherhood. 
 
 But you exclaim against me ; you call to me from 
 afar ; you impatiently bid me to forsake the dreamy 
 solitudes of this grand old mountain ; you invite me to 
 a seat among the sin and sufiering of my fellow-men. 
 
 Your cry of discontent shall not go unheeded ; not 
 cheerfully, however, but for the sake of being better 
 apprehended, I will accept your dictatorial invitation ; 
 
47 
 
 but I must speak a few more wordg from the elysian 
 quiet of this delectable mountain. 
 
 From this holy elevation the earth's inequalities 
 appear (not evil, but) necessary to its development and 
 beauty ; on the law that shadows are essential to a pic- 
 ture, as discords are indispensable to the perfection of 
 harmony. Viewed comprehensively, with an eye to 
 philosophical proportion and utility, the globe's highest 
 mountains dwindle down to mole-hills ; its deepest 
 cavities rise up to the level of tillable plains ; its 
 boundless oceans are quickly girdled with fertile shores ; 
 and soon, when taking the immense size and correspond- 
 ing necessities of the earth into our estimate, the irreg- 
 ularities of its surface appear proportional to those of 
 an apple. Even so the human race presents, in the 
 main, only those social inequalities and national conflicts 
 that were essential and necessitated by the divine laws 
 of Association, Progression, and Development. Let us 
 soberly reason together. Let me ask — 
 
 Would you propose to amend the Earth's consti- 
 tution, and, by your elective franchise, vote for an eter- 
 nal and immeasurable monotony? Would you throw 
 these glorious and venerable mountains into the valleys? 
 Would you spread dry land thickly over all the flowing 
 waters? Would you change one hundred and fifty mil- 
 lions of varieties of animal existence into as many of 
 exactly one shape, one size, one propensity ? Would you 
 transform the countless forms of the vegetable, botanic, 
 and floral worlds into just one pattern of plant, tree, or 
 flower? Under such management, with your amend- 
 ments of the present constitution, what an imbecile 
 globe it would soon become ! It would ere long be 
 senseless and^a^ like the head of its grumbling reformer. 
 
48 
 
 It would perpetually driYel and monotonously grin like 
 a "natural-born fool;" and anon the whole body, once 
 so orderly and beautiful, begins slowly to "dry up and 
 blow away " for the want of brains. 
 
 Now transfer your fancy from the physical world to 
 the human family. Suppose we set out to reform and 
 fashion mankind anew ; to force the various nations to 
 resemble each other in every particular. To bring 
 about this impossible calamity, the first step would be 
 to have each individual mechanically " born again" by 
 being recast and fashioned in the same mould ; then each 
 must be either cut short or forcibly elongated to suit 
 the same standard of stature ; next, particular scales 
 would be required to ascertain and eternally fix for each 
 person the same number of pounds ; each must occupy 
 the same proportion of space ; must move to the same 
 measurement of time ; be actuated by the same im- 
 pulses of equal potency ; must think the same thoughts 
 at the same moment ; in short, all must be so organized 
 from birth, so educated and situated in society, that 
 each would automatically do the same thing at the same 
 instant forever and a day. What a stupendous same- 
 ness would be this glorious world of progressive diver- 
 sities ! Think of it, ye profane grumblers ! No dif- 
 ference in form, in feature, in feeling ; no difference in 
 age, in size, in occupation ;' no ignorance to overcome; 
 no imperfection to transcend ; no suffering to teach 
 the value of happiness ; no poverty to be conquered 
 by honorable riches; no " grim-visaged war" to be 
 smoothed and soothed forever by the holy magnetism 
 of peace ; no evil conditions to be overcome with a 
 principle of positive good ; no saints, no sinners ; no 
 alkalies, no acids ; no roses, no weeds ; no flowers, no 
 
49 
 
 thorns; "no high, no low, no greal^ no small;" no 
 boys, no girls ; no men, no women ; no actors, no spec- 
 tators ; no light, no shadow ; no contrasts ; no work, 
 no play ; no brains, no body, no soul, no — existence ! 
 How do you like the negation ? Does the lightless, 
 shadeless, pointless, godless picture meet your con- 
 ceptiotis of what the Divine Mind should have done, if 
 he could? From the mountain top of Harmonial Phi- 
 losophy, the human mind — inspired by J)he largest, 
 deepest, highest sentiments dwelling in the whole 
 world's infallible heart — can with boundless joy con- 
 template the univercoelum, and thence proclaim the 
 glorious gospel of glad-tidings. The intrinsic useful- 
 ness of adhering evil — yea, its relative goodness and 
 temporal necessity — is plain as the sun at noon-time. 
 But with a more limited and therefore less wise vision, 
 the morally-combative and partialistic soul — feeling 
 the lower world's jargon of misdirected passions, its 
 infuriated war of selfishness, its envy and malice and 
 revenge — would be instantly fired with a " holy indig- 
 nation" as natural and commendable as it is uncontrol- 
 lable, "Woe unto ye. Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites, 
 Publicans, Sinners," the offended soul would emphati- 
 cally exclaim. " Te Serpents! Ye generation of 
 Vipers ! ! " But now mark you this : Let that same 
 soul come intellectually and spiritually higher up ; let 
 its cloudless vision fall beneficently upon the lower 
 world ; let the wisdom faculties behold the interlinked 
 combinations of human life and doings ; let the whole 
 mind grasp intelligently the discreet spheres and grad- 
 uated planes unfolded by the eternal Principles of 
 Association, Progression, and Development ; or, setting 
 aside the intellectual perception of all this Unity with- 
 5 
 
50 
 
 in endless diversity, let the soul just spiritually or 
 intuitively get a picture of the stupendous truth, and 
 then hark you — how infinitely higher its message — 
 '■^Father: forgive them (scribes, pharisees, hypocrites, 
 serpents, vipers, all, all,) for they know not what they 
 do !" What different music from the same soul ! Do 
 you perceive the cause and the reason ? Let me tell 
 you then : Dov?n there in the lower world of ignorant 
 strife and ecclesiastical superstition, whither thousands 
 impatiently call the optimist to return, "Whatever is, 
 is wrong," or nearly so ; whilst up here on the Harmo- 
 nial Mountain- top, " where the wicked cease from 
 troubling" and the weary are at rest, " Whatever is, 
 is right" or is in procession of becoming better; and 
 this explains ^vhy it is that those standing here can 
 behold with what beautiful certainty — 
 
 " The ■world goes round and round, 
 And the genial seasons run ; 
 And ever the right comes uppermost, 
 And ever is justice done." 
 
 But let us shake hands over this question of Evil ; 
 let us carefully examine the patient ; let us ascertain 
 how the world got sick ; and let us take counsel 
 together. Let us feel the pulse of society ; let us see 
 the nation's tongue ; let us look into the patient's eye ; 
 and, without prejudice, let us measure the size of his 
 brain. Not the whole, but parts only, let us examine 
 as representatives. Examples and witnesses, adapted 
 to the solution of this problem, are sadly numerous. 
 
 We will consider, for illustration, how " Tom, Dick, 
 and Harry," the little democratic fish, are swallowed 
 by " Smith, Jones, and Brown,"' the great codfish aris- 
 tocracy. 
 
51 
 
 Brown swallows Harry simply beaause Brown has 
 brains, has been to school, and knows how to find and 
 how to swallow that which best gratifies his appetite 
 and builds up his selfish substance ; while, on the other 
 hand, Harry allows himself to be swallowed by Brown, 
 simply because Harry has not the use of his brains, has 
 not been to school, and is consequently ignorant of his 
 subjective rights and objective privileges. 
 
 Jones unhesitatingly swallows Dick on the same 
 principle, viz. : intellectual selfishness versus ignorant 
 generosity. In fact, Dick emphatically declared that 
 he would rather be swallowed than not. He told the 
 sentimental philanthropist to "get out of his way; " 
 and the moralist, being suddenly cooled off, and sus- 
 pending his pity for a brief moment, actually beheld 
 the awful injustice. Whereupon the humanitarian 
 bestirs himself, and proclaims in a loud voice the vices 
 of the rich and the sufferings of the poor. And in 
 due course of social revolution and political equilibrium, 
 Jones' stomach feels distended, and his large corpora 
 tion is decidedly sick. The silly and servile Dick 
 proves to be, in that delicate and absurd relation to his 
 neighbor, a foreign and independent substance. His 
 individual soA^ereignty renders beneficial digestion im- 
 possible. The selfish Jones was educated, it is true, 
 but not in social physiology, nor in the philosophical 
 principle that action and reaction are equal, or that to 
 do a wrong is the certain way to suffer it, and hence 
 he is painfully alarmed. Social anarchy is at the very 
 threshold. His stomach is deathly sick. The distressed 
 aristocrat, therefore, forthwith dispatches his ceremo- 
 nious prayers for the immediate attendance of Doctor 
 Pentateuch. The doctor's consolations of the gospe' 
 
52 
 
 prove stale and impotent. Consequently the great 
 codfish Jones is humiliated, and in haste sends for his 
 old opponent, Doctor Reformer. Only a few doses of 
 philosophic salts and common sense were administered 
 when Jones was induced to yield, and reestablish Dick 
 upon dry land ! 
 
 Dick's personal appearance can be imagined only ; 
 but his new conceptions of life, and its uses, may per- 
 haps be described. He is resolved henceforth to main- 
 tain an independent footing. He is of opinion that 
 one man is as good as another, and better too. Jones 
 he thinks had no more right to swallow him than he had 
 to swallow Jones. He is at last wide awake to his own 
 manhood ; and has resolved to employ all the weapons 
 of self-defence. The cartridge-box first ; next, the 
 ballot-box ; lastly, the jury-box ' He is enthusiastic 
 about the boxing school ! The prairie-fire of social 
 Revolution is kindled all over his still ignorant brain. 
 But very soon after Jones disgorged him, Dick met 
 Harry, who, still silly and servile, calls him a fool ! 
 Dick acknowledges himself to have been a fool, but 
 indignantly repels ' ' the soft impeachment ' ' in the 
 present tense ; and yet, somehow, his mind is painfully 
 and paralytically struck with the thought of its possi- 
 bility. On the third day he meets " Tom," to whom 
 he confidentially tells his manifold grievances ; first, 
 how he was knowingly, and contrary to the counsel 
 and proffered assistance of a philanthropist, publicly 
 and personally swallowed by "Jones; " second, how 
 he then lived hermited in close confinement, with 
 almost no ventilation, and only agglomerated bread 
 with unfiltered water, during three white days and 
 three black nights ; third, how he was seized without 
 
53 
 
 due notification and contemptuously ejected upon the 
 bare ground ; and, lastly, that his outraged and insulted 
 blood is boiling over a consuming fire, calling for uncon- 
 ditional revenge and immediate emancipation. 
 
 Tom patiently hears the 'excited Dick all through, 
 and then coolly names him " a fool." Tom has 
 attended church every Sunday for many years, and 
 turning to Dick he says : " The parson with the Bible 
 tells us how Grod has given negroes, poor folks, and the 
 sick, into the keeping of the rich, white, and educated 
 classes. And we are further told, by these sacred 
 authorities, that after death, if we have uncomplain- 
 ingly done our whole duty to our masters in society, 
 the Lord will say to each of us : ' Well done, thou good 
 and faithful servant, enter thou into peace.' " To all 
 this the earnest Dick reverently listens ; thinks it over 
 and again ; realizes his impotency against such fearful 
 odds ; and resolves, finally, to banish all rebellious 
 impulses save one : that he will never willingly be swal- 
 lowed by Jones again, preferring next time to be flat- 
 tered by similar attentions from the genteel Brown or 
 gigantic Smith. 
 
 Now, then, let us examine the cause of this popular 
 social injustice. What is the difference between Tom, 
 Dick, and Harry, and their powerful opponents. Smith, 
 Jones, and Brown? My answer is: The vast and 
 shocking difference between the great lower world of 
 small democratic fish and the high swell mob of codfish 
 aristocracy, is precisely and only that difference which 
 of necessity distinguishes and separates the hydra-headed 
 misfortunes of Ignorance from the prodigious lever- 
 advantages of Knowledge or Education. All this is 
 mathematically philosophical, almost chemically cer- 
 
54 
 
 tain, and harmonizes with the Laws of progressive 
 development. The victims of ignorance propagate for 
 themselves the worst of masters. It must be said that 
 ignorant and wilful minds, by marriage and otherwise, 
 are the potent causes of bodily diseases and mental 
 deformities ; not less are they the authors of the end- 
 less "chapters of accidents; " the writers in human 
 life, also, of the huge volumes of national evil ; and 
 the automatic abettors of individual crime. Their 
 ignorant stupidity and weak dependence tempt the sel- 
 fish and shrewd to spoliate and enslave them ; and 
 then, the conquerors, becoming rich and proud and 
 more powerful, combine with their victims to repel the 
 Reformer and his work. 
 
 With this view we encounter the formidable presence 
 of two hostile forces — 1. The wilful and ignorant; 
 2. The selfish and educated. Poor and servile human- 
 ity on the right, whither we direct our sympathies ; on 
 the left, the few rich and cruel oppressors, by whom 
 we feel repelled*. Selfish and depraved tyrants, employ- 
 ing Force as the agent of conquest, murder whole 
 tribes and confiscate their property ; vast fields of 
 unsurpassed beauty are wet and cursed with the blood 
 of the innocent ; immense territories of buried wealth, 
 populated by ignorant and neglectful savages, are 
 forcibly taken from the native proprietors ; and so on, 
 through the annals of mankind's history, we behold 
 what are called crimes, sacrilegious transgressions, 
 legalized injustices, national tyrannies, and enormous 
 acts that swell out to the magnitude of Sin. Whether 
 in memory we stand as spectators amid the Senators of 
 Rome, or in fact among the Congressional intelligences 
 of America, the same two hostile forces march athwart 
 
65 
 
 our vision. Peace versus War^! Liberty vejsus Sla- 
 very ! Truth versus Error ! Virtue versus Sin ! There 
 they are, good and evil, education and ignorance, con- 
 tending and struggling with each other ; like Human- 
 ity with Caligula, like June with January, like Jupiter 
 with Venus, like God with Belial. Milton's terrible 
 picture of accumulate^ wickedness forces itself upon 
 the alarmed imagination. You behold the startling 
 personification of all known Sin, a monster image — 
 
 " That seemed a woman to the waist, and fair, 
 But ended foul in many a scaly fold 
 Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed 
 With mortal sting ; about her middle round 
 A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing barked 
 With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 
 A hideous peal ; yet, when they list, would creep. 
 If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb. 
 And kennel there, yet there still barked and howled 
 Within unseen." 
 
