Part 2

And not only is Mr. Owen under the necessity of passing laws, and of making those that belong to his establishment amenable to those laws, but the whole of his system is founded upon compulsion, both mental and bodily; for he would take infants from the care of their mothers, and put them under the care of his dancing-master, and there train them according to his model, and mould them according to his ideas; and that, no doubt, oftentimes very much against the inclination of the children themselves. The only difference between the present state of things, and the state which he wishes to introduce is, that he would put himself in the place of God, and of all human laws; and not only give laws to all his followers, but also enforce them. Whether the task would not be more than he could accomplish you shall judge by and by.

But as Mr. Owen cannot release us from the obligation of human laws, neither can he from that of the laws of God. Man may say, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?” but, even while he is saying it, he feels, whether he will or not, and is under the necessity of acknowledging to his own mind, that there is a Being above him whom he does not love, but from whose eye, and whose power he cannot escape; before whose dread tribunal he is conscious that he must stand, and be “judged according to the deeds which have been done in the body, whether they be good, or whether they be evil.” This is one of those eternal laws which are engraven, not only in the face of nature, but upon every mind and conscience, which Mr. Owen wishes to erase, and in the room of which he would write what he calls “the eternal laws of nature:” and in the accomplishment of his task, there are multitudes that would gladly help him, and contribute all the aid in their power; and, so eager are they for the accomplishment of his and their wishes, that they have even agreed to believe it, or rather, agreed to say that they believe it, and to act upon it, before it has been proved to be true.

Nor is it possible for them to prove it. They might as well attempt to prove that the sun does not shine at noonday, and they would have quite as much hope of success, as attempt to prove either to themselves or others, that “there is no God,” and that there is no hereafter. They may argue with themselves upon the subject, and attempt to convince themselves of the truth of what they wish to be true; and sometimes they may think they have satisfied themselves upon the point; but the next day, or perhaps the next hour, the sight of a funeral, the hearing of the death of a fellow creature, or even a sharp pain in their own bodies, sweeps away in a moment all the cobwebs which they have been weaving, and leaves them exposed to the naked truth, unsheltered and unprepared, that there is a judgment, and that they must stand and be judged.

And this judgment will be, whatever Mr. Owen may say to the contrary, not only for actions but for thoughts and opinions. And it is strictly reasonable that it should be so; for not only is man not compelled to believe, contrary to his will, but he is not compelled to believe at all. He is a rational and intelligent creature, and from the very constitution of his being, he must and can believe, only as he has evidence upon which his belief is to be founded. For the mind to believe without evidence, is like the eye seeing without light. But there may be light, and yet the eye may not see, for it may shut itself. And there may be evidence which would carry conviction to the mind if it were brought before it, and yet the mind may not be convinced, simply because it will not receive it, for it does not wish to be convinced. But who does not know that there are none so deaf as those who will not hear! And, in like manner, we say, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” Men have the law which they are bound to obey—the law of God; they have the means of becoming acquainted with that law; they have the ability to perform all that this law requires, if they are so disposed; if, therefore, they break this law, it is not because they are compelled so to do, but their own voluntary act and deed; and reason tells them that it is just that they should be punished for their transgressions. In like manner, the gospel of Jesus Christ reveals to man a way of escape from the miseries of the fall, those miseries which Mr. Owen admits to exist, whatever he may say respecting the source from which they spring; which way is a provision of mercy, and an act of grace on the part of the Divine Being. For the accomplishment of it, he gave his own Son to die in the stead of man; and as the result of his death, he has offered salvation, and that freely, to every one that believeth. Now, the evidence, upon which these glorious truths rest, is such, so full, so clear, and so conclusive, that he may run that readeth; and man has the means of knowing these truths: if, therefore, he remain in ignorance respecting them, or when they are brought before him he does not believe them, it is entirely a wilful and a voluntary unbelief. For that he will be condemned, and reason will approve his doom.

In wading through the mass of absurdities and errors contained in Mr. Owen’s principles, as developed in the “Book of the New Moral World,” it would have been a very easy task to have selected a number more which might have been exposed: but to go through the whole work page by page, would indeed be labour lost, as to most readers; for I am persuaded there are very few that understand, or even profess completely to understand his principles. Neither is it necessary for their purpose that they should. What they want is a system which shall let them live and do as they like, without being exposed to the consequences of their conduct, and this they find in the system of the New Moral World. But I think I have knocked down some, if not all the main pillars of the structure: the rest will fall of themselves.

