My friends, Mr. Campbell very naturally wishes that I should follow his lead in this discussion: that is, that I should reply to his metaphysical argument, and leave these facts, which can alone throw any real light upon the subject, and which he ought to have prepared himself to refute; and thus involve myself in a debate which would only darken knowledge and confound your understandings. Now all this is perfectly natural on the part of Mr. Campbell. But I wish to set myself right with this assembly before we separate, in consequence of some of Mr. Campbell's observations upon my supposed opinion on the subject of Deity. I have never denied the existence of a Deity. I distinctly and most pointedly gave my reasons for what I believe on this subject. I stated what I believe to be the whole amount of our knowledge in regard to those things which are called Divine; but I will not affirm or deny that for which we have not sufficient facts to enable us to form correct or rational ideas.

      Now, my friends, you may be sure that, in a discussion of this character, the last expedient an opponent can resort to, is an attempt to ridicule his antagonist's argument. To this dernier resort my friend, Mr. Campbell, has been driven. But the shafts of Mr. Campbell's ridicule have been very harmless; they struck pointless, and without the least effect on the mark at which they were aimed; and why? Because the casket was too well tempered and too highly polished to be penetrable by such feeble missiles. But if ridicule were to be recognized as a fair weapon in religious controversial warfare, only consider the game that lies before me; only imagine for a moment how the whole Christian scheme could be cut up and rendered almost too ridiculous for ridicule itself. I have, however, too much regard for your feelings, and for the importance of the subject under discussion, to pursue this course. On my side of the question, I defy ridicule; for, as you [488] perceive, none can be successfully made to bear upon even one of the fundamental laws of nature, on the accuracy or truth of which the real merits of this discussion will be ultimately discovered to rest. And this is the true cause why they have so grievously nonplussed Mr. Campbell. But could I so far forget the magnitude of the cause I have undertaken to advocate, as to resort for arguments to ridicule, and thereby unnecessarily wound your feelings, every one knows how easy it would be to use this weapon to expose the pretensions of any, and of all religion. But this is a proceeding to which I have no inclination to resort; when the improvement of the human race, in the reformation of its character and general practice, is the subject before me. My object here, upon the present occasion, is not to obtain a personal victory over any man or any portion of my fellows; to me such a victory would be of the least possible estimation. But it is to promulgate truth for its own value, and for the incalculable practical benefits that must accrue to the race of man from its development. This is a consideration with me beyond all others. This, my friends, is my only object. Were you to give me your whole state--nay, the whole United States--I would consider the gift as valueless, compared with the discovery of one truth of such a character as will penetrate the understanding of all men; arrest their present irrational career, and induce them to adopt a practice which shall make themselves and their posterity happy.

      Mr. Campbell has given you his views and reasonings upon this sixth law of our nature, but they amount to nothing. He did not take up the position which is here laid down. This position is, that each individual is so created, that he must believe according to the strongest impression that is made upon his feelings and other faculties, while his belief in no case depends upon his will. This is a clear and distinct position, and leaves no room for a metaphysical retreat.

      Mr. Campbell rose and said--There is no metaphysical subterfuge in me. I contend that I have met the position fairly. The clause I objected to is this: "That belief in no case depends upon will."

      Mr. Owen--Well, gentlemen, I will bring this matter to a speedy issue. If Mr. Campbell can adduce a single instance wherein his belief depends upon his will, I will give up the whole question.

      [Here Mr. Owen waited some time for Mr. Campbell's reply. Mr. Campbell could not then make any.]

      My friends, there is no power that can coerce a man to believe contrary to the convictions upon his mind. The change can be effected only by producing evidence that shall appear to him still stronger; [489] and then often against his will, he is obliged to change his belief. The cause of truth is thus gained.

      We will, however, proceed to the seventh law of our nature, viz: "That each individual is so created, that he must like that which is pleasant to him, or that which produces agreeable sensations on his individual organizations; and he must dislike that which creates in him unpleasant or disagreeable sensations; while he cannot discover, previous to experience, what those sensations shall be."

