An Address to Men of Science.

by Richard Carlile.

ADDRESS,

Gentlemen,

In addressing a Letter to so distinguished and so important a part of the community, it becomes me to say, that, I am not myself a man of experimental Science, neither, out of the ordinary occupations of my past life, have I ever seen a scientific experiment made in any one department of Chemistry, or Natural Philosophy; all that I know, with the above exception, has been acquired by reading and meditation. My present address is chiefly confined to those Philosophers, who study and practice the sciences of Chemistry and Astronomy. I shall endeavour to point out to them that, they are bound by duty, by common sense, and by common honesty, to make known to mankind, or, more particularly their fellow countrymen, whatever discoveries they may make to prove that the others are following a system of error, or that they are acted upon by a system of imposture. I shall make it appear plain to them, that they have not hitherto done this, and that they have openly countenanced systems of error and imposture, because the inst.i.tutions of the country were connected with them; or, because they feared to offend those persons who might be deriving an ill-gotten profit from them. This subject will form the first head of my address. In my second head, I shall shew that the present system of educating children is entirely on a wrong basis, and their youthful time is so far wasted, as to leave them, when advanced to the years of maturity, in a state of comparative ignorance. I shall shew that if in their school exercises they were made acquainted with nothing but the elements of Astronomy, of Geography, of Natural History, and of Chemistry, so that they might at an early period of life form correct notions of organized and inert matter, instead of torturing their minds with metaphysical and incomprehensible dogmas about religion, of which they can form no one idea but that of apparent absurdity and contradiction, they would be prepared to make a much greater advancement in the Arts and Sciences, and to improve their condition in society much more than can be now possibly done. These shall not be altogether theoretical ideas, their practicability will reach the mind of every rational being, or he who takes the liberty to think and reason for himself. Many new plans and schemes for education are daily starting up, but the whole, of which I have any knowledge, have the above common error; for the subjects upon which our youth are taught to read and write, and those in which the dead or foreign living languages are taught, are by no means calculated to expand the mind, or to give it a knowledge of Nature and her laws; and thus the most important of all opportunities is lost, and much time actually wasted, in which their minds might be prepared for the reception and knowledge of natural and useful truths. What is the knowledge of the present school-boy, in what is called cla.s.sical literature, when compared with a useful instruction 'in Chemistry and the laws of Nature? Of what use to society at large is a cla.s.sical scholar? or one well versed in the ancient mythologies, for this, after all, is the chief part of cla.s.sical knowledge? It neither gives a polish to manners nor teaches morality. It fills the mind with a useless jargon, and enables the possessor now and then to make a tinsel and pompous declamation in half a dozen different languages; which, if it were to undergo a translation into one language, and that which we call native, would be found to be a ma.s.s of unintelligible and unmeaning trash--words of sound, to which it would be difficult to attach an idea, and in which all correct notions are wanting. It makes a man a pedant only. Such men have been most aptly termed spouters of froth. My present object is to lay down a sketch of what seems to me a more instructive and useful system of education. I submit this sketch to the judgment of Men of Science, with an idea that every schoolmaster ought to be a Man of Science, and not a parish priest, as Mr. Brougham would have. This is the outline of my second head, on which in due order I hope to enlarge most satisfactorily.

In my first head I shall address myself first to the Chemists of this Island, and finish by a distinct allusion to the students and pract.i.tioners in the science of Astronomy.

Of all the advancements made in Science of late years, perhaps the most pre-eminent and the most important to mankind, stands that in the science of Chemistry. Our Chemists have proved themselves the greatest of all revolutionists, for they have silently and scientifically undermined all the dogmas of the priest, upon which the customs and the manners of society seem hitherto to have been entirely founded. Every species of matter has been brought to dissolution, and its elementary properties investigated, by their crucibles and fires, or their galvanic batteries, and we have been practically and scientifically shewn in what manner Nature performs her dissolutions and regenerations. As far as I understand, but one of the phenomena of nature remains unexplored, and that is the properties of the electric fluid, or the real cause of the solar light and heat. I do not despair of this being reached, and I have the stronger hope, as it will lead at once to a knowledge of the cause of our existence, and that of every animal and vegetable substance. It will shew the cause and process by which inert matter becomes organized, and how all the variegated beauties of nature start into life. However, at present, we know quite enough to authorize the rejection of all our priestly cosmogonies, we know quite enough to set at nought the notion that the planetary system of the universe has existed but six thousand years--we know that matter is imperishable and indestructible, for, although, a fire to a common understanding seems to destroy combustible matter, yet such is not the case, for after any combustible substance has pa.s.sed through the fiercest fire, the whole of its component parts still exist to their former full extent; the fire has only separated them and changed their relative situations; they are dispersed in their gaseous state, and again ready for the operations of nature, to amalgamate with some new living and growing substance, to which their qualities can be a.s.similated.*

* The latter part of this sentence might appear preposterous when addressed to the Chemist, or to the Man of Science, but it is probable that this Address might be read by some individual who might not comprehend the a.s.sertion that matter is imperishable and indestructible; therefore the writer has taken the liberty to introduce this slight explanation. He confesses that but two years since he startled himself at the a.s.sertion, and asked the a.s.sertor whether fire did not destroy matter.

