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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mistakes of Moses, by Robert G. Ingersoll
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Mistakes of Moses
+
+Author: Robert G. Ingersoll
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2011 [EBook #38099]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISTAKES OF MOSES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISTAKES of MOSES
+
+By Robert G. Ingersoll.
+
+The Destroyer Of Weeds, Thistles And Thorns, Is A Benefactor Whether He
+Soweth Grain Or Not.
+
+1880.
+
+
+MRS. SUE M. FARRELL
+
+IN LAW MY SISTER;
+
+AND IN FACT MY FRIEND,
+
+THIS VOLUME,
+
+AS A TOKEN OF RESPECT AND LOVE,
+
+IS DEDICATED.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+For many years I have regarded the Pentateuch simply as a record of a
+barbarous people, in which are found a great number of the ceremonies
+of savagery, many absurd and unjust laws, and thousands of ideas
+inconsistent with known and demonstrated facts. To me it seemed almost
+a crime to teach that this record was written by inspired men; that
+slavery, polygamy, wars of conquest and extermination were right, and
+that there was a time when men could win the approbation of infinite
+Intelligence, Justice, and Mercy, by violating maidens and by butchering
+babes. To me it seemed more reasonable that savage men had made these
+laws; and I endeavored in a lecture, entitled "Some Mistakes of Moses,"
+to point out some of the errors, contradictions, and impossibilities
+contained in the Pentateuch. The lecture was never written and
+consequently never delivered twice the same. On several occasions it was
+reported and published without consent, and without revision. All these
+publications were grossly and glaringly incorrect. As published, they
+have been answered several hundred times, and many of the clergy are
+still engaged in the great work. To keep these reverend gentlemen from
+wasting their talents on the mistakes of reporters and printers, I
+concluded to publish the principal points in all my lectures on this
+subject. And here, it may be proper for me to say, that arguments cannot
+be answered by personal abuse; that there is no logic in slander, and
+that falsehood, in the long run, defeats itself. People who love their
+enemies should, at least, tell the truth about their friends. Should it
+turn out that I am the worst man in the whole world, the story of the
+flood will remain just as improbable as before, and the contradictions
+of the Pentateuch will still demand an explanation.
+
+There was a time when a falsehood, fulminated from the pulpit, smote
+like a sword; but, the supply having greatly exceeded the demand,
+clerical misrepresentation has at last become almost an innocent
+amusement. Remembering that only a few years ago men, women, and even
+children, were imprisoned, tortured and burned, for having expressed
+in an exceedingly mild and gentle way, the ideas entertained by me, I
+congratulate myself that calumny is now the pulpit's last resort. The
+old instruments of torture are kept only to gratify curiosity; the
+chains are rusting away, and the demolition of time has allowed even the
+dungeons of the Inquisition to be visited by light. The church, impotent
+and malicious, regrets, not the abuse, but the loss of her power, and
+seeks to hold by falsehood what she gained by cruelty and force, by
+fire and fear. Christianity cannot live in peace with any other form of
+faith. If that religion be true, there is but one savior, one inspired
+book, and but one little narrow grass-grown path that leads to heaven.
+Such a religion is necessarily uncompromising, unreasoning, aggressive
+and insolent. Christianity has held all other creeds and forms in
+infinite contempt, divided the world into enemies and friends, and
+verified the awful declaration of its founder--a declaration that
+wet with blood the sword he came to bring, and made the horizon of a
+thousand years lurid with the fagots' flames.
+
+Too great praise challenges attention, and often brings to light a
+thousand faults that otherwise the general eye would never see. Were we
+allowed to read the bible as we do all other books, we would admire its
+beauties, treasure its worthy thoughts, and account for all its absurd,
+grotesque and cruel things, by saying that its authors lived in rude,
+barbaric times. But we are told that it was written by inspired men;
+that it contains the will of God; that it is perfect, pure, and true in
+all its parts; the source and standard of all moral and religious truth;
+that it is the star and anchor of all human hope; the only guide for
+man, the only torch in Nature's night. These claims are so at variance
+with every known recorded fact, so palpably absurd, that every free,
+unbiased soul is forced to raise the standard of revolt.
+
+We read the pagan sacred books with profit and delight. With myth and
+fable we are ever charmed, and find a pleasure in the endless repetition
+of the beautiful, poetic, and absurd. We find, in all these records of
+the past, philosophies and dreams, and efforts stained with tears,
+of great and tender souls who tried to pierce the mystery of life and
+death, to answer the eternal questions of the Whence and Whither, and
+vainly sought to make, with bits of shattered glass, a mirror that
+would, in very truth, reflect the face and form of Nature's perfect
+self.
+
+These myths were born of hopes, and fears, and tears, and smiles, and
+they were touched and colored by all there is of joy and grief between
+the rosy dawn of birth, and death's sad night. They clothed even the
+stars with passion, and gave to gods the faults and frailties of the
+sons of men. In them, the winds and waves were music, and all the lakes,
+and streams, and springs,--the mountains, woods and perfumed dells were
+haunted by a thousand fairy forms. They thrilled the veins of Spring
+with tremulous desire; made tawny Summer's billowed breast the throne
+and home of love; filled Autumns arms with sun-kissed grapes, and
+gathered sheaves; and pictured Winter as a weak old king who felt,
+like Lear upon his withered face, Cordelia's tears. These myths, though
+false, are beautiful, and have for many ages and in countless ways,
+enriched the heart and kindled thought. But if the world were taught
+that all these things are true and all inspired of God, and that eternal
+punishment will be the lot of him who dares deny or doubt, the sweetest
+myth of all the Fable World would lose its beauty, and become a scorned
+and hateful thing to every brave and thoughtful man.
+
+Robert G. Ingersoll.
+
+Washington, D. C, _Oct. 7th, 1879_
+
+
+
+
+I. SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES
+
+HE WHO ENDEAVORS TO CONTROL THE MIND BY FORCE IS A TYRANT, AND HE WHO
+SUBMITS IS A SLAVE.
+
+I want to do what little I can to make my country truly free, to broaden
+the intellectual horizon of our people, to destroy the prejudices born
+of ignorance and fear, to do away with the blind worship of the ignoble
+past, with the idea that all the great and good are dead, that the
+living are totally depraved, that all pleasures are sins, that sighs
+and groans are alone pleasing to God, that thought is dangerous, that
+intellectual courage is a crime, that cowardice is a virtue, that a
+certain belief is necessary to secure salvation, that to carry a cross
+in this world will give us a palm in the next, and that we must allow
+some priest to be the pilot of our souls.
+
+Until every soul is freely permitted to investigate every book, and
+creed, and dogma for itself, the world cannot be free. Mankind will be
+enslaved until there is mental grandeur enough to allow each man to have
+his thought and say. This earth will be a paradise when men can, upon
+all these questions differ, and yet grasp each other's hands as friends.
+It is amazing to me that a difference of opinion upon subjects that we
+know nothing with certainty about, should make us hate, persecute, and
+despise each other. Why a difference of opinion upon predestination,
+or the trinity, should make people imprison and burn each other
+seems beyond the comprehension of man; and yet in all countries where
+Christians have existed, they have destroyed each other to the exact
+extent of their power. Why should a believer in God hate an atheist?
+Surely the atheist has not injured God, and surely he is human, capable
+of joy and pain, and entitled to all the rights of man. Would it not be
+far better to treat this atheist, at least, as well as he treats us?
+
+Christians tell me that they love their enemies, and yet all I ask
+is--not that they love their enemies, not that they love their friends
+even, but that they treat those who differ from them, with simple
+fairness.
+
+We do not wish to be forgiven, but we wish Christians to so act that we
+will not have to forgive them. If all will admit that all have an equal
+right to think, then the question is forever solved; but as long as
+organized and powerful churches, pretending to hold the keys of heaven
+and hell, denounce every person as an outcast and criminal who thinks
+for himself and denies their authority, the world will be filled with
+hatred and suffering. To hate man and worship God seems to be the sum of
+all the creeds.
+
+That which has happened in most countries, has happened in ours. When
+a religion is founded, the educated, the powerful--that is to say, the
+priests and nobles, tell the ignorant and superstitious--that is to
+say, the people, that the religion of their country was given to their
+fathers by God himself; that it is the only true religion; that all
+others were conceived in falsehood and brought forth in fraud, and that
+all who believe in the true religion will be happy forever, while all
+others will burn in hell. For the purpose of governing the people, that
+is to say, for the purpose of being supported by the people, the priests
+and nobles declare this religion to be sacred, and that whoever adds to,
+or takes from it, will be burned here by man, and hereafter by God. The
+result of this is, that the priests and nobles will not allow the people
+to change; and when, after a time, the priests, having intellectually
+advanced, wish to take a step in the direction of progress, the people
+will not allow them to change. At first, the rabble are enslaved by the
+priests, and afterwards the rabble become the masters.
+
+One of the first things I wish to do, is to free the orthodox clergy.
+I am a great friend of theirs, and in spite of all they may say against
+me, I am going to do them a great and lasting service. Upon their necks
+are visible the marks of the collar, and upon their backs those of the
+lash. They are not allowed to read and think for themselves. They are
+taught like parrots, and the best are those who repeat, with the fewest
+mistakes, the sentences they have been taught. They sit like owls upon
+some dead limb of the tree of knowledge, and hoot the same old hoots
+that have been hooted for eighteen hundred years. Their congregations
+are not grand enough, nor sufficiently civilized, to be willing that
+the poor preachers shall think for themselves. They are not employed for
+that purpose. Investigation is regarded as a dangerous experiment,
+and the ministers are warned that none of that kind of work will be
+tolerated. They are notified to stand by the old creed, and to avoid
+all original thought, as a mortal pestilence. Every minister is employed
+like an attorney--either for plaintiff or defendant,--and he is expected
+to be true to his client. If he changes his mind, he is regarded as
+a deserter, and denounced, hated, and slandered accordingly. Every
+orthodox clergyman agrees not to change. He contracts not to find new
+facts, and makes a bargain that he will deny them if he does. Such is
+the position of a protestant minister in this Nineteenth Century. His
+condition excites my pity; and to better it, I am going to do what
+little I can.
+
+Some of the clergy have the independence to break away, and the
+intellect to maintain themselves as free men, but the most are compelled
+to submit to the dictation of the orthodox, and the dead. They are
+not employed to give their thoughts, but simply to repeat the ideas of
+others. They are not expected to give even the doubts that may suggest
+themselves, but are required to walk in the narrow, verdureless path
+trodden by the ignorance of the past. The forests and fields on either
+side are nothing to them. They must not even look at the purple hills,
+nor pause to hear the babble of the brooks. They must remain in the
+dusty road where the guide-boards are. They must confine themselves
+to the "fall of man" the expulsion from the garden, the "scheme of
+salvation," the "second birth," the atonement, the happiness of the
+redeemed, and the misery of the lost. They must be careful not to
+express any new ideas upon these great questions. It is much safer for
+them to quote from the works of the dead. The more vividly they describe
+the sufferings of the unregenerate, of those who attended theatres and
+balls, and drank wine in summer gardens on the sabbath-day, and laughed
+at priests, the better ministers they are supposed to be. They must show
+that misery fits the good for heaven, while happiness prepares the bad
+for hell; that the wicked get all their good things in this life, and
+the good all their evil; that in this world God punishes the people he
+loves, and in the next, the ones he hates; that happiness makes us bad
+here, but not in heaven; that pain makes us good here, but not in hell.
+No matter how absurd these things may appear to the carnal mind, they
+must be preached and they must be believed. If they were reasonable,
+there would be no virtue in believing. Even the publicans and sinners
+believe reasonable things. To believe without evidence, or in spite of
+it, is accounted as righteousness to the sincere and humble christian.
+
+The ministers are in duty bound to denounce all intellectual pride, and
+show that we are never quite so dear to God as when we admit that we are
+poor, corrupt and idiotic worms; that we never should have been born;
+that we ought to be damned without the least delay; that we are so
+infamous that we like to enjoy ourselves; that we love our wives and
+children better than our God; that we are generous only because we are
+vile; that we are honest from the meanest motives, and that sometimes we
+have fallen so low that we have had doubts about the inspiration of the
+Jewish scriptures. In short, they are expected to denounce all pleasant
+paths and rustling trees, to curse the grass and flowers, and glorify
+the dust and weeds. They are expected to malign the wicked people in the
+green and happy fields, who sit and laugh beside the gurgling springs or
+climb the hills and wander as they will. They are expected to point out
+the dangers of freedom, the safety of implicit obedience, and to show
+the wickedness of philosophy, the goodness of faith, the immorality of
+science and the purity of ignorance.
+
+Now and then, a few pious people discover some young man of a religious
+turn of mind and a consumptive habit of body, not quite sickly enough
+to die, nor healthy enough to be wicked. The idea occurs to them that
+he would make a good orthodox minister. They take up a contribution, and
+send the young man to some theological school where he can be taught to
+repeat a creed and despise reason. Should it turn out that the young
+man had some mind of his own, and, after graduating, should change his
+opinions and preach a different doctrine from that taught in the school,
+every man who contributed a dollar towards his education would feel that
+he had been robbed, and would denounce him as a dishonest and ungrateful
+wretch.
+
+The pulpit should not be a pillory. Congregations should allow the
+minister a little liberty. They should, at least, permit him to tell the
+truth.
