In support of my assertion, that Men of Science have hitherto crouched too much to the established impostures of the day, I have merely to remark, that I am not aware of any one instance in which any Chemist of this country has made a public attack upon them, or called them in question in any public manner. Another proof of my assertion might be found in the Medical and Surgical professions. From the best information, I have learnt, that, with a very few exceptions, the whole body of those gentlemen in the Metropolis, have discarded from their minds all the superstitious dogmas which Priestcraft hath invented, and that they have adopted those principles which have a visible foundation in Nature, and beyond what is visible and comprehensible, their credence does not extend. Yet, when that spirited young man, Mr. Lawrence, having obtained a professor's gown in the College of Surgeons, shew a disposition in his public lectures to discountenance and attack those established impostures and superstitions of Priestcraft, the whole profession displayed that same cowardly and dastardly conduct, which hath stamped with infamy the present generation of Neapolitans, and suffered the professor's gown to be stripped from this ornament of his profession and his country, and every employment to be taken from him, without even a public remonstrance, or scarcely an audible murmur!
It is conduct such as this which gives courage and permanence to the despots who strive to enslave both our bodies and our minds. It is this base disposition of making truth crouch before established and antique error, which has hitherto characterized the searchers after and lovers of the former, that has given force and longevity to the latter. It is the bounden duty of every man openly to avow whatever his mind conceives to be the truth. If he shrinks from this he is a coward—a slave to the opinions, of other men. Shall the enemies of mankind boldly tell us that they perceive truth in their mysterious and incomprehensible dogmas, and shall we shrink from the publication and support of those truths which we perceive to have an evident foundation in Nature! Shall we shrink from the avowal of truths because despotism and ignorance have granted stipends to the propagators of falsehood, and because those stipends might be endangered? Forbid it, Nature! Let every lover of truth and the peace and happiness of the human race forbid it.
I may be told that the Man of Science had much better pursue his studies and experiments in silence and private, and not expose himself to the persecution of bigots. The idea is slavish—disgraceful. Science has made sufficient progress in this country, and has a sufficient number of followers and admirers, to enable them by a single breath to dissipate all the bigotry in the country, or, at least, to silence all the idle clamour of the bigoted and interested about blasphemy and atheism, or any of their nonsense. Is the progress of Science to be submitted to an Excise, and are all discoveries to be treated like contraband goods, lest the trade and the tithes of the priest be injured? Shame on that man who can tacitly submit to such a system. And yet this is just what we are called upon to submit to, and threatened with punishment, and even banishment, if we murmur. I, as an humble individual, have resolved to break through those trammels, to violate all those degrading and disgraceful laws, and shall the Man of Science be silent, and see all that he values most dear, persecuted in my person, just because he will not proclaim that I am right, and that my enemies, and his enemies, are wrong? Now is the time for him to speak out—now is the time when he can do it effectually. My humble efforts have alarmed the whole of Corruption and Falsehood's hosts, and half frightened them to death, let but a few eminent and distinguished Men of Science stand forward and support me, and I have no fear of finishing well, what I have endeavoured well to begin. I aspire to nothing more than to become the humble instrument of sounding and resounding their sentiments. I am anxious to sound a loud blast in the cause of Truth, of Reason, of Nature and her laws. I will give every Man of Science an opportunity of publishing his sentiments without any direct danger to himself: I will fill the gap of persecution for him, if a victim be still necessary to satisfy the revenge of dying Priestcraft.
This is an age of revolutions, and where those revolutions have not yet displayed themselves, it is not for want of the mind having been sufficiently revolutionized, but because it is kept down by a superior acting force in the shape of fixed bayonets and despotic laws. Throughout Europe the mind of the people has been long revolutionized from its wonted ignorance, and wherever it finds an opportunity, it displays itself. This march of the mind will be progressive, and it is evident that it has already begun to spread itself among the very instruments of those despots called Kings, by which they vainly hoped to have checked its course. Every march of the Russian troops into the south of Europe will but tend to enlighten them, and by and bye they will become wise enough to return and revolutionize their own country; by adopting the Representative System of Government, and by making their present Emperor what he is so well adapted for—a regimental tailor.
