My Friends: You see these two books which I hold in my hands; here is one, and here is the other; do these two books added together make three books or two? Now, do you suppose that if, after such demonstration as this, I were to preach to you for many years, I could ever succeed in convincing you that one added to one made three? Now, this is a fair illustration of the difference between Mr. Campbell's arguments and my own. I place most distinctly and palpably before you the fact that one and one make two--Mr. Campbell, in conformity with his early impressions, is exerting all his rhetoric to persuade you to believe that one and one make three; and this erroneous belief was forced into his mind by his early training and subsequent education--he could not avoid receiving it, and how can he help retaining it? He has truly, therefore, been using great ingenuity in attempts to convince you that facts are not facts, as we see them; but that one and one make three.

      Let us, however, my friends, try and get back to the investigation of facts, for these alone can give us real knowledge. We will therefore proceed to the investigation of the sixth law of our nature, which is one of those divine laws that we are now to analyze, and which is moreover one of those stumbling-blocks, one of those difficulties which Mr. Campbell cannot get over; one of those things which he calls intangible, because he can make no impressions upon them.

      This sixth law is, "That each individual is so created, that he must believe according to the strongest impressions that can be made upon his feelings, and other faculties, while his belief in no case, depends upon his will." Now, Mr. Campbell has very justly told you that religion is founded entirely upon faith, and thus we come in direct contact with each other. We cannot escape direct collision. When I once have ocular proof that one and one make two, there is no power on earth that can convince me they make three. After our ocular sense has become fully possessed of the truth of this simple fact, we may go farther, and say, that if all the divines and all the religions in the world were to say that one and one make three, we would find it impossible so far to control our will as to believe it. Now, when I know that I have not one particle of power over my belief; that what I shall be compelled to believe has never in the slightest degree, depended upon my will, how is it possible for me to believe that the being who formed me and created my nature, and subjected it to the resistless [217] influence of this sixth law, can ever attribute either merit or demerit to any belief whatever? I could bring this discussion just now to a very short point, but I think it would be a pity to have it closed so soon. Now, the question is really this. Have we the power to believe or disbelieve at our will, or not? If we have not the power to believe or disbelieve at our will, then surely all religions are false and originate in ignorance. Now, if we have the power to will as we please, and if we have the power to believe at will, should Mr. Campbell, to whom we are already so much indebted, only have the kindness, in addition to his former good offices, to believe for five minutes that the whole of Christianity is false, then I will admit that we have the power to believe at will. If Mr. Campbell, with all the energy of will which he can command, will only force himself to believe for five minutes that Christianity is a fable and a falsehood, I will give up the contest, and admit that I have not proved my point. But, perhaps, this would be tasking his feelings and prejudices too severely; and therefore we will only ask him to be so kind as to believe just for a quarter of an hour that Mahomet was a true prophet sent of God.

      But all jesting apart. Whenever we shall rightly understand this subject, and shall know what manner of beings we are, we shall discover that the question of religion or no religion, depends entirely upon our power of belief or disbelief. It is not a metaphysical question. Any one can ascertain the real merits of it for himself. If we have the power of changing our belief at pleasure, it is possible that religion may be true; but if the Christian, like the Mahometan, is compelled to believe in his direct religion, then religion must be false, and the first gleam of right reason which we shall acquire will show us the extent of the errors in which, on these subjects, the world has been involved.

      I am willing to rest the merits of the whole controversy upon this single affirmative proposition, "That no human being ever had the power of belief or disbelief at his will, and therefore there cannot be merit nor demerit in any belief." This is now the isolated point of controversy between me and my opponent. This is the real battle-ground, and the only arena in which my friend and myself can engage in combat. Every discussion irrelevant to this point is a mere vain and useless multiplication of words to amuse our fancy, to darken our understanding, and to waste our time.

      If any one in this assembly will come forward and adduce any fact to prove that you can at all change your belief, some system of religion or other may be true--but if you cannot adduce a fact of this character, your belief in religion proves you to be in the grossest darkness. [218] Until you can trace the consequence which the acquisition of self-knowledge leads to, you can know nothing with regard to yourselves. Do you suppose that this self-knowledge will be injurious to you? No, my friends, "Know thyself" was the most heavenly precept the world has ever heard. It is the foundation, and the only possible foundation, for a pure and genuine charity. Tell me another source from whence true charity can be derived. Where else will you look for the principles of a charity that "thinketh no evil;" that finds an immediate, rational, and consolatory excuse for the opinions, manners, habits, and customs of all men, without one exception? If, therefore, you want to possess that which is truly divine, get this charity--a charity so pure that when you are trained in the full knowledge of it, no motive to crime will exist; no feeling of anger, irritation, or ill-will on the part of any human being toward any other of his race. When we shall be trained in a full knowledge of the principles in which this beneficial, this admirable charity is founded, we shall, in consequence, have rational countenances, and not until then. Owing to the lamentably mistaken manner in which we have been trained, we are now filled with anger, and oftentimes with malevolent feelings against those who have been taught to differ from us in sentiment. What have I not heard the world unjustly say of me and of the motives which govern my conduct? But having had the knowledge of those principles given to me, on which alone true charity can ever be founded, I have listened to all these things as I would to words upon any other subject. I cannot, except for a moment, be angry with those who misconceive, misrepresent, or revile me; knowing that all these things proceed from. an organization and local circumstances acting upon it, which create irrational prejudices. Where, therefore, is the rational pretext for being angry? From whence, then, under any circumstances, can arise the rational pretext, after consideration, for being angry, or displeased with any of our fellow-beings? They are coerced by a law which they cannot resist, to feel, to think, to act, and to believe, independently of their volitions.

