My Friends: Our debate is to be published, and therefore the matter advanced by the disputants ought to be such as to command serious reflection, and to exercise the most discriminating powers of our judgment; for this sole reason have I, on divers and sundry occasions in the course of this discussion, pretermitted all reply to my friend, Mr. Campbell's catcechisms. Being quite familiar with the whole range of my friend's arguments and topics, I have been perfectly aware that the further they were pursued, the more mazy, intangible, and interminable the argument would become; and I have therefore been most desirous to keep your attention riveted, if possible, to plain, simple, tangible matters of fact, and to those things from which we may derive the highest practical benefit and utility to ourselves and to our posterity--I desired to keep your judgment and discrimination constantly in exercise, and your imagination out of play. But were I to recognize, even indirectly, that a dissertation concerning Pharaoh and his host--the God who created Pharaoh and hardened his heart, so that he would not let the people go--who descended from heaven to cover the earth with all sorts of loathsome and noxious vermin--were I, I say, to recognize a dissertation of the flux and reflux of the Red Sea, and the causing of the uncongealed water to stand up perpendicularly, on each side of its margin, like parallel stone walls in a lane; were I to recognize the narrative of these and other marvels, with which we have been edified, as at all relevant or pertinent to the point of debate at present before us, I should, upon reflection on my conduct, certainly come to the conclusion, that, when I consented to waste my time and yours, in this puerile way, I was out of my senses. Once, for all, my friends, I wish to state distinctly that I cherish good feelings toward my friend, Mr. Campbell. I am sure he is entirely conscientious, and that he is, with an honest zeal, exerting himself to make you to believe [204] what he thinks the truth; but I also discover that Mr. Campbell's mind, (powerful as it is), has from infancy been filled and vitiated with an accumulation of ancient and fabulous legends concerning Pharaoh with his hardened heart; the immobility of the Red Sea, and a variety of other such novelties, which, unfortunately for the true interest, happiness, and virtue of mankind, has been delved out of the rubbish of antiquity, from which none but the most ungoverned imagination would ever have thought of extracting them. My friend, Mr. Campbell, possesses a lively imagination; an imagination which has been deeply involved in these, to him, high mysteries; nature has been bountiful to him in his organization, and many of his talents have been highly cultivated; but what have the circumstances of his learned education in the old seminaries of Europe done for him? Why, simply this, they have placed (if I may be allowed to use the figure), a Chinese shoe upon a mind vigorous from its birth, and which nature formed capable of being expanded to the largest and most capacious dimensions; but what mind can reach its natural development, when those who have had the forming of it, rivet a Chinese shoe upon it, believing all the while that they are improving it so as to bring forth the most wholesome and abundant harvests of utility and benefit to mankind? Mr. Campbell possesses the power of combining and generalizing with great rapidity; he brings his ideas before you in a very imposing shape; but I have something more valuable to adduce than legends about Pharaoh and the Red Sea. It is my high duty to place before the world that which may enable them to think rationally, and consequently to adopt a wholesome and beneficial practice. I have undertaken to prove that it is impossible that any religion can be true, because all religions are diametrically opposed to the immutable laws of nature as exhibited in man. I will further undertake to prove that the combined and aggregate influence of all the religions of the world, have not, through all past ages up to the present hour, effected so much for the improvement of mankind in virtue, and consequent happiness, as the general adoption of these principles, when properly applied in practice, will effect in five years. I have, therefore, something to lay before you highly important to yourselves and posterity, and this causes me greatly to deprecate any distraction or confusion of your minds by any useless metaphysical disquisitions, which are, in their nature, almost interminable, and which can never lead to any beneficial practical result. Five senses have been afforded us, and we know of a certainty no facts beyond what these senses teach us; and these, my friends, are amply sufficient to enable us to understand and appreciate the [205] whole merits of this discussion. Were I, my friends, so far to forget myself and the dignity of the subject which you have been convened to hear discussed, as to bestow the slightest degree of notice upon any of those fanciful notions, miracles, marvels, and fabulous legends, with a critical dissertation upon which my friend has edified us, I should conceive that my time and faculties were just as much wasted and misapplied as if I were to recognize the historic wonders enacted by "Jack, the Giant Killer," as pertinent or relevant to the subject-matter of this debate. Indeed, I conceive the narration of Jack's exploits to be less super-natural, and therefore more instructive.

