...THE... Man From Mars

HIS MORALS, POLITICS AND RELIGION

BY WILLIAM SIMPSON

THIRD EDITION

Revised and Enlarged by an Extended Preface and a Chapter on Woman Suffrage

Press of E. D. Beattie, 207 Sacramento St. San Francisco

Copyright, 1900, by the Author.

TO THE MEMORY OF JAMES LICK who, by his munificent bequests to SCIENCE, INDUSTRY, CHARITY AND EDUCATION has indicated in the manner of their disposal, that humanity, wisdom, and enlightenment, arising out of the convictions of modern thought, which holds these, his beneficiaries to be the noblest and divinest pursuits of mankind, and the only possible agencies in the betterment of society. This Book is reverently inscribed By the Author.

PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.

Any one advanced in life who has enjoyed opportunities of knowledge derived from association with men and books, and who has an inclination to reach the bottom of things by his own independent thought, is apt to arrive at conclusions regarding the world and society very different from those which had been early impressed upon him by his superiors and teachers. From a suspicion, at first reluctantly accepted, but finally confirmed beyond a doubt, he finds that he has been deceived in many things. The discovery arouses no indignation because he knows that his early instructors were in most cases the victims of misdirection themselves, and are therefore not to be held accountable for the promulgation of errors which they had mistaken for truths. His self-emancipation has so filled his mind with a better hope for the future of the world, and a higher opinion of his fellow men, that the delight and satisfaction of the discovery[Pg 6] overcomes every sentiment except pity for those who had been leading him astray, and if the feeling of

condemnation or censure comes to his mind at all, it is only for those few who live and thrive upon those delusions having their origin in the past, and whose chief purpose in life is to keep them alive and to bolster them up among the multitude.

In the new light that has come to him, the world and society have been transformed to his view and understanding. He discovers goodness in many places where his teachers had denied its existence, and its definition has become so changed, under his broader vision, that humanity seems teeming with it everywhere, and is ruled by it, and those departments of it most affecting society he observes to be increasing, and that instead of like an exotic in uncongenial soil, hard to be retained by mankind, it is perpetuated and cherished by natural human impulses. He finds, also, that the sum of badness in the world has been greatly exaggerated by his teachers, and that those branches of it most interfering with the welfare of society are gradually being lessened, and are likely to work out their extinction by the penalties of public disapproval. These convictions make the world seem a[Pg 7] brighter and better dwelling place. They reveal to him the possibilities of its future, and tend to divert his higher aims from the obscure paths where tradition had been

leading them, into more fruitful channels. The truth will have at last dawned upon him, bearing evidences in this age that none but the unenlightened can doubt, that superstition, during many of the centuries past, has belittled the world, and has discouraged humanity in improving it, under the mistaken assumption of the world’s small comparative importance in the great outcome; the circumstantial particulars, of which, it pretends to hold by divine revelation. Having rid himself of these beliefs by a process of reasoning, and the assistance of the available knowledge of his time, he arrives at the conclusion that the best work of humanity is not, altogether that taught by the creeds, and that its most divinely inspired motives are those which tend to increase the knowledge of worldly things, those which add to the sum of goodness in society by exhibiting its practical effect toward happiness, and those also which assist in the great end of equalizing the burdens and enjoyments of life among all.

Having these conclusions firmly established in his mind, and the undeserved reverence from early training removed,[Pg 8] he becomes especially fitted to examine these old beliefs, and to pass judgment upon them, without that taint of blind devotional fervor which the unremitted teaching of many centuries has rendered current in the world. He observes of these old beliefs, that during their supremacy, when their control of society was complete and unquestioned, the material progress of mankind was least, without any compensating condition to make up for the darkness, and dead mental activity that had fallen upon it; except that apparent hypnotic influence from the doctrines taught, which made men careless of their miseries, and indifferent to the things of the earth. He observes, further, of these old beliefs, that as modern knowledge reduces their hold of authority among men, the world improves as it never did before. Even charity, kindness, and good will to men, adopted, and long taught as an inseparable part of them, multiply more rapidly as their weight in

the management of human affairs grow less. From these well attested facts he arrives at the conviction that those religious societies, founded upon, and which have for centuries labored to perpetuate these beliefs, either are not possessed with all the elements of human progress, or, that having many of such elements, they have others of[Pg 9] such neutralizing and retarding effect as to render the first futile for such a purpose. That the latter is the case, every year added to his experience of life removes the doubt, and explains to his understanding why the religious societies of the world have failed in any great degree to advance the material and intellectual condition of mankind.

