'No. 12. SEPTEM BER, 1899. Vol. IV.

SOUTH PLACE MAGAZINE

Contents PAGE.

'THE ART AND MYSTERY OF LIVING ................ 177 By Dr. MONCURE D. CONWAY.

'THE DEATH OF INGERSOLL .......................... 187 By Dr. MONCURE D. CONWAY •

. THE MAN WITH THE HOE (Poem).................. 189 By EDWIN MARKRAM.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.............................. 190

CORRESPONDENCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 191

lfOTICES, &0 ••..•.... .. .. . .•. .. ....•••. . ..••••••.••..•• 191

Monthly, 2d., o. ~,. 641. PER AN NUN, POST F Ri: E

$ont)on 'SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY, FINSBURY, E.C. A. & H . B. BONNER. I & 2 TOOJ{'S COURT, CHANCERY LANE, E.C.

------------............... .

South Place Chapel & Institute, Finsbury, E . C~ Object of the Society.

" The object of the Society is the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment, the study of ethical principles. and the promotion of human welfare. in harmony with advancing knowledge. "

SEPTEM:BER , 1 899.

The fol/owing DISCOURSES will be dcljvned 011 SlIlIday 1I10rnillgs. Service begillnillg at 11.15:--

Sept. 3rd.-Prof. EARL BARNES.-" The Development of Children's Political Ideas. "

A tb s Jr. "Where'er you walk" (Semele) .. ... ... n em. 12. 11 Quando corpus morietur 11 (Stabat Matp.r)... . ..

! No. 45. Ii Shine, ye stars of heaven." Hymns No. 43. " There is no death for that which dwells apart."

Hand.l. Rossilli,

Sept.loth.-Prof. EARL BARNES.-" Children's Attitude towards Future Occu­pation."

j I H Blessed arc they that are persecuted" ." Anthems. 2. 11 I cannot plainly see the way" (Tannhauser)

A1 acfa7'reIL. ... JVague1',

H ! No. 82. "Let me count mx treasures." ymns No. 48. " Life is onward. '

Sept. r7th.-JOHN M. ROBERTSON. "Dostoievsky." (This will be the first of three lectures on 11 Three Great Russian Novelists. lI

)

A b j1." It is enough" (Elijah)... ... .. ... . ... AI cndelsso/m. nt ems. 2. If Now arisclh the SUIl of liberty" ... ... ... ... ... Mo::art.

I No. Ih. "Why this longing?" Hymns I No. 50. "Work! It is tby highest mission."

Sept. '4th.-HERBERT RIX, B.A.-" A Persian Christ." A tb' s I I. "Tbe future hides In it gladness and sorrow" (No. 2(8) ...

n em t 2. 11 The worldly hope men set tbeir hearts upon '0... ... . '1 No. g. "Tell me not in mournfnl numbers." Ilymns No. 85. ,. Scorn not the slightest word or deed."

Trollsse//e. Lthmall'J,.

Visitors may take any Seats vacant at the close of the first Allthem, alld they are illVited to obtain informatioll regardillg fhe Society in the Libl'a1'Y cithcr before 01' after the Services.

A Collectioll is made at the close of each Service to cllable Visitors to contribute to the expenses of the Society.

SUNDAY SCHOOL. The Children meet in the Chapel every Sunday morning, at II.'S, and tbeir lesson is

~i\'en in tbe Class·room during the discourse. Tbe following are the arrangements:-Sept. 3rd.-Mrs. BRACE: "Murad the Unlucky."

" ]oth.- " " " 11 11 I7th.-H.CROSSFIELO: "Truth," (JI.) H 2.llh.-Miss FRECHET. 11 Tales from Spenser's I Faerie Queen ',"

MEMBERSHIP. " Persons paying for sittings in tbe Society's place of Meeting for the time being are thereby

constituted members of thl-' Society. Members who are twenty-one years of age or upwards, wbose nameS bave been twelve 11I0nths upon the register, and whose subscriptions for tbe previous quarter bave been paid, shall be qualified to vote and to hoid office."-Extract /rolll tll. Rllles

Sittings may be obtained upon application in the Library, or 10 HAROLD SEYLER,14 Brading Road, Brixton Hill, S.W., Hon. Registrar of Members and Associates'rrices varying- from IS. to 10S. per quarter. Persons under 21 are charged hal the usual prices. ASSOCIATES.

Persons residing at a distance, and who are unable to attend Lbe services l'egular1y, may become Associates of tbe Society upon payment of an Annual Subscliption of Ss., wIth the privUege of receiving all the current publications of the Society. Subscriptions may be paid III the Lihrary or to tbe Hon. Registrar of Members and Associates at above address.

Cyclists desiring to attend at South Place are informed that the Committee bave road.,. arrangements for housing their machines.

The Ch npel is licensed for Mnrrinjtes.

SOUTH PLACE MAGAZINE . No. 12 . Vol. IV. SEPTEMBER, 1899. • d. Monthly.

28. Gd, per annum, post tree

(The Wyitcl's of Articles appeariug ill this Magazine are alone responsible for the oPilliolls therein expressed.)

THE ART A D MYSTERY OF LIVING. By DR. MONCURE D . CONWAV.

IN the French Exhibition of this year there are several remark­able religious pictures. On a large canvas Debat-Ponsan shows a vision of Christ on the mountain. Out of a far and dim back­ground comes a long file of warriors and kings or rulers, their costumes indicating different nations and different centuries, bearing unsheathed swords and banners of the cross. Beside all that procession through the Christian ages the earth is strewn all the way with slaughtered and burning men and women. The advancing chieftains have halted for a moment before a vision . It is Jesus, who has appeared in snow-white raiment, and says, "And I have said to you that you shall love one another, even as I have loved you."

Perhaps there may be pain~ed in Germany, by order, a picture of the Emperor confrontIng this visionary Christ, and repeating what he has said to the peacemakers at the Hague, " War is providential." To that Christ cannot possibly reply without saying to the Emperor, as he said to ancient Pharisees, " Your God is my Devil."