+
+They have, in Massachusetts, at a place called Andover, a kind of
+minister factory, where each professor takes an oath once in five
+years--that time being considered the life of an oath--that he has not,
+during the last five years, and will not, during the next five years,
+intellectually advance. There is probably no oath that they could easier
+keep. Probably, since the foundation stone of that institution was laid
+there has not been a single case of perjury. The old creed is still
+taught. They still insist that God is infinitely wise, powerful and
+good, and that all men are totally depraved. They insist that the best
+man God ever made, deserved to be damned the moment he was finished.
+Andover puts its brand upon every minister it turns out, the same as
+Sheffield and Birmingham brand their wares, and all who see the brand
+know exactly what the minister believes, the books he has read, the
+arguments he relies on, and just what he intellectually is. They know
+just what he can be depended on to preach, and that he will continue to
+shrink and shrivel, and grow solemnly stupid day by day until he reaches
+the Andover of the grave and becomes truly orthodox forever.
+
+I have not singled out the Andover factory because it is worse than the
+others. They are all about the same. The professors, for the most part,
+are ministers who failed in the pulpit and were retired to the seminary
+on account of their deficiency in reason and their excess of faith. As
+a rule, they know nothing of this world, and far less of the next; but
+they have the power of stating the most absurd propositions with faces
+solemn as stupidity touched by fear.
+
+Something should be done for the liberation of these men. They should
+be allowed to grow--to have sunlight and air. They should no longer
+be chained and tied to confessions of faith, to mouldy books and
+musty creeds. Thousands of ministers are anxious to give their honest
+thoughts. The hands of wives and babes now stop their mouths. They
+must have bread, and so the husbands and fathers are forced to preach
+a doctrine that they hold in scorn. For the sake of shelter, food and
+clothes, they are obliged to defend the childish miracles of the past,
+and denounce the sublime discoveries of to-day. They are compelled to
+attack all modern thought, to point out the dangers of science, the
+wickedness of investigation and the corrupting influence of logic. It is
+for them to show that virtue rests upon ignorance and faith, while vice
+impudently feeds and fattens upon fact and demonstration. It is a part
+of their business to malign and vilify the Voltaires, Humes, Paines,
+Humboldts, Tyndals, Hęckels, Darwins, Spencers, and Drapers, and to bow
+with uncovered heads before the murderers, adulterers, and persecutors
+of the world. They are, for the most part, engaged in poisoning the
+minds of the young, prejudicing children against science, teaching
+the astronomy and geology of the bible, and inducing all to desert the
+sublime standard of reason.
+
+These orthodox ministers do not add to the sum of knowledge. They
+produce nothing. They live upon alms. They hate laughter and joy. They
+officiate at weddings, sprinkle water upon babes, and utter meaningless
+words and barren promises above the dead. They laugh at the agony of
+unbelievers, mock at their tears, and of their sorrows make a jest.
+There are some noble exceptions. Now and then a pulpit holds a brave
+and honest man. Their congregations are willing that they should
+think--willing that their ministers should have a little freedom.
+
+As we become civilized, more and more liberty will be accorded to these
+men, until finally ministers will give their best and highest thoughts.
+The congregations will finally get tired of hearing about the patriarchs
+and saints, the miracles and wonders, and will insist upon knowing
+something about the men and women of our day, and the accomplishments
+and discoveries of our time. They will finally insist upon knowing how
+to escape the evils of this world instead of the next. They will ask
+light upon the enigmas of this life. They will wish to know what we
+shall do with our criminals instead of what God will do with his--how
+we shall do away with beggary and want--with crime and misery--with
+prostitution, disease and famine,--with tyranny in all its cruel
+forms--with prisons and scaffolds, and how we shall reward the honest
+workers, and fill the world with happy homes! These are the problems
+for the pulpits and congregations of an enlightened future. If Science
+cannot finally answer these questions, it is a vain and worthless thing.
+
+The clergy, however, will continue to answer them in the old way, until
+their congregations are good enough to set them free. They will still
+talk about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, as though that were the
+only remedy for all human ills. They will still teach that retrogression
+is the only path that leads to light; that we must go back, that faith
+is the only sure guide, and that reason is a delusive glare, lighting
+only the road to eternal pain.
+
+Until the clergy are free they cannot be intellectually honest. We can
+never tell what they really believe until they know that they can safely
+speak. They console themselves now by a secret resolution to be as
+liberal as they dare, with the hope that they can finally educate
+their congregations to the point of allowing them to think a little for
+themselves. They hardly know what they ought to do. The best part of
+their lives has been wasted in studying subjects of no possible value.
+Most of them are married, have families, and know but one way of making
+their living. Some of them say that if they do not preach these foolish
+dogmas, others will, and that they may through fear, after all, restrain
+mankind. Besides, they hate publicly to admit that they are mistaken,
+that the whole thing is a delusion, that the "scheme of salvation" is
+absurd, and that the bible is no better than some other books, and worse
+than most.
+
+You can hardly expect a bishop to leave his palace, or the pope to
+vacate the Vatican. As long as people want popes, plenty of hypocrites
+will be found to take the place. And as long as labor fatigues, there
+will be found a good many men willing to preach once a week, if other
+folks will work and give them bread. In other words, while the demand
+lasts, the supply will never fail.
+
+If the people were a little more ignorant, astrology would flourish--if
+a little more enlightened, religion would perish!
+
+
+
+
+II. FREE SCHOOLS
+
+It is also my desire to free the schools. When a professor in a college
+finds a fact, he should make it known, even if it is inconsistent with
+something Moses said. Public opinion must not compel the professor to
+hide a fact, and, "like the base Indian, throw the pearl away." With the
+single exception of Cornell, there is not a college in the United
+States where truth has ever been a welcome guest. The moment one of the
+teachers denies the inspiration of the bible, he is discharged. If he
+discovers a fact inconsistent with that book, so much the worse for the
+fact, and especially for the discoverer of the fact. He must not corrupt
+the minds of his pupils with demonstrations. He must beware of
+every truth that cannot, in some way be made to harmonize with the
+superstitions of the Jews. Science has nothing in common with religion.
+Facts and miracles never did, and never will agree. They are not in the
+least related. They are deadly foes. What has religion to do with
+facts? Nothing. Can there be Methodist mathematics, Catholic astronomy,
+Presbyterian geology, Baptist biology, or Episcopal botany? Why, then,
+should a sectarian college exist? Only that which somebody knows should
+be taught in our schools. We should not collect taxes to pay people for
+guessing. The common school is the bread of life for the people, and it
+should not be touched by the withering hand of superstition.
+
+Our country will never be filled with great institutions of learning
+until there is an absolute divorce between Church and School. As long
+as the mutilated records of a barbarous people are placed by priest and
+professor above the reason of mankind, we shall reap but little benefit
+from church or school.
+
+Instead of dismissing professors for finding something out, let us
+rather discharge those who do not. Let each teacher understand that
+investigation is not dangerous for him; that his bread is safe, no
+matter how much truth he may discover, and that his salary will not be
+reduced, simply because he finds that the ancient Jews did not know the
+entire history of the world.
+
+Besides, it is not fair to make the Catholic support a Protestant
+school, nor is it just to collect taxes from infidels and atheists to
+support schools in which any system of religion is taught.
+
+The sciences are not sectarian. People do not persecute each other on
+account of disagreements in mathematics. Families are not divided about
+botany, and astronomy does not even tend to make a man hate his father
+and mother. It is what people do not know, that they persecute each
+other about. Science will bring, not a sword, but peace.
+
+Just as long as religion has control of the schools, science will be an
+outcast. Let us free our institutions of learning. Let us dedicate them
+to the science of eternal truth. Let us tell every teacher to ascertain
+all the facts he can--to give us light, to follow Nature, no matter
+where she leads; to be infinitely true to himself and us; to feel that
+he is without a chain, except the obligation to be honest; that he is
+bound by no books, by no creed, neither by the sayings of the dead nor
+of the living; that he is asked to look with his own eyes, to reason for
+himself without fear, to investigate in every possible direction, and to
+bring us the fruit of all his work.
+
+At present, a good many men engaged in scientific pursuits, and who
+have signally failed in gaining recognition among their fellows, are
+endeavoring to make reputations among the churches by delivering weak
+and vapid lectures upon the "harmony of Genesis and Geology." Like all
+hypocrites, these men overstate the case to such a degree, and so
+turn and pervert facts and words that they succeed only in gaining the
+applause of other hypocrites like themselves. Among the great scientists
+they are regarded as generals regard sutlers who trade with both armies.
+
+Surely the time must come when the wealth of the world will not be
+wasted in the propagation of ignorant creeds and miraculous mistakes.
+The time must come when churches and cathedrals will be dedicated to the
+use of man; when minister and priest will deem the discoveries of the
+living of more importance than the errors of the dead; when the truths
+of Nature will outrank the "sacred" falsehoods of the past, and when a
+single fact will outweigh all the miracles of Holy Writ.
+
+Who can over estimate the progress of the world if all the money
+wasted in superstition could be used to enlighten, elevate and civilize
+mankind?
+
+When every church becomes a school, every cathedral a university, every
+clergyman a teacher, and all their hearers brave and honest
+thinkers, then, and not until then, will the dream of poet, patriot,
+philanthropist and philosopher, become a real and blessed truth.
+
+
+
+
+III. THE POLITICIANS.
+
+I would like also to liberate the politician. At present, the successful
+office-seeker is a good deal like the centre of the earth; he weighs
+nothing himself, but draws everything else to him. There are so many
+societies, so many churches, so many isms, that it is almost impossible
+for an independent man to succeed in a political career. Candidates are
+forced to pretend that they are catholics with protest-ant proclivities,
+or christians with liberal tendencies, or temperance men who now and
+then take a glass of wine, or, that although not members of any church
+their wives are, and that they subscribe liberally to all. The result of
+all this is that we reward hypocrisy and elect men entirely destitute of
+real principle; and this will never change until the people become grand
+enough to allow each other to do their own thinking.
+
+Our government should be entirely and purely secular. The religious
+views of a candidate should be kept entirely out of sight. He should not
+be compelled to give his opinion as to the inspiration of the bible,
+the propriety of infant baptism, or the immaculate conception. All these
+things are private and personal. He should be allowed to settle such
+things for himself, and should he decide contrary to the law and will
+of God, let him settle the matter with God. The people ought to be wise
+enough to select as their officers men who know something of political
+affairs, who comprehend the present greatness, and clearly perceive the
+future grandeur of our country. If we were in a storm at sea, with deck
+wave-washed and masts strained and bent with storm, and it was necessary
+to reef the top sail, we certainly would not ask the brave sailor who
+volunteered to go aloft, what his opinion was on the five points of
+Calvinism. Our government has nothing to do with religion. It is neither
+christian nor pagan; it is secular. But as long as the people persist in
+voting for or against men on account of their religious views, just
+so long will hypocrisy hold place and power. Just so long will the
+candidates crawl in the dust--hide their opinions, flatter those with
+whom they differ, pretend to agree with those whom they despise; and
+just so long will honest men be trampled under foot. Churches are
+becoming political organizations. Nearly every Catholic is a democrat;
+nearly every Methodist in the North is a republican.
+
+It probably will not be long until the churches will divide as sharply
+upon political, as upon theological questions; and when that day comes,
+if there are not liberals enough to hold the balance of power, this
+government will be destroyed. The liberty of man is not safe in the
+hands of any church. Wherever the bible and sword are in partnership,
+man is a slave.
+
+All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same
+spirit that kindled the fires of the _auto da fe_, and lovingly built
+the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing
+blasphemy--making it a crime to give your honest ideas about the bible,
+or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself
+on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by
+impudent bigots, and should be at once repealed by honest men. An
+infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in
+partnership with state legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act
+that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at. No one
+thinks of protecting Shakespeare from ridicule, by the threat of fine
+and imprisonment. It strikes me that God might write a book that would
+not necessarily excite the laughter of his children. In fact, I think
+it would be safe to say that a real God could produce a work that would
+excite the admiration of mankind. Surely politicians could be better
+employed than in passing laws to protect the literary reputation of the
+Jewish God.
+
+
+
+
+IV. MAN AND WOMAN
+
+Let us forget that we are Baptists, Methodists, Catholics,
+Presbyterians, or Free-thinkers, and remember only that we are men and
+women. After all, _man_ and _woman_ are the highest possible titles.
+All other names belittle us, and show that we have, to a certain extent,
+given up our individuality, and have consented to wear the collar of
+authority--that we are followers. Throwing away these names, let us
+examine these questions not as partisans, but as human beings with hopes
+and fears in common.
+
+We know that our opinions depend, to a great degree, upon our
+surroundings--upon race, country, and education. We are all the result
+of numberless conditions, and inherit vices and virtues, truths and
+prejudices. If we had been born in England, surrounded by wealth and
+clothed with power, most of us would have been Episcopalians, and
+believed in Church and State. We should have insisted that the people
+needed a religion, and that not having intellect enough to provide one
+for themselves, it was our duty to make one for them, and then compel
+them to support it. We should have believed it indecent to officiate in
+a pulpit without wearing a gown, and that prayers should be read from
+a book. Had we belonged to the lower classes, we might have been
+dissenters and protested against the mummeries of the High Church.
+Had we been born in Turkey, most of us would have been Mohammedans and
+believed in the inspiration of the Koran. We should have believed that
+Mohammed actually visited Heaven and became acquainted with an angel by
+the name of Gabriel, who was so broad between the eyes that it required
+three hundred days for a very smart camel to travel the distance. If
+some man had denied this story we should probably have denounced him as
+a dangerous person, one who was endeavoring to undermine the foundations
+of society, and to destroy all distinction between virtue and vice. We
+should have said to him, "What do you propose to give us in place
+of that angel? We cannot afford to give up an angel of that size for
+nothing." We would have insisted that the best and wisest men
+believed the Koran. We would have quoted from the works and letters of
+philosophers, generals and sultans, to show that the Koran was the best
+of books, and that Turkey was indebted to that book and to that alone
+for its greatness and prosperity. We would have asked that man whether
+he knew more than all the great minds of his country, whether he was so
+much wiser than his fathers? We would have pointed out to him the fact
+that thousands had been consoled in the hour of death by passages from
+the Koran; that they had died with glazed eyes brightened by visions of
+the heavenly harem, and gladly left this world of grief and tears.
