Fleshless Hands and fade forever from the imagination of Men.
THERE are three theories by which men account for all phenomena2, for everything that happens: First, the Supernatural; Second, the Supernatural and Natural; Third, the Natural. Between these theories there has been, from the dawn of civilization, a continual conflict. In this great war, nearly all the soldiers have been in the ranks of the supernatural. The believers in the supernatural insist that matter is controlled and directed entirely3 by powers from without; while naturalists4 maintain that Nature acts from within; that Nature is not acted upon; that the universe is all there is; that Nature with infinite arms embraces everything that exists, and that all supposed powers beyond the limits of the material are simply ghosts. You say, “Oh, this is materialism5!” What is matter? I take in my hand some earth:— in this dust put seeds. Let the arrows of light from the quiver of the sun smite6 upon it; let the rain fall upon it. The seeds will grow and a plant will bud and blossom. Do you understand this? Can you explain it better than you can the production of thought? Have you the slightest conception of what it really is? And yet you speak of matter as though acquainted with its origin, as though you had torn from the clenched7 hands of the rocks the secrets of material existence. Do you know what force is? Can you account for molecular8 action? Are you really familiar with chemistry, and can you account for the loves and hatreds10 of the atoms? Is there not something in matter that forever eludes11? After all, can you get, beyond, above or below appearances? Before you cry “materialism!” had you not better ascertain12 what matter really is? Can you think even of anything without a material basis? Is it possible to imagine the annihilation of a single atom? Is it possible for you to conceive of the creation of an atom? Can you have a thought that was not suggested to you by what you call matter?
Our fathers denounced materialism, and accounted for all phenomena by the caprice of gods and devils.
For thousands of years it was believed that ghosts, good and bad, benevolent13 and malignant14, weak and powerful, in some mysterious way, produced all phenomena; that disease and health, happiness and misery15, fortune and misfortune, peace and war, life and death, success and failure, were but arrows from the quivers of these ghosts; that shadowy phantoms16 rewarded and punished mankind; that they were pleased and displeased18 by the actions of men; that they sent and withheld19 the snow, the light, and the rain; that they blessed the earth with harvests or cursed it with famine; that they fed or starved the children of men; that they crowned and uncrowned kings; that they took sides in war; that they controlled the winds; that they gave prosperous voyages, allowing the brave mariner20 to meet his wife and child inside the harbor bar, or sent the storms, strewing21 the sad shores with wrecks22 of ships and the bodies of men.
Formerly23, these ghosts were believed to be almost innumerable. Earth, air, and water were filled with these phantom17 hosts. In modern times they have greatly decreased in number, because the second theory,— a mingling24 of the supernatural and natural,— has generally been adopted. The remaining ghosts, however, are supposed to per-form the same offices as the hosts of yore.
It has always been believed that these ghosts could in some way be appeased25; that they could be flattered by sacrifices, by prayer, by fasting, by the building of temples and cathedrals, by the blood of men and beasts, by forms and ceremonies, by chants, by kneelings and prostrations, by flagellations and maimings, by renouncing27 the joys of home, by living alone in the wide desert, by the practice of celibacy28, by inventing instruments of torture, by destroying men, women and children, by covering the earth with dungeons30, by burning unbelievers, by putting chains upon the thoughts and manacles upon the limbs of men, by believing things without evidence and against evidence, by disbelieving and denying demonstration31, by despising facts, by hating reason, by denouncing liberty, by maligning33 heretics, by slandering34 the dead, by subscribing35 to senseless and cruel creeds37, by discouraging investigation38, by worshiping a book, by the cultivation39 of credulity, by observing certain times and days, by counting beads40, by gazing at crosses, by hiring others to repeat verses and prayers, by burning candles and ringing bells, by enslaving each other and putting out the eyes of the soul. All this has been done to appease26 and flatter these monsters of the air.
In the history of our poor world, no horror has been omitted, no infamy41 has been left undone42 by the believers in ghosts,— by the worshipers of these fleshless phantoms. And yet these shadows were born of cowardice43 and malignity44. They were painted by the pencil of fear upon the canvas of ignorance by that artist called superstition45.
From, these ghosts, our fathers received information. They were the schoolmasters of our ancestors. They were the scientists and philosophers, the geologists46, legislators, astronomers47, physicians, metaphysicians and historians of the past. For ages these ghosts were supposed to be the only source of real knowledge. They inspired men to write books, and the books were considered sacred. If facts were found to be inconsistent with these books, so much the worse for the facts, and especially for their discoverers. It was then, and still is, believed that these books are the basis of the idea of immortality50; that to give up these volumes, or rather the idea that they are inspired, is to renounce51 the idea of immortality. This I deny.
The idea of immortality, that like a sea has ebbed52 and flowed in the human heart, with its countless54 waves of hope and fear, beating against the shores and rocks of time and fate, was not born of any book, nor of any creed36, nor of any religion. It was born of human affection, and it will continue to ebb53 and flow beneath the mists and clouds of doubt and darkness as long as love kisses the lips of death. It is the rainbow — Hope shining upon the tears of grief.
From the books written by the ghosts we, have at last ascertained55 that they knew nothing about the world in which we live. Did they know anything about the next! Upon every point where contradiction is possible, they have been contradicted.
By these ghosts, by these citizens of the air, the affairs of government were administered; all authority to govern came from them. The emperors, kings and potentates56 all had commissions from these phantoms. Man was not considered as the source of any power whatever. To rebel against the king was to rebel against the ghosts, and nothing less than the blood of the offender57 could appease the invisible phantom or the visible tyrant58. Kneeling was the proper position to be assumed by the multitude. The prostrate59 were the good. Those who stood erect60 were infidels and traitors61. In the name and by the authority of the ghosts, man was enslaved, crushed, and plundered62. The many toiled63 wearily in the storm and sun that the few favorites of the ghosts might live in idleness. The many lived in huts, and caves, and dens64, that the few might dwell in palaces. The many covered themselves with rags, that the few might robe themselves in purple and in gold. The many crept, and cringed, and crawled, that the few might tread upon their flesh with iron feet.
From the ghosts men received, not only authority, but information of every kind. They told us the form of this earth. They informed us that eclipses were caused by the sins of man; that the universe was made in six days; that astronomy, and geology were devices of wicked men, instigated65 by wicked ghosts; that gazing at the sky with a telescope was a dangerous thing; that digging into the earth was sinful curiosity; that trying to be wise above what they had written was born of a rebellious66 and irreverent spirit.
They told us there was no virtue67 like belief, and no crime like doubt; that investigation was pure impudence68, and the punishment therefor, eternal torment69. They not only told us all about this world, but about two others; and if their statements about the other worlds are as true as about this, no one can estimate the value of their information.
For countless ages the world was governed by ghosts, and they spared no pains to change the eagle of the human intellect into a bat of darkness. To accomplish this infamous71 purpose; to drive the love of truth from the human heart; to prevent the advancement72 of mankind; to shut out from the world every ray of intellectual light; to pollute every mind with superstition, the power of kings, the cunning and cruelty of priests, and the wealth of nations were exhausted73.
During these years of persecution74, ignorance, superstition and slavery, nearly all the people, the kings, lawyers, doctors, the learned and the unlearned, believed in that frightful76 production of ignorance, fear, and faith, called witchcraft77. They believed that man was the sport and prey78 of devils. They really thought that the very air was thick with these enemies of man. With few exceptions, this hideous79 and infamous belief was universal. Under these conditions, progress was almost impossible.
Fear paralyzes the brain. Progress is born of courage. Fear believes — courage doubts. Fear falls upon the earth and prays — courage stands erect and thinks. Fear retreats — courage advances. Fear is barbarism — courage is civilization. Fear believes in witchcraft, in devils and in ghosts. Fear is religion — courage is science.
The facts, upon which this terrible belief rested, were proved over and oyer again in every court of Europe. Thousands confessed themselves guilty — admitted that they had sold themselves to the devil. They gave the particulars of the sale; told what they said and what the devil replied. They confessed this, when they knew that confession81 was death; knew that their property would be confiscated82, and their children left to beg their bread. This is one of the miracles of history — one of the strangest contradictions of the human mind. Without doubt, they really believed themselves guilty. In the first place, they believed in witchcraft as a fact, and when charged with it, they probably became insane. In their insanity83 they confessed their guilt80. They found themselves abhorred84 and deserted86 — charged with a crime that they could not disprove. Like a man in quicksand, every effort only sunk them deeper. Caught in this frightful web, at the mercy of the spiders of superstition, hope fled, and nothing remained but the insanity of confession. The whole world appeared to be insane.