We know that the planetary system of the universe has existed to all eternity as to the past, and must exist to all eternity as to the future. For, although, that solar system of which our habitation is a part, or other solar systems, might go through great changes, yet its effect is but as the falling of a hair from our heads, and cannot be said to disturb the great whole.

Instead of viewing ourselves as the particular and partial objects of the care of a great Deity, or of receiving those dogmas of the priest which teach us that every thing has been made for the convenience and use of man, and that man has been made in the express image of the Deity, we should consider ourselves but as atoms of organized matter, whose pleasure or whose pain, whose existence in a state of organization, or whose non-existence in that state, is a matter of no importance in the laws and operations of Nature; we should view ourselves with the same feelings, as we view the leaf which rises in the spring, and falls in the autumn, and then serves no further purpose but to fertilize the earth for a fresh production; we should view ourselves but as the blossoms of May, which exhibit but a momentary splendour and beauty, and often within that moment are cut off prematurely by a blast.

We are of no more importance in the scale of Nature than those myriads of animalcules whose natural life is but for the s.p.a.ce of an hour, or but a moment. We come and pa.s.s like a cloud--like a shower--those of us who possess a brilliancy superior to others, are but as the rainbow, the objects of a momentary admiration, and a momentary recollection. Man has been most aptly compared to the seasons of the year, in our own climate, the spring, is his infancy; the summer, the time af his ardent manhood; the autumn, his decline of life; and the winter, his old age and death--he pa.s.ses, and another series comes. He is produced by, and produces his like, and so pa.s.ses away one generation after another, from, and to all eternity. How ridiculous then is the idea about divine revelations, about prophesies, and about miracles, to procure proselytes to such notions! To what generation do they apply, or if they apply to all future generations, why were not the same revelations, prophesies, and miracles, necessary to all the past generations? What avail the dogmas of the priest about an end to the world, about a resurrection, about a day of judgment, about a Heaven and h.e.l.l, or about rewards and punishments after this life, when we a.s.sert that matter is imperishable and indestructible--that it always was what it now is, and that it will always continue the same. Answer this, ye Priests. Come forward, ye Men of Science, and support these plain truths, which are as familiar to your mind, as the simplest demonstration in mathematics is to the experienced and accomplished mathematician.

Future rewards and punishments are cried up as a necessary doctrine wherewith to impress the minds of men, and to restrain them from vice: but how much more impressive and comprehensible would be the plain and simple truth, that, in this life, virtue produces happiness, and vice nothing but certain misery.

Away then with the ridiculous idea, and the priestly dogma of immortality. Away with the contemptible notion that our bones, our muscles, and our flesh shall be gathered together after they are rotted and evaporated for a resurrection to eternal life. Away with the idea that we have a sensible soul which lives distinct from and after the dissolution of the body. It is all a bugbear, all a priestly imposture.

The Chemist can a.n.a.lyse the body of man, and send it into its primitive gaseous state in a few minutes. His crucible and fire, or his galvanic battery, will cause it to evaporate so as not to leave a particle of substance or solid matter, and this chemical process is but an antic.i.p.ation, or a hastening, of the workings of Nature; for the whole universe might be aptly termed a great chemical apparatus, in which a chemical a.n.a.lysis, and a chemical composition is continually and constantly going on. The same might be said of every organized body, however large, or however minute; its motions produce a constant chemical a.n.a.lysis and composition, a continual change; so that the smallest particle of matter is guided by the same laws, and performs the same duties, as the great whole. Here is an harmony indeed! Man alone seems to form an exception by his vicious conduct and demoralizing character. By a.s.suming to himself a character or a consequence to which he is not ent.i.tled, and by making a pretension to the possession of supernatural powers, he plays such fantastic tricks as to disturb every thing within his influence, and carries on a perpetual war with Nature and her laws.

