The Text - Section 17
Aristocracy and Democracy
BU 116:1, LC 7:87
[orig. untitled]
Mankind are governed by two principles acting together and I will call them
Aristocracy and Democracy. These terms are used in describing political parties,
but their real meaning is not brought out. These elements always act together, for
either alone is harmless. Democracy is the ignorance of the masses and serves
as a medium for Aristocracy to work through; this is shown in the demagogue.
There are what is called the rich aristocracy, but they are not the ones who rule
the nation. They accumulate money and are governed by the same popular
demagogue, when it is for their interest. The scientific element has no identity as
a party and is shown in opposition to all parties. Aristocracy and Democracy I call
the two extremes of one party. They are like the serpent which when killed or cut
in pieces comes together and lives. They are found in all sects and parties under
different names. In religion they are in the priest and people and again in the
physician and masses. In both cases Aristocracy reigns over Democracy and
there can never be a change until these extremes are severed, for Democracy is
the body of Aristocracy. Cut them asunder and each will find the other. It is false
that they are opposed to each other as it is popularly believed. Wisdom is riches
so the scientific man is rich and as money is a figure of wisdom, it is Aristocracy
of money as opposed to Democracy. So it is, for no man with money wants to
give it away and become poor and neither does a wise man want to lose his
wisdom and be ignorant. They are both opposed in these instances and there
cannot be but one mind about it.
Men divide on the application of the word. Aristocracy of wisdom is thought to be
the same as that of party when one is the counterfeit of the other. Teach man
how to reason and he will free himself from the aristocracy of party, for this is the
head of that serpent that has deceived the world. Give man wisdom and he will
easily detect him and find out his abiding place. This spurious aristocracy is
always found drumming up democracy, feeding the food of envy, exciting their
passions and telling them how they are oppressed by the rich. The fraternity of
divines is also of this serpent. They are constantly appealing to the rich to take
care of the poor and instruct them for the reputation of the church. But the worse
representative of this class is the aristocratic physician for he has entire control of
the democracy. These three types of one serpent are the same in power and
each leads the masses. Let them be exposed by wisdom and their influences
vanish.
If men questioned opinions, they would see that their trouble arises from their
beliefs. Ask a person what diphtheria is. The answer is, a collection of white
sores in the throat always indicate the presence of this disease. Here a disease
is admitted outside of a phenomenon. The invisible diphtheria is the genuine and
the white sores come from it. This reasoning admits that the name diphtheria is
the disease and the effect seen is what follows the name. Admitting the effect,
man looks for the cause and finding no name, he names the effect which makes
a cause in his belief. If man knew what produced the effect, he would have given
no name but would have shown the causes. This would end names and stop
diseases and then cause and effect would be the things to reason about. Then
man would look back of the phenomenon to learn what produced it. For instance,
if any one happened to have a discharge of water from the head, he would
reason that it came from some little excitement on the mind which he could not
name. But now in such a case, he would say he had the catarrh and this is the
name of the effect which we believe is disease.
Throw away names and we get rid of disease and then the great necessity of the
medical faculty vanishes. There is no need of naming every effect on the body.
The only good done is to make a thing corresponding to the name. Destroy the
word consumption and the effect that gives rise to it would never appear. I will
show how to make the word intelligent to a person. Teach a man that a certain
amount of clothing and pure air is necessary for his health, that low-studded
rooms, exposure to night air and chilly east winds are very dangerous, also that
bad blood, narrow chest and the habit sleeping and sitting in a certain position
are injurious, and when he believes it all, he is certainly two-thirds in
consumption. To cure him is to take him away from his error and convince him by
your own life that the whole belief is false and the evidence brought forward is
the cure. To set people reasoning about the folly of such opinions is to drive
disease out of existence. If the people ridiculed and laughed at the ignorance of
the profession, the doctors would hide their heads and cease their loud talk.
Start a lie. The people give it an impulse; it spreads and circulates through the
country till every one is satisfied that it is true. That is the success of a lie. Now if
the people would not repeat the words of a physician, admitting that they are
from superior knowledge, this quackery would end. The idea of disease is
installed into the minds of the people as firmly as secession is at the South. And
it is as hard to convince man that his disease is of his own make as it is to
convince the Southerners that they are the authors of their present misery. Look
into the newspapers and observe the manner of accounting for certain
phenomena. The most absurd stories are given in explanation of remedies as
though there was real efficacy in the application used. A person afflicted with the
rheumatism is obliged to apply the sting of a bee to the parts affected as a sure
means of restoration. Then follows an explanation which is merely an opinion. I
know from my own experience that the word rheumatism applies to some effect
on the body but men take the effect for the cause.
I will describe a case. Two persons get into an excitement and become heated
up with passion and fear. The excitement does not pass off and each returns
home feeling sharp pains in his joints. One takes no thought of it, the other is
alarmed and they both send for a doctor. One sends for an old school allopath
who tells him he has acute rheumatism. The other sends for a quack who,
knowing nothing of the disease, tells him that there is no serious trouble. He
merely got excited and is heated and inflamed and as the excitement abates, the
blood will cool and he will be well. He told the cause; therefore there was no
need to name the phenomenon. The other did not tell the cause but named the
phenomenon. Here is a name of something that you are ignorant of which has an
existence independent of the person who caught it. Here is where the error lies.
Each person was the cause of his own trouble; both would admit it when
explained, but in one case, the cause was not alluded to, while another idea, the
invention of man, was introduced. Drive the name of disease out of the world,
then remedies will cease and men will find that their troubles are within the
control of their own wisdom.
1863
Cause of Disease
BU 45:2, LC 10:98
Does the medical faculty or indeed any mode of practice known to the world treat
the sick as the cause of their own disease? I reply that no mode of treatment
administers medicine to the mind. They all treat the body as though it were a
brute or a thing disconnected with intelligence. True, they admit imagination and
try to influence it, believing that through it they can get control of the body or
disease. But even that, they only affect through deception, just as a demagogue
deceives the masses through their imagination. Physicians stand towards their
patients as a master to his slave, in full possession of arbitrary power. If the slave
obeys, all is well, but if not, arbitrary measures are used and reason is never
employed to convince him. Only perfect obedience to the law is required. If the
physician's orders are not obeyed to the letter, punishment surely follows.
A doctor is called to see a patient whose body he finds in a state of rebellion, as
it were, against health. Assuming an air of authority, he gives his orders to the
patient to take certain medicines in order to drive out the disease, which he
admits is a kind of intelligence. And he leaves word that if it is not gone when he
comes again, he shall resort to more powerful remedies. He approaches the
patient as a general approaches a fortified city. The general orders the city to
surrender or he will fire the city. The doctor in the same way orders the disease
to leave the premises before morning or he will force him to leave. In the morning
the rebel flag is flying, the face is flushed, the eyes inflamed, and the disease is
in a perfect rage, ready for battle. A dose of calomel is given, which nearly turns
out the disease, but leaves the man level with the bed. The doctor exults and
rejoices in the success of his attack and enquires if the disease will surrender.
The disease asks for a little time to think of the matter and the doctor in a
bravado gives a few hours to consider. But the disease, being stubborn,
commences to rally and barricade its weak points to gain possession of what it
has lost.
To the inquiry what conclusion it has come to, the disease runs up its flag. The
doctor then commences his siege, sends a full portion which strikes the
foundation, but no effect being seen, he repeats the dose. Still no response. He
follows up the attack with hot shot down the throat. Although he receives no
answer, yet the resistance is feeble and one more shot is fired and the flag of life
comes down. A flag of truce is sent in and the fort is found to be deserted by the
disease and left in a state of ruin. A council of war is called, a post mortem
examination held and they find that the first dose of calomel fell into the stomach
and sent the blood to the head, causing congestion of the brain, and the
subsequent firing burst the arteries, so that when the disease left could not be
told. Some say, it was the first fire, but others declare that signs of life were
subsequently seen on the outside of the body. They are forced to the conclusion
that the fort might have been taken by a slower process and the inmates saved,
but now they cannot tell whether it was destroyed by them or whether the rebels
destroyed it. To make it sure, some of the friends consult a medium, and the
general reports that he abandoned the fort at the first fire. The newspaper states
that a great man died on such a day from typhoid pneumonia, that he was
attended by the most skillful and successful physician in the country. This is a fair
illustration of the manner in which the sick are treated.
I differ from the profession in every particular. I contend that diseases are the
natural results of oppression. A belief in what man has no evidence of is a
despot, and it makes slavery in politics and religion. Those who enforce either
are demagogues of the same class. the medical man is a slave driver and
applies the whip in the shape of pills, blisters, etc. The priests and politicians are
the same. Neither enlightens the people by any philosophical reasoning. It may
be asked what are these classes good for if they do not benefit the people? They
are the law, I answer, but not the gospel. And what they fail to do, the truth
accomplishes by introducing through reason the higher law, the law of wisdom.
Then as man grows wiser he breaks from the law of sin and death and rises into
the law of love. Politics is like the wind and the medical faculty the thunder, and
when both have exhausted themselves, then out of the clamor of war and the
scene of carnage, the effects of false religion, rises the still small voice of
science. I have travelled through these bloody scenes and can understand the
language of one who writes of Epicurus: "He first opposed himself to the terrors
of religion and with undaunted courage soared above every selfish theory of man
and rose to that state of wisdom where he could see the hypocrisy of the world."
My course has been in the same direction and as his words will apply to my
travels, I will give them. After saying that religion was the tyrant and tormentor of
man and the author of his misery, he says that one man dared to meet this great
enemy. Epicurus it was who "pressed forward, first to break through nature's
fancied bounds, his mind's quick force prevailed, he passed through flaming
portals of this world and wandered with his comprehensive soul o'er all the
mighty space, from thence returned triumphant, told what things can have a
being and what cannot, and how a finite power is fixed to each, a bound it cannot
pass. And so religion that we feared before, by him subdued, we tread upon in
turn. His conquest makes us equal with the gods." Here is a man who had seen
slavery in the form of religion and politics, for both are tyrants to man. I have said
I differ from all others. I have seen the effect of their beliefs. I have broken their
hold on my mind, passed their finite bounds and landed in an open space. Do
you wish, reader, to take a trip to the world beyond the narrow limit of man's
wisdom? Give me your hand and close your eyes from the natural world and rise
into space, out of sight and hearing of the bustle of the world. View the vast
space and sit till you see things come as it were standing on nothing.