There is, however, one law of such a character, which, when understood, will perhaps have a greater influence in preserving such as have no selfish or wicked ends to answer, from falling into his pernicious errors, than any long train of argument, and that is the following:—“Each individual is so organized that he must like that which is pleasant to him, or which, in other words, produces agreeable sensations in him; and dislike that which is unpleasant to him, or which, in other words, produces in him disagreeable sensations; and he cannot know previous to experience, what particular sensations new objects will produce on any of his senses.” (Law 12.)

The meaning of this law will be best explained by an extract from Mr. Owen’s “Declaration of Mental Independence, addressed to the Society at New Harmony, July 4, 1826,” in which, in reference to the law of marriage, he says, “It is, in reality, the greatest crime against nature to prevent organized beings from uniting with those objects, or other organized beings, with which nature has created in them a desire to unite.”

Thus has Robert Owen ventured, not only to set himself in opposition to God, but also to declare that that law of Divine appointment which enjoins a man to “leave his father and his mother, and to cleave unto his wife;” and forbids “man to put asunder what God hath joined together,” is wicked; and, as he avers, has “produced hypocrisy, crime, and misery, beyond the power of language to express.” So that he would avoid the crime of adultery by making all persons common; and each man and each woman should be left at perfect liberty to have whom they liked, keep them as long as they liked, and change them as often as they liked. Come, this is speaking out; and it is just what is wanted. The poison then will carry along with it its own antidote.

On another subject, too, Mr. Owen has spoken plainly. He says, “The love of truth is an instinct of human nature which would be always exercised in simplicity, were not individuals praised and blamed for particular feelings,” p. 11. The Bible tells us that “man goeth astray from the womb, speaking lies.” Now, which is to be believed, Robert Owen, or God?

But I ought to beg Robert Owen’s pardon; according to his doctrine, there is no personal God: this is his language: “The error respecting this law of human nature, viz., the 14th, has led man to create a personal Deity, author of all good; and a personal devil, author of all evil. * * * * And yet, when the mind can be relieved from the early prejudices which have been forced into it on these subjects, it will be discovered that there is not a single fact known to man, after all the experience of the past generations, to prove that any such personalities exist, or ever did exist; and, in consequence, all the mythology of the ancients, and all the religions of the moderns, are mere fanciful notions of men, whose imaginations have been cultivated to accord with existing prejudices, and whose judgments have been systematically destroyed from their birth.” (Book of the New Moral World, p. 46.) And his idea on this awful subject he explains, when he says, “Without a shadow of a doubt, that truth is nature, and nature God; that ‘God is truth, and truth is God,’ as so generally expressed by the Mohammedans,” p. 65; and yet he tells us that “man is a wonderful and curiously contrived being;” and that, “in the formation of man and woman there is the most evident harmony and unison of design,” p. 70. How truth, which is an abstract quality, can be a power, can contrive and create, is what I do not understand; but, no doubt, Robert Owen, who, if persons will take his testimony, and follow his notions, can perform much more wonderful feats than this, will be able to explain it; especially as he tells us that “it is only now, for the first time, in the known history of mankind, that the mind has been permitted to examine facts, in order to discover truth, upon the subjects which have the greatest influence upon the human race.”

But, before I proceed further, I must here stop to inquire, Are there any human beings gifted with reason, and in the use of their sober senses, who can, with their eyes open, rest their faith upon testimony such as that contained in the Book of the New Moral World, and stake their eternal interests upon the reception of that testimony? Then, indeed, are they to be pitied. They are not only groping in the dark, but they put out, with their own hands, the only light which can conduct them through the darkness of this world to the regions of immortal blessedness and joy. And what do they get in return? Mr. Owen promises them a paradise—a paradise, however, only for this world; his system has nothing to do with anything beyond the grave; that is a dark and dreary waste, in which, yet, they must exist and dwell; and, without an acquaintance with, and a belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ, must live and dwell there in eternal misery. But, even in the paradise which Mr. Owen promises, there is not the happiness which his followers expect. As a proof of this, I beg attention to the following account of his settlement at New Harmony, in America, published by Mr. Flint, in his History of the Western States. Mr. Flint was, and, it is supposed, still is the friend of Mr. Owen, and was made acquainted by him with his proceedings; his account, therefore, as far as it goes, may be considered to be authentic. The statement, too, has now been five years before the British public; and yet has never, as far as I am aware, in any shape been contradicted.