After those few observations upon the properties of matter either organized or inert, (to which I know every Chemist in the country, whose science has conquered the bigotry of his education, will give his a.s.sent) I would call upon them all and every one to stand forward and teach mankind those important, those plain truths, which are so clear and so familiar to their own minds. It is the Man of Science who is alone capable of making war upon the Priest, so as to silence him effectually. It is the duty of the Man of Science to make war upon all error and imposture, or why does he study? Why does he a.n.a.lyse the habits, the customs, the manners, and the ideas of mankind, but to separate truth from falsehood, but to give force to the former, and to extinguish the latter? Why does he search into Nature and her laws, but to benefit himself and his fellow man by his discoveries, by the explosion of erroneous ideas, and by the establishment of correct principles? Science must be no longer studied altogether as an amus.e.m.e.nt or a pastime, which has been too much the case hitherto; it must be brought forward to combat the superst.i.tions, the vices, and the too long established depravities among mankind, whence all their present and past miseries have emanated, and unless the former can be destroyed, the latter will still ensue, as a regular cause and effect.

It is evident that Men of Science have hitherto too much crouched to the established tyrannies of Kingcraft and Priestcraft. Speaking generally they have adopted some of the aristocratical distinctions of the day, and have supported the frauds upon mankind, which it was their peculiar duty to expose. This has given room to the advocates of superst.i.tiop, to put forward as an authority-for their dogmas, the names of Bacon, of Newton, of Locke, and many others. They say that it is no disgrace even to err with such men, and thus, for the want of a more decided and determined character in the advocates of Science and Philosophy, the enemy has built a strong hold within our lines, and has taken an important advantage of our irresolution. I will not believe that Bacon, or Newton, or Locke, in the latter part of their life, had any other ideas of the Christian religion, or any other religion, than I have. In their days, the f.a.ggots had scarcely been extinguished, nor was the fuel which supplied them exhausted. They might therefore deem it prudent to equivocate as a matter of safety. Besides, the two former were in the employ of a court, and consequently under the trammels of Kingcraft, which ever has, and ever will find its interest in the support of Superst.i.tion and Priestcraft.

I would appeal to any man who calls himself a conscientious Christian, and ask him whether he thinks such a man as himself could write the following paragraph:

"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superst.i.tion dismounts all these, and createth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men: therefore Atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no farther, and we see the times inclined to Atheism (as the time of Augustus Caesar) were civil times: but superst.i.tion hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new _primum mobile_, that ravisheth all the spheres of government." This is Lord Bacon's apology for Atheism, and, in my humble opinion, he wrote it feelingly, conscientiously, and upon principle, as an Atheist, which word has no other meaning than a seceder from all mythologies, although the ignorant and interested make so much ridiculous clamour and fuss about it.

To shew that Newton was thoroughly ignorant of the chemical properties of matter, I will quote again a paragraph, which I quoted in page 341, Vol. II. of "The Republican," in the answer to the Rev. Thomas Hartwell Home's pamphlet, ent.i.tled "Deism Refuted," &c. It is thus: "All things considered, it appears probable to me, that G.o.d in the beginning created matter in solid, hard, impenetrable particles; of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them, and that these primitive particles, being solids, are incomparably harder than any of the sensible porous bodies compounded of them; even so hard as never to wear, or break in pieces: no other power being able to divide what G.o.d made in the first creation.

While these corpuscles remain entire, they may compose bodies of one and the same nature and texture in all ages; but should they wear away or break in pieces, the nature of things depending on them would be changed: water and earth, composed of old worn particles, or fragments of particles, would not be of the same nature and texture now, with water and earth composed of entire particles at the beginning; and, therefore, that nature may be lasting, the changes of corporeal things are to be placed only in the various separations, and new a.s.sociations of these permanent corpuscles." The Chemists of the present day must smile at this notion of Sir Isaac Newton, about what G.o.d did in the beginning: it is evident, that he knew but little about chemical a.n.a.lysis and composition; or, rather, that his ideas upon the subject were quite erroneous and hypothetical, when he might have obtained a demonstration quite conclusive, if he had studied Chemistry with other parts of his philosophy. Such, in my opinion, is the importance of the science of Chemistry in the pursuit of truth and in the investigation of Nature and her laws, that the first proper step towards philosophical studies must be an acquaintance with its elements and powers.

We need nothing further to convince us of the struggle which existed between science and superst.i.tion in the mind of Sir Isaac Newton than the following creed, which I have met with quite _a propos_, or in the midst of writing this address, in a weekly provincial paper, and which, I imagine, has been put forth at this moment as one of those little anxieties to prop the declining superst.i.tion of the age. It is thus headed, _Sir Isaac Newton's Creed_: "The Supreme Being governs all things, not as soul of the world, but as Lord of the Universe; and upon account of his dominion, he is stiled the Lord G.o.d, Supreme over all.