See the things created by the Almighty Power and things created by man. Look
upon the earth and ask what the inhabitants know of this state. This is the world
they fear and falsely worship. Now return and make your knowledge practical by
destroying the beliefs of men in their opinions. My theory, being in opposition to
the world, is based on the fact that man's misery is in his belief. The world is in
opposition to truth. Like the South, it wants to rule so that every man who would
enslave his fellow man is a rebel, but he who would free all men is a loyal man.
So there is a constant war of ideas between slavery and freedom, disease and
health. Not everyone who holds a slave is a believer in the principle, neither is
everyone who believes in disease in favor of oppressing the sick. It is through the
ignorance of the masses that slavery of any kind has its power.
1863
Disease I
BU 42:1, LC 7:31
It is necessary for the benefit of mankind that there should be such a word as
disease? I answer, No, and will show that the world will never escape from this
evil as long as they admit it. Now the word disease supposes that either certain
phenomena exist in the world, which pass under the name of disease and which
have an identity separate from each individual as much as wild animals have an
identity separate from man, or that there are certain hidden evils called disease
that are ready to attack us when we expose ourselves to them. For instance,
there are certain diseases that go in the air we are told. Now let us analyze them.
Let us take, for example, the plague. This horrid disease as it is called goes in
the air and travels from one part of the globe to another. Now when it is in the air,
what kind of a looking thing is it? Has it any knowledge? It must have, according
to what the medical faculty say of it, for it generally follows large cities and
armies, but I never heard of it where there were no persons to be devoured by it.
So of course it has an identity and is a horror to mankind. Now how does it vary
from the old superstition in the church about the devil and the evil spirits that
were going round seeking whom they might devour? If you ask a person if he
really believes there is such a thing or being as the devil, he will tell you, No, we
make him. But if you ask the same person if he believes in the plague going
around from one place to another, he will say, Yes. Now one is just as absurd as
the other. Both are the inventions of man and both will give way to the wisdom of
man.
Liberal religion has destroyed the devil as a being and located him in man's evil
thoughts and acts. And we are taught that to get rid of him is to keep ourselves
free from mischief and learn to do good. In like manner, science will show the
serpent's head called disease. And when man learns that its body is in our
ignorance and we create him in ourselves, the same as we create the devil, then
this old serpent the devil or disease will vanish and man will be free from one of
the greatest curses that ever affected the human race.
I will try to show that disease is what follows our belief and our beliefs affect us
and also each other and also animals. Ignorance being the medium to be
affected, error is the first growth after the soil is disturbed. Now error sows all the
seeds of misery. These seeds are beliefs. All phenomena in the soil of ignorance
would of themselves produce no trouble. This is proved by facts that cannot be
denied. Take savages. In their perfectly savage state they are not much troubled
by the inventions of civilized life. And in proportion as the savage has intercourse
with the white man, they become diseased, thus showing that the whites are the
originators of this evil.
Now if disease is not the invention of the whites, why does the savage not have
the disease in the same locality in which he lived before he ever knew the
whites? Take the Indian tribes. When they lived separate from the whites and
had no communication with them, they were healthy. But as soon as the whites
settled near them and they began to enter into their beliefs, then the savages
became frightened and disease took hold to them. Now if disease is a thing that
goes around and attacks man, why does it not attack those that never had
anything to do with civilized life? The fact is religion and disease are
synonymous. Both are the invention of man for the special benefit of a few, but
disease has become so settled in the minds of man that it amounts to a solid fact
and is believed in as having a being independent of man and is an enemy to his
happiness. It is believed by every person therefore that to correct this belief and
restore a person to health is a mystery. But when a man can see that his belief
can make him sick, he won't require much reasoning to see also that to correct
his belief will make him well. Now take the effect of his belief and call that a
disease; then you see that there is no need of the name disease. When man
finds that a belief is something as much as an odor, then it won't be very difficult
to see how odors affect man and beast. Now prove that odors affect man and
beast to make them sick; then odors must be something. The next step will be to
show that man has the power to create odors by his own belief and will.
Now the case of the boy, Caspar Hauser, shows that odors, which man in his
ordinary senses cannot detect by the slightest effect, would make him vomit. The
least wine or liquor put into water would throw him into convulsions and make his
head ache. When meat was offered him, on putting it into his mouth, it produced
convulsions. The odor of flowers affected him. The footsteps of persons at a
distance were easily detected one from another. His sight was also so sensitive
that he could see when it was so dark that others could not see. All this effect on
the boy was proved. Now see the effect of these odors on the boy, making him
sick, throwing him into convulsions and giving him dreams. Now after being
taught, hear his story. He says that while confined in his cell or cave, he never
dreamed and never was sick and he lived on bread and water, all going to prove
that the elements of disease are in the world. And if the world had been a cave or
prison and man was as ignorant as the boy, Caspar Hauser, disease as we have
it would never have come. For bread and water he became accustomed to and
the other odors would have affected us, but the name disease would never have
been known. Now these odors that make all the disease that flesh is heir to-
where did they come from and how came they in the world? I have said these
odors affected this boy but only temporarily. The odor of a thing that could not be
detected by his friend was very disagreeable to him. Now no one will say that the
odor of a flower would give a person the typhoid fever or even any fever, for all
the medical men recommend the open air and green fields to the sick. So all
those things that we as individuals believe are healthy brought on all his trouble
and misery. So we must look for disease from some other source.
Now all I have said in regard to this boy, I have proved by a mesmeric subject
that I had. I found that his sense of smell was so acute that he could detect any
odor at a distance and not only detect but describe the flower or persons that
threw the odor, but all this does not account for disease. But I will lead you along
to the point that will, and in doing so be patient for it cannot be shown by one
sentence. It must be by degrees. The boy, Caspar Hauser, was transferred from
his sensitive state to the normal state of man, for he was a mesmerized subject
in one sense and I refer to him and to show the similarity between this boy and
my subject. For instance, persons and things were like pictures, all on the
surface. A man to him looked like a picture and everything the same. So with my
boy. I could think of a being and he was as much of a being to him as any one.
Now just suppose that Caspar Hauser had been told that all these odors that
affected him were poisoned and he was liable to disease and suppose that he
had been taught all the names of diseases and the symptoms, do you not see
how he must be made sick?
I said that I could create objects that my subject could see, so of course I could
create things that would frighten him and I could create all kinds of fruit which he
would eat and be affected by. For instance, when awake, he was very fond of
lemons and was always eating them. I thought I would break him of the habit, so
when I had him asleep, I would create mentally a lemon and he would see it.
Then I would make him eat it till he would be so sick that he would vomit. Then
he would beg me not to make him eat any more, promising me that he would
never eat any more lemons again. I never named the conversation to him in his
waking state. After trying the experiment two or three times, it destroyed his taste
for lemons and he had no desire for them and could not bear even the look of
them.
Now to the natural man. He ate no lemons; then why did he vomit from the effect
of eating? It may be said that it was my mind acting upon his. This was the case.
Now if my mind was not something, it could not produce an effect. So if my mind
is something what is it? It is my belief governed by my wisdom. So an idea is the
center of a belief. Now every idea that exists in the wisdom of man is in his mind,
as every idea of a plant is in the earth and every living idea that creeps on the
earth or dwells in the seas and every living thing that has form throws off an odor.
And every person is affected more or less by the things he sees. Now there is
another set of ideas just as real as the former which the world makes no account
of, yet, they are of all things the most wicked and dangerous, from the fact that
they can't be seen by the natural man's mind, and yet, they are in us, living on
our very lives and devouring our substance of happiness and we know it not.
Now settle this one thing, that ideas that cannot be seen are as real as those
which can be seen; then man can account for his troubles as easily as he can
account for injuries caused by an accident on a railroad or steamboat or any evils
that we are subject to and he can learn how to avoid them.
Some ideas contain no intelligence because the author puts none in them, others
do and the ignorant know no difference between them. Take the light of a lamp.
When Caspar Hauser saw the light of a candle, he expressed joy and put his
finger in the light, but as soon as it burned him, he drew it out and cried like a
child, although he was 17 years of age. Now the idea candle to him contained no
harm, but to those who knew it would burn him, it contained heat.
So after he was burned, he was afraid. Now suppose a person has put into the
idea candle the idea poison. The idea poison to the boy would be like the candle
before he put his finger in it. To him it contained nothing but a name poison. Now
explain the nature of poison and make him believe that his finger would be liable
to become diseased, that it would spread all over the body and finally kill him,
and a combined idea enters his mind. But suppose you take some simple
remedy and tell him if he applied it to the burn, it may stop the disease. Here you
make an idea poison and the idea is as real as the light. Now the idea poison is
in the light. Every time he sees the light, he sees the poison. Now until he is rid of
the idea poison, he is liable to be affected in case he should be burned by the
light. This is a fair illustration of all these ideas of disease. The natural world has
in it all sorts of living identities from the vegetable to the animal, and every one
throws off an odor. And before man became acquainted with the real properties
of the odor, ignorance, superstition and error introduced other ideas and
associated them with the thing that had an existence in the natural man or error.
And not knowing how to account for all the sensations of the odors, the false
mode of reasoning called knowledge sprang up. So now there is not an odor
from anything but that there is a lie attached to it in the form of an opinion.
These opinions become a part and parcel of the original idea, so as man
receives the one, he is affected by the other. Now the odor from the false idea
contains the knowledge, so that every idea that contains knowledge, you may
know is a lie, for the true idea contains nothing but a sensation. So in fact does
the false idea, but the knowledge is in the odor of the lie and not in the odor of
the real. For instance the word consumption is like a flower that throws off an
atmosphere, but the atmosphere is different from the flower in this respect. The
odor from the flower contains the bush but no language. The idea of consumption
contains all the horror of death. All this is language. So if a person does not know
the meaning, all he sees is the bush or skeleton from which this odor arises. Now
make him acquainted with the disease and then he stands exactly as the boy
does to the light when he is made to believe it contained poison. So the idea
consumption contains all the knowledge of its locality and the symptoms, in fact
all the varieties of changes that man toes through after he thinks he has it. The
symptoms are like the burn and the remedies are not equal to the disease. So
those that are affected by the symptoms are so excited that the idea remedy is
not sufficient to produce the cure. Now apply this theory and you have a
touchstone to test the true idea from the false. And the analyzing of the false idea
destroys the effect and health is the result.