 Horrid vision of the lower world ! But this imagin- 
 ary embodiment of Evil does not instruct us in the 
 philosophy of its origin. This is the question most 
 momentous. My answer is already delivered. Sin is 
 the child of Evil ; Evil is the child of Error ; Error is 
 the child of Ignorance ; Ignorance is the first condition 
 of an immortal being, whose whole existence is eter- 
 nally to be swayed and regulated by the triple Laws, 
 Association, Progression, and Development. Therefore, 
 in our deep-searching investigations, we begin with the 
 constitution of the known Universe ; which is the only 
 begotten Son of Father God and Mother Nature. But 
 is this not charging the colossal systems of human 
 wickedness and suffering back upon the Divine Being ? 
 Certainly : nothing can be more palpable. Like the 
 earth's earliest inhabitants we are led, inductively, 
 
56 
 
 within all phenomena, to the Divine Mystery. We 
 believe that — 
 
 " Wrong ever builds on quicksands, but the Right 
 To the firm Centre lays its moveless base." 
 
 What, then, shall we think of Deity ? By His wisdom 
 ■ could no better plan be devised ? Was His power 
 limited and obligated to just this method of being and 
 doing ? Let us answer : Mental maturity sees Deity, 
 as it beholds the universe, to be a perfect wholeness. 
 The wisdom, to our discernment, is perfect ; and the 
 dynamical attribute within is absolute ; ■ and the world's 
 evil is the dust of travel, an incident of man's progres- 
 sion. Existence of individual human beings necessi- 
 tates positions in space ; positions in space necessitate 
 various conditions ; these various conditions necessitate 
 as many corresponding circumstances ; and these cir- 
 cumstances — being the combined results of persons, 
 positions, and conditions — mould the individual to 
 their image and likeness, either good or evil. 
 
 Bui what is this evil ? It is the temporal subver- 
 sion or misdirection of the absolute and omnipresent 
 good. How happened the good to become thus inverted, 
 diverted, or twisted ? First, by man's ignorance ; sec- 
 ond, by man's error. Why was man thus ignorant in 
 the beginning ? Because man is designed for endless 
 progression. On this principle it will be seen that the 
 inferior must precede the superior ; as the alphabet goeth 
 before all scholastic attainment ; or as helpless infancy 
 is the basis of manhood's powerful superstructure. 
 
 The doctrine that Ignorance is the predecessor of 
 Knowledge — that Evil is the dust and incident of the 
 pilgrimage through the wilderness of experience which 
 
57 
 
 separates the two conditions — may be illustrated by a 
 fact : Day before yesterday, wbile walking through the 
 Charity Hospital, I beheld the prostrate form of a once 
 beautiful, healthy, and wealthy man. He seemeth very 
 difierent now, being bowed to the earth with the com- 
 bined weight of many misspent years and painful dis- 
 eases. 0, how miserable ! Maddened with the mem- 
 ory of himself, he loaded the passing breeze with savage 
 execrations, polluting the ear of innocent youth, then 
 near him, with words of profanity and throes of expir- 
 ing passion. Like an incorrigible felon he was rapidly 
 dying ; and not one love-lit eye shed for him the (tears 
 of sympathy. 
 
 My whole soul stood still with the shock it had 
 received. Clairvoyance soon came to my relief, how- 
 ever ; and I traced that man's biography backward to 
 its very inception. His mother was, long years ere 
 this man had life, an ignorant, weak, proud, tyrannical, 
 irrascible lady of fashion ; and her husband, prior to 
 assuming either the relation of mate or parent, was a 
 polite extremist and gentleman of folly in general. Of 
 the thricefold sacred office of Maternity the lady knew 
 absolutely nothing — and yet, I observed, she could 
 speak French sweetly, could waltz through the mazy 
 dance with bewitching grace, could flirt elegantly in 
 costly cra,pe, and frequently break hearts in flowing 
 brocade ; while the gentleman, with a complete intel- 
 lectual equipment from college, the inheritor of a vast 
 fortune, in consequence whereof he was among the 
 wealthy acceptable as a Eothschild, he, too, was igno- 
 rant of the paternal obligations. The conscientious 
 and popular Parson who legalized this prostitution, was 
 not less ignorant of his relation to humanity. Here, 
 
58 
 
 then, was ignorance and error and evil doubled and 
 twisted, and wove beautifully into garments to drape 
 the statute law and to adorn the sanctuary. 
 
 The child of these unprepared parents — that miser- 
 able pauper now dying unlamented — was the offspring 
 of legalized passion. But parental emotions prevailing, 
 the baby-boy was petted with unwholesome display and 
 puffed with vicious conceit. He was early taught to 
 conduct himself toward dependents as though servants 
 had only duties to be discharged, not Rights to be 
 respected and guarded ; so that the little tyrant daily 
 practised the ungodly sentiment, " I ^m holier than 
 thou." He was being hot-housed and urged headlong 
 up into what visitors called a precocious wit ; simply, at 
 aU times, a case of moral imbecility and intellectual 
 inflation. Concerning the laws of physical training, the 
 healthful use of water, of food, of air, or how to make 
 himself mentally a Man, he was wholly ignorant. 
 Therefore day by day he overtaxed his naturally beau- 
 tiful body, subverted its most delicate functions, misdi- 
 rected the normal play of impulse, twisted and dwarfed 
 the tender scions of awakening intuition, confused 
 others' Eights with his desires, fixed fashionable habits 
 as garments about and upon his soul ; and thus he 
 onward went step by step from igiforance to error, from 
 error to evil, from evil to sin ; till, hke the Deliahized 
 and disempowered giant of eastern fable, in a moment 
 of great rage, he drew down upon his earthly existence 
 the crushing weight of sin's tottering superstructure. 
 But now, as I look, the incorruptible within his earthen 
 constitution is preparing to embark for another Hospital, 
 more saving and holy, beyond the sea of clouds. 
 
 What is true of the individual, in all the possible cir- 
 
59 
 
 cumstances and conditions of being, is equafly trae ol 
 all mankind. The biography of a pait is a history of 
 the whole. Hence I hesitate not to affirm, once for all, 
 that Ignorance is a- negative or passive fulcrum upon 
 which the intellectual lever of spiritual progress acts 
 with an almighty and universal sweep ' Thus we real- 
 i2ie that — 
 
 " Humanity sweeps onward ! where to-day the martyr stands, 
 On the morrow crouches Judas, with the silver in his hands ; 
 While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return. 
 To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn." 
 
 Recent investigations, respecting the welfare of human 
 beings after resurrection, have established unchangeably 
 this truth : that Death is but- the "dark hour" which 
 like a herald precedes the morning Sun of a higher 
 Life ; even as earthly Evil, when not abused, is the 
 dungeon-door we pass through, or perhaps the wild 
 highway over which we travel, to reach the goal of the 
 absolute CrOOD. 
 
 But does not this pleasing doctrine destroy all indi- 
 vidual accountability ? Is it not too metaphysical ? too 
 abstract ? Does it not cripple all efforts at private ref- 
 ormation ? Will it not relax the moral power of philan- 
 thropists ? No ! 
 
 Just the contrary is the effect. Let it be forever 
 remembered, that an explanation is not a justification. 
 The philosophical argument is this : An immutable Law 
 is eternally beyond the reach of man's mutable will- 
 power. "Truth is mighty, and will prevail," has 
 become a favorite saying, and "Justice is slow but 
 sure," is another accredited" maxim — but why? Be- 
 cause these propositions contain the consoling divine 
 Idea of a perfect omnipotence ; an eternal Principle 
 
60 
 
 replete with infinite energy ; to which man is at all 
 times amenable ; from the even irresistible flow of which 
 he may (by wiU) temporarily diverge ; but to the unut- 
 terable harmony, or penalties and benefits, of which 
 he is one day absolutely certain of being consciously 
 attuned. 
 
 Upon close examination of Mankind's position and 
 relations to the physical empire and spiritual reahn, 
 this truth will be discovered : that his (man's) will- 
 power is prodigiously effective with conditions and rela- 
 tions only; but that, amid the aU-powerful play of 
 eternal principles, his strength is like the broken reed. 
 For example : the Law of nutrition is omnipresent, yet 
 it is superior to and beyond the reach of man's will- 
 power. He cannot insult it, nor violate it, nor in any 
 manner impede its incessant operation — i. e., no man 
 can will down the voice of Hunger ; but the condition 
 of providing for it and the relation of eating the food 
 come very naturally within man's control. Here we 
 behold man in his appropriate place and jurisdiction. 
 Among conditions he is a crowned head. He may slay 
 and eat, or not, as he individually chooses. So with the 
 fixed Laws of heat and cold, of sleep and work, of life 
 and death ; none of these Principles come within the 
 effectiveness of man's will ; but the local and particular 
 "conditions " by and through which these laws undevi- 
 atingly act, may be and frequently are wilfully violated 
 by human beings. Equally true is this upon higher 
 planes of existence ; the social, conjugal, parental, polit- 
 ical, intellectual, spiritual. Justice, Liberty, Purity, 
 Love, Wisdom, Truth, Progress, and Happiness, are the 
 names of Laws which no man can violate, invert, sus- 
 pend, or cripple, in the discharge of their eternal labors 
 
61 
 
 and almighty mission ; but unto tli^ fearful and con- 
 quering mind of man is consigned the self-punishing 
 and therefore educational powe^ to comply, or not, with 
 those varied temporal conditions by means of which each 
 unchangeable Principle helps carry forward the stupen- 
 dous business of the univercoelum. 
 
 Thus we come to the question of individual, responsi- 
 bility. Man's willing faculties give him unlimited mas- 
 tery over relations and conditions ; but against the fixed 
 Laws, of the material and spiritual universe, he can do 
 absolutely nothing. A King among " conditions ; " 
 among "Laws" a subject forever. Man's will is but 
 the focaUzed effect of many inclinations. Acting inde- 
 pendently your individual pleasure, is simply a conscious 
 yielding to the strongest among several influential 
 inducements. This conscious spiritual operation vrithin 
 your own private being — this balancing of the impulses 
 and thoughts between two sets of inclinations almost 
 equally attractive — gives rise to that self-evident deci- 
 sion called " choice." Now this choice is in accordance 
 with the laws of cause and effect ; but the conditions of 
 obedience come within man's will-power. Here, then, 
 begins the law of individual accountabihty ; and here, 
 too, arises the necessity of Reform and Reformers. But 
 all persons are not equally responsible in the same direc- 
 tion. For example : Two blood-related brothers — one 
 social and physical by organization, the other intellectual 
 and spiritual — situated, at the same place and moment, 
 between an identical combination of exactly opposite 
 circumstances, would inevitably make an exactly oppo- 
 site choice. Cows will select the best of ten bundles 
 of hay, obedient ever to that fixed Law which makes 
 water persistently run down to the lowest valley, or 
 6 
 
62 
 
 which causes the bean-vine to take infallibly but one 
 direction in climbing a pole. Man has no physical or 
 mental power either to create or destroy ; but to modify 
 and to change, whatsoever may come within his reach, 
 there is no power more fearfully and gloriously extended ; 
 and herein, consequently, is found what is termed man's 
 individual and associative accountability. 
 
 In the limpid light of this Philosophy, therefore, the 
 long-perplexing problem of ' ' Free Agency ' ' is hap- 
 pily and practically solved. Man is philosophically and 
 charitably and hopefully seen to be just as and where he is 
 — between Laws and conditions ; at once a subject and 
 a POWER ; an integral child of eternal dependence, and, 
 at the time, the full-grown immortal master of his 
 individual vineyard. Hence we conclude that, although 
 it is philosophically true that man can neither disturb, 
 transgress, nor resist the calm flow of immutable Prin- 
 ciples which are Grod's vital-automatic-laws-of-life, yet, 
 nevertheless, amid his varied relations and conditions 
 to those Laws, the individual is knovpingly and volun- 
 tarily able to impair or prevent his own happiness, and 
 can as easily and wilfully deprive others of their tem- 
 poral rights and local liberties. In this manner a 
 human being, unconsciously to himself at the time, 
 sends himself to the grand old college of Experience. 
 Perhaps one strong nation may send the whole race 
 to school through a wilful and savage transgression (not 
 of any physical, social, or moral Law, which is above 
 man's power, but) of the earthly conditions and relations 
 of the Principles of that Central Divine Unity which 
 is " without variableness or shadow of turning." Upon 
 this philosophic foundation we can safely stand in pros- 
 ecuting the work of Reformation. From this stand- 
 
63 
 
 k 
 
 ing point we caii*fully understand tJie origin among 
 men of the doctrine of blame and praise, and why, also, 
 there have been evolved from this doctrine so many vin- 
 dictive codes, so many tyrannical institutions, and so 
 many depraving plans of punishment. We can easily 
 understand why one man, who is known to obey the 
 conditions of fixed laws, is naturally beloved as a 
 "saint," and why, also, his neighbor, who is known 
 to transgress those conditions, is hated and condemned 
 as a "sinner;" in short, and lastly, we perceive why 
 it is that implacably hostile forces disturb the world's 
 pleasurable Progress, and why transient and incidental 
 antagonisms seem to postpone the actualization of the 
 holy Idea of universal peace. 
 
 Let us now recapitulate, briefly ; and very frankly 
 define our position. First, we repudiate the Infant or 
 Ante-human theory — that evil was originally premed- 
 itated and sent among men by the Divine Mystery — 
 and yet, there is a truth within this proposition which 
 no mind can reject ; second, we repudiate the Childhood 
 or Inter-human theory — that evil is the hopeless fatal- 
 ity of the physical universe — and yet, there is also a 
 truth in this doctrine which all men should accept ; 
 third, we repudiate the Youthful or Superhuman theory 
 — that man is individually capable of violating and 
 trampling beneath his feet any or all of God's otherwise 
 unapproachable and immutable laws — and yet, in this 
 doctrine there is an approximation to a reality which 
 we admit ; fourth, we repudiate the Manhood or Spirit- 
 ual theory — that man's wilful or self-derived affections 
 rule his thoughts, and attract corresponding controlling 
 influences from the Spirit Land — and yet, we do not 
 close our eyes to the solemn validity of its fundamen- 
 
64 
 
 tal law ; fifth, and finally, we pSblicly, accept the 
 Mature or Harmonial theory of evil (which includes the 
 several truths of its predecessors), that Man is designed 
 for a career of endless Progression; to which process all 
 evils and sufferings are incidental, conditional, temporal, 
 and educational — working out, when not abused, '■'■afar 
 more exceeding and eternal weight of glory !" 
 