In the time of James the First, a man was executed for causing a storm at sea with the intention of drowning one of the royal family. How could he disprove it? How could he show that he did not cause the storm? All storms were at that time generally supposed to be caused by the devil — the prince of the power of the air — and by those whom he assisted.
I implore87 you to remember that the believers in such impossible things were the authors of our creeds and confessions88 of faith.
A woman was tried and convicted before Sir Matthew Hale, one of the great judges and lawyers of England, for having caused children to vomit89 crooked90 pins. She was also charged with having nursed devils. The learned judge charged the intelligent jury that there was no doubt as to the existence of witches; that it was established by all history, and expressly taught by the bible.
The woman was hanged and her body burned.
Sir Thomas Moore declared that to give up witchcraft was to throw away the sacred scriptures91. In my judgment93, he was right.
John Wesley was a firm believer in ghosts and witches, and insisted upon it, years after all laws upon the subject had been repealed94 in England. I beg of you to remember that John Wesley was the founder95 of the Methodist Church.
In New England, a woman was charged with being a witch, and with having changed herself into a fox. While in that condition she was attacked and bitten by some dogs. A committee of three men, by order of the court, examined this woman. They removed her clothing and searched for “witch spots.” That is to say, spots into which needles could be thrust without giving her pain. They reported to the court that such spots were found. She denied, however, that she ever had changed herself into a fox. Upon the report of the committee she was found guilty and actually executed. This was done by our Puritan fathers, by the gentlemen who braved the dangers of the deep for the sake of worshiping God and persecuting96 their fellow men.
In those days people believed in what was known as lycanthropy — that is, that persons, with the assistance of the devil, could assume the form of wolves. An instance is given where a man was attacked by a wolf. He defended himself, and succeeded in cutting off one of the animal’s paws. The wolf ran away. The man picked up the paw, put it in his pocket and carried it home. There he found his wife with one of her hands gone. He took the paw from his pocket. It had changed to a human hand. He charged his wife with being a witch. She was tried. She confessed her guilt, and was burned.
People were burned for causing frosts in summer — for destroying crops with hail — for causing storms — for making cows go dry, and even for souring beer. There was no impossibility for which some one was not tried and convicted. The life of no one was secure. To be charged, was to be convicted. Every man was at the mercy of every other. This infamous belief was so firmly seated in the minds of the people, that to express a doubt as to its truth was to be suspected. Whoever denied the existence of witches and devils was denounced as an infidel.
They believed that animals were often taken possession of by devils, and that the killing97 of the animal would destroy the devil. They absolutely tried, convicted, and executed dumb beasts.
At Basle, in 1470, a rooster was tried upon the charge of having laid an egg. Rooster eggs were used only in making witch ointment98,— this everybody knew. The rooster was convicted and with all due solemnity was burned in the public square. So a hog99 and six pigs were tried for having killed and partially100 eaten a child. The hog was convicted,— but the pigs, on account probably of their extreme youth, were acquitted101. As late as 1740, a cow was tried and convicted of being possessed103 by a devil.
They used to exorcise rats, locusts104, snakes and vermin. They used to go through the alleys105, streets, and fields, and warn them to leave within a certain number of days. In case they disobeyed, they were threatened with pains and penalties.
But let us be careful how we laugh at these things. Let us not pride ourselves too much on the progress of our age. We must not forget that some of our people are yet in the same intelligent business. Only a little while ago, the governor of Minnesota appointed a day of fasting and prayer, to see if some power could not be induced to kill the grasshoppers107, or send them into some other state.
About the close of the fifteenth century, so great was the excitement with regard to the existence of witchcraft that Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull directing the inquisitors to be vigilant108 in searching out and punishing all guilty of this crime. Forms for the trial were regularly laid down in a book or a pamphlet called the “Malleus Maleficorum” (Hammer of Witches), which was issued by the Roman See. Popes Alexander, Leo, and Adrian, issued like bulls. For two hundred and fifty years the church was busy in punishing the impossible crime of witchcraft; in burning, hanging and torturing men, women, and children. Protestants were as active as Catholics, and in Geneva five hundred witches were burned at the stake in a period of three months. About one thousand were executed in one year in the diocese of Como. At least one hundred thousand victims suffered in Germany alone: the last execution (in Wurtzburg ) taking place as late as 1749. Witches were burned in Switzerland as late as 1780.
In England the same frightful scenes were enacted109. Statutes110 were passed from Henry VI to James I, defining the crime and its punishment. The last act passed by the British parliament was when Lord Bacon was a member of the House of Commons; and this act was not repealed until 1736.
Sir William Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, says: “To deny the possibility, nay111, actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery, is at once flatly to contradict the word of God in various passages both of the old and new testament112; and the thing itself is a truth to which every nation in the world hath in its turn borne testimony113, either by examples seemingly well attested114, or by prohibitory laws, which at least suppose the possibility of a commerce with evil spirits.”
In Brown’s Dictionary of the Bible, published at Edinburgh Scotland, in 1807, it is said that: “A witch is a woman that has dealings with Satan. That such persons are among men is abundantly plain from scripture92, and that they ought to be put to death.”
This work was re-published in Albany, New York, in 1816. No wonder the clergy115 of that city are ignorant and bigoted116 even unto this day.
In 1716, Mrs. Hicks and her daughter, nine years of age, were hanged for selling their souls to the devil, and raising a storm by pulling off their stockings and making a lather117 of soap.
In England it has been estimated that at least thirty thousand were hanged and burned. The last victim executed in Scotland, perished in 1722. “She was an innocent old woman, who had so little idea of her situation as to rejoice at the sight of the fire which was destined118 to consume her. She had a daughter, lame119 both of hands and of feet — a circumstance attributed to the witch having been used to transform her daughter into a pony120 and getting her shod by the devil.”
In 1692, nineteen persons were executed and one pressed to death in Salem, Massachusetts, for the crime of witchcraft.
It was thought in those days that men and women made compacts with the devil, orally and in writing. That they abjured121 God and Jesus Christ, and dedicated122 themselves wholly to the devil. The contracts were confirmed at a general meeting of witches and ghosts, over which the devil himself presided; and the persons generally signed the articles of agreement with their own blood. These contracts were, in some instances, for a few years; in others, for life. General assemblies of the witches were held at least once a year, at which they appeared entirely naked, besmeared with an ointment made from the bodies of unbaptized infants. “To these meetings they rode from great distances on broomsticks, pokers123, goats, hogs124, and dogs. Here they did homage125 to the prince of hell, and offered him sacrifices of young children, and practiced all sorts of license126 until the break of day.”
“As late as 1815, Belgium was disgraced by a witch trial; and guilt was established by the water ordeal127.” “In 1836, the populace of Hela, near Dantzic, twice plunged128 into the sea a woman reputed to be a sorceress; and as the miserable129 creature persisted in rising to the surface, she was pronounced guilty, and beaten to death.”
“It was believed that the bodies of devils are not like those of men and animals, cast in an unchangeable mould. It was thought they were like clouds, refined and subtle matter, capable of assuming any form and penetrating130 into any orifice. The horrible tortures they endured in their place of punishment rendered them extremely sensitive to suffering, and they continually sought a temperate131 and somewhat moist warmth in order to allay132 their pangs133. It was for this reason they so frequently entered into men and women.”
The devil could transport men, at his will, through the air. He could beget134 children; and Martin Luther himself had come in contact with one of these children. He recommended the mother to throw the child into the river, in order to free their house from the presence of a devil.
It was believed that the devil could transform people into any shape he pleased.
