Our idea of life is, that since it is all we are given to know from the first to the last stages of our consciousness, it is our duty and privilege to improve it, and enjoy it to the fullest innocent and rational extent; and that to this end there can be no separation of the moral and material interests; for it is but an honest acknowledgment to say, that constituted as we all are, the crown of contentment and happiness is only for him who successfully cultivates both. Under this belief, the general supervision9 of both moral and material affairs is placed in the hands of our government. Church and State are therefore one with us, and it is entirely10 due to the rationalistic character of our religion that the alliance has proved so conducive11 to our progress and happiness. There can be no such peaceable and continuous union with you at present, because from the nature of your religious doctrines12 there must be a conflict of authority; but you will come to it in time, as out of it, more than all else,—as I will endeavor to show,—will come the fullness of your destiny.
Your efforts for the suppression of vice5 and crime, since the first stages of your history, are futile13 to a degree that[Pg 122] must be appalling14 to you, and the cause of your failure is due to conditions plainly apparent to us. These conditions are that your governments, for all these centuries, have taken no official cognizance of virtue15, and have failed to see that there existed in their patronage16 of good deeds that tangible17 reward which would place all ambition for honor and prominence18 among them on uncompromising terms with evil. You have only attempted to suppress crime by punishment, while the powerful stimulus19 to virtue which your governments afford of precept20 and example have been neglected. Although, in your undeveloped state of greed and selfishness, you find it unsafe to trust your material interests in the hands of irresponsible bodies which you call monopolies, yet you bestow21 the whole keeping and guidance of your morals upon societies and organizations of you fellow men, who are even less responsible to authority than they. Under this state of things, how can you expect anything better than your present chaotic22 state of religion, and the loose, unguided, unrewarded, and wholly spontaneous morality of your people.
Our government, in the furtherance of its religious duties, has for centuries made a special recognition of the[Pg 123] virtues23, and particularly those which bestow good upon others, and it is only by the practice of such that public honors are achieved. One of the happiest consequences of this has been, to elevate only the most exemplary of our people to the head of public affairs, and from this comes a confidence and regard between our representatives and people, which you can scarcely appreciate after your experience. Goodness therefore, as we understand it, is the only path to honor, and the necessary high character of all holders24 of public trust reflects a distinction greater that those of any other positions in life. This in turn, as you may readily perceive, induces a spirit of emulation25 to reach such elevated places, beyond all considerations of emolument26.
As a part of our moral system, we hold the education of our people to be an indispensable and necessary adjunct. In that we go a great deal further than what appear to us your narrow and mercenary views. In a representative government like your own, you have been constrained27 to adopt a system of free education, for the purpose of securing the safety and permanence of your institutions; and with no other motive28 even, it is surprising that you will be divided in opinion touching29 the extent[Pg 124] to which learning may be profitably imparted for this end alone; because, to us it seems that when you have conveyed to your youth no more than the elementary branches of learning, you have provided but little else than a convenience to them in the business affairs of life. It is only when the higher branches are acquired that the government receives an equivalent for its outlay30, in the well-disciplined and safe citizen returned to it.
We have, however, motives31 beyond all this in the education of our masses, and chief among them is the purpose to furnish knowledge to the minds of all, out of which good may be naturally evolved; and thus you will see at once how learning has become the chief part of our religion. You are slow to acknowledge the great value of your purely32 secular33 education as a moral agent, because of its disturbance34 recently with your cherished traditions; but this reason, great as it is, is supplemented with another one, which fully8 accounts for the earnest opposition35 of your ecclesiastics36. So long as the learning of your schools was mixed up with creed37 influence and teachings, it was virtually a part of the church, and in harmony with it, but on a separation of the two, they became enemies by a well known social law; your churches with their avowed[Pg 125] purpose of improving your morals, and your secular schools, while in the performance of their duties, occupying the same competing field.
You may easily imagine that, with the religious impulse added, we have carried our education a good deal further than you. We consider the proposition unjust, that learning should only be bestowed38 in accordance with the occupation or station in life. Your planet has always been beset39 with the evil of social classes, which only increases with the advance of your civilization. You can never rid yourselves of this fruitful source of disturbance except by our method, which, as a matter of public policy, pushes the education of every individual to the point of his capacity. In this way we have completely obliterated40 the class interests and feelings. We have been enabled to do this under conditions which you do not at present possess. Instead of the military or martial41 spirit which prevails with you, and which is cultivated for purposes which appear to us unworthy of your age, we have generated among ourselves an ambition in the ways of knowledge which takes its place.