Another French artist, Humbert, has produced a great im­pression by a triptych. The subject is Mary Magdalene; of course the Magdalene of tradition instead of the stainless Mag­dalene of the New Testament . . In the first picture (the figures are life-sized) Mary Magdalene IS a beautiful lady, in rich artistic Eastern costume, in her face health, frankness, cheerfulness, some merry mischief in her eyes perhaps, some coquetry in her dress, but no look of evil and no coarseness. Then in the central frame of the triptych is seen the same woman, alone with the dead Jesus: from her face the colours have faded, the pallor of death is already on her unkempt head and half-clad form. And finally in the third canvass we see the young lady alone in a wilderness, gaunt, hollow-eyed, a sort of hag, dressed in a ragged garment in which may be detected the remains of the rich costume in the first picture. The intelligence has gone, the beauty fled; and the wreck could not be more complete if she had been ruined by opium or alcohol. A fit inscription

would be: "Mary Magdalene: an illustration of the demoralis­ing effects of Christianity." But few in the crowds pause before the penitent in the wilderness. During the centuries of Christian art the Magdalene has been painted more seductive in her retreat of penitence than in her gay years,-a sort of Venus become pious. But this artist has painted the natural effects of living in a cave or a wilderness, withdrawing from the world of human beings to dwell in the habitat of wild animals. The observing visitors evidently preferred the impenitent Magdalene. Of course they all had to look at her in the light of her legend; they had to see wickedness in her; but it was sparkling wicked­ness, and there has long been an unconscious cult of the beauty of wickedness-a cult stimulated by the asceticism and sickli­ness with which piety has been invested.

It seems incredible now that there ever could have been such repulsive ideals of saintliness, but they really did exist. How­ever, the genius of the earth would not tolerate them. Fortu­nately the saints of the cave and the desert were of a species that did not largely multiply and replenish the earth . Evolution saw to that .

But unfortunately Evolution is a physical force in its direct action; and though it increases health and beauty, it by no means engenders a proportionate moral health and spiritual beauty. Taking the average human world, its body is far superior to its soul. Its reason does not act nearly so well as its sinews.

Turn from the Magdalen picture, the ruin of an individual life by a pious delusion- turn to the other painting the deso­lation of a world with fire and sword, in the name of Christ. For this still goes on. Evolution has taken the monks and the Magdalenes from desert and cave and transformed them into the good-looking and well-dressed people who move through the art­galleries, wondering at those haggard saints who made them­selves miserable and hideous on earth to obtain fine robes and palaces in heaven . But Evolution does not prevent these robust and handsome people from worshipping the same old gods of savages, founding churches on irrational dogmas, and devoting their finely developed arms to the work of destroying men and women, homes and villages, throughout the world, bearing the cross of one who said, " By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, that ye love one another."

So far from preventing this, Evolution favours it . The method of Evolution throughout nature is cannibalism. The strong devour the weak. The big nations swallow the small ones, missionaries saying grace over the meal. "We have come," said an army chaplain to an African, "to bring you the gospel." "Which gospel do you use," asked the African, " Armstrong or Krupp ? "

Of course it is necessary in the expansion of this predatory

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'Scheme of nature that members of the same herd should not devour each other; or if one class devours another it must be under restrictions, guaranteeing that the anaconda development necessary for bwallowing foreigp tribes shall not be arrested by internal decimations.

But it were a fallacy to suppose that this communal solidarity naturally develops moral principles, or any human ideal. It tends rather to provincialize morality and to hide reason and right under local self-interest.

In our own country, in our own community, beautiful social relations are incidentally developed, anti high sentiments of justice, charity, politeness. But how deep do they go? how far do they reach! They are not humanized. Let one of these gentlemanly youths find himself in Africa or Asia, and be told by a Captain to go and murder some people; unhesitatingly he murders them, and, if he murders enough of them, he is wel­comed at home by gentle men and gentle ladies, with applause and decorations. Oxford will make him a Doctor of Civil Laws.

Three of the leading commanders in the American massacres of Spaniards were children in my Unitarian Church at Wash­ington, over forty years ago; I remember them as gentle and pretty little boys, brought up in a refined home, and I have known them ever since as affectionate husbands and parents. How can such men-and I know others in like case-how can they bring themselves to do such inhuman work? They are too familiar with the facts to be deceived by the pretexts diffused in Europe about that" fig hting for humanity."

This is but one among thousands of illustrations of the des­potism of the provincialized world over the individual mind and heart . The immunity of colonial housebreaking, the appJause of territorial robbery, and the recognition of no international law but combat,-horrors that instead of diminishing are in­creasing,-are but salient indications of the general condition of the foremost nations of the world. And these conditions form the zone, the moral climate, the atmosphere, amid which each one of us is born, under which we must form our individual characters, conceive and fulfil the purposes of our lives.

Alas, it is a world of fictions,-a fiction at the bottom of every institution. Inhumanity masquerades as patriotism, con­secrated injustice stalks abroad as law, and under a formal cult of the truth goes on a culture of untruth.

For nothing can be more antagonistic to " truth" than what churches caJl " the truth ."

Pious and superstitious men have collected certain beliefs which they have established as "the truth," and if truth of mind and heart leads you to affirm that those beliefs are not true your truthfulness is called infidelity, and you are required to sacrifice your truth on an altar labelled" the truth."

This is what makes life so complex and difficult to thinking

IBo

and honest minds. In various centres and circles we go on training ourselves and our children into principles of justice, of humanity, into love of truth, exactness of thought, moral courage, and those so taught find themselves in a world where all those principles are discordant and troublesome. The rewards of the world, its applause and encouragements are awarded to those who echo its prejudices, invest its errors with the guise of truth, and maintain the established fictions with which its interests and sentiments are intertwined . For, as Jesus said, along with these tares good wheat is growing. On the stony walks of dogma the roses of hope are climbing. So mingled are good and evil in the world, and so mingled of faults and virtues, truth and fallacy, are the minds of men and women whom we must live with and love as neighbours.

In religion and philosophy the thinki.ng part of the world can hardly now be called sceptical. Their intellects are perfectly clear as to the dogmas. The doubts and questionings about Trinity and Revelation which used to deprive our forerunners of sleep no longer beset our educated youth, but they are delivered to a more painful scepticism in the sphere of action. The finest intellect that ever lived-Shakespeare-surrounded by his puri­tanical family, and in London casting his pearls before official swine innumerable, with here and there a kindred mind or heart able to recognise pearls-Shakespeare felt the pressure of this problem of action, as is revealed in various plays and poems, above all in "Hamlet." The plot of " Hamlet" is largely the same as that of " Orestes" in Greek mythology and drama;, though Shakespeare found it in an old chronicle, an able French critic, Reinach, believes that he had "Orestes" in mind and meant to present a contrast. That is very suggestive, and equally so if Shakespeare's" Hamlet" is compared with that of the medireval chronicle.