      I have placed upon record the very important consequences of this law of our nature. It will have a weighty influence on the future destinies of man; it will change all the present family relations of life; it will create a new order of existence, as much superior to the present, as light is to darkness. But I will now trespass no longer on your patience, except to remark, that Mr. Campbell, when speaking of this very law, as applicable to marriage, gave quite a different color to the argument from what he was justified in doing from anything I have ever written or said. He endeavored to make it appear, no doubt from previous misconceptions in his mind, that I intended to encourage prostitution, as it is now understood and practiced in general throughout society.

      Why, my friends, it is the infraction of this very law of our nature that has produced all the vices and evils attendant upon prostitution. It is the infraction of this law that has produced a vicious and most degrading connection between the sexes, unavoidable over the world. I wish to withdraw all the causes which render prostitution necessary and unavoidable, and to propose the means by which a society may be formed, in which chastity alone shall be known. Let me hear no more, therefore, from any quarter, of the vulgar jargon that I advocate this law of our nature from a desire to increase the vice and misery which the infraction of this law has made everywhere to abound; and when I well knew there are already so many dreadful evils created by prostitution as threaten to overwhelm the health and happiness of the population of all countries.

      No, my friends, I would not have traveled to and fro, sacrificing my ease, expending my substance, exposing my health, and risking my life, were it not with the intention of improving, and highly improving, too, the whole condition of man. What motive, short of this, could have induced me to adopt the course which I have so long pursued, or to persevere in that course? Therefore, my friends, listen no more to such mistaken notions relative to my views and intentions on this most important subject. Such misrepresentations, derived from the ignorant multitude, are unworthy of repetition by Mr. Campbell.; unworthy [490] of the cause which he supports, and of the magnitude of the interests which we have met to discuss. This law of our nature, when it shall be understood and properly applied to practice, will put an end to the cause which renders prostitution, under your present errors, unavoidable.

      The eighth law of our nature is: "That each individual is so created that the sensations made upon his 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. And when a too rapid change of sensations is made on his organization, it dissipates, weakens, and otherwise injures his physical, intellectual, and moral powers and enjoyments."

      In this law is to be found the foundation of all excellence in human conduct. The desire of happiness is a principle coeval with life and the most powerful feeling to stimulate to action in human nature. And by this law, and the one immediately succeeding it (the ninth), we shall discover that temperance in the enjoyment and exercise of all our faculties, according to their different degrees of strength, is that habit by which alone the highest point of happiness is to be attained.

      The tenth law is, that the individual is made to possess and acquire the worst character, when his organization at birth has been compounded of the most inferior propensities and faculties of our common nature--and when so organized, he has been placed from birth to death amidst the most vicious or worst circumstances.

      My friends, this is one of those laws that will instruct you in your new art as fathers, as soon as you begin to undertake the task; it will show you what you have to do for your infants, your children, and your youth. It will show you, that while you permit them to be surrounded with vicious circumstances, they must receive vitiating impressions from them; and that in the formation of the characters of your children, such of them as have been so unfortunate as to receive a vicious organization, ought to be the objects of your especial compassion and kindness; and that they have a just and rational claim upon you for fourfold more care and attention in forming them in the most perfect mould, than such of your children as have been blessed with a more perfect natural organization are entitled to receive at your hands. This law, my friends, lays the foundation also for much good feeling and genuine charity. In fact, each of these laws speak peace to you and all mankind--they all concur to lay the foundations of charity deeper and still deeper within us, and to exterminate every germ of unkind feeling. They are, indeed, a perfect system of moral laws, and all of them being derived from the constitution of man, as it has been [491] ascertained to be, will, when once understood, recognized, and adopted by society, irresistibly enforce their precepts upon the hearts and the understandings, and direct all the actions of man. Their effect will be as certain upon the individual, as are the effects of physical laws in the progress of plants from the seed to the fruit, and the full formed tree, or in any other branch of vital economy. Now, my friends, under the wholesome and beneficent government of these laws, you will not, as at present, have to grope your way in perpetual and anxious uncertainty. When you begin to form the character of a human being, you may calculate upon the result with the same undoubting confidence which the mathematician feels when he begins to calculate upon known and certain data. If the work be correctly performed, there can be no mistake in the result. It will be a sort of moral Rule of Three calculation, which might perhaps be stated thus: As the organization of the individual is to his circumstances, so will be the character compounded out of both.