Whoever denied these things was denounced as an infidel. All the believers in witchcraft confidently appealed to the bible. Their mouths were filled with passages demonstrating the existence of witches and their power over human beings. By the bible they proved that innumerable evil spirits were ranging over the world endeavoring to ruin mankind; that these spirits possessed a power and wisdom far transcending135 the limits of human faculties136; that they delighted in every misfortune that could befall the world; that their malice137 was superhuman. That they caused tempests was proved by the action of the devil toward Job; by the passage in the book of Revelation describing the four angels who held the four winds, and to whom it was given to afflict138 the earth. They believed the devil could carry persons hundreds of miles, in a few seconds, through the air. They believed this, because they knew that Christ had been carried by the devil in the same manner and placed on a pinnacle139 of the temple. “The prophet Habakkuk had been transported by a spirit from Judea to Babylon; and Philip, the evangelist, had been the object of a similar miracle; and in the same way Saint Paul had been carried in the body into the third heaven.”
“In those pious140 days, they believed that Incubi and Succubi were forever wandering among mankind, alluring142, by more than human charms, the unwary to their destruction, and laying plots, which were too often successful, against the virtue of the saints. Sometimes the witches kindled143 in the monastic priest a more terrestrial fire. People told, with bated breath, how, under the spell of a vindictive144 woman, four successive abbots in a German monastery145 had been wasted away by an unholy flame.”
An instance is given in which the devil not only assumed the appearance of a holy man, in order to pay his addresses to a lady, but when discovered, crept under the bed, suffered himself to be dragged out, and was impudent146 enough to declare that he was the veritable bishop147. So perfectly148 had he assumed the form and features of the prelate that those who knew the bishop best were deceived.
One can hardly imagine the frightful state of the human mind during these long centuries of darkness and superstition. To them, these things were awful and frightful realities. Hovering149 above them in the air, in their houses, in the bosoms150 of friends, in their very bodies, in all the darkness of night, everywhere, around, above and below, were innumerable hosts of unclean and malignant devils.
From the malice of those leering and vindictive vampires151 of the air, the church pretended to defend mankind. Pursued by these phantoms, the frightened multitudes fell upon their faces and implored152 the aid of robed hypocrisy153 and sceptered theft.
Take from the orthodox church of today the threat and fear of hell, and it becomes an extinct volcano.
Take from the church the miraculous154, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable155, the impossible, the unknowable, and the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains156.
Notwithstanding all the infamous things justly laid to the charge of the church, we are told that the civilization of today is the child of what we are pleased to call the superstition of the past.
Religion has not civilized158 man — man has civilized religion. God improves as man advances.
Let me call your attention to what we have received from the followers159 of the ghosts. Let me give you an outline of the sciences as taught by these philosophers of the clouds.
All diseases were produced, either as a punishment by the good ghosts, or out of pure malignity by the bad ones. There were, properly speaking, no diseases. The sick were possessed by ghosts. The science of medicine consisted in knowing how to persuade these ghosts to vacate the premises160. For thousands of years the diseased were treated with incantations, with hideous noises, with drums and gongs. Everything was done to make the visit of the ghost as unpleasant as possible, and they generally succeeded in making things so disagreeable that if the ghost did not leave, the patient did. These ghosts were supposed to be of different rank, power and dignity. Now and then a man pretended to have won the favor of some powerful ghost, and that gave him power over the little ones. Such a man became an eminent161 physician.
It was found that certain kinds of smoke, such as that produced by burning the liver of a fish, the dried skin of a serpent, the eyes of a toad162, or the tongue of an adder163, were exceedingly offensive to the nostrils164 of an ordinary ghost. With this smoke, the sick room would be filled until the ghost vanished or the patient died.
It was also believed that certain words,— the names of the most powerful ghosts,— when properly pronounced, were very effective weapons. It was for a long time thought that Latin words were the best,— Latin being a dead language, and known by the clergy. Others thought that two sticks laid across each other and held before the wicked ghost would cause it instantly to flee in dread165 away.
For thousands of years, the practice of medicine consisted in driving these evil spirits out of the bodies of men.
In some instances, bargains and compromises were made with the ghosts. One case is given where a multitude of devils traded a man for a herd166 of swine. In this transaction the devils were the losers, as the swine immediately drowned themselves in the sea. This idea of disease appears to have been almost universal, and is by no means yet extinct.
The contortions167 of the epileptic, the strange twitchings of those afflicted168 with chorea, the shakings of palsy, dreams, trances, and the numberless frightful phenomena produced by diseases of the nerves, were all seized upon as so many proofs that the bodies of men were filled with unclean and malignant ghosts.
Whoever endeavored to account for these things by natural causes, whoever attempted to cure diseases by natural means, was denounced by the church as an infidel. To explain anything was a crime. It was to the interest of the priest that all phenomena should be accounted for by the will and power of gods and devils. The moment it is admitted that all phenomena are within the domain169 of the natural, the necessity for a priest has disappeared. Religion breathes the air of the supernatural. Take from the mind of man the idea of the supernatural, and religion ceases to exist. For this reason, the church has always despised the man who explained the wonderful. Upon this principle, nothing was left undone to stay the science of medicine. As long as plagues and pestilences170 could be stopped by prayer, the priest was useful. The moment the physician found a cure, the priest became an extravagance. The moment it began to be apparent that prayer could do nothing for the body, the priest shifted his ground and began praying for the soul.
Long after the devil idea was substantially abandoned in the practice of medicine, and when it was admitted that God had nothing to do with ordinary coughs and colds, it was still believed that all the frightful diseases were sent by him as punishments for the wickedness of the people. It was thought to be a kind of blasphemy172 to even try, by any natural means, to stay the ravages173 of pestilence171. Formerly, during the prevalence of plague and epidemics174, the arrogance175 of the priest was boundless176. He told the people that they had slighted the clergy, that they had refused to pay tithes177, that they had doubted some of the doctrines178 of the church, and that God was now taking his revenge. The people for the most part, believed this infamous tissue of priestcraft. They hastened to fall upon their knees; they poured out their wealth upon the altars of hypocrisy; they abased180 and debased themselves; from their minds they banished181 all doubts, and made haste to crawl in the very dust of humility182.
The church never wanted disease to be under the control of man. Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College, preached a sermon against vaccination183. His idea was, that if God had decreed from all eternity184 that a certain man should die with the small-pox, it was a frightful sin to avoid and annul185 that decree by the trick of vaccination. Small-pox being regarded as one of the heaviest guns in the arsenal186 of heaven, to spike187 it was the height of presumption188. Plagues and pestilences were instrumentalities in the hands of God with which to gain the love and worship of mankind. To find a cure for disease was to take a weapon from the church. No one tries to cure the ague with prayer. Quinine has been found altogether more reliable. Just as soon as a specific is found for a disease, that disease will be left out of the list of prayer. The number of diseases with which God from time to time afflicts189 mankind, is continually decreasing. In a few years all of them will be under the control of man, the gods will be left unarmed, and the threats of their priests will excite only a smile.
The science of medicine has had but one enemy — religion. Man was afraid to save his body for fear he might lose his soul.
Is it any wonder that the people in those days believed in and taught the infamous doctrine179 of eternal punishment — a doctrine that makes God a heartless monster and man a slimy hypocrite and slave?
The ghosts were historians, and their histories were the grossest absurdities190. “Tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying no thing.” In those days the histories were written by the monks192, who, as a rule, were almost as superstitious193 as they were dishonest. They wrote as though they had been witnesses of every occurrence they related. They wrote the history of every country of importance. They told all the past and predicted all the future with an impudence that amounted to sublimity194, “They traced the order of St. Michael, in France, to the archangel himself, and alleged195 that he was the founder of a chivalric196 order in heaven itself. They said that Tartars originally came from hell, and that they were called Tartars because Tartarus was one of the names of perdition. They declared that Scotland was so named after Scota, a daughter of Pharaoh, who landed in Ireland, invaded Scotland, and took it by force of arms. This statement was made in a letter addressed to the Pope in the fourteenth century, and was alluded197 to as a well-known fact. The letter was written by some of the highest dignitaries, and by the direction of the King himself.”
These gentlemen accounted for the red on the breasts of robins198, from the fact that these birds carried water to unbaptized infants in hell.
Matthew, of Paris, an eminent historian of the fourteenth century, gave the world the following piece of information: “It is well known that Mohammed was once a cardinal199, and became a heretic because he failed in his effort to be elected pope;” and that having drank to excess, he fell by the roadside, and in this condition was killed by swine. “And for that reason, his followers abhor85 pork even unto this day.”
