Star.
London, England, 1830-02-04 00:00:00

MR. OWEN.

ADDRESS To me MEMBERS or me LEARNED Asa TNT
NAVAL AND MILITARY PROFESSIONS.
GENTLEMEN—Von have been trained and placed, by
the circumstances of the society in which you have lived,
in professions, by which to gain a livelihood or distinc-
tion. No one who is rational can attach blame to you on
this acconnt.
Your professions have arisen from two suppositions—
first, that it is impracticable to form arrangements to
produce wealth to satisfy all ; and, secondly, that man is
capable of feeling and thinking ; and, consequently, of
acting as he pleases.
The time, however, has arrived when, by a new power
unknown to our ancestors, more real wealth can be easily
created, than the inhabitants of the world can advantage-
ously use ; or than they will ever desire to possess.
And the late progress of knowledge has been such that
it is become publicly known, that it does not belong to
the nature of man to feel or to think as he pleases ; but
that he is compelled to feel and to think, according to
laws of his nature, made without his knowledge or
consen t.

In consequence of these changes in society, your pro-
fessions have become not only unnecessary, but most in-
jurious to yourselves, and to every individual of the
human race.
It becomes, therefore, your duty to yourselves and to
your fellow men, to aid in creating other arrangements,
to supersede all necessity for the longer continuance of
'your professions ; and your duty, in this case, will be
found to be in strict accordance with your interest and
your happiness.
A priesthood will be no longer necessary in the world ;
because, when the change of circumstances proposed
shall be effected (and the knowledge now existing will
effect it,) each child will be so taught, trained, and placed,
that he will be, of necessity, honest, sincere, and in-
telligent, and will possess unlimited charity and kindness
for his fellow-beings ; the practice of which virtues will
constitute that pure and genuine religion, which can alone
be of any real utility to Gop or man.
The profession of law will be no longer necessary ; for,
individual riches under the new arrangements, will
give place to a superfluity of public wealth, which will by
a rational application of manual, mental, and scientific
power, be annually produced, to an amount greatly be-
yond the wants or wishes of all.
No one will then be required by law to think, or to say
that he thinks, contrary to his conviction ; or to feel, or
say that he feels, in opposition to his impressions ; for all
will speak only what they are obliged to think and to feel,
and they will act accordingly.
Under these rational circumstances, law, or the inge-
nuity of lawyers, will not be required. All differences,
it' it be possible for differences to arise in a rational
state of society, will be speedily adjusted by the prompt
decision of individuals, formed by a rational education,
to be honest and intelligent, and who would be duly ap-
pointed to perform these friendly offices for society.
Physicians will be no longer necessary, for everf ebildi
will acquire sufficient knowledge of the anatomy and!
physiology of the human frame to understand the nature:
of his own organization and particular constitution, and!
thus be enabled to adopt proper measures for the proven-.
tion or speedy cure of any disease ; for, as each Indi-
vidual must possess a more intimate acquaintance with
his own constitution than any physician is likely to ob-,
taro, each will regulate his food and exercise as his feel-
ings may dictate. Good air, proper exercise, temperance
is all things, and the absence of corroding anxieties,
together with the enjoyment of full liberty to speak what-
ever they may feel and think, will tend to keep all indi-
viduals in the best state of health and spirits.
Surgeons may be occasionally useful, but accidents or
diseases, requiring surgical operations, are not likely to
be frequent, when all shall be trained from infancy to be
rational ; and when, in order to produce this character, all
must necessarily be surrounded, through life, with ra-
tional circumstances only.
Your professions have been generally filled by indivi-
duals who, under the old irrational notions of society,
were supposed to possess by nature superior intellectual
powers, when compared with the other members of the
family from which they were selected.
In the improved society that will arise, when all shall
he trained in rational circumstances only, the indivi-
duals naturally possessing superior intellectual faculties
will become members of a new profession, in which their
powers will be applied to the most valuable, instead of the
•Inost injurious purposes. They will be taught to acquire
'a correct knowledge of the influence of circumstances, in
giving a superior or an inferior direction to the human
faculties, and will thus become " Professors of the
Science of the Formation of Character ;" which science
will soon be discovered to be, bey oud all comparison,
snore valuable to themselves and their fellow-beings than
all other sciences hitherto discovered.
The practice of this new profession will become, in a
tational state of existence, the most important of all
occupations ; and, therefore, the first department in every
society.
In this new state of existence, when men shall be
taught from infancy to understand the laws of their na-
tares, and the conditions necessary for its happiness, no
• motive will arise to render it necessary that men should
he united, for the purpose of destroying each others
lives, their productions, and all the means of human hap-
piness. They will discover that all such proceedings,
through the past ages of the world, have been the very
essence of irrationality.
The energies and faculties necessary to conduct
war, or in other words, to destroy upon a large scale, and
to inflict misery upon nations, will, under the change
*hick knowledge will speedily produce, be applied to
create real wealth; to preserve and to distribute it; and
thus to promote the happiness of the community, to which
those valuable powers belong. And the immense waste
of human labour, now sustained in the creation and sup-
port of the naval and military professions, will also, under
the change about to commence, be applied to the pre-
servation and improvement of society, in order to secure
to every one the greatest amount of enjoyment, of
:lihich his organisation is susceptible; and of the nature
and extent of this enjoyment no one yet can form a just
estimate.

No one portion of society will feel the magnitude and
importance of this change in a higher degree than those
individuals, who, by their professions, are compelled to
murder some of the most noble and generous of thiir
fellow beings; bud to render void the labour of others,
who, have been occupied in producing • for the public
the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life.
It is not possible, irrational as men have hitherto been
forced to become, for a member of the naval or military
profession to reflect upon his occupation without feeling
dimply conscious of the misery which it Millets upon the
%man race.
Under the change proposed, those individuals who
have hitherto been compelled to be the destroyers of the

human race, would become the most active promoters of
its happiness.
In hastening the proposed change ; a change. under
which the world will be governed by knowledge and not
by ignorance, priests, lawyers, physicians, and members
of the naval and military professions have all an imme-
diate and deep interest.
Permit me, therefore, to request your beet attention
to the consideration of the principles on which this
change is proposed to be made ; and of the consequences
which these principles will produce in practice.
ROBERT OWEN.
49, Bedford-square, Feb. 11,19.50.