Orestes learns from an oracle the crime of his mother and, Aegisthus in murdering his father in order to marry. Orestes becomes the instrument of the gods in avenging the murdered king, his father, on the guilty pair. Thus divinely directed, the avenging son has no hesitations, makes no inquiries. And so with the semi-barbarian Prince of Denmark in the early chronicle, to w bom the crime is revealed by the murdered king's ghost. But Shakespeare has considered how-under like circumstances-a refined and thoughtful young gentleman of the modern world would act.

Y cs, three hundred years ago Shakespeare drew the moral purtrait of the most thoughtful, scrupulous man, you might pick out to-day. No matter how heavy the wrong, no matter how loudly it calls for redress, no matter how certain it may seem, Hamlet hesitates. Without any personal fear, he hesitates; he doubts; his course is surrounded with "ifs" and "buts" un­known to fury-driven Orestes. He will not accept the revelation

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even of his father's ghost without. corroboration, and though the crime is one against the whole nation-supplanting its legitimate king with his murderer-he must scrupulously weigh many con­siderations. And this he is cOII!pelled to do, however he strives to fix himself to his purpose-he is compelled, for thought and conscience have their grasp on him . Such is the cultured and civilised man of to-day. The more he knows, the more he reflects, the less can he throw himself unreservedly into irrevoc­able action. The constitution of his country was founded in a far past of ignorant certainties: the official machinery of laws, armies, navies, goes on without hesitation, without misgivings, and the philosophic sceptical minds are called visionaries, dreamers, unfit for public or official life, which demands men of action.

At the same time all of our public schools, our colleges, are training people to think before they act-to think not twice, but many times before they act . Our literature, especially our journals, representing so many sides of every subject-political, religious, moral-has a steady and inevitable tendency to dis­integrate the old solidarities of parties and sects.

Must we admit, then, that culture and thought weaken action, that quickened conscience enfeebles purpose? In certain spheres of action, yes. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

Ethical culture restrains a man from giving up himself-his very self-to party, or sect, or even to any so-called philan­thropic society that uses the methods of partisanship and in­tolerance.

But how do these restrictions modify or affect our relations to mankind, to our nation, to the general world? On that point I shall have more to say in another discourse. To-day I wish to consider more especially the effect of those restrictions on personal character and individual happiness .

Character, duty, true happiness, are inseparable; bound up like the primary colours in all tints of the rainbow.

The uncertainties of one sphere are the certainties of another. There is a sphere where all those refinements of thought, all those hesitancies of judgment and action, which unfit a man to command armies and control parties-there is a sphere where all these delicate qualities make the strength of life, its beauty and charm. This sphere may appear small, but there lies happiness, there lies the true and free growth of life.

In the home, in the school, in the social circle, the formid­able person is he-or she-who speaks thoughtlessly, or acts hastily, or inconsiderately, and by some impulsive step, some well-intentioned but insufficiently considered action, is by that action committed, fettered, so that it has to be supported after­wards, right or wrong . The nobler and happier characters, those that diffuse happiness, are they who are not hasty either in temper or action, who do not press even their personal rights

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t-o practical extremes, and who are fully aware that in this world of problems and doubts there is no doubt at all that anger, hatred, revenge, selfishness, are bad, thoughtlessness evil; that it is absolutely certain that a right and true man will have a good heart in his breast and a thinking mind in his head.

Again I must refer to Shakespeare. I remember, by the way, in my early ministerial days in Washington that I was summoned to the bedside of a dying mao-a stranger in one of the hotels. For the satisfaction of his wife he consented to receive a minister, and my church being near I was summoned. But I presently discovered that the man was a Freethinker., He eyed me suspiciously, and put himself on the defensive at once by saying, "The man who tells me that the Bible is as great a book as Shakespeare is a fool." I was not then sufficiently emancipated to appreciate this stranger's dying words, but I have often thought of them since, and I have long realised that an English-speaking child can be trained to a higher character and a finer morality by a wise use of Shakespeare than by any use of the Bible. And I do not believe there could be any greater instruction than the reflections of Cardinal Wolsey after his fall, and the fact that he discovered by that fall the happiness of being little.

Is it natural for young people to be ambitious of high rank, office, power? I very much doubt it .

Childhood and youth are fed on stories of mighty kings, warriors, Ministers of State, and see them with halos around their heads, and see their monuments, and are thus trained into an ambition largely made up of a longing to benefit their country. But it is all glamour. The histories are mainly false . The heroes have been so made, and some of them become gods, by the suppression of fact and the patriotic painting of national men as they never really existed. The best monarchs are those like Alfred, so far ofT that they cannot be investigated. Few royal rulers were good, none of them were happy. Since the inauguration of the United tates a hundred­and-ten years ago twenty-five different men have been Presidents and of those only about five did not injure their country. With few exceptions they were neither great nor happy. But patriotism, so fruitful in falsehoods, requires that most of them shall be gods, and they are gods, creating innumerable poor lads in their own image and likeness-leading them on to the same partisan shifts and meannesses to get into the White House-which has been the whited sepulchre of much official rottenness.

Dean Swift argued against Atheism that if people were. Rermitted to deny God they will next criticise kings. When the work of delivering Christendom from the worship of a war-god called J ehovah is finished, criticism will then have to deal with these national deities, enshrined in school histories~

and when stripped of fable there will bardly be left any great official in any country's history' who could be offered as an exemplar to a child. As for bappiness they knew it not . They knew not the sweet intimacies 9f friendship, they knew not the freedom of the unrecognised. A gentleman in Washington told me that one night, during the Civil War, be and one or two other lawyers were having a jovial supper together there. About midnight there was a knock at the door, and in walked Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, who begged them to let him join in their fun for a little time, as he was without any such personal society since he had got into power.

J n the case of some few famous official men the unha ppiness was largely due to anxious efforts for their country, often leading it to disaster, but generally the misery resulted from the fact that a chief officer can only be made at the expense of the man.