 Having in general terms fully divulged the Harmo- 
 nial history and Philosophy of Evil, the next step will 
 plant us upon the path leading to the Harmonial Kem- 
 edy ; but, ere we take this higher step, I very ear- 
 nestly solicit attention to the important intermediate 
 thoughts that constitute the succeeding chapter. 
 
THE WORLD'S TRUE SAVIOUR 
 DISCOVERED. 
 
 The Eeligious history of mankind will admit of 
 several distinctly different classifications ; and yet 
 neither statement need he unfaithful to the interior 
 life or recognized, characteristics. This is true on the 
 principle : that every Fact is susceptible of analysis 
 from every conceivable point of the compass. Hence 
 it follows, logically, that millions of different and truth- 
 ful impressions may be obtained by minds differently 
 related to one Fact, Object, or Principle. 
 
 But with the progress of the race every intelligent 
 observer is similarly impressed in one respect, viz. : 
 that there have been certain definite epochs or eras — 
 such as the age of Superstition, of Military Prowess, 
 of Feudalism, of Chivalry, &c., &c. Yet these ages 
 are not only designated by historians with new and 
 different names, but each biographer distinguishes them 
 with new and different characteristics. Each investi- 
 gator of necessity s^es the world's history differently 
 divided and marked by various circumstances and 
 events — invariably in accordance with his individual 
 mental status, his local prejudices, and the medium of 
 6* 
 
66 
 
 his historic observations. But as I am about to bring 
 before you the Keligious History, and not that of phys- 
 ical Revolution or political Change, I must, if I obey 
 my own impressions, adopt that classification which 
 strikes the healthy mind as being at once true, com- 
 prehensible, and Unitary. 
 
 In the first place, then, let me impress you, as I am 
 impressed, that no written history of Humanity can be 
 true unless it fully recognizes the Progressive growth 
 of nation out of nation, and race out of race. All true 
 theory of history will develop the essential Principles 
 of Solidarity and Unity ; on which alone the Brother- 
 hood of Man can be predicated and sympathetically 
 maintained. Let me repeat it : All true philosophy of 
 history mast accept the Unitary doctrine (advocated 
 by Paul and Fourier), that " all are members of one 
 body ; " that the links of experience are never broken ; 
 that when one member suffers, all the other members 
 suffer with it ; and that complexity tends to unity, 
 just as the different inferior portions of a tree are 
 essential to the ultimate production of its Fruit. 
 
 But this philosophy of Unity in the progress of 
 things, when applied to the Religioas History of the 
 world, comes into direct antagonism with all the 
 church-ology and theologic theories of the present age. 
 Do you see it so ? Let me show you the facts as they 
 are : Popular religion has divided the race. The 
 world's Religious History, left in the hands of eccle- 
 siastics, has been sadly broken up and shocked by the 
 ceremonious introduction of some extraneous event or 
 personage. Religious chieftains have been poetically 
 ushered into the world, with no origin and destiny in 
 common with their brethren ; but professing rather to 
 
67 
 
 have been imported directly from soilie supernatural or 
 purely imaginary source. Now, as I see it, the world 
 cannot make much advancement toward a community 
 of outward interests until it has established a commu- 
 nity of inward Principle. In order to bring this com- 
 munity of fixed ideas and sentiments among men, the 
 first essential seems to be a clear unitary interpretation 
 of human history — bringing all the Past Experiences 
 of the world into our Thoughts, as water into dwellings, 
 realizing the oneness of Human Nature, and the harmo- 
 nious Destiny of the common Race. This, -in part, is 
 the Mission of the Harmonial Philosophy ! The super- 
 natural or suppositional must be abrogated, and the 
 rational or absolute permitted to preponderate. 
 
 Do you see the bearing of these remarks ? I will 
 explain : Eeligious dispensations should be regarded 
 as the natural evolutions of human Progress ; and not 
 as arbitrary events supernaturally introduced into the 
 world. Moses and Jesus, for example, are the chil- 
 dren of the race. They are the Property of the tree 
 which produced them. They were not imported into 
 this world from heaven, but were unfolded by the gen- 
 eral progressions of our common humanity. All Truth 
 is natural ; not supernatural. Like the sciences of 
 Astronomy, Geology, &c., Christianity naturally came 
 forth, in the common progressive course of things. 
 But the church theory is opposed to the unity of his^ 
 tory. Ministers teach that the Dispensations of Moses 
 and Jesus were supernaturally originated, and thus 
 organized on earth. They teach that Christianity is. 
 >a supernatural revelation of supernatural Truth. And 
 thus the harmony of history is kept from the people. 
 The sources of true experience are to many thus closed 
 
68 
 
 up ; and the world feels an unwelcome discord between 
 the church theory of history, and that simple declara- 
 tion of reason that " all Truth is Harmonious." 
 
 Does not the world's Eeligious History indicate 
 Three dispensations : the Mosaic — or, the Age of 
 Force ; the Christian — or, the Age of Love ; the 
 Harmonial — or, the Age of Wisdom? And did not 
 these ages naturally come forth and succeed each~ 
 other ; bringing with them a vast variety of instruc- 
 tions for the benefit of all who will learn from the 
 pages of experience, direct or indirect ? 
 
 In the Mosaic Age, Eeligion was composed of ancient 
 systems. It was full of Pride and Eevenge. It was 
 enforced upon the credulous by alleged miracle, and it 
 may be called a sacerdotal despotism. 
 
 In the Christian Age, Eeligion is a gentle Spirit of 
 Love and Truth. The sword is moulded into imple- 
 ments of industry ; the angels of Peace visit the good 
 man ; and purity, holiness, and benevolence are the 
 burthen of its evangels. 
 
 In the Harmonial Age, true Eeligion is Universal 
 Justice. Everything will be attuned to the laws 
 of equity and reciprocation. Liberty and Law are 
 reconciled. Disobedience of Nature is the unpardon- 
 able sin ! Moses and Jesus — the Lion and the 
 Lamb — are harmonized and led into unity ; and the 
 Nations learn war no more ! 
 
 Here comes an important thought : In the moral, 
 as in the physical world, there are but two principles 
 capable of organization. (By organization, I mean, 
 of course, a confederation of parts and functions — 
 acting in concert with the principle or Power which 
 enlivens and directs it.) There are two powers only 
 
69 
 
 in the moral world capable of such aji arrangement — 
 one is Force ; the other is Wisdom. But Love cannot 
 be organized independently, and by itself. Why not ? 
 Because Love is the germinal principle of every indi- 
 vidualism: Love gives life and heat ; not order and 
 form. Love inspires and forms everything ; but it 
 reforms and harmonizes nothing. A low development 
 of wisdom (called knowledge) will lead Love into an 
 organization with " Force ; " and a high order of 
 knowledge (called wisdom) will lead both Love and 
 Force into Harmonious Relations, and thus the three 
 attributes — Love, Will, and Wisdom — may become 
 united in man on earth as they are within the Divine 
 Mind. In this trinity there is unity. 
 
 Mankind have grown as yet only to the summit of 
 the age of Force. The Mosaic dispensation has ruled 
 the world for hundreds of centuries ; while the Chris- 
 tian dispensation has merely been prescribed from the 
 pulpit and the rostrum. Now, " why is this so?" 
 Why does Moses rule triumphant — "an eye for an 
 eye" — war for war — while Christ, with his chief 
 commandment, " love ye one another," has compar- 
 atively no power among . the nations ? Christ has a 
 very small portion of the world on his side. Moses 
 rules the nations as with a rod of iron. Ye preachers 
 and moralizers ! tell me — why does the law of Force 
 so triumph over the law of Love ? 
 
 Listen ! Let the ministers answer. How often 
 does the pulpit resound with that superannuated expla- 
 nation — ' ' the depravity of man ! ' ' The lamentable 
 failure which has ever attended the preaching and 
 moralizations of clergymen, is always accounted for by 
 reference to the old hypothesis of original sin. But 
 
70 
 
 this explanation is a slander upon man ; it is an insult 
 to Mother Nature and to the Father of Spirits. But 
 the true explanation why Moses has the advantage of 
 Jesus I have already stated, viz. : the impossibility of 
 organizing Love as an independent principle. 
 
 Moses, who represents a lower law, organized Force ; 
 and addressed his government alike to the body and 
 soul. But Jesus, who represents a higher law, simply 
 preached that all should love their neighbors ; and 
 then left the redemptive issue to the internal attrac- 
 tions of his audience. Perhaps, he seldom varied from 
 the beauty of this divine method. 
 
 One inspired man may develop the Dispensation of 
 Love (or Christ) in his life, and thousands of ministers 
 may get a respectable living by eloquently preaching 
 about it ; but I tell you a positive truth when I af&rm 
 that mankind cannot feel such Love, unless it be com- 
 bined with the principles of Force and Wisdom, and 
 thus organized into all social and religious institutions. 
 This is true for the same rational reason that a child 
 cannot be born without a womb ; a centre cannot be 
 acknowledged without a circumference ; a seed cannot 
 grow without the sun and .earth ; music cannot be 
 truly heard without the spirit and understanding. 
 So essential is the Age of Wisdom to the Age of 
 Love ! 
 
 Here comes another thought : In the question of 
 a " New Dispensation," in contradistinction to the old 
 or Popular state, there is no middle position. A genuine 
 man cannot, with any degree of moral consistency or 
 social profit, occupy an intermediate or transition 
 ground. A man must be either a cfrcMmstance, or 
 else a cewfrestance. He must be proprietor of his own 
 
71 
 
 personality, and grow into moral goodness on his own 
 feet, as a tree develops from tbe earth ; or he must 
 resign himself to the guidance of priests, and strive for 
 salvation through the " body and blood " of some poor 
 Martyr who nobly died that his principles might live. 
 In a word, the day has arrived when the world must 
 choose between Ignorance and Knowledge ; between 
 Force and Wisdom. To be consistent, then, a man 
 must either become a Eoman Catholic, or else a Ilar- 
 monial Philosopher. You may resolve now ! Be a 
 Slave in all things, both temporal and spiritual ; or, in 
 all things, be thou a proprietor and a master. There 
 is both a dark and a bright side to all things. Positives 
 and negatives are exhibited in sectarianism as well as 
 in galvanism ; and man's Eeason is adequate to decide 
 the question of preference and adaptation. The age 
 of Force lies on that side, the age of Wisdom lies on 
 this. The question is : to which of these do you, will 
 you, now or eventually gravitate? 
 
 The dark or lower side of everything is mantled with 
 Ignorance ; and consequent Discord, with her troop 
 of vagabond children — war, slavery, idleness, and mis- 
 ery — cluster round like the imps of Pandemonium. 
 The bright or upper side of everything, on the other 
 hand, is illumined by the unextinguishable rays of Wis- 
 dom ; and consequent Harmony, with his blissful fam- 
 ily — science, philosophy, poetry, progress, ptace, growth, 
 
 — appear on all sides - as the handmaids of Father 
 God and Mother Nature. Now, therefore, the time 
 has come when a man may choose his moral habitation 
 
 — may select the social, political, and religious hemi- 
 sphere which is most adapted to his degree of mental 
 development. But a noble and manly middle ground 
 
72 
 
 is impossible. True, there is such a thing as being in 
 a strait betwixt two — in a state of unspeakable moral 
 distress, attended by equinoctial storms from friendship's 
 clouds, and mental conflicts of a private nature ; with 
 educational habits, feelings, and ideas negative on one 
 side, and new desires, new ideas, and new attractions 
 positive on the other. But this is no position for a 
 true Harmonial Son of God to occupy ! And yet, since 
 the Harmonial Philosophy has appeared in such de- 
 cided and stupendous antagonism to the entire won- 
 drous organization of Roman Catholicity, it cannot be 
 denied that the whole category of Protestant sects falls 
 under the denomination of " Transitional." Presbyte- 
 rian, Methodistic, Unitarian, Universalist, &c., consti- 
 tute the moral and intellectual Bridge between the Old 
 and the New ; between the age of Force and the age 
 of Wisdom. 
 
 Come now, let us reflect, for only a few moments, 
 upon the difference between popular supernaturalism, 
 and the Harmonial Philosophy. The difference may 
 be stated in the few sentences that follow : 
 
 That supernaturalism which is generally accepted as 
 orthodox in all Protestant countries, is a system of 
 salvation from social disorders in this world, and from 
 well-merited moral punishment in the next. It is a 
 strange arbitrary mechanism, said to have been intro- 
 duced into this world by the Deity, in order to redeem 
 mankind from the depravity and spiritual death occa- 
 sioned by the original sin. It is a kind of ecclesiastical 
 medicine, patented by antiquity and labelled " Ortho- 
 dox." It is professionally administered one-seventh of 
 the time, and recommended as a "universal panacea;" 
 a sovereign remedy for all moral and social disorders. 
 
73 
 
 This supernatural medicine is compounded principally 
 of the incarnation, miracles, redemption, forgiveness, 
 physical resurrection, special providence, and prayer ! 
 Through these instrumentalities (so the Church says) 
 Mankind may in part be saved, and the world regener- 
 ated. 
 
 The Harmonial Philosophy, on the contrary, begins 
 its work of Individual Eeform in securing obedience to 
 the well-ascertained Laws of man's physical and moral 
 nature. Confidence is reposed in the manifest incar- 
 nation of God in all humankind ; not exclusively in a 
 single individual. By a philosophical analysis of the 
 origin and nature of what are termed man's vices and 
 passions, we discover that, with few exceptions, the 
 worst and most discordant manifestations of character 
 are engendered and fortified in the strong entrench- 
 ment of religious and social institutions. These insti- 
 tutions have originated from man's ignorance ; not from 
 man's " depravity." Man is a progressive being, and 
 his life and deeds at different periods of the world, like 
 hands on a dial, indicate the order and degree of his 
 particular and general progression. "Regeneration" 
 is a perpetual phenomenon of existence ; the result of 
 no miraculous " change of heart," — a perennial growth 
 in Love and Wisdom. 
 
 Supernaturalism has ultimated itself in theological 
 creeds ; in empty forms and godless ceremonies. But 
 the Harmonial Philosophy is founded on the immutable 
 principles of universal existence, and is congenial to 
 the highest and noblest impulses operating in Human 
 Nature. 
 