1863
Disease and Sickness
BU 44:15, LC 9:251
When we speak of disease, we confound cause and effect together, yet we all
speak of cause and effect as separate. Still when we speak of disease, we really
admit them as one. Now sickness is as separate from disease as cause is from
effect, and this confounding the two together prevents us from understanding the
true philosophy of sickness. Sickness is what we feel and complain of, and
disease is what we call the cause. There is sickness without any apparent
disease, yet we call the sickness disease. How often do we hear this remark,
Your disease is nervous or general debility. Now all names of disease embrace
cause and effect as one. The same error is seen in all religions. Jesus Christ is
one, yet they are no more one than the sickness and disease. Jesus is the man
and Christ is the God or Wisdom, and the natural man makes them one, as he
does sickness and disease, but science separates one from the other.
The law is a representative of the natural man; the Gospel or Science, that of the
spiritual man; so what the law or natural man cannot explain by their arguments,
science, coming through the natural man and putting an end to his common
sense or reason, introduces a higher law or reason and appeals to the higher
element or Christ. Now all disease is of the lower element of man and must be
reasoned out by the higher element. The higher element is the Christ or the God
manifested in man. This is the element by which science will judge the world of
opinion in righteousness and it holds every word responsible to it. Therefore
every idle word must give an account of its meaning and receive its reward for
good or evil. All science does the same and error must give way.
Now sickness and sorrow is what Christ is to destroy; it makes war with our
"common sense" for "common sense" is not wisdom but what man believes. But
wisdom is what he knows and this wisdom knows that "common sense" is man's
reasoning from false premises upon what he has no real wisdom of, only as an
opinion. I will give one illustration to show how we reason and are affected by this
false idea of sickness and disease. A person feels a slight sensation in the chest.
I will suppose that the person has no idea what it is. Now the feeling is the
sickness. No disease is there; the cause not being known to the patient, he is in
trouble. Now if a person that had the true wisdom should feel the trouble, he
would know the cause and relieve the fears of the patient and there would be an
end of the trouble. But if they should send for one of those blind guides or
doctors whose wisdom is based on someone's opinion, he would give some
name of some evil spirit or disease (which is the same thing) that has gotten hold
of the patient.
Now fear takes possession of the sick person, and the fear and sickness being
wedded, they give birth to a child called congestion of the lungs. This is called
after its father or physician. Now the patient becomes the medium of this evil
spirit whose father was a liar and the truth was not in him. Now these two having
one flesh, the patient will answer when asked what ails you, My sickness is
congestion of the lungs. Here the sickness and disease are one. Now I have to
separate the one from the other. I know the patient is sick, this I admit, but the
devil or disease I say is a lie and is in the mind, for it troubles the sick person, but
it has no effect on me I know it to be a lie. I feel the sickness, but the fright
caused by this devil does not frighten me. So my practice is to reason (not to
argue) to convince their senses, not their "common sense," for their "common
sense" is the reason for this evil spirit or doctor's belief. So if I destroy the evil or
cast it out by the science of wisdom, then the cure will stand, but if I cast out the
devil by Beelzebub or medicine or some hocus pocus, then my kingdom being
based on a lie cannot stand, and the disease may return and take possession of
the patient.
Now Jesus saw the working of the priests, for they pretended to cure, and they
did, for disease partook of the belief of the patient. Leprosy was an evil spirit
which the priests created and the priests could destroy it when no application
could. So when the priests controlled the minds, they created a class of evils that
they gave names to, that they could control. But after Jesus began to cure, the
priests lost their power over the sick and it passed into the hands of another
class. Now all evils are the result of false reasoning and can never be remedied
till the same principle is applied to all science, not to let an opinion have any
sway over your minds. Let an opinion be looked upon as it ought to be, just what
a man thinks, not what he knows.
The beasts are sick yet they have no fear of opinion, but I have no doubt that
they are affected by man and they suffer and die when, if they could be left to
themselves, they would get over their trouble. A great many think that I believe all
disease is of the imagination, but this idea is wrong. I always admit the sickness,
for that is what I feel and that is real, but the disease is another idea that I deny
as having any identity outside of the mind or belief. There are certain ideas of
nature that we all admit as having identities: beast, bird, and every living thing,
trees, and all creations of wisdom, but to wisdom they are nothing but ideas. So
man by his error has created images of things that never had an existence
outside of his superstitious mind. These are just as real to man as the things
wisdom has created. The difference is that wisdom's creation is for our own
happiness and man's invention is for our misery. These are the two worlds, and
to get into God's kingdom is to get out of man's kingdom. This is the new birth
and blessed and happy is he that understands it, for on such the opinions of man
have no power.
1863
Elements of Progress, Aristocracy, Freedom, Conservatism &
Abolitionism
BU 164:16, LC 6:19
The elements of political parties are the agents of wisdom, unintelligent and
irresponsible in what they do. A child contains them all. Beginning as a blank, its
first development is aristocracy or a desire to be free itself and rule others. The
next is to be free from all arbitrary restraint. These acting together bring out
another element called conservatism and reason. Neither of these is intelligent.
The child and the brute alike contain aristocracy and freedom, for they are the
action and reaction of the simplest capacity. Two animals when first placed
together commence to fight, simply to see who will be master. At length one is
overpowered and submits to the superior. The conquered becomes the slave and
in him commences the element of abolitionism. The desire to throw off the yoke
of servitude makes him envious, fretful and often rebellious until he has either
gained his freedom or become submissive in slavery. He then loses his bold,
defiant appearance and becomes dull and depressed. Living in these elements of
master and slave, animals and birds leave their oppressors and go where they
can enjoy their freedom. This discord is always working to bring about emigration
in the animal kingdom so that the whole earth shall be peopled and the design of
creation be fulfilled.
Man to a certain extent is governed in the same way. His first act is to rule and
his oppression destroys freedom and causes emigration. Yet, when prepared to
receive it, he is also subject to a higher element called science. Every element in
nature exists in man, but he believes them to be intelligent. Heat and cold cause
expansion and contraction in nature. In man, they are found under the names of
tyranny and freedom and are thought to contain wisdom. In politics, their names
are anti and pro-slavery, and in religion, Unitarianism and Calvinism. In nature,
these elements act as follows. The cold lays its icy hand on the earth
commanding the soil to cease producing and the light and warmth of the sun to
be shut off. Then heat is held by the hand of ice and life is extinguished in death,
till heat which cannot be long confined commences to expand. Both are now at
work, one to hold the other and the other to keep from being held.
To show how they act in man, I must illustrate by children. When two children
come together, the first element excited is aristocracy. Their combativeness is
aroused and they contend for the mastery of each other. Finally it is received;
then the aristocracy of the conqueror rises in its might and the vanquished is
bound. The slave now develops the abolitionist element and seeks to free itself
from the arbitrary rule of the other. Again they quarrel and in their struggle, the
parent interferes, introducing a fourth element, conservatism. Here commences
reason in man; conservatism, assuming to know more than the combatants,
reasons with them, and as it expands, it takes possession of both, regulating and
equalizing their position towards each other. Aristocracy, unwilling to be on an
equality with freedom seeks means to gain some advantage, but conservatism
holding the balance of power checks the attempt. At length, it succeeds in
encroaching and then it declares war with freedom to get possession of the
masses.
The masses or democracy is the lowest form of freedom and the leaders who
constitute the arbitrary power try by argument and falsehood to gain the influence
of the masses who are the strength of political parties. The radical aristocracy,
having no principle and only a name, appeal to the democracy in one way while
the more liberal party address themselves to a higher state of mind. The former
having no higher gain than political power labor to appear the friends of the
people and are very liberal in certain rights, when in reality they are forging
bands for their degradation.
These same elements are seen acting upon man in disease. But freedom having
no party, the leaders of aristocracy (the medical faculty) decide on the means to
be used to keep the democracy (or man) in their power. So they quarrel about
the different modes of practice with as much bitterness as political demagogues.
All admit disease as leaders admit the necessity of two parties and hence the
necessity of doctors, and they through their belief in disease rule the people by
their opinions as much as politicians control the people by political craft. The
masses cannot believe that doctors are of no use, for so long as they admit
disease, they will take medicine. Just so in politics. The necessity of two opposite
parties make the people believe in their leader and thus they become the tool of
politicians. The leaders of all sects and parties rule the people, for aristocracy
always rules democracy in religion, politics and disease. Aristocracy- is
represented in disease, freedom in health, and man is democracy or the element
to be acted upon. Creeds, parties and beliefs start up aristocracy and all have the
effect to keep freedom down. Having come out from both elements, I will address
myself to conservatism, for that contains the other two and can be guided by
wisdom, while the other two cannot be immediately acted upon by wisdom. Every
person contains these three elements in various combinations.
I will illustrate these by a steam boat. The steam acting on the piston and the
ship struggling to be free represents freedom. The mooring is aristocracy and he
who cuts the cable is the conservative element under the direction of freedom.
Then freedom bounds into the ocean of progression guided by the science of
God in the captain or pilot. Here are the three. Two contain no intelligence, yet
they act in harmony with the principles of wisdom. The third has knowledge of the
other two and can be guided by wisdom, still it is ignorant how wisdom combines
the three. All will admit that neither the ship nor the steam contained intelligence
and the same with the mooring, but the man who, obeying orders, looses the
ship and lets her go is of a higher order. These three were in action when Jesus
appeared. Men like barges were moored on the sea of idolatry and superstition.
Some like Paul, driven by the wind of conservatism toward the rocks of bigotry,
while others drifting towards the ocean of wisdom sought to be free. Then amidst
the fury of the struggle, they heard a voice say to the winds and waves, Be still
and there was a calm and wisdom took possession of their barges. Every person
is like a vessel governed by some intelligence superior to the elements of the
vessel.