I was present when Dr. Tait was made Archbishop of Canterbury, and while we were in the Cathedral, waiting for the ceremony, I turned to a newspaper man next me and asked, "What are the new Archbishop's religious opinions?" He smiled, and turning to a comrade said, "Here's a man who thinks an archbishop has opinions! "

How many beautiful souls have we known-cc spirits finely touched to fine issues "-who at College, or in the outset of their careers, were free, sparkling with wit, abreast of the science and philosophy of their time, but whom the devil called Ambition took into some partisan mountain and sbowed them some decorated seat of power the underside of which was a bushel under which was hid their finest light. Where is the man?

Ah, that is the object of the art and mystery of living, to get at the man in each of us! That old phrase of the London city companies,-" the art and mystery" of each several skilled vocation,-was born in a time when there was little machinery, slight and imperfect implements; the work depended mainly on the man, the exactness of his eye, the deftness of his hand, his fingers, the closeness with which he studied the material he worked on, his anxiety to do his very best. His art carried him to powers in himself not inherited, beyond the limits of instructors, carried him to potentialities in elemental nature to be discovered only by personal observation, and he could become a master, a past master in his art. It was the workmen penetrating most deeply into the secret of their art who by successive inventions accumulated the machinery that does so much work once hand-made; but there remains in every skilled labour, in every art, some point where excellence depends on the individual using the apparatus.

A young American violinist, of surpassing skill, said to me one evening about her Cremona violin, " It seems to have a will of its own. Sometimes I have to humour it, to coax it." Therein lies the mystery subtly connected with every art. The

18-+

same thing was said to me by a wire-maker at Halifax. I asked him the use of a bucket near him containing some liquid . " Now and then," he replied, "a bar of iron is obstinate, and I put it there to humour it." He was an unconscious artist work­ing amid certain chemic and metallic forces and elements which to an outsider were mysterious, not to be derived from books. But in matters with which I am ratber more acquainted I know that corresponding facts exist in the inner world, and it is certain that in the art of living-that is, of making life true, beautiful, happy-the best rules and regulations are often insufficient.

It is impossible for an individual to acbieve real life, to secure happiness for his real self, if this individuality is sup­pressed, and his deep selfhood hidden away in a napkin woven of the notions and aims of other people. The lover in Dumaurier's novel urges about the objections of his mother and her passion to his sweetheart: it isn't they who have to mgrry her, it is I who want Trilby . It is to be feared that most of the regulations as well as the dogmas imposed on young people fold around them wrappages as if they were mummies- wrappages that are relics of garments that fitted other people, but which are fatally binding on the nature that needs to fulfil its own genius, and secure its own satisfaction. The new-born man is sufficiently entangled already by inherited tendencies and faults, without this addition of pious wrappages unrelated to his nature. The great object of education is to get at the original man, his own distinctive force, and lead that into activity. Then it can he trained in its own art, and draw from the accumulated know­ledge of mankind the instructions and rules adapted to its aims. You cannot get any genuine contribution for human benefit from a man under coverture; you might get his parents, his grandparents, or his curate, but not him; he must be free, otherwise he is a wasted force. Lord Bacon wrote for himself a command, " Never to do anything contrary to my genius."

But it may be asked, What if after you have removed the wrappages and got down to the real man, distinctive from all others, you find his genius to be evil.

For many centuries parents and children have been solemnly taught that all are at birth children of atan, and it is a notable phenomenon that such a strange instruction should have main­tained itself in the world in the presence of childhood's innocency.' But the mystery vanishes when it is remembered that at the time that doctrine of innate depravity arose the Devil merely represented the repugnance of human genius to the dogmas of the Church, and of human nature to the outrageous asceticism of the Church . The ' Church wished to shut people up in convents and nunneries-to suppress all freedom of thought and conduct. Opposition to this was the Devil. This was the foundation of Pharisaism, and it was the terrible thing about Jesus that he reversed the votes; he declared the Pharisees

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to be children of the Devil, and the children , the so-called sinners, the thinkers, to be on th.e right side. H e had faith in the real self of every man, if it could be got at under a ll that overlaid it. He sa \V in each of those same Pharisees who

·opposed him-saw deep in each-a fettered nature, an imprisoned self, and said to them, "Of your own selves judge what is right "-your own selves, not the self of the priesthood thrust into you.

And Buddha had the same feeling. "If," he said, "if a man loses a favourite dog he searches till he finds it, but who is searching for his lost self? "

We have got so far in culture as to recognise the fact that the best work is done when a man throws him self into it, his -own genius, but we are still timid about bringing into free play one's moral self. May not that turn out to be immoral?

It is not, with thinking people, so much a [ear that perfect moral freedom leads to conduct really evil, as that it may bring people into collision with certain usages or even laws which, though themselves immoral, have the power to punish or disgrace those who disobey them . The most moral of men, Socrates, Jesus, were declared immoral, and in the modern world such opposite men as Paine and Wesley alike had their .moral independence called immoral. The late John Stuart Mill barely escaped imprisonment for circulating a pamphlet regarded by himself and others as vitally moral, a Malthusian pamphlet, .and our dear old friend, Edward Truelove, was imprisoned for selling a book of the same kind. And let me say before passing that if ever a man was rightly named it was Truelove. In all his life he was a genuine lover of mankind, and while in prison, serene in his consciousness of being there on account of his service to real morality, he made friends, I believe, of all around him. There was in him a philosophical spirit able to adapt itself to every situation . He became friendly even with the prison fare, and when released he desired his wife to serve him regu­larly with the same kind of gruel. I came to London long enough .ago to know some of the old standard bearers of Freethought, such as James Watson, William Lovett, and Vv- . J. Fox, whose funerals I conducted. To that generation Edward Truelove belonged. I should say that the characteristic thing about them all was the essentially moral and humanitarian nature of their Freethought. It was not a thing of abstract study, not merely a thing to read and write about, but they were always in the thick of every struggle for the practical improvement of the conditions -of the people', their education, freedom, welfare, their rights, their happiness. Such were the unpretending men who ploughed ·a hard soil and made it fertile, and who sowed in tears what we reap in joy. Farewell, old friend! It is a p:1.in to me that I meet you no more, for I shall never grasp the hand of a more lbrave and honest man .

