My Friends: Mr. Campbell put to me yesterday one or two questions, to which he requested a reply. One of these questions was whether I believed in the testimony of history. Now, I believe the historical fact recorded in Roman history, that Cæsar conquered Pompey, and that Cæsar was assassinated in the senate-house; and I believe a certain number of the prominent and leading facts of all histories which seem to be generally attested, and upon what is deemed the best authority that can be obtained, when not opposed by the [251] divine laws of human nature. But I do not believe much of the details of either profane or sacred history. I know how difficult it is for individuals to go away from this meeting and relate facts precisely as they occurred here. Then what degree of faith can we have in narratives put upon record many years after the facts which they relate are said to have happened, and every conceivable opportunity and motive to falsify them? I therefore believe but few of the facts related in history, where the historian attempts to penetrate into the motive of the actors; for almost all the proceedings of men have been secret measures, of the real motives to the performance of which the public knew nothing, or were grossly deceived. I know of nothing more fallacious in its nature than history, sacred or profane; and when opposed to the known laws of nature, their testimony, however testified, is of no value whatever. It is a sure sign, when these are received with authority, that early erroneous impressions have not been obliterated.

      Mr. Campbell's next question to me was, What is a fact? I replied that a fact was anything which exists. Mr. Campbell says that it is not a fact that he has two eyes; but it surely is a fact that he has two corporeal eyes. It may be a fact, with regard to our mental vision, that we may not have two eyes; for, most unfortunately for many of us, we have not yet been enabled to see with more than half an eye.

      Some gentleman, to me unknown, has handed to me a note, which I will read:

      "Mr. Owen: Was man originally created or uncreated?"

      Now, my friends, when I can answer this question, I can answer every other of a similar mysterious nature. I do not know whether an original man was created or not. And I do not think it is of much consequence to any of us that we should know the fact. As soon as we shall have facts to enable us to form a rational conjecture upon this topic, it will be time enough to discuss it.

      Yesterday I was obliged to conclude my address in the midst of my endeavors to explain to you the facts which compel me to believe that the religions of the world are the cause of almost all its sufferings. The sufferings produced by religion are all those which emanate from falsehood, deceit, and hypocrisy, from poverty, and from disunion arising from a difference of feelings, opinions, and interests. But the sufferings arising from these causes, the genuine fruit of all religions, are tolerably applicable to the common affairs of life. But not so when compared with the miseries experienced by so many human beings from a disappointment of the affections, or from a deep conviction that they are not sound in the truth faith; and that from the advanced state [252] of their minds in the knowledge of some facts, it is impossible to become so. And thus, with the fear of hell and eternal punishment continually before their eyes, they are made as miserable as human nature can endure this side of madness; or, until after many years of suffering, insanity comes to the relief of their nature; for "a wounded conscience who can bear?" All these sufferings are produced solely by religion; and if you wish details of the overwhelming afflictions arising from a system which exacts a compulsory belief, I will refer you to the proceedings on the subject of religious belief in the early ages--to the horrors of the Inquisition--to the burnings which have taken place in Christendom, even in England--and to the numerous receptacles for mad persons to be found at this day in every part of the civilized world; to say nothing of the annual murders perpetrated under the chariot-wheels of Juggernaut, or upon the funeral pile of the Suttee. In the course of my travels I have uniformly taken occasion to inquire of the superintendents of lunatic asylums what was the most fruitful source of insanity; and they have invariably informed me that it was overexcitement of mind on the subject of religion--that religious insanity constituted by far the most numerous class of cases. In reply to the question, What was the next most fruitful source of mental alienation? they have told me that it was the disappointment of affections. Such have been the consequence of attempting to compel men to think that they were culpable on account of their thoughts, belief, and opinions, never yet under the control of their will, or for their likings or dislikings toward their fellow-creatures, which were equally forced upon them by the laws of their nature. Many in this assembly have, I doubt not, experienced grievous suffering in consequence of having been trained in these pernicious errors; whereas, had you been trained to have rational views upon these subjects, you would just as soon have thought of tormenting yourselves because you were not six feet high. There is just as much reason and common sense in attempting to compel men and women to be of the same height, as to endeavor to make them think and feel alike upon subjects not resting upon certain and unchanging facts.