A sick man is like a vessel in a fog with the wind in shore and she in danger of
going onto the rocks. He is moored in his belief which is a sea of danger. The
doctor comes to assist him out of the difficulty and start him on the road to health,
as a pilot goes on board ship to put her out to sea. Sitting by him, he feels his
pulse to find how much confidence he has in getting him out of his difficulty. He
asks his symptoms and then looking very wise, he tells him he is in very great
danger and great care and attention must be used to prevent the disease from
spreading, just as a pilot would give a captain a detailed account of the dangers
and difficulties he must meet in going to sea. The doctor then leaves the patient
with many orders and much medicine to his belief. The patient takes the opinion
into his mind and the medicine into his body and they both result in a convulsion
of the latter. The ship sails according to the direction of the pilot and the first thing
heard is breakers ahead and then all hands to the pump. Having pumped out the
water, she is tossed and rocked by the gale till the wind dies away and a dead
calm follows. The voyage is given up till the ship is repaired. The sick man
controlled by the knowledge of the doctor shows changes and symptoms which
are doctored as fast as they appear, till all remedies fail. A complete prostration
ensues and he is left to nature that she may recuperate. A dissatisfaction is felt
among the friends of the sick and some are bold enough to say if he had never
employed a doctor, he would not be in the state he is. A council is held and I am
sent for, not that they have any confidence in my scientific knowledge, but they
consider me more as an agent of nature than the physicians. They employ me as
the captain employs a mechanic to repair the bad effect of the breaches and
strains.
When I come, I find by the man that his real trouble is in his mind. Believing
himself to be in great danger, he sent for a doctor and told him his sufferings and
the doctor, ignorant of his trouble, brought him into his present state. Here comes
in my peculiar way of reasoning to make him see that what I say is true. Medical
authority admit that symptoms indicate a disease and I know them to be wholly
the effect of their belief and theory. So when I commence proving this truth, the
aristocratic parties rally round disease with their various beliefs and opinions and
oppose the course I take with every species of insult and contempt. This truth by
which I correct the sick of their errors and cure their disease is hated by
aristocracy, despised by freedom and laughed at by conservatism.
Consequently, I am opposed by the whole world. I have said that every one
contains the two opposite elements of tyranny and freedom. But few contain
conservatism, for that is born of the other two and indicates a higher capacity. It
can be changed and acted upon by wisdom, for it can reason and see sides to a
question. Unlike the other two, it does not require physical force to control it. That
is only necessary among the brutes who, containing only the two first, bring forth
an inferior element which answers for conservatism but is not refined enough to
receive science. Man is composed of five elements: tyranny and freedom which
are not intelligent, conservatism which is capable of becoming a medium for
intelligence, and science and wisdom which act upon conservatism to develop
man.
Every person by his acts and reason shows which combination governs him. A
man governed by aristocracy is governed by freedom, and his conservatism,
containing more of the former than freedom, he will be set in his ways. He will
give his opinion as truth and pretending to liberal thinking will bind himself with
the fetters which he himself has forged. Such a man never reasons from
principles but always from creed or party. He will have an excellent memory for
his belief but no appreciation of principles. Neither can he understand a scientific
man who reasons from the basis of wisdom and, independent of established
opinions and facts, applies universal truths to all sorts of philosophy. For
instance, the truth that all men are born free and equal, carried out by scientific
reasoning regardless of human interests, would show that oppression lives in
obstructing freedom. The mechanical powers, weight and velocity, are not
capable themselves of intelligent action, but they work out a combined force
which is the power to be used and guided by a wisdom superior to itself. A
stream of water with no obstructions represents the natural undeveloped man or
the brute. Now let it be obstructed. Then the element of freedom, backed by
pressure, struggles till the obstruction is removed. The idea dead weight or blank
acts as a stumbling block and when freedom or motion encounters it, one or the
other must give way. Often both elements keep up an action till the obstacle in
the way of freedom is overcome. This holds good in all revolutions and it has
truly been said that revolutions never go backwards, for these antagonistic forces
break down all opposition. They dissolve all matter, making it a simple element
that can be condensed and dissolved by science.
In philosophy, the obstacles are in the questions discussed. Slavery is a
stumbling block in the stream of progression. But the fountain of liberty will force
the tide of public opinion through the wilderness of slavery till every obstacle in its
way is overcome. Like the waters of the Mississippi, it will overflow the land of
slavery and sweep away everything opposing it. This is the action of the primary
principles of nature. Now parties are agitated by the stream of liberty. And as in
the overflowing of a prairie, the fear of destruction rouses conservatism which
seeks to stop the tide of progression or bank up the low places so that the
stream, in flowing, shall not desolate the whole country. Differences of opinion
naturally arise as to the aim and result of the revolution. Some, seeing nothing
but ruin, run from fear. Others throw themselves recklessly into the gulf and are
carried along by the stream of progression, while others try to dam up the
fountain, not thinking the reaction will overflow the dry land. And when the floods
pass upon the obstruction, the stream bursts out, overflows and destroys all the
inhabitants which are slavish ideas. Then the water of freedom becomes calm,
the storm is over and peace is restored. This is a representation of man as we
see him. All nature is embraced in the working of these elements. The power that
gives direction is another principle. When it comes from their uniform action, it
acts in harmony with itself; but when guided by a superior power from God, it
becomes the spirit of man. It then contains life and reason and herein
commences the knowledge of man.
I have said that freedom is kept bound by tyranny. A war is the result, not that
freedom makes war, but tyranny aims at oppressing freedom, and this brings out
conservatism and introduces a higher power. Conservatism is not the higher
power; it contains reason, but that is no part of it. It is a medium or middle ground
where the higher and lower elements of man meet and show by reason their
comparative force. Therefore, science enters but error always precedes it and
misleads the mind. Conservatism never fights; it dislikes commotion and cries
peace to the conflict of opposing parties. A person in whom conservatism is
predominant is not impulsive but lukewarm. He is satisfied with himself, cares not
for the liberty of others and knows not if he is oppressed. Conservatism aims at
harmony and employs various inventions to obtain it. Hence, differences of
opinion arise and parties spring up. One, sympathizing with the lower part of
man, appeals to aristocracy, while the other, belonging to the higher element,
appeals to science. Every person contains the arguments of both, so each party
hoping to command the average opinions invents false issues to satisfy
conservatism that it is right. This condition of things is well illustrated by the
present rebellion. Freedom can never make war; otherwise it binds itself and
ceases to be freedom. But aristocracy, which lives by oppressing, makes war
that it may live and its life is its destruction. As freedom like heat expands,
oppression seeks to subdue it. Therefore it requires more power which it uses
like a garment to cover its iniquity. And when freedom grows and occupies more
space, oppression tries to cover it with its mantle which is found to be too short.
Both now come into the domain of conservatism and aristocracy demands more
territory that it may enlarge its bounds. Science opposes this and a fight takes
place; then both parties set forth their arguments and issues to gain
conservatism. Aristocracy assumes that slavery is a divine institution and its
destruction will involve the downfall of governments and societies. The opposite
party denies that freedom was ever intended to be governed by aristocracy. But
instead of settling this principle, false issues spring up which give another
direction to their arguments. Aristocracy says that Liberty commenced the war
and they try to prove it in all they say. If they succeed in convincing conservatism
that this is the case, then every kind of deception will be used to make the party
obnoxious to the people. So that when the rebellion is ended, they shall rally on
this idea and can convince the people who pay the taxes that their trouble was
brought upon them by the liberal party. But if the rebellion is put down by those
who understand the real cause of the war, this very party who commenced the
war, the slavery party, who try so hard to shirk out of the responsibility, is dead
as far as African slavery is concerned.
This same progress is carried out in man in the action of the medical theory.
When a person is sick, the first thing done is to call a physician who, being of the
aristocracy, is the ruling element which is slavery and he favors disease or
rebellion. Having the fighting powers under his control, he employs them
according to medical direction.
Now as freedom from the medical faculty is spreading, the government uses
every means to crush any attempt to free man from this cursed tyrant disease
which alone benefits the aristocracy and keeps the masses poor and sick to pay
the taxes. New parties now come up who try to divide the people. Under them,
many desert their masters and declare themselves independent of all medical
power. Yet, though they have worked out their own freedom, they believe in
disease for others. Now I introduce myself among the masses as having come
out from all sects; therefore I am a target for all of them. Knowing my position, I
do not, like those called reformers, destroy the law but I appeal to the intelligence
of the sick without. I strike at its very root and I destroy the foundation of disease.
I assume the position that disease is not a divine creation, that its origin is not in
principles of justice, love or any of the attributes of God but that it is an invention
of man in his error and, like all slavery, it is for the benefit of the aristocratic few. I
also affirm that man was made free and subject to no arbitrary laws, but that he
has bound himself and enslaved the masses. The sick like the masses are held
in bondage by the aristocracy. Not only do they submit to the yoke and consent
to be led blindfold, but they even kiss the hand that has defrauded them of their
native rights.
To oppose this deception, I have to contend with great obstacles. In the first
place, all men who believe in disease admit a belief that disease is a punishment
sent from God upon those who disobey some law. Consequently, all those who
undertake to live free from law are in danger of punishment. Disease is a great
advocate for law when it does not prescribe restrictions on its power, just as
those in favor of slavery believe in supporting the laws which seem to favor the
rebellion. Law must be so framed that it will sustain slavery to gain their support.
So it is will disease. All laws that uphold disease must be obeyed. When sitting
by the sick, I am a complete abolitionist for I oppose all laws made to keep man
well. This must seem to make one radical, but when understood, I am not so but
rather a conservative. The radical breaks down all law and obligation, leaving the
people without principle or reason and he wants to impose his belief on the
world. To all such, I am opposed; then of course I am a radical.
Jesus opposed radicals of every kind and urged the people to sustain the laws,
while he warned them not to believe in the doctrines. As I have said, I never
destroy the law. I destroy its foundation as an arbitrary power and then it rests
easily where otherwise it bound. I never tell a man that he imagines his sickness
and only thinks himself diseased when really he is not. According to this very
truth I am trying to explain, disease is what follows an opinion. And when a man
says he has the heart disease or liver complaint, I do not deny it in one sense. I
do not admit the disease and tell him he has not got it, but I affirm that the
disease is in his belief and his belief is in error. If he says I believe I have the
heart disease, then he tells what he really believes and his feelings are the literal
proof of his belief. This is the only way I reconcile the truth which denies disease
with its real existence. But to acknowledge disease and deny the symptoms is to
contradict myself.