+We would have regarded Christians as the vilest of men, and on all
+occasions would have repeated "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his
+prophet!"
+
+So, if we had been born in India, we should in all probability have
+believed in the religion of that country. We should have regarded the
+old records as true and sacred, and looked upon a wandering priest as
+better than the men from whom he begged, and by whose labor he lived.
+We should have believed in a god with three heads instead of three gods
+with one head, as we do now.
+
+Now and then some one says that the religion of his father and mother
+is good enough for him, and wonders why anybody should desire a better.
+Surely we are not bound to follow our parents in religion any more than
+in politics, science or art. China has been petrified by the worship
+of ancestors. If our parents had been satisfied with the religion of
+theirs, we would be still less advanced than we are. If we are, in any
+way, bound by the belief of our fathers, the doctrine will hold good
+back to the first people who had a religion; and if this doctrine is
+true, we ought now to be believers in that first religion. In other
+words, we would all be barbarians. You cannot show real respect to your
+parents by perpetuating their errors. Good fathers and mothers wish
+their children to advance, to overcome obstacles which baffled them, and
+to correct the errors of their education. If you wish to reflect credit
+upon your parents, accomplish more than they did, solve problems that
+they could not understand, and build better than they knew. To sacrifice
+your manhood upon the grave of your father is an honor to neither. Why
+should a son who has examined a subject, throw away his reason and adopt
+the views of his mother? Is not such a course dishonorable to both?
+
+We must remember that this "ancestor" argument is as old at least as
+the second generation of men, that it has served no purpose except to
+enslave mankind, and results mostly from the fact that acquiescence
+is easier than investigation. This argument pushed to its logical
+conclusion, would prevent the advance of all people whose parents were
+not free-thinkers.
+
+It is hard for many people to give up the religion in which they were
+born; to admit that their fathers were utterly mistaken, and that the
+sacred records of their country are but collections of myths and fables.
+
+But when we look for a moment at the world, we find that each nation has
+its "sacred records"--its religion, and its ideas of worship. Certainly
+all cannot be right; and as it would require a life time to investigate
+the claims of these various systems, it is hardly fair to damn a man
+forever, simply because he happens to believe the wrong one. All these
+religions were produced by barbarians. Civilized nations have contented
+themselves with changing the religions of their barbaric ancestors, but
+they have made none. Nearly all these religions are intensely selfish.
+Each one was made by some contemptible little nation that regarded
+itself as of almost infinite importance, and looked upon the other
+nations as beneath the notice of their god. In all these countries it
+was a crime to deny the sacred records, to laugh at the priests, to
+speak disrespectfully of the gods, to fail to divide your substance
+with the lazy hypocrites who managed your affairs in the next world upon
+condition that you would support them in this. In the olden time
+these theological people who quartered themselves upon the honest
+and industrious, were called soothsayers, seers, charmers, prophets,
+enchanters, sorcerers, wizards, astrologers, and impostors, but now,
+they are known as clergymen.
+
+We are no exception to the general rule, and consequently have our
+sacred books as well as the rest. Of course, it is claimed by many of
+our people that our books are the only true ones, the only ones that the
+real God ever wrote, or had anything whatever to do with. They insist
+that all other sacred books were written by hypocrites and impostors;
+that the Jews were the only people that God ever had any personal
+intercourse with, and that all other prophets and seers were inspired
+only by impudence and mendacity. True, it seems somewhat strange that
+God should have chosen a barbarous and unknown people who had little or
+nothing to do with the other nations of the earth, as his messengers to
+the rest of mankind.
+
+It is not easy to account for an infinite God making people so low in
+the scale of intellect as to require a revelation. Neither is it easy to
+perceive why, if a revelation was necessary for all, it was made only
+to a few. Of course, I know that it is extremely wicked to suggest these
+thoughts, and that ignorance is the only armor that can effectually
+protect you from the wrath of God. I am aware that investigators with
+all their genius, never find the road to heaven; that those who look
+where they are going are sure to miss it, and that only those who
+voluntarily put out their eyes and implicitly depend upon blindness can
+surely keep the narrow path.
+
+Whoever reads our sacred book is compelled to believe it or suffer
+forever the torments of the lost. We are told that we have the privilege
+of examining it for ourselves; but this privilege is only extended to
+us on the condition that we believe it whether it appears reasonable or
+not. We may disagree with others as much as we please upon the meaning
+of all passages in the bible, but we must not deny the truth of a single
+word. We must believe that the book is inspired. If we obey its every
+precept without believing in its inspiration we will be damned just as
+certainly as though we disobeyed its every word. We have no right to
+weigh it in the scales of reason--to test it by the laws of nature, or
+the facts of observation and experience. To do this, we are told, is to
+put ourselves above the word of God, and sit in judgment on the works of
+our creator.
+
+For my part, I cannot admit that belief is a voluntary thing. It seems
+to me that evidence, even in spite of ourselves, will have its weight,
+and that whatever our wish may be, we are compelled to stand with
+fairness by the scales, and give the exact result. It will not do to say
+that we reject the bible because we are wicked. Our wickedness must be
+ascertained not from our belief but from our acts.
+
+I am told by the clergy that I ought not to attack the bible; that I am
+leading thousands to perdition and rendering certain the damnation of my
+own soul. They have had the kindness to advise me that, if my object is
+to make converts, I am pursuing the wrong course. They tell me to use
+gentler expressions, and more cunning words. Do they really wish me
+to make more converts? If their advice is honest, they are traitors to
+their trust. If their advice is not honest, then they are unfair with
+me. Certainly they should wish me to pursue the course that will make
+the fewest converts, and yet they pretend to tell me how my influence
+could be increased. It may be, that upon this principle John Bright
+advises America to adopt free trade, so that our country can become a
+successful rival of Great Britain. Sometimes I think that even ministers
+are not entirely candid.
+
+Notwithstanding the advice of the clergy, I have concluded to pursue my
+own course, to tell my honest thoughts, and to have my freedom in this
+world whatever my fate may be in the next.
+
+The real oppressor, enslaver and corrupter of the people is the bible.
+That book is the chain that binds, the dungeon that holds the clergy.
+That book spreads the pall of superstition over the colleges and
+schools. That book puts out the eyes of science, and makes honest
+investigation a crime. That book unmans the politician and degrades the
+people. That book fills the world with bigotry, hypocrisy and fear.
+It plays the same part in our country that has been played by "sacred
+records" in all the nations of the world.
+
+A little while ago I saw one of the bibles of the Middle Ages. It was
+about two feet in length, and one and a half in width. It had immense
+oaken covers, with hasps, and clasps, and hinges large enough almost
+for the doors of a penitentiary. It was covered with pictures of winged
+angels and aureoled saints. In my imagination I saw this book carried
+to the cathedral altar in solemn pomp--heard the chant of robed and
+kneeling priests, felt the strange tremor of the organ's peal; saw the
+colored light streaming through windows stained and touched by blood
+and flame--the swinging censer with its perfumed incense rising to the
+mighty roof, dim with height and rich with legend carved in stone, while
+on the walls was hung, written in light, and shade, and all the colors
+that can tell of joy and tears, the pictured history of the martyred
+Christ. The people fell upon their knees. The book was opened, and the
+priest read the messages from God to man. To the multitude, the book
+itself was evidence enough that it was not the work of human hands. How
+could those little marks and lines and dots contain, like tombs, the
+thoughts of men, and how could they, touched by a ray of light from
+human eyes, give up their dead? How could these characters span the vast
+chasm dividing the present from the past, and make it possible for the
+living still to hear the voices of the dead?
+
+
+
+
+V. THE PENTATEUCH
+
+The first five books in our bible are known as the Pentateuch. For
+a long time it was supposed that Moses was the author, and among the
+ignorant the supposition still prevails. As a matter of fact, it seems
+to be well settled that Moses had nothing to do with these books, and
+that they were not written until he had been dust and ashes for hundreds
+of years. But, as all the churches still insist that he was the author,
+that he wrote even an account of his own death and burial, let us
+speak of him as though these books were in fact written by him. As the
+christians maintain that God was the real author, it makes but little
+difference whom he employed as his pen, or clerk.
+
+Nearly all authors of sacred books have given an account of the creation
+of the universe, the origin of matter, and the destiny of the human
+race. Nearly all have pointed out the obligation that man is under to
+his creator for having placed him upon the earth, and allowed him to
+live and suffer, and have taught that nothing short of the most abject
+worship could possibly compensate God for his trouble and labor suffered
+and done for the good of man. They have nearly all insisted that we
+should thank God for all that is good in life; but they have not all
+informed us as to whom we should hold responsible for the evils we
+endure.
+
+Moses differed from most of the makers of sacred books by his failure
+to say anything of a future life, by failing to promise heaven, and to
+threaten hell. Upon the subject of a future state, there is not one
+word in the Pentateuch. Probably at that early day God did not deem
+it important to make a revelation as to the eternal destiny of man.
+He seems to have thought that he could control the Jews, at least, by
+rewards and punishments in this world, and so he kept the frightful
+realities of eternal joy and torment a profound secret from the people
+of his choice. He thought it far more important to tell the Jews their
+origin than to enlighten them as to their destiny.
+
+We must remember that every tribe and nation has some way in which, the
+more striking phenomena of nature are accounted for. These accounts
+are handed down by tradition, changed by numberless narrators as
+intelligence increases, or to account for newly discovered facts, or for
+the purpose of satisfying the appetite for the marvelous.
+
+The way in which a tribe or nation accounts for day and night, the
+change of seasons, the fall of snow and rain, the flight of birds,
+the origin of the rainbow, the peculiarities of animals, the dreams
+of sleep, the visions of the insane, the existence of earthquakes,
+volcanoes, storms, lightning and the thousand things that attract the
+attention and excite the wonder, fear or admiration of mankind, may be
+called the philosophy of that tribe or nation. And as all phenomena are,
+by savage and barbaric man accounted for as the action of intelligent
+beings for the accomplishment of certain objects, and as these beings
+were supposed to have the power to assist or injure man, certain things
+were supposed necessary for man to do in order to gain the assistance,
+and avoid the anger of these gods. Out of this belief grew certain
+ceremonies, and these ceremonies united with the belief, formed
+religion; and consequently every religion has for its foundation a
+misconception of the cause of phenomena.
+
+All worship is necessarily based upon the belief that some being exists
+who can, if he will, change the natural order of events. The savage
+prays to a stone that he calls a god, while the christian prays to a god
+that he calls a spirit, and the prayers of both are equally useful. The
+savage and the christian put behind the Universe an intelligent cause,
+and this cause whether represented by one god or many, has been, in all
+ages, the object of all worship. To carry a fetich, to utter a prayer,
+to count beads, to abstain from food, to sacrifice a lamb, a child or an
+enemy, are simply different ways by which the accomplishment of the same
+object is sought, and are all the offspring of the same error.
+
+Many systems of religion must have existed many ages before the art of
+writing was discovered, and must have passed through many changes before
+the stories, miracles, histories, prophesies and mistakes became fixed
+and petrified in written words. After that, change was possible only by
+giving new meanings to old words, a process rendered necessary by the
+continual acquisition of facts somewhat inconsistent with a literal
+interpretation of the "sacred records." In this way an honest faith
+often prolongs its life by dishonest methods; and in this way the
+Christians of to-day are trying to harmonize the Mosaic account of
+creation with the theories and discoveries of modern science.
+
+Admitting that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, or that he gave
+to the Jews a religion, the question arises as to where he obtained
+his information. We are told by the theologians that he received his
+knowledge from God, and that every word he wrote was and is the exact
+truth. It is admitted at the same time that he was an adopted son of
+Pharaoh's daughter, and enjoyed the rank and privilege of a prince.
+Under such circumstances, he must have been well acquainted with the
+literature, philosophy and religion of the Egyptians, and must have
+known what they believed and taught as to the creation of the world.
+
+Now, if the account of the origin of this earth as given by Moses is
+substantially like that given by the Egyptians, then we must conclude
+that he learned it from them. Should we imagine that he was divinely
+inspired because he gave to the Jews what the Egyptians had given him?
+
+The Egyptian priests taught _first_, that a god created the original
+matter, leaving it in a state of chaos; _second_, that a god moulded it
+into form; _third_, that the breath of a god moved upon the face of
+the deep; _fourth_, that a god created simply by saying "Let it be;"
+_fifth_, that a god created light before the sun existed.
+
+Nothing can be clearer than that Moses received from the Egyptians the
+principal parts of his narrative, making such changes and additions as
+were necessary to satisfy the peculiar superstitions of his own people.
+
+If some man at the present day should assert that he had received from
+God the theories of evolution, the survival of the fittest, and the
+law of heredity, and we should afterwards find that he was not only an
+Englishman, but had lived in the family of Charles Darwin, we certainly
+would account for his having these theories in a natural way, So, if
+Darwin himself should pretend that he was inspired, and had obtained
+his peculiar theories from God, we should probably reply that his
+grandfather suggested the the same ideas, and that Lamarck published
+substantially the same theories the same year that Mr. Darwin was born.