The Supreme G.o.d is an eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect being; but a being, how perfect soever, without dominion, is not Lord G.o.d. The term G.o.d, very frequently signifies Lord; but every Lord is not G.o.d. The dominion of a spiritual being const.i.tutes him G.o.d; true dominion, true G.o.d; supreme dominion, supreme G.o.d; imaginary dominion, imaginary G.o.d.

He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite. He is not duration and s.p.a.ce, but his duration of existence is present, and by existing always and every where, he const.i.tutes duration and s.p.a.ce--eternity and infinity. Since every part of s.p.a.ce, and every indivisible moment of duration, is every where; certainly the Maker and Lord of all things, cannot be said to be in no time, and no place. He is omnipresent, not by his power only, but in his very substance; for power cannot subsist without substance. G.o.d is not at all affected by the motions of bodies, neither do they find any resistance from the omnipresence of G.o.d. He necessarily exists, and by the same necessity he exists always and every where. Whence also it follows, that he is all similar, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all sensation, all understanding, all active power; but this, not in a human, or corporeal form, but in a manner wholly unknown to us, therefore not to be worshipped under a corporeal representation." Here is the creed of Sir Isaac Newton! and who can read this, and for a moment believe that he was a Christian when he wrote it? I am not about to approve all this jargon and contradiction; I despise it; I pity the Man of Science that could write such nonsense; and rather than I would be called the author of it, I would relinquish as much fame as Sir Isaac Newton obtained in other respects. The foregoing ideas of Sir Isaac Newton on the properties of matter are equally unintelligible, contradictory, and ridiculous. Lord Bacon's definition of Christianity, or the essentials of the Christian religion, which I have seen printed as a religious tract, but which I have not at hand for reference or quotation, is just of the same stamp, and rather than be called the author of such trash, I would consent to be considered an idiot. Yet Lord Bacon as a natural philosopher, and Sir Isaac Newton as a mathematician and astronomer, were eminent in the highest degree, when the age in which they lived is considered. The conduct of both evinces the mischievous effect of superst.i.tion on the human mind, particularly where that mind is brilliantly adapted for making a progress in science and scientific discoveries.

It is impossible to a.n.a.lyze the creed of Sir Isaac Newton relative to Deity, or found any one idea upon it. It is a string of words that have no application, and independent of their contradiction, all that can be said of them is, that they describe nothing. The writer of such a creed must have been an Atheist in disguise, or perhaps unknown even to himself. Its total amount implies that there is no G.o.d such as priests teach, and bigots and fools imagine and believe. Mirabaud, in his System of Nature, has brought forward several quotations from Newton's writings, and has commented on them to shew that he was what is vulgarly called an Atheist: that he was what every Man of Science must be, _a seceder from the idolatry of the ignorant_. Such I believe he was in his latter days, and in his private opinion, but he had not the honesty to avow himself such. It is unquestionable that Newton in his youth possessed much superst.i.tion, and it is equally unquestionable that the progress he had made in science in his advanced age, had entirely conquered that superst.i.tion and banished it from his mind, although, I am sorry to say, that he was not honest enough to make a full and conscientious confession of the change to which his theological opinions had been subjected. Perhaps I cannot make a deeper impression on the mind of the reader as to the real character of Newton, than by quoting an anecdote from William Whiston's Memoirs written by himself.

"Sir Hans Sloane, Edmund Halley, and myself, were once together at Child's Coffee-house, in St. Paul's Church-yard, and Dr. Halley asked me, Why I was not a member of the Royal Society? I answered, because they durst not choose an heretic. Upon which Dr. Halley said to Sir Hans Sloane, that if he would propose me, he would second it: which was done accordingly. When Sir Isaac Newton, the President, heard this, he was greatly concerned; and, by what I then learned, closeted some of the members, in order to get clear of me; and told them, that if I was chosen a member, he would not be president. Whereupon, by a pretence of deficiency in the form of proceeding, the proposal was dropped, I not insisting upon it. Nay, as soon as I was informed of Sir Isaac's uneasiness, I told his bosom friend, Dr. Clarke, that had I known his mind, I would have done nothing that might bring that great man's 'grey hairs with sorrow to the grave:' Nor has that Society ever refused to let me come, and lay any of my papers or instruments before them, whenever I desired it; without my being an actual member: which, considering my small ability to pay the usual sums for admission, and annual dues, was almost as agreeable to me, as being a constant member.

