The Freethought Review. WANGANUI, N.Z., OCTOBER 1, 1883. OUR FIRST NUMBER.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 1, 1 October 1883, Page 8

The Freethought Review. WANGANUI, N.Z., OCTOBER 1, 1883. OUR FIRST NUMBER.

In introducing to the circle of its future readers the first number of The Freethought Review, we desire to state in terms distinct and explanatory the ends and principles it is intended to serve. In the first place, it is believed there is room for a periodical without encroaching on the ground taken up by other publications devoted to the spread of Freethought principles, which shall openly and without reserve discuss questions affedting society, as well as the problems in religion and politics on the solution of which the social conditions themselves depend. Our aim, first and foremost, is the happiness of mankind in this life. Whatever, in our opinion, may tend to hinder the advance toward this ideal, it will be our duty to assail. For superstition and prejudices, as we feel no reverence, we shall show no regard. Antiquity has its interest and its lessons, but implants no desire that history should repeat itself. Man has long enough preyed on man, making this earth a pandemonium. Moral sanctions have been conveyed in rewards and punishments, the interpreters of the supernatural declaring that society would fall to pieces the moment the future state was withdrawn from the thoughts of men. We rejeeft the doctrine, and it will be our duty to discuss and examine the foundations on which it rests. If the evidence is weak, inconsequent, inconsistent, opposed to reason, and the result of ignorance and faith, enquiry will undermine the superstructure, and it will fall. It will therefore be one of the aims of the Review to contribute its quota towards the critical investigation being carried on by Freethinkers into the testimony on which the religious, moral, and political systems of the ancient times have been handed down and enforced in laws. It is no less meritorious and right to pull down error than to build up moral systems founded on truth. And it is not for anyone to objecfl on the ground of consequences. The disintegrating forces of Nature are as essential to progress as are the forces which combine in new forms adapted to human interests. Think for a moment what the result would be if in the physical world Nature ceased to resolve organic bodies into their original elements ! There could then be no place for improvement amid universal stagnation* And it

would be just the same morally and religiously. The destructive work of Freethought hence has its value hardly less marked than what it claims to perform on the constructive side. One thing it could not do if it would—it could not injure Truth. Let no one then be afraid, for to show fear in this is unphilosophic and absurd. Our friends, we hope, will understand from what we have already written that we suggest a wide latitude for the exercise of the analytic faculty. The iconoclast or image breaker has his use, and must be allowed to exercise his vocation within wide limits.

But has not Freethought a positive reason for its existence ? Its distinctive teaching in ethics might we think be fairly summed up in the familiar aphorism—- “ virtue is its own reward.” Obedience to conscience is the highest moral injunction, transcending all creeds. Religious dogma covers over and obscures this sublime lesson, and people wonder that formalised religious instruction does not make them better than they are. The wonder rather is that it does not make them worse. Need surprise be felt at the prevalence of larrikinism! We have only to go to those model religious institutions, the Universities, on public occasions, to see one of the results of religious teaching. The riotous, destructive, and utterly selfish conduCt of the young gentlemen who have been so religiously cared for in all the “ foundations,” is a pretty commentary on the influences that are said to be so potent in moulding the disposition. Follow the majority of even the best of these men into Parliament, and judge of their fine feeling for the rights of individuals who may happen to oppose their prejudices. Nay, let us step up into a higher region, and measure the selfishness and class hatreds which fill the bosoms of the Bishops who have a voice in making the laws. Freethinkers can enter upon their positive duties with light hearts, knowing that the results of their teaching cannot be worse, and can easily be better, than the fruits produced by the supernatural tree. It will be our duty from time to time to illustrate the positive side of the Freethought system, founded as it is in moral principles illumined by knowledge and science.

The most effective method of diffusing Freethought principles is by means of association and organisation. Principally through the courage and energy of friends in Dunedin, the Freethought movement has spread or is spreading to every town of importance in the colony. The ice having been broken in the South, Freethinkers have been emboldened to unite and assert their opinions without fear of persecution. The movement is but in its infancy ; it is destined to become a great power for good ; though we cannot suppose that it will not have to face a long and determined war, carried on with bitterness on the part of the enemy, and not always according to the rules observed by civilised belligerents. What matter, so long as the cause is good. For ourselves we hope to be able to render material assistance in making the organisation more perfect, in establishing links of communication between Freethinkers, and above all in keeping before them those vital principles of aCtion and conduCt by which the movement must be governed. We shall have to ask the assistance of our friends everywhere in forwarding the work we have undertaken. The Freethought Review, to be successful, must attract both pecuniary and literary support—the former in a wide circle of subscribers and advertisements, and the latter in articles and news from secretaries of societies, and from friends who have something to say to others on the questions that relate to our social life. And now we hopefully launch our barque on the tide, believing that it will receive its share of favouring breezes, and be able to weather the storms which must be expedted.