      This change in society will abrogate two-thirds of our present vocabulary--the hackneyed phrases arising from our deceptive notions of free will, will be exploded; they convey impressions only of error to the mind--and in our new and rational state of existence, not a single harsh epithet, or unkind or censorious expression, in which all language now abound, will receive admission. And why? Because there will be no harsh, malignant, uncharitable feelings to be expressed. Hatred and anger will be unknown, for we shall have peace within us, and all will be peace around us.

      We come now, my friends, to the eleventh law of our nature; "That the individual is made to possess and acquire a medium character, when his original organization has been created superior, and when the circumstances which surround him from birth to death, produce continual vicious and unfavorable impressions. Or, when his organization has been formed of inferior materials, and the circumstances in which he has been placed from birth to death, are of a character to product superior impressions only. Or, when there has been some mixture of superior and inferior 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 mankind."

      My friends, this eleventh law is a mirror to all of you. You have all been forced to acquire this medium character. You are none of you so bad, nor any of you so good, as you might have been formed to be. And why are all of you now, as well as all Christendom, and indeed the inhabitants of every other portion of the globe, only of a very ordinary [492] medium character? It is because of the universal first impressions forced upon mankind in favor of the doctrine of free will. These impressions, which commenced in times beyond our knowledge, and have always been the fruitful source of error in the thoughts, feelings, and actions of man, originated in the dark ages, when science was unknown, when men knew but few facts, and those few imperfectly. These false notions were, probably, received into the human mind at the time it imbibed its undoubting belief for ages, that the earth was flat and immovable; the sun, planets, and stars all being formed to be attendants on this globe for the use of man.

      Time, however, advanced; science dawned upon the world in defiance of monkish ignorance, and printing was discovered. Facts began to be investigated, real knowledge in consequence to be introduced, and to escape by little and little among the multitude.

      Thus commenced an opposition to religious ignorance, and it advanced against the efforts of the priesthood, aided even by the inquisition. Within the last two or three hundred years, knowledge has been disseminated in an extraordinary manner by the art of printing. This inestimable art has preserved to us so many important facts, derived from the experience of former times, that they serve in part to counteract the vicious circumstances which have been generated by the doctrine of free will, and all the religious notions founded on it. It is the knowledge derived from recorded experience, and the errors generated by the notion of free will, combating and counteracting each other, that has placed you in your present medium scale of character.

      It is the religions over the earth, emanating directly from the unsubstantial notions derived from the doctrines of free will, and their necessary consequences in forming the feelings, thoughts, and actions of men, that has formed the present medium character of the inhabitants of the civilized world.

      And so long as these free-will notions can be taught and received in opposition to the daily increasing lights of experience, showing how the character of every individual is formed for him, you will remain in your present medium condition, and the inhabitants of the world will receive the same inferior character that those errors have hitherto impressed upon them. But I must proceed to the twelfth and last revealed law of our nature; revealed by facts alike to all nations and people, namely: "That the individual is made the most superior of his species, when his original organization has been compounded of the best proportions, of the best ingredients of which human nature is formed, and when the circumstances which surround him from his birth to death, are of a character to produce only superior impressions, [493] or in other words, when the circumstances or laws, institutions and customs in which he is placed, are all in unison with his nature."

      My friends, if in any past times as much had been done for human nature, as you have witnessed this day, in the free and open discussion in which we have been engaged, we should not now have to lament the ignorance in which we have all been kept by the accumulation of vicious circumstances, by which we and all mankind have been surrounded from birth; but upon this part of the subject it is now too late to enter into detail. Take, however, into your consideration, for a moment, the importance of the three last laws, and more particularly of this twelfth law. In this you will discover the certain, the infallible process, by which the most is to be made of human nature that can be made of it, by men of one generation acting upon the children of the rising generation.

