Truth is the foundation, the superstructure, and the glittering dome of progress. Truth is the mother of joy. Truth civilizes, ennobles, and purifies. The grandest ambition that can enter the soul is to know the truth. Truth gives man the greatest power for good. Truth is sword and shield. It is the sacred light of the soul. The man who finds a truth lights a torch. How is Truth to be Found? By investigation, experiment and reason. Every human being should be allowed to investigate to the extent of his desire--his ability. The literature of the world should be open to him--nothing prohibited, sealed or hidden. No subject can be too sacred to be understood. Each person should be allowed to reach his own conclusions and to speak his honest thought. He who threatens the investigator with punishment here, or hereafter, is an enemy of the human race. And he who tries to bribe the investigator with the promise of eternal joy is a traitor to his fellow-men. There is no real investigation without freedom--freedom from the fear of gods and men. So, all investigation--all experiment--should be pursued in the light of reason. Every man should be true to himself--true to the inward light. Each man, in the laboratory of his own mind, and for himself alone, should test the so-called facts--the theories of all the world. Truth, _in accordance with his reason_, should be his guide and master. To love the truth, thus perceived, is mental virtue--intellectual purity. This is true manhood. This is freedom. To throw away your reason at the command of churches, popes, parties, kings or gods, is to be a serf, a slave. It is not simply the right, but it is the duty of every man to think--to investigate for himself--and every man who tries to prevent this by force or fear, is doing all he can to degrade and enslave his fellow-men. Every Man Should be Mentally Honest. He should preserve as his most precious jewel the perfect veracity of his soul. He should examine all questions presented to his mind, without prejudice,--unbiased by hatred or love--by desire or fear. His object and his only object should be to find the truth. He knows, if he listens to reason, that truth is not dangerous and that error is. He should weigh the evidence, the arguments, in honest scales--scales that passion or interest cannot change. He should care nothing for authority--nothing for names, customs or creeds--nothing for anything that his reason does not say is true. Of his world he should be the sovereign, and his soul should wear the purple. From his dominions should be banished the hosts of force and fear. He Should be Intellectually Hospitable. Prejudice, egotism, hatred, contempt, disdain, are the enemies of truth and progress.