With a moral code, every provision of which plainly indicates the method of a better social state, these religious societies have indissolubly associated in their teachings certain doctrinal beliefs, originating in a semi-barbarous age, and laden with its superstitions, with that fatal assumption of divine authority which demands their acceptance every where and for all time. Beliefs of such unbending rigidity, impossible adaption or amendment, and intolerance of dissent, on account of their pretended sacred character, that the world has been kept in a turmoil discussing them since their introduction, and the more salutary lessons of morality and spiritual hope have been outranked and submerged by these vain and profitless discussions. These beautiful and attractive lessons of love, kindness, and charity, exemplified and taught through a personality, whose gift of genius was to see,[Pg 10] above all other men, the needs of humanity, have attracted men and women into these religious societies as the hungry are attracted by stores of food. Once within their

lines, and imbued with the doctrines there found, they see but little abroad in the outside world but the evil spirit of Sheol. To them, its shadow rests upon much of the business of life, and with increased obscurity, upon many of its pleasures. It even shows to them among those humanities which are without their direction and cue. It is only however among the many who openly deny their doctrines and authority that the evil spirit is seen by them in all its hideous and malevolent personality, and their especial mission is to give battle in that direction. Between he who doubts, no matter how respectfully, and these religious societies, are drawn their lines of kindness and charity, and with their sermons of love, and their protestations of good will to mankind fresh upon them, they are at any time, transformed, so far as their relations with a doubter are concerned, into a band of hostile and relentless savages, with inflictions of punishment, measured in degree by surrounding enlightenment, from the actual barbaric torture of the savage, to mere social ostracism and avoidance.

[Pg 11]If it were the sole purpose of all Christian organizations to bring into general practice the civilizing precepts of their founder, they would become the most powerful agents in the world to human advancement and the betterment of social conditions, but these precepts are made subordinate by them, and are neither valued or estimated beyond their jurisdiction. They count nothing as saving qualities without the acknowledgment of certain doctrines and methods accompanying them. Those beautiful sentiments of charity and kindness, always so precious to the hearts of men, and growing more so as the ages advance, were not adopted nor promulgated entirely for civilizing purposes, but mostly with the selfish view of capturing humanity to church interests. With a like purpose, knowing the mystic tendency of the masses, the supernaturalisms, made a part of these attractive precepts, were adopted and upheld; bringing into the world an endless multitude of barren illusions, provoking acrimonious contentions among men, to no good purpose whatever, and

filling the pages of history with a description of scenes that are a torture even to the memory.

It is given only to those now living, and who have experienced the longest terms of life, to personally compare[Pg 12] the past with the present, so far as their limited sojourn in the world extends. They are living witnesses to the wonderful changes in society and its beliefs during the short period of two generations only. They have seen many of these ancient supernatural dreams in all their power of authority, and have watched them wilt, and finally disappear, under some silent influence, after argument and reason had exhausted themselves against them in vain. They have listened to those weekly expositions of infernal horrors, common at one time, in all the fear and trembling of childhood, and have later, witnessed the theories and beliefs which inspired them, with many others equally obnoxious to reason, relegated to silence and disuse, as antiquated and worn furniture, no longer serviceable, is consigned to the rubbish heap. Only two generations ago they have seen the literature of the churches in leather bound books occupying the best filled, and most

easily reached shelves of the libraries, and now laying neglected among the dust of the cellars; not one retained for reference, and even their titles forgotten. They have seen, in their time, the clutches of superstition compelled to relax its hold upon the throats of many a worthy human enterprise. They have witnessed the triumph of[Pg 13] science in its many skirmishes with tradition, and have been interested lookers-on, while the famous battle of evolution raged. They have seen it from start to finish, and the amusing spectacle of its end, when theology, metaphorically speaking, dragged its bruised and trembling body out of the dust; and wiping the blood from its pale and troubled face, unblushingly declared, as it had in every like outcome before, that there had been no conflict.

With all this, and within their own era of two generations only, they have seen the world arise to such prodigies of advancement, such marvels of practical charity and such activities in the pursuit of knowledge, in so close and quick succession as to fill them with bewilderment and wonder, and they will recognize, at least such of them as reflect upon the matter, that after conflicts innumerable, and setbacks and suppressions, the scientific have prevailed over the theological methods, and are at work in all the glories of their triumph, and that the ancient modes of thought are at last masters of the civilized world after nearly two thousand years of battle. The thread of civilization has been taken up and spliced at its point of rupture sixteen centuries ago. All this activity in the building of roads, bridges and aqueducts, this tunnelling[Pg 14] of mountains and rivers, this straining to make available for the services of man all the elements of nature, this untiring search to increase the comforts and conveniences of life, this higher regard for pure secular

learning, regardless of where it may lead, this diversion of art from the purposes of religious expression only, to an exhibition of nature in all her beautiful forms, this greater toleration of opinion, this coming back to the earth in short, after a long period of phantom chasing in the clouds, is neither more nor less than the revival of paganism. But paganism with its brutalities filtered out, and the best, and only civilizing parts of christianity, its hope of immortality, its lessons of virtue, its brotherhood and socialism retained, the superstitions of paganism buried forever, and those of christianity gradually dropping one by one into their graves.

