Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-04-16

, up the hill OF science, driven in from thei
{ premises and turned back hungering from
their path, by the stern DEGREES of despotism
! Entire, untrammelled freedom of speech, is
a necessary p%roroga,ive of knowledge
Where there is any restraint there is Just sc
much less freedom, rendering the Tyranny
the more insufferable by its partial enjoy.
ment-by creating a thirst and forbidding to
Stake it. They who talk of restriction fol
free speech, know as little of its character as
f the poor ~benighted Doors of the mines, with
the Pickering ligh. of the candle, know of the
vivid brightness and s~plendor of the MONDAY
sun. Its very essence is Liberty, and at the
! first attempt 10 cramp its bounding, out-burst-
ing nature, it withers and dies. The only
remedy for the evils of free discussion, if
there be such, is free discussion. Is it not 7
Can there be a cure in its restriction! All,
no! That has been tried for centuries, and
has infamed instead of curing the evil. This
is its chielest beauty-if there be a disease,
it carries the remedy with tit is self-heal-
ing. All other means are worse than useless.
If We may not have entire freedom Of speech,
how much may we havel Who shall saw
Thus far shalt thou 60, but no further'!-
What man or body of men shall assume 10
prescribe limits to free speech A man for
bids my discussing a topic beyond a prescrib-
ed point. | ask why | am fOrbidden-he an
swers, and thereupon commences a debate at
once. The very attempt 10 crush it involves
a discussion. 1t pervades our very being
lives in and about us, and is as necessary to
our existence as the air we breathe. As well
might you attempt to destroy the one as the
other. A dangerous hour is that, when the
first advances are made towards a control over
free speech. 1t behooves its friends TO guard
well the first attempt 10 establish the prece-
dent in its government. "Let Truth and Err |
ror graPple." Where's the danger! Who
ever knew Truth put to the rout in a fair
fight! Can she be routed ! 'Twere dishon-
oring her to mistrust her.
The beauty Of the union between free
speech and knowledge has never YET been
LhSH oCNS DO ne udHu"IDdlu VI
the other, and either, without the other, is
measurably crippled for good. There is moth
ing that at once so exalts and humiliates, as
the possession of knowledge in connection
with the unrestricted freedom Of speech, and
exalIs because it humiliates, for those only are
exalted who are truly humble. All, indeed
is a lovely thing. Not the thing dubbed
which i is loud in its professions of
when a darling opinion CT sect is at
stake, but which, robed in power, demands
the head Of the heretic-this is a small thing,
all history is rife with such. But the free
dom which bids us hold our opinions lightly
that they may be cast of the more readily
when shown 10 be false-the freedom which
bids us come together as human brethren, to
" examine all things and hold fast TO that
which is good" This is the great thing, and
those who become fired with its beauty and
aspire TO walk in its path, behold that it is
even greater than they had conceived.
have spoken of the tendency to inspire
humility In the possession of knowledge and
speech. 1t is true that a man may be
in a Tanner, and yet be arrogant and
assumptions. But this is when he wraps
himself in his dignity, forbids contradiction,
md shuts out all knowledge of his own lit
.leness. Such a man strikes down free
speech, and makes a slave of himself by pre-
the right TO change his opinions. 1t
rae bnen ypplI said that tbo J;lroz.o |
ween the ignorant and the learned consists
greatly in having ascertained how little is to
,e known. All but this difference is great
nd worthy of all efforts TO attain it. Those
Who are truly learned perceive this difference
he more keenly. | do not mean those only
Who are great in book-leaning-learned in
Ireat systems of high-sounding words, long
Irawn sentences, and fine spun and intricate
heories. The Ignorance of the learned in {
uch cases is often disgustingly bombastic.
But learned in the know ledge of ourselves
n the training of our boisterous passions
earned in the way and science of Life-in
humbly and doing justly-learned
n the great truth Of the unity of human in
crest, and in the doing to the others as we
would have others do to us. This it is that
nables Us TO see the difference between the
and the learned-between humility
nd Pompousness; and those who possess
his knowledge nave an invaluable boon-a
icy to the richest treasures of Life, and are
mighty in their meekness.
The advantages of an institution of learn
ng like this one are not easily estimated s
They can only be properly appreciated when :
We are deprived of them. | have never met !
With a School where there was so little of :
elfsh prejudice and so much of brotherly a