We have leaders and heroes as you have, but not one who has not gained his honors by some act in furtherance[Pg 126] of the material, intellectual, or moral progress of his race. The memories of your greatest men are more honored by us than by yourselves. Men go down to their graves yearly among you whose achievements are the admiration42 and talk of our whole people. He of you who discovered the theory of planetary motion, he who found the law of gravitation, and he also who ascertained43 the principle of evolution in organic life, are scarcely known upon the Earth, except among the cultivated few; while the whole world of Mars is impressed with the services they have bestowed, and discuss the great and everlasting44 effects of their work.
We have found much in the path of science that would astonish you, and at each discovery the achievement was applauded and echoed from one side of our planet to the other. At each one of these advances we feel ourselves getting nearer to the Deity45. A triumph of science with us is a triumph of religion, and while we go on strengthening ourselves, and taking new heart at each step in the direction of knowledge, a like progress with you only brings the superstitious46 framework upon which your religion is built into decay.
Our religious devotion is essentially47 buoyant, even joyous48.[Pg 127] The sorrows of life which are not the direct and indirect results of indiscretions, and violations49 of natural laws, we regard as an inheritance and not a punishment, and we endeavor in all conceivable ways to lighten them and make them easier to bear. For those in sickness among us, the hand of love and sympathy is never absent; and among the firm and undisturbed convictions of philosophic50 thought, death is only a regret and never a terror. Your creeds51 administer to the final end in all ways to a point of agony; they have ingeniously devised a theory of horrors for it, out of which has been made to come their chief sustenance52 and support. The path of life which they declare as the only one leading into the promised eternity53 of bliss54, is the tortuous55 and difficult footway winding56 like a maze57 among the shadows of their churches.
Although attentively58 guided throughout in this prescribed journey of life by your ecclesiastical teachers, and your entrance and exit made difficult without their help, yet, by the very nature of their doctrines, they could only bestow upon you at the last scene of all a torturing doubt. We have promoted the serenity59 of death by removing as far as possible its sorrow. With us, the individual in his last moments is not overcome with any[Pg 128] sympathetic dread60 of that approaching suffering for the wants of life among dependents, which so often couples the agony of separation with an overwhelming sense of despair, as your society is constituted. The end comes placidly61 to us, in the belief that as we came from the Deity, so in the last we go back to Him; that the life beyond must be a higher life, because the moral sense grows constantly within us; and that the region ahead of us must be a free, open, and hospitable62 one, with no agonizing63 barriers separating families and friends, because, in the growth of our tenderness and attachment64 to each other, we can safely predict the evolution of a better and happier state.
Prayer, in the sense that it is understood and performed by you, we regard as mere65 superstition66. It is an outcome of your lowest stages of mental evolution. It is the spirit of that willing self-abasement and fear, which prostrates67 the savage68 before his idol69, soliciting70 aid in his works of carnage, or immunity71 from some violated law of nature, or safety from some convulsion of the air, land or sea. Carried forward into your civilization, it has become no less unreasonable72. For thousands of years you have been daily calling on the Deity for favors, not one of[Pg 129] which has been granted, except seemingly by a coincidence. The most conclusive73 tests have failed to convince the devout74 among you of the fallacy of prayer, because, as an institution of your churches, under their theory of atonement, it furnishes a ready escape to the conscience; and for the reason also that it affords to the imagination, in its striking and novel situations of converse75 with the author of worlds, a semblance76 of that pleasure which the lowly feel for concessions77 from the great.
It is quite in keeping with your conceptions of the Deity that you should grovel78 and debase yourselves before Him. The whole tenor79 of your religious thought has been made to take on this color of self-degradation, which, while serving to throw you more completely into the hands of your theological superiors, is not warranted by any possible relations with the being you address. You represent upon the Earth, as we do on our planet, the very highest form of life. We both are the triumphant80 outcome of a process established by the great Author infinite ages ago. On us only, among all beings, has He bestowed the wonderful attributes of thought and reason, which make us a part of Himself. We are the only inheritors, by his own beneficial act, of the power to[Pg 130] discover and enjoy his beautiful methods of work, and those magical transformations81 of mind and matter which convert, out of the dead ashes of the past, the blooming present, with its assuring hope of a fruition to come.