      These, my friends, are some of the practical results which I have experienced and enjoyed as the natural fruits of a knowledge of these divine laws of nature. The charity emanating directly from this knowledge, has given me a patience, an equanimity, and a self-possession, under a concurrence of trying circumstances that I am convinced no knowledge derived from any religious consideration could have implanted within me. Therefore, my friends, do not suppose that there is anything pernicious in infidelity, so called; for you may rest assured [219] that the only practical, moral, or intellectual motives capable of producing important and permanent ameliorations in society, must be derived from what you have been taught to call infidelity--but most arbitrarily and irrationally taught. Not, my friends, that infidels of modern times, are much better than other folks, but the Christian shoe has been unriveted from their minds, and thus they become so circumstanced as to stand some chance of arriving at the knowledge of the truth; while the true believers, on whose minds the shoe still remains fast riveted, are compelled to admit into them many errors which give a false and injurious direction to their best feelings, while their noblest power, their faculty of judgment, is suffered to lie latent, torpid, buried, or misguided. My friends, would we not be better and happier beings, if we could remove far from us all anger and irritation?--and what can do this so effectually as the conviction that those who act in the most direct opposition to our notions of right, are not the objects of blame, but of our charity, our sincerest pity and compassion? To me the present appears a most singular era. The annals of the world do not afford a parallel to the assembly this day congregated in this place. Before me are hundreds collected together from various quarters of the world, who have all been trained in notions peculiar to themselves; and yet they sit here quietly and decorously to hear discussed doctrines in direct hostility to all their early-taught religious prejudices and opinions. This is the first time such a thing has occurred in the annals of history. If I had attempted fifty years ago to have addressed a popular assembly in the style that, prompted by a love of truth, and by the deep interest I feel in promoting the happiness of my species, I have ventured to do on this occasion, it is most probable I should have been torn to pieces; and yet I just as much deserve to be torn to pieces to-day, for speaking the truth without fear or favor as fifty years ago. The ignorance and bigotry of our ancestors were so gross, that if any individual had come forward with the purest and most philanthropic motives to promulgate the truths which you have heard from me in this place, he would most certainly have been burnt alive or torn to pieces. The advance of the human mind in certain branches of real knowledge, since that period, has produced this difference of feeling, and convinces me that we are approximating to a greatly improved period of human existence, call it, if you please, the millennium. What I mean to state is, that our minds are in a rapidly progressive state of preparation for the admission, discussion, comparison, analysis, and thorough comprehension of simple facts, a knowledge of which can alone produce intelligence, virtue, good feelings, and [220] sincere affection among mankind. Indeed, I see very plainly every step of the practice by which this state of general happiness is to be attained. And the first preparatory step is, that all men should be disabused of the errors implanted by their early local circumstances and instruction, in order that their knowledge should be all founded in facts, and not derived, as now, from the imaginations of our ignorant ancestors, who were without the valuable experience acquired since their day. If I could so far impress upon the people of Cincinnati the value of the knowledge to be derived from the twelve fundamental principles of human nature, derived from daily existing facts, as to give them a sufficient degree of interest to examine whether they are true or false; my conviction is that a large majority, if not the whole population, would be convinced that they are true. It would not then be difficult to direct to the means by which you might all become virtuous, intelligent, independent, and happy. I do not say that this change could be effected in you to the same extent that your adoption of these laws in practice would enable you to effect in your children. The latter would have so little comparatively to unlearn in habit, and to unassociate in their minds, that they would soon exhibit to you a state of human happiness and enjoyment of which it has never entered into the heart of man to conceive--and this happiness of theirs, after a short time, would be so strongly reflected back upon yourselves, that a large increase of happiness would accrue to you. My friends, this is no chimera existing only in my imagination. No! I have seen with my own eyes this beautiful effect produced upon a whole population. I have seen the children of some of the most ignorant and deformed in their habits and conduct, more amiable, interesting, and happy, than the most sanguine could anticipate under the other injurious circumstances in which they were placed, and have seen that happiness and the influence of the superior characters which were formed for these children, most strongly and most beneficially reflected back upon their parents.

[COD 217-221]