 Supernaturalism is diametically opposed to the work- 
 ings of the Law of Progress ; because it is based upon 
 7 
 
•74 
 
 tlie pen-and-ink habiliments of oriental doctrines. The 
 paper and pasteboard Bible is the only basis of religion ; 
 the orthodox remains thereof; the only articulated and 
 dressed-up skeleton left to remind the world of the 
 departed spirit. 
 
 The Harmonial Philosophy, on the other hand, puts 
 the individual in harmony with the divine life-currents 
 of the universe, whereon he glides along peacefully in 
 the exercise of his manhood, as a flower on the ocean's 
 bosom. Religion and inspiration are progressive. To 
 willing minds the Infinite always speaks. Boundless 
 Justice is the highest manifestation of true religion. 
 Christianity is a principle of Love incorporated in, and 
 unfolding out of, the soul of Humanity. It is the best 
 song of every Judean shepherd — the inspiration of 
 every true Prophet — the ultima thula of every un- 
 clouded vision — the blessed burthen of every holy 
 prayer. In science and in history, as in the explana- 
 tion of physical facts and psychological events, there 
 will be found a positive difference between priestly 
 supernaturalism and the Harmonial Philosophy. But 
 I must hasten on, and bring the subject of this dis- 
 course directly before you, i. e., the unity of human 
 experience. 
 
 The unity of History is truly exhibited in the Ages 
 already designated. The age of Force is the Iron Age ; 
 the age of Love is the Age of Silver ; the age of Wis- 
 dom is the Age of Gold. 
 
 As I have already said, Christianity has failed to 
 accomplish "Peace on Earth and good will among 
 men." Why? Because Christianity is a Principle of 
 Love ; and Love, as an independent principle, is philo- 
 sophically incapable of being organized into individual 
 
75 
 
 and social Life. This is a broad assertion. You may 
 not see its truth ; therefore, let us review" it a moment 
 
 Love is the life of man ; the life of the universe , 
 the soul of God. Love is the primary Cause of all 
 motion, all life, all attraction, repulsion, gravitation, 
 all association, &c., in external Nature. All sentiment, 
 all impulse, all opinions, and propensities (either in 
 animals or in men), originate in the Principle of Love. 
 In an unprogressed stage, of life, man's Love is low and 
 external, sensual and discordant. Now be it remem- 
 bered, Christianity is Love, operating on a superior 
 plane of impulse. This impulse is, "Love to man; 
 love to God." Christianity, in other words, is based 
 upon the sentiment of Goodness ; not upon the science 
 or knowledge of righteousness. It is based upon the 
 principle of spiritual Truth, as developed and seen by 
 intuition ; not upon the Organization of Truth in the 
 social and practical life of man. 
 
 Chiefly in consequence of man's ignorance of his 
 own nature and needs, hundreds of conscientious men 
 have been influenced to organize churches, schools, 
 colleges, &c., on the absurd supposition and expecta- 
 tion that redemptive Love could be educated into the 
 heads and hearts of the people. The Catholic Institu- 
 tion is the most gigantic organization of this kind. 
 The Methodist Episcopal church is the next in despotic 
 power. But both institutions have obviously failed to 
 make less radical discord and evil. These Christian 
 organizations are merely sacerdotal despotisms ! They 
 are, of necessity, organizations of " Force ; " like the 
 Mormon and similar Eeligious movements. They all 
 have "Force" and "Love," i. e., the strength of Iron 
 and the glitter of Silver ; but neither have Harmonial 
 
76 
 
 Wisdom, which bestows the order and purity and efful- 
 gence of imperishable Gold. 
 
 Let us reflect on the nature of Wisdom. Love is the 
 formative and animating life of man ; but Wisdom is 
 its informative and governing principle. Love is the 
 warm vapor which arises from heated water ; but Wis- 
 dom is the practical locomotive enveloping it. Love is 
 the heat of the sun, but its light is Wisdom. Love 
 enlivens everything ; but all form, and order, and har- 
 mony, are attributable alone to Wisdom. 
 
 Now the conclusion to which this philosophical defi- 
 nition of Wisdom leads us, must be clear to every spir- 
 itual and intelligent mind. That conclusion is this : 
 Christianity can tell men to "be righteous and to love 
 each other," and clergymen may preach the "golden 
 rule" eternally — but, unless we re-model and re- 
 construct the industrial and social interests of mankind, 
 in accordance with the laws of human interior nature 
 and physical outward being, the doctrine of Love will 
 be disregarded in the universal strife for personal riches, 
 and selfish, isolated well-being. Wisdom (or the har- 
 monizing principle) must conjugally unite with Love, 
 as heat with light, in the effort to bring the kingdom 
 of heaven on earth. Love and Wisdom must work 
 together, with their arms about each other's necks, as 
 the angels and maidens of truth ; then, and only then, 
 wiU Christianity achieve her highest triumph ! 
 
 Christianity, when viewed as a Love-principle, ap- 
 pears as a maiden in quest of her conjugal companion. 
 It may be compared to a feminine spirit of Divine 
 Love and moral excellence, travelling alone and unpro- 
 tected, amid savage races, and innumerable perils, 
 without the assistance even of a "correct interpreter." 
 
77 
 
 Being of humble parentage, cradled Eyid nurtured amid 
 the imperfections of this small planet, she — the gentle 
 spirit of Love — began her mission with no recommend- 
 ation to the sensual and undeveloped, except her inhe- 
 rent elements of virtue and spirituality, which their 
 bedimmed vision permitted them not to see. The his- 
 tory of her wanderings from hamlet to hamlet, from 
 heart to heart, from shore to shore, is more replete'with 
 trial and incident than any romance in being. Mis- 
 conceived and misinterpreted from the first, she has 
 travelled nearly two thousand years, and can only pre- 
 sent the evidences of the dusty and stony p^th she has 
 pursued with unwearied step. Supernaturalism, the 
 sacred masculine Idol of undeveloped minds, has been 
 the only companion of her journey to the homes and 
 hearts of men. But this pompous procession of priests 
 and prayers — of machination and miracle ; of churches, 
 convents, cathedrals, and ceremonies ; this pageantry 
 of ignorance and superstition — was not of Her nature 
 or choice. Far from it. On the contrary, she has been 
 insulted from the first, and so retarded and compressed 
 into the iron legislation of Mosaic sectarianism, that, 
 on the whole, Christianity may be supposed to have 
 accomplished but little or no good on earth. And 
 cowards skulk behind the Bible. Out of 900,000,000 
 of the earth's inhabitants, only about 250,003,000 
 believe in the miraculous revelation or Bible of the 
 Christians. And the majority of this number are 
 Roman Catholics ; there being only about 60,000,000 
 of Protestants, who are divided up into various forms 
 of rationalistic reformation — Unitarians, Universal- 
 ists, Quakers, Mormons, Infidels, and Nothingarians 
 
 — making, on the whole, the most unprecedented and 
 
 'J* 
 
78 
 
 self-destructive conglomeration of Religious Opinions 
 possible for man to imagine. 
 
 From all this, then, how unfounded and absurd 
 appears the supernaturalistic prevailing opinion : that 
 God put forth special exertions and miraculously dis- 
 played his omnipotence, in giving a paper and ink 
 revelation to Man ! But the pure Spirit of Love — full 
 of spiritual energy and eternal life — has had all these 
 unnatural garments thrown about and attached to her 
 beautiful person. The history of sects is not the history 
 of Christianity ; but it is the history of man's ignorance 
 and cupidity ; a record more properly of Humanity's 
 progressive development in moral experience. Yes, let 
 it be steadfastly understood, that Christianity is not the 
 especial development of an isolated individual ; that 
 Jesus was only a person ; but that the Love-principle is 
 the outpouring of moral life from the spiritual vitality 
 of all humankind. " Love thy neighbor as thyself" 
 — " Love and serve Good as thy Father " — " Be pure 
 in heart" — "Cleanse thy body from its pollution" — 
 "Be temperate in diet; calm inaction; moderate in 
 passional indulgences; live the divine life" — these 
 admonitions have been spoken to us by ten thousand 
 tongues ; the summit of every Age has resounded with 
 them : but the expurgated history of Jesus gives us the 
 grand spectacle of an individual attempt to practise and 
 exemplify what the good of all times have preached. 
 
 But is this all ? Has the Spirit of Love no Saving 
 Power for the 900,000,000 of living beings who tread 
 the earth in different degrees of poverty and wretched- 
 ness, in different phases of a false civilization (like 
 the present) ; with its attendant luxuries, its false 
 religion, its superficial intelHgence, and abounding con- 
 
79 
 
 tentions for isolated wealth and power ? Has the Law 
 of Love nothing to do in elevating the masses to the 
 plane of Peace and Good Will? 
 
 The answer is "Yes." But the popular church 
 system of Reforming the world is based on ignorance 
 and superstition. I mean to include, in this assertion, 
 both the Romish and Protestant systems of salvation. 
 To say the best thing that can be said in favor of 
 churches, they preserve the forms which good spirits 
 once occupied ; they fan and subsist upon the social 
 element ; they addre'ss an4 bewilder the religious senti- 
 ment in men ; they throw a sacred charm over ancient 
 literature, and keep up the beauties o.f spiritual music — 
 a form of worship hereafter to be exceedingly improved. 
 
 But when I think of Humanity, and of the very little 
 good which the churches have really done, I confess 
 that I see the whole establishment of Theology as a 
 charnel house, filled with the remains of godless creeds, 
 mouldering forms, and sustained by Priests whose spirit- 
 ual life has gone out — leaving laymen to maintain and 
 defend the institution, who are professedly orthodox 
 in opinion, infidel in practice, and bigots to all the 
 reforms of intelligent philanthropists. In the Church 
 there is nothing for Humanity. All is directed to the 
 Individual. It restrains almost everybody ; but reforms 
 almost nobody — that is, if "loving the neighbor as 
 thyself" remains unrepealed as the law and test of 
 righteousness. 
 
 Friends of Progress ! Have you read the organs of 
 the churches ; the publications of the Catholic and Pro- 
 testant Establishments ? If you have not, you are far 
 from being truly enlightened as to the godless and 
 inhuman character of these systems of salvation. While 
 
80 
 
 nearly four million of slaves are groaning under oppres- 
 sion ; while the majority of the world are struggling 
 under the trials of poverty and disease ; while 900,000- 
 000 of the earth's inhabitants are in bondage to the dis- 
 cordant powers of Ignorance and Superstition — the 
 churches are disputing, about the physical shape of the 
 animal which conversed with Eve — disputing about this 
 and that " doctrine;" determining upon "tests of Fel- 
 lowship," upon orthodox "passports to God's favor," 
 upon "bonds of communion," upon the credentials of 
 holiness — overlooking and neglecting all the time the 
 great interests of the world, laying infinite importance 
 on a Bishop or a prayer-book ; upon some unessential 
 word in " the Original ;" upon the quantity of water to 
 be used in Baptism (whether a shower-bath or a plunge) ; 
 contending for church rights, for church distinctions, for 
 salaries ; and then, with all these imperfections upon 
 their heads, with all their materialism and equivocal 
 claims to truth, they hurl forth the thunderbolts of anath- 
 ema and denunciation at all who break away from 
 their creeds, and seek the general welfare of mankind 
 through other means and channels. 
 
 But, in the light of the "New Dispensation," has 
 the Church no mission? An affirmative response is 
 freely given. I have alluded to the negative and transi- 
 tional uses which the Eoman, Grreek, and Protestant 
 churches now subserve — as standards to the Bridge 
 which reaches across the religious and intellectual chasm 
 between the Old and the New — but is it not possible to 
 infuse a philosophic life into their withered and decom- 
 posing forms ? No ! it is not possible to give them both 
 new wine and new bottles to keep it in? But can we 
 not influence the churches to arise in the energy of 
 
81 
 
 goodness and integrity, to commence ^ fresh plan of 
 individual and social elevation ? My answer is : let us 
 not forsake the honest supporters of churches ; they may 
 yet be changed into harmonial agents of positive good. 
 
 All the breathing world testifies to the fact, that ' ' man 
 is a religious being." If religion or veneration be a 
 law or need of mind, then we should obey and gratify 
 it. Therefore, to properly fulfil this law or demand of 
 our being, let us have all popular sectarian meeting- 
 houses "converted" into churches of Science, into 
 temples of Philosophy and pure sentiment — wherein 
 Music shall pronounce our felt prayers and breathe our 
 benedictions. The physical church should become a 
 place where every earnest reformer may utter his word. 
 Let us have cogent reasons freighted with saving power. 
 The reform church, substituting platform for pulpit, will 
 bind the human mind to no creed ; to no system ; to no 
 infallible theology or miraculous Christianity. The free 
 church of the Future will be the Sanctuary of Eeason 
 — dispensing spiritual and natural Truths to a free and 
 happy audience ! 
 
 From all the foregoing it will be seen that the Har- 
 monial Philosophy is not more destructive than con- 
 structive. It surely sweeps away the ruins of the 
 structures of Ignorance ; so that there may be free soil 
 and more room for the Palaces of Truth. As blood, 
 when withdrawn from the veins of the healthy and 
 young and infused into the languid pulse of age, gives 
 warmth and new vigor, even so will the Harmonial 
 Philosophy electrify and spiritualize the honest and 
 intelligent in the church of modern theology. 
 
 The new Dispensation cannot be projected and predi- 
 cated upon any pen-and-ink Revelation. It must 
 
82 
 
 originate from, stand upon, and be upheld by, the great 
 General Principles which are foilnd to uphold the stu- 
 pendous Universe — Father God and Mother Nature. 
 
 And yet all books, all notions, and all the bibles of 
 the different races and religions of men, will be useful 
 to all coming generations — yes, useful — just as the 
 hands and stiff fingers of roadside guide-boards are full 
 of use to the traveller in a strange country. Very soon 
 all recognized and revered bibles — the Zeuda Vesta, 
 the Vedas, the Talmud, the Koran, the Hebrew and 
 Christian Scriptures — will be weighed in the balance 
 not only of Reason and Nature, but of absolute human 
 Experience. Paul's wholesome advice to " Prove all 
 things" vrill henceforth be much more intelligently and 
 implicitly followed. But instead of existing and relying 
 upon the well-ascertained laws of Nature, as all immov- 
 able institutions do, the Church is now based upon a 
 strange literary compound. This self-contradictory com- 
 pound is called a perfect Revelation -^ of the supposed 
 character, promises, providences, and purposes of God. 
 Consequently, this revelation is counted at "Par" by 
 the Church. But I have made a psycho-chemical 
 analysis of its properties. By this method I have found, 
 when measured by the commercial standard q£ 100, the 
 following discount : 
 
 Unreliable tradition, 
 
 30 
 
 Oriental imaginations, . 
 