Another eminent historian informs us that Nero was in the habit of vomiting200 frogs. When I read this, I said to myself: Some of the croakers of the present day against Progress would be the better for such a vomit.
The history of Charlemagne was written by Turpin, of Rheims. He was a bishop. He assures us that the walls of a city fell down in answer to prayer. That there were giants in those days who could take fifty ordinary men under their arms and walk away with them. “With the greatest of these, a direct descendant of Goliath, one Orlando had a theological discussion, and that in the heat of the debate, when the giant was overwhelmed with the argument, Orlando rushed forward and inflicted201 a fatal stab.”
The history of Britain, written by the arch-. deacons of Monmouth and Oxford203, was wonderfully popular. According to them, Brutus conquered England and built the city of London. During his time, it rained pure blood for three days. At another time, a monster came from the sea, and, after having devoured204 great multitudes of people, swallowed the king and disappeared. They tell us that King Arthur was not born like other mortals, but was the result of a magical contrivance; that he had great luck in killing giants; that he killed one in France that had the cheerful habit of eating some thirty men a day. That this giant had clothes woven of the beards of the kings he had devoured. To cap the climax205, one of the authors of this book was promoted for having written the only reliable history of his country.
In all the histories of those days there is hardly a single truth. Facts were considered unworthy of preservation206. Anything that really happened was not of sufficient interest or importance to be recorded. The great religious historian, Eusebius, ingenuously207 remarks that in his history he carefully omitted whatever tended to discredit208 the church, and that he piously209 magnified all that conduced to her glory.
The same glorious principle was scrupulously210 adhered to by all the historians of that time.
They wrote, and the people believed, that the tracks of Pharoah’s chariots were still visible on the sands of the Red Sea, and that they had been miraculously211 preserved from the winds and waves as perpetual witnesses of the great miracle there performed.
It is safe to say that every truth in the histories of those times is the result of accident or mistake.
They accounted for everything as the work of good and evil spirits. With cause and effect they had nothing to do. Facts were in no way related to each other. God, governed by infinite caprice, filled the world with miracles and disconnected events. From the quiver of his hatred9 came the arrows of famine, pestilence, and death.
The moment that the idea is abandoned that all is natural; that all phenomena are the necessary links in the endless chain of being, the conception of history becomes impossible. With the ghosts, the present is not the child of the past, nor the mother of the future. In the domain of religion all is chance, accident, and caprice.
Do not forget, I pray you, that our creeds were written by the cotemporaries of these historians.
The same idea was applied212 to law. It was believed by our intelligent ancestors that all law derived213 its sacredness and its binding214 force from the fact that it had been communicated to man by the ghosts. Of course it was not pretended that the ghosts told everybody the law; but they told it to a few, and the few told it to the people, and the people, as a rule, paid them exceedingly well for their trouble. It was thousands of ages before the people commenced making laws for themselves, and strange as it may appear, most of these laws were vastly superior to the ghost article. Through the web and woof of human legislation began to run and shine and glitter the golden thread of justice.
During these years of darkness it was believed that rather than see an act of injustice215 done; rather than see the innocent suffer; rather than see the guilty triumph, some ghost would interfere216. This belief, as a rule, gave great satisfaction to the victorious217 party, and as the other man was dead, no complaint was heard from him.
This doctrine was the sanctification of brute218 force and chance. They had trials by battle, by fire, by water, and by lot. Persons were made to grasp hot iron, and if it burned them their guilt was established. Others, with tied hands and feet, were cast into the sea, and if they sank, the verdict of guilty was unanimous,— if they did not sink, they were in league with devils.
So in England, persons charged with crime could appeal to the corsned. The corsned was a piece of the sacramental bread. If the defendant219 could swallow this piece he went acquit102. Godwin, Earl of Kent, in the time of Edward the Confessor, appealed to the corsned. He failed to swallow it and was choked to death.
The ghosts and their followers always took delight in torture, in cruel and unusual punishments. For the infraction220 of most of their laws, death was the penalty — death produced by stoning and by fire. Sometimes, when man committed only murder, he was allowed to flee to some city of refuge. Murder was a crime against man. But for saying certain words, or denying certain doctrines, or for picking up sticks on certain days, or for worshiping the wrong ghost, or for failing to pray to the right one, or for laughing at a priest, or for saying that wine was not blood, or that bread was not flesh, or for failing to regard ram’s horns as artillery221, or for insisting that a dry bone was scarcely sufficient to take the place of water works, or that a raven222, as a rule, made a poor landlord:— death, produced by all the ways that the ingenuity223 of hatred could devise, was the penalty.
Law is a growth — it is a science. Right and wrong exist in the nature of things. Things are not right because they are commanded, nor wrong because they are prohibited. There are real crimes enough without creating artificial ones. All progress in legislation has for centuries consisted in repealing224 the laws of the ghosts.
The idea of right and wrong is born of man’s capacity to enjoy and suffer. If man could not suffer, if he could not inflict202 injury upon his fellow, if he could neither feel nor inflict pain, the idea of right and wrong never would have entered his brain. But for this, the word conscience never would have passed the lips of man.
There is one good — happiness. There is but one sin — selfishness. All law should be for the preservation of the one and the destruction of the other.
Under the regime of the ghosts, laws were not supposed to exist in the nature of things. They were supposed to be simply the irresponsible command of a ghost. These commands were not supposed to rest upon reason, they were the product of arbitrary will.
The penalties for the violation225 of these laws were as cruel as the laws were senseless and absurd. Working on the Sabbath and murder were both punished with death. The tendency of such laws is to blot226 from the human heart the sense of justice.
To show you how perfectly every department of knowledge, or ignorance rather, was saturated227 with superstition, I will for a moment refer to the science of language.
It was thought by our fathers, that Hebrew was the original language; that it was taught to Adam in the Garden of Eden by the Almighty228, and that consequently all languages came from, and could be traced to, the Hebrew. Every fact inconsistent with that idea was discarded. According to the ghosts, the trouble at the tower of Babel accounted for the fact that all people did not speak Hebrew. The Babel business settled all questions in the science of language.
After a time, so many facts were found to be inconsistent with the Hebrew idea that it began to fall into disrepute, and other languages began to compete for the honor of being the original.
Andre Kempe, in 1569, published a work on the language of Paradise, in which he maintained that God spoke230 to Adam in Swedish; that Adam answered in Danish; and that the serpent — which appears to me quite probable — spoke to Eve in French. Erro, in a work published at Madrid, took the ground that Basque was the language spoken in the Garden of Eden; but in 1580 Goropius published his celebrated231 work at Antwerp, in which he put the whole matter at rest by showing, beyond all doubt, that the language spoken in Paradise was neither more nor less than plain Holland Dutch.
The real founder of the science of language was Liebnitz, a cotemporary of Sir Isaac Newton. He discarded the idea that all languages could be traced to one language. He maintained that language was a natural growth. Experience teaches us that this must be so. Words are continually dying and continually being born. Words are naturally and necessarily produced. Words are the garments of thought, the robes of ideas. Some are as rude as the skins of wild beasts, and others glisten232 and glitter like silk and gold. They have been born of hatred and revenge; of love and self-sacrifice; of hope and fear, of agony and joy. These words are born of the terror and beauty of nature. The stars have fashioned them. In them mingle233 the darkness and the dawn. From everything they have taken something. Words are the crystalizations of human history, of all that man has enjoyed and and suffered — his victories and defeats — all that he has lost and won. Words are the shadows of all that has been — the mirrors of all that is.
The ghosts also enlightened our fathers in astronomy and geology. According to them the earth was made out of nothing, and a little more nothing having been taken than was used in the construction of this world, the stars were made out of what was left over. Cosmos234, in the sixth century, taught that the stars were impelled235 by angels, who either carried them on their shoulders, rolled them in front of them, or drew them after. He also taught that each angel that pushed a star took great pains to observe what the other angels were doing, so that the relative distances between the stars might always remain the same. He also gave his idea as to the form of the world.
