Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/280

Rh rarer than murder. Multitudes of men believe these doctrines because they are taught in the name of religion—and what fear follows, what distrust of self and of man, what belittlement of all the intellectual powers! How such men turn off from fair normal life, and hope to serve God and win heaven by some unnatural trick! Go to a meeting of scientific men, who are discussing geology, physiology, what you will, and how patiently they look for facts, and examine and cross-examine every witness, to be sure they get at a real fact, not at a dream. Thence how carefully they induce the law of the facts ; what respect do they show for man's mind ; what fairness of investigation, what freedom from confinement to the old! Go to a meeting of ministers, discussing the science of religion, and what a difference! what sophistry in "investigation," what contempt for mind, what neglect of facts, what fear of inquiry! With them credulity is counted one of the greatest of virtues; belief without evidence or against evidence is a part of piety. To call for proof is to be a "sceptic," an "infidel." All questions must be settled by quoting texts, which represent not facts of the universe, but the opinion of some man, perhaps unknown, who died hundreds of years ago. Not only is it impossible to attain truth in this way, but this method of trying for it debases the mind, the conscience, the heart, and the soul of those who take the pains. Children who go apart to study their lessons, and come together to recite them, learn truth by this process, and strengthen their mind; but if they separate to dream, and assemble to tell their dreams, what good comes of it? Dreams for facts, stupidity for science. Alas, there are children of a larger growth! So much for the ecclesiastical method.

II. The philosophical method is just the opposite of this. It is quite simple; it rests on two assumptions. The first is the faithfulness of the human faculties, the senses for sensation, the spiritual powers for their spiritual function, intellectual, moral, affectional, and religious. The other assumption is the existence of this outward world, whereof the senses testify.

Then from facts of consciousness within, and facts of observation without, the theological inquirer seeks to