Mr. Chairman: Mr. Owen has no good reason to complain of the time fixed for bringing this discussion to a close. He first suggested the idea that two hours would be sufficient for his reply to my long speech. He seems now to act with a little of that art of which I did not think him capable. And what new matter has he now to offer? Since opening his casket, nothing has appeared but the same old twelve positions, facts, or laws, as you please to call them. If he has anything new to offer, why does he not now offer it? True, indeed, I ought to except the abusive document, which he read this morning; and some remarks made upon the Mahometan religion. This latter I neglected, or forgot to notice in my last speech. The establishment and progress of this religion all the world knows. No greater contrast can be found in any book upon any subject than the contrast between the establishment and progress of Mohametanism and Christianity. The ruffian exploits of a crew of pirates, or a banditti of highwaymen, might as justly be contrasted with the peaceful march of a missionary family, or of the almoners of a Christian community, in distributing their charities among a suffering population, as to compare the lustful, vengeful, avaricious exploits of Mahomet and the Koran, with Jesus, the Messiah, and his Apostles. While the language of the Christian teachers was, "Glory to God in the highest--peace on earth, and good-will among men," that of the marauding false prophet was, "Dogs, you know your option, the Koran, tribute, or the sword." Here lies the volume. [Mr. Campbell pointing to the Koran.] Here is the Mahometan Bible. I have examined it with at least as much care as most skeptics do the Bible; and while it admits the mission of Moses, Jesus, and the Apostles, and then directly proves the truth of Christianity, as the institution of Jesus Christ, its doctrines, and, as far as they have a supernatural idea in them, are evidently stolen from the two testaments, as is the English word philanthropy from the Greek philanthropia.

      But the Koran proves the divine authorship of the New Testament as clearly as ever did accomplishment prove the truth of prophecy; for in the seven letters addressed by Jesus Christ to the seven congregations in Asia, written by John while in Patmos, the setting of the Sun of Righteousness, or the extinguishment of the light of Christianity, in that country, is threatened as consequent upon the progression of the dereliction of Christian principle and practice then appearing among the dissolute Asiatics. All the world, Jewish, Christian, and skeptical, know that the Mahometan superstition is a vile imposition, and not in any one feature comparable to Christianity. Counter testimony, and every sort of testimony, can be adduced against the pretensions of the [482] Koran; and both literally and symbolically is the rise and progress of the imposture portrayed in the Apocalypse.

      Mr. Owen has told us how long the contents of his casket have lain hid. For four thousand years anterior, and two thousand years subsequent to the Christian religion, have these jewels been buried. How Mr. Owen happened to disinter them is the question. Was it never known before the year of favor, 1829, that no child chose its parentage, nor the place and circumstances of its nativity? Was it never known, before Mr. Owen descried it, that children are much influenced by the circumstances of their childhood, and by the example of their parents? These burnished gems, now made brilliant by being changed from manuscript to print [Mr. Owen had them printed yesterday], have been like the twelve Apostles; the twelve lions on which the throne of Solomon stood; the twelve foundations of the New Institution, now read twelve times, destined to great honor and glory. As Mr. Owen has read them so often, I hope I may be indulged to read them once; and that I may make them more famous by my reading them, I will show the whole extent of their latitude, and I think Mr. Owen himself will be indebted to me for the liberal and extensive construction which I am about to give them. I will show that they are so large and so liberal as to engross almost every animal in the creation within their lawful jurisdiction. But for the sake of trial and proof, I will only try how they will suit one species of quadrupeds. Mr. Owen has told you twelve times that they will exactly suit for bipeds.

      1. That a goat, at its birth, is ignorant of everything relative to its own organization, and that it has not been permitted to create the slightest part of any of its natural propensities, faculties, or qualities, physical or mental.

      2. That no two kids, at birth, have yet been known to possess precisely the same organization; while the physical, mental, and moral differences between all kids are formed without their knowledge or will.

      3. That each individual kid is placed, at birth, without its knowledge or consent, within circumstances, which, acting upon its peculiar organization, impress the general character of those circumstances upon the infant kid and goat; yet that the influence of those circumstances is, to a certain degree, modified by the peculiar natural organization of each individual goat. [483]

      4. That no kid has the power of deciding at what period of time or in what part of the world it shall come into existence, of what goat it shall be born, what particular tricks it shall be trained to, or by what other circumstances it shall be surrounded from birth to death.