He stated that the world was a vast parallelogram; that on the outside was a strip of land, like the frame of a common slate236; that then there was a strip of water, and in the middle a great piece of land; that Adam and Eve lived on the outer strip; that their descendants, with the exception of the Noah family, were drowned by a flood on this outer strip; that the ark finally rested on the middle piece of land where we now are. He accounted for night and day by saying that on the outside strip of land there was a high mountain, around which the sun and moon revolved237, and that when the sun was on the other side of the mountain, it was night; and when on this side, it was day.
He also declared that the earth was flat. This he proved by many passages from the bible. Among other reasons for believing the earth to be flat, he brought forward the following: We are told in the new testament that Christ shall come again in glory and power, and all the world shall see him. Now, if the world is round, how are the people on the other side going to see Christ when he comes? That settled the question, and the church not only endorsed238 the book, but declared that whoever believed less or more than stated by Cosmos, was a heretic.
In those blessed days, Ignorance was a king and Science an outcast.
They knew the moment this earth ceased to be the centre of the universe, and became a mere239 speck240 in the starry241 heaven of existence, that their religion would become a childish fable242 of the past.
In the name and by the authority of the ghosts, men enslaved their fellow men; they trampled243 upon the rights of women and children. In the name and by the authority of ghosts, they bought and sold and destroyed each other; they filled heaven with tyrants244 and earth with slaves, the present with despair and the future with horror. In the name and by the authority of the ghosts, they imprisoned245 the human mind, polluted the conscience, hardened the heart, subverted246 justice, crowned robbery, sainted hypocrisy, and extinguished for a thousand years the torch of reason.
I have endeavored, in some faint degree, to show you what has happened, and what always will happen when men are governed by superstition and fear; when they desert the sublime247 standard of reason; when they take the words of others and do not investigate for themselves.
Even the great men of those days were nearly as weak in this matter as the most ignorant. Kepler, one of the greatest men of the world, an astronomer48 second to none, although he plucked from the stars the secrets of the universe, was an astrologer, and really believed that he could predict the career of a man by finding what star was in the ascendant at his birth. This great man breathed, so to speak, the atmosphere of his time. He believed in the music of the spheres, and assigned alto, bass248, tenor249, and treble to certain stars.
Tycho Brahe, another astronomer, kept an idiot, whose disconnected and meaningless words he carefully set down, and then put them together in such manner as to make prophecies, and then waited patiently to see them fulfilled. Luther believed that he had actually seen the devil, and had discussed points of theology with him. The human mind was in chains. Every idea almost was a monster. Thought was deformed250. Facts were looked upon as worthless. Only the wonderful was worth preserving. Things that actually happened were not considered worth recording;— real occurrences were too common. Everybody expected the miraculous.
The ghosts were supposed to be busy; devils were thought to be the most industrious251 things in the universe, and with these imps252, every occurrence of an unusual character was in some way connected. There was no order, no serenity253, no certainty, in anything. Everything depended upon ghosts and phantoms. Man was, for the most part, at the mercy of malevolent254 spirits. He protected himself as best he could with holy water and tapers255 and wafers and cathedrals. He made noises and rung bells to frighten the ghosts, and he made music to charm them. He used smoke to choke them, and incense256 to please them. He wore beads and crosses. He said prayers, and hired others to say them. He fasted when he was hungry, and feasted when he was not. He believed everything that seemed unreasonable, just to appease the ghosts. He humbled257 himself. He crawled in the dust. He shut the doors and windows, and excluded every ray of light from the temple of the soul. He debauched and polluted his own mind, and toiled night and day to repair the walls of his own prison. From the garden of his heart he plucked and trampled upon the holy flowers of pity.
The priests reveled in horrible descriptions of hell. Concerning the wrath258 of God, they grew eloquent259. They denounced man as totally depraved. They made reason blasphemy, and pity a crime. Nothing so delighted them as painting the torments260 and sufferings of the lost. Over the worm that never dies they grew poetic261; and the second death filled them with a kind of holy delight. According to them, the smoke and cries ascending262 from hell were the perfume and music of heaven.
At the risk of being tiresome263, I have said what I have to show you the productions of the human mind, when enslaved; the effects of wide-spread ignorance — the results of fear. I want to convince you that every form of slavery is a viper264, that, sooner or later, will strike its poison fangs265 into the bosoms of men.
The first great step towards progress, is, for man to cease to be the slave of man; the second, to cease to be the slave of the monsters of his own creation — of the ghosts and phantoms of the air.
For ages the human race was imprisoned.
Through the bars and grates came a few struggling rays of light. Against these grates and bars Science pressed its pale and thoughtful face, wooed by the holy dawn of human advancement.
Men found that the real was the useful; that what a man knows is better than what a ghost says; that an event is more valuable than a prophecy. They found that diseases were not produced by spirits, and could not be cured by frightening them away. They found that death was as natural as life. They began to study the anatomy266 and chemistry of the human body, and found that all was natural and within the domain of law.
The conjurer and sorcerer were discarded, and the physician and surgeon employed. They found that the earth was not flat; that the stars were not mere specks267. They found that being born under a particular planet had nothing to do with the fortunes of men.
The astrologer was discharged and the astronomer took his place.
They found that the earth had swept through the constellations268 for millions of ages. They found that good and evil were produced by natural causes, and not by ghosts; that man could not be good enough or bad enough to stop or cause a rain; that diseases were produced as naturally as grass, and were not sent as punishments upon man for failing to believe a certain creed. They found that man, through intelligence, could take advantage of the forces of nature — that he could make the waves, the winds, the flames, and the lightnings of heaven do his bidding and minister to his wants. They found that the ghosts knew nothing of benefit to man; that they were utterly269 ignorant of geology — of astronomy — of geography;— that they knew nothing of history;— that they were poor doctors and worse surgeons;— that they knew nothing of law and less of justice; that they were without brains, and utterly destitute270 of hearts; that they knew nothing of the rights of men; that they were despisers of women, the haters of progress, the enemies of science, and the destroyers of liberty.
The condition of the world during the Dark Ages shows exactly the result of enslaving the bodies and souls of men. In those days there was no freedom. Labor271 was despised, and a laborer272 was considered but little above a beast. Ignorance, like a vast cowl, covered the brain of the world, and superstition ran riot with the imagination of man. The air was filled with angels, with demons32 and monsters. Credulity sat upon the throne of the soul, and Reason was an exiled king. A man to be distinguished273 must be a soldier or a monk191. War and theology, that is to say, murder and hypocrisy, were the principal employments of man. Industry was a slave, theft was commerce; murder was war, hypocrisy was religion.
Every christian274 country maintained that it was no robbery to take the property of Mohammedans by force, and no murder to kill the owners. Lord Bacon was the first man of note who maintained that a christian country was bound to keep its plighted275 faith with an infidel nation. Reading and writing were considered dangerous arts. Every layman276 who could read and write was suspected of being a heretic. All thought was discouraged. They forged chains of superstition for the minds, and manacles of iron for the bodies of men. The earth was ruled by the cowl and sword,— by the mitre and scepter,— by the altar and throne,— by Fear and Force,— by Ignorance and Faith,— by ghouls and ghosts.
In the fifteenth century the following law was in force in England:
“That whosoever reads the scriptures in the mother tongue, shall forfeit277 land, cattle, life, and goods from their heirs forever, and so be condemned278 for heretics to God, enemies to the crown, and most arrant279 traitors to the land.”
During the first year this law was in force thirty-nine were hanged for its violation and their bodies burned.
In the sixteenth century men were burned because they failed to kneel to a procession of monks.
The slightest word uttered against the superstition of the time was punished with death.
Even the reformers, so called, of those days, had no idea of intellectual liberty — no idea even of toleration. Luther, Knox, Calvin, believed in religious liberty only when they were in the minority. The moment they were clothed with power they began to exterminate280 with fire and sword.
Castellio was the first minister who advocated the liberty of the soul. He was regarded by the reformers as a criminal, and treated as though he had committed the crime of crimes.
Bodinus, a lawyer of France, about the same time, wrote a few words in favor of the freedom of conscience, but public opinion was overwhelmingly against him. The people were ready, anxious, and willing, with whip, and chain, and fire, to drive from the mind of man the heresy281 that he had a right to think.
Montaigne, a man blest with so much common sense that he was the most uncommon282 man of his time, was the first to raise a voice against torture in France. But what was the voice of one man against the terrible cry of ignorant, infatuated, superstitious and malevolent millions? It was the cry of a drowning man in the wild roar of the cruel sea.