“Harmony, fifty-four miles below Vincennes, and something more than a hundred, by water, above the mouth of the Wabash, is the seat of justice for the county of Posey. It is situate on the east bank of the river, sixteen miles from the nearest point of the Ohio, on a wide, rich, and heavily-timbered plateau, or second bottom. It is high, healthy, has a fertile soil, and is in the vicinity of small and rich prairies, and is, on the whole, a pleasant and well-chosen position. It was first settled, in 1814, by a religious sect of Germans,” who resigned it to “the leader of a new sect,” who “came upon them. This was no other than Robert Owen of New Lanark, in Scotland, a professed philosopher of a new school, who advocated new principles, and took new views of society. He calls his views upon this subject ‘the Social System.’ He was opulent, and disposed to make a grand experiment of his principles on the prairies of the Wabash. He purchased the lands and the village of Mr. Rapp,” the head and leader of the Germans, in whose name all the lands and possessions were held, “at an expense, it is said, of 190,000 dollars. In a short time, there were admitted to the new establishment from 700 to 800 persons. They danced all together one night in every week, and had a concert of music on another. The sabbath was occupied in the delivery and hearing of lectures. Two of Mr. Owen’s sons, from Scotland, and Mr. M‘Clure, joined him. The society at New Harmony, as the place was called, excited a great deal of interest and remark in every part of the United States. Great numbers of distinguished men, in all the walks of life, wrote to the society, making inquiries respecting its prospects and rules, and expressing a desire, at some future time, to join it. Mr. Owen’s experiment at New Harmony lasted little more than a year, during which he made a voyage to Europe. The 4th of July, 1826, he promulgated his famous declaration of ‘mental independence.’ The society had begun to moulder before this time. He has left New Harmony, and the ‘Social System’ seems to be abandoned.”

Thus far Mr. Flint’s account; from which we gather, that although the establishment was formed under Mr. Owen’s personal superintendence, and managed by himself, and formed, too, under the most favourable circumstances, yet one short twelvemonth was sufficient to explode all his views, and to crumble his system to nothing! But he hopes, perhaps, to develope it under more favourable circumstances in this country, and his followers are subscribing monies to enable him so to do; and yet he tells us that his system is to change the character of the whole world. It, however, did not seem to meet with a congenial soil in America, or else he found that it was not suited to that part of the world. But what failed in America in twelve months, where he had all his own way, and nothing to interfere with his plans, is likely to succeed better in England! What dupes they must be who believe him!

But it did not take even twelve months to show, that in Mr. Owen’s boasted paradise there were the seeds of evil which he could not eradicate, and miseries which he could not counteract, as appears from the following testimonies and statements. The Duke of Saxe Weimar, to whose work a reference has already been made, states, “that it shocked the feelings of people of education to live on the same footing with every one indiscriminately, and that several of the discontented wished to leave the society immediately, and to go to Mexico. One lady, the widow of an American merchant, was full of complaints of disappointed expectations. The duke observed the better educated members of the society keeping themselves together, and taking no notice of tatterdemalions, who stretched themselves on the platform. The young ladies of the better class kept themselves in a corner, forming a little aristocratical club, and turned up their noses apart at the democratic dancers, who often fell to their lot, when the gentlemen, as well as the ladies, drew numbers for the cotillions, with a view to prevent partialities. The duke expresses his regret that Mr. Owen should have allowed himself to be so infatuated by his passion for universal improvement, at the very time when almost every member of the society with whom the duke had conversed apart, acknowledged that he was deceived in his expectations.” (Stuart’s Three Years in North America, vol. ii., pp. 444, 445.)