 10 
 
 Exaggeration of believers, 
 
 15 
 
 Errors of writing, .... 
 
 10 
 
 Errors of translation, 
 
 15 
 
 Pious frauds interpolated, 
 
 5 
 
 Total 
 
 of demerits, 85 
 
 Pure spiritual truth, 
 
 15 
 
 100 
 
83 
 
 The reader will observe that this gjialysis gives the 
 Bible credit for 15 per centum of pure spiritual teaching 
 — enough forever to save the literary compound from 
 the oblivion to which so many openly consign it. And 
 so this age of bold criticism will purge bible gold from 
 its theological dross ; and the wiser future will begin to 
 put the pure metal to more rational and beneficent 
 purposes. 
 
 The Harmonial Philosophy appears in the world as 
 the Bridegroom of Love ; does it not? — the coronation 
 or peaceful crowning of the essence of Christianity. It 
 is the free, firm, progressive Advocate of the rights of 
 man, against the aggressions of a false Religion ; the 
 Defender of the Lovely and the Beautiful, of the Merci- 
 ful and the Just, of the Fraternal and the Free — 
 being, in a word, the philosophical Revelation of the 
 nature of man and of the Universe. 
 
 The age of Force — the Iron age of Moses — lies at the 
 basis of modern religion, legislation, and government. 
 The Mosaic Dispensation of Power gives coloring to the 
 popular ideas and social customs of Christendom. The 
 God of Moses means Power. Hence, in that era, the 
 terms "Lord God," "Lord of Lords," "Lord of 
 Hosts," "King of Kings," "God of Battle," etc., 
 were used as expressive of Power, Will, Energy, Force. 
 But the age of Love — the Silver age of Jesus — on the 
 contrary, has had, as yet, no substantial footing on the 
 earth. It has, nevertheless, overflowed with liquid sun- 
 light the many iron structures of aectdom, and has soft- 
 ened and modified them to some extent. The terms 
 "Lord of Lords," etc., are consequently exchanged for 
 higher language, such as " Our Heavenly Father," 
 ''Father of Spirits," "Benefactor," etc., — which are 
 
84 
 
 expressive of gentleness and paternity. This beautiful 
 fact shows what influence Love may stealthily exert 
 upon the most monstrous forms of Force. 
 
 But the Harmonial Philosophy — the age of Wisdom 
 or Gold — gathers together the past developments of the 
 world, and adjusts them to the Laws of science, of order, 
 of unity, and harmony. The terms " Lord of Lords," 
 which signify divine Power, and the terms " Father of 
 Spirits," which signify the divine Paternity, are ex- 
 changed to " Great Positive Mind," implying the uni- 
 versality of Principle, also to " Father God and Mother 
 Nature " who "live through all life, extend through aU 
 extent," in whom so-called saints and sinners equally 
 live, and move, and have their being — a Heart of Love 
 and a Head of Wisdom at the centre of the Universe ; 
 circulating its immutable life-principles through each 
 vein and artery of existence ; causing each person and 
 everything to grow and bloom progressively ; ultimating 
 at last in beauty and happiness to all, from the least to 
 the greatest, through all the eternal spheres of spirit- 
 being. Amen ! 
 
 This Philosophy will surely develop a state of society 
 on earth, which, in its interior arrangements, wiU 
 resemble that Order and Unity which reign in the 
 system of the stars ! Yes, the sidereal laws, the planet- 
 ary harnjionies must enter into human government. The 
 Hierarchy of the heavens, so to speak, is the only 
 Legislation to which mankind will instinctively submit 
 — viz., the absolute independence of each individual; 
 each orb moving and shining in its own orbit. So, 
 then, the Church of the Future wiU be the Church of the 
 World. Glorious spectacle ! I behold humanity elevated 
 and sanctified. The interests of one man the interests 
 
85 
 
 of all. And I behold a ladder let down from the immor- 
 tal spheres ; upon which happy and beautiful angels are 
 ascending and descending ! 
 
 Wisdom has led both Love and Force into harmonial 
 relations. My peace is perfect ; and my soul is satisfied. 
 For in that great Day of Universal Unity, the earth 
 shall be wedded to the heavens, and Humanity wiU be 
 at rest with Deity. 
 8 
 
THE HARMONIAL CURE OF EYIL. 
 
 In the broad light and unquestionable authority of 
 Principles unchangeable, the mind is led to conclude 
 that the abuse of evil coiisists chiefly in being overcome 
 by it — in tamely permitting discord to become positive 
 and the master ; while, on the other hand, in accord- 
 ance with the philosophy of imperfection and the prin- 
 ciple of gradual moral ascent, the true use of evil con- 
 sists in journeying positively over it to whatsoever is bet- 
 ter and best. The several paths leading to the cloudless 
 summits of Wisdom — " the royal road to Knowledge " 
 up the Alps of life — are reached only by a departure 
 from the vales of Ignorance ; even as haggard Hunger 
 is the incentive to ploughing, insemination, industry, 
 harvesting, and ultimate abundance ; or as imperative 
 Want is the chief among ten thousand causes of inven- 
 tion, supply, gratification, and boundless luxury. 
 
 Of all the inspiring discoveries of our giant-headed 
 and iron-handed Century — in science and art, in ethics 
 and philosophy — the Harmonial revelation of Evil's 
 origin is the least recognized and the most important. 
 Embosomed in this blessed discovery is the divine 
 remedy infallible ; for which mankind have so long 
 
87 
 
 and so incessantly importuned the abstract and 
 Supernatural. 
 
 At length Evil has been thoroughly analyzed, by the 
 most competent and authoritative Chemists knovrn in 
 the shoreless universe, viz. : the immutable Principles 
 of Father God and the fixed Lavps of Mother Nature ; 
 and, strange as it may seem, it (Evil) is found to con- 
 tain neither "a devil" nor any elements of positive 
 " enmity " to human growth and happiness. One fact, 
 hovrever, should be recorded : At the close of .the 
 analyzation there was observed a flickering bluish flame, 
 issuing from certain volatile gases then rapidly escap- 
 ing ; also, at the bottom of the retort employed, a dirty 
 gluish or resinous substance ; but subsequently it was 
 ascertained that the "volatile gases" were dislodged 
 ecclesiastical .prejudices, and the "resinous substance" 
 was nothing more than the sublimated dust of departed 
 Ages ! (Venerable chemists ! They have taught us 
 very graciously to perceive and believe that Evil is not 
 a principle, is not a devil, is not a fluid, is not a solid, 
 is not a sentiment, or a thing, to be blasphemed against 
 and fought down like a wild beast ; but, quite other- 
 wise, these authoritative teachers have demonstrated 
 positively that what^gn^t&rm "evil" is- but the tem- 
 porary subversion of .individual- rights, the incidental 
 misdirection of loeah forces, and the inversion of private 
 faculties, innatel^^op.d ^ ali--of which, primarily, is 
 traceable to the early protracted night of human igno- 
 rance, and is thence perpetuated through-the. unfolded 
 generations of all the after ages' by the wit and power 
 of selfishness. 
 
 Discovering unmistakably, thus, that Christians and 
 Reformers have no mythological devil to wrestle with 
 
88 
 
 in God's omnipresence, no ubiquitous monster of death- 
 less " malice prepense " to aim and fire at through the 
 empty air, not even a wicked self-existent principle to 
 be principled against by means of rhetorical "Where- 
 ases " and endless " Resolves " concocted by non- 
 resistants with which to resist the devil — discovering 
 all this, we realize a world-wide enthusiastic joyfulness, 
 a throbbing gratitude, as though a mountain incubus 
 had been by angel-hands lifted from off our bosoms so 
 long hopeless, so sadly oppressed ; and now, instead 
 of indolently weeping as heretofore over past sorrows 
 and spilt milk, instead of fighting heaven by foolishly 
 struggling with present vicissitudes, as sins, we lift our 
 brows and stand erect, with arm and soul divinely pre- 
 pared to supplant little thoughts with great ideas, to 
 wisely control the conditions of uncontrollable Laws — 
 in short, to overcome evil with good, the good with bet- 
 ter, and better with the best ! Our work is plainly 
 mapped out. It is not merely negative, to strike 
 down and destroy " rough places," but, rather to 
 " smooth" them into sympathy with prevailing needs; 
 not madly to crush and burn up "the crooked," but 
 lovingly to harmonize and "straighten" the misdi 
 rected or twisted works of ignorance and selfishness. 
 The Harmonial Reformer's divine mission, then, is not 
 to impeach and mutilate and madden and destroy — but 
 it is, infinitely more glorious and positive, to fulfil 
 the local conditions of fixed Laws, to build up the tem- 
 ple of individual Harmony, and thereby steadily to 
 heal the many Nations. 
 
 Now that the origin and nature of evil are so 
 thoroughly known, at least to the world's thinkers, how 
 can wise men longer prosecute the war of irrational 
 
89 
 
 extermination / The true cure of Evil i^ the true use of 
 Evil. Do you wish to make of your enemy a friend ? 
 Then become a friend to your enemy. Do you wish to be- 
 friend permanently an unfortunate acquaintance ? Then 
 study and act toward him so that he may very soon 
 reahze an independence ; because all false reliance cul- 
 tivated by you is future debility stored up against you. 
 Do you sincerely pray to destroy evil and banish human 
 misery ?l Then become philosophical in your philan- 
 thropic exertions. If you irrationally but heroically 
 set out to destroy your enemy, which is a weak work 
 easily done, you thereby get defeated ; because, as true 
 as there is a sky overhead, your mental condition lays 
 the evil egg and hatches the vicious reptile you went 
 forth to destroy. Is it not as I tell you ? Behold the 
 many Reformers who themselves most need reforming ! 
 Behold the many Christians who need Christianity more 
 than the heathen to whom they charitably send it ! 
 See the regally cloaked Cardinal majestically administer 
 the symbolized ' ' body and blood " of a departed mar- 
 tyr to regenerate the adoring multitude ! Does he not 
 himself (being higher in station and influence) more 
 than they need a cleaner body and a purer blood, that his 
 spirit may generate higher thoughts and manlier deeds ? 
 Behold the rich christian Parson as he solemnly breaks 
 the sacramental ' ' bread ' ' which was made of flour so 
 costly, owing to christian laws of mercantile specula- 
 tion, that the poor christian mechanic can hardly obtain 
 enough for his family ! Does not that Parson's health 
 require that he should ' ' earn his bread b/ the sweat of 
 his brow"? And should not the christian merchant at 
 the sacred table — ere he sips the ruby wine — meditate 
 8* 
 
90 
 
 before high heaven how he might " overcome evil with 
 good?" 
 
 But here comes a question : How can the Cardinal 
 so comfortable, the Parson so pious, and the Merchant 
 so meritorious, be reached by Reformers and influenced 
 to do the best thing ? Surely not by publicly arraigning 
 the first as "a vile Jesuit." Not by unmercifully 
 denouncing the second as "a time-serving hypocrite." 
 Not by resolving in Convention that the third is " a 
 financial gambler." Although each of these charges may 
 be truthfully urged against each particular class, as a 
 body or profession, yet no individual of either class can 
 be effectually reformed by any such charges being pre- 
 ferred directly against him. Yea, more ! He may be 
 arrested legally, or condemned by reformers ; he may be 
 imprisoned by the state, or sent hopelessly to hell by the 
 church ; may be psychologically kicked by the foot of 
 every mountain, or dreamfully vilified by the mouth of 
 every river ; and yet, should you look about on the 
 Saturday afternoon of life, you would in all probability 
 behold the same intractable soul, "outcast" as ever, 
 and ready for " another dodge" behind the festooned 
 scenery of society. Some lovelier code, some wiser path, 
 will reach the prodigal ! 
 
 In the light of enlarged knowledge of human nature, 
 of individual man and his acts, the thousand and one 
 retail schemes of curtailing social Discord appear 
 mechanical and absurd. Branch- work among the trees 
 of evil — the germs of whose first roots require wholesome 
 fertilization — is a venerable form of philanthropy. But 
 it is superficial as venerable. A radical work is now 
 demanded. The deep-struck and sprawling roots of the 
 dark and deathly Upas must be dug up, and exposed to 
 
91 
 
 heaven's healifig sun, ere better aqfl more beautiful 
 vegetation can crop-out and spread over the world. 
 The Upas Tree of human misdirection hath many branches : 
 One far-reaching limb is physical Disease ; another 
 scraggy bough is mental Discord ; a many-jointed and 
 leafless member is Intemperance ; another part seemingly 
 fertile but really barren, is Prostitution ; the thinnest 
 portion, that shoots out toward the far South, is Slavery ; 
 the thorny and twisted branch, with drops of blood 
 trembling upon its weeping foliage, is War; another 
 iron-jointed limb is Despotism ; another is legalized ■ 
 Injustice — to battle with and remedy (or to trim up and 
 prune) which the good-minded of nearly all countries 
 have instituted alms-houses, hospitals, and tyrannical 
 asylums ; have organized common and supreme courts ; 
 have invented expensive police systems, and built bar- 
 barian prisons ; have established vast armies, and sup- 
 ported small public schools ; have got up temperance 
 alliances, anti-slavery societies, peace conventions, and 
 revival meetings ; have printed sacred books by the 
 thousand, circulated religious periodicals by the million, 
 and founded meeting-houses costing trillions of hard- 
 earned dollars : all more or less under the sanction and 
 management of eminent lawyers, distinguished physi- 
 cians, revered popes, temporal kings, and respected 
 ministers. Among the more private systems of protec- 
 tion and defence — against the branches and thorny 
 projections of the upas tree of Misdirection — may be 
 mentioned the Free-Masons, Odd Fellows, Shakers, Mor- 
 mons, Insurance Companies, Savings Banks, and the 
 several strong Associations of Merchants, Mechanics, 
 and Artists. And yet, the criminal annals and institu- 
 tional statistics give the impression (not to me) thai 
 
92 
 
 vice and suffering are increasing in proportion to the 
 spread of civilization. 
 