Men take medical opinions as something existing outside of the minds, where all
opinions originate, as though diseases were independent things living by
themselves. And doctors, admitting this, try to drive them away but not to destroy
them. They do not believe in annihilation. I do believe in the total annihilation of
the wicked or false opinions. Therefore, I oppose all religious and moral laws
which oppress the masses. Would I destroy all law and obligation that keeps
society together? By no means; I would go as far as any man to sustain the laws.
Still I cannot believe them to be of God. And I will use all the means God has put
into my power to expose hypocrisy and redeem man from the law, not by
violence, but by teaching him the religion that will purify him from all errors so
that he may live in scientific truth, believing only in one loving and true God who
will render to every one according to his acts. To show more clearly how I
oppose all laws, I will describe the course I have to take with a patient who has
been made to believe by the doctors that he has the heart disease. If the patient
believes the doctor, he believes himself guilty of disobeying some law whose
punishment in his case is imprisonment in heart disease. I come to him and by
finding his prison know what he is accused of, for every man is imprisoned in his
belief either under sentence or under suspicion of some offense.
I take the ground that God never made a belief. A belief is of man and is intended
to satisfy him instead of true wisdom. If God ever spake, he spoke the truth which
liberated men and bound him with no obligations. When man speaks, he always
tells a lie; that is, in explaining a phenomenon, he imposes a belief and invents
opinions which blind people to truth. Science is the voice of God, opinions that of
man. So when man speaks in his own knowledge, he gives an opinion; but when
he tells a truth, that is of God. Now man is under the law of men. And the
Science of God having no place in him, he is condemned by his own laws, which
are declared by those, wise in their own conceit, to be the laws of God, to oppose
which is blasphemy. I do oppose them and sometimes I meet with great
opposition, for my mode of treatment being entirely new, it is difficult to make
myself understood. I do not work in a belief. I work on an element in man,
susceptible to a wisdom that is invisible and unconscious to the natural man. To
me, it contains the real man; it is the casket or prison of man's belief.
Our belief has two bodies: a natural and a spiritual one. I will use the same
illustration in heart disease to bring them out. If the belief takes a visible form and
if after the patient dies the heart is found enlarged, this proves that he was killed
by a disease. But if on the other hand the examination shows the heart to be
unchanged, then the verdict is he died of imagination. To me the disease is the
same in both cases and it is a deception in either. We are affected more or less
by a story which we hear, thinking we believe it. But if no effect follows our belief,
it shows that we only admit it in our knowledge and do not form it in the mind.
The mind which receives impressions from matter partakes of the earthly man,
but it also receives impressions from the spiritual elements which cannot be seen
by the natural man, nor are they acknowledged by him except as imagination.
This is the condition of a person whom the world calls dead. The ideas of death,
life and matter all die to the natural man when the body ceases to breathe, but to
me that element that is acted upon by an unseen power contains man's senses
which are transferred from the visible form. Every person is in this higher element
where all the senses live, but their belief, like darkness, keeps them all their
natural life in ignorance of it and in bondage through fear of death, for the
element is completely under the control of our belief. If we believe in spirits, we
can condense them into the form of our belief and this we take as proof that there
are spirits and are affected accordingly. The medical faculty also by their belief
act on it when attached to the body. They by their power over this medium
condense their belief into a disease and show the form to prove the truth of their
assertions.
The trouble lies in our ignorance of this invisible element of matter which is a
medium for science to develop wisdom. As every idea of man emanates from the
great fountain of wisdom, they are sown in this element like seed in the ground
and come forth as the child of wisdom, whose mother material it clings to, as the
plant clings to the mother earth, thinking that it contains life. This medium being
the offspring of freedom and slavery, the child looks upon them as his parents
and at first it is guided by the chemical action of these forces, but as it grows in
the wisdom of God, it casts off the two earthly elements and puts on that of
wisdom. This is not always done at death for it represents progression and that is
not stayed by death. This element, I have before said, is what I work upon in the
curing of disease, for disease is the disturbing of the three. Aristocracy being the
father, freedom or the mother wishes to rid herself of oppression and thus comes
the child in the element of conservatism and this mingles with the wisdom of
God. All these represent a garden in which the child of science is placed to
control the brutal force of the two first elements. So the war is carried on in the
natural element but controlled by the higher.
Every person shows to the world the element which rules him by his acts to
himself, in his belief. Freedom which is God-like in man, like heat, will melt down
the cold hand of oppression which tries to bind it. Thus a constant chemical
action between the two is kept up and this coming in contact with each, forms
that state of conservative heat, not too hot nor too cold, but a condition like
summer, ready to produce the fruits of Science, while the extremes of heat or
cold are produced by false reasoning. This was the wilderness that Moses
passed through on his journey from Egyptian darkness to the land of Science.
The natural element of man is freedom, but in his ignorant state, it is a condition
of darkness, filled by its enemy tyranny with countless terrors and superstitions
intended to frighten man into subjection. Of this early condition, every man is a
representative inasmuch as he is in error and under the law. The land of error
being common property, every one claims the right of exploring it. So some study
opinions and others become the apostles of freedom. Man reasons from
shadows and therefore sees everything reversed, so that his first premise which
is that oppression is the first step in progression is false, for it is an element
created by freedom. Freedom is motion and motion creates resistance, so that
resistance to progression is a natural result, like reaction. Man in ignorance of
this admits these two elements and tries to believe them intelligent and then to
him progression becomes an enemy to oppression. By false reasoning, men
have taken elements for knowledge and try to fight against them through their
blindness. All reasoning is based upon the false foundation that progression is
wrong and dangerous, and it must be kept in check by an aristocracy which
thinks it has the power to say to the tide, Thus far shall thou go and no further. In
opposition to this false mode of reasoning is freedom, which expanding into
liberty creates an opposition that checks it till it contracts to a certain extent. Still,
the fire of freedom burns in the bosom of men, saying to the iron hand of slavery,
"Stay your course," which is the working of the two elements.
Light is liberty, darkness is slavery. The aristocratic mind chooses darkness
rather than light because his thoughts are evil, while the scientific mind comes to
the light to prove all things. They are like two hostile armies into which errors
creep like spies. Conservatism is when they press against each other and into
which corruption is thrown by the commotion of these two opposing forces. In this
chaos or purgatory, all political refuse is found and here is where direction is
given to both parties. Both claim to be friends to harmony, but by their acts, they
are known. One class opposes progression while the other opposes aristocracy.
Each is ignorant of the true issue which they oppose. One fights against God and
Liberty, the other fights against that party. Liberty requires no fighting, it is
universal; and like a consuming fire, it will burn up every root and stubble that is
thrown in its way. Checking it only creates more force, like checking the power of
steam while the fire is burning, it will burst out again with more force.
Let leaders and statesmen settle down on the fact that freedom is from a divine
principle emanating from widsom; then no monarch can say, Thus far shall thou
go and no further, without being crushed. Then man learning wisdom will cease
to fight against God. And he will lay down the weapons he has created to destroy
himself. The false idea that to oppress is right and freedom wrong is the error
which has caused all the wars since the world began. It has made disease
popular. Error has become God, ignorance bliss and misery the common lot of
all. It has spread all over the civilized world and wisdom alone can see that when
the field of politics is swept by the fire of freedom, its wicked generation must
end. Like foxes of old, the political leaders will run through the field of slavery,
destroying their own subsistence. And seeing what they have done, they will
desert their parties and flee into a foreign land. Their fields will pass into the
hands of those who, having silenced the noise of the cannon, will turn their
weapons into plowshares and will cultivate the ground in the name of the one
living and true principle of progression.
To apply the foregoing to the curing of disease, it is necessary to introduce a
character higher than the elements I have mentioned and one which they do not
recognize. I call it a new mode of reasoning. It is the true and living wisdom of
God manifested in this third susceptible element in man. Without father or
mother, it is not born of slavery or freedom but exists from everlasting to
everlasting without beginning or end. It has been likened unto the leaven that
leaveneth the whole lump. It has been called the Messiah and the bread of life.
David called it wisdom and prayed to it as the Good Shepherd. It is that which
every scientific man worships. This character is in the world guiding the destinies
of nations and individuals and they know it not. To bring it to the understanding of
man is to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth and this causes all warfare,
human and moral. Man's health and happiness depend on his knowledge of this
character, which to him is a good shepherd. And his disease and misery come
from his having fallen in with wolves who, fed by superstition, stand ready to kill
the shepherd and devour the sheep. In other words, blind superstition stands
ready to destroy every scientific truth as soon as it is born or believed.
To know how this character enters man's house or belief is to see its hypocrisy
and craft in argument, its cunning in reason. Follow me into the sick room of any
patient and there see this subtle enemy of mankind hissing and turning the
countenances into every shape and exhibiting every kind of hypocrisy. It may all
be honest for the devil may assume an angel's temper and he is as honest as
men are towards the sick. Listen to these human devils advocating disease in
religion, politics and medicine and see them loose their hold on man as I make
war with them.
The first question I ask on entering a sick room is, Are you sick? The reply
comes, not from the voice of wisdom but from the officer who holds the keys of
life and death. Yes. He is very low and probably cannot stand it long, for his
disease is of that character that it is past the power of man to heal. Only the
Supreme Ruler can save him. This answer embodies the wisdom of its father the
devil who has made all his children believe that disease was sent by God upon
man to prepare him for a higher state. Having no respect for this hypocrisy, I
open my batteries upon it and am answered by a shower of abuse, for the devil's
philosophy has become as fashionable as secession at the South. It is said that I
do not believe there is any disease, that I set myself at defiance with divine
institutions and am opposed to the laws of God, and various other accusations
are made. Disease is the altar of the medical faculty. The priests prophesize
falsely, and the doctors bear rule by their craft; and the people, believing it right,
love to have it so.
