A PLEA FOR LIBERTY. 



our faculties will permit, and to look upon it as the introduc- 

 tion to a grander life, where the problems here discussed shall 

 find a satisfactory solution. 



" Oh for the time when in our seraph wings 



We veil our brows before the Eternal Throne 

 The day when, drinking knowledge at its springs, 

 We know as we are known." 



Lot us beware, however, when we devote our life to the 

 pursuit of wisdom, that we do not make a false start. Do not 

 let us diverge into the narrow way of bigotry and dogma. It 

 is the property of exclusive and intolerant error to dominate 

 and to reign alone. For this reason we systematically refuse 

 and reject all control; and it is thus men have been fatally led 

 to lay a rash hand upon intellectual liberty, liberty, which the 

 All-wise Himself has refrained from touching ! Such is the 

 early taint of our race, the moral situation of humanity. 



But retribution has followed close upon this violation of 

 all that is most sacred in our human world. The schools of 

 philosophy, and the infallible creeds, founded upon authority 

 to the exclusion of all mental and spiritual freedom, have never 

 ceased to be at war with one another, and instead of labouring 

 for that union which is strength, that union so necessary to 

 the happiness and advancement of humanity, they have 

 everywhere sown irreconcilable antipathies and bloody dis- 

 cords. Such is the religion of those who, under a pretence of 

 worshipping God, worship only themselves ! History affords 

 us abundant illustrations of this melancholy truth. 



Finally, let us return to our metamorphosis. The butterfly, 



2 c 