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The special service of these our forerunners lay not in their type of Freethought, which existed long before them, but in their affirmation of the right of liberated thought to establish a corresponding moral freedom, a " new moral world" as Robert Owen called it . It had long been the method of unorthodox people to pay for their intellectual heresy by an extra amount of moral orthodoxy. In the earlier part of this century the Unitarians were among the most puritanical people in England. The right to freedom in the discussion of moral questions had to be secured by some ma rtyrdoms as that of theological liberty before it; and it is not amid combats that the delicate and complex problems of ethics can be worked out and solved. That is the task bequeathed to us-or rather I should say to you, to whom we your elders deliver up the traditions of liberalism. You will find many doors open which for your fathers were locked. Your country is not morally free, for it has still some levitical and Christian laws, such as the Sabbath, whose imposition denies the very principle of liberty. But individually you are morally free .

But what does moral freedom mean? Merely the removal of arbitrary restrictions imposed by others, and superseding them by self-control. A man does not get free from restrictions by throwing off those externally imposed . Even if only his animalism breaks such chains he may still be fettered by gross appetites and selfish passions, his deeper nature pining in prison. And if that deepest self is free, which I maintain to be the good self, it is only to exchange for external fetters, or chains of heredity, the self-imposed check of refined tastes, reasonable­ness, sentiment, love, and the sense of individual duty. Our moral development is from the arbitrary and the artificial to the­real, the rational, the purely human obligations. In every art the law is impera parmdo-command by obedience. The artisan cannot violate the laws of the metal or other material he works m. And in the art of life the conditions must all be fulfilled.

But there is a vast difference between the visible and the invisible materials on which men have to work. For every worker in iron, or wood, or any other material, the laws of that material are the same for every workman. And between visible human beings there is comparatively little difference as to the laws of health and the senses. But when we pass to the interior life where the processes of character go on, and the influences of mind and heart are distilled -why, there every man is a unique material. The combinations of features which give to each one among the millions of the human race a distinctive countenance are not more infinite than the combinations which give every human being a distinctive constitution throughout.

\i\Thile, therefore, we can unite for various high purposes, while we can gather together in societies like South Place to.

encourage each other, sustain each other, and acquire ethical culture, the art and mystery of living requires that at the vitaL point each must go alone. How shall he achieve a harmonious life amid a primarily inharm~nious environment? How shall he re~der a true influence, a fair and happy life among those who are discordant? That is his affair, that his problem, to be dealt with and solved by his individual art . If he shall car.ry to that artistic work his genuine and entire self, not only his conSCIence and his sincerity, but also his sunshine, his tact, his thoughtful­ness for others, he will find a responsive witness in every breast. It may be an unconscious witness, secret, silent, but it will .be there. The life-picture must be painted with your heart's blood," but not the blood of a bleeding heart, not with pigments of a sacrificed nature, but with the colours of a living heart, quick with beautiful life, alive to all that is healthiest, happiest, noblest; such work of the supreme self will not fail to win and. influence the supreme self in all.

THE DEATH OF INGERSOLL.

THE death of America"s greatest orator is an event which may fill many pious souls with thankfulness . Such will be their­unconscious tribute to a splendid career, which is traced in broken fetters- mental, moral, physical. But profound grief will move the hearts of the millions he has liberated. He was the great apostle of Freethought in the New World. Such was his eloquence, so compact of fire and knowledge and humour and p'athos, that wherever he went with his (Sunday) lectures, though substantial prices were asked for seats in the great theatres, every part of each buildi.ng was crowded. None­stirred, however long his lecture, and it was often well into the second hour. He was thoroughly informed as to the best thought and science of his time. He was an exact thinker. He was never guilty of claptrap or casuistry. He often excited his. audiences to laughter, but it was never by scoff or by common­place ridicule, his humour and wit being neat as that of Charles Lamb. His sayings have become proverbial. "An honest God's the noblest work of Man." To a listener who cried, "Do you approve of baptism?" he replied, "Yes, especially with soap." When he was once pointing out that there were evils in nature. inconsistent with benevolent creation, an objector cried, "How would Colonel Ingersoll improve the creation? " He answered: "I would make health catching instead of

r88

disease." But he said 'many things of this kind, and there is a soul of reverence in them all.

He inevitably became the speaker at graves of eminent freethinkers. His tender, sympathetic heart, seemed almost breaking at times, when surrounded by mourners. None who .heard him at the funeral of Courtland Palmer (founder of the Nineteenth Century Club), or at that of WaIt Whitman, can ever forget the addresses, which were more like oratorio than ·oratory.

But ah, who will be able to utter fitting words over the ashes of Ingersoll? The tributes will not be without eloquence; they will be the tears of multitudes who loved him. For "he was a loveable man. As a husband and father he was true, loyal, loving; his home was the abode of affection and happi • . ness; and the bereavement of his wife, his daughters, and of the others who surrounded him at "Walston," his beautiful home ·on the Hudson, will be terrible indeed.

The blow was unexpected. He was born August I I, 1833, and died July 21, 1899, and had thus not completed his sixty­sixth year. He had lately had some heart trouble, but it was not regarded as very serious. He was conversing on the veranda cheerfully with members of his family, but went to his bedroom saying he would return soon. Mrs. Ingersoll was there and asked him how he felt; he smiled on her, and died. The family could not believe it . Night and day the wife and daughter sat beside him, clasping his hands, and would not hear ·of burial until three days later.

It is to be hoped that his biography will be completely written. It will be as striking a chapter in American history as . the life of Abraham Lincoln . He was the son of a worthy Congregational minister, brought up in Calvinism, and had hewn his own path to freedom . He was called" Colonel," but the title is misleading; he was simply a lawyer and anti· slavery democratic leader who enlisted to defend the Union in I~6I, was captured and put on parole in November, 1862; and the New York Truth Seeker says: "He made an excellent record, though he humourously confessed that he had not the stuff for a warrior. 'I never saw a shot fired,' he used to say, 'that I did not think of the widows and orphans it might make.''' His last lecture was given in Brooklyn for the benefit of the widows and orphans of the soldiers who died in the late invasion of Cuba.

IngersolI, born in poverty, achieved his wealth at the Bar.