And such, it may be confidently predicted, will be the end of all Mr. Owen’s visions of paradise, if he should ever be able to do more than draw them on paper, and exhibit them to the imagination; or present them in his pictures, as is customarily done, to the enchanted eyes of his followers. But who can think without sorrow of the evils which result from his principles? and they do produce innumerable evils! Who can contemplate so many immortal creatures, fitted for the highest and the noblest purposes, debasing themselves to a level with the brutes, and making pleasure and sensual gratification the sole end of their being; nay, even stooping to be regarded as mere machines, in order that they may escape from the trammels which they feel that a sense of accountability throws around them! Above all, who can behold unmoved the disregard, and even contempt, with which these persons treat the soul, that immortal principle, which stamps upon man his dignity, which raises him above the brutes, and allies him to the inhabitants of the celestial world, which is the seat of happiness; for the redemption of whom the Son of God became flesh, and expired on Calvary, and for whom, when sanctified, there are mansions of glory provided in heaven? How can men trifle with this precious jewel, and account it of no value, saying, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die?” Is it not enough to affect the heart, to draw forth floods of grief, and make us exclaim, “Oh that they knew, even they, in this their day, the things which belong to their peace!” and to add, “Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” Happy, unspeakably happy should I be, if I might be the means of rescuing and saving any that have been deluded into these errors, from their perilous situation, and their still greater and more awful doom, if they continue in them; nor shall I account it a less privilege to be the humble instrument of preventing any, that are in danger, from falling into these snares. A desire to do good, and, if possible, saving good, to my fellow creatures, is my sole object in taking my pen, and meddling with the subject. Christianity, like an impregnable fortress, has often been assailed; men of gigantic minds have directed their weapons against her, but she has outlived every storm, has hitherto vanquished even her mightiest foes. I think, therefore, her friends need be under no alarm on account of the efforts of Robert Owen to assail or destroy her.

I am, however, departing from my purpose; my object, on the present occasion, not being to defend Christianity, but simply to examine Socialism, and to inquire how far the principles of the New Moral World are calculated to effect the object for which they are propagated. I think I have shown that in themselves they want consistency, they are either absurd, or they lead to absurdity, they destroy the sense of the being of a God, and, as the necessary consequence, debase the character of man, making him only a living machine. If the foundation on which they rest were true, they are not necessary, and their consequences are most pernicious: and here I think I might stop, and leave the truth to make its own way; and here I should stop, were it not that by so doing, I should be acting a very unjust and unfaithful part towards the cause of Christ.

Then, I do say from conviction, and to use Mr. Owen’s words, “a conviction, as strong as conviction can exist in the human mind;” and not only from conviction, but also an experience, in some humble degree, of the things which I profess to teach to others, that Christianity, not only promises, but actually does, for those who believe it, what Socialism promises, but cannot perform.

Mr. Owen pictures before his followers an earthly paradise. He promises them, when his establishment shall be commenced, sights to please the eye, and sounds to enrapture the ear, more than the imagination can now conceive. He tells them that, what with the pleasures of the table, the recreations of music and dancing, and the enjoyments resulting from philosophical and political discussions, and such like things, they shall have a happiness unbroken and complete. But even in his paradise there must be labour, and as each member must necessarily take his or her proportion of the labour, will he, for the future, ensure all that enter against such an unpleasant, and such a mortifying occurrence as took place with the young and handsome woman, who, when she was singing and playing admirably on the pianoforte, was told that milking of cows was her duty! If not, what is the happiness of his paradise worth? “Like the apples of Sodom,” beautiful to the eye, but ashes within. The body may indeed be regaled, but there is no lasting, no solid joy for the mind. And this Mr. Owen’s followers already have found. I appeal to themselves for the truth of what I say; and I have the means of knowing that they will support the truth of my statement. They have not found perfect happiness yet, whatever they may do when they get within the walls of his promised paradise. But if this be the case in health, in vigour of life, and when surrounded by every thing calculated to impart pleasure, what, I ask, will be the state of things when sickness invades the frame, when disease and old age enfeeble and destroy the body, and when death comes and cuts it down? Is there, or has he made, any provision against these evils, or will they change or lose their nature within the walls of this promised paradise? Ah! if his followers could have assurance of that, then, indeed, there might be some faint prospect of being happy—but he cannot; and they feel he cannot; there is, therefore, and there must always be, a worm at the root of their gourd, and poison at the bottom of their cup of pleasure.

And what is there beyond the grave? Yes, I ask, what is there beyond the grave? “Oh that grave!” is the feeling cry of each of their minds: “if it were not for the grave, we should not mind, we should do very well;” but there is the grave; and again I ask, What is there beyond it? Oh! if any of those that have imbibed these principles should cast their eye on this page, I beseech them, by the worth of their souls, by the terrors of the Lord, by the solemnities of the judgment day, and by the miseries, the eternal miseries of hell to think of their state, and immediately to flee from the wrath to come. And let me tell them, for we have no delight in thundering out these awful realities, on the contrary, we rejoice to tell them, that if they repent, even for them, there is salvation, and eternal life through the blood of the Lamb. Oh then, we beseech them by the mercies of God, we beseech them by the dying love of Christ, as though God did beseech them by us, we pray them in Christ’s stead, “Be ye reconciled to God.”