The horror which was so lately expressed by the Emperor of Austria at the progress of Science, and at the revolution which Sir Humphry Davy had made in the science of Chemistry, is a specimen of that feeling which pervades all such men. This imbecile idiot quivered at an observation of his own physician about the state of his own constitution, and forbade him ever to use the word in his presence again! Yet it is by such men as this, that the inhabitants of Europe are held in a state of bondage and degradation!
Will ye, Men of Science, continue to truckle before such animals? Will ye any longer bend the knee to such Baals—to such Golden Calves as these? Will ye bend your aspiring minds to prop the thrones of such contemptible, such ignorant, such brutish despots? Shame on you, if you can so far debase yourselves! Up, and play the man, boldly avow what your minds comprehend as natural truths; and all the venom of all the Despots and Priests on the face of the earth, shall fly before you as chaff before the wind.
The science of Chemistry has so far explored the properties of matter in all its variety, and has so far ascertained all its powers, purposes, and combinations, as to banish the idea of its having been formed from any chaotic state into its present form and fashion. The Chemist would smile at such a notion in the present day, even if he feared to encounter the Priest and his dogmas about the world having been created out of nothing. Creation is an improper word when applied to matter. Matter never was created—matter never can be destroyed. It is eternal both as to the past and future. It is subject to a continual chemical analysis, and as continual a new composition. For a full comprehension of these assertions, it is necessary to have a knowledge of the elements of Chemistry: therefore, if any other person, but those to whom this letter is addressed, should read it, let him not hastily reject without a full consideration and enquiry. Mr. Parke's Chemical Catechism, or Dr. Ure's Chemical Dictionary, will explain all my assertions on the properties of matter. The elements of Chemistry have been published by a variety of other Chemists, to any of whom I would refer the reader, as it will not answer the purport of my address to enter into a fuller explanation on this important head, or to fill these pages with an elemental description of Chemistry.
I address myself to Men of Science, not as one of them, but as an individual who has obtained a sufficient insight into the various departments of Science, through the medium of books, to convince him that all the dogmas of the Priest, and of Holy Books, are false and wicked impostures upon mankind. He therefore calls upon Men of Science to stand forward and unfold their mind upon this important subject. He offers himself as a medium through which they might escape the fangs of the Attorney General, or the Society for propagating Vice, and pledges himself that there is no truth that any Man of Science will write, but what he will print and publish. He has a thorough contempt and indifference for all existing laws and combinations to punish him upon this score, and will set them all at defiance, whilst they attempt to restrain any particular opinions. He will go on to show to the people of this island, what one individual, and he a very obscure and bumble one, can do in the cause of propagating the truth, in opposition to falsehood and imposture.
I have now gone through the first part of my first head, and I should have been happy if I could have made an exception in the general conduct of the Chemists of this island. I am not aware that any one of them has ever made himself the public advocate of truth, of scientific philosophical truth, in opposition to the false and stupifying dogmas of Priestcraft or Holy Books. In the Medical and Surgical professions I have found one exception, and but one, although I almost feel myself justified in calling on many by name to come forward, and among them my namesake stands most conspicuous, in that cause which is nearest their hearts.
I have introduced the names of Bacon, Newton, and Locke, under this part of my address, not as practical Chemists, which I believe they were not, or if they knew any thing of the elements of Chemistry, that knowledge is not now worthy of mention, but because they are now claimed as the patrons of Superstition. Newton certainly deserves to be called a great astronomer, but as he endeavoured to make even his knowledge in Astronomy subservient to his bigotry, I have thought proper to treat him as a wavering and dishonest fanatic, rather than as a Man of Science. The theological and metaphysical writings of Bacon and Locke, are completely ambiguous, and form no key to the mind of the writer, or to any abstract and particular opinions. As I have said before, they equivocated as a matter of safety; whatever others might think of them, I feel no pride in saying they were Englishmen. Thomas Paine is of more value by his writings, than Bacon, Newton, and Locke together.