+
+Now, if we have sufficient courage, we will, by the same course of
+reasoning, account for the story of creation found in the bible. We
+will say that it contains the belief of Moses, and that he received his
+information from the Egyptians, and not from God. If we take the account
+as the absolute truth and use it for the purpose of determining the
+value of modern thought, scientific advancement becomes impossible. And
+even if the account of the Creation as given by Moses should turn out
+to be true, and should be so admitted by all the scientific world, the
+claim that he was inspired would still be without the least particle
+of proof. We would be forced to admit that he knew more than we had
+supposed. It certainly is no proof that a man is inspired simply because
+he is right.
+
+No one pretends that Shakespeare was inspired, and yet all the writers
+of the books of the Old Testament put together, could not have produced
+Hamlet.
+
+Why should we, looking upon some rough and awkward thing, or god in
+stone, say that it must have been produced by some inspired sculptor,
+and with the same breath pronounce the _Venus de Milo_ to be the work
+of man? Why should we, looking at some ancient daub of angel, saint or
+virgin, say its painter must have been assisted by a god?
+
+Let us account for all we see by the facts we know. If there are things
+for which we cannot account, let us wait for light. To account for
+anything by supernatural agencies is, in fact to say that we do not
+know. Theology is not what we know about God, but what we do not know
+about Nature. In order to increase our respect for the bible, it became
+necessary for the priests to exalt and extol that book, and at the same
+time to decry and belittle the reasoning powers of man. The whole
+power of the pulpit has been used for hundreds of years to destroy the
+confidence of man in himself--to induce him to distrust his own powers
+of thought, to believe that he was wholly unable to decide any question
+for himself, and that all human virtue consists in faith and obedience.
+The Church has said, "Believe, and obey! If you reason, you will become
+an unbeliever, and unbelievers will be lost. If you disobey, you will
+do so through vain pride and curiosity, and will, like Adam and Eve, be
+thrust from paradise forever!"
+
+For my part, I care nothing for what the Church says, except in so far
+as it accords with my reason; and the bible is nothing to me, only in so
+far as it agrees with what I think or know.
+
+All books should be examined in the same spirit, and truth should be
+welcomed and falsehood exposed, no matter in what volume they may be
+found.
+
+Let us in this spirit examine the Pentateuch; and if anything appears
+unreasonable, contradictory or absurd, let us have the honesty and
+courage to admit it. Certainly no good can result either from deceiving
+ourselves or others. Many millions have implicitly believed this book,
+and have just as implicitly believed that polygamy was sanctioned by
+God. Millions have regarded this book as the foundation of all
+human progress, and at the same time looked upon slavery as a divine
+institution. Millions have declared this book to have been infinitely
+holy, and to prove that they were right, have imprisoned, robbed
+and burned their fellow men. The inspiration of this book has been
+established by famine, sword and fire, by dungeon, chain and whip, by
+dagger and by rack, by force and fear and fraud, and generations have
+been frightened by threats of hell, and bribed with promises of heaven.
+
+Let us examine a portion of this book, not in the darkness of our fear,
+but in the light of reason.
+
+And first, let us examine the account given of the Creation of this
+world, commenced, according to the bible, on Monday morning about five
+thousand eight hundred and eighty-three years ago.
+
+
+
+
+VI. MONDAY
+
+Moses commences his story by telling us that in the beginning God
+created the heaven and the earth.
+
+If this means anything, it means that God produced, caused to exist,
+called into being, the heaven and the earth. It will not do to say that
+he formed the heaven and the earth of previously existing matter. Moses
+conveys, and intended to convey the idea that the matter of which the
+heaven and the earth are composed, was created.
+
+It is impossible for me to conceive of something being created from
+nothing. Nothing, regarded in the light of a raw material, is a decided
+failure. I cannot conceive of matter apart from force. Neither is it
+possible to think of force disconnected with matter. You cannot imagine
+matter going back to absolute nothing. Neither can you imagine nothing
+being changed into something. You may be eternally damned if you do not
+say that you can conceive these things, but you cannot conceive them.
+
+Such is the constitution of the human mind that it cannot even think of
+a commencement or an end of matter, or force.
+
+If God created the universe, there was a time when he commenced to
+create. Back of that commencement there must have been an eternity. In
+that eternity what was this God doing? He certainly did not think.
+There was nothing to think about. He did not remember. Nothing had ever
+happened. What did he do? Can you imagine anything more absurd than an
+infinite intelligence in infinite nothing wasting an eternity?
+
+I do not pretend to tell how all these things really are; but I do
+insist that a statement that cannot possibly be comprehended by any
+human being, and that appears utterly impossible, repugnant to every
+fact of experience, and contrary to everything that we really know, must
+be rejected by every honest man.
+
+We can conceive of eternity, because we cannot conceive of a cessation
+of time. We can conceive of infinite space because we cannot conceive
+of so much matter that our imagination will not stand upon the farthest
+star, and see infinite space beyond. In other words, we cannot conceive
+of a cessation of time; therefore eternity is a necessity of the mind.
+Eternity sustains the same relation to time that space does to matter.
+
+In the time of Moses, it was perfectly safe for him to write an account
+of the creation of the world. He had simply to put in form the crude
+notions of the people. At that time, no other Jew could have written
+a better account. Upon that subject he felt at liberty to give his
+imagination full play. There was no one who could authoritatively
+contradict anything he might say. It was substantially the same story
+that had been imprinted in curious characters upon the clay records
+of Babylon, the gigantic monuments of Egypt, and the gloomy temples of
+India. In those days there was an almost infinite difference between
+the educated and ignorant. The people were controlled almost entirely
+by signs and wonders. By the lever of fear, priests moved the world. The
+sacred records were made and kept, and altered by them. The people could
+not read, and looked upon one who could, as almost a god. In our day it
+is hard to conceive of the influence of an educated class in a barbarous
+age. It was only necessary to produce the "sacred record," and ignorance
+fell upon its face. The people were taught that the record was inspired,
+and therefore true. They were not taught that it was true, and therefore
+inspired.
+
+After all, the real question is not whether the bible is inspired, but
+whether it is true. If it is true, it does not need to be inspired. If
+it is true, it makes no difference whether it was written by a man or a
+god. The multiplication table is just as useful, just as true as though
+God had arranged the figures himself. If the bible is really true,
+the claim of inspiration need not be urged; and if it is not true, its
+inspiration can hardly be established. As a matter of fact, the truth
+does not need to be inspired. Nothing needs inspiration except a
+falsehood or a mistake. Where truth ends, where probability stops,
+inspiration begins. A fact never went into partnership with a miracle.
+Truth does not need the assistance of miracle. A fact will fit every
+other fact in the Universe, because it is the product of all other
+facts. A lie will fit nothing except another lie made for the express
+purpose of fitting it. After a while the man gets tired of lying, and
+then the last lie will not fit the next fact, and then there is an
+opportunity to use a miracle. Just at that point, it is necessary to
+have a little inspiration.
+
+It seems to me that reason is the highest attribute of man, and that if
+there can be any communication from God to man, it must be addressed
+to his reason. It does not seem possible that in order to understand a
+message from God it is absolutely essential to throw our reason away.
+How could God make known his will to any being destitute of reason? How
+can any man accept as a revelation from God that which is unreasonable
+to him? God cannot make a revelation to another man for me. He must make
+it to me, and until he convinces my reason that it is true, I cannot
+receive it.
+
+The statement that in the beginning God created the heaven and the
+earth, I cannot accept. It is contrary to my reason, and I cannot
+believe it. It appears reasonable to me that force has existed from
+eternity. Force cannot, as it appears to me, exist apart from matter.
+Force, in its nature, is forever active, and without matter it could
+not act; and so I think matter must have existed forever. To conceive
+of matter without force, or of force without matter, or of a time when
+neither existed, or of a being who existed for an eternity without
+either, and who out of nothing created both, is to me utterly
+impossible. I may be damned on this account, but I cannot help it. In my
+judgment, Moses was mistaken.
+
+It will not do to say that Moses merely intended to tell what God did,
+in making the heavens and the earth out of matter then in existence.
+He distinctly states that in the _beginning_ God created them. If this
+account is true, we must believe that God, existing in infinite space
+surrounded by eternal nothing, naught and void, created, produced,
+called into being, willed into existence this universe of countless
+stars.
+
+The next thing we are told by this inspired gentleman is, that God
+created light, and proceeded to divide it from the darkness.
+
+Certainly, the person who wrote this believed that darkness was a thing,
+an entity, a material that could get mixed and tangled up with light,
+and that these entities, light and darkness, had to be separated. In his
+imagination he probably saw God throwing pieces and chunks of darkness
+on one side, and rays and beams of light on the other. It is hard for a
+man who has been born but once to understand these things. For my part I
+cannot understand how light can be separated from darkness. I had always
+supposed that darkness was simply the absence of light, and that under
+no circumstances could it be necessary to take the darkness away from
+the light. It is certain, however, that Moses believed darkness to be
+a form of matter, because I find that in another place he speaks of a
+darkness that could be felt. They used to have on exhibition at Rome a
+bottle of the darkness that overspread Egypt.
+
+You cannot divide light from darkness any more than you can divide heat
+from cold. Cold is an absence of heat, and darkness is an absence of
+light. I suppose that we have no conception of absolute cold. We know
+only degrees of heat. Twenty degrees below zero is just twenty degrees
+warmer than forty degrees below zero. Neither cold nor darkness are
+entities, and these words express simply either the absolute or partial
+absence of heat or light. I cannot conceive how light can be divided
+from darkness, but I can conceive how a barbarian several thousand years
+ago, writing upon a subject about which he knew nothing, could make a
+mistake. The creator of light could not have written in this way. If
+such a being exists, he must have known the nature of that "mode of
+motion" that paints the earth on every eye, and clothes in garments
+seven-hued this universe of worlds.
+
+
+
+
+VII. TUESDAY
+
+We are next informed by Moses that "God said Let there be a firmament in
+the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters;"
+and that "God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were
+under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament."
+
+What did the writer mean by the word firmament? Theologians now tell
+us that he meant an "expanse." This will not do. How could an expanse
+divide the waters from the waters, so that the waters above the expanse
+would not fall into and mingle with the waters below the expanse? The
+truth is that Moses regarded the firmament as a solid affair. It was
+where God lived, and where water was kept. It was for this reason that
+they used to pray for rain. They supposed that some angel could with a
+lever raise a gate and let out the quantity of moisture desired. It was
+with the water from this firmament that the world was drowned when the
+windows of heaven were opened. It was in this firmament that the sons
+of God lived--the sons who "saw the daughters of men that they were
+fair and took them wives of all which they chose." The issue of such
+marriages were giants, and "the same became mighty men which were of
+old, men of renown."
+
+Nothing is clearer than that Moses regarded the firmament as a vast
+material division that separated the waters of the world, and upon
+whose floor God lived, surrounded by his sons. In no other way could he
+account for rain. Where did the water come from? He knew nothing about
+the laws of evaporation. He did not know that the sun wooed with amorous
+kisses the waves of the sea, and that they, clad in glorified mist
+rising to meet their lover, were, by disappointment, changed to tears
+and fell as rain.
+
+The idea that the firmament was the abode of the Deity must have been in
+the mind of Moses when he related the dream of Jacob. "And he dreamed,
+and behold, a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to
+heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it; and
+behold the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God."
+
+So, when the people were building the tower of Babel "the Lord came down
+to see the city, and the tower which the children of men builded. And
+the Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they have all one language:
+and this they begin to do; and nothing will be restrained from them
+which they imagined to do. Go to, let us go down and confound their
+language that they may not understand one another's speech."
+
+The man who wrote that absurd account must have believed that God lived
+above the earth, in the firmament. The same idea was in the mind of the
+Psalmist when he said that God "bowed the heavens and came down."
+
+Of course, God could easily remove any person bodily to heaven, as it
+was but a little way above the earth. "Enoch walked with God, and he was
+not, for God took him." The accounts in the bible of the ascension of
+Elijah, Christ and St. Paul were born of the belief that the firmament
+was the dwelling-place of God. It probably never occurred to these
+writers that if the firmament was seven or eight miles away, Enoch and
+the rest would have been frozen perfectly stiff long before the journey
+could have been completed. Possibly Elijah might have made the voyage,
+as he was carried to heaven in a chariot of fire "by a whirlwind."
+
+The truth is, that Moses was mistaken, and upon that mistake the
+christians located their heaven and their hell. The telescope destroyed
+the firmament, did away with the heaven of the New Testament, rendered
+the ascension of our Lord and the assumption of his Mother infinitely
+absurd, crumbled to chaos the gates and palaces of the New Jerusalem,
+and in their places gave to man a wilderness of worlds.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. WEDNESDAY
+
+We are next informed by the historian of Creation, that after God had
+finished making the firmament and had succeeded in dividing the waters
+by means of an "expanse," he proceeded "to gather the waters on the
+earth together in seas, so that the dry land might appear."
+
+Certainly the writer of this did not have any conception of the real
+form of the earth. He could not have known anything of the attraction of
+gravitation. He must have regarded the earth as flat and supposed that
+it required considerable force and power to induce the water to leave
+the mountains and collect in the valleys. Just as soon as the water was
+forced to run down hill, the dry land appeared, and the grass began to
+grow, and the mantles of green were thrown over the shoulders of the
+hills, and the trees laughed into bud and blossom, and the branches were
+laden with fruit. And all this happened before a ray had left the quiver
+of the sun, before a glittering beam had thrilled the bosom of a flower,
+and before the Dawn with trembling hands had drawn aside the curtains of
+the East and welcomed to her arms the eager god of Day.