      My friends, I well know that many of you have, from the earliest infancy, been trained to cherish the utmost reverence for these absurdities; you reverence them, not only because they are incrusted with the venerable rust of antiquity, but you pay still greater adoration to them, because they have been handed down to you, claiming to have the sanction of that fearful and mysterious, yet unmeaning phrase, "sacred and divine tradition." But that same sense of duty which prompted me to cross so many longitudes and latitudes, in order to give my friend, Mr. Campbell, this meeting, compels me to "cry aloud and spare not;" to speak out boldly and fearlessly the truth. It is contrary to all my feelings, sentiments, and professions to outrage where it is avoidable, on prejudice, or to cause the slightest degree of pain or irritation to the feelings of any of my fellow-beings; and had it not been for the irrelevancy to the subject before us of Mr. Campbell's dissertation upon the fables of antiquity, I should not have been compelled to put your feelings, patience, and prejudices to so severe a trial, as I much fear a just and conscientious performance of my high duty will now compel me to do. Because, if I had been permitted to pursue my intended course in this matter, it would be like proving that one and one made two, and consequently that in proving this position, I at the same time demonstrated that one and one could never make three. For if I prove man to be what I state him to be, I thereby remove the entire foundation on which all religions have been erected. By thus simply stating facts in such a manner that you, my friends, experience, feel, and recognize them to be such, the falsehood of all religions necessarily becomes manifest. By this course, had I been permitted to have adopted it, I should have avoided coming into immediate collision with your early and deeprooted prejudices.

      I have said that man, at birth, is ignorant of everything relative to his own organization, and is not permitted to create any part of [206] his physical or intellectual organization; therefore, that he cannot be bad by nature. He is exactly what nature has made him. You may be sure, therefore, that all religions which assume that man is bad by nature, are false, and founded in ignorance of human nature; and secondly, that no two infants have ever yet been known to possess an identity of organization, and that all these organic differences between individuals have been created without the knowledge or consent of the individuals. Now this is either true or false. Mr. Campbell, if he proceeds logically, will either admit or disprove this first principle; which, if true, renders it impossible for any man to be bad by nature. Again, Mr. Campbell, in order to proceed logically, must admit or disprove the second position: that the organization of no two children have ever been created precisely alike; which, if true, demonstrates that there can neither be merit nor demerit in either, on account of this diversity of birth. After these two points have been acceded to or disproved, we may then logically proceed to the discussion of the third. Now I aver, that all the religions of the world presuppose that children are to be blamed and praised, punished or rewarded, according to their characters. I maintain that this supposition is a gross absurdity, and that nothing but the wanderings of the imagination could have led us into this error. I assume that it is not in the power of man to disprove the two first positions. 3. We affirm that each individual is placed without his knowledge or consent, under circumstances which irresistibly influence and control him; yet that the influence of these circumstances is somewhat modified by the peculiarities of the individual's organization. Now we perceive that the foundation of human character is in our organization, and that in the creation of this organization we have had no manner of agency or control. The further development of our character depends upon our circumstances at birth.

      If we had been born among the Romans, we would necessarily have had our religious faith built upon the mysteries and traditions of their mythology, and should have thought, felt, and acted in all things as they did. Had we been born at the time it is said Jesus Christ lived, we might have assisted to crucify him, or been among his disciples. But it does not depend upon us when we shall come into the world, although our future character depends so materially upon it, as well as upon the particular place or country in which we receive our impressions. Did any of us prevent ourselves from being born in the city of Constantinople? Could any of the Turks who have been born in that city, have prevented it from being their birth-place? or could they help [207] being taught the Mahometan religion? Now, is there a man in this assembly who blames a native of the city of Constantinople for having been born a Turk, and consequently educated a Mussulman? It is absurd to suppose that merit or demerit can attach to the individual on account of the place of his nativity, or the peculiarity of his education. It is too gross a folly to attempt to reason in contradiction of such facts as these. Nothing but the overwhelming effects of early and continued impressions could induce, or rather compel, any one to contend against such facts as these. No, my friends, 'tis an immutable law of nature, that man shall not decide when or where he shall be born, or what religion he shall be taught. We well know with what tenacity the great mass of mankind retain their early impressions. There is no more merit in being a Christian than a cannibal; both are what their organization and circumstances, over neither of which they cannot be supposed to have had the least control, have compelled them to be. Is not the whole matter as obvious as that two and two make four?

      I may also remark, that no child can be supposed to have the least influence in deciding who shall be its parents. Now what an important circumstance in forming the character of each individual is this! Whether the child shall come into existence in the midst of a vicious and degraded family, or whether he shall be born into a family of the purest habits, the highest intelligence, and the most virtuous and amiable dispositions. The opposition between the circumstances of two children thus differently ushered into the world, is immense. But ought the child that has been thus fortunate in its parentage to be praised for the consequences which proceed from it? or is the off-spring of vice and iniquity to be blamed for the vicious impression received from its parentage? This is a case in which it is easy to suppose the two extremes. But the child which has been most unfortunate in the circumstances of its birthplace and education, claims more of our care, pity, and attention, than the child around whose cradle the most propitious circumstances have shed their influence from the hour of its birth. You see, therefore, that the individual has no choice as to his country, his parentage, his language, or any of those things which constitute the whole foundation of his character. And thus his character is entirely formed for him, without his knowledge, will, or consent; and we all know the influence which our early impressions exercise over our future lives and conduct. Have I, my friends, said enough to convince you of the errors of all religions which pre-suppose quite the reverse of all this, and give a very different direction to all [208] our thoughts and feelings? If not, I will go on, for the subject is inexhaustible.