Now when power and truth are united together by a principle of peace, they rush
to arms and a council is called. The sick are laid upon the altar as a sacrifice to
their belief and they argue and pray to God that he will not permit error to
flourish, also that he has shown his power and mercy in visiting the sufferer with
disease so that he shall be prepared to enter the kingdom of heaven. Thus
aristocracy is agreed that slavery is for the happiness of the slave and the patient
is sacrificed by false priests. In the presence of the multitudes, the parties arise;
freedom lights the fire and I listen to learn if, by their theory, the sacrifice can be
offered and the patient saved. They reason and offer opinions and wait. But the
fire of truth burns not and the victim lies wasting upon a bed while the scriptures
are searched to prove that they are doing the will of God. Finally patience is
exhausted and the sick one is given over to me; that is, the friends begin to put
confidence in what I say. Now I commence to build my altar and the first stone
laid is the truth that disease is the work of Satan. I then finish with the stones
from their altar, stating that the patient is sick according to their belief. Then
laying the patient on the altar to God, I cover him with the word or arguments and
kindle the fire of truth or show the absurdity of their reason. Their voices cry out,
Bind the leaders and cast them into prison that they shall no longer deceive the
people. Thus Satan's kingdom is divided against itself. As man begins to reason
from another starting point, different results are accomplished.
The false assertion that disease is in any way connected with God leads to
slavery which is opposed to every good thing. Slavery in mind or matter is of
Satan. Science will explain it so that man will free himself from the opinion of
priest and doctor and will allow their laws to stand as a warning to all generations
as they pass along through the world of progression. Then evil ideas which once
stood as truth shall be as a valley of dry bones, hated by all who see them. This
will be the fate of the leaders of all kinds of slavery who have deceived the
people through falsehood. This truth, springing like a phoenix out of the ashes,
has become a prince of peace and he will establish his kingdom in the hearts of
men. Then the devil in the form of religious and medical teachers will make war
on the principle of freedom. Every artifice will be used to set the minds against
science and every false belief will be appealed to in order to make a successful
false issue. For instance, certain political leaders say that if the North had done
right, this rebellion might have been avoided. Beware of such reasoning.
Remember that freedom never makes war but Aristocracy always begins a
quarrel, for if the reverse was true, then man could do evil that good may come.
But he who loves the truth says, Let God be true and every man a liar. In other
words, admit that Science is true and opinions false and then no one can arrive
at a truth by admitting an error. To acknowledge slavery right is to allow an error
that good may come. If the leaders can only establish the idea that the liberal
party began the war, then every thing will be brought up to make the Republicans
responsible for the war. But if the truth is established that freedom is the natural
condition of the mind and to oppose it and make war against it is fighting against
God and Science, then every person will be very cautious how they speak
against an institution that has caused so much bloodshed. Then a death blow will
be struck at its roots and all that is heard is the gnashing of its teeth in the
agonies of death. Its friends scattered throughout all the civilized world as
warnings to tyrants and it will become a byword and reproach among nations and
here endeth African Slavery.
White slavery or disease must go through the same process to meet its doom.
The weapons will be reason and the warfare will be carried on upon the platform
of intelligence. Its opposers will say to the party in favor of freedom, Go on, the
people are too ignorant to listen to the words of wisdom. We have such a hold on
the minds that they think their theory is as solid as a rock. But when the wind of
science blows upon it while they are eating and drinking or talking and preaching
their error, the storm will come and they will be swept away down the streams of
time into the gulf of despair. And like the swine, they will be swallowed up in the
ocean of forgetfulness. Before this takes place, men will doubt reason and
question. Opposition to the old faculty will spring up; different arguments will be
used till the idea that medicine must be used to cure disease is exploded. Parties
spring up opposing drugs but believing in disease, and finally this sin will be
denied. Then it will be a question to settle, Who invented disease or began it?
And beware how you admit that it is from God, for this doctrine will be urged on
the people. Abide by the truth that man is the inventor of the disease as he is of
African slavery.
1863
The First Cause
BU 101:12, LC 9:32
I will try to give an illustration of my First Cause. Wisdom is outside of everything.
Opinion is in wisdom, for wisdom fills all space. Therefore, it being all wise,
everything comes within itself. Opinion being in belief cannot be wisdom, for it is
liable to change. Now man is in one or the other of these two elements, wisdom
or opinion. Principles are wisdom reduced to science or practice. Laws are not
principles but are based on opinions that can change and they belong to man's
reasoning. Principles do not reason at all but are like rays of light. All the
principles of wisdom that are understood are like the points of a compass and
these we call cardinal principles.
Now man divides the globe into four quarters and the filling up of the points of
compass is to fill up the space, so that man knows more than the four points; so
with wisdom. The principles are so many that it is impossible to understand only
as we grow wise. Now man has an identity but the precise locality of it he does
not know. So as he believes in his identity, he forgets that he cannot see himself
only as he develops himself in his own belief. So principles having no matter, he
is lost when out of matter, for he has no idea of an existence in principle, yet he
is in wisdom all the time and his size is just in proportion to the progress he
makes in putting his wisdom into practice. The man, therefore, that believes in
matter as being the First Cause is always changing and is not aware of the
change, like the man who thinks everybody is changing and he is the only one
that stands still, when everything changes that goes to make up his identity but
the man.
This man you will find in politics. He is in the name, democrat, a fixed principle,
as he thinks, when it is the name of that kind of mortar that is always used to fill
up the breaches in progression. Yet it is mortar, though it is sometimes in bricks
and sometimes in the gutter and is used for everything. Yet it is democracy or
mortar. So man's wisdom is the democracy. His senses are attached to the name
and although the matter or mind is always changing, he is not changed, for the
change is not a part of him; he is nothing but the name. He is like a man who
lives in a city who is always ready to tell you where he lives, but of the growth of
the wisdom he is as ignorant as the mortar that is used to build the building; so
he never changes from the name. He knows no other change than what he sees
and as he sees the city grow, he never asks the cause. But when asked how
long he has been a resident of P, he says, I was born here and so was my father,
so his identity is in the name P, but the wisdom is to them a stranger. So when
he sees a man that has come to P that is posted up with the wisdom of
progression and he finds such a person rising, he looks around and says, I have
always been a resident of P, and this man comes among us from abroad. What
does he know? He is some renegade from some city or party; I am a long-lived
democrat or citizen of Portland.
Now the difference is: one lives in his ignorance and the other in progression. It is
the same with truth and error. One works out of opinion or matter into science,
while the other like the silk worm covers himself with the cloak of error till there is
no light in him. Now how can we show a man who believes he is in the light that
he is in the dark? And yet it is plain that he is in the light to him and to every other
person who believes as he does. Now when we admit that everything that can be
changed cannot be a principle, then we will see what man is made of. For
everything that we see changes: his hair, his skin, his weight and in fact
everything that goes to make up the man. So if everything changes, what does
not change? Principles. Now the man that is in the change thinks he is the same
man, although his mind or matter is continually going through a change. Now
what kind of a person is this that does not change? The man that knows he
exists outside of all these changes and sees the change as a man looks at the
skies and sees the clouds pass along and knows that they are nothing but wind.
So the change to this man is in the clouds, while the other is in the clouds and
sees the other looking at him, seeing him blown about by every wind of doctrine.
He says to the one that stands still, What makes you fly around so when he
himself is the one that is carried about and thinks he never changes, like a
drunken man who thinks everyone he meets is staggering, while he himself is the
one that staggers.
Now as the man of opinions is like the cloud, he is not aware of the darkness of
himself, so that as he becomes more rarefied he is not aware of the change but
thinks the change is in others. This is the state of the sick. They are in their
belief. This to them is as real as the cloud, but they, being ignorant that it is a
belief, make to themselves an image corresponding to their belief and think they
are outside of their belief and that the image is a real thing. I will illustrate.
Suppose a person comes to me to be examined. The person shows on his face
the marks of and appearance of humor. Now of course this is a fact and there is
no belief about it. Here is the fact before your eyes. So to everyone it is a truth,
and their wisdom does not admit it as a belief but as a thing they can see. Now to
show or pretend to convey to them that it is a belief and it is in their mind is to the
world absurd. Now as absurd as this may seem, this is what I have to do to cure
the person. I have to show them that all the foregoing is in the mind.
So now if you can see in your mind such a person sitting by me and that I am
trying to change their minds to destroy the humor, as it is called, if you will listen
to what I say, you will have some slight idea of how I cure a mind diseased. I
begin with the person after this manner.
(Dr.) You think you have a humor about you? (P.) I know I have. (Dr.) Well, I
don't dispute that you have an eruption on your face, but it is in your mind. (P.)
Do you think I imagine that I have a humor, that there is no such thing and that it
is all in my imagination? (Dr.) No, I admit the phenomenon, but I say it is in your
mind. (P.) I have no mind about it. I know it if I know anything. (Dr.) What is the
cause? (P.) I don't know, only the doctors say my blood is full of humor of a
cancerous nature, and also that I have scrofula. (Dr.) When did you get it? (P.) I
suppose I inherited it from my mother. (Dr.) Do you know certainly? (P.) No, only
I have been told so. (Dr.) Then this is a belief? (P.) Yes. (Dr.) I thought you said
you had no belief, you knew it. (P.) I do know that my face is all covered with
humor and I should be glad to get rid of it. (Dr.) Yet you say it is not a belief. Did
you not say you inherited it from your mother? Now which is true, the humor or
the belief? (P.) I know I have got the humor, but the belief I don't care anything
about. I can't see that my belief has anything to do with my humor. (Dr.) Can
there be an effect without a cause? (P.) Why, yes, I suppose my blood is out of
order for I know I am bilious. (Dr.) What is that? Do these things come without a
cause? (P.) No, but I don't know any cause for my humor. (Dr.) Then you say you
have no idea of the true cause? (P.) No, only I suppose my blood is not in a very
good state. (Dr.) What got it out of order? (P.) I can't tell, but heat I suppose,
working over the stove cooking. (Dr.) Now are you aware that you have proved
that all your trouble is in your mind?
