nature and the benefits of science. When men enjoy the world as brothers, there will be no curse of selfishness, or emulation for gain-no envy or covetousness for something that is not possessed: we speak of a world of goodwill, of friendship, of zeal to benefit each other, to relieve each other of natural pain, to administer sympathy and unwearied help to each other while contending with natural disease: we speak of brotherhood.

And now permit me to rehearse again my second proposition-That for this perfect civilization to be reached, the principles which, only, can create it, must be personally and individually exemplified in the lives of its advocates.

Can you show me how these principles of brotherhood can ever prevail, unless some first begin to exemplify them? Can the world ever become a world of goodwill, of friendship, of zeal to benefit each other, to relieve each other of natural pain, to administer sympathy and unwearied help to each other while contending with natural disease-can it ever become a world of brotherhood, until we who advocate all this begin to exemplify it? The world is not such a world now. What is to change it? The world is now a world of ill-will, of malice and hatred, of zeal to harm each other, to add greater evils to those which we must endure by nature. I speak of the world such as misgovernment, and misteaching, and bad example, have made it. I speak of its by far too prevalent and general state-a world of war and bloodshed, of wrong and wretchedness; and I ask you, now, to answer me the question I said you would have to answer me-How is offensive war to be destroyed, unless you destroy the spirit which leads to it?

Does any one propose legal enactments-international arrangements—as means of ending offensive wars? Will they ever take place, except by the quelling of that spirit which has led to war? And if they could take place without the quelling of that spirit, would there be any security in agreements for national arbitration? When unusual difficulties

arose, would not the old spirit be disposed to break through the tedium of negotiation, and rush to the sword, at the old maddening shout of "national glory?"

My brethren,-legal enactments, and international arrangements, I fear, will never teach the heart good-will, and forbearance, and kindness, and love, and brotherhood. The heart of man has been long mistaught, and, I fear, it will require something that shall come closer home than legal enactments to unteach it. And nothing but example can teach it anew. It will never learn to love instead of to hate, to do good instead of evil-unless by the gentle force of example. Do you find the heart learning to do this from the mere precepts of men who set no example? Does it not turn from the precept with disgust, because of the contradiction witnessed in the personal conduct of the speaker? I speak of no natural depravity. I acknowledge not the truth of such a doctrine; at least, in the sense that some of the priesthood teach it. But I affirm, that men's hearts and minds have been so long and grievously mistaught, that it will need bright example, in addition to precept, to unteach them, and teach them anew. Mistaught! why, have not the very principles which are most fearfully antagonistic of good-will, and forbearance, and kindness, and love, and brotherhood, been consecrated-if I may so speakand set up for the reverence and veneration of man?

"Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe!" Revenge-revenge-revenge! was consecrated, was made sacred,—was inculcated as a solemn and binding duty. Ay, when the fraternal and benevolent teaching of Socrates when the humanizing and refining tenets of Platowhen the moral enactments of Confucius-were termed heathenish philosophy, these barbarous provisions of a band of barbarian wanderers through the Arabian wilderness, were held divine, were held up as inspiration-nay, were declared to have been given to man by the Deity himself! Weredid I say? In spite of the teachings of him whom Christian

priests declare they reverence as their Master,-in spite of his broad declaration, "Ye have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth-but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil:" in spite of his still broader declaration, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy '—but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you;"-in spite of all this, the misnamed "Ministers of Peace" join in the defence of war, and bow at the throne of the Eternal to give thanks for the blood-shedding of thousands-which they call a victory!

Mankind have been taught that to murder-to shed man's blood-must be followed by more murder-by more bloodshedding for the precept was divine! What wonder that men followed it—what wonder that the bad principle is so difficult to eradicate?