What hint have we, therefore, in all his works, that He has created us otherwise than as a labor3 of love, and as the fullest expression of an evolutionary82 skill, which marks all things about us? By what authority, then, are you called to bow yourselves in constant self-abasement before your great Father, who, with parental83 solicitude84, has thrown open the whole Earth for your household, has given you the power of domination over all creatures upon it, and has taught you to make playthings of the very elements which surround you? By what authority, except the unworthy example of your own barbarian85 instincts, which demand for place and power a homage86, whose degree of prostration87 marks, with a singular exactness, your career all along, from the savage ruler to the cultivated monarch88?
Outside of the fact that your continuous mendicancy89 has accomplished90 nothing for you, you have an abundance of negative evidence to hint that your incessant91 supplication92, instead of bringing to you favors from the[Pg 131] Deity, has shadowed upon you in an unmistakable manner the signs of his displeasure. For as he has raised you gradually out of the lower forms, and enlarged your capacities, until in the last he has taken you into his confidence so far as to teach you the methods of his work, and to deliver up to you the hitherto pent-up forces for your convenience and use, yet in the progress of these concessions it is to be noted93 as a significant fact, that your prayers have served rather to obstruct94 than to promote them. Indeed, as there is nothing so conclusively95 the evidence of divine presence and help as material and intellectual progress, it will be difficult to show, in the record of terrestrial things, that the supremacy96 of prayer has not invariably been followed by a temporary withdrawal97 of this divine assistance and support.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
sanitary
|
|
| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
awakening
|
|
| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
labor
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
laboring
|
|
| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
vice
|
|
| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
multiplication
|
|
| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
supervision
|
|
| n.监督，管理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
conducive
|
|
| adj.有益的，有助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
doctrines
|
|
| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
futile
|
|
| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
appalling
|
|
| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
patronage
|
|
| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
tangible
|
|
| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
prominence
|
|
| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
stimulus
|
|
| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
precept
|
|
| n.戒律；格言 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
bestow
|
|
| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
chaotic
|
|
| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
virtues
|
|
| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
holders
|
|
| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
emulation
|
|
| n.竞争；仿效 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
emolument
|
|
| n.报酬，薪水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
constrained
|
|
| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
motive
|
|
| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
outlay
|
|
| n.费用，经费，支出；v.花费 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
motives
|
|
| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
secular
|
|
| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
disturbance
|
|
| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
opposition
|
|
| n.反对，敌对 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
ecclesiastics
|
|
| n.神职者，教会，牧师( ecclesiastic的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
37
creed
|
|
| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
bestowed
|
|
| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
beset
|
|
| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
obliterated
|
|
| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
martial
|
|
| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
ascertained
|
|
| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
everlasting
|
|
| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
deity
|
|
| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
superstitious
|
|
| adj.迷信的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
essentially
|
|
| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
joyous
|
|
| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
violations
|
|
| 违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
philosophic
|
|
| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
creeds
|
|
| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
sustenance
|
|
| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
eternity
|
|
| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
bliss
|
|
| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
tortuous
|
|
| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
winding
|
|
| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
maze
|
|
| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
attentively
|
|
| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
serenity
|
|
| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
dread
|
|
| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
placidly
|
|
| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
hospitable
|
|
| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
agonizing
|
|
| adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
attachment
|
|
| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
superstition
|
|
| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
prostrates
|
|
| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的第三人称单数 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
idol
|
|
| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
soliciting
|
|
| v.恳求( solicit的现在分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
immunity
|
|
| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
unreasonable
|
|
| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
conclusive
|
|
| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
devout
|
|
| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
converse
|
|
| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
semblance
|
|
| n.外貌，外表 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
concessions
|
|
| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
grovel
|
|
| vi.卑躬屈膝，奴颜婢膝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
tenor
|
|
| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
triumphant
|
|
| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
transformations
|
|
| n.变化( transformation的名词复数 )；转换；转换；变换 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
evolutionary
|
|
| adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
parental
|
|
| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
solicitude
|
|
| n.焦虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
barbarian
|
|
| n.野蛮人；adj.野蛮(人)的；未开化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
homage
|
|
| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
prostration
|
|
| n. 平伏, 跪倒, 疲劳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
monarch
|
|
| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
mendicancy
|
|
| n.乞丐，托钵，行乞修道士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
incessant
|
|
| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
supplication
|
|
| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
obstruct
|
|
| v.阻隔，阻塞(道路、通道等)；n.阻碍物，障碍物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
conclusively
|
|
| adv.令人信服地，确凿地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
supremacy
|
|
| n.至上；至高权力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
withdrawal
|
|
| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |