Kind reader! Let me presume that you are in search of truth, and that you have an intuition sufficient to tell you that this unending search is the inspiring energy of the Journal of Man Let us realize the vastness of truth, the vastness of those realms of knowledge heretofore unexplored by man, in which the Journal is to perform its work, and in realizing that, it will be very obvious that no single number of the Journal can be an adequate specimen to give a just conception of what it is to be, how many hundred themes it will have to consider, how many errors to analyze, how many new suggestions to introduce, how many criticisms of the old, how many expositions of the new. The present number of the Journal is little more than a promissory note for its future.

Even as a commentary on periodical literature, there will be a countless number of the superficial theories of ignorance and haste for it to examine, while there will be the more pleasing task of noting the introduction of sound philosophy, the progress of careful investigation, the uprising of common sense against hereditary falsehood, and the gradual enlightenment of the clerical, medical, and educational professions by the slow progress of new ideas, and the unembarrassed progress of the physical sciences and inventions which encounter no collegiate hindrance, excepting this, that the average liberal education, as it is called, gives so little knowledge of physical science, that the educated classes often fail to distinguish between the real inventor and the deluded, or delusive, impostor.

The inventor is the emancipator of mankind from the oppressive burden of toil, and hence the philanthropist should ever look with interest to the progress of invention, should ever be ready to cooperate with inventive genius. The Journal should be the inventor’s friend, and it hopes to see the time when the national institution that I have proposed shall be established, to bring blind, but all powerful, capital into co-operation with the wise, but often powerless, inventor.

Invention is the physical, as philosophy is the intellectual power, to complete the emancipation of mankind from slavery and suffering. “No,” would the theologian say, “your false philosophy ends in nothing. The world has been full of philosophies from Democritus to Hegel, and they have never lifted a single straw’s weight from the burden that oppresses all humanity. The real burden is sin, and religion alone can remove that, and bring in the kingdom of heaven on earth.”Most true, Oh theologian, it is, that the false philosophies, from Democritus to Hegel, have done nothing for mankind but to becloud, bewilder, and enfeeble their intelligence, for the philosophies were born of empty vanity, which essayed to conquer the universe by cogitation without science, and not from any loving impulse to make life wiser and better. But your theologies have been almost as false as the philosophies. You have inverted the simple and pure religion of Jesus. You have taught the world that its governing power was not an infinite love, but an infinite hate, and that the chief purpose of creation was to furnish an unlimited amount of human agony, in eternal progress, to gratify the infinite tyrant, and, at the same time, please a few humble vassals whom terror alone had driven into his service. You have taught mankind, all too successfully, to imitate this superhuman monster, by the banishment, imprisonment, murder, or torture, of all who did not accept your insane and heartless teachings; and the bloody drama, which has been in full progress for at least fifteen centuries without one interval of pity or remorse, is coming to its end now, Oh theologians, simply because your power has waned, and mankind have partially outgrown their superstitious ignorance. Tennyson in his last poem has expressed the truth:

You are beginning, Oh theologians, to be ashamed of the history of your tribe, and to doubt in your own hearts the horrid creeds you are still teaching; and a few have even thrown them off entirely and joined in the movement of emancipation,—even Andover is uneasy beneath its old yoke. But the chief problem of progress is still to get rid of your creeds, and return to that simple, universal religion, of which Jesus was the most powerful teacher,—a religion that had no church, no creed, no intolerance, and which dealt only in that universal love to which all human souls respond when they receive it.

Yet never has this simple religion of Jesus appeared, nor any effort towards its imperfect realization, without provoking orthodox hostility; and never has science taken one bold step in advance to understand the Bible of creation, or the Divine wisdom embodied in the constitution of man, without finding all orthodox power arrayed against each step of progress, and your orthodox anathemas ready for each fearless seeker of the truth.

Never had astronomy, never had geology, never had phrenology, never had anthropology, one smile from the organized theological guardians of the ancient falsehood called orthodoxy. Neither had political liberty any better treatment than mental liberty. Neither the white man, the red man, nor the black man found friendship or protection until very recently in any orthodox church, for the church was invariably the ally of the despot. Witness all European history, witness the history of Mexico and South America,—witness the history of the United States,—witness the present condition of Europe, groaning under the mountain load of taxation to pay war debts, to sustain the cannon foundries, forts, ships, barracks, and, in a word, the armament of hell, for it is but a grand, prearranged plan for further homicide and devastation; and all—all, alas! established and sustained by a government inspired by the church, which falsely claims to represent the principles of Christ in its terribly apostate career!

With a loathing and horror that words cannot express I turn from this scene—in which, though latent at this moment, there lie all the horrors of the Roman amphitheatre, and wars of the legions of Scipio, Marius, Tiberius, CÆsar, Nero, Severus, Decius, Valerianus, of Alaric, Attila, and Genghis Khan—to the dawn of liberty, peace, and enlightenment on the American continent, where, though old forms and institutions may survive, their interior nature or life is changed,—where the apostate church is slowly relinquishing its apostacy and growing into harmony with modern liberty and progress.

The time is coming, I trust, when Christian churches in the United States shall return to follow the sublime examples of the founders of Christianity; shall practise and diffuse that spirit of love in which is all freedom, all toleration and co-operation; shall welcome science and philosophy, and become the centre of all cooperative efforts for human amelioration.

The ameliorations of the last hundred years are so great that we may well anticipate still greater changes in the coming century; for, as Whittier says:

It is reasonable to anticipate this change, because the old battle between religion and science, which placed each in a false position, must come to an end. The battle is still in progress,—there is still an antagonism; and scientists will object to the Journal of Man because its science is associated with religion; while theologians will object to its religion because based on science; but the contest now proceeds with diminishing rancor, and there have been minor reconciliations or truces between scientists and theologians. But finally the grand reconciliation must come from this, that when science advances into the psychic realm,—when it demonstrates the existence of the soul, and demonstrates that heaven is not a morbid dream but a splendid reality,—the religious sentiment will recognize such science as its friend; and when science goes farther, and interprets the Divine laws as written by omnipotent wisdom in the constitution of man, more plainly and far more fully than they have ever been expressed in religious writings, then will religion perceive that such science is the Divine messenger before whom it should bow in reverence, and whose every utterance should be held sacred.

It is thus the mission of anthropology to enlighten religion, to interpret the Divine law, and to reign in the kingdom of heaven, to which it is to lead us; and it is the mission of the Journal of Man to present and keep before the enlightened few the guiding wisdom of anthropology.