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He defended every case of his time in w.hich there was any' feature of religious or " moral" persecution, and often did this. gratuitously. He was once Attorney-General of Illinois (1866), and but for his heresy wouLd haye been Governor. President Hayes appointed him Min'ister to Germany; but the outcry of orthodoxy was so furious that Ingersoll declined the nomina­tion in order to relieve the poor President. Nay, but for orthodox animosity Robert Green Ingersoll would no doubt have been President of the United States. No man of his ability ever occupied that office. MONCURE D. CONWAY.

THE MAN WITH THE HOE.I By EDWIN MARKHAM.

(Wl'ittm after seei/lg llIillet's Pai,/Iing.)

BOWED by the weight of centuries he leans Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, The emptiness of ages in his face And on his back the burden of the world. Who made him dead to rapture and despair, A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, Stolid and stunned, a brother ' to the ox? Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw? Where was the hand that slanted back this brow? Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?

Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave To have dominion over sea and land, To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; To feel the passion of Eternity? Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the scenes And pillared the blue firmament with light? Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf There is no shape more terrible than this-More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed­More filled with signs and portents for the soul-More fraught with menace to the universe.

1 By the kindness of Professor Earl ~<l:rnes we are enabled to present our readers with the above stirring and .0nglOal poem. It will be remembered that he gave it as the reading to Illustrate one of his discourses in July last.

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What gulfs between him and the seraphim ! Slave of the wheel of labour, what to him Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades ? What the long reaches of the peaks of song, The reft of dawn, the reddening of the rose? Through this dread shape the suffering ages look; Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop; Through this dread shape humanity betrayed, Plundered, profaned and disinherited, Cries protest to the Judges of the "World, A protest that is also prophecy.

o masters, lords and rulers in all lands, Is this the handiwork ye give to God, This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched ? How will ye ever straighten up this shape; Touch it again with immortality; Give back the upward looking and the light; Rebuild in it the music and the dream; Make right the immemorial infamies, Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?

o masters, lords and rulers in all lands, How will th e Future reckon with this Man? How answer his brute question in that hour When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world? How will it be with kingdoms and with kings­With those who sbaped him to the thing he is­When this dumb Terror shall reply to God, After the silence of the centuries?

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Reformer for August falls somewhat below its usual high standard of interest. Mr. John M. Robertson's "Open Letter to the Editor of the Daily Chronicle," whilst characterised by great dialectical skill, is marked no less by a tinge of acrimony which the present writer is not singular in regarding with regret. An appreciation of the late Colonel Ingersoll, hy Mrs. Bradlaugh Bonner, is largely concerned with a series of comparisons be­tween that great Freethinker and her famous father . The most interesting contribution to the issue is probably Mr. Newland's

succinct survey of the Ritualist controversy under the heading -of "The Latest Religious Strife.'.'

That long-drawn struggle at Rennes to which the eyes of Europe are still directed, affords a striking and tragic object­lesson in the dangers arising fFom adherence to tradition and authority instead of ethical principle. The melancholy spectacle of men of natural integrity resigning their judgment and even their consciences to the keeping of their military leaders-just as blind obedience was once rendered to religious directors, and with results no less disastrous-should bring home to all earnest hearts the teaching that

.. Conscience must be free, Not blindly or dogmatically led, Whether by living oracles or dead."

CORRESPONDENCE.

To THE EDlTOR.

I was glad to see Mr. Brace's letter in the August number of the Magazine and hope he will succeed in impressing his views on the Soiree Committee.

Though for the present I am a compulsory absentee from the Soirees and all the other advantages that South Place affords, I must express my strong approval of Mr. Brace's remarks. Possibly the majority of those who attend the Soirees would consider a whole evening devoted to conversation rather dull, but that is not an adequate reason for providing an entertainment for them on every occasion. The Sunday Soiree, at least, might be kept free for the minority who wish to interchange ideas. A year or two ago I went to a Sunday Soiree; there was a large gathering, and among the visitors were eight gentlemen who had occupied the platform, and who, presumably, were worth meeting. But only those who came before 8 o'clock had any chance of speaking to them, for at that hour silence was requested and a programme announced that required an hour and a-half to carry out. I left promptly, but heard afterwards that it was most tantalising to see so many interesting people present, and have to sit through a mediocre performance, instead of enjoying the intel. lectual treat of converse with them. I bope some reform will be effected in tbis matter. EMMA PHIPSON.

NOTICES. Monthly Soirees-Tbe Soiree Committee are glad to report that

they h.ave met wit~ the m~st cord!al re~eption for their suggested gathenng of the vanous EthIcal SocIetIes 10 London. The secretaries of these societies had a conference, and arrangements have been made for a Conversazione to be held on Sunday evening, 24th September, at the Chapel. A short address will be given by some well· known speaker, and there will be musi? and recitations at intervals during the evening. The Soiree CommIttee bope tbat members of tbe South Place Ethical Society will avail themselves largely of this opportunity of friendly intercourse with the members of kindred associations, which have a common aim, although adopting perhaps widely divergent methods. Discussion with such friends should prove not

192

only very interesting, but very profitable. Any member not receiving an invitation before September loth is desired to apply to Mrs. Cockburn, The Limes, 34 Clyde Road, Croydon. Arrangements have been made as follows for the autumn series of Soirees; Monday, October 2nd, Mrs. Theodore Wrigbt will give recitations. Monday, November 6th, William Cobbett, Esq., will read a paper on" Heine ", with musical illustrations. Monday, December 4th, arranged by Miss" Ada Lidstone and friends.

The Lending LibrarY.-We are glad to hear that some interesting additions have been made to the library. Amongst the volumes lately placed ou the shelves are the following;-

Polychrome Bible, 6 vols. Ezekiel, Joshua, Judges, Isaiah, Psalms, and Leviticus.

The making of Religion. Andrew Lang. Autobiography. Annie Besant. Life of George Eliot, 3 vols. J. W. Cross. Evolution and Ethics. Professor Huxley. Life and Letters of G. J. Romanes, ed ited by his wife. Dante Gabriel Rosetti's Letters to William Allingham.

ocial Transformations of the Victorian Age. T. H. S. Eseott. Democracy and Liberty, 2 vols. W. E. H. Lecky.

Mr. J. Aldred has also presented a number of volumes.