Now if the reader desire to know the reason of Sir Isaac Newton's unwillingness to have me a member, he must take notice, that as his making me first his deputy, and giving me the full profits of the place, brought me to be a candidate, as his recommendation of me to the heads of colleges in Cambridge, made me his successor; so did I enjoy a large portion of his favour for twenty years together. But he then perceiving that I could not do as his other darling friends did, that is, learn of him, without contradicting him, when I differed in opinion from him, he could not, in his old age, bear such contradiction; and so he was afraid of me the last thirteen years of his life. See my Authentic Records, page 1070, 1071. He was of the most fearful, cautious, and suspicious temper, that I ever knew: and had he been alive when I wrote against his Chronology, and so thoroughly confuted it, that n.o.body has ever ventured to vindicate it, that I know of, since my confutation was published, I should not have thought proper to publish it during his life-time: because I knew his temper so well, that I should have expected it would have killed him. As Dr. Bentley, Bishop Stillingfleet's chaplain, told me, that he believed Mr. Locke's thorough confutation of the Bishop's Metaphysics about the Trinity, hastened his end also."

Whiston was the early friend of Newton and succeeded him at Cambridge in the professor's chair in the science of the Mathematics. Newton when young was a firm adherent to the ridiculous doctrine of the Christian Trinity, and so useful as figures were to him in his mathematical and astronomical discoveries, and to such an extent, beyond all predecessors, could he carry them, yet superst.i.tion could persuade him, that three could be explained to be but one; and one to comprise three!

The science of Whiston in the Mathematics was almost equal to that of Newton, though I believe the former had not so fertile a genius as the latter, and was obliged to acquire by labour what to the other was natural. Yet Whiston, although he had superst.i.tion enough to make him a honest and conscientious Christian, knew the proper use of arithmetic, and would not allow three to be one, nor one to be three: he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity in the G.o.dhead. Whiston honestly and openly combated this impossibility, and avowed himself an Arian, and contended under much persecution throughout his lifetime that such were the sentiments of the early Christians, and that the doctrine of the Trinity was but a corruption of the church after it had been long established.

Such tenets were then called blasphemous, and Whiston was expelled from his professor's chair, and from the university of Cambridge altogether, and had to endure more clamour about blasphemy than ever I had, or have any reason to fear in future. This circ.u.mstance connected with a rivalry in the Mathematics occasioned the breach between Whiston and Newton, but ridiculous as even Whiston's superst.i.tion appears to me, I think him a much more honest man than ever was Newton, and as a member of society much more useful to the age in which they lived. Newton courted distinction and popularity by servilely succ.u.mbing to all the despotisms of the day: Whiston was a man of principle, and lived and died poor for the satisfaction of writing and speaking what he thought and believed.

The one has been too much flattered and applauded; the other too much vilified and degraded, and the clamour by which both circ.u.mstances have been effected has been equally disgusting and disgraceful to the country.

I have contrasted the conduct of Whiston and Newton, and have made my observations on the latter to shew that even his name carries no weight with it in the support of superst.i.tion, I trust I have sufficiently shown that superst.i.tion and science can never amalgamate, which also justifies the inference that, morality and religion never can amalgamate. Superst.i.tion corrupts and deteriorates all the human pa.s.sions: science alone is qualified to amend and moralize them. The Man of Science who knows his duty, and what is conducive to the interest of mankind, will ever boldly and openly set himself in opposition to the priest. This has not been sufficiently done hitherto, and I hope that even my appeal will not be altogether useless, but that, it will rouse some latent spirit among the Men of Science in this island to a.s.sert their own dignity and importance; and silence the foul, the wicked, and the mischievous clamour of Priestcraft.

It is beyond doubt that Locke was hostile to the system of Government, both in Church and State, and the odium which he incurred from a certain quarter, was quite equal to that which has fallen upon Thomas Paine, or those who, since the American and French revolutions, have travelled so much farther in their opposition. Opposition to ill-founded establishments, possessing power, must necessarily be progressive. Locke was thought to have gone to an extreme in his time, but I now consider his writings to be scarcely-worth reading, as far as they apply to toleration in matters of opinion, or to political economy and political government. The sentiments which I have put upon paper would have been called high treason a century ago, and the author hung, beheaded, embowelled, and quartered, with the general approbation of the people; and a person of the name of Thomas, Matthews was actually hung for writing and printing what was called a treasonable libel, in the reign of George the First; which libel, or a similar one, would not now bethought seditious by the Attorney General himself. Such is the effect of general instruction among the people--such is the progressive power of the printing press, that, I feel a moral conviction that the sentiments which I have avowed will became general in another generation. The circ.u.mstance is as sure as that no one will now condemn the political opinions of John Locke, as going too far, but rather as weak and insipid, and not going far enough in honest principle.

Then come forward, ye Men of Science, it is reserved for you to give the death blow, or the last blow to superst.i.tion and idolatry. Now is the time--you are safe even from momentary persecution, if you stand forward numerously and boldly. You will have a people, an all mighty people, with you, a circ.u.mstance which no philosopher could ever heretofore calculate upon. You have nothing to fear, and nothing to lose, but every thing to gain, even that which is most dear to you, the kind reception of your instructions, the adoption of your principles, founded in truth and the nature of things.