+
+It does not seem to me that grass and trees could grow and ripen into
+seed and fruit without the sun. According to the account, this all
+happened on the third day. Now, if, as the christians say, Moses did not
+mean by the word day a period of twenty-four hours, but an immense and
+almost measureless space of time, and as God did not, according to this
+view make any animals until the fifth day, that is, not for millions of
+years after he made the grass and trees, for what purpose did he cause
+the trees to bear fruit?
+
+Moses says that God said on the third day, "Let the earth bring forth
+grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after
+his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth; and it was so. And the
+earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the
+tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind; and God saw
+that it was good, and the evening and the morning were the third day."
+
+There was nothing to eat this fruit; not an insect with painted wings
+sought the honey of the flowers; not a single living, breathing thing
+upon the earth. Plenty of grass, a great variety of herbs, an abundance
+of fruit, but not a mouth in all the world. If Moses is right, this
+state of things lasted only two days; but if the modern theologians are
+correct, it continued for millions of ages.
+
+"It is now well known that the organic history of the earth can be
+properly divided into five epochs--the Primordial, Primary, Secondary,
+Tertiary, and Quaternary. Each of these epochs is characterized by
+animal and vegetable life peculiar to itself.. In the First will be
+found Algae and Skull-less Vertebrates, in the Second, Ferns and Fishes,
+in the Third, Pine Forests and Reptiles, in the Fourth, Foliaceous
+Forests and Mammals, and in the Fifth, Man."
+
+How much more reasonable this is than the idea that the Earth was
+covered with grass, and herbs, and trees loaded with fruit for millions
+of years before an animal existed.
+
+There is, in Nature, an even balance forever kept between the total
+amounts of animal and vegetable life. "In her wonderful economy she must
+form and bountifully nourish her vegetable progeny--twin-brother life to
+her, with that of animals. The perfect balance between plant existences
+and animal existences must always be maintained, while matter courses
+through the eternal circle, becoming each in turn. If an animal be
+resolved into its ultimate constituents in a period according to the
+surrounding circumstances, say, of four hours, of four months, of four
+years, or even of four thousand years,--for it is impossible to deny
+that there may be instances of all these periods during which the
+process has continued--those elements which assume the gaseous form
+mingle at once with the atmosphere and are taken up from it without
+delay by the ever-open mouths of vegetable life. By a thousand pores
+in every leaf the carbonic acid which renders the atmosphere unfit for
+animal life is absorbed, the carbon being separated, and assimilated to
+form the vegetable fibre, which, as wood, makes and furnishes our houses
+and ships, is burned for our warmth, or is stored up under pressure for
+coal. All this carbon has played its part, and many parts in its time,
+as animal existences from monad up to man. Our mahogany of to-day has
+been many negroes in its turn, and before the African existed, was
+integral portions of many a generation of extinct species."
+
+It seems reasonable to suppose that certain kinds of vegetation
+and certain kinds of animals should exist together, and that as the
+character of the vegetation changed, a corresponding change would take
+place in the animal world. It may be that I am led to these conclusions
+by "total depravity," or that I lack the necessary humility of spirit to
+satisfactorily harmonize Haeckel and Moses; or that I am carried away by
+pride, blinded by reason, given over to hardness of heart that I might
+be damned, but I never can believe that the earth was covered with
+leaves, and buds, and flowers, and fruits before the sun with glittering
+spear had driven back the hosts of Night.
+
+
+
+
+IX. THURSDAY
+
+After the world was covered with vegetation, it occurred to Moses that
+it was about time to make a sun and moon; and so we are told that on the
+fourth day God said, "Let there be light in the firmament of the heaven
+to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for
+seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the
+firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And
+God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the
+lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also."
+
+Can we believe that the inspired writer had any idea of the size of the
+sun? Draw a circle five inches in diameter, and by its side thrust a pin
+through the paper. The hole made by the pin will sustain about the same
+relation to the circle that the earth does to the sun. Did he know that
+the sun was eight hundred and sixty thousand miles in diameter; that it
+was enveloped in an ocean of fire thousands of miles in depth, hotter
+even than the christian's hell, over which sweep tempests of flame
+moving at the rate of one hundred miles a second, compared with which
+the wildest storm that ever wrecked the forests of this world was but a
+calm? Did he know that the sun every moment of time throws out as much
+heat as could be generated by the combustion of millions upon millions
+of tons of coal? Did he know that the volume of the Earth is less than
+one-millionth of that of the sun? Did he know of the one hundred and
+four planets belonging to our solar system, all children of the sun? Did
+he know of Jupiter eighty-five thousand miles in diameter, hundreds
+of times as large as our earth, turning on his axis at the rate of
+twenty-five thousand miles an hour accompanied by four moons, making the
+tour of his orbit in fifty years, a distance of three thousand million
+miles? Did he know anything about Saturn, his rings and his eight moons?
+Did he have the faintest idea that all these planets were once a part of
+the sun; that the vast luminary was once thousands of millions of miles
+in diameter; that Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars were all
+born before our earth, and that by no possibility could this world have
+existed three days, nor three periods, nor three "good whiles" before
+its source, the sun?
+
+Moses supposed the sun to be about three or four feet in diameter and
+the moon about half that size. Compared with the earth they were but
+simple specks. This idea seems to have been shared by all the "inspired"
+men. We find in the book of Joshua that the sun stood still, and the
+moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.
+"So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go
+down about a whole day."
+
+We are told that the sacred writer wrote in common speech as we do
+when we talk about the rising and setting of the sun, and that all he
+intended to say was that the earth ceased to turn on its axis "for about
+a whole day."
+
+My own opinion is that General Joshua knew no more about the motions of
+the earth than he did about mercy and justice. If he had known that the
+earth turned upon its axis at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, and
+swept in its course about the sun at the rate of sixty-eight thousand
+miles an hour, he would have doubled the hailstones, spoken of in the
+same chapter, that the Lord cast down from heaven, and allowed the sun
+and moon to rise and set in the usual way.
+
+It is impossible to conceive of a more absurd story than this about the
+stopping of the sun and moon, and yet nothing so excites the malice of
+the orthodox preacher as to call its truth in question. Some endeavor
+to account for the phenomenon by natural causes, while others attempt
+to show that God could, by the refraction of light have made the sun
+visible although actually shining on the opposite side of the earth. The
+last hypothesis has been seriously urged by ministers within the last
+few months. The Rev. Henry M. Morey of South Bend, Indiana, says "that
+the phenomenon was simply optical. The rotary motion of the earth was
+not disturbed, but the light of the sun was prolonged by the same laws
+of refraction and reflection by which the sun now appears to be above
+the horizon when it is really below. The medium through which the sun's
+rays passed may have been miraculously influenced so as to have caused
+the sun to linger above the horizon long after its usual time for
+disappearance."
+
+This is the latest and ripest product of christian scholarship upon
+this question no doubt, but still it is not entirely satisfactory to me.
+According to the sacred account the sun did not linger, merely, above
+the horizon, but stood still "in the midst of heaven for about a
+whole day," that is to say, for about twelve hours. If the air was
+miraculously changed, so that it would refract the rays of the sun while
+the earth turned over as usual for "about a whole day," then, at the
+end of that time the sun must have been visible in the east, that is,
+it must by that time have been the next morning. According to this, that
+most wonderful day must have been at least thirty-six hours in length.
+We have first, the twelve hours of natural light, then twelve hours of
+"refracted and reflected" light. By that time it would again be morning,
+and the sun would shine for twelve hours more in the natural way, making
+thirty-six hours in all.
+
+If the Rev. Morey would depend a little less on "refraction" and a
+little more on "reflection," he would conclude that the whole story is
+simply a barbaric myth and fable.
+
+It hardly seems reasonable that God, if there is one, would either stop
+the globe, change the constitution of the atmosphere or the nature of
+light simply to afford Joshua an opportunity to kill people on that
+day when he could just as easily have waited until the next morning.
+It certainly cannot be very gratifying to God for us to believe such
+childish things.
+
+It has been demonstrated that force is eternal; that it is forever
+active, and eludes destruction by change of form. Motion is a form of
+force, and all arrested motion changes instantly to heat. The earth
+turns upon its axis at about one thousand miles an hour. Let it be
+stopped and a force beyond our imagination is changed to heat. It has
+been calculated that to stop the world would produce as much heat as the
+burning of a solid piece of coal three times the size of the earth.
+And yet we are asked to believe that this was done in order that one
+barbarian might defeat another. Such stories never would have been
+written, had not the belief been general that the heavenly bodies were
+as nothing compared with the earth.
+
+The view of Moses was acquiesced in by the Jewish people and by the
+Christian world for thousands of years. It is supposed that Moses
+lived about fifteen hundred years before Christ, and although he was
+"inspired," and obtained his information directly from God, he did not
+know as much about our solar system as the Chinese did a thousand
+years before he was born. "The Emperor Chwenhio adopted as an epoch, a
+conjunction of the planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which has
+been shown by M. Bailly to have occurred no less than 2449 years before
+Christ." The ancient Chinese knew not only the motions of the planets,
+but they could calculate eclipses. "In the reign of the Emperor
+Chow-Kang, the chief astronomers, Ho and Hi were condemned to death for
+neglecting to announce a solar eclipse which took place 2169 B. C, a
+clear proof that the prediction of eclipses was a part of the duty of
+the imperial astronomers."
+
+Is it not strange that a Chinaman should find out by his own exertions
+more about the material universe than Moses could when assisted by its
+Creator?
+
+About eight hundred years after God gave Moses the principal facts about
+the creation of the "heaven and the earth" he performed another miracle
+far more wonderful than stopping the world. On this occasion he not
+only stopped the earth, but actually caused it to turn the other way.
+A Jewish king was sick, and God, in order to convince him that he would
+ultimately recover, offered to make the shadow on the dial go forward,
+or backward ten degrees. The king thought it was too easy a thing to
+make the shadow go forward, and asked that it be turned back. Thereupon,
+"Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow
+ten degrees backward by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." I
+hardly see how this miracle could be accounted for even by "refraction"
+and "reflection."
+
+It seems, from the account, that this stupendous miracle was performed
+after the king had been cured. The account of the shadow going backward
+is given in the eleventh verse of the twentieth chapter of Second Kings,
+while the cure is given in the seventh verse of the same chapter. "And
+Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil,
+and he recovered."
+
+Stopping the world and causing it to turn back ten degrees after that,
+seems to have been, as the boil was already cured by the figs, a useless
+display of power.
+
+The easiest way to account for all these wonders is to say that the
+"inspired" writers were mistaken. In this way a fearful burden is lifted
+from the credulity of man, and he is left free to believe the evidences
+of his own senses, and the demonstrations of science. In this way he can
+emancipate himself from the slavery of superstition, the control of the
+barbaric dead, and the despotism of the church.
+
+Only about a hundred years ago, Buffon, the naturalist, was compelled by
+the faculty of theology at Paris to publicly renounce fourteen "errors"
+in his work on Natural History because they were at variance with the
+Mosaic account of creation. The Pentateuch is still the scientific
+standard of the church, and ignorant priests, armed with that, pronounce
+sentence upon the vast accomplishments of modern thought.
+
+
+
+
+X. "HE MADE THE STARS ALSO."
+
+Moses came very near forgetting about the stars, and only gave five
+words to all the hosts of heaven. Can it be possible that he knew
+anything about the stars beyond the mere fact that he saw them shining
+above him?
+
+Did he know that the nearest star, the one we ought to be the best
+acquainted with, is twenty-one billion of miles away, and that it is
+a sun shining by its own light? Did he know of the next, that is
+thirty-seven billion miles distant? Is it possible that he was
+acquainted with Sirius, a sun two thousand six hundred and eighty-eight
+times larger than our own, surrounded by a system of heavenly bodies,
+several of which are already known, and distant from us eighty-two
+billion miles? Did he know that the Polar star that tells the mariner
+his course and guided slaves to liberty and joy, is distant from this
+little world two hundred and ninety-two billion miles, and that Capella
+wheels and shines one hundred and thirty-three billion miles beyond? Did
+he know that it would require about seventy-two years for light to
+reach us from this star? Did he know that light travels one hundred and
+eighty-five thousand miles a second? Did he know that some stars are
+so far away in the infinite abysses that five millions of years are
+required for their light to reach this globe?
+
+If this is true, and if as the bible tells us, the stars were made after
+the earth, then this world has been wheeling in its orbit for at least
+five million years.
+
+It may be replied that it was not the intention of God to teach geology
+and astronomy. Then why did he say anything upon these subjects? and if
+he did say anything, why did he not give the facts?
+
+According to the sacred records God created, on the first day, the
+heaven and the earth, "moved upon the face of the waters," and made
+the light. On the second day he made the firmament or the "expanse" and
+divided the waters. On the third day he gathered the waters into seas,
+let the dry land appear and caused the earth to bring forth grass, herbs
+and fruit trees, and on the fourth day he made the sun, moon and stars
+and set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth.
+This division of labor is very striking. The work of the other days is
+as nothing when compared with that of the fourth. Is it possible that
+it required the same time and labor to make the grass, herbs and fruit
+trees, that it did to fill with countless constellations the infinite
+expanse of space?
+
+
+
+
+XI. FRIDAY
+
+We are then told that on the next day "God said, Let the waters bring
+forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life, and fowl that may
+fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created
+great whales and every living creature which the waters brought forth
+abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and
+God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and
+multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
+earth."
+
+Is it true that while the dry land was covered with grass, and herbs,
+and trees bearing fruit, the ocean was absolutely devoid of life, and so
+remained for millions of years?
