T H E TORCH OF REASON, S IL V E R T O N , OREGON, AUGUST 2, E. M. 300 (1900.)
2
will be hereafter shown, is only
one of a sjstem of worlds, of which
th e ur iversal creation is composed,
---------
But before I explain my ideas
upon this subject, it is necessary
(not for the sake of those th a t al-
ready know, but for those who do
not) to shew
am verefe
wbat the
to our senses, aud the action of our ' and w hat has been said about th at,
W ere the Deists who chiefly
reason upon th a t evidence, th at so are the things now to be read.
m ade the revolution, including
m any wild and whim sical systems
But some things rem ain to be F ra n k lin , A dam s and W ashington,
of faith, and of religion, have been , explained about his religious ca- sincere and consistent in lim iting
fabricated and set up. There may reer, which should
go with this the reign of law to the solar system
be m any system s of religion, that p o rtrait: The way things turned with its earth and m an, and leaving
so far from being m orally bad, are in the reaction, soon after the Con- the idea of a C reator and su stain er
in m any respects m orally good; but cordat with the Pope by Napoleon, beyond? And how is the modern
avalem of tberecan be out one that ia true; who knew better, and believed that Secnlariat. L ib e r a l a n d fT n m a n U t
,o* 8 * ana that on<
•
.
related to them ? Such urc • tbr~
careful description of the Solar
System, as far as known when
Paine wrote, which we have not
rep rin t and
which
space to
please to supply by reference to
Lockyer or some other modern
Astronomy. He then proceedes:]
ever will, be in all things consistent
with the ever existing word of God
th a t we behold in his works. But
such is the strange construction of
the C hristian system of faith, that
every evidence the H eavens afford
to m an, either directly contradicts
it, or renders it absurd.
lived (Bee Conway’s W orks of questions.
Paine, vol. 4, p. 236); and the
E xam ination shows th a t Paiue
war
in
E ngland against the and the Deists of the Revolutions
F rench Revolution and Napoleon; were entirely sincere and scientific,
and the sim ilar F ederalist reaction They took the position explained
in th is country against th a t Revolu- by Newton in his letters to Bent-
tion and Genet, P aine the Theo- ley, and digested by Paine in his
philanthrope,and all phases of De- lecture on “ The Existence of God.”
The probability, therefore, is,
ism were put in a false position, [W ritings, vol. 4, p. 236.] T h esci-
th at each of those fixed stars is also
which they have ever since been entific foundation of th a t position
Paine, the Constructor.
a Sun, round which another system
forced to occupy. The Deists start- was th a t “ motion was not a prop-
of worlds or planets, though too
ed out as constructives, and they erty of m atter,” but “ w ithout mo-
BY T . B. W A K EM A N .
remote for us to discover, perform s
were turned into Iconolasts and tion the solar system could not ex­
its revolutions, as our system of
Should the Rom ney p o rtrait of Negati vists, and th a t false position ist,” nor proceed with its w onder­
worlds does round our central Sun. Thom as P aine grace the home of still largely holds in popular e s ti­ ful power, accuracy, harm ony and
By this easy progression of ideas, every Liberal and of every lover of m ation. This is the tim e for tru th . ap p aren t design and beneficence.
the im m ensity of space will appear L iberty, Science and H u m an ity ?
The object of Paine, and of those In a word, the astronom ers and
to us to be filled with system s of Decidedly, Yes! We answer.
with him then, was to construct the scientists of th a t day discovered
worlds; and th a t no part of space
Before stating the reasons why, Religion of H u m an ity into an a c t­ and explored the solar system ae a
lies at waste, any more than any we declare th a t the T ruth Seeker, ive faith, by basing it upon the beautiful lone engine, running, as
part of the globe or earth and water New York, has done one of its best conception of an Infinite God, the it seemed to them , according to
is left unoccupied.
things in preparing a reprint of A lm ighty C reator and the im m ut- grav ity and other laws, as the re-
the best engraving’ of this celebrat­ able legislator of the solar system 8U^ ° f d power and cause beyond it
It is an idea I have never lost ed p o rtrait, now lost, which they under invariable laws. On this w^ich was then quite inexplicable,
sight of, th a t all our knowledge of send (price 50c) to any order. As ground he sturdily protested against The solar system had thus passed
science is derived from the revolu­ his great biographer, M oncure D. being called an Infidel or hearing out of the dom ain of A nthropom or-
tions (exhibited to our eye and Conway, says, and he is the best Deism styled infidelity. “ It is not phism and Fetichism , i. e., T he­
from thence to our u n d erstan d in g ) judge: “ This is the E nglish Paine infidelity, as Mr. E rskine profanely ology, and into the dom ain of Law
which those several planets or in all his vigor.” W hat Conway and abusively calls it; it is the di- an<^ Science. But the Infinite Uni-
worlds, of which our system is com ­ has done with his pen, the great rect reverse of infidelity. It is pure verse beyond it became, if possible,
posed, make in their circuit round artist did with his brush, so th at religious belief, founded on the idea more than ever “ deified” into a
the Sun.
now, at last, the features of the of the perfection of the C reator.” personal Creator, F irst Cause and
m ind and body of Thom as Paine (P a in e ’s L etter to Erskine; P aine’s Governor, in order to account for
B ut in the m idst of those re­ stand out with m arvelous clear­ W ritings, vol. 4, p. 230.) The Age the existence of the still standing,
flections, w hat are we to th in k of ness.
