Under this system of education in cruel principles, governments have arisen and fell. The wrong has worn out the structure. The governed have governed themselves with their own wisdom. No wisdom higher than brutes enjoy, enters into the cruelty of many creeds and laws. What voice reaches the ear of the poor? What echo responds to the call of sympathy? Where are the luxuries of life garnered? Where the aid which a common sympathy requires? Alas! Where the equalities of nature’s laws respected? Not where indolence and wrong reside. The people submit; they acquiesce in their unrighteousness. They teach the unrighteousness from father to son, and receive the inheritance of their folly.
Hast thou not seen the injustice of minds? Hast thou not seen the cause of the world’s misfortunes? All are in darkness. All are in the wrong. There is no remedy but reform, and there can be no reform without more wisdom. The ignorant of nature’s laws should be instructed. They should be taught that mind needs no cruelty to make it benevolent, no vindictive usage to make it virtuous and obedient. They should be taught the value of their immortal minds, the value of nature, the value of good, and the importance of harmony in the adaptation of one thing to another. They should aid each other. They should neglect none. They should teach the virtues of economy and industry, and the great secret of human enjoyment, which is obedience to nature, and conformity to the impartial justice and equity of her counsels. The wrongs of minds repel the counsel of the elevated in this sphere. Thou seest that while minds are obscured with darkness of wrong and crime, they will not give heed to the voice of righteousness. They will not listen to the truths of experience, nor be improved with our efforts. They are sensual in their affections, cold in their sympathies, selfish without much wisdom in their schemes, malignant and treacherous in their doings, conceited and vain in their works, arrogant and boastful in their professions, hypocritical and deceptive in their worship, fraudulent and unjust in their dealings, weak and miserable in their follies, and negligent and wretched in their devotions.
Thou hast seen the fond mother withhold the work of culture, because she was afraid of the instruction. She was wishing the child good, but was afraid of the truth that was important to the child’s welfare. She was disqualified to aid the child. The child was sympathetic, but the instruction she gave, was full of cruelty. The horrors of malignity were impressed upon the mind, and corroded the generous emotions of benevolence and affection. The voice of nature became stifled; the warm impulse of kindness met no response in the cold wrongs rehearsed and predicted; and the soft yearnings of love were repulsed with the cruel anticipations of evil. The windows of hope were closed, and angry clouds of despair were thrown around the mind. God and nature were in seeming conflict. I have seen minds tortured with painful descriptions of evil, until the evil became a fixed principle within them; and, when the evil became fixed in their minds, evil only would gratify it. Hence, nature, being overcome by wrong education, has not the power to satisfy what it did not create. It will not satisfy wrong; and, as wrongs are instilled into minds by those who are in the wrongs themselves, so the wrongs make minds wrangle with the voice of nature and the good of the soul. There can not be a remedy in nature, which will satisfy the wrongs of ignorance. Thus, a mind, educated in the wrong of cruelty, will find no response in nature. Thus, a mind educated in the errors of pagan theology, in the wrong of infinite cruelty in God, in the wrong of eternally increasing wretchedness of the miserable, in the wrong of wicked spirits growing worse and worse, will find no wrong in nature to meet the wants of such wrongs. I have seen wrong; but I have seen no wrong of greater magnitude than the wrong inflicted by the inculcation of these wrongs. I have seen these wrongs germinate in the mind where they were sown, and produce a great harvest of wrongs. They have brought forth their own fruit; they have not brought forth love, sympathy, kindness, and mercy. The seed of cruelty, no matter with what care it may be cultivated, or sown, never will produce the fruit of righteousness. I have seen these wrongs inculcated by law, by creeds, by sects, by nations; but I have never known them to do good. I have never known a good doctrine to produce evil fruit, nor evil seed to produce a good work. I have seen cruel doctrines produce cruelty. I have seen sentiments, which were offensive to sympathy, mould minds into their own spirit, and prepare it to work wrongs. I have witnessed the sources of evil, acting in harmony with evil; but I have never known nature to wrong itself. I have never known minds, acting in harmony with nature, to become cruel, vindictive, or unjust.
M. Then nature is not wrong, nor the works of nature evil.
W. Nature can not be wrong, for it is the harmonious work of God.
M. Is not mind a harmonious work of God?
W. Mind is a work of God. It is a good work; but mind is weak; wisdom is strength; and, therefore, mind needs wisdom, without which it can not avoid the inharmonies of conflicting conditions. In its weakness, it may contradict the means which are essential to its development. The weakness of the mind, may receive false doctrines—doctrines disagreeing with its nature, and destructive of its enjoyment. The mind is good, but is abused with the errors and wrongs of ignorance. It is often abused by its own weakness. The mind is abused by wrongs of others. When minds propagate the incongenial sentiments of cruelty, thereby disturbing the natural sympathy of the soul, it overcomes the sympathy, and makes it wretched. There can be no moral evil without a disturbance of natural law, without a violation of the natural sympathy of the soul. Wrongs are wrongs, because of the evil which this disturbance occasions. The disturbance is occasioned by ignorance, and ignorance is germinated in the mind by reason of its weakness. Thus, when a mind is weak, it is unprepared to resist the teachings of those on whom it feels a dependence. These teachings being wrong, because inharmonious with the natural sympathy of the soul, induce evil to the mind.
The origin of evil is in the weakness of mind. Strength will be afforded by wisdom. Wisdom will be afforded by nature; and, when her voice is heard and obeyed, the antidote will make wrong right. It will work out the evil with good. It will elevate and rectify the evils to which mind is prone. The origin of all evil is where evil is. It can not be elsewhere. It will be found where wisdom is not. It will be found where the natural sympathy of the mind is robbed of encouragement. It will be found where cruelty is taught; and the voice of kindness is not heard in the murderous shrieks of agony which brutal violence enforces upon the ignorant and misguided criminal. It is not heard in the wild roar of damnation, as it rings from minds, educated in the mythology of pagan and taught in the place where the merciful spirit of Jesus is professedly adored. Adored! Heaven forbid. Where his religion of peace is mocked with peals of cruelty, and his voice of compassion is scorned to vent the outpourings of judgment upon the credulous and unsuspecting. These wrongs nature will not justify. They are wrongs which no religion will make right, without the wisdom of heaven to aid. They are wrongs which will meet with no approval in this circle. They are cruelties which make minds cruel, and therefore disobedient to God. They are miseries which induce miseries, and cultivate evils among minds in the rudimental world. They are evils which, when you go on a mission to overcome them, will be sustained with minds in harmony with them. Soon thou must go, and when thou goest, let thy words be peace.
M. Know we not that your wisdom will be discarded?
W. The wisdom which I would teach will be discarded by those who love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. The pure will receive the message, because they have no works of evil, which they wish to justify by evil doctrines and creeds. The good will not oppose good, because nature will not oppose itself. The wise will not oppose wisdom, because wisdom can not uphold folly.