 In short, all evidence external is powerfully set against 
 the entire system of trimming, and pruning, and 
 bleeding, and blistering, and poisoning, and plastering, 
 and puttying, and praying, and sand-papering those 
 individual vices and popular conditions that are radi- 
 cally and germinally defective. "We must probe the 
 depths of human misdirection. The very deep seas of 
 existence must yield up their contents. Superficial 
 reform is unworthy the fuU-souled philanthropist. And 
 the perpetual administration of outward restraints by 
 lawyers, of quack medicines by doctors, and of super- 
 naturalism by clergymen, should receive a full exposure 
 and a permanent rebuke. Look truly into the foun- 
 tains of human evil and suffering, and you will discover 
 that the sources thereof are three, namely : 
 
 1. Imperfect Organization. 
 
 2. Defective Education. 
 
 3. Immoral Situation. 
 
 I. Okganization. The primary misdirection — be- 
 stowed upon the child, through hereditary transmission of 
 passions and disease by its ignorant progenitors — is first 
 and most important. Physical defections and mental 
 deformities are chemically distUled into the ante-natal 
 blood, are buried into the elements of bone, mixed with 
 the marrow, ambrotyped into muscle, are scattered 
 through the nervo-vital essence, are, m brief, sprinkled 
 over and planted iu every possible nook and corner of 
 the (brain) organ of the mind. 
 
 " Facts are stubborn things." At Washington city, 
 before the National Medical Association not long since 
 
93 
 
 in session there, Dr. S. M, Bemis m^de the following 
 shocking statement : " My researches give me author- 
 ity to say that over ten per cent, of the deaf and dumb, 
 and over five per cent, of the blind, and nearly fifteen 
 per cent, of the idiotic in our State institutions for sub- 
 jects of these eflects, are the offspring of kindred parents. 
 ' ' Aside from the facts which I have gained by cor- 
 responding with gentlemen who have given close atten- 
 tion to these points, a curious but perfectly legitimate 
 process of computation confirms me in the opinion that 
 these estimates are very nearly correct. Five classes 
 in the schedules prepared give 787 marriages of cous- 
 ins, 246 of which have given issue to deaf and dumb, 
 blind, idiotic, or insane children. Admitting the same . 
 ratio to prevail, the Ohio report, which contains 151 
 marriages of cousins, followed by deaf and dumb, blind, 
 idiotic, or insane offspring, would indicate the exist- 
 ence of 332 other marriages of cousins ' in the same 
 population, not followed by such defects. The counties 
 which furnish these 151 marriages, as above, are sup- 
 posed to comprise in their limits 332 unreported mar- 
 riages ; making a total of 483, contained in 1850, in 
 a population of 1,528,238. If the same ratio be sup- 
 posed to exist throughout the Union, there would be 
 found to the twenty millions of white inhabitants, six 
 thousand three hundred and twenty-one marriages of 
 cousins, giving birth to 3,909, deaf and dumb, blind, 
 idiotic and insane children, distributed as follows : 
 
 Deaf and dumb, 1,116 
 
 Blind, 648 
 
 Idiotic, 1,854 
 
 Insane, 299 
 
94 
 
 " Then if the figures of the last United States census 
 still applied to our population, there would now be 
 found in the Union, 
 
 " Nine thousand one hundred and thirty-six deaf 
 and dumb, of whom 1,116, or 12-8 per cent, are the 
 children of cousins. 
 
 " Seven thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight 
 blind, of whom 648, or 08-1 per cent., are children of 
 cousins. 
 
 "Fourteen thousand two hundred and fifty-seven 
 idiotic, of whom 1,844, or 1-29 per cent., are the 
 children of cousins. 
 
 ' ' Fourteen thousand nine hundred and seyenty-one 
 insane, of whom 299, or 0-29 per cent., are children 
 of cousins." Here ends the medical testimony. 
 
 Physiological conditions, whein transgressed by human 
 beings as parents, are certain to blossom out, like poison- 
 ous plants, in the defective organization of children. Sta- 
 tistics upon this subject are alarming. Although Mother 
 Nature's Laws of insemination, gestation, and procrea- 
 tion, are eternally exalted above man's will-power to 
 transgress, yet, as has been shown, the conditions by which 
 they relate themselves to individuals and through which 
 they (the Laws) operate in the fulfilment of their mission 
 among organic kingdoms, may be, as they (the condi- 
 tions) too frequently are, inverted and violated by human 
 beings in marriage. Do you wish to see living examples ? 
 Behold, then, the natural-born foes to individual rights 
 and social harmony ! How much the Church must pray 
 for them ! And the city and the State, too, how enor- 
 mous is the sum appropriated by them to arrest, con- 
 demn, imprison, and punish ! These organic, living, 
 thinking, plotting victims of parental violations — do 
 
95 
 
 they get cured ? Go ask the superintendents and physi 
 cians and keepers of the world's Ahnshouses, Asylums, 
 and Prisons. Or, yet more direct and certain : visit 
 both the palliative and vindictive institutions, and be- 
 hold, the hereditary Idiot ; the inwrought Wretch ; the 
 constitutional Vagrant ; the instinctive Murderer ; the 
 involuntary Thief ; the full-blooded Pauper ; the auto- 
 matic Liar ; and the brain-bent Suicide — effects of 
 imperfections inherited, of parental ignorance and trans- 
 gression. Sires, grandsires, and great-grandsires, 
 reappear in the oflfepring, either good or bad, as they 
 may have been. Brain and mind, spine and character, 
 bosom and affection, hand and power, temperament and 
 manifestation, body and soul, are twin-born and insep- 
 arable ; they innovate, and renovate, and inspire, and 
 expire, and cooperate like twins together and with each 
 other ; and the subtle dependence of each upon the other, 
 in this stage of existence, is very positive and indisput- 
 able. 
 
 Behind the curtain, in the quiet realm of causation, 
 we discover that all hereditary misdirection originated 
 from the basic fact, already explained, that, in an 
 unprogressed state of the human family, all Love in 
 manifestation is low and external, sensual and discord- 
 ant. The philosophy of which is : that what men term 
 Love is Life — all Life is Love — the same in principle 
 and proclivity, in lower kingdoms as in human nature. 
 Prom this Life-principle or Love-law is originated aH 
 organizations, all sentiments, all opinions, all impulses, 
 all powers, all propensities ; and upon the unbroken 
 links of this golden chain, or principle, the peculiarities 
 and imperfections of progenitors may be, as they are, 
 telegraphed and stereotyped from generation to gener 
 
96 
 
 ation amid the roll of ages. But our hope for Human- 
 ity was never so large as now : the cause being, that 
 step by step with the march of mind in fields of physi- 
 cal science, the Idea of controlling the conditions and 
 improving the type of procreation has become influential 
 with intelligent Americans. 
 
 II. Education. The next fertile fountain of miser- 
 able misdirection is Education. By which is meant 
 all acquired knowledge — good, bad, or indifferent — 
 received from without through the several senses. Very 
 soon after birth the young brain, the mind's physical 
 instrument, begins to take on dim shadows and distinct 
 impressions. The thinking faculties are yet feeble and 
 tender ; the placid imagination is sensitive and plastic ; 
 the affections are unprejudiced and susceptible to almost 
 every appeal from the outer world. The rosy gardens 
 of childhood and the green fields of youth may be easily 
 ploughed up, sowed with wild oats or pure white wheat, 
 and harrowed over to any extent, at the option of the ■ 
 legal and natural proprietors. Parents first, then rela- 
 tives, next companions, lastly circumstances, each and 
 all, take turns in fashioning the vessel to honor or 
 deformity ; in carving the furniture of Memory ; in 
 cutting the grooved channels of coming Affections ; in 
 breaking roads through the soul to welcome the tram- 
 pling feet of Propensities ; and, lastly, in adjusting 
 against the white walls of the yet unoccupied Halls of 
 Conscience, the family pictures of local hatreds, and 
 the minister's pencilled plattitudes of what the old mas- 
 ters in ethics termed "right and wrong." Without 
 artificial books, without school-house discipline, without 
 teachers other than these, the young garden gets a 
 dressing, and the verdant field is over-sown ; for thus 
 
97 
 
 the mind acquires an education beyond the reach of after 
 years and the power of better experiences to remove 
 and efface. 
 
 Very young children, like many of " a large growth," 
 absorb unconsciously the prevailing notions of persons, 
 the political opinions of ■ the family, and surrounding 
 religious prejudices, which ever afterwards haunt the 
 soul, as though they were the most important innate 
 ideas of truth and righteousness — an outrageous impo- 
 sition upon childhood ! Upon this educational misdirec- 
 tion-fact are fixed the national hatreds of the earth. 
 The Persian youth is taught to feel unlike the Hindoo, 
 the Greek unlike the Turk, the Chinese unlike the 
 Christian. Bach nation hath manufactured and stereo- 
 typed a particular pattern of what is immutably Right 
 and Wrong — a peculiar Conscience as a standard of 
 judgment — which is branded as with red-hot u-on upon 
 the heart and brain of the native youth, at the fireside 
 and market-place, at the tea-table and popular Academy. 
 And thus it happens, without angel-aid or God-wUling, 
 that one soul comes to esteem as very sacred that which 
 another, equally honest and intelligent, deems secular 
 and terrestrial ; so that, as is well known between Jews 
 and Christians, the conscientiousness of the one is iden- 
 tical with the rascality of the other. A well-organized 
 and healthy young man, a natural-bom mechanic, may, 
 by misconduct and ill-selected studies, be mentally en- 
 feebled and boiled all the way down to a minister. But 
 the reverse of this picture — a natural-born minister 
 being promoted by education to the glory of a good 
 mechanic — is hardly known in human history. Thus 
 education is a fertile source of misdirection, whether 
 9 
 
98 
 
 obtained from books and teachers, or from direct contact 
 with the world at large. 
 
 III. Situation. What is not done by organization 
 and education, to subvert and misdirect the growth of 
 character, may be accomplished by Situation. The for 
 mer are frequently indirect and mediate, but Situation 
 exerts a direct and immediate, though not very lasting, 
 influence upon the human mind. Situation, therefore, 
 may "cover a multitude of sins" in our fellow-men; 
 yet, when reflecting, we revert to and soliloquize the 
 fact that " they are sins nevertheless." 
 
 The compound of Situation is variously modified by 
 country and circumstances. Usually it consists of inher- 
 ited inclinations, of educational bias, of individual inter- 
 ests, of the friendship of friends, of the pride of relatives, 
 of the world's keen-eyed supervision, and, lastly, of 
 private ambition to be commended and successful. The 
 manifold magnetisms of life are thus bestowed upon the 
 emotions of manhood ; and thus, too, the myriad Lili- 
 putian threads of self-interest get tied around the giant 
 will of noble but latent character. 
 
 Immortai mind is crippled and psychologized by Situ- 
 ation to a fearful extreme ; so much so, in truth, that to 
 judge a man by his acts, as " a tree by its fruits," 
 would be the most fallacious of judgments. By organ- 
 ization a man may be well-balanced and liberal-minded, 
 and perchance not less blessed by education ; yet, when 
 vitiated by the controlling sceptre of Situation, he 
 abjures like Galileo his best principles, and like Peter 
 denies his divinest master. Solomon Grundy, Esqr., as 
 an acquaintance at church or at dinner, is a very noble 
 neighbor ; but as a Merchant, seen through the leaves 
 of his ledger-tree of profit and loss, he is gracefully 
 
99 
 
 unprincipled and dangerously selfish. * Beautifully benev- 
 olent by organization is my honored fellow-citizen, Peter 
 Turnpike ; bat; under the oppressive necessities of his 
 business Situation, he is contracted and repulsive as 
 Avarice itself! One sweet-tempered, beautiful-bodied, 
 generous-spirited boy of my acquaintance became at 
 thirteen a clerk in his uncle's grog-shop ; and at eigh- 
 teen, owing wholly to the magnetic immoralities of his 
 situation, he was nervously discordant and combative, 
 disfigured, and frequently inebriated. 
 
 The philosophy of all this appears indisputable : 
 Man is by nature obligated or necessitated to act from 
 the mandates of self-interest, either high or low or 
 intermediate, and it is absurd to expect from him con- 
 duct upon any other principle. Individuality of exist- 
 ence predetermines individuality of motive. My inter- 
 est in the existence and prosperity of another may 
 induce me to rescue that other from suffering, accident, 
 or death, unmindful of any personal risk or sacrifice ; 
 or, on the other hand, my self-interest may possibly 
 so counteract and outweigh all extraneous relations and 
 affections, that I might save myself from suffering, at 
 the risk and injury of hundreds ; the principle in both 
 cases being the same — on a high plane, we term it 
 " disinterested benevolence, "on the low scale its mani- 
 festation is justly christened " sordid selfishness.'' 
 Naturally we love the first, and hate its opponent. 
 
 The positive, but fortunately temporary, control of 
 Situation over Character may be illustrated in a great 
 variety of ways. Legal machinery is monstrously com- 
 plicated , and turns off much evil ; but lawyers will not 
 reform it. Neither will physicians readily abandon 
 their long-exploded nostrums ; they dare not as at 
 
100 
 
 present situated. And really well-informed clergymen 
 cannot preach a word of common science on Sunday. 
 The cause being : the people have assigned to each 
 class a Situation, have prescribed laws of despotic cus- 
 tom to regulate it from age to age, and thus the indi- 
 vidual, although perhaps well organized and educated 
 for a straightforward and noble existence, is made prac- 
 tically immoral (that is, weak in principle and hypocriti- 
 cal) by means of his circumstances. Lawyers as a class, 
 under the magnetic immoralities of Situation, but oft- 
 times contrary to their individual impulses or wishes, 
 desire human misunderstandings and litigations — are 
 practically and professionally the educated opponents of 
 "Peace on earth and good-will among men." Physicians 
 also as a class, owing to the necessities of Situation, 
 desire physiological ignorance among men and the prev- 
 alence of disease. And gospel ministers, too, as a class 
 or propaganda, being swayed by the sceptre of the 
 same king, desire the world to be blest with only a mute 
 science and brainless philosophy. But, considered as 
 " men and brethren," the members of these professions 
 are (many of them) philanthropic and liberal. 
 
 The law of interest, controlling conduct and misdi- 
 recting character, is applicable to the earth's whole 
 population — to the Hindoo worshippers of Budda or 
 Brahm ; to the Patriarch, and his tribe ; to the Pope, 
 and his children ; to the King, and his subjects ; to 
 the Slaveholder, and his servants ; to the Governor, 
 and his constituents ; to the Husband, and his depend- 
 ent ; to Women, and the fashion ; to Lawyers, and 
 their clients ; to Physicians, and their patients ; to 
 Clergymen, and their supporters ; to the Rich in the 
 parlor ; to the Poor in the kitchen ; yea, with all 
 
101 
 
 ■people everywhere the law of interest, as eliminated 
 from individual Situation, is subverting and twisting 
 many of the noblest attributes of human character. 
 