In spite of the efforts of the brave few the infamous war against the freedom of the soul was waged until at least one hundred millions of human beings — fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters — with hopes, loves, and aspirations284 like ourselves, were sacrificed upon the cruel altar of an ignorant faith. They perished in every way by which death can be produced. Every nerve of pain was sought out and touched by the believers in ghosts.
For my part I glory in the fact, that here in the new world,— in the United States,— liberty of conscience was first guaranteed to man, and that the Constitution of the United States was the first great decree entered in the high court of human equity285 forever divorcing Church and State,— the first injunction granted against the interference of the ghosts. This was one of the grandest steps ever taken by the human race in the direction of Progress.
You will ask what has caused this wonderful change in three hundred years. And I answer — the inventions and discoveries of the few;— the brave thoughts, the heroic utterances286 of the few;— the acquisition of a few facts.
Besides, you must remember that every wrong in some way tends to abolish itself. It is hard to make a lie stand always. A lie will not fit a fact. It will only fit another lie made for the purpose. The life of a lie is simply a question of time. Nothing but truth is immortal49. The nobles and kings quarreled;— the priests began to dispute;— the ideas of government began to change.
In 1441 printing was discovered. At that time the past was a vast cemetery287 with hardly an epitaph. The ideas of men had mostly perished in the brain that produced them. The lips of the human race had been sealed. Printing gave pinions288 to thought. It preserved ideas. It made it possible for man to bequeath to the future the riches of his brain, the wealth of his soul. At first, it was used to flood the world with the mistakes of the ancients, but since that time it has been flooding the world with light.
When people read they begin to reason, and when they reason they progress. This was another grand step in the direction of Progress.
The discovery of powder, that put the peasant almost upon a par70 with the prince;— that put an end to the so-called age of chivalry;— that released a vast number of men from the armies;— that gave pluck and nerve a chance with brute strength.
The discovery of America, whose shores were trod by the restless feet of adventure;— that brought people holding every shade of superstition together;— that gave the world an opportunity to compare notes, and to laugh at the follies289 of each other. Out of this strange mingling of all creeds, and superstitions290, and facts, and theories, and countless opinions, came the Great Republic.
Every fact has pushed a superstition from the brain and a ghost from the clouds. Every mechanic art is an educator. Every loom291, every reaper292 and mower293, every steamboat, every locomotive, every engine, every press, every telegraph, is a missionary294 of Science and an apostle of Progress. Every mill, every furnace, every building with its wheels and levers, in which something is made for the convenience, for the use, and for the comfort and elevation295 of man, is a church, and every school house is a temple.
Education is the most radical296 thing in the world
To teach the alphabet is to inaugurate a revolution.
To build a school house is to construct a fort.
Every library is an arsenal filled with the weapons and ammunition297 of Progress, and every fact is a monitor with sides of iron and a turret298 of steel.
I thank the inventors, the discoverers, the thinkers. I thank Columbus and Magellan. I thank Galileo, and Copernicus, and Kepler, and Des Cartes, and Newton, and La Place. I thank Locke, and Hume, and Bacon, and Shakespeare, and Kant, and Fichte, and Liebnitz, and Goethe. I thank Fulton, and Watts299, and Volta, and Galvani, and Franklin, and Morse, who made lightning the messenger of man. I thank Humboldt, the Shakespeare of science. I thank Crompton and Arkwright, from whose brains leaped the looms300 and spindles that clothe the world. I thank Luther for protesting against the abuses of the church, and I denounce him because he was the enemy of liberty. I thank Calvin for writing a book in favor of religious freedom, and I abhor him because he burned Servetus. I thank Knox for resisting episcopal persecution, and I hate him because he persecuted301 in his turn. I thank the Puritans for saying “Resistance to tyrants is obedience302 to God,” and yet I am compelled to say that they were tyrants themselves. I thank Thomas Paine because he was a believer in liberty, and because he did as much to make my country free as any other human being. I thank Voltaire, that great man who, for half a century, was the intellectual emperor of Europe, and who, from his throne at the foot of the Alps, pointed106 the finger of scorn at every hypocrite in Christendom. I thank Darwin, Haeckel and Buchner, Spencer, Tyndall and Huxley, Draper, Leckey and Buckle303. I thank the inventors, the discoverers, the thinkers, the scientists, the explorers. I thank the honest millions who have toiled.
I thank the brave men with brave thoughts. They are the Atlases304 upon whose broad and mighty229 shoulders rests the grand fabric305 of civilization. They are the men who have broken, and are still breaking, the chains of Superstition. They are the Titans who carried Olympus by assault, and who will soon stand victors upon Sinai’s crags.
We are beginning to learn that to exchange a mistake for the truth — a superstition for a fact — to ascertain the real — is to progress.
Happiness is the only possible good, and all that tends to the happiness of man is right, and is of value. All that tends to develop the bodies and minds of men; all that gives us better houses, better clothes, better food, better pictures, grander music, better heads, better hearts; all that renders us more intellectual and more loving, nearer just; that makes us better husbands and wives, better children, better citizens — all these things combined produce what I call Progress.
Man advances only as he overcomes the obstructions306 of Nature, and this can be done only by labor and by thought. Labor is the foundation of all. Without labor, and without great labor, progress is impossible. The progress of the world depends upon the men who walk in the fresh furrows307 and through the rustling308 corn; upon those who sow and reap; upon those whose faces are radiant with the glare of furnace fires; upon the delvers in the mines, and the workers in shops; upon those who give to the winter air the ringing music of the axe309; upon those who battle with the boisterous310 billows of the sea; upon the inventors and discoverers; upon the brave thinkers.
From the surplus produced by labor, schools and universities are built and fostered. From this surplus the painter is paid for the productions of the pencil; the sculptor311 for chiseling312 shapeless rock into forms divinely beautiful, and the poet for singing the hopes, the loves, the memories, and the aspirations of the world. This surplus has given us the books in which we converse313 with the dead and living kings of the human race. It has given us all there is of beauty, of elegance314, and of refined happiness.
I am aware that there is a vast difference of opinion as to what progress really is; that many denounce the ideas of today as destructive of all happiness — of all good. I know that there are many worshipers of the past. They venerate315 the ancient because it is ancient. They see no beauty in anything from which they do not blow the dust of ages with the breath of praise. They say, no masters like the old; no religion, no governments like the ancient; no orators316, no poets, no statesmen like those who have been dust for two thousand years. Others love the modern simply because it is modern.
We should have gratitude317 enough to acknowledge the obligations we are under to the great and heroic of antiquity318, and independence enough not to believe what they said simply because they said it.
With the idea that labor is the basis of progress goes the truth that labor must be free. The laborer must be a free man.
The free man, working for wife and child, gets his head and hands in partnership319.
To do the greatest amount of work in the shortest space of time, is the problem of free labor.
Slavery does the least work in the longest space of time.
Free labor will give us wealth. Free thought will give us truth.
Slowly but surely man is freeing his imagination of these sexless phantoms, of these cruel ghosts. Slowly but surely he is rising above the superstitions of the past. He is learning to rely upon himself. He is beginning to find that labor is the only prayer that ought to be answered, and that hoping, toiling320, aspiring321, suffering men and women are of more importance than all the ghosts that ever wandered through the fenceless fields of space.
The believers in ghosts claim still, that they are the only wise and virtuous322 people upon the earth; claim still, that there is a difference between them and unbelievers so vast, that they will be infinitely323 rewarded, and the others infinitely punished.
I ask you to-night, do the theories and doctrines of the theologians satisfy the heart or brain of the Nineteenth Century?
Have the churches the confidence of mankind?
Does the merchant give credit to a man because he belongs to a church?
Does the banker loan money to a man because he is a Methodist or Baptist?
Will a certificate of good standing157 in any church be taken as collateral324 security for one dollar?
Will you take the word of a church member, or his note, or his oath, simply because he is a church member?
Are the clergy, as a class, better, kinder and more generous to their families — to their fellow-men — than doctors, lawyers, merchants and farmers?
Does a belief in ghosts and unreasonable things necessarily make people honest?