      The fifth fundamental law of human nature is, "That each individual is so created that, when young, he may be made to receive impressions, to produce either true ideas or false notions, and beneficial or injurious habits; and to retain them with great tenacity." Suppose all the children in the world were placed under circumstances to receive false notions, and the fact is so, for I believe the minds of the present and all past generations have been placed under circumstances in which, instead of receiving the truth, they have been compelled to receive false notions upon every subject in which their happiness is the most involved; and this has arisen from our imagination having been much more cultivated on all religious and moral subjects than any of our other faculties. The whole world has been governed alone by imagination on all these subjects. We have been so much deceived in consequence, that we have called ourselves reasonable beings; but there never was a greater misnomer. What is there that is reasonable now in the private and public conduct of mankind? I have, for forty years, been trying to discover what nation of people thought or acted in a rational manner. Everywhere have I sought to find a reasonable population, but my search has been fruitless. I have found them all governed, up to this hour, by the most irrational notions, directly contrary to right reason and their own interests and happiness. It is not for the interest or happiness of any portion of mankind to act as they now do. By their present mode of proceedings mankind are just as much opposing their real interest as the child who would spurn from him the most strengthening food or the most salutary medicine. All your arrangements denote the absence of reason. Look to those of government, religion, law, commerce, war, and domestic purposes, and they all partake of this character--they all tend to counteract your object, which is to be as happy as the nature of your organization will permit. My friends, consider the nature of the duty which I have to perform. Knowing that you have from infancy imbibed the most erroneous notions derived from the wildest imaginations, what measures can I, a stranger, take to enable you so far to unassociate the ideas which have been forced into your minds as to enable you to re-create those minds, to be born again, and thus become rational beings? This, my friends, is no light task. It requires a knowledge of human nature, patience, and perseverance, and self-devotion to the happiness and well-being of my species alone, which can enable me to disregard all that you may say or think of me, all that you do to me, for the sake [209] of doing you good. I can have no individual interest in removing your prejudices. What private emolument, aggrandizement, or remuneration could I ever have promised myself from the beginning of my arduous course up to the present moment? I was deeply affected by the degraded state in which I discovered all nations to be, and interested for the happiness of my species, or I never would have come forward to combat the darling prejudices of, I may say, the whole world. But I well knew that unless somebody would stand in the gap and expose himself to the risk of being sacrificed, mankind must ever remain creatures influenced and governed only by the errors of their early impressions, which render them daily and hourly liable to every kind of suffering and misery, for which there exists no other necessity than ignorance of our nature. Had I not been thoroughly convinced that I could only influence you to direct your attention to simple facts, and discard the illusions a rising from early impressions, made through the imagination, and that you could all thereby attain to a high degree of virtue and happiness, I would never have put my all to hazard by coming forward as I have done. I only ask you, my friends, when your passions are calm and your judgment cool, to take these twelve laws of our nature under your consideration; to examine them with the severest scrutiny, and to read, learn, mark, and inwardly digest them, until you fully comprehend them. For, my friends, it does require time to penetrate into the subject so as to understand it fully. Not that the subject is intricate in itself, but the excessive and extravagant cultivation of your imaginations in opposition to existing facts, have almost destroyed your judgments. This is the only reason why you cannot follow me as rapidly as I wish to proceed with my developments and demonstrations of these twelve laws, and of the highly beneficial practice to which they will lead. No, my friends, before you can follow me in my illustrations with that intensity of interest which the subject is so pre-eminently calculated to inspire, these twelve laws must have previously occupied your most serious and mature reflections. They are adapted to secure your health, your comfort, your peace of mind, and they will open human nature to your perusal in like manner as you would unfold a topographical map.

      After you once thoroughly understand these twelve laws, and shall be informed of what country, class, sect, and party, any individual belongs, you will know, to a very considerable extent, what that individual is. His general thoughts, views, and feelings will be familiar to state the fact that the whole of human nature lies as palpably open to you. It may appear, my friends, presumptuous and assuming when I [210] my perusal as ever the map of any country was presented to you. Therefore I cannot be surprised at anything I hear or see. I can immediately trace the effect to its cause; and if you too, my friends, only possessed this knowledge, so easily to be attained, it would minister to you a joy, peace, and consolation, that you would not exchange for all the world possesses.

[COD 204-211]