1863
Introduction
BU 22:30, LC 9:160
PART 3
My object in introducing this work to the reader is to correct some of the evils that
flesh is heir to. During a long experience in the treatment of disease I have
labored to find the causes of so much misery in the world. By accident I became
interested in what was then called mesmerism, not thinking of ever applying it to
any useful discovery or benefit to man, but merely as a gratification for my own
curiosity. In this way I went into the investigation of the subject. Being a skeptic I
would not believe anything that my subject would do if there was any chance for
deception, so all my experiments were carried out mentally. This gave me a
chance to discover how far Mesmer was entitled to any discovery over those who
had followed him. I found that the phenomenon could be produced. This was a
truth, but the whys and wherefores were a mystery. This is the length of
mesmerism; it is all a mystery, like spiritualism. Each has its believers but the
causes are in the dark.
Believing in the phenomenon, I wanted to discover the causes and find if there
was any good to come out of it. At last I found that these phenomena of
themselves contained no wisdom, for they were like any phenomenon to be
accounted for by a higher power than was in the phenomenon. This led me to
investigate the subject, so in my investigation I found that my ignorance could
produce phenomena in my subject that my own wisdom could not correct. At first
I found that my own thoughts affected the subject, and not only my thought but
my belief. I found that my thoughts were one thing and my belief another. If I
really believed in anything, the effect would follow whether I was thinking of it or
not. For instance, I believed at the outset that mesmerism was governed by the
laws of electricity. This was a belief. So whenever I attempted any experiment,
the experiment was always in accordance with my belief, whether I was thinking
of it or not, the whole would follow. I believed that silk would attract the subject.
This was a belief in common with mankind. So if a person having any silk about
him, for instance a lady with a silk apron, the subject's hand would be affected by
it and the hand would move towards the lady even if she were behind him.
So I found that belief in everything affects us, yet we are not aware of it because
we do not happen to think. We think our beliefs have nothing to do with the
phenomena. Man is governed by his belief but his belief is not always known to
him so that often he thinks that the phenomenon has nothing to do with his belief,
when all the evil he suffers is from his belief.
Disease is one of the phenomena that follow a belief that we are not aware of.
But anything that is believed has an identity to those that believe it and is liable to
affect them at any time when the conditions of the mind are in the right state. For
instance, take the small pox. Everyone believes in the disease as a living truth.
Now those that have had it believe that they are not liable to have it a second
time. Now if it is really a fact to them they are safe, but everyone that never had it
is liable, according to their belief, so that it is not necessary that they should
know that it is in the same place; for minds are like clouds, always flying, and our
belief catches them as the earth catches the seeds that fly in the winds. All this I
found.
So my object was to discover what a belief was made of and what thought was.
This I found out by thinking of something my subject could describe so that I
knew that he must see or get the information from me in some way. At last I
found out that mind was something that could be changed, so as I believed that
nothing could produce no one thing, I came to the conclusion that mind was
something and I called it matter. For I found it could be condensed into a solid
and receive a name of a solid called "tumor," and by the same power under a
different direction, it might be dissolved and disappear. This showed me that man
was governed by two powers or directions: one by a belief, the other by a
science.
The creating of disease is under the superstition of man's belief. The cures have
been by the same remedy, proving that it takes the hair of the same dog to cure
the wound for the disease being brought about by a false belief. It took another
false belief to correct the first so that instead of destroying the evil, the remedy
created more.
I found that there is a wisdom that can be applied to these errors or evils that can
put man in possession of a science that will not only destroy the evil but will hold
up its serpent head, as Moses in the wilderness held up the errors of the religious
creeds in the form of a serpent, and all that looked upon his explanation were
cured of the diseases that followed their beliefs. So science will hold up these old
superstitious beliefs and theories, and all who will listen and learn can be cured,
not only of the disease that they may be suffering from, but they will know how to
avoid the errors of others.
I shall endeavor to give a fair account of my investigations and what I have had
to contend with and show how I succeeded. I have said many things in regard to
medical science but all that I have said was called out by my patients being
deceived by the profession. The same is true of the religious profession. Every
article was written under a very excited state brought about by some wrong
inflicted on my patient by the medical faculty, the clergy or public opinion. All my
arguments are used to correct some false opinion that has affected my patient in
the form of disease, mentally or physically. In doing this I have to explain the
Bible, for their troubles arise from a wrong belief in certain passages. And when I
am sitting by a patient, those passages that trouble them trouble me, and the
passage comes to me with the explanation and I, as a man, am not aware of the
answer until I find it out. So I cannot be responsible for the exact words, but the
meaning that the author had I feel certain I shall give. The exact language may
not be the same, for language is not used to convey the impression but our ideas
or things.
There is a wisdom that has never been reduced to language, for science that
never has been taught has never been described by language. The science of
curing disease has never been described by language, but the error that makes
disease is described and is in the mouth of every child. The remedies are also
described but the remedies are worse than the disease, for instead of lessening
the evil, they have increased it. In fact the theory of correcting disease is the
introduction of life.
I will now introduce myself as a mesmerizer with all the superstitions of a
powerful operator, for I had the name of being a very strong mezmerizer. I will
give my first experiment. The first trial was with another gentleman or a young
man. We all sat down and took hold of each other's hands. Then the gentleman
and myself placed our minds on the subject willing him to sleep. So we sat
puffing and willing him and forcing the electricity out of us into the subject till we
had filled him full according to our belief. Sometimes he would be so full that we
would have to make passes to throw it off. At last he came into the right state;
then as we had him between us, I wanted to know which had the most power
over him. So we sat him in the chair, and the gentleman stood in front of him and
I behind him. I willed my friend "B" and he tried to draw him out of the chair but
he could not start him. Then we reversed positions and I went in front and I drew
him out of the chair. This went to show that I had the most power or will. This
ended the first experiment. I then put him into a mesmeric state in less than five
minuties. Now as I was a new hand at the business, it became necessary to
know how to proceed. So after getting all the information I could obtain, I
commenced to try experiments. But I am now satisfied if I never had heard of a
mesmeric book nor had any ideas, I should never have had half the phenomena I
had, for I believed all I read and proved it by my experiments.
Here I will say a word or two to the reader. If you can make the reader believe
anything no matter how absurd it is, he will prove it to be true by his experiments.
This proves that our beliefs make us act and our acts are directed by our belief,
for the wisdom or knowledge is in the belief. People are not aware of this; this
was what Jesus tried to prove so all his acts and talk went to prove the truth of
what I have said. Make man responsible for his belief and he will be as cautious
what he believes as he is in what he says and does, for he will see that just as he
measures out to another just so it will be measured out to him. But does the
clergy follow this rule? Do they not dictate to their audience what to believe and
what not to believe without the least regard to their health? Now to suppose a
man can believe one thing and still have a contrary effect is not true.
If you make a person believe that he is in danger of any trouble he will be
affected just according to his belief, so all beliefs are to be analyzed like food or
drink to see what it contains and how it acts upon the body, for the belief being in
the mind, it shows itself on the body. When Jesus talked he had some object to
obtain for the happiness of man. But to suppose Jesus came from heaven to
destroy one error and establish another is to suppose that our beliefs alter the
wisdom of God or they make a man believe what he cannot understand to insure
his happiness in a world that is based on a belief. Now if I understand Jesus, I
understand him to condemn all beliefs and show that man is better off without a
belief than with one. This I will show. What good is it to me so far as I am
concerned whether I believe one thing or another if my belief does not affect my
life and if my belief affects my life I get the benefit or misery of my own belief, but
it does not alter the wisdom of God nor alter any of his plans. So if there is a
world beyond this, my belief cannot change it, but my belief may change me. So
if Jesus had no higher motive than merely to introduce a belief, then he was like
all others that wanted to establish his own peculiar views or beliefs. Now there
was a certain class of people who believed that when a man died he would lie in
the grave or sea or somewhere till the end of the world, and then he would rise or
the particles would be reunited into a body and he would rise. Now according to
the people's belief of our days, Jesus came to change this belief so he said if
they would believe what he said they should never die and he that believeth,
although he be dead yet shall he live, for he said, "I am the resurrection and the
life and he that believeth in me shall never die." Now according to the
interpretation of this, if Jesus ever found a believer, he must be alive and also
those that were dead could believe. Now how does this last sentence agree with
what he said when asked by the Pharisees about the resurrection and he said as
touching the dead, God is not the God of the dead but of the living. Now Jesus
never meant to speak of what we call death; his death was sin or error. The life
was in your wisdom and to lose your opinions and find his truth was life, not
death. The wisdom that taught this did not embrace the words life and death. The
old Scriptures never talked of death, for their religion was confined to their lives,
and when they died, this was an end of them. So they believed in a God, but God
required man to obey him here and he punished them here and rewarded them,
but he never had any other world until about the time of Jesus. Then it was with a
very few and their belief was so much in the dark it had but little effect on the
world. Here is a point that seems to slip the minds of the people of these days
and they think he came to introduce a new doctrine, but he says, "I came not to
bring peace," etc. Matthew 10.
1863
Is the True Issue of the Rebellion before the People?
BU 126:1, LC 7:47
[orig. untitled]
Is the true issue of the rebellion before the people? I say, No. The people are
arrayed against each other by false issues. Factions and parties have their idea
of the rebellion. One set contends that it is a war to emancipate the blacks,
another that it is for the constitution and the laws. The North is divided as they
always were for the benefit of the South; the North have no real national idea as
a body. The Southern feeling runs through the North and there is a subservient
obedience to aristocracy and a sort of servile admiration of a Southern
gentleman as though he was superior to a Northern man.
Now the South have one idea that is outside of all the Northern party's feeling,
that is, Aristocracy or Slavery. To them the true issue of the rebellion is the
extension of slavery. To accomplish this is their sole aim, and for this the North is
at loggerheads with each other. So false issues are started by the sympathizers
at the North. One is that the South want nothing but their rights, and the
abolitionists want to get away their slaves. This splits up the North and at this
time there are at the North two parties: one that sustains the administration and
the other that opposes it for the South, while the administration are really carrying
out the measures of its opponents.
The opponents of the administration say they are in favor of the constitution as it
is, and the union as it was, and accuse the President of going contrary to the
constitution. This is the Southern party. Now, where do they two differ? One party
sustains the President in putting down the rebellion outside of slavery and want
nothing at all to do with it. Then there is another party that sustains the President
but at the same time sees that its personal sympathy is to sustain the institution
of slavery. This creates a sort of irritation, for this class sees that the true issue of
the war is the extension of slavery. Now this is the true issue, and how stands the
country?