Kings and Priests have, in some cases, made partial pretensions to patronize the Arts and Sciences, as a cloak for their enmity towards them. They ever were, and ever will be, in reality, their direst foes. An advanced state of Science cannot benefit them. Their present distinctions, and misery-begetting splendour, could not be tolerated, when mankind shall so far be illuminated as to know the real cause and object of animal-existence. Common sense teaches us that good government requires none of those idle distinctions; for why should the servants, or the administrators of the laws of society, be distinguished above those whence those laws should emanate? It is the duty of the Man of Science to attack those distinctions, to combat all the established follies of the day, and endeavour to restore society to its natural state; to that state which first principles will point out; the mutual support, the comfort, the happiness, and the protection of each other.

At present we are but as so many beasts of prey, each strengthening himself by the destruction of his weaker fellow. The many unnatural distinctions which Kingcraft and Priestcraft have brought into society, have totally undermined the first object of the social state. In addition to this universal evil, those two crafts have set themselves up as a bar to all useful improvement. They countenance no change but that which swells the amount of their depredations, (for the manner in which their incomes are extorted deserves no other appellation.) Societies can obtain no real or lasting strength under the sway of those two crafts, for every improvement that has been made in their several conditions, has been evidently from the force of natural and scientific knowledge, and in an exact ratio with the diminution of kingly and priestly influence. This a.s.sertion is evident if we examine the decay of their influence for the last three centuries, in this or any other country.

The printing press has come like a true Messiah to emanc.i.p.ate the great family of mankind from this double yoke. This Messiah is immortal, and its saving powers must be universal and perpetual. By this, and by no other Messiah, can man be saved from ignorance and misery; the only h.e.l.l that he has to fear. It will prove the true Messiah of the Jew, of the Christian, of the Mahometan, and of the Pagan. It is a Messiah for all, and it will go on to unite under the name and t.i.tle of Man and Citizen the whole human race, or all those animals who have the gift of speech, and its consequent, reason. I hope to see the day, or I fear not but it will arrive, when every man of property shall consider a printing-press, a necessary piece of furniture in his house; and prize it more than our present aristocrats prize their hounds and horses.

In support of my a.s.sertion, that Men of Science have hitherto crouched too much to the established impostures of the day, I have merely to remark, that I am not aware of any one instance in which any Chemist of this country has made a public attack upon them, or called them in question in any public manner. Another proof of my a.s.sertion might be found in the Medical and Surgical professions. From the best information, I have learnt, that, with a very few exceptions, the whole body of those gentlemen in the Metropolis, have discarded from their minds all the superst.i.tious dogmas which Priestcraft hath invented, and that they have adopted those principles which have a visible foundation in Nature, and beyond what is visible and comprehensible, their credence does not extend. Yet, when that spirited young man, Mr. Lawrence, having obtained a professor's gown in the College of Surgeons, shew a disposition in his public lectures to discountenance and attack those established impostures and superst.i.tions of Priestcraft, the whole profession displayed that same cowardly and dastardly conduct, which hath stamped with infamy the present generation of Neapolitans, and suffered the professor's gown to be stripped from this ornament of his profession and his country, and every employment to be taken from him, without even a public remonstrance, or scarcely an audible murmur!

It is conduct such as this which gives courage and permanence to the despots who strive to enslave both our bodies and our minds. It is this base disposition of making truth crouch before established and antique error, which has. .h.i.therto characterized the searchers after and lovers of the former, that has given force and longevity to the latter. It is the bounden duty of every man openly to avow whatever his mind conceives to be the truth. If he shrinks from this he is a coward--a slave to the opinions, of other men. Shall the enemies of mankind boldly tell us that they perceive truth in their mysterious and incomprehensible dogmas, and shall we shrink from the publication and support of those truths which we perceive to have an evident foundation in Nature! Shall we shrink from the avowal of truths because despotism and ignorance have granted stipends to the propagators of falsehood, and because those stipends might be endangered? Forbid it, Nature! Let every lover of truth and the peace and happiness of the human race forbid it.