 We now come to the question of Cure ! Organiza- 
 tion, Education, and Situation, are the three fountain 
 sources of individual discord and social misery ; to 
 counterbalance and remedy which, th» Harmonial Phi- 
 losophy would institute three practical methods — 
 
 1. A School of Prevention, 
 
 2. A System of Palliation, 
 
 3. A Work of Reformation. 
 
 It has been satisfactorily demonstrated, I think, that 
 individual man is master of temporal and local condi- 
 tions ; that his self-sovereignty or kingship in this 
 kingdom is diminished or augmented in proportion to 
 his ignorance or knowledge of immutable Principles ; 
 and, therefore, the conclusion that no mind is qualified 
 to be a true philanthropist or a constructive humani- 
 tarian, unless intellectually and spiritually unfolded in 
 such knowledge, is reasonable. 
 
 And the first most needful thing is, true knowledge 
 concerning the chief cause of civilization. In this dis- 
 course the subject must go unanalyzed and undebated ; 
 yot a few words may serve to fix its importance upon 
 your understanding. The most popular definition of 
 civilization, adopted by this portion of the wide-world, 
 was suggested by the contrast presented by portions 
 where Letters, Arts, and Sciences, did not flourish. 
 One thing is remarkable : when compared with other 
 nations the so-called civilized present not the absence 
 of what is termed vice and crime attributed to savage 
 9* 
 
102 
 
 races, but only less as to quantity, and different, aa 
 well as more intense, in manifestation ; that is to say, 
 every civilized nation presents, in different degrees of 
 modification and refinement, those evils and vices and 
 discords that may be found among races not civilized 
 and vfithout Christianity. The savage is in bondage 
 to things finite and measurable, to a sensuous philos- 
 ophy and objective religion ; so is the civilizee, but 
 not to the same limited extent. The savage is igno- 
 rant and brutal ; so is the civilizee, but upon a higher 
 and more delicate plane. 
 
 Popular theologians and their earnest followers claim 
 for Christianity the credit of civilizing so much of man- 
 kind. They begin to adopt positive Science as a gift 
 of God ; profess that they have ever been the friends of 
 philosophical investigation ; openly thank Jesus for sug- 
 gesting the Atlantic Telegraph ; and enthusiastically 
 celebrate the Almighty for having anchored the cable 
 so successfully within the rolling deep ! Upon this 
 plan the church explains the origin of all civilization 
 — a supernatural development, through the agency of 
 inspired men and natural forces. But Edward Ever- 
 ett, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Dudley 
 Observatory at Albany, suddenly forgot his subservi- 
 ency to popular supernaturalism, became a speaking 
 medium for the spirit of' common sense, and proceeded 
 to assign the true cause of existing civilization : 
 "While at our places of education we diligently 
 investigate the wonderful properties of matter devel- 
 oped in the phenomenon of the physical world, shall 
 we not deem a portion of our time and attention well 
 bestowed upon the miracles of Language, written oi 
 spoken, which lie at the foundation of all our intellect- 
 
103 
 
 ual imprc/vement, of all our literature and science — 
 in a word, of all rational covfimunication between man 
 man and man." 
 
 The omnipotent force of spiritual Ideas, the unwea- 
 riable energy of the eternal Principles of Love and 
 Wisdom, the indwelling sentiment of- Brotherhood 
 among men, based upon the holy relation of Father 
 God and Mother Nature, is the world's only and suf- 
 ficient hope. All history — hiereoglyphic, sacred, 
 mythologic, traditional, and written — is demonstrative 
 on this point : that Humanity has at all times kept its 
 HEAD elevated above the earth, even while its body 
 and feet passed between complicating elements, over 
 idolatrous plains, and through mighty wildernesses of 
 anarchy, superstition, want, and death. Upon her 
 heaven-ascending head, kindling with a richer radi- 
 ance as age succeeded age, she wore the crown of 
 Reason. Wisdom, as developed by the pressure of a 
 progressive experience, whispered courage and promise 
 in the listening ear. Humanity was cradled in Asia, 
 and the germ of all civilization was planted at the 
 same time in the human constitution. Sensual needs 
 suggested and obtained sensuous means of gratification. 
 Necessity was the "mother of invention," even as 
 experience was "the father of civilization," which 
 the career of each nation proves to a demonstration. 
 
 But you ask: "Why do the heathen remain in 
 darkness and mythology, while we, having the Bible 
 and Christian institutions, are blessed with all the 
 instrumentalities of peace and prosperity ? " 
 
 The answer is plain : Humanity is as an Olympus 
 — a towering giant, with a genius mighty as that of 
 all the gods combined — whose head touches the upper 
 
104 
 
 sky, while his body and lower extremities (the inferior 
 races) reach far down through the deep ages and stages 
 of patriarchalism, of barbarism, of savageism, yea, 
 down below the beds of deepest oceans to the granite 
 foundations of the globe itself, whereon he stands a 
 finite and measurable, though gigantic and vast, incar- 
 nation of the infinite and immeasurable Deity. He 
 began his march civilizationward from the day of his 
 birth. He felt his destiny ! Humanity moved obedi- 
 ent to its centre of gravitation, and centrifugated its 
 forces and organs, naturally. He declares by his 
 " foot- prints on the sands of Time," that he began 
 his pilgrimage from China ; then colonized Central 
 America, whither he learned the arts of architecture 
 and hieroglyphical expression ; that then he branched 
 out and established a better life in Egypt ; thence into 
 Greece ; afterward to Eome ; then to Europe north- 
 ern ; and subsequently sailed to the American conti- 
 nent. Not the whole body, remember, but the head 
 portions only. The best parts of Humanity, the most 
 enlightened, the most enterprising and intrepid and 
 conquering, developed the facts of civilization. There- 
 fore you will conclude, truthfully, that all the art and 
 science and philosophy, the best code of laws, the best 
 systems of morality, the noblest ideas of personal lib- 
 erty, the finest plans of education, were derived (not 
 from supernaturalism, but) from Experience within the 
 great heart and high head of the giant breathing world 
 of Humanity. Wherever you find the Brain of the 
 Eace there will surely be the most science and many 
 happiness-promoting developments. 
 
 The enlightened portions of the world have long 
 since acknowledged, with the eloquent Edward Everett, 
 
105 
 
 that the basis of civilization is experience and lan- 
 guage ; not the Bible, nor yet any system of Religion 
 that rests upon it. History proves that man's consti- 
 tution contains the essential principles of true growth. 
 The true Saviour — ' ' the kingdom of heaven " — is 
 within each humam being. His name is Wisdom ; his 
 manifestation, Harmony. 
 
 To teach all this, and vastly, more, we require a 
 " School of Prevention.'-' In this department should 
 be the Free College, and the Free Press ; both to be 
 the property of the people, for whose permanent pros- 
 perity they ■ exist and cooperate. In order to prevent 
 the development of evil from deranged conditions, society 
 must give to its present children — the fathers and 
 mothers of the future — an education in the sphere of 
 physical laws and spiritual principles. Immortal Ideas 
 more than transient thoughts, and fixed Principles 
 rather than fleeting facts, should be roused in the 
 young mind, as the only foundation of scientific and 
 moral improvement. Upon no other ground can we 
 reasonably expect a generation of noble men and 
 worthy women ; out of no other school can we look for 
 classes of young minds, who, by harmonial marriage, 
 will bestow upon the world the fadeless glory of good 
 offspring. 
 
 In energetic unison with the Free College, con- 
 structed upon the system of unitary interest in the 
 large economies, will be the Archimedean Press with 
 its myriad evangels of thought : 
 
 " Firm in the right the Daily Press should be, 
 The tyrant's foe, the champion of the Free ; 
 Faithful and constant to its sacred trust — 
 Calm in its utterance, in its judgment just 
 
106 
 
 Wise in its teaching ; unoorrupt and strong 
 To speed the right, and to denounce the wrong. 
 
 But there are hydra-headed evils, and countless suf- 
 ferings, which no "School of Prevention" can possi- 
 bly reach ; therefore the necessity of doing some nega- 
 tive good by means of a " System of Palliation." 
 This department should include individual charities, 
 methods of wholesome restraint, and several philan- 
 thropic Institutions. 
 
 In the direction of kindly ofl&ces and palliative meth- 
 ods, for the miserably poor and painfully unfortunate, 
 the world is just now doing nobly. Thousands and 
 millions of dollars are expended annually on the Amer- 
 ican continent alone, simply to alleviate isolated dis- 
 tress, and temporarily to plaster up the myriad old 
 sores of a wrongly-constructed society. " The ounce 
 of Prevention" is too weighty and formidable yet; 
 hence the philanthropy of all classes administers " the 
 pound of cure ; " but no extensive cures can ever thus 
 be accomplished. The heart-rending cries of hunger 
 heard in cities, are hushed for a moment only ; and, for 
 an hour perhaps, the disabled are lovingly lifted upon 
 beds of comparative luxury. The faithful Roman Cath- 
 olics have their romantic and sacred Sisters of Charity; 
 protective societies and mysterious Associations have 
 their very Odd Fellows ; many decaying fortunes and 
 dilapidated homes have been cheerfully rebuilt by 
 Free Masons ; suspended bankers and uncertain pro- 
 prietors of real estate have obtained Life Insurances ; 
 the sleepy-headed and still-bodied have been frequently 
 consigned to the wide-awake Shakers ; and yet, strange 
 as it may seem, one fact remains palpable : that evU 
 
107 
 
 and its multifarious concomitants keep a relative pro- 
 portion to the increase of population* in all countries. 
 There is at all times about the same number of natural- 
 bom Gamblers, of natural-born Idlers, of natural-bom 
 Drunkards, of natural-born Beggars, of natural-bom 
 Delinquents, of natural-born Liars, of natural-born Pau- 
 pers, of natural-born Fools, of natural-born Liber- 
 tines, of natural-born Prostitutes ; and now, mark you ! 
 the social and domestic Machinery for the wholesale 
 manufacturing and multiplication of the several dis- 
 tinct types of Charity subjects, is still in vigorous 
 operation — turning, and buzzing, and wobbling, and 
 groaning, in full view of both Church and State — at 
 a rate of speed proportional to the world's progress 
 kingdom-of-heavenward. And any bold attempt to 
 stop this infernal social Mill is politically and ecclesi- 
 astically denounced as ' ' infidelity to the sacred ties of 
 Law and Order ! " 
 
 The amount annually appropriated to palliate exist- 
 ing social suffering, without doing any permanent good, 
 is more than sufficient to prevent half of the misery ; 
 by means of an education in fixed Ideas and spiritual 
 Principles, which would certainly purify the marriage 
 relation, harmonize its attendant conditions, and exalt 
 its legitimate results. It has been fully shown that 
 twenty children can be educated, and thus exalted in 
 manhood superior to the sphere of Crime, for a less 
 number of dollars than are now ignorantly voted, and 
 vindictively appropriated to punish one poor mortal 
 guilty of manslaughter in the third degree ! Now we, 
 of the Harmonial School, consider all this a culpable 
 misdirection of public money, a subversion of common 
 science in society, a useless exercise of noble senti- 
 
108 
 
 ments, and a misappropriation of donations from the 
 constitationally benevolent. 
 
 In the " Work of Reformation " is included the two 
 giant powers of civilization : the Church and the State. 
 The work of Reformation is predicated upon a true 
 philosophy of man and his acts. It is wholly integral, 
 constructive, and designed to " overcome with good" 
 those evils which neither the School of Prevention can 
 reach, nor the System of Palliation control. The com- 
 bined legal intelligence and humanity of a People are 
 believed to be exhibited in their Constitution and 
 Laws ; and the dominant Religion is esteemed as an 
 embodiment of the spiritual experience and moral 
 growth of the mass ; so that in the two eyes of a 
 Nation, the State and the Church, we may look for all 
 the legal strength and moral light possessed. These 
 twin-born institutions are natural as stars in the sky, 
 and crop out of prevailing conditions spontaneously, as 
 do the Arts and Sciences from Education. But no 
 argument is required, methinks, to convince the wise 
 and good of this Continent, that the Government is far 
 behind its original purpose — to protect persons and 
 property ; neither are statistics needful to demonstrate 
 that the Church is yet more effeminate in principles, 
 and deficient in knowledge of constructive Reforms : nor 
 need it be very emphatically proclaimed that thousands 
 of voters, and hundreds of sectarians, are everywhere 
 waiting for broader political and higher ethical devel- 
 opments with which to unite and cooperate. 
 
 All this is too apparent to require special proclama- 
 tion. The divine Idea of personal liberty is alarmingly 
 enfeebled in the Government. That wry-faced and 
 barren old moon, the Property question, has nearly 
 
109 
 
 eclipsed the remoter Sun of humau progress. The 
 depraved spirit of private aggrandizement, of convert- 
 ing by banks and otherwise all property into a self- 
 multiplying power, of promoting the capitalist to a 
 position preeminently more honorable and powerful, 
 than the man who labors and produces wealth, has well- 
 nigh paralyzed the divine functions of Government. 
 " The truth must be sounded in' the ears of men," said 
 the wise Channing, "that the grand end of society is 
 to place within reach of all its members the means of 
 improvement, of elevation, and of happiness. There is a 
 duty higher than to build Almshouses for the poor, and 
 that is, to save men from being degraded to the blighting 
 influence of an Almshouse. Man has a right to some- 
 thing more than bread to keep him from starving. He 
 has a right to the aids, and encouragements, and cul- 
 ture, by which he may fulfil the destiny of a man ; and 
 until society is brought to recognize and reverence 
 this, it will continue to groan under its present mis- 
 eries." 
 
 Professor S. H. Dickson, of Charleston, S. C, late 
 of New York, says : — " Time enough has been devoted, 
 ineffectually, in continuous efforts to relieve suffering ; 
 to prevent it should be our paramount purpose. If 
 one half the amount expended on hospitals and alms- 
 houses, was appropriated with judgment, to the physi- 
 cal well-being of the class with which these institutions 
 are filled, the remaining moiety would be more than 
 sufficient for the necessities that now, with the most 
 unsatisfactory results, consume the whole." 
 
