FREE THOUGHT.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2495, 19 March 1881, Page 2

FREE THOUGHT.

By P.R. The intimate relationship that exists between thought and action makes it impossible for a reflecting man to dismiss as a trivial subject the condition and tendencies of modern thought. It is sometimes urged that the mere speculative flights of .9, mind arc of little moment compared with the course of life pursued by the individual. But this is fue only in a limited sense. Thought is the basis of action, and a stereotyped habit of mind becomes the fixed standard by which life is regulated. A certain “ course of life” is praiseworthy or not, according to the popular ideal of a good life, and an ideal life is simply a life completely in harmony with and obedience to recognised and acknowledged law. But who knows when the obeyed and acknowledged laws of to-day may be looked back to from a region of entirely different ones ? We cannot too soon awake to the fact that thought is the most important factor of our being. The laws which govern thought are like those governing the winds, immutable but natural. To all intents and purposes thought is free—that is its great characteristic. It is free, chainless, and we must learn to regard it as we do the winds or the ocean, as unrestrainable by human hand as deriving its freedom and power from the Creator himself. This conviction ought to be deeply impressed upon the minds of those who would seek to restrain human thought within the limits of systems and creeds. They may indeed arrest the actions, and give a peculiar complexion to the lives of those they influence. But in that case they simply hold men in bondage, and hypocrisy and stupidity are the outcome. They stay not the swift career of thought, which steadily reaching forward and mounting upward, conducts humanity, clogged and trammelled and retarded by contending systems and baser considerations to an ever brightening future. We must open our eyes, if we be not wilfully blind, to the fact that thought is and will ever be free. We must seriously put it to ourselves whether in this onward progress we desire to be among those who are dragged irresistibly like slaves, or whether we will join cheerfully the onward march.

Every individual sits as iEolus, in vastro antro, presiding over the cavernous depths of his soul. Here thoughts c ircum clamtm frevmnt,

striving with terrible power to sweep the whole mental being onward, and it is well that, although we may not (to keep up the figure) be able to restrain this giant power, we should not give it a too loose rein.

Before spreading our wings and abandoning ourselves to the resistless influence of thought, we should see to it that our flight from tradition is that of the truth-seeker and that wo start with pure motives. Free-thought, in its integrity, is the right of full private judgment in everything, with a view to arriving at the truth. It proceeds in no presumptuous or impatient or contemptuous or vainglorious manner. It will not rush into the wild excesses of the revolutionist. It is the calm, conscientious proceedure of the philosopher, intent only on the elimination of truth, not on the realisation of personal ambition or the verification of personal notions. Among the free-thinkers there are several distinct classes. There is (1) the class that is merely impatient of control and authority. These people have no part or lot with the sincere freethinkers. Their,attitude is that of disobedient and petulant children, for whom freedom is too state altogether. There -is- (2) the class that desires to air its own wisdom and display its supposed mental superiority. These make capital, for their own aggrandisement, out of a great movement. No man who rejoices, or boasts even to himself, of a pretended superiority is fit to join the great body of patient investigators. But besides these there are some, not a few, who, inwardly dissatisfied with the bondage of tradition, finding the old remedies powerless to heal the wounds and bruises and putrifying sores of humanity, conscious that great .problem (on the solution of which human welfare depends) remain unsolved after ages of effort, set themselves to a free investigation of Nature in the hope that she will reward them with some glimpse of success. They formulate nothing, they seek no proselytes, they make no stir ; they ask only freedom and are content to patiently abide unbiased. It is a charge often brought against free thinkers that they are like the Parliamentary army of Cromwell, but the off-scouring of humanity, that they are merely persons who find the restraint of social life and religious profession irksome. But surely the personnel of Free-Thought now-a-days gives the lie |direct to this. Are there not among free thinkers men of lives as blameless, hearts as pure, aspirations as noble as any among the most orthodox ?

It is impossible to shut one’s eyes to the spread of Free-thought. It is gradually becoming the universal condition of educated and reasoning men. It is loosening the bonds that unite men to creeds and traditions. Although it has not yet disintegrated wholly the foundations on ■which venerable institutions stand it is working remarkable changes even in the garrisons of orthodoxy. Articles of faith, hoary with age, that were once insisted upon with the utmost vehemence and with persecuting zeal, are now being abandoned as untenable. The voices that once with dogmatic insistance proclaimed them as unalterable truths now speak with an uncertain voice or are altogether silent. The veil once interposed between human minds and research has been pierced through and through by keen eyes that will not lower themselves beforfc any pretence of mystery or secrecy, and it now hangs like a torn banner. d.s in the sphere of religious belief so in that of political thought and social progress. With the right of private judgment there grows in strength the desire of self-government, and new views of social organisation. The altars and shrines of religious system that have long dominated human minds stand neglected and disregarded, as the “ right divine of kings to govern wrong ” is falling into contempt. These things are passing away, and their little light “ pales its ineffectual fires ” before the dawn of a greater light, wherein men may walk without let or hindrance. Ido not say that we should undervalue the fading institutions of the past. They have done well their part in conducting our race to its present position. It was a mighty stride from barbarism to dogmatic theology ; from murder, lust, and rapine, and the unrestrained dominion of the fiercest passions to the semblance at least of obedience to law and order that characterised the subjects of tyrants. But these things have had their day, and man now divests himself by degrees of these encumbrances and claims to walk alone. Let it be his constant aim to walk in all humility and singlemindedness, if he chooses to pursue the open and sun-lit path of Free-thought.