Oh! did it never strike you, how fearfully this people, in all ages, have suffered by the operation of the very principles they thus recommended and enforced? Did you never reflect how dearly that Jewish nation have paid for their great treason to humanity-the evil deed of consecrating these precepts of revenge? Did you never seize upon that appalling historic fact, and make it the subject of deep and salutary reflection ? Look at the earlier Jewish history! what wholesale slaughters of thousands are recorded!-what a chronicle of assassination and murderous treachery, is that of their kings! And then their history under the Roman governments, and during the Dark ages! In their own land,—the land, I mean, which they called theirs,—and took possession of, by such relentlessly cruel warfare;-in their own land under the Roman, and afterwards under the Saracen sway,-in every country of Christendom, so called, how have they been persecuted, spit upon, buffetted, dungeoned, racked, torn, burnt in crowds, or pillaged, tortured, and massacred! What a history of suffering is theirs! Think of the reception this revengeful tribe

have met in every age of the world!-think how bitterly they have paid the forfeit of consecrating these horrid doctrines of retaliation and revenge! Ay, even at this hour of the nineteenth century, when disabilities have been swept off from creeds and modes of faith-the Jew alone cannot enter the British Parliament. I aim not to defend a provision that is utterly barbarous. You understand me better than to suppose that to be my sentiment. I aim to show the consequences of holding bad principles, even to the holders of them. I cannot stay to dwell on this subject. It struck me forcibly while in prison; and it has often been on my mind since. I leave you to take up these facts of the Jewish creed and the Jewish history, for reflection, at your own opportunity.

Just compare these facts, however, with the equally striking facts of what treatment another people experienced while in circumstances that one would have conceived to be imminently perilous. During the great Irish rebellion, when not only open war, but cold-blooded murders prevailed, "the Quakers were preserved even to a proverb," says a late writer; and when strangers passed through ruined streets, and observed a house uninjured, they would point and say, "That, doubtless, is the house of a Quaker." And in their own official document the Quakers state, that during that time of blood and massacre, no member of their society fell a sacrifice but one young man—and he assumed arms and regimentals, as a fighting man!

Think of these facts, my brethren, and compare them. "They who take the sword shall perish by the sword:" they who consecrate the principles of revenge and hatred shall fall by revenge and hatred: they who consecrate the principles of peace, goodwill, and brotherhood, and exemplify them, become, as it were, morally invulnerable: they pass unhurt through scenes of war and blood, and remain monuments of the power of meekness to confound all who talk of the nobleness of war, and the manliness of cutting throats, and the safety that lieth in being prepared to butcher in self-defence.

C

But we do not grant, says some one who objects, we do not grant that you apply the right term, if you say that taking human life in self-defence is a deed of revenge. We see revenge to be as abhorrent as you would persuade us it is. We see the world can never be a happy world-a world of brothers-as long as it is cherished. But to take life in selfdefence is an act of prevention of evil, not of revenge. Suppose a man surrounded with peril to his own life, by murderers; suppose him attacked by a ruffian in desperation, and he cannot preserve his own life except by taking the life of the desperate ruffian; suppose a man's wife and children threatened with instant death by a murderer; suppose our country visited by an invading army; suppose a man attacked by banditti on land, or by pirates at sea; will you tell us that none of the unoffending parties attacked, threatened, perilled, have a right to take human life, in order to save their own? Will you deny that it is a man's duty to take the life of another, in order to preserve his own, or the lives of those who look to him as their rightful and natural protector? Will you deny that a man would be guilty of a neglect of duty, if he hesitated to take life under such circumstances?

I have just put cases which have actually been put to me : some in the late public meetings to which I have referred, and some by letter. And I beg to be allowed to state that nothing ever gave me more heartfelt pleasure than some of the letters I refer to. They are all from working men; they are all written in the language of men who respect and love him to whom they are writing; and they all assure me how ardently they admire the principles of brotherhood I advocate, while they all state their questions of difficulty with this remark, that they wish I may be able to solve them in such a manner as to enable them fully to espouse my doctrine, as they call it.

It will not be expected that I answer all these questions of difficulty to-night; but I promise you I will shun none of them. Nor will I shrink from any question that may be sent