The administration goes to put down the rebellion. Now the rebellion contains two
issues: one at the North and the other at the South; therefore it requires two
parties. The Northern soldiers are employed to put down the rebellion without
having anything to do with slavery, but the Southern sympathizers at the North
try to instill the false idea that the war is to free the blacks, thus affecting the
prejudices of the officers and soldiers. They neutralize their feeling and
demoralize their order. This party are exclusively under the power of the
government. The other element, the blacks, are arrayed against the true issue,
the extension of perpetual bondage of their race.
As the one idea dies out of the administration, of crushing the rebellion and
saving slavery, the people get disheartened and say this course can never bring
about a peace. Then the element of freedom sets itself against that of slavery,
and at last every other side issue will be out of sight and the true issue that was
first started by the South will stand out. Then every person must choose between
slavery and death or freedom, for there never was any other issue at the South.
Now if the reader will stop and pause a few moments, he will see that the true
issue is the extension of slavery. Slavery is the true issue at the South. The party
that made war with it is like a little cloud, black, but increasing till the whole
heavens are black. Then the lightning will flash and the fire of revenge will fly
from one section to another till the whole heavens will be one vast element of
freedom. Then those who are in favor of slavery will flee into the mountains and
caves to hide themselves from the light that sets the world free. Those that sit in
darkness will see the light spring up and those that sit in the shadow of death will
be set free from the cursed evil, African slavery.
1863
Liberty and Equality
BU 44:20, LC 9:256
The idea that man is the result of a higher organization of matter and that there is
a gradual progression from the mineral to the animal kingdom is true in one
sense. But to suppose that man as we see him is superior to the brute or any
other living creature is not the case. Man is matter; so are the brutes and all living
creatures, and to say that one kind of matter has any superiority over any other
matter is false. You might as well say that the soil of California is more intelligent
than the soil of Maine. There is no wisdom in the soil of the globe or the soil of
man. Man is the soil and wisdom is the husbandman. Now there is a gradual
change from the mineral to the animal matter, for all are acted upon by wisdom
and as matter is always going through this change, wisdom uses it to develop a
truth.
As the earth is developed by man's wisdom for its own happiness, so the matter
that contains animal life is also developed. All minerals are sown in dross or
error, so truth being in matter, wisdom through itself in the form of science
develops the mind or matter of man. Not that the truth is a part of the man or
matter, but like the dross, is with it. Gold is not dross, nor matter wisdom. So
when we say we purify the gold, it is not strictly true, but we get rid of the dross
and leave the gold pure from the dross. So man is the dross and as we purify the
wisdom, we destroy the natural man and that leaves the true gold, or man of
science. Now the difference of opinions is this. In the development of matter,
error puts intelligence in matter. Wisdom does not. So one reasons from the
basis of matter, the other from science. Now every man contains these two
characters: one matter or opinions, the other science. So science and opinions
run along together like gold and dross or any metal and its dross. So wisdom in
every development has its dross and the dross of wisdom reasons like the dross
of every pure matter. These two principles are known in various characters as
freedom and liberty. Freedom is the development of matter, not of wisdom, but
the soil error or slavery is to stifle development. But as error is the character to
be destroyed, it forges its own weapons to destroy itself. Therefore all
progression begins in the element called matter or man.
To the natural man, its own act is not known and it fights itself like an insane
person thinking he is saving his friend. I will relate one instance to show how
error destroys itself. I was called to see a person that was sick. This person tried
to hang herself. She took a rope and ran for the woods, and just as she made the
rope fast around the limb of a tree, her husband caught her. Now she told me
that she thought her husband was going to hang himself and she was trying to
prevent him. Here you see through her own error she was trying to destroy
herself. So error in every instance is the first aggressor of its own destruction. All
slavery is black, the error is black, the truth is white and pure. Truth is not matter
but wisdom. Error is darkness. Darkness is not matter but a state of matter.
Matter like soil may be black or white. The color is one thing and the idea is
another. Now as I have said in some of my articles, a nation is like an individual,
so it seems that our country is a fair representative of the development of
wisdom. Now every one knows the controversy going on in regard to slavery, yet
no one has as yet put the idea of freedom on the basis of wisdom, but on the
basis of equality. Now equality is not freedom nor slavery but a mere matter of
taste. To put wisdom on an equality with error is to admit an opinion as good or
as wise as a scientific truth. The question is not whether the black man is as
good as the white or whether the white man is better than the black. With error
that is the question, and this false idea makes the trouble. Wisdom knows no
color; error knows nothing but color and as error has made war with itself, it has
bound itself. Now as the United States is the wisdom of the error, it has bound
itself and made war with its own house. So slavery is the result of a family quarrel
that wisdom has no part in. The children of Uncle Sam are fighting about the soil
that gave them life. The soil that has been cultivated is considered the most
intelligent, so as intelligence is called white, the white earth or matter is the most
intelligent. So the dark earth is only fit for the lower element of brutes. Now these
elements are warring against each other to see which shall rule over the other.
Out of the two comes another element that contends that one error is right and
the other wrong, that is, the black soil is just as good as the white, while the white
error contends the white is the most intelligent. Now wisdom stands outside and
speaks in this wise. There is no wisdom in either white or black for both are of the
earth. Now destroy the idea that man or matter contains any wisdom, then you
will make all men equal like the brutes. Now the brutes have their kind, and the
birds theirs, and so the Indians. Every race has its identity and are equal to
another race, but wisdom is not any part of their matter. Every race of man is like
a civilization, just as far as they have progressed from barbarism. The African
and Anglo-Saxon are mediums for wisdom to work through. So as you cultivate
the soil, it becomes more fruitful, and as the white soil is more fruitful, it is not the
soil but the wisdom that takes the praise; but the soil being the error it puts
wisdom in itself.
Now the black or wild matter not being cultivated is held by the white error as a
sort of soil for the brutal element, but as error never can keep still, it will always
make war with itself when it cannot injure wisdom. Now these elements have
their identity in individuals, so I shall bring them before you as persons reasoning
about the institution of slavery. I will introduce the two extreme ideas. Neither
reason from wisdom but both reason from opinions that are the result of their
ignorance of the true issue. Both put intelligence in matter. Here is one reason.
He believes that God is the father of all mankind, that he made no distinction of
color. The black and white are equal and to enslave the black is a sin, so he goes
for liberty and equality. This is the preaching of one set of men. Now as mind is
matter, reason and opinions are also matter. And our senses being attached to
matter or opinions, a reformation starts up, and the mind like the religious
element is excited and persons become fanatical and embrace false ideas and
their ideas excite other men and, like the false ideas of religion, break up families
and make a great deal of trouble to get rid of an error that is not embraced in any
idea they advocate. Then this has its opposite. There are other elements or men
that hold that the white man is superior by nature, and that God made the black
with a lower intellect or a link between the brutes and the white man. Their
intellect is inferior and their natural place is slavery. This is the other extreme.
Now out of this error comes a conservative element. This element can't see
anything but the destruction of the country; therefore they go for peace that is to
heal up the wound full of proud flesh that will at any time break out again. This
element in man is all based in matter and contains no wisdom.
Wisdom stands outside of all this and addresses that matter or mind that has
been purified by the error, till it is capable of becoming a medium for a higher
wisdom than man. I will assume this mediumship and speak as I am acted upon.
I see the first person full of sympathy for the poor depressed slave. Their
sympathy is guided by their opinions, like the person who sees the drunkard in
the gutter and feeling his trouble wishes to convince the world that he feels as
though he (the drunkard) was a man, not a beast. So instead of taking him into a
house and leaving him till he gets sober, he commences talking to him and
helping the drunkard out of the gutter, or entering the shop and lecturing to the
dissipated, telling them it is wrong to get drunk, etc. Or he feels a sympathy for
such. So in order to show that he is on a level with them, instead of putting them
on a level with him, he sits down and drinks and takes part with them. This has
an effect to lower him in the estimation of those whom he wishes to influence,
and it makes the drunkard more dissipated.
Now I will show how I stand in regard to the black. Opinions of the world is the
enemy to the black. Now these opinions are matter and are liable to change by a
power or wisdom. Now if wisdom mingles with opinions, it loses its identity and is
swallowed up by opinions. So to be respected by opinions and to have your
wisdom respected, keep yourself from the error of the world. Then opinions will
listen to your wisdom. Instead of letting your body or opinions mingle with error or
the slave, keep your wisdom uppermost and address yourself to the wisdom of
the wise. Remember that what we see is matter, black or white. Wisdom being
out of matter is not seen, and if our senses are in wisdom then we are governed
by wisdom. But if our errors are in matter we are governed by matter and are
judged by our own works. Now to let your wisdom mingle with the lower animal or
lower element is like casting pearls before swine.
Address the higher element of conservatism. That is the purer part of the other
two. Then you will receive the reward of your labor. The extremes will listen, and
conservatism will be silent and the element of error will melt with the fire of truth.
The shackles of the slave will be dissolved, and the error of slavery will be laid
low and truth will tear up the roots of superstition. And the blacks will stand as an
independent race, like the Irish or Germans, with all their rights as American
citizens. Then the superstition against slavery will die and men and women will
be left calm and reposed and look upon the dead evil as a thing that once was,
but now is not. Then as men and women have their peculiar taste for equality,
those that have a taste for the blacks may find someone that will sympathize with
them. So the mingling of the colors is not the mingling of wisdom but of opinions.
The mingling of wisdom, being outside of matter, it has no part in this wedding.
Not that one person is as good as another is not true; if it was, then there could
be no improvement. We misunderstand the idea. We mix two opposite ideas
together when we say one man is as good as another. That depends on the man
we speak of. Paul did not believe that one man was as good as another, and yet
they are just as good as far as flesh and blood go. And so one scientific man is
as good as another scientific man. The difference is not in the color but in the
science.
Science and ignorance are not on a level, but error has made a difference in
itself. It is at war with its own, and science has nothing to do with it. Now every
person is composed of the two, and the scientific set the error at war, so
progression is reformation. All religion is revolution. The truth is not seen but the
error is. The error gets into an excitement, like two rogues, and it is an old saying
that when rogues fall out, honest men get their due. The scientific man is the
honest one, while the Christian is the rogue. When I say Christian I m