      We cannot, as I have explained to you, make an immediate change upon the existing organization of the infants of our race; though I have no doubt that the time will come, when very great improvements will be made in the organization at birth. In the present state of ignorance, and consequent prejudice, in which we are upon this subject, we must turn our attention only to those circumstances upon which the knowledge of the influence of circumstances will enable us to act. It has been well observed by one of our learned moderators, upon another occasion, in writing upon my views, that he did not well understand how human nature could be the creature of circumstances, and yet have the power to direct them. It was an intelligent view of the subject. The difficulty is to be explained, and overcome like all other difficulties when they occur, by proceeding in our investigations until the whole truth is discovered. By this process it becomes evident, that until we ascertain the fact that we are the creatures of circumstances, we are without the knowledge requisite to give us power to remove, replace, rearrange, and control them. And as soon as the knowledge of this fact is fully developed, it becomes itself a new circumstance, by which the existing adults may do more for the rising generations, than has been yet done for man through all past ages. This, my friends, is therefore the first, pre-eminently the first of sciences; it is one of the very highest order that the human mind can conceive. It is that science, by which, in due time, the men of one generation shall be enabled so far to improve the original organization at birth; the disposition, habits, manners, thoughts, feelings, and conduct, after birth, of the succeeding generation, that the former shall become to the latter as creators. For they will be, through this new knowledge, enabled to give to the new man such superior faculties, thoughts, feelings, and [494] dispositions, that it will appear to be a recreation; a regeneration; a new birth; a new life; a resurrection from the corruptions and abominations of the present irrational existence, into a state of peace, knowledge, and joy unspeakable! It is therefore a science so deeply interesting to all, that all, without delay, should be carefully taught it from the first dawning of their reason. And it is moreover a science so congenial to all the principles of nature, and the facts which exist around us, and through all nature, that little children may very easily and very early be instructed in it.

      I perceive my hour is about to expire, and it is come when I have just entered upon the most interesting part of the discussion; but I submit to the wishes and convenience of others, and, therefore, after I sit down, I shall not trespass on your time, unless it be for the sake of explanation.