      I have only laid before you a few, out of the innumerable reasons which might be adduced to prove that the religions of the world have been the real cause of the vice, disunion, and unhappiness which now pervade society; and that it has been, mediately or immediately, directly or indirectly, the real cause of all the evils with which the human race has been afflicted. We come now, my friends, to the fourth division of our subject, which is, if I recollect aright, that "the errors [253] in which all religions are founded, are the real cause which now prevents the establishment over the earth of a society of virtue, of intelligence, of charity in its most genuine sense, and of sincerity and kindness among the whole human family." And, my friends, if religion be the only obstacle to such a happy consummation as this, it is surely high time that this obstacle were removed. "What is virtue?" is another question which has been put to me. Virtue, my friends, according to the best idea I can form of it, is that course of conduct which promotes most effectually the happiness of man individually and collectively; and vice is that course of conduct, which, by the laws of man's nature, tends to keep him in ignorance, and to render him, individually and collectively, unhappy. Now, the whole course of my reading, reflection, and observation--of my knowledge of man, derived from extensive travel, and observation of the animal man in his various phases, and from intimate communication and interchange of intelligence with the first minds I have been able to meet with--all these reasons concur to impress upon my mind a resistless conviction that the only barriers now existing in the way of the establishment of a virtuous, happy, and rapidly progressive state of society, are the religions now taught in the world. To me it appears the essence of folly to suppose that there can be real virtue among a people taught to believe that they have the power of controlling their belief, and of liking and disliking at their will. These two errors, so long as they remain the paramount circumstance in forming the mind and feelings of the human race, must ever present an impassable barrier to our progress in the paths of virtue; nay, while these errors continue to be impressed on the infant mind, real virtue must remain hidden from man. These two pernicious errors engender all falsehood, deception, and hypocrisy. These are, indeed, the natural and necessary fruit of the tree--and where there is falsehood and deception, there can be no virtue; and where these errors exist, truth cannot be known; and, in consequence, your present state of society is built altogether upon falsehood and deception. Where there is disunion of feeling and sentiment there can be no more than the appearance of virtue; and religion compels you to imbibe, at a very early age, the sole cause of this disunion of sentiment and feeling, and to regard it as a virtue. When and where has there ever been harmony and union of opinion on the subject of religion? So well is this understood among the most enlightened and refined circles of society, that they have tacitly entered into a convention never to broach the subject of religion, so well is it known to the intelligent and best educated part of the European population, that the [254] discussion of religious topics tends, for the time, to render the parties beside themselves or partially insane. They generally establish it as one of the rules of their learned societies, for the improvement of the human mind in real knowledge, that religion shall not be introduced. In those minds in which there is not a pure, a genuine or universal charity, derived from a clear and distinct knowledge of the laws of human nature; which excludes not a single individual of the human family, from our kind feelings for their happiness, there can be no virtue. And where is the religion that does not in its immediate, direct, and necessary tendency, steel the heart of man against the admission of this universal charity? I can command no language sufficiently expressive of the strength of my conviction, that religion locks up the heart of man and renders it impenetrable to the reception of a single charitable feeling for those who are opposed to their religion, or most ennobling sentiment, are not materially injured by it. To what country shall I betake myself, in order to find true charity, which is the most rational, amiable, and beneficial quality of human nature? Has it ever been, even to the present hour, allowed fair play? Had it not been checked in the bud by religion, it would have been the most natural and the most general attribute of human character. But as the character of man has been formed by the religions of the world, is this pure charity, or even the semblance of it, to be found in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America? I have sought for it everywhere as the pearl above all price, but nowhere can I find it, or even trace a faint resemblance to it. I have long since abandoned the search, for to find it where any religion prevailed, I discovered was utterly hopeless. This divine charity, to be derived only from an accurate knowledge of the laws of human nature, never has existed as a virtue to any people from the beginning of time. How was it to be produced? Can doctrines which teach that man can believe or disbelieve, love or hate at pleasure, teach charity? To expect the tree of religion, my friends, to produce the fruit of charity, were just as irrational as to expect "figs from the thorns, or grapes from thistles." There can be no real virtue, where there is not kindness and affection existing among the population--but where shall we look for this? The society of Friends have made the nearest approximation to it that I have yet seen--but have they been able to attain to this indispensable prerequisite for virtue and social happiness? No, my friends, with the most ardent desire on their parts, the society of Friends have not been able to attain this happy state of individual and social feeling. They have failed entirely; and why? Because there can be no real affection, kindness, or [255] benevolence of feeling, among the members of any class, sect, or party, who are trained in the notion that they can believe or disbelieve, like or dislike at will. No, to search after a virtuous population, while these pernicious and fundamental errors are taught to the people, will be only to waste our time. Then, my friends, if you really wish to be virtuous, and to have kind and affectionate feelings one toward another; to acquire the feelings of a pure and genuine charity, that shall perpetually exclude from your bosoms every unpleasant and unkind feeling toward any of your brethren of the human family; the very first step that you must take is to discard and to reject all the religions of the world, together with all those errors which these religions have forced into your minds. When you can effect an amalgamation between oil and water, you may expect to find real virtue and religion co-existed in the same people. A population virtuous, and at the same time religious, never has existed; and, if I know anything of the constitution of human nature, never will exist. And as to our progress in improvement in intelligence in other matters, it has been made unaided by system in opposition to the established and prevalent systems of religion in the place where the improvements were made. Religions in general set no value upon real, or what they term worldly knowledge.

      Among every population over the world in which any religion has acquired the full ascendancy over the minds of the people, there, as a necessary consequence, have young, old, and middle-aged been plunged in the darkest night of ignorance. How, indeed, is it possible that religion and intelligence ever can exist together? The one has its source in the wildest fancies of a romantic and overstrained imagination--the other is derived from fact, and is founded in real knowledge, and discoverable only by the clear light of natural revelation. If the Christian religion had not induced and sustained and continued the dark ages, as they are called, how different would have been the state of the world, during that period, from what we learn from history it has been and from our experience it is now? Why, my friends, under a rational system, founded on the obvious laws of nature, it will be easy in practice to give more knowledge requisite to happiness to a population in ten years to come, than the world has been permitted to acquire in the last two thousand years. If, therefore, we are ever to become a people truly intelligent, our first preliminary step must be to discard all religions and the incalculable errors of every description which they have engendered. It is religion, my friends, which destroys all our reasoning faculties, and conjures up phantoms to affright and confound all the human faculties. Were it not for the degrading [256] and debasing effects of the various religions of the world, bowing down the minds of mankind to receive the teachings of a few ignorant mortals, who pretend to instruct them in, to them, inconceivable heavenly mysteries, children, by the time they arrive at the age of ten years, might with ease to their instructors, and great delight to themselves, be trained to the acquisition of more knowledge than is at present possessed by any priests, or all the priests in the world. Then, my friends, we come next to that charity which it is necessary to possess in devising a system for the education of children; and the only barrier that I know of, to the introduction of the most necessary charity, is religion. But so long as religion is tolerated, this charity also, can find no resting-place upon earth.

[COD 251-257]