I may be told that the Man of Science had much better pursue his studies and experiments in silence and private, and not expose himself to the persecution of bigots. The idea is slavish--disgraceful. Science has made sufficient progress in this country, and has a sufficient number of followers and admirers, to enable them by a single breath to dissipate all the bigotry in the country, or, at least, to silence all the idle clamour of the bigoted and interested about blasphemy and atheism, or any of their nonsense. Is the progress of Science to be submitted to an Excise, and are all discoveries to be treated like contraband goods, lest the trade and the t.i.thes of the priest be injured? Shame on that man who can tacitly submit to such a system. And yet this is just what we are called upon to submit to, and threatened with punishment, and even banishment, if we murmur. I, as an humble individual, have resolved to break through those trammels, to violate all those degrading and disgraceful laws, and shall the Man of Science be silent, and see all that he values most dear, persecuted in my person, just because he will not proclaim that I am right, and that my enemies, and his enemies, are wrong? Now is the time for him to speak out--now is the time when he can do it effectually. My humble efforts have alarmed the whole of Corruption and Falsehood's hosts, and half frightened them to death, let but a few eminent and distinguished Men of Science stand forward and support me, and I have no fear of finishing well, what I have endeavoured well to begin. I aspire to nothing more than to become the humble instrument of sounding and resounding their sentiments. I am anxious to sound a loud blast in the cause of Truth, of Reason, of Nature and her laws. I will give every Man of Science an opportunity of publishing his sentiments without any direct danger to himself: I will fill the gap of persecution for him, if a victim be still necessary to satisfy the revenge of dying Priestcraft.

This is an age of revolutions, and where those revolutions have not yet displayed themselves, it is not for want of the mind having been sufficiently revolutionized, but because it is kept down by a superior acting force in the shape of fixed bayonets and despotic laws.

Throughout Europe the mind of the people has been long revolutionized from its wonted ignorance, and wherever it finds an opportunity, it displays itself. This march of the mind will be progressive, and it is evident that it has already begun to spread itself among the very instruments of those despots called Kings, by which they vainly hoped to have checked its course. Every march of the Russian troops into the south of Europe will but tend to enlighten them, and by and bye they will become wise enough to return and revolutionize their own country; by adopting the Representative System of Government, and by making their present Emperor what he is so well adapted for--a regimental tailor.

The horror which was so lately expressed by the Emperor of Austria at the progress of Science, and at the revolution which Sir Humphry Davy had made in the science of Chemistry, is a specimen of that feeling which pervades all such men. This imbecile idiot quivered at an observation of his own physician about the state of his own const.i.tution, and forbade him ever to use the word in his presence again! Yet it is by such men as this, that the inhabitants of Europe are held in a state of bondage and degradation!

Will ye, Men of Science, continue to truckle before such animals? Will ye any longer bend the knee to such Baals--to such Golden Calves as these? Will ye bend your aspiring minds to prop the thrones of such contemptible, such ignorant, such brutish despots? Shame on you, if you can so far debase yourselves! Up, and play the man, boldly avow what your minds comprehend as natural truths; and all the venom of all the Despots and Priests on the face of the earth, shall fly before you as chaff before the wind.

The science of Chemistry has so far explored the properties of matter in all its variety, and has so far ascertained all its powers, purposes, and combinations, as to banish the idea of its having been formed from any chaotic state into its present form and fashion. The Chemist would smile at such a notion in the present day, even if he feared to encounter the Priest and his dogmas about the world having been created out of nothing. Creation is an improper word when applied to matter.

Matter never was created--matter never can be destroyed. It is eternal both as to the past and future. It is subject to a continual chemical a.n.a.lysis, and as continual a new composition. For a full comprehension of these a.s.sertions, it is necessary to have a knowledge of the elements of Chemistry: therefore, if any other person, but those to whom this letter is addressed, should read it, let him not hastily reject without a full consideration and enquiry. Mr. Parke's Chemical Catechism, or Dr. Ure's Chemical Dictionary, will explain all my a.s.sertions on the properties of matter. The elements of Chemistry have been published by a variety of other Chemists, to any of whom I would refer the reader, as it will not answer the purport of my address to enter into a fuller explanation on this important head, or to fill these pages with an elemental description of Chemistry.

I address myself to Men of Science, not as one of them, but as an individual who has obtained a sufficient insight into the various departments of Science, through the medium of books, to convince him that all the dogmas of the Priest, and of Holy Books, are false and wicked impostures upon mankind. He therefore calls upon Men of Science to stand forward and unfold their mind upon this important subject. He offers himself as a medium through which they might escape the fangs of the Attorney General, or the Society for propagating Vice, and pledges himself that there is no truth that any Man of Science will write, but what he will print and publish. He has a thorough contempt and indifference for all existing laws and combinations to punish him upon this score, and will set them all at defiance, whilst they attempt to restrain any particular opinions. He will go on to show to the people of this island, what one individual, and he a very obscure and b.u.mble one, can do in the cause of propagating the truth, in opposition to falsehood and imposture.