He, who now at three score and ten, remembers when the sound of the flint and steel was a necessary prelude to the morning fire, when the open fire place with its crane and pot hooks was the only resource for warmth and cooking, when the largest city on the American continent was without sewers or water conduits, when a river steamer was a wonder upon which the curious gazed, and ocean[Pg 15] ones unheard of, when railroads were in an experimental stage, when the belief that ghosts flitted about the graveyards was unquestioned and undenied, when Satan was said to have stalked upon the earth in person, his presence seriously considered and accounted for by many of the churches, when witchcraft, only in the throes of death but not yet buried, had many adherents in animated defence, when the electrical experiments of Franklin were reckoned in some places as the trifling of an infidel with the spirit of evil, can best appreciate, by the comparison which reminiscence affords, of these wonderful changes in thought, and the significant accompaniment of increased

mental activity in all things benefitting the race. The close relations exhibited in this comparatively brief period between the growth of rationalism, and that accelerated movement all along the line of science, learning, and everything tending to place humanity on a higher plain, is more than a mere coincidence. It is the operation of cause and effect, better understood and acknowledged upon a closer examination.

The bursting forth, as it were, during this century of the united energies of mankind in the direction of knowledge, is an expansion after the removal of a pressure that[Pg 16] has borne down upon them for ages. Those great things that men have accomplished lately, they were as capable of centuries ago, and it is not surprising that they had not until recently made greater advances, when we estimate the weight of opposing forces. There had been for centuries nothing more discouraging to the formation of scientific hopes and ambitions than the theological methods of thought, and the atmosphere which surrounded them. The more that atmosphere was saturated with the doctrines of the churches, the more repellent it was to any intellectual effort toward outside things, and especially one requiring such a monopoly of mental energy and attention as to interfere with the Christian ideas of constant and unremitting devotion. There was no cultivated field, during the thousand years of supreme church jurisdiction, where an independent scientific ambition could

germinate. Within the church such an ambition was impossible. It was not only against the spirit, but the very letter of its teachings. Its foundation was laid by its victory over science, in its overcome of which, it proclaimed divine assistance and authority. It already possessed a knowledge of all things appertaining to the earth and the “firmament” above it which the Almighty[Pg 17] desired men to know. The earth was not round, it was the center of the universe. It stood still while the sun moved daily over its surface, getting back each morning into its place with the help of angels. The rainbow was a sign placed in the heavens for a purpose. Every known phenomenon of nature was accounted for by scriptural reference. The method of the creation of the world and the origin of man and of woman also, the church possessed in circumstantial detail. The moment true science began its work, and ran counter to any of this fund of knowledge, assumed to have been furnished by the Almighty, the trouble began. But the trouble was not

altogether with the honest investigator. If his discovery tended to disprove what was known as scriptural truth, and inadvertently had been allowed to gain the public ear, every prelate in the church began contriving to refute it. A new opportunity for fame was opened to every ambitious theologian, and there immediately began in rebuttal a spinning of texts, and a style of metaphysical argument, from one end of the church to the other, which remain to this day as the most remarkable curiosities of sinuous reasoning and constrained thought on record. All questions of a scientific character had but[Pg 18] one method of settlement, were they authorized or denied by scripture? If denied as they usually were, the disturber was either burned at the stake or made to recant. Fame, that chief incentive to all high effort, offered none of its rewards beyond theological circles, and during the ten centuries of complete church supremacy, any advance in knowledge which did not stir the animosity of theologians gained less public attention and applause than the

wearing of a hair shirt or a crown of thorns. During a thousand years the church had kept the world slumbering in the darkness of barbarism and superstition punishing with death those it could not convince. Any doubter of generally accepted beliefs, either in religion or science, who can support his position with plausable argument, is entitled at least to the consideration of being a thinker. The constant taking off of every such one, during a term counted by centuries, could have no other effect than to reduce the average of intellectual vigor in the whole. The husbandman, who removes from his acres of growing grain the tallest and heaviest stalks, and instead of saving them for seed, destroys them, insures, in time, the misfortune of dwarfed fields and diminished harvests. The church, since its complete victory over paganism in the[Pg 19] fourth century, had not produced with its supreme control over all learning a single noted man of science, or one promising to be such, whom it had not either suppressed or tortured to death, not a painter or poet who had not

devoted his genius principally to superstition or sensuality, not a historian whose veracity is not doubted, and not a single towering man of letters. This, too, in a people, among whom mingled the descendants of the Greek masters of literature and philosophy. When, about four centuries ago, secular learning and free thought began their first open advances since pagan days, the church, finding in every such movement some disturbance of its traditions, and making no account of their benefit to mankind, brought all its powers to bear for their suppression. In laying to do so it pursued the same cruel policy it had adopted in former contests. These cruelties and intimidations were practiced at a time when within the church were openly perpetrated corruptions of the most glaring character; which together, loosened its hold upon the consciences of men, and made possible that revolt and division known as the Reformation, early in the sixteenth century. Coming nearer our own time, and having to[Pg 20] deal with theological conditions not yet entirely removed,

a little more detail is necessary.