      5. That each individual goat is so created, that, when young, it 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.

      6. That each individual goat is so created that he must feel according to the strongest impressions that can be made on its feelings, and other faculties, while its feelings in no case depend upon its will.

      7. That each individual is so created that it must like that which is pleasant to it, or that which produces agreeable sensations on individual organization, and it must dislike that which creates in it unpleasant or disagreeable sensations; while it cannot discover, previous to experience, what those sensations shall be.

      8. That each individual goat is so created, that the sensations made upon its organization, although pleasant and delightful at their commencement, and for some duration, generally become, when continued beyond a certain period without change, disagreeable and painful. While, on the contrary, when a too rapid change of sensations is made on its organization, it dissipates, weakens, and otherwise injures its physical, intellectual and moral powers and enjoyments.

      9. That the highest health, the greatest progressive improvements, and the most permanent happiness of each individual goat, depend, in a great degree, upon the proper cultivation of all its physical, intellectual and moral faculties and powers from infancy to maturity, and upon all these parts of its nature being duly called into action at their proper periods, and temperately exercised according to the strength and capacity of the individual goat.

      10. That the individual goat is made to possess and to acquire the worst character, when its organization at birth has been compounded of the most inferior propensities, faculties and qualities of its common nature; and when so organized, it has been placed, from birth to death, amidst the most vicious or worst circumstances.

      11. That the individual goat is made to possess and to acquire a medium character, when its original organization has been created superior, and when the circumstances which surround it from birth to death produce continued vicious or unfavorable impressions; or when its organization has been formed of inferior materials, and the circumstances in which it has been placed from birth to death are of a character to produce superior impressions only; or when there has been [484] some mixture of good and bad qualities in the original organization, and when it has also been placed, through life, in varied circumstances of good and evil. This last compound has been hitherto the common lot of all goats.

      12. That each individual goat is made the most superior to its species, when its original organization has been compounded of the best proportions, of the best ingredients of which goat nature is formed, and when the circumstances which surround it from birth to death are of a character to produce only superior impressions; or, in other words, when the circumstances, or laws, institutions and customs in which it is placed, are all in unison with its nature.

      Mr. Owen has told you that he believes not in a spiritual system, consequently none of these laws are founded upon anything spiritual in man. Now as his laws are all built upon the hypothesis that man is a pure animal, if it should ever appear to Mr. Owen that there is a spiritual system, he must add a few laws to his code. I will, therefore, add a few laws to them, which will, indeed, exclude the goat and every other animal from being legitimate subject of them. The four following laws are just as plain, as true, and as palpable as the first one. As these are the beginning of a new series for Mr. Owen, I will call my first the thirteenth "law of human nature."

      13. That man has aspirations after knowledge, which would not cease, did he know and perfectly comprehend every particle of matter in the globe, in the solar system, in the universe, with all its laws, properties, and modifications; and never can he feel so well pleased with his acquisitions of knowledge as to fix a period to his inquiries.

      14. That man has a taste for society which the largest and most accomplished society which could exist cotemporaneously with himself cannot gratify.

      15. That he has desires for happiness which no circumstances on earth can satisfy; and that these desires are commensurate with infinite objects which the present state of existence cannot present to him.

      16. That when he has formed the best conceptions of himself which all earth-born opportunities present, he feels himself painfully ignorant of every grand fact connected with the origin of his existence and of every grand result involving his own ultimate destiny.

      These are a sample of the additions which I hope Mr. Owen will yet see necessary to append to his original twelve. No sheep or goat can dispute its right or title to any of these four.

      I would also prefix two to his animal code, as also prefatory to the original twelve. These would be:

      1. That the first man was not born; and [485]

      2. That man, at his birth, is the child of somebody, and by nature is dependent upon that somebody for subsistence, for his language, modes of thinking, and for a majority of all the peculiarities of his constitution.

      But before taking my final leave of the new Code of Twelve, I must give Mr. Owen a critique upon the sixth, which he has so often thrown in our way. He has often said, prove one of the twelve to be erroneous, and he will abandon all of them. That the sixth is so, I hope the following critique will show:

      1. The first and fundamental principles of our nature which excite to action are our appetites and affections. These instinctive faculties we have in common with all animals. A high excitement of these we call passion.