      But I cannot take leave of you without expressing a strong sense of obligation to those gentlemen, who compose the committee for making the preliminary arrangements for this discussion; also to those gentlemen who have taken the trouble to attend to all the subsequent arrangements, and especially to the trustees of this building, who, with great urbanity, after one church was refused to the committee who applied for it, conceded to them the use of this for our purpose. And I am much indebted to all who have attended here during the discussion, for the extreme good order which has prevailed, and the remarkable good temper with which you have received those strong, and, in many cases, highly exciting truths to Christians, which I deem it my duty, with reference to future consequences, to place before you. I do not believe that on this account I can ever forget Cincinnati. It is true, I once prophesied her depopulation, not because I considered her any worse than other populous places, or a second Sodom and Gomorrah, for your conduct on this occasion proves the reverse. I was, it seems, mistaken as to the precise time; having been misled at that period by the enthusiasm expressed by so many of its inhabitants in favor of the principles which, to my pecuniary loss, I afterward discovered they so little understood. I was as well aware then, as I am now, that the inhabitants of a new and uneducated country, as this was at that time, were of necessity far more powerfully influenced by immediate impressions, than by extended and deep reflections. As surely, however, as these twelve fundamental laws are derived from facts which change not, so surely will the dispersion of the inhabitants of all large cities take place. You will, through this new knowledge, discover, erelong, that a large city is a collection of many injurious and vicious circumstances; too unfavorable to the highest [495] happiness that human nature is capable of attaining, to be much longer allowed to remain. You cannot, under any arrangement, in populous cities, enjoy, in any perfection, the many important advantages, which are inseparable from the country, properly cultivated and well laid out for convenience, beauty, and pleasure, and to have at the same time, a full share of the best society. These essential requisitions to the enjoyment of life, cannot be obtained by a single human being within a large city, or in a single family, or among a few families in the country, while it is practicable to form an association of such numbers and character as, when properly arranged and constituted, will possess and enjoy all the advantages of city and country, without any of the numerous inconveniences, disadvantages, or evils of either. It was a mistake of my friend, Mr. C., for whom, after all our hard and sharp wordy battles, I am obliged to have the kindest feelings on account of his honesty and liberality, to suppose that my ideas of a social system were derived from the Shaking Quakers, Moravians, or any other existing prototype. My ideas upon this subject proceeded from a different source. At the time the embryo of these ideas first presented itself to my mind, I was unconscious that there was a single community living wholly upon public property, in existence. The first mature thoughts upon this subject were suggested to me by a profound consideration of the laws of our nature, and the effects which they were calculated to produce in practice, with the actual condition of mankind; I perceived that man existed in all conditions from a state of single and detrimental solitude through all stages of increasing numbers, up to a congregated mass, as in the capital of China, of two millions of human beings of all ages; but I did not then know that there was a number between these extremes, which, under proper management, would give the greatest amount of happiness that man could enjoy. The discovery of this happy number and arrangement, is the first problem to be demonstrated in the science of political economy; and until these points shall be established upon rational principles, and derived from facts and experience, little of the science of political economy, as a science, can be known. These points are the data on which alone the science can take its rise, and without a knowledge of which no such science can be formed. The difficulty which presented itself to me at the outset of studying political economy, was to discover these data. Books written by speculative men in their closets, I soon ascertained would give me no information upon the subject. I had afterward an opportunity of observing the effects of a gradual increasing population, from a few families until they amounted to about twenty-five hundred souls, and then I discovered that the true minimum and [496] maximum had been passed. It was thus I was enabled by experience to ascertain what was the extent of numbers, between which, a population could be arranged and congregated together, to give to each individual the greatest amount of advantages with the fewest inconveniences. I am now convinced from this experience, and from a very extensive and careful investigation of the business and concerns of human life, taking also into consideration the ascertained fixed laws of human nature, that the best medium number, ranges between eight hundred and twelve hundred, and that all associations of men, when they become rational, will be composed of congregations never descending below five hundred, nor ascending above two thousand.

      These were the facts, principles and considerations whence my ideas of the social communities originated, and these are the causes which have impelled me so strongly to advocate them upon former, as well as upon the present occasion--they were not, therefore derived from any of the prototypes, or contracted views and sources whence Mr. C. apprehends them to have originated. And it is from these sources, such as I have now explained them, that I predicted the depopulation of Cincinnati, that I still confidently anticipate a change in society from large and populous cities, and single families, to such associations, as will give to each individual the greatest advantage, with the fewest inconveniences.

      I shall merely say, in conclusion, that the social system, as it exists in my mind, is an arrangement of society, founded on the most opposite principles, except in unity of labor and property, to the Shakers, Moravians, and old Harmonites, that can well be imagined. These are all founded on the ignorance and subjugation of the mass under a few intelligent privileged leaders--but which, nevertheless, produce much comfort, peace, and quiet happiness among that mass. They still, however retain several of the practical errors, emanating from free-will doctrines, and frequently suffer changes and evils in consequence; and while those errors are retained, evils will continually occur, and there will be no stability among them. The social system which I contemplate, is founded upon other principles, so different in character that each child will receive from infancy to maturity the best training, education, and instruction, that can be given to it. There will be no inequality of rank or condition, except what age and experience necessarily produce; and these, of course, in due time, all will equally enjoy. And the code of laws, founded on the laws of our nature, will, under the administration, explained in the second part of this work, equally direct and govern all, from the youngest to the most advanced in age and privileges attendant thereon. [497]

      Time does not permit me to add more. I therefore take my leave with the best feelings toward you all, wishing you health, continued prosperity, and the benefit of these anticipated improvement for your children.¹

[COD 488-498]