+
+If Moses meant twenty-four hours by the word day, then it would make but
+little difference on which of the six days animals were made; but if
+the word day was used to express millions of ages, during which life was
+slowly evolved from monad up to man, then the account becomes infinitely
+absurd, puerile and foolish. There is not a scientist of high standing
+who will say that in his judgment the earth was covered with fruit
+bearing trees before the moners, the ancestors it may be of the human
+race, felt in Laurentian seas the first faint throb of life. Nor is
+there one who will declare that there was a single spire of grass before
+the sun had poured upon the world his flood of gold.
+
+Why should men in the name of religion try to harmonize the
+contradictions that exist between Nature and a book? Why should
+philosophers be denounced for placing more reliance upon what they know
+than upon what they have been told? If there is a God, it is reasonably
+certain that he made the world, but it is by no means certain that
+he is-the author of the bible. Why then should we not place greater
+confidence in Nature than in a book? And even if this God made not only
+the world but the book besides, it does not follow that the book is
+the best part of Creation, and the only part that we will be eternally
+punished for denying. It seems to me that it is quite as important to
+know something of the solar system, something of the physical history
+of this globe, as it is to know the adventures of Jonah or the diet of
+Ezekiel. For my part, I would infinitely prefer to know all the results
+of scientific investigation, than to be inspired as Moses was.
+Supposing the bible to be true; why is it any worse or more wicked
+for free-thinkers to deny it, than for priests to deny the doctrine of
+Evolution, or the dynamic theory of heat? Why should we be damned for
+laughing at Samson and his foxes, while others, holding the Nebular
+Hypothesis in utter contempt, go straight to heaven? It seems to me
+that a belief in the great truths of science are fully as essential to
+salvation, as the creed of any church. We are taught that a man may
+be perfectly acceptable to God even if he denies the rotundity of
+the earth, the Copernican system, the three laws of Kepler, the
+indestructibility of matter and the attraction of gravitation. And we
+are also taught that a man may be right upon all these questions, and
+yet, for failing to believe in the "scheme of salvation," be eternally
+lost.
+
+
+
+
+XII. SATURDAY
+
+On this, the last day of creation, God said:--"Let the earth bring forth
+the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing and beast
+of the earth after his kind; and it was so. And God made the beast of
+the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing
+that creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and God saw that it was
+good."
+
+Now, is it true that the seas were filled with fish, the sky with fowls,
+and the earth covered with grass, and herbs, and fruit bearing trees,
+millions of ages before there was a creeping thing in existence? Must
+we admit that plants and animals were the result of the fiat of some
+incomprehensible intelligence independent of the operation of what are
+known as natural causes? Why is a miracle any more necessary to account
+for yesterday than for to-day or for to-morrow?
+
+If there is an infinite Power, nothing can be more certain than that
+this Power works in accordance with what we call law, that is, by and
+through natural causes. If anything can be found without a pedigree of
+natural antecedents, it will then be time enough to talk about the fiat
+of creation. There must have been a time when plants and animals did not
+exist upon this globe. The question, and the only question is, whether
+they were naturally produced. If the account given by Moses is true,
+then the vegetable and animal existences are the result of certain
+special fiats of creation entirely independent of the operation of
+natural causes. This is so grossly improbable, so at variance with the
+experience and observation of mankind, that it cannot be adopted without
+abandoning forever the basis of scientific thought and action.
+
+It may be urged that we do not understand the sacred record correctly.
+To this it may be replied that for thousands of years the account of
+the creation has, by the Jewish and Christian world, been regarded as
+literally true. If it was inspired, of course God must have known just
+how it would be understood, and consequently must have intended that
+it should be understood just as he knew it would be. One man writing to
+another, may mean one thing, and yet be understood as meaning something
+else. Now, if the writer knew that he would be misunderstood, and also
+knew that he could use other words that would convey his real meaning,
+but did not, we would say that he used words on purpose to mislead, and
+was not an honest man.
+
+If a being of infinite wisdom wrote the bible, or caused it to be
+written, he must have known exactly how his words would be interpreted
+by all the world, and he must have intended to convey the very meaning
+that was conveyed. He must have known that by reading that book, man
+would form erroneous views as to the shape, antiquity, and size of this
+world; that he would be misled as to the time and order of creation;
+that he would have the most childish and contemptible views of the
+creator; that the "sacred word" would be used to support slavery and
+polygamy; that it would build dungeons for the good, and light fagots
+to consume the brave, and therefore he must have intended that these
+results should follow. He also must have known that thousands and
+millions of men and women never could believe his bible, and that the
+number of unbelievers would increase in the exact ratio of civilization,
+and therefore, he must have intended that result.
+
+Let us understand this. An honest finite being uses the best words, in
+his judgment, to convey his meaning. This is the best he can do, because
+he cannot certainly know the exact effect of his words on others. But an
+infinite being must know not only the real meaning of the words, but the
+exact meaning they will convey to every reader and hearer. He must know
+every meaning that they are capable of conveying to every mind. He must
+also know what explanations must be made to prevent misconception. If
+an infinite being cannot, in making a revelation to man, use such words
+that every person to whom a revelation is essential will understand
+distinctly what that revelation is, then a revelation from God through
+the instrumentality of language is impossible, or it is not essential
+that all should understand it correctly. It may be urged that millions
+have not the capacity to understand a revelation, although expressed in
+the plainest words. To this it seems a sufficient reply to ask, why a
+being of infinite power should create men so devoid of intelligence,
+that he cannot by any means make known to them his will? We are told
+that it is exceedingly plain, and that a wayfaring man, though a fool,
+need not err therein. This statement is refuted by the religious history
+of the christian world. Every sect is a certificate that God has not
+plainly revealed his will to man. To each reader the bible conveys a
+different meaning. About the meaning of this book, called a revelation,
+there have been ages of war, and centuries of sword and flame. If
+written by an infinite God, he must have known that these results must
+follow; and thus knowing, he must be responsible for all.
+
+Is it not infinitely more reasonable to say that this book is the work
+of man, that it is filled with mingled truth and error, with mistakes
+and facts, and reflects, too faithfully perhaps, the "very form and
+pressure of its time?"
+
+If there are mistakes in the bible, certainly they were made by man. If
+there is anything contrary to nature, it was written by man. If there is
+anything immoral, cruel, heartless or infamous, it certainly was never
+written by a being worthy of the adoration of mankind.
+
+
+
+
+XIII. LET US MAKE MAN
+
+We are next informed by the author of the Pentateuch that God said "Let
+us make man in our image, after our likeness," and that "God created man
+in his own image, in the image of God created he him--male and female
+created he them."
+
+If this account means anything, it means that man was created in the
+physical image and likeness of God. Moses while he speaks of man as
+having been made in the image of God, never speaks of God except as
+having the form of a man. He speaks of God as "walking in the garden
+in the cool of the day;" and that Adam and Eve "heard his voice." He is
+constantly telling what God said, and in a thousand passages he refers
+to him as not only having the human form, but as performing actions,
+such as man performs. The God of Moses was a God with hands, with feet,
+with the organs of speech.
+
+A God of passion, of hatred, of revenge, of affection, of repentance; a
+God who made mistakes:--in other words, an immense and powerful man.
+
+It will not do to say that Moses meant to convey the idea that God made
+man in his mental or moral image. Some have insisted that man was made
+in the moral image of God because he was made pure. Purity cannot be
+manufactured. A moral character cannot be made for man by a god.
+Every man must make his own moral character. Consequently, if God
+is infinitely pure, Adam and Eve were not made in his image in that
+respect. Others say that Adam and Eve were made in the mental image
+of God. If it is meant by that, that they were created with reasoning
+powers like, but not to the extent of those possessed by a god, then
+this may be admitted. But certainly this idea was not in the mind of
+Moses. He regarded the human form as being in the image of God, and for
+that reason always spoke of God as having that form. No one can read
+the Pentateuch without coming to the conclusion that the author supposed
+that man was created in the physical likeness of Deity. God said "Go to,
+let us go down." "God smelled a sweet savor;" "God repented him that he
+had made man;" "and God said;" and "walked;" and "talked;" and "rested."
+All these expressions are inconsistent with any other idea than that the
+person using them regarded God as having the form of man.
+
+As a matter of fact, it is impossible for a man to conceive of a
+personal God, other than as a being having the human form. No one can
+think of an infinite being having the form of a horse, or of a bird, or
+of any animal beneath man. It is one of the necessities of the mind to
+associate forms with intellectual capacities. The highest form of which
+we have any conception is man's, and consequently, his is the only form
+that we can find in imagination to give to a personal God, because all
+other forms are, in our minds, connected with lower intelligences.
+
+It is impossible to think of a personal God as a spirit without form.
+We can use these words, but they do not convey to the mind any real and
+tangible meaning. Every one who thinks of a personal God at all, thinks
+of him as having the human form. Take from God the idea of form; speak
+of him simply as an all pervading spirit--which means an all pervading
+something about which we know nothing--and Pantheism is the result.
+
+We are told that God made man; and the question naturally arises, how
+was this done? Was it by a process of "evolution," "development;" the
+"transmission of acquired habits;" the "survival of the fittest," or was
+the necessary amount of clay kneaded to the proper consistency, and then
+by the hands of God moulded into form? Modern science tells that man has
+been evolved, through countless epochs, from the lower forms; that he
+is the result of almost an infinite number of actions, reactions,
+experiences, states, forms, wants and adaptations. Did Moses intend
+to convey such a meaning, or did he believe that God took a sufficient
+amount of dust, made it the proper shape, and breathed into it the
+breath of life? Can any believer in the bible give any reasonable
+account of this process of creation? Is it possible to imagine what
+was really done? Is there any theologian who will contend that man
+was created directly from the earth? Will he say that man was made
+substantially as he now is, with all his muscles properly developed for
+walking and speaking, and performing every variety of human action?
+That all his bones were formed as they now are, and all the relations of
+nerve, ligament, brain and motion as they are to-day?
+
+Looking back over the history of animal life from the lowest to
+the highest forms, we find that there has been a slow and gradual
+development; a certain but constant relation between want and
+production; between use and form. The Moner is said to be the simplest
+form of animal life that has yet been found. It has been described as
+"an organism without organs." It is a kind of structureless structure;
+a little mass of transparent jelly that can flatten itself out, and can
+expand and contract around its food. It can feed without a mouth, digest
+without a stomach, walk without feet, and reproduce itself by simple
+division. By taking this Moner as the commencement of animal life, or
+rather as the first animal, it is easy to follow the development of the
+organic structure through all the forms of life to man himself. In this
+way finally every muscle, bone and joint, every organ, form and function
+may be accounted for. In this way, and in this way only, can the
+existence of rudimentary organs be explained. Blot from the human mind
+the ideas of evolution, heredity, adaptation, and "the survival of the
+fittest," with which it has been enriched by Lamarck, Goethe, Darwin,
+Hęckel and Spencer, and all the facts in the history of animal life
+become utterly disconnected and meaningless.
+
+Shall we throw away all that has been discovered with regard to organic
+life, and in its place take the statements of one who lived in the
+rude morning of a barbaric day? Will anybody now contend that man was a
+direct and independent creation, and sustains and bears no relation to
+the animals below him? Belief upon this subject must be governed at
+last by evidence. Man cannot believe as he pleases. He can control his
+speech, and can say that he believes or disbelieves; but after all, his
+will cannot depress or raise the scales with which his reason finds the
+worth and weight of facts. If this is not so, investigation, evidence,
+judgment and reason are but empty words.
+
+I ask again, how were Adam and Eve created? In one account they are
+created male and female, and apparently at the same time. In the next
+account, Adam is made first, and Eve a long time afterwards, and from a
+part of the man. Did God simply by his creative fiat cause a rib slowly
+to expand, grow and divide into nerve, ligament, cartilage and flesh?
+How was the woman created from a rib? How was man created simply from
+dust? For my part, I cannot believe this statement. I may suffer for
+this in the world to come; and may millions of years hence, sincerely
+wish that I had never investigated the subject, but had been content
+to take the ideas of the dead. I do not believe that any Deity works in
+that way. So far as my experience goes, there is an unbroken procession
+of cause and effect. Each thing is a necessary link in an infinite
+chain; and I cannot conceive of this chain being broken even for one
+instant. Back of the simplest moner there is a cause, and back of
+that another, and so on, it seems to me, forever. In my philosophy I
+postulate neither beginning nor ending.
+
+If the Mosaic account is true, we know how long man has been upon this
+earth. If that account can be relied on, the first man was made about
+five thousand eight hundred and eighty-three years ago. Sixteen hundred
+and fifty-six years after the making of the first man, the inhabitants
+of the world, with the exception of eight people, were destroyed by
+a flood. This flood occurred only about four thousand two hundred and
+twenty-seven years ago. If this account is correct, at that time, only
+one kind of men existed: Noah and his family were certainly of the same
+blood. It therefore follows that all the differences we see between the
+various races of men have been caused in about four thousand years. If
+the account of the deluge is true, then since that event all the ancient
+kingdoms of the earth were founded, and their inhabitants passed through
+all the stages of savage, nomadic, barbaric and semi-civilized life;
+through the epochs of Stone, Bronze and Iron; established commerce,
+cultivated the arts, built cities, filled them with palaces and temples,
+invented writing, produced a literature and slowly fell to shapeless
+ruin. We must believe that all this has happened within a period of four
+thousand years.