      2. Next to these is that class of powers by which we obtain all our simple original ideas; into which, as elementary principles, is ultimately resolvable all our knowledge, viz: sensation, perception, memory, reason, and consciousness. Now, although these faculties are affected, or called into action, when their objects are presented; yet, in many important cases, it is quite optional whether the objects shall be presented or not.

      3. In the next place, the use or operation of these faculties for the acquisition of knowledge is dependent on our volition, viz: recollecting, reflecting, imagining, reasoning, judging.

      4. Lastly, the combined or separate influence of our appetites, affections, passions, and judgments, determine our wills, and produce those volitions which terminate in action.

      Inferences.--Hence it follows that every action of our lives is naturally subjected to our judgments; which are, or ought to be, the combined and ultimate results of all our intellectual powers. We say our actions ought to be such; first, because we possess these powers; second, because we are instinctively impelled to desire and will our own happiness or gratification; and, third, because we are accountable to our Creator and Benefactor for the use we make of our powers for our own profit and his good pleasure, which is the happiness of his rational creatures, for whose sakes he has created all things.

      Again, in classifying these powers in relation to their peculiar and appropriate objects, we denominate them sensitive, intellectual, and moral; which last distinction does not mean a new class of powers not included in the two previous classes, but only those of thinking and acting with respect to law, and of the law itself by which we are to be governed. These are the powers of reasoning, judging, and believing. Hence faith or belief is not the power and immediate effect of volition, [486] but of our reason and judgment duly exercised upon testimony. We, therefore, cannot believe at will, or by virtue of an act of volition without evidence, any more than we can, by an act of our will, see without light; nevertheless, it would be absurd to affirm that we see by necessity--that our sight or perception of objects in no case depended upon, or was influenced by, our will. The truth is, that although we can neither believe nor see what or when we please, yet both our believing and seeing are, in many very important cases, dependent upon our volition.

      Then, it may be asked. What is it that determines our will to investigate? Answer: Duty, curiosity, or interest. But, whatever may be the motive, still it is evident, that being excited to will to investigate, our will has a proper and rational influence upon our belief, just as it has upon our power of seeing, or upon our sight.

      Upon the whole, to suppose that a rational creature acts without motive, is the same as to say that it acts irrationally, or without reason. And to assert that because it acts rationally it acts necessarily and, therefore, is neither praise nor blame-worthy, is contrary to reason itself; for every man's reason condemns, him when he acts irrationally, and approves or acquits him when he acts rationally. Therefore, Mr. Owen's sixth law is manifestly erroneous, being in direct contradiction to a fundamental law of rational nature.

      Again, what is natural must be right; if not, what is the standard of right? or, if nature be wrong, who or what shall correct it, seeing it produces all things as they are? Shall the effect correct the cause? or shall the cause, that is, nature, correct itself, and, therefore, be wiser and better than itself? Therefore, if things be as nature produced them, are they not as they ought to be? But if not, who can better them, seeing that everything is the effect of nature, and that the effect cannot correct or rectify the cause?

      But if it be supposed that things are in a disordered and preternatural state, how came they into such a state? For, seeing the creature has no influence either upon its constitution or circumstances, according to law 1, 2, how could it change for the worse? Or, being deteriorated in its natural circumstances, having no power over them, how can it change for the better; having no independent, inherent, self-determining power?

      Nature, then, being equally the author both of our nature and circumstances, who can change either of them, but the author? But, are we naturally constituted capable of improving both our nature and circumstances? How can this be, if we came into existence, at first, in an adult state? For then we were the creatures of circumstances, and, [487] as everything must necessarily act as it is--that is, according to its nature and circumstances--therefore, we could never better our conditions, being limited by our nature and circumstances. But if there be a principle in our nature by which we can rise superior to our nature and circumstances (and such there must be, if we can ameliorate our condition in both these respects, as Mr. Owen's system pretends), then surely his display of the fundamental laws of our nature are essentially deficient, inasmuch as they nowhere develop this principle.

      Having now laid my objections fairly before Mr. Owen, and that he may be induced not to pass them by as formerly, I will sit down, that he may attack and remove my objections if he can.

[COD 482-488]