When a man loses confidence in Moses, must the people lose confidence in him?
Does not the credit system in morals breed extravagance in sin?
Why send missionaries325 to other lands while every penitentiary326 in ours is filled with criminals?—
Is it philosophical327 to say that they who do right carry a cross?
Is it a source of joy to think that perdition is the destination of nearly all of the children of men?
Is it worth while to quarrel about original sin — when there is so much copy?
Does it pay to dispute about baptism, and the trinity, and predestination, and apostolic succession and the infallibility of churches, of popes and of books? Does all this do any good?
Are the theologians welcomers of new truths? Are they noted328 for their candor329? Do they treat an opponent with common fairness? Are they investigators330? Do they pull forward, or do they hold back?
Is science indebted to the church for a solitary331 fact?
What church is an asylum332 for a persecuted truth?
What great reform has been inaugurated by the church?
Did the church abolish slavery?
Has the church raised its voice against war?
I used to think that there was in religion no real restraining force. Upon this point my mind has changed. Religion will prevent man from committing artificial crimes and offenses333.
A man committed murder. The evidence was so conclusive334 that he confessed his guilt.
He was asked why he killed his fellow-man.
He replied: “For money.”
“Did you get any?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Fifteen cents.”
“What did you do with this money?” “Spent it!” “What for?” “Liquor.”
“What else did you find upon the dead man?” “He had his dinner in a bucket — some meat and bread.”
“What did you do with that?”
“I ate the bread.”
“What did you do with the meat?”
“I threw it away.”
“Why?”
“It was Friday.”
Just to the extent that man has freed himself from the dominion335 of ghosts he has advanced. Just to the extent that he has freed himself from the tyrants of his own creation he has progressed. Just to the extent that he has investigated for himself he has lost confidence in superstition.
With knowledge obedience becomes intelligent acquiescence336 — it is no longer degrading. Acquiescence in the understood — in the known — is the act of a sovereign, not of a slave. It ennobles, it does not degrade.
Man has found that he must give liberty to others in order to have it himself. He has found that a master is also a slave;— that a tyrant is himself a serf. He has found that governments should be founded and administered by man and for man; that the rights of all are equal; that the powers that be are not ordained337 by God; that woman is at least the equal of man; that men existed before books; that religion is one of the phases of thought through which the world is passing; that all creeds were made by man; that everything is natural; that a miracle is an impossibility; that we know nothing of origin and destiny; that concerning the unknown we are all equally ignorant; that the pew has the right to contradict what the pulpit asserts; that man is responsible only to himself and those he injures, and that all have a right to think.
True religion must be free. Without perfect liberty of the mind there can be no true religion. Without liberty the brain is a dungeon29 — the mind a convict. The slave may bow and cringe and crawl, but he cannot adore — he cannot love.
True religion is the perfume of a free and grateful heart. True religion is a subordination of the passions to the perceptions of the intellect. True religion is not a theory — it is a practice. It is not a creed — it is a life.
A theory that is afraid of investigation is undeserving a place in the human mind.
I do not pretend to tell what all the truth is. I do not pretend to have fathomed338 the abyss, nor to have floated on outstretched wings level with the dim heights of thought. I simply plead for freedom. I denounce the cruelties and horrors of slavery. I ask for light and air for the souls of men. I say, take off those chains — break those manacles — free those limbs — release that brain! I plead for the right to think — to reason — to investigate. I ask that the future may be enriched with the honest thoughts of men. I implore every human being to be a soldier in the army of progress.
I will not invade the rights of others. You have no right to erect your toll-gate upon the highways of thought. You have no right to leap from the hedges of superstition and strike down the pioneers of the human race. You have no right to sacrifice the liberties of man upon the altars of ghosts. Believe what you may; preach what you desire; have all the forms and ceremonies you please; exercise your liberty in your own way but extend to all others the same right.
I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous — if they aver75 that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.
I attack the monsters, the phantoms of imagination that have ruled the world. I attack slavery. I ask for room — room for the human mind.
Why should we sacrifice a real world that we have, for one we know not of? Why should we enslave ourselves? Why should we forge fetters339 for our own hands? Why should we be the slaves of phantoms. The darkness of barbarism was the womb of these shadows. In the light of science they cannot cloud the sky forever. They have reddened the hands of man with innocent blood. They made the cradle a curse, and the grave a place of torment.
They blinded the eyes and stopped the ears of the human race. They subverted all ideas of justice by promising340 infinite rewards for finite virtues341, and threatening infinite punishment for finite offenses.
They filled the future with heavens and with hells, with the shining peaks of selfish joy and the lurid342 abysses of flame. For ages they kept the world in ignorance and awe343, in want and misery, in fear and chains.
I plead for light, for air, for opportunity. I plead for individual independence. I plead for the rights of labor and of thought. I plead for a chainless future. Let the ghosts go — justice remains. Let them disappear — men and women and children are left. Let the monsters fade away — the world is here with its hills and seas and plains, with its seasons of smiles and frowns, its spring of leaf and bud, its summer of shade and flower and murmuring stream; its autumn with the laden344 boughs345, when the withered346 banners of the corn are still, and gathered fields are growing strangely wan141; while death, poetic death, with hands that color what they touch, weaves in the Autumn wood her tapestries347 of gold and brown.
The world remains with its winters and homes and firesides, where grow and bloom the virtues of our race. All these are left; and music, with its sad and thrilling voice, and all there is of art and song and hope and love and aspiration283 high. All these remain. Let the ghosts go — we will worship them no more.
Man is greater than these phantoms. Humanity is grander than all the creeds, than all the books. Humanity is the great sea, and these creeds, and books, and religions, are but the waves of a day. Humanity is the sky, and these religions and dogmas and theories are but the mists and clouds changing continually, destined finally to melt away.
That which is founded upon slavery, and fear, and ignorance, cannot endure. In the religion of the future there will be men and women and children, all the aspirations of the soul, and all the tender humanities of the heart.
Let the ghosts go. We will worship them no more. Let them cover their eyeless sockets with their fleshless hands and fade forever from the imaginations of men.