I have now gone through the first part of my first head, and I should have been happy if I could have made an exception in the general conduct of the Chemists of this island. I am not aware that any one of them has ever made himself the public advocate of truth, of scientific philosophical truth, in opposition to the false and stupifying dogmas of Priestcraft or Holy Books. In the Medical and Surgical professions I have found one exception, and but one, although I almost feel myself justified in calling on many by name to come forward, and among them my namesake stands most conspicuous, in that cause which is nearest their hearts.

I have introduced the names of Bacon, Newton, and Locke, under this part of my address, not as practical Chemists, which I believe they were not, or if they knew any thing of the elements of Chemistry, that knowledge is not now worthy of mention, but because they are now claimed as the patrons of Superst.i.tion. Newton certainly deserves to be called a great astronomer, but as he endeavoured to make even his knowledge in Astronomy subservient to his bigotry, I have thought proper to treat him as a wavering and dishonest fanatic, rather than as a Man of Science.

The theological and metaphysical writings of Bacon and Locke, are completely ambiguous, and form no key to the mind of the writer, or to any abstract and particular opinions. As I have said before, they equivocated as a matter of safety; whatever others might think of them, I feel no pride in saying they were Englishmen. Thomas Paine is of more value by his writings, than Bacon, Newton, and Locke together.

In calling upon the Astronomer to stand forward and avow his knowledge, that all the astronomical dogmas of Holy Books are founded in error and ignorance of the laws...

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...properly be termed a species of madness. Whatever opinions prevail in the minds of men which have no foundation in Nature, or natural laws, they can merit no other designation than insanity. Insanity, or madness, consists in unnatural or incoherent thoughts and actions, therefore, as no species of religious notions have any alliance with nature, it is but a just inference to say, that they individually or collectively comprise the term _madness_. In mild dispositions it may be but a harmless melancholy aberration; in the more violent it becomes a raging delirium, which destroys every thing that comes in its way, and for which it has sufficient strength. It destroys all moral and natural good which comes within its influence, and madly proclaims itself the _summum bonum_ for mankind! As yet there is scarcely sufficient reason among mankind to restrain this madness. It has so mixed itself up with all political inst.i.tutions that there is no separating the one without revolutionizing the other. This is the chief cause of the frequent convulsions in society, as this madness cannot possibly engender any thing but mischief, and it is well known, that, in madness, there is no rest; it is always in a state of motion, unless there be a sufficient power at hand to curb and restrain it. Reason, or a knowledge of nature, is the only specific for it, and he who can throw the greatest quant.i.ty into the social system will prove the best physician. Several quacks have made pretensions to give society relief from this madness but they have only tortured the patient without checking the disease. Thomas Paine, and a few American and French physicians, have been the only ones to treat it in an effectual manner, and by the use of their recipes, and the a.s.sistance of Men of Science, I hope at least effectually to destroy the contagious part of the disease.

Mathematics, magic, and witchcraft, were formerly denounced by superst.i.tion as synonymous terms, and the mathematical student has been often punished as a conjuror! Astronomy and Astrology were also considered one and the same thing. Such were the fantasies and delusions which superst.i.tion could raise in the minds of men, and such has been the wickedness of priests, who could always perceive and even acknowledge that human reason was inimical to their views, and whoever possessed or practised it ought to be destroyed as the enemy not only of themselves but of their G.o.d too! As Philosophy has left us no doubt that their interest was and still is their G.o.d, they have so far acted consistently, but it is now high time that Philosophy should triumph over Priestcraft. It is now evident that Philosophy has sufficient strength on her side for that purpose, as her supporters are now more numerous than the supporters of Priestcraft. Let Men of Science stand forward and shew the remaining dupes of Priestcraft, that the Mathematics are nothing more than a simple but important science, and that Astronomy has no affinity to that bugbear called Astrology.

The Priests and Judges of the present day are men of the same disposition as the Priests and Judges of the seventeenth century, who imprisoned Galileo for a.s.serting the sphericity of the earth, and its revolution round the sun, contrary to the tenets of the Holy Bible, and who burnt old women as witches because they might have had the misfortune to be old, ugly, or deformed. Such is the power and progress of truth, that those very men are brought to confess that Galileo a.s.serted nothing more than an important philosophical fact. On this point I will briefly notice the misgivings of one of our living judges.

Mr. Justice Best in his judicial circuit through the northern district, at the late Lent a.s.sizes for c.u.mberland, on a trial for libel, made the following a.s.sertion, after attempting to contrast the state of freedom in this country at this time, with what existed at Rome when Galileo was imprisoned in the Inquisition, for stating "a great philosophical truth," his Judgeship observed: "now in this country any philosophical truth, or opinion, might be stated and supported without its being considered libellous."