+
+From representations found upon Egyptian granite made more than three
+thousand years ago, we know that the negro was as black, his lips as
+full, and his hair as closely curled then as now. If we know anything,
+we know that there was at that time substantially the same difference
+between the Egyptian and the Negro as now. If we know anything, we know
+that magnificent statues were made in Egypt four thousand years before
+our era--that is to say, about six thousand years ago. There was at
+the World's Exposition, in the Egyptian department, a statue of king
+Cephren, known to have been chiseled more than six thousand years ago.
+In other words, if the Mosaic account must be believed, this statue was
+made before the world. We also know, if we know anything, that men lived
+in Europe with the hairy mammoth, the cave bear, the rhinoceros, and
+the hyena. Among the bones of these animals have been found the stone
+hatchets and flint arrows of our ancestors. In the caves where they
+lived have been discovered the remains of these animals that had been
+conquered, killed and devoured as food, hundreds of thousands of years
+ago.
+
+If these facts are true, Moses was mistaken. For my part, I have
+infinitely more confidence in the discoveries of to-day, than in the
+records of a barbarous people. It will not now do to say that man has
+existed upon this earth for only about six thousand years. One can
+hardly compute in his imagination the time necessary for man to emerge
+from the barbarous state, naked and helpless, surrounded by animals far
+more powerful than he, to progress and finally create the civilizations
+of India, Egypt and Athens. The distance from savagery to Shakespeare
+must be measured not by hundreds, but by millions of years.
+
+
+
+
+XIV. SUNDAY
+
+"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he
+rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God
+blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had
+rested from all his work which God created and made."
+
+The great work had been accomplished, the world, the sun, and moon, and
+all the hosts of heaven were finished; the earth was clothed in
+green, the seas were filled with life, the cattle wandered by the
+brooks--insects with painted wings were in the happy air, Adam and Eve
+were making each other's acquaintance, and God was resting from his
+work. He was contemplating the accomplishments of a week.
+
+Because he rested on that day he sanctified it, and for that reason and
+for that alone, it was by the Jews considered a holy day. If he only
+rested on that day, there ought to be some account of what he did the
+following Monday. Did he rest on that day? What did he do after he
+got rested? Has he done anything in the way of creation since Saturday
+evening of the first week?
+
+It is, now claimed by the "scientific" christians that the "days" of
+creation were not ordinary days of twenty-four hours each, but immensely
+long periods of time. If they are right, then how long was the seventh
+day? Was that, too, a geologic period covering thousands of ages?
+That cannot be, because Adam and Eve were created the Saturday evening
+before, and according to the bible that was about five thousand eight
+hundred and eighty-three years ago. I cannot state the time exactly,
+because there have been as many as one hundred and forty different
+opinions given by learned biblical students as to the time between the
+creation of the world and the birth of Christ. We are quite certain,
+however, that, according to the bible, it is not more than six thousand
+years since the creation of Adam. From this it would appear that the
+seventh day was not a geologic epoch, but was in fact a period of less
+than six thousand years, and probably of only twenty-four hours.
+
+The theologians who "answer" these things may take their choice. If they
+take the ground that the "days" were periods of twenty-four hours, then
+geology will force them to throw away the whole account. If, on the
+other hand, they admit that the days were vast "periods," then the
+sacredness of the sabbath must be given up.
+
+There is found in the bible no intimation that there was the least
+difference in the days. They are all spoken of in the same way. It may
+be replied that our translation is incorrect. If this is so, then only
+those who understand Hebrew, have had a revelation from God, and all the
+rest have been deceived.
+
+How is it possible to sanctify a space of time? Is rest holier than
+labor? If there is any difference between days, ought not that to be
+considered best in which the most useful labor has been performed?
+
+Of all the superstitions of mankind, this insanity about the "sacred
+sabbath" is the most absurd. The idea of feeling it a duty to be solemn
+and sad one-seventh of the time! To think that we can please an infinite
+being by staying in some dark and sombre room, instead of walking in the
+perfumed fields! Why should God hate to see a man happy? Why should it
+excite his wrath to see a family in the woods, by some babbling stream,
+talking, laughing and loving? Nature works on that "sacred" day. The
+earth turns, the rivers run, the trees grow, buds burst into flower, and
+birds fill the air with song. Why should we look sad, and think about
+death, and hear about hell? Why should that day be filled with gloom
+instead of joy?
+
+A poor mechanic, working all the week in dust and noise, needs a day of
+rest and joy, a day to visit stream and wood--a day to live with wife
+and child; a day in which to laugh at care, and gather hope and strength
+for toils to come. And his weary wife needs a breath of sunny air, away
+from street and wall, amid the hills or by the margin of the sea, where
+she can sit and prattle with her babe, and fill with happy dreams the
+long, glad day.
+
+The "sabbath" was born of asceticism, hatred of human joy, fanaticism,
+ignorance, egotism of priests and the cowardice of the people. This
+day, for thousands of years, has been dedicated to superstition, to the
+dissemination of mistakes, and the establishment of falsehoods. Every
+Freethinker, as a matter of duty, should violate this day. He should
+assert his independence, and do all within his power to wrest the
+sabbath from the gloomy church and give it back to liberty and joy.
+Freethinkers should make the sabbath a day of mirth and music; a day to
+spend with wife and child--a day of games, and books, and dreams--a day
+to put fresh flowers above our sleeping dead--a day of memory and hope,
+of love and rest.
+
+Why should we in this age of the world be dominated by the dead? Why
+should barbarian Jews who went down to death and dust three thousand
+years ago, control the living world? Why should we care for the
+superstition of men who began the sabbath by paring their nails,
+"beginning at the fourth finger, then going to the second, then to the
+fifth, then to the third, and ending with the thumb?" How pleasing
+to God this must have been. The Jews were very careful of these nail
+parings. They who threw them upon the ground were wicked, because Satan
+used them to work evil upon the earth. They believed that upon the
+Sabbath, souls were allowed to leave purgatory and cool their
+burning souls in water. Fires were neither allowed to be kindled nor
+extinguished, and upon that day it was a sin to bind up wounds. "The
+lame might use a staff, but the blind could not." So strict was the
+sabbath kept, that at one time "if a Jew on a journey was overtaken
+by the 'sacred day' in a wood, or on the highway, no matter where, nor
+under what circumstances, he must sit down," and there remain until the
+day was gone. "If he fell down in the dirt, there he was compelled to
+stay until the day was done." For violating the sabbath, the punishment
+was death, for nothing short of the offender's blood could satisfy the
+wrath of God. There are, in the Old Testament, two reasons given for
+abstaining from labor on the sabbath:--the resting of God, and the
+redemption of the Jews from the bondage of Egypt.
+
+Since the establishment of the Christian religion, the day has been
+changed, and Christians do not regard the day as holy upon which God
+actually rested, and which he sanctified. The Christian Sabbath, or
+the "Lord's day" was legally established by the murderer Constantine,
+because upon that day Christ was supposed to have risen from the dead.
+
+It is not easy to see where Christians got the right to disregard the
+direct command of God, to labor on the day he sanctified, and keep as
+sacred, a day upon which he commanded men to labor. The sabbath of God
+is Saturday, and if any day is to be kept holy, that is the one, and not
+the Sunday of the Christian.
+
+Let us throw away these superstitions and take the higher, nobler
+ground, that every day should be rendered sacred by some loving act,
+by increasing the happinesss of man, giving birth to noble thoughts,
+putting in the path of toil some flower of joy, helping the unfortunate,
+lifting the fallen, dispelling gloom, destroying prejudice, defending
+the helpless and filling homes with light and love.
+
+
+
+
+XV. THE NECESSITY FOR A GOOD MEMORY
+
+It must not be forgotten that there are two accounts of the creation
+in Genesis. The first account stops with the third verse of the second
+chapter. The chapters have been improperly divided. In the original
+Hebrew the Pentateuch was neither divided into chapters nor verses.
+There was not even any system of punctuation. It was written wholly with
+consonants, without vowels, and without any marks, dots, or lines to
+indicate them.
+
+These accounts are materially different, and both cannot be true. Let us
+see wherein they differ.
+
+The second account of the creation begins with the fourth verse of the
+second chapter, and is as follows:
+
+"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they
+were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the
+heavens.
+
+"And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb
+of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain
+upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
+
+"But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of
+the ground.
+
+"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
+into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
+
+"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put
+the man whom he had formed.
+
+"And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
+pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the
+midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
+
+"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it
+was parted and became into four heads.
+
+"The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole
+land of Havilah, where there is gold.
+
+"And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx
+stone.
+
+"And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that
+compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
+
+"And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth
+toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
+
+"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to
+dress it and to keep it.
+
+"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden
+thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and
+evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof
+thou shalt surely die.
+
+"And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I
+will make him an helpmeet for him.
+
+"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
+every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
+call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was
+the name thereof.
+
+"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to
+every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helpmeet
+for him.
+
+"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept;
+and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.
+
+"And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and
+brought her unto the man.
+
+"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she
+shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.
+
+"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave
+unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.
+
+"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
+
+Order of creation in the first account:
+
+1. The heaven and the earth, and light were made.
+
+2. The firmament was constructed and the waters divided.
+
+3. The waters gathered into seas--and then came dry land, grass, herbs
+and fruit trees.
+
+4. The sun and moon. He made the stars also.
+
+5. Fishes, fowls, and great whales.
+
+6. Beasts, cattle, every creeping thing, man and woman.
+
+Order of creation in the second account:
+
+1. The heavens and the earth.
+
+2. A mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the
+ground.
+
+3. Created a man out of dust, by the name of Adam.
+
+4. Planted a garden eastward in Eden, and put the man in it.
+
+5. Created the beasts and fowls.
+
+6. Created a woman out of one of the man's ribs.
+
+In the second account, man was made _before_ the beasts and fowls. If
+this is true, the first account is false. And if the theologians of our
+time are correct in their view that the Mosaic day means thousands of
+ages, then, according to the second account, Adam existed millions of
+years before Eve was formed. He must have lived one Mosaic day before
+there were any trees, and another Mosaic day before the beasts and fowls
+were created. Will some kind clergymen tell us upon what kind of food
+Adam subsisted during these immense periods?
+
+In the second account a man is made, and the fact that he was without a
+helpmeet did not occur to the Lord God until a couple "of vast periods"
+afterwards. The Lord God suddenly coming to an appreciation of the
+situation said, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will
+make him a helpmeet for him."
+
+Now, after concluding to make "an helpmeet" for Adam, what did the Lord
+God do? Did he at once proceed to make a woman? No. What did he do? He
+made the beasts, and tried to induce Adam to take one of them for "an
+helpmeet." If I am incorrect, read the following account, and tell me
+what it means:
+
+"And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I
+will make him an helpmeet for him.
+
+"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
+every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
+call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was
+the name thereof.
+
+"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to
+every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an helpmeet
+for him."
+
+Unless the Lord God was looking for an helpmeet for Adam, why did
+he cause the animals to pass before him? And why did he, after the
+menagerie had passed by, pathetically exclaim, "But for Adam there was
+not found an helpmeet for him?"
+
+It seems that Adam saw nothing that struck his fancy. The fairest ape,
+the sprightliest chimpanzee, the loveliest baboon, the most bewitching
+orangoutang, the most fascinating gorilla failed to touch with love's
+sweet pain, poor Adam's lonely heart. Let us rejoice that this was so.
+Had he fallen in love then, there never would have been a Freethinker in
+this world.
+
+Dr. Adam Clark, speaking of this remarkable proceeding says:--"God
+caused the animals to pass before Adam to show him that no creature yet
+formed could make him a suitable companion; that Adam was convinced that
+none of these animals could be a suitable companion for him, and that
+therefore he must continue in a state that was not good (celibacy)
+unless he became a further debtor to the bounty of his maker, for among
+all the animals which he had formed, there was not a helpmeet for Adam."
+
+Upon this same subject, Dr. Scott informs us "that it was not conducive
+to the happiness of the man to remain without the consoling society,
+and endearment of tender friendship, nor consistent with the end of his
+creation to be without marriage by which the earth might be replenished
+and worshipers and servants raised up to render him praise and glory.
+Adam seems to have been vastly better acquainted by intuition or
+revelation with the distinct properties of every creature than the most
+sagacious observer since the fall of man.
+
+"Upon this review of the animals, not one was found in outward form his
+counterpart, nor one suited to engage his affections, participate in his
+enjoyments, or associate with him in the worship of God."
+
+Dr. Matthew Henry admits that "God brought all the animals together
+to see if there was a suitable match for Adam in any of the numerous
+families of the inferior creatures, but there was none. They were all
+looked over, but Adam could not be matched among them all. Therefore God
+created a new thing to be a helpmeet for him."
+
+Failing to satisfy Adam with any of the inferior animals, the Lord God
+caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, and while in this sleep took out
+one of Adam's ribs and "closed up the flesh instead thereof." And out of
+this rib, the Lord God made a woman, and brought her to the man.
+
+Was the Lord God compelled to take a part of the man because he had used
+up all the original "nothing" out of which the universe was made? Is it
+possible for any sane and intelligent man to believe this story? Must a
+man be born a second time before this account seems reasonable?
+
+Imagine the Lord God with a bone in his hand with which to start
+a woman, trying to make up his mind whether to make a blonde or a
+brunette!
+
+Just at this point it may be proper for me to warn all persons from
+laughing at or making light of, any stories found in the "Holy Bible."
+When you come to die, every laugh will be a thorn in your pillow. At
+that solemn moment, as you look back upon the records of your life, no
+matter how many men you may have wrecked and ruined; no matter how many
+women you have deceived and deserted, all that can be forgiven; but
+if you remember then that you have laughed at even one story in God's
+"sacred book" you will see through the gathering shadows of death the
+forked tongues of devils, and the leering eyes of fiends.
