(4)Don't say,"There is no true creed;for each creed believes itself right and the others wrong."Probably one of the creeds is right and the others are wrong.Diversity does show that most of the views must be wrong.It does not by the faintest logic show that they all must be wrong.I suppose there is no subject on which opinions differ with more desperate sincerity than about which horse will win the Derby.These are certainly solemn convictions;men risk ruin for them.The man who puts his shirt on Potosi must believe in that animal,and each of the other men putting their last garments upon other quadrupeds must believe in them quite as sincerely.They are all serious,and most of them are wrong.But one of them is right.One of the faiths is justified;one of the horses does win;not always even the dark horse which might stand for Agnosticism,but often the obvious and popular horse of Orthodoxy.
Democracy has its occasional victories;and even the Favourite has been known to come in first.But the point here is that something comes in first.That there were many beliefs does not destroy the fact that there was one well-founded belief.I believe (merely upon authority)that the world is round.That there may be tribes who believe it to be triangular or oblong does not alter the fact that it is certainly some shape,and therefore not any other shape.Therefore I repeat,with the wail of imprecation,don't say that the variety of creeds prevents you from accepting any creed.It is an unintelligent remark.
(5)Don't (if any one calls your doctrine mad,which is likely enough),don't answer that madmen are only the minority and the sane only the majority.The sane are sane because they are the corporate substance of mankind;the insane are not a minority because they are not a mob.The man who thinks himself a man thinks the next man a man;he reckons his neighbour as himself.But the man who thinks he is a chicken does not try to look through the man who thinks he is glass.The man who thinks himself Jesus Christ does not quarrel with the man who thinks himself Rockefeller;as would certainly happen if the two had ever met.But madmen never meet.It is the only thing they cannot do.They can talk,they can inspire,they can fight,they can found religions;but they cannot meet.Maniacs can never be the majority;for the simple reason that they can never be even a minority.If two madmen had ever agreed they might have conquered the world.
(6)Don't say that the idea of human equality is absurd,because some men are tall and some short,some clever and some stupid.At the height of the French Revolution it was noticed that Danton was tall and Murat short.
In the wildest popular excitement of America it is known that Rockefeller is stupid and that Bryan is clever.The doctrine of human equality reposes upon this:That there is no man really clever who has not found that he is stupid.That there is no big man who has not felt small.Some men never feel small;but these are the few men who are.
(7)Don't say (O don't say)that Primitive Man knocked down a woman with a club and carried her away.Why on earth should he?Does the male sparrow knock down the female sparrow with a twig?Does the male giraffe knock down the female giraffe with a palm tree?Why should the male have had to use any violence at any time in order to make the female a female?
Why should the woman roll herself in the mire lower than the sow or the she-bear;and profess to have been a slave where all these creatures were creators;where all these beasts were gods?Do not talk such bosh.Iimplore you,I supplicate you not to talk such bosh.Utterly and absolutely abolish all such bosh--and we may yet begin to discuss these public questions properly.But I fear my list of protests grows too long;and I know it could grow longer for ever.The reader must forgive my elongations and elaborations.I fancied for the moment that I was writing a book.
End