Tuesday Evening Lectures.-Arrangements are in progress for a course of lectures on " Sculpture" to be delivered by Miss Hope Rea with lantern illustrations; to be followed by a course on " European Democracies," to be given by Mr. Herbert Burrows. The lectures will commence on Tuesday evening, 17th October, at 7.30 p.m. Full particulars will be announced later.

SPECIAL NOTICE.- Renewa. of Subscriptions. \Vith the present number, Volume IV of the SOUTH PLACE

MAGAZINE is completed . Subscribers who have not renewed are therefore requested to fill ill the enclosed Subscription Form and to forward it with postal ord r or stamps for 2S. 6d. to E. A. CARR, South Place Institute, South Place, Finsbury, E.C. Will those who have already sent in their subscriptions to t'he new volume be good enough to haud the form to any friend likely to become a subscriber.

To Correspondents -The Editor will be glad to iusert letters on subjects of geueral interest to the readers of the Magazine, but, as the space is limIted, correspondents are requested to condense their remarks a'3 much as possible.

It is requested that all Literary Contributions be addressed to the Editor of the SOUTH PLACE MAGAZINE, South Place Institute, South Place, Finsbury, E.C. Notes from Kindred Societies, Correspondence, Changes of Address, or otber Notices for tbe next number of tbe Magazine, should be sent to the Editor not later than the 15th of the month.

The OUT!! PLACE MAGAZINE is published for the Committee by A. and H. B. Bonner, I and 2 Took's Court, Chancery Lane. It is for sale in the Library of South Place Chapel, aud also on the bookstalls of the following Ethical Societies; The West London, at Kensington Town Hall; and Tbe South London, at the Masonic Hall, Camberwell

ew Road. Printed by A. BONNt:R, I & 2 Took'S Court, Chancery Lane, London, E.C.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON FREE LECTURES. The Course of Lectures on " Our Cities and Municipalities" will be resumed fa

October:-Oct. ISt.-W. BLAKE OOGERS, Q.C., LL.D. (Recorder of ';Vinchester)," A Sketch 'of the

History of London Governuwnl, with sper.ial reference to recent legislation." Oct. Bth.-WILLIA" PAGE, "St. Alban's." Oct. lsth.-SAMIIEL]. CA\1PION (Edjtor Northampton MtrC1tTJ'), 11 Northampton," Oct. 22nd.-ANDREW STEWART, Jun. (Londolf Edi tor DZllld" Advtrtistr)," Dundee.' OCt. 29th.-

An Organ Recital will be given e,cb afternoon fTom 3.30 to 4 o'clock. All seats free, No Collection. Doors open at 3.30, lecture at 4 o'olock.

lie,1. Sec., \'1. SHEOWRING, .South Place Institute, South Place, Finsbury, E.r.,

TUESDAY EVENING LECTURES. In October Miss HOPE Rt':A will give a course of four lectures on " Sculpture." In November Mr. HERBERT BURROWS will commence a course of eight lectures on

"European Democracies ." HOII. Scc., W. S HEOWRING, 24, Bethune Road, Stamford Hill. N.

SECOND RAMBLERS' SOIREE.

Short Papers will be read by­Thursday, September 21st

Mrs. E J HARRINGTON. on "The Caiion of the Tarn." Miss MAcDoNALD, on "The Virtue of Paris."

Music-Mr. \'1. Morressy and the Marguerite Quartette. Tea and Coffee, 7.30.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON RAMBLES. The following Conducted Visits bave been arranged for September:-

Sept. 2.-West Ham Municipal Building. Conducted by Alderman Ivey (Ex.Mayor), Meet at Liverpool Street Station for 3.44 train, 1Iot 3.23, to Canning Town.

Sept. 4.-H.l.J .M. Ship, "Shikishima."

Country W alks (no ticket required), subject to alteration in train service);­September gth.-South Croydon. Conducted by E. 1. Harrington. Meet at London

Bridge Station (L.B. & S.C.R.) for 2.25 p.m. train. Return fare, IS. 6d. September 23rd.-Cbingford. Fungus liunt. Conducted by W. Varian. Meet at Liver­

pool Stree l Station for 2.3'1 p.m. Irain. Return fare, IS,

September gth.-Hopping Ramble . Meet at Cannon Street for 1.35 train for Sevenoaks. Tickets of Conductor. Those wishing to take part are requested to communicate with Mr. J. R. Can er as soon as possible.

Course, March to September. Fee, 2S. 6d. HOII. Sce., W. SHKOWRING, 24, Bethune Road, Stamford Hill,

RAMBLERS' DANCES. Arrangements have been made for lbe Ramblers' Dances a t Armfield's Hotel, South Place.

on October 14th and 28th, November !lth and 25th, December gth iuld 16th. Hon. Sec.: Miss S. TAVLOR, 226, Hainault Road, LeytonstoDC.

THE MONTHLY SOIREES. The Soir6e Committee have pleasure ill announcing that the following arrangements have

been made for the autumn serios of Soirees:· Monday, Oct. 2nd .-~lrs. Theodore Wrigbt will give recitations. Monday. Nov. 6th.-Wm. Cobbett, Esq ., will read a paper on "Heine," with musical

illustrations. Monday, Dec. 4th.-An Entertainment arranged by Miss Ada Lidstone and frieDds.

Tickets for the series of three Soin!es, !S. 6d.; single tickets, IS.; children under sixteen, 6d., from any member of the Soin'e Committee, in the Library, or Irom the Hon. Sec.

The members of the London Ethical Socielies will hold a Conversazione in the Cbapel on Sunday evening, September 24th, commencing at 7 o'clock. A short address will be given by some well·known speaker; there will also be music and recitations during the evening. Members of South Place who do not receive an invitation before September loth are desired to apply to

lioll. Su .• Mrs. W. COCKBURN, "The Limes," 34 Clyde Road, Croydon.

SOUTH PLACE ORCHESTRAL SOCIET~ TlIIRD SEASON, IB9g·19oo.-The Practices will be resumed on Thursday, September

28th, and be continued every succeeding Thursday, from 7.45 to 9.45 p.m., until further notice. Tbe Subscription is IS. per month, with an Entrance Fee of 2S. 6d. Players desirous of joining the Society arc requested to communicate with the Hon. Conductor, B. SVMONS. 2 IJillmarton Road, Cam den Road, N.; the H on. Treas., J. P. CODD, 57 Suigrave Road, Shepherd's Bush, W.; or tbe

lioll. Sec., ALFRED J. CLEMENTS, 25 Camden Road, N.W.