+
+These stories must be believed, or the work of regeneration can never be
+commenced. No matter how well you act your part, live as honestly as you
+may, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, divide your last farthing
+with the poor, and you are simply traveling the broad road that leads
+inevitably to eternal death, unless at the same time you implicitly
+believe the bible to be the inspired word of God.
+
+Let me show you the result of unbelief. Let us suppose, for a moment,
+that we are at the Day of Judgment, listening to the trial of souls
+as they arrive. The Recording Secretary, or whoever does the
+cross-examining, says to a soul:
+
+Where are you from?
+
+I am from the Earth.
+
+What kind of a man were you?
+
+Well, I don't like to talk about myself. I suppose you can tell by
+looking at your books.
+
+No sir. You must tell what kind of a man you were.
+
+Well, I was what you might call a first-rate fellow. I loved my wife and
+children. My home was my heaven. My fireside was a paradise to me. To
+sit there and see the lights and shadows fall upon the faces of those I
+loved, was to me a perfect joy.
+
+How did you treat your family?
+
+I never said an unkind word. I never caused my wife, nor one of my
+children, a moment's pain.
+
+Did you pay your debts?
+
+I did not owe a dollar when I died, and left enough to pay my funeral
+expenses, and to keep the fierce wolf of want from the door of those I
+loved.
+
+Did you belong to any church?
+
+No sir. They were too narrow, pinched and bigoted for me, I never
+thought that I could be very happy if other folks were damned.
+
+Did you believe in eternal punishment?
+
+Well, no. I always thought that God could get his revenge in far less
+time.
+
+Did you believe the rib story?
+
+Do you mean the Adam and Eve business?
+
+Yes! Did you believe that?
+
+To tell you the God's truth, that was just a little more than I could
+swallow.
+
+Away with him to hell!
+
+Next!
+
+Where are you from? I am from the world too.
+
+Did you belong to any church?
+
+Yes sir, and to the Young Men's Christian Association besides.
+
+What was your business?
+
+Cashier in a Savings Bank.
+
+Did you ever run away with any money?
+
+Where I came from, a witness could not be compelled to criminate
+himself.
+
+The law is different here. Answer the question. Did you run away with
+any money?
+
+Yes sir.
+
+How much?
+
+One hundred thousand dollars.
+
+Did you take anything else with you?
+
+Yes sir.
+
+Well, what else?
+
+I took my neighbor's wife--we sang together in the choir.
+
+Did you have a wife and children of your own?
+
+Yes sir.
+
+And you deserted them?
+
+Yes sir, but such was my confidence in God that I believed he would take
+care of them.
+
+Have you heard of them since?
+
+No sir.
+
+Did you believe in the rib story?
+
+Bless your soul, of course I did. A thousand times I regretted that
+there were no harder stories in the bible, so that I could have shown my
+wealth of faith.
+
+Do you believe the rib story yet?
+
+Yes, with all my heart.
+
+Give him a harp!
+
+Well, as I was saying, God made a woman from Adam's rib. Of course, I do
+not know exactly how this was done, but when he got the woman finished,
+he presented her to Adam. He liked her, and they commenced house-keeping
+in the celebrated garden of Eden.
+
+Must we, in order to be good, gentle and loving in our lives, believe
+that the creation of woman was a second thought? That Jehovah really
+endeavored to induce Adam to take one of the lower animals as an
+helpmeet for him? After all, is it not possible to live honest and
+courageous lives without believing these fables? It is said that from
+Mount Sinai God gave, amid thunderings and lightnings, ten commandments
+for the guidance of mankind; and yet among them is not found--"Thou
+shalt believe the Bible."
+
+
+
+
+XVI. THE GARDEN
+
+In the first account we are told that God made man, male and female,
+and said to them "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and
+subdue it."
+
+In the second account only the man is made, and he is put in a garden
+"to dress it and to keep it." He is not told to subdue the earth, but to
+dress and keep a garden.
+
+In the first account man is given every herb bearing seed upon the face
+of the earth and the fruit of every tree for food, and in the second,
+he is given only the fruit of all the trees in the garden with the
+exception "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" which was a
+deadly poison.
+
+There was issuing from this garden a river that was parted into four
+heads. The first of these, Pison, compassed the whole land of Havilah,
+the second, Gihon, that compassed the whole land of Ethiopia, the third,
+Heddekel, that flowed toward the east of Assyria, and the fourth, the
+Euphrates. Where are these four rivers now? The brave prow of discovery
+has visited every sea; the traveler has pressed with weary feet the soil
+of every clime; and yet there has been found no place from which four
+rivers sprang. The Euphrates still journeys to the gulf, but where are
+Pison, Gihon and the mighty Heddekel? Surely by going to the source
+of the Euphrates we ought to find either these three rivers or their
+ancient beds. Will some minister when he answers the "Mistakes of
+Moses" tell us where these rivers are or were? The maps of the world are
+incomplete without these mighty streams. We have discovered the sources
+of the Nile; the North Pole will soon be touched by an American; but
+these three rivers still rise in unknown hills, still flow through
+unknown lands, and empty still in unknown seas.
+
+The account of these four rivers is what the Rev. David Swing would call
+"a geographical poem." The orthodox clergy cover the whole affair with
+the blanket of allegory, while the "scientific" christian folks talk
+about cataclysms, upheavals, earthquakes, and vast displacements of the
+earth's crust.
+
+The question, then arises, whether within the last six thousand years
+there have been such upheavals and displacements? Talk as you will about
+the vast "creative periods" that preceded the appearance of man; it
+is, according to the bible, only about six thousand years since man was
+created. Moses gives us the generations of men from Adam until his day,
+and this account cannot be explained away by calling centuries, days.
+
+According to the second account of creation, these four rivers were
+made after the creation of man, and consequently they must have been
+obliterated by convulsions of Nature within six thousand years.
+
+Can we not account for these contradictions, absurdities, and falsehoods
+by simply saying that although the writer may have done his level best,
+he failed because he was limited in knowledge, led away by tradition,
+and depended too implicitly upon the correctness of his imagination?
+Is not such a course far more reasonable than to insist that all these
+things are true and must stand though every science shall fall to mental
+dust?
+
+Can any reason be given for not allowing man to eat of the fruit of the
+tree of knowledge? What kind of tree was that? If it is all an allegory,
+what truth is sought to be conveyed? Why should God object to that fruit
+being eaten by man? Why did he put it in the midst of the garden? There
+was certainly plenty of room outside. If he wished to keep man and this
+tree apart, why did he put them together? And why, after he had eaten,
+was he thrust out? The only answer that we have a right to give, is
+the one given in the bible. "And the Lord God said, Behold the man has
+become as one of us to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth
+his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:
+Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till
+the ground from whence he was taken."
+
+Will some minister, some graduate of Andover, tell us what this means?
+Are we bound to believe it without knowing what the meaning is? If it is
+a revelation, what does it reveal? Did God object to education then, and
+does that account for the hostile attitude still assumed by theologians
+towards all scientific truth? Was there in the garden a tree of life,
+the eating of which would have rendered Adam and Eve immortal? Is it
+true, that after the Lord God drove them from the garden that he placed
+upon its Eastern side "Cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every
+way to keep the way of the tree of life?" Are the Cherubims and the
+flaming sword guarding that tree yet, or was it destroyed, or did its
+rotting trunk, as the Rev. Robert Collyer suggests "nourish a bank of
+violets?"
+
+What objection could God have had to the immortality of man? You
+see that after all, this sacred record, instead of assuring us of
+immortality, shows us only how we lost it. In this there is assuredly
+but little consolation.
+
+According to this story we have lost one Eden, but nowhere in the Mosaic
+books are we told how we may gain another. I know that the Christians
+tell us there is another, in which all true believers will finally be
+gathered, and enjoy the unspeakable happiness of seeing the unbelievers
+in hell; but they do not tell us where it is.
+
+Some commentators say that the Garden of Eden was in the third
+heaven--some in the fourth, others have located it in the moon, some
+in the air beyond the attraction of the earth, some on the Earth, some
+under the Earth, some inside the Earth, some at the North Pole, others
+at the South, some in Tartary, some in China, some on the borders of the
+Ganges, some in the island of Ceylon, some in Armenia, some in Africa,
+some under the Equator, others in Mesopotamia, in Syria, Persia, Arabia,
+Babylon, Assyria, Palestine and Europe. Others have contended that
+it was invisible, that it was an allegory, and must be spiritually
+understood.
+
+But whether you understand these things or not, you must believe them.
+You may be laughed at in this world for insisting that God put Adam into
+a deep sleep and made a woman out of one of his ribs, but you will be
+crowned and glorified in the next You will also have the pleasure of
+hearing the gentlemen howl there, who laughed at you here. While you
+will not be permitted to take any revenge, you will be allowed to
+smilingly express your entire acquiescence in the will of God. But where
+is the new Eden? No one knows. The one was lost, and the other has not
+been found.
+
+Is it true that man was once perfectly pure and innocent, and that
+he became degenerate by disobedience? No. The real truth is, and the
+history of man shows, that he has advanced. Events, like the pendulum
+of a clock have swung forward and backward, but after all, man, like
+the hands, has gone steadily on. Man is growing grander. He is not
+degenerating. Nations and individuals fail and die, and make room
+for higher forms. The intellectual horizon of the world widens as the
+centuries pass. Ideals grow grander and purer; the difference between
+justice and mercy becomes less and less; liberty enlarges, and love
+intensifies as the years sweep on. The ages of force and fear, of
+cruelty and wrong, are behind us and the real Eden is beyond. It is said
+that a desire for knowledge lost us the Eden of the past; but whether
+that is true or not, it will certainly give us the Eden of the future.
+
+
+
+
+XVII. THE FALL
+
+We are told that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
+field, that he had a conversation with Eve, in which he gave his opinion
+about the effect of eating certain fruit; that he assured her it was
+good to eat, that it was pleasant to the eye, that it would make her
+wise; that she was induced to take some; that she persuaded her husband
+to try it; that God found it out, that he then cursed the snake;
+condemning it to crawl and eat the dust; that he multiplied the sorrows
+of Eve, cursed the ground for Adam's sake, started thistles and thorns,
+condemned man to eat the herb of the field in the sweat of his face,
+pronounced the curse of death, "Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou
+return," made coats of skins for Adam and Eve, and drove them out of
+Eden.
+
+Who, and what was this serpent? Dr. Adam Clark says:--"The serpent must
+have walked erect, for this is necessarily implied in his punishment.
+That he was endued with the gift of speech, also with reason. That these
+things were given to this creature. The woman no doubt having often seen
+him walking erect, and talking and reasoning, therefore she testifies
+no sort of surprise when he accosts her in the language related in
+the text. It therefore appears to me that a creature of the ape or
+orangoutang kind is here intended, and that satan made use of this
+creature as the most proper instrument for the accomplishment of his
+murderous purposes against the life of the soul of man. Under this
+creature he lay hid, and by this creature he seduced our first parents.
+Such a creature answers to every part of the description in the text. It
+is evident from the structure of its limbs and its muscles that it might
+have been originally designed to walk erect, and that nothing else than
+the sovereign controlling power could induce it to put down hands--in
+every respect formed like those of man--and walk like those creatures
+whose claw-armed parts prove them to have been designed to walk on
+all fours. The stealthy cunning, and endless variety of the pranks
+and tricks of these creatures show them even now to be wiser and more
+intelligent than any other creature man alone excepted. Being obliged
+to walk on all fours and gather their food from the ground, they are
+literally obliged to eat the dust; and though exceeding cunning,
+and careful in a variety of instances to separate that part which is
+wholesome and proper for food from that which is not so, in the article
+of cleanliness they are lost to all sense of propriety. Add to this
+their utter aversion to walk upright; it requires the utmost discipline
+to bring them to it, and scarcely anything offends or irritates them
+more than to be obliged to do it. Long observation of these animals
+enables me to state these facts. For earnest, attentive watching, and
+for chattering and babbling they (the ape) have no fellows in the animal
+world. Indeed, the ability and propensity to chatter, is all they have
+left of their original gift of speech, of which they appear to have been
+deprived at the fall as a part of their punishment."
+
+Here then is the "connecting link" between man and the lower creation.
+The serpent was simply an orang-outang that spoke Hebrew with the
+greatest ease, and had the outward appearance of a perfect gentleman,
+seductive in manner, plausible, polite, and most admirably calculated to
+deceive.
+
+It never did seem reasonable to me that a long, cold and disgusting
+snake with an apple in his mouth, could deceive anybody; and I am glad,
+even at this late date to know that the something that persuaded Eve to
+taste the forbidden fruit was, at least, in the shape of a man.
+
+Dr. Henry does not agree with the zoological explanation of Mr. Clark,
+but insists that "it is certain that the devil that beguiled Eve is the
+old serpent, a malignant by creation, an angel of light, an immediate
+attendant upon God's throne, but by sin an apostate from his first
+state, and a rebel against God's crown and dignity. He who attacked
+our first parents was surely the prince of devils, the ring leader in
+rebellion. The devil chose to act his part in a serpent, because it is
+a specious creature, has a spotted, dappled skin, and then, went erect.
+Perhaps it was a flying serpent which seemed to come from on high, as a
+messenger from the upper world, one of the seraphim; because the serpent
+is a subtile creature. What Eve thought of this serpent speaking to her,
+we are not likely to tell, and, I believe, she herself did not know
+what to think of it. At first, perhaps, she supposed it might be a good
+angel, and yet afterwards might suspect something amiss. The person
+tempted was a woman, now-alone, and at a distance from her husband,
+but near the forbidden