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phenomena
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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naturalists
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| n.博物学家( naturalist的名词复数 )；（文学艺术的）自然主义者 | |
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5
materialism
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| n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上 | |
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6
smite
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| v.重击；彻底击败；n.打；尝试；一点儿 | |
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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
molecular
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| adj.分子的；克分子的 | |
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9
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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hatreds
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| n.仇恨，憎恶( hatred的名词复数 )；厌恶的事 | |
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11
eludes
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的第三人称单数 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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12
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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13
benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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14
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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15
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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16
phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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17
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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18
displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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19
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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20
mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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21
strewing
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| v.撒在…上( strew的现在分词 )；散落于；点缀；撒满 | |
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22
wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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23
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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24
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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25
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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26
appease
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| v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足 | |
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27
renouncing
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的现在分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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28
celibacy
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| n.独身(主义) | |
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29
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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30
dungeons
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| n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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31
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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32
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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33
maligning
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| vt.污蔑，诽谤（malign的现在分词形式） | |
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34
slandering
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| [法]口头诽谤行为 | |
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35
subscribing
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| v.捐助( subscribe的现在分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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36
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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37
creeds
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| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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38
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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39
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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40
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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41
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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42
undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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43
cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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44
malignity
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| n.极度的恶意，恶毒；（病的）恶性 | |
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45
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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46
geologists
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| 地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 ) | |
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47
astronomers
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| n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 ) | |
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48
astronomer
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| n.天文学家 | |
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49
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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50
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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51
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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52
ebbed
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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53
ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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54
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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55
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
potentates
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| n.君主，统治者( potentate的名词复数 )；有权势的人 | |
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57
offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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58
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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59
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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60
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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61
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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62
plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63
toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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64
dens
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| n.牙齿，齿状部分；兽窝( den的名词复数 )；窝点；休息室；书斋 | |
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65
instigated
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| v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
rebellious
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| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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67
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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68
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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69
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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70
par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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71
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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72
advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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73
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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74
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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75
aver
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| v.极力声明；断言；确证 | |
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76
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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77
witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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78
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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79
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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80
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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81
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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82
confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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83
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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84
abhorred
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| v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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85
abhor
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| v.憎恶；痛恨 | |
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86
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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87
implore
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| vt.乞求，恳求，哀求 | |
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88
confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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89
vomit
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| v.呕吐，作呕；n.呕吐物，吐出物 | |
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90
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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91
scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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92
scripture
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| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
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93
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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94
repealed
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| 撤销，废除( repeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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95
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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96
persecuting
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的现在分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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97
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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98
ointment
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| n.药膏，油膏，软膏 | |
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99
hog
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| n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占 | |
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100
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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101
acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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102
acquit
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| vt.宣判无罪；(oneself)使(自己)表现出 | |
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103
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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104
locusts
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| n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 )；贪吃的人；破坏者；槐树 | |
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105
alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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106
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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107
grasshoppers
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| n.蚱蜢( grasshopper的名词复数 )；蝗虫；蚂蚱；（孩子）矮小的 | |
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108
vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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109
enacted
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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110
statutes
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| 成文法( statute的名词复数 )； 法令； 法规； 章程 | |
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111
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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112
testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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113
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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114
attested
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| adj.经检验证明无病的，经检验证明无菌的v.证明( attest的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；声称…属实；使宣誓 | |
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115
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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116
bigoted
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| adj.固执己见的，心胸狭窄的 | |
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117
lather
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| n.(肥皂水的)泡沫，激动 | |
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118
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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119
lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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120
pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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121
abjured
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| v.发誓放弃( abjure的过去式和过去分词 )；郑重放弃（意见）；宣布撤回（声明等）；避免 | |
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122
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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123
pokers
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| n.拨火铁棒( poker的名词复数 )；纸牌；扑克；（通常指人）（坐或站得）直挺挺的 | |
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124
hogs
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| n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人 | |
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125
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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126
license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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128
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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129
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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130
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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131
temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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132
allay
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| v.消除，减轻(恐惧、怀疑等) | |
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133
pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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134
beget
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| v.引起；产生 | |
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135
transcending
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的现在分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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136
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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137
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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138
afflict
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| vt.使身体或精神受痛苦，折磨 | |
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139
pinnacle
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| n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰 | |
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140
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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141
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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142
alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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143
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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144
vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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145
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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146
impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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147
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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148
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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149
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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150
bosoms
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| 胸部( bosom的名词复数 )； 胸怀； 女衣胸部（或胸襟）； 和爱护自己的人在一起的情形 | |
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151
vampires
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| n.吸血鬼( vampire的名词复数 )；吸血蝠；高利贷者；（舞台上的）活板门 | |
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152
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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153
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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154
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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155
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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156
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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157
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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158
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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159
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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160
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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161
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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162
toad
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| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆 | |
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163
adder
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| n.蝰蛇；小毒蛇 | |
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164
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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165
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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166
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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167
contortions
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| n.扭歪，弯曲；扭曲，弄歪，歪曲( contortion的名词复数 ) | |
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168
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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169
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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170
pestilences
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| n.瘟疫， （尤指）腺鼠疫( pestilence的名词复数 ) | |
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171
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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172
blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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173
ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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174
epidemics
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| n．流行病 | |
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175
arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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176
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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177
tithes
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| n.（宗教捐税）什一税，什一的教区税，小部分( tithe的名词复数 ) | |
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178
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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179
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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180
abased
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| 使谦卑( abase的过去式和过去分词 )； 使感到羞耻； 使降低（地位、身份等）； 降下 | |
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181
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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182
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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183
vaccination
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| n.接种疫苗，种痘 | |
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184
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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185
annul
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| v.宣告…无效，取消，废止 | |
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186
arsenal
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| n.兵工厂，军械库 | |
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187
spike
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| n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效 | |
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188
presumption
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| n.推测，可能性，冒昧，放肆，[法律]推定 | |
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189
afflicts
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的名词复数 ) | |
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190
absurdities
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| n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为 | |
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191
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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192
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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193
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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194
sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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195
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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196
chivalric
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| 有武士气概的，有武士风范的 | |
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197
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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198
robins
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| n.知更鸟，鸫( robin的名词复数 )；（签名者不分先后，以避免受责的）圆形签名抗议书（或请愿书） | |
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199
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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200
vomiting
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| 吐 | |
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201
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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202
inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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203
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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204
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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205
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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206
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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207
ingenuously
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| adv.率直地，正直地 | |
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208
discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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209
piously
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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210
scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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211
miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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212
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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213
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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214
binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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215
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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216
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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217
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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218
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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219
defendant
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| n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的 | |
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220
infraction
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| n.违反；违法 | |
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221
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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222
raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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223
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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224
repealing
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| 撤销，废除( repeal的现在分词 ) | |
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225
violation
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| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
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226
blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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227
saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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228
almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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229
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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230
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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231
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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232
glisten
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| vi.（光洁或湿润表面等）闪闪发光，闪闪发亮 | |
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233
mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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234
cosmos
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| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
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235
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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236
slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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237
revolved
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| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
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238
endorsed
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| vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品 | |
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239
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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240
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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241
starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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242
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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243
trampled
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|
| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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244
tyrants
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| 专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物 | |
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245
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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246
subverted
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| v.颠覆，破坏（政治制度、宗教信仰等）( subvert的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某人）道德败坏或不忠 | |
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247
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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248
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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249
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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250
deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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251
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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252
imps
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| n.（故事中的）小恶魔( imp的名词复数 )；小魔鬼；小淘气；顽童 | |
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253
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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254
malevolent
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| adj.有恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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255
tapers
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| （长形物体的）逐渐变窄( taper的名词复数 )； 微弱的光； 极细的蜡烛 | |
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256
incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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257
humbled
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| adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低 | |
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258
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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259
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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260
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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261
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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262
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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263
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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264
viper
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| n.毒蛇；危险的人 | |
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265
fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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266
anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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267
specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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268
constellations
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| n.星座( constellation的名词复数 )；一群杰出人物；一系列（相关的想法、事物）；一群（相关的人） | |
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269
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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270
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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271
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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272
laborer
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| n.劳动者，劳工 | |
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273
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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274
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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275
plighted
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| vt.保证，约定（plight的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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276
layman
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| n.俗人，门外汉，凡人 | |
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277
forfeit
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| vt.丧失；n.罚金，罚款，没收物 | |
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278
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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279
arrant
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| adj.极端的；最大的 | |
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280
exterminate
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| v.扑灭，消灭，根绝 | |
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281
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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282
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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283
aspiration
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| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
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284
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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285
equity
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| n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票 | |
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286
utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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287
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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288
pinions
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| v.抓住[捆住]（双臂）( pinion的第三人称单数 ) | |
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289
follies
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| 罪恶，时事讽刺剧； 愚蠢，蠢笨，愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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290
superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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291
loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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292
reaper
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| n.收割者，收割机 | |
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293
mower
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| n.割草机 | |
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294
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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295
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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296
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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297
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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298
turret
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| n.塔楼，角塔 | |
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299
watts
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| （电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 ) | |
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300
looms
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| n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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301
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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302
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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303
buckle
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| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
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304
atlases
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| 地图集( atlas的名词复数 ) | |
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305
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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306
obstructions
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| n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 )；阻碍物；阻碍；阻挠 | |
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307
furrows
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| n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 )；（脸上的）皱纹v.犁田，开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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308
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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309
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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310
boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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311
sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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312
chiseling
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| v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的现在分词 ) | |
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313
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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314
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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315
venerate
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| v.尊敬，崇敬，崇拜 | |
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316
orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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317
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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318
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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319
partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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320
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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321
aspiring
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| adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求 | |
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322
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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323
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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324
collateral
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| adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品 | |
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325
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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326
penitentiary
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| n.感化院；监狱 | |
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327
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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328
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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329
candor
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| n.坦白，率真 | |
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330
investigators
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| n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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331
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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332
asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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333
offenses
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| n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势 | |
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334
conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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335
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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336
acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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337
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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338
fathomed
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| 理解…的真意( fathom的过去式和过去分词 )； 彻底了解； 弄清真相 | |
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339
fetters
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| n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 )；束缚v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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340
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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341
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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342
lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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343
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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344
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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345
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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346
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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347
tapestries
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| n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 )；绣帷，织锦v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 ) | |
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