SUNDAY POPULAR CONCERTS. The FOURTEE NTH SEASON wlil begin on Sunday, October 1st, a t 7 p.m. Doors

open at 6.40. Adll1ission free, witb collection. F urther particulars, with Report of the Thirteonth Season, will be issued in September.

Any perSOD desirous of receiving the Concert Programmes by post, weekly. througbout tbe coming season is requested to send the Slim of 3S. to the Hon. Sec.

r"or advertisements of the Concerts, sce the Daily Telcgl'aph every Saturday (from Sep. 30), Committee meetings on September 3rd and 17th, at 10.30 a.m.

lioll. Tu"s., 11. C. MORRIS, 269 Lewisham Higb Road, S.E, lioll. Sec. ALl RED J. CLEMENTS, 25 Camden Road, N.W,

DEBENTURE REDEMPTION FUND. The accounts of the Sixth Annual Art and Bool, Sale, which arc not finally closed, thus

far sbow a nett profit of over '£47. Attention is dIrected to tbe Catalogue, appearing on the last page of tbis list, of New Books

wblch are to be sold in aid of tbe Fund. HOII. Sec., WAI.LIS MANsPoRD, Cherry Tree Court, 53, Aldersgate Street, E.C.

SOUTH PLACE DISCUSSION SOCIETY. The Discussion Meetings will be resumed in October, wben the followIng subjects will be

discussed :-Wednesday, OCI.4th.-" What Constitutes Imperialism?" Opened by HENRY CROSS.

FIELD.

Wednesday, Oct. 18th._u The Licensing Laws and the Licensing Commission." Opened by F. W. READ.

ChaIr taken at 7.30 p.m. VisItors are invited to attend and take part in the free dIscussIon. Annual subscription, IS. (or by Season Ticket).

HOII. Sec., MAUD BLAKE, z Lahumum Villas, South Park, I1ford.

LENDING LIBRARY. The Library Is open to Subscribers and Season Ticket Holders. The Hon. Librarians

attend every Sunday momin!! at 10.30. Books may also be obtained at tbe Monthly Soir~s, either for reference or borne reading. Any books borrowed prior to AU~l1st sbould be returned at once to the Librarians i it will be greatly to the convenience of readers if books borrowed are not detained more than twenty-one days. Catalogues can be obtaIned in th~ LIbrary, price 2d. Members having books they are wIllIng to lend are requested to kindly communicate with one of the Librarians, who will be glad to make them known to users of tbe Library.

Hon. Lib"aria~ls I Mrs. J. SKELLORN, ThomleIgh, Cavendish Road, Harrlngay, N. l J. R. CARTER, 67, Cromwell Avenue, Highgate, N.

SOUTH PLACE MAGAZINE. Tbe SubscriptIon to the Magazine for 12 months, post free, is 25. 6d., and It can be paici

In the Library, or sent to ERNEST A. CARR, Hon. Sec. MagariIJe Committee, South Place Institute, Soutb Place, Finsbury, E.C.

Secretaries of kindred Societies, booksellers, and others willing to have copIes of the Magazine on sale, can be supplied on the usual trade terms by the publishers, A. and H. B. BONNER. 1 and 2 Took's Court, Chancery Lane, E.C.

PUBLICATIONS.

The follOWing IlIIlOllgSt otller pllbZicatiolls are 011 sale ill the Libral'j1: U Farewell Discourses," IS. It Centenary of South Place,H by Dr. CONWAY, 35. gd . .. The Sacred Anthology," by Dr. CONWAY; 3S • .. Thoughts and Aspirations of the Ages," compiled by Dr. W. C. COUPLAND; 7s.lId. U Workers on their Industries "; IS. lid . .. Religious Systems of the World"; 7S. lid . .. National Life and Thought"; 2S.6d . .. British Empire" (Sunday Afternoon Free Lectures). 5 vols. Crown Bvo, wlth Maps,

Cbarts, etc. 6s. each volume. [In the Press.)

HONORARY OFFICERS. Treasurer: W. CROWDER, 271, Evering Road, Upper elapton, N.E. Secretary: Mrs. C. FLETCHER SMITH, 38, Manor Road, Stamfurd HIll, N. Fillallcial Secretary: J. ALDRED, 55, Cbancery Lane, E.C. RegiJtra. of Members Qlld Associates: HAROLD SEYLER, 14 Brading Road, BrI.ton Hill, S.W. Reeistra. of Debwtlll'e Holders: WALLtS MANSFORD, 53 Aldersgate Street, E.C.

Se"'etaYles of Sub-Committees. BuildIng ... ... F. HERBERT MANSFORD, 53, Aldersgate Street, E C. Concert ... ... ALFRED J. CLEMENTS, 25, Camden Road, N.W. Debenture Redemption WALLIS MANsFoRD, 53. Aldersgate Street, E.C. Decoration... .. . Mrs. H. SEYLER, l4, Brading Road. Brixton Hill. S.W. Discussion Society Mrs. MAUD BLAKE, 2, Laburnum Villas, Soutb Park, Ilford. House Miss JOHN SON, Itn, Amhurst Road, Hackney, N.E. Institute j W. SHEOWRtNG, 24, Bethune Road, Stamford Hill, N.

ll. HALLAM, IB, SI. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, N.W. Library... fo'. FORDHAM FRECHET, 18, Emperor's Gale, S.W. Magazine ... ERNEST A. CARR, 91, Thurlestone Road, West Norwood, S.E ~~~~n Ti~ket E. M. REISS, 27, Gresbam Road, Brlxton, S.W.

Soiree ..• Mrs. W. COCKBURN, The Limes, 34, Clyde Road, Croydon. Sunday Morning l W. RAWLINGS, 406, Mare Street, Hackney, N.E. Lecture ... .,. f Sunday School... Mrs. C. R. BRACE, 42, Manor Road, Stamford Hili, N.

Organist H. SMITH WEBSTER, 132, Cam den Street, N.W. The Buildin&, is to be let for Meetings, etc. Forms of application may be hall

of ~he Caretaker, lI, South Place, E.C.; and when filled up should be sent to Mr. N. Lidstone, 96, Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, N.