He is resurrected.
Thi3 of Reason was w ritten against the isolated solar system , its preserva-
the C hristian system of faith, th a t Eidolon stands
for what the A theists,w as first circulated against l *on> laws, m otions designs and be-
forma itself upon the idea of only “A uthor-H ero” of revolutions really them , and P aine’s lecture a t the neficence. I he boiler which fur-
one world, and th a t of no greater felt, thought, said and was. When first m eeting of the Theo-philan- n ^8^ed the steam to m ake this
ex tent, as is before shown, than put in your “ Living Room” it will thropes was printed in E ngland beautiful static engine go, they had
twenty-five thousand m iles? An be a notice, indeed a kind of ch al­ against them . (Ibid., p. 238.) The no* discovered; but it seemed to
extent which a m an walking at the lenge, to all who see it, to consider idea and purpose of Paine and the have design and purposeseffected by
rate of three m iles an hour, for why you placed it there, and to Deists was to reconstruct h u m an ^he law s by which all of the changes
twelve hours in the day, could he discover for what Paine, his works life, individual and collective, upon ° n our earth and in the solar system
keep on in a circular direction, and career really stood aud stand . the Solar System and its im m utable to°k place. Such is the sub-
would walk en tirely round in less
The large circulation of this por- laws. Those T heo-philanthropes *dance of Pai tie’s argum ent for God,
th an two years. AlasI what is this tiait-en g rav in g , therefore, has in- flourished in Paris for six years an<^ lnay be taken as the ground
to the m ighty ocean of space, and duced m any to inquire, W hat is and were suppressed by Napoleon, uPon which he designed, and the
the alm ighty power of the C reator? living and perm anent in th e mes­ who at first was a pretended friend ^vePu blicaus of the last century
From whence then could arise the sage P aiue was called by E volu­ of Paine, and borrowed from him f° ug h t out aud started the Ameri-
solitary and strange conceit, th a t tion to deliver to the w orld? The the m axim , “ There is but a step can anc^ the French Dem ocratic
th e Alm ighty, who had m illions of Message of his Political W ritings from the sublim e to the ridiculous,” Eepublics. In so doing they were
worlds equally dependent on his and career I have explained at which, as a selfish m onster, was affirm ative constructives, working
protection, should quit the care of some length in An Address on about the only thing he proved by religiously, m orally, politically and
all the rest, and come to die in our “ Thom as Paine, the F ath er of Re­ his sacrifice of m illions of lives, in d u strially upon a scientific,hum an
world, because, they say, one m an publics,” which m ay be had of the The laws in E ngland made the or- a,1d untheological basis. They had
and one woman had eaten an T ruthseeker (price 10c) which I ganization of the New F aith im- practically banished the will-God
applel And, on the other hand, hope will go out with this portrait, possible there. After P a in e ’s ar- trom the E arth and solar system ,
are we to suppose th a t every world
For, what Paine said and did as rival in America, Home efforts were and started the New Life for Man,
in the boundless creation, had an the real O riginator and F ath er of made to have meetings of the his present and future interests,
Eve, an apple, a serpent, and a our Republic, is now of priceless “ Deistic C hurch,” as Paine called sm m ed up in P aine’s phrase:
redeem er? In this case, the person value. No one can understand the it, (Ibid., p. 315), and he wrote to “ The Religion of H u m an ity ”—
who is irreverently called the bon issues of the present political can- Bishop Moore on the death of Gen [Crisis No. 7.]
of God, and sometimes God him - vass unless he u n d erstan d s how eral H am ilton [ 1804[, as “ A mem-
I bis was m aking Deism an aston-
self, would have nothing else to do and why republicanism took the ber of the Deistical C hurch.” (Ib id ., ishing step in hum an progress, and
th an to travel from world to world, place of im perialism in the founda- p. 334.) But the political contests, we m ust so understand and appre-
in an endless succession of d eath , tion of our governm ent, and this and P aine’s health, and other rea- ciate,in order to hold it. For there
• . a
i
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I
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with scarcely a m om entary interval can only be understood from those sons m ade “ the new religion” non- now seems to be an impression,
of life. It has been by rejecting who, of all others, m ade it a Re- constructive at th a t date. But shared by some Liberals, and coun­
the evidence, th a t the word or public— T hom as Paine and Thom as Paine never wavered in his asser- teuanced by the Papists, Com tists.
works of God in the creation afford Jeflersou. So what he has w ritteu tion th a t that was the thing to do. I Im perialists and Positivists, to the