: An Address to Men of Science Calling Upon Them to Stand Forward and Vindicate the Truth.... by Carlile Richard - Science; Superstition

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AN ADDRESS TO MEN OF SCIENCE;

CALLING UPON THEM TO STAND FORWARD AND VINDICATE THE TRUTH FROM THE FOUL GRASP AND PERSECUTION OF SUPERSTITION; AND OBTAIN FOR THE ISLAND OF GREAT BRITAIN THE NOBLE APPELLATION OF WHENCE MANKIND SHALL BE ILLUMINATED, AND THE BLACK AND PESTIFEROUS CLOUDS OF PERSECUTION AND SUPERSTITION BE BANISHED FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH; AS THE ONLY SURE PRELUDE TO UNIVERSAL PEACE AND HARMONY AMONG THE HUMAN RACE. IN WHICH A SKETCH OF A PROPER SYSTEM FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUTH IS SUBMITTED TO THEIR JUDGMENT.

London:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY R. CARLILE, 55, FLEET STREET.

ADDRESS,

Gentlemen,

In addressing a Letter to so distinguished and so important a part of the community, it becomes me to say, that, I am not myself a man of experimental Science, neither, out of the ordinary occupations of my past life, have I ever seen a scientific experiment made in any one department of Chemistry, or Natural Philosophy; all that I know, with the above exception, has been acquired by reading and meditation. My present address is chiefly confined to those Philosophers, who study and practice the sciences of Chemistry and Astronomy. I shall endeavour to point out to them that, they are bound by duty, by common sense, and by common honesty, to make known to mankind, or, more particularly their fellow countrymen, whatever discoveries they may make to prove that the others are following a system of error, or that they are acted upon by a system of imposture. I shall make it appear plain to them, that they have not hitherto done this, and that they have openly countenanced systems of error and imposture, because the institutions of the country were connected with them; or, because they feared to offend those persons who might be deriving an ill-gotten profit from them. This subject will form the first head of my address. In my second head, I shall shew that the present system of educating children is entirely on a wrong basis, and their youthful time is so far wasted, as to leave them, when advanced to the years of maturity, in a state of comparative ignorance. I shall shew that if in their school exercises they were made acquainted with nothing but the elements of Astronomy, of Geography, of Natural History, and of Chemistry, so that they might at an early period of life form correct notions of organized and inert matter, instead of torturing their minds with metaphysical and incomprehensible dogmas about religion, of which they can form no one idea but that of apparent absurdity and contradiction, they would be prepared to make a much greater advancement in the Arts and Sciences, and to improve their condition in society much more than can be now possibly done. These shall not be altogether theoretical ideas, their practicability will reach the mind of every rational being, or he who takes the liberty to think and reason for himself. Many new plans and schemes for education are daily starting up, but the whole, of which I have any knowledge, have the above common error; for the subjects upon which our youth are taught to read and write, and those in which the dead or foreign living languages are taught, are by no means calculated to expand the mind, or to give it a knowledge of Nature and her laws; and thus the most important of all opportunities is lost, and much time actually wasted, in which their minds might be prepared for the reception and knowledge of natural and useful truths. What is the knowledge of the present school-boy, in what is called classical literature, when compared with a useful instruction 'in Chemistry and the laws of Nature? Of what use to society at large is a classical scholar? or one well versed in the ancient mythologies, for this, after all, is the chief part of classical knowledge? It neither gives a polish to manners nor teaches morality. It fills the mind with a useless jargon, and enables the possessor now and then to make a tinsel and pompous declamation in half a dozen different languages; which, if it were to undergo a translation into one language, and that which we call native, would be found to be a mass of unintelligible and unmeaning trash--words of sound, to which it would be difficult to attach an idea, and in which all correct notions are wanting. It makes a man a pedant only. Such men have been most aptly termed spouters of froth. My present object is to lay down a sketch of what seems to me a more instructive and useful system of education. I submit this sketch to the judgment of Men of Science, with an idea that every schoolmaster ought to be a Man of Science, and not a parish priest, as Mr. Brougham would have. This is the outline of my second head, on which in due order I hope to enlarge most satisfactorily.

In my first head I shall address myself first to the Chemists of this Island, and finish by a distinct allusion to the students and practitioners in the science of Astronomy.

We know that the planetary system of the universe has existed to all eternity as to the past, and must exist to all eternity as to the future. For, although, that solar system of which our habitation is a part, or other solar systems, might go through great changes, yet its effect is but as the falling of a hair from our heads, and cannot be said to disturb the great whole.

Instead of viewing ourselves as the particular and partial objects of the care of a great Deity, or of receiving those dogmas of the priest which teach us that every thing has been made for the convenience and use of man, and that man has been made in the express image of the Deity, we should consider ourselves but as atoms of organized matter, whose pleasure or whose pain, whose existence in a state of organization, or whose non-existence in that state, is a matter of no importance in the laws and operations of Nature; we should view ourselves with the same feelings, as we view the leaf which rises in the spring, and falls in the autumn, and then serves no further purpose but to fertilize the earth for a fresh production; we should view ourselves but as the blossoms of May, which exhibit but a momentary splendour and beauty, and often within that moment are cut off prematurely by a blast. We are of no more importance in the scale of Nature than those myriads of animalcules whose natural life is but for the space of an hour, or but a moment. We come and pass like a cloud--like a shower--those of us who possess a brilliancy superior to others, are but as the rainbow, the objects of a momentary admiration, and a momentary recollection. Man has been most aptly compared to the seasons of the year, in our own climate, the spring, is his infancy; the summer, the time af his ardent manhood; the autumn, his decline of life; and the winter, his old age and death--he passes, and another series comes. He is produced by, and produces his like, and so passes away one generation after another, from, and to all eternity. How ridiculous then is the idea about divine revelations, about prophesies, and about miracles, to procure proselytes to such notions! To what generation do they apply, or if they apply to all future generations, why were not the same revelations, prophesies, and miracles, necessary to all the past generations? What avail the dogmas of the priest about an end to the world, about a resurrection, about a day of judgment, about a Heaven and Hell, or about rewards and punishments after this life, when we assert that matter is imperishable and indestructible--that it always was what it now is, and that it will always continue the same. Answer this, ye Priests. Come forward, ye Men of Science, and support these plain truths, which are as familiar to your mind, as the simplest demonstration in mathematics is to the experienced and accomplished mathematician.

Future rewards and punishments are cried up as a necessary doctrine wherewith to impress the minds of men, and to restrain them from vice: but how much more impressive and comprehensible would be the plain and simple truth, that, in this life, virtue produces happiness, and vice nothing but certain misery.

After those few observations upon the properties of matter either organized or inert, I would call upon them all and every one to stand forward and teach mankind those important, those plain truths, which are so clear and so familiar to their own minds. It is the Man of Science who is alone capable of making war upon the Priest, so as to silence him effectually. It is the duty of the Man of Science to make war upon all error and imposture, or why does he study? Why does he analyse the habits, the customs, the manners, and the ideas of mankind, but to separate truth from falsehood, but to give force to the former, and to extinguish the latter? Why does he search into Nature and her laws, but to benefit himself and his fellow man by his discoveries, by the explosion of erroneous ideas, and by the establishment of correct principles? Science must be no longer studied altogether as an amusement or a pastime, which has been too much the case hitherto; it must be brought forward to combat the superstitions, the vices, and the too long established depravities among mankind, whence all their present and past miseries have emanated, and unless the former can be destroyed, the latter will still ensue, as a regular cause and effect.

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