 Our limits will only admit a few brief extracts from 
 the voluminous testimony which comes to us from 
 10 
 
110 
 
 Europe on the subject, where it has longer been studied 
 and is better understood : — 
 
 " Nothing," says an experienced English Poor Law 
 Medical Officer, " is so destructive to the health and 
 character of the working part of the community, as 
 the wretchedness that surrounds them, and the con- 
 stant evils to which they are exposed, in the shape of 
 damp, low, unhealthy habitations. The most impov- 
 erished, over-crowded, and filthy, will always be found 
 the most unhealthy." 
 
 Says another — "The great mortality amongst the 
 poor from typhus fever and cholera, is proved by expe- 
 rience to be connected, as cause and effect, with filth 
 and over-crowding." Of upwards of 18,000 deaths 
 by cholera in London, in 1849, 81.7 per cent, were 
 among laboring men. 
 
 Bandelocque says : — "Personal experience, reading, 
 reflection, and a great number of facts, and the analy- 
 sis of a great number of observations, have impressed 
 me with the deep conviction that there exists one prin- 
 ciple of scrofulous disease, which predominates over all 
 others, and without which the disease would never 
 perhaps, or, at least very rarely, develop itself. The 
 cause consists in particular conditions of the atmos- 
 phere, in which .the individual resides." He then 
 shows the intimate connection that subsists between 
 scrofula and consumption, and unhealthy dwellings. 
 
 An eminent philanthropist commissioned by the 
 French government, to investigate the causes of dis- 
 content and prevalence of misery and crime amongst 
 the poorer classes of Paris, reported that " it is impos- 
 sible to overrate the mischiefs to society which rise 
 from the wretched lodgings of the working classes. 
 
Ill 
 
 This is the origin of the dissolution gf the family tie, 
 and of all the miseries that follow. The father avoids 
 his uninhabitable home, and seeks in the public house 
 an asylum from the horror with which it inspires him. 
 After studying, with religious anxiety, the domestic 
 life of a large number of work-people, I am bold to 
 affirm that the unhealthy and wretched condition of 
 their dwellings is the primary cause of the misery, tte 
 vice, and the calamities of their social existence." 
 
 H. H. Harwood, Esq., Honorary Secretary of the 
 London Society for Improving the Condition of the 
 Poor, affirms that "such is the general character of 
 the tenements occupied by the laboring classes in Lon- 
 don, backed as it is by evil companionship, which is 
 their natural and almost necessary concomitant, as to 
 produce fifty per cent, of the crime that fills the pris- 
 ons, pollutes the public journals, and endangers life.'* 
 And what he regards as a " climax beyond which it is 
 impossible to reach," is the attendant ignorance and 
 physical degradation that present a barrier to minis- 
 trations for their benefit, which he alleges, is, " in 
 many cases, absolutely insurmountable." 
 
 In the parish of St. Giles, . London, containing a 
 population of nearly 38,000 souls, which are chiefly of 
 the poorer classes, it is stated that "The physical 
 circiimstances of the poor, paralyze all the efforts for 
 
 their spiritual or moral welfare Every 
 
 effort to create a spiritual tone of feeling is counter- 
 acted by a set of physical circumstances, which are 
 incompatible with common morality. Talk of morality 
 among people who herd, men, women, and children 
 together, without regard to age or sex, in one con- 
 fined, narrow apartment ! You may as well talk of 
 
112 
 
 cleanliness in a stye, or of limpid purity in the contents 
 of a cesspool ! " 
 
 Now we, of the Harmonial School and dispensation, 
 propose a constructive Reform work. We do not plan 
 private phalansteries as the best means ; do not propose 
 to club together gregariously, and consolidate into oUt- 
 of-the-way colonies ; not to withdraw from immediate 
 contact with existing social conditions, and thus absorb 
 the best men and noblest women ; not to abandon the 
 machinery of government to the management of petri- 
 fied hands, and unscrupulous demagogues ; not to 
 leave the moss-covered church, and its many good but 
 conservative and hermited supporters, to be utterly 
 destroyed by the advancing flood of spiritual progress ; 
 but very different is our proposition, viz., to plant our- 
 selves henceforth and forever upon the eternal Princi- 
 ples of Association, Progression, and Development ; 
 to recognize in every man of every age, and every 
 clime a member (more or less intimate) of the Harmo- 
 nial Brotherhood ; to encourage capable and reliable 
 minds of both sexes and hemispheres of existence, 
 whether inspired by spirits from without or by an inte- 
 gral love of Truth and Justice, to journey and teach 
 orally the fixed Laws of Science and the immortal 
 Principles of Philosophy. 
 
 Upon this basis, firmly laid within the People's 
 affections and cultured reason, we propose to inaugu- 
 rate the constructive and protective works already 
 nominated. Our labor will be chiefly to prevent evil, 
 vice, and misery. We will not aggravate and encour- 
 age the world's misdirections by covering them with 
 philanthropic plasters. And we hold this to be possible, 
 only by and through the divine energy of immortal Ideas 
 
113 
 
 awakened and diiSfiised over the wide sea of humanity, 
 by means of Polytechnic Institutidhs and impartial 
 periodicals under the control of cultured and harmonious 
 minds. If evil is seen and believed to be but the mis- 
 direction of intrinsically pure forces and faculties, 
 surely, then, the infallible remedy will be easy to prepare 
 and pleasurable to take. Error costs society and gov- 
 ernment seventy-five per centum more than truth. War 
 is fifty times more expensive than peace ; to say nothing 
 of the wail of woe and the dead sea of sufiering. If the 
 United States appropriate forty millions yearly to sup- 
 port a vice-generating Army and a bloodthirsty Navy, 
 may not a few millions be donated more cheerfully to 
 establish and maintain a School of Prevention ? If the 
 Ajtnerican Bible Society is enabled to expend millions 
 simply to disseminata the crude Records of an oriental 
 Inspiration, may not a truer Association, similarly con- 
 stituted and authorized by charter, with a reliable Board 
 of Managers, be as well supported in its better work of 
 distributing world-wide scientific books, spiritual leaves 
 fresh from the tree of Life, and progressive literature of 
 a noble standard ? Surely, if twelve discordant persons 
 can ride in an omnibus, or if three hundred foes to 
 ■ human welfare can cross the ocean in a model steamer, 
 may not the same or similar vehicles of travel be used 
 by the twelve harmonious or the hundreds united ? 
 
 Even so, then, may not the legal machinery of the 
 State and the ethical efforts of the Church, after under- 
 going extensive improvements and being greatly simpli- 
 fied, work well and usefully in the hands of clear-headed 
 and true Reformers? If a low interest or immoral 
 selfishness was the main spring and motive which intro- 
 duced the African people and Slave labor upon this 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 continent — not consulting Justice, but insulting 
 Humanity — may not a higher interest, an intelligent 
 selfishness, firmly and politically planting itself upon 
 Free Soil as a prelude to Free Labor, one day overcome 
 the evil with good? Ignorance cannot compete with 
 wisdom ; neither can the labor of bondage coexist very 
 long with the Labor of Liberty ; for the first is negative 
 and self-destructive, while the latter is positive and 
 immortal. Do not the sick get well by slow transitions? 
 
 Two mighty over-mastering forces mark the pathway 
 of human progress : first, the perpetual locomotion and 
 enterprise of Population, called Emigration ; second, 
 the continuous expansion and interpenetration of human 
 interest, called Commerce. These natural effects flow 
 from laws which cannot be repealed ; but their variovis 
 conditions are within man's jurisdiction and control ; 
 therefore, let philosophical Keformers take heed and obey. 
 
 My faith in Humanity's instinctive power to help itself, 
 when somewhat purified by compulsive experience, and 
 exalted measurably by unfolded reason, is unbounded. 
 But the world at present is replete with lofty impulses 
 which, without Avisdom, defeat themselves, and with 
 local rivalries which, without intention for evil, crucify 
 the most helpless and innocent. My spiritual rest is pro- 
 foundly perfect upon the bosom of Father God's immut- 
 able Laws? And I firmly believe that from twelve 
 healthy and energetic minds, in pure love with each 
 other through a harmonious perception of those divine 
 Laws, the world would receive far more universal good- 
 works than from the 900,000,000 who have no such 
 redemptive faith as a basis of action. A few minds, 
 constituting a germ, animated as one man with the 
 universal sweep of Ideas, could revolutionize the globe ! 
 
115 
 
 Let me think of Civilization, for illustration — whence 
 Domes it? That herald of the kingdom of heaven on 
 earth — what brings it into our midst? Behold, in its 
 march, the subversion of our barbarian structures ! 
 Annihilating, by its subtle magic, pestilential condi- 
 tions ; as in the physical so also in the moral world ! 
 Sweetly taming the wildest elements — triumphing 
 steadily over time and space — bringing the whole plan, 
 and all the motive powers of existence, within the com- 
 prehension and volition of ]Man ! Comes all this of 
 books, of creeds, of cathedrals, of priests, of special 
 providences, and prayer ? No, no, no — a thousand 
 times — no ! ! Civilization comes not of words, not 
 of sounds, not of physical causes. In spirit it is speech- 
 less — silent, as the power of God — sure, as the pulse 
 of the universe — it is, in short, the maturing of human- 
 ity's spiritual Manhood. It is the manifestation of the 
 world's interior life-principles, the externalization of 
 immortal Ideas, and cannot therefore be stayed by 
 ignorant men. And yet, men may palpably aid its 
 quicker development, or, rather, may cease to check its 
 progress by removing — through education — the drag 
 of ignorance. 
 
 All institutions originate from the systems of a few 
 minds ; all systems take their rise from a few new 
 Thought^ in a few minds ; and all new Thoughts take 
 their rise from the central Idea of some one individual. 
 The world's annals confirm this statement. Between 
 the birth of an Idea and its embodiment in the organs 
 of an Institution, whole centuries may intervene, but 
 the result is none the less certain. Therefore, how little 
 knows the Divinity doctor of the principles of his own 
 Mother Nature! He professeth love for hi^ Father 
 
116 
 
 God ; yet beh.old his attempts to persecute the children 
 of Progress ! How little knows the petrified Conserva- 
 tive of the invincible Laws that sway the earth, the sea, 
 the stars, and the destiny of countless immortals! Let 
 us, then, plant ourselves upon the ideas of Truth, 
 Justice, Love, Wisdom, and Liberty. These are the 
 omnipresent "words of God," the fixed Laws of Nature, 
 and the only and sufficient means of eternal Harmony ! 
 
 Progressive wisdom, in a few minds, may harmonalize 
 the Nations. Adam's one-fiction-apple prostrated all 
 the world, says the fable ; what, then, may we expect 
 from the one-fact-apple of Sir Isaac Newton? One man 
 tames the wild live lightning ; another, in after years, 
 puts a harness upon the celestial steed ; then, a few 
 break for his silvery feet a road through the water of 
 of waters ; and lo, the multitudes get on and ride glee- 
 fully around the earth, and from pole to pole ! Printing 
 presses, chemical laboratories, imitative arts, and the 
 mechanical sciences, may be made to unite and consoli- 
 date their powers and achievements to the end that a 
 broader and diviner intelligence, riding upon railroads, 
 flashing through telegraphs, and working with com- 
 mercial instrumentalities, can strengthen and multiply 
 the progressive tendencies of this wonderful Era. 
 
 Humanity is like a train of cars, " an emigrant 
 train," ladened with the baggage of the accumulate 
 ages. It is a long, heavy, slowly-rolling train. It has 
 consumed countless centuries, as so much kindling wood 
 and soft coal, in preparing to start on its eternal trip. 
 Much time and talent, mountains of money, and oceans 
 of steam, have been expended to get the ponderous 
 engine and endless train in motion. But now it moves ! 
 See it go ! It rolls upon the justice-bound track of 
 
117 
 
 immovable Trutli ! Nothing on earth can stop it ! And 
 the nearest depot, where the passenger may temporarily 
 halt for refreshment, will be the " School of Pre- 
 vention." 
 
 For myself I can patiently await the unaided progress 
 of fixed IDEAS, can quietly contemplate them in the 
 gradual accomplishment of their mission, and obtain joy 
 and peace in believing. Not so the suffering and stray- 
 ing world. Therefore, we proclaim with strongest 
 emphasis that, to insure a speedier Prevention of evils 
 and a straightforward Reformation of the masses, to 
 move with a mightier motive force the slowly-rolling 
 wheels of Time, to accelerate mankind's emancipation 
 from the conditional evils that now distract and deform 
 society — to do this, let the wisest men and noblest 
 women be educated to recognize and adopt, as a pre- 
 amble, the fixed Laws of Association, Progression, and 
 Development. By this is not meant that man's "faith " 
 in fixed Laws is essential to the ' ' works ' ' they may 
 achieve. Far from it. For so imperious and supreme, 
 so boundless and unchangeable, are the principles of 
 Father Grod, that a man may know and believe 
 "nothing" — may resolutely refuse to obey the local 
 conditions of his temporal growth, may neglect to bind 
 up the heart he has broken, may fail to increase the 
 happiness of his fellow-men — and yet, with the whips 
 of penalty and self-education stealthily concealed 
 beneath the soul-coat of his eternal spirit, he floats for- 
 ward in miserable darkness upon the silvery life-currents 
 of the universe, or slowly and sadly he sails through the 
 chilly blasts and over the cloud-clapped heights of his 
 own ignorance and evils — away, away, away, toward 
 the far-off era of ultimate redemption — surely, safely. 
 
118 
 
 just as if he had known and believed the whole expe- 
 rience in advance. But here is the point : he might 
 have greatly hastened the birth of Harmony in his soul, 
 might have procured for himself a ticket and bright 
 happy walk to the promised land, might have diminished 
 others' woe and multiplied the recipients of happiness, 
 by earnest /azYA in fixed Laws and by obedience to those 
 " conditions " under and within which they establish and 
 regulate his existence. His faith and works help him 
 and others in the world ; not the Laws that govern the 
 Infinite, with an unerring government. 
 
 So with the human family. Let earth's existing and 
 coming children be educated in the glory and grandeur 
 of the eternal Principles of Father God ; let them be 
 systematically stimulated to examine and contemplate 
 the divine Revelations of Mother Nature ; let their 
 spiritual hearts be encouraged to beat spontaneously 
 responsive to the angel-breathings and holy harmonies 
 of creation ; let them be taught to rise above social dis- 
 cords, to become individually superior to the oppressive 
 antagonisms of sense — then behold with what speed, 
 lik'e the lightning's vivid flash,. will spread everywhere 
 among men the Harmonial Religion of Universai 
 Justice ! 
 
iiiliiiiiimi.