AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 41 



been directed rather to repress than to energise that intellectual 

 progress which alone can make men good subjects under any 

 government. The results are sufficiently apparent. The whole of 

 the eastern hemisphere forms a grand arena upon which, for the in- 

 information and instruction of the west, for the past 6,000 years, has 

 silently yet loudly been demonstrated the fact', that, Justin propor- 

 tion as liberty of thought and speech has been crippled by power, in 

 equivalent ratio has been the decrepitude of national greatness. 

 What is it that has enabled the present generation to appreciate 

 the truth of this great general principle ] What but the popu- 

 larization of physical knowledge, the multiplication of cheap and 

 intelligible books, the existence of such institutions as this. This, 

 as I hope to convince you, is the true progress of society — the 

 lasting and real emancipation of the many from that most base of 

 all thraldoms — the thraldom of fear founded upon ignorance. 



There is a close, immediate, and necessary relation between the 

 progress (even of the physical sciences) and the march of free- 

 dom. It must be so. Each involves the privilege of thinking, 

 examining, freely, and of speaking openly. Exclusive know- 

 ledge is exclusive power, and the experience of all ages proves 

 that such knowledge and power are invariably employed for the 

 mistaken and selfish purpose of the perj^etuation of popular igno- 

 rance. If social rights be at this day and on this side the water 

 better understood, insisted upon, and enjoyed, than formerly, it 

 is traceable to no other fact than this, namely, that men cease 

 to be the slaves of tyrants when they begin to think. From the 

 moment in which they commence the employment of their obser- 

 vant and reflective faculties, in the acquisition of even any spe- 

 cies of knowledge, whether it be the age of a fossil, the distance 

 of a planet, the nature of a mineral, or the truth of a moral prin- 

 ciple — from that moment may be dated the downfall of the igno- 

 rant, selfish, and cruel influences that oppress and degrade them. 



" He is tbe freeman whom the truth makes free, 

 And all are slaves beside." 



The parent of that stupid admiration extended to the past 

 tyrants and destroyers of our race, is ignorance. The men who 

 silently worship such greatness are akin in spirit and intelligence 

 to the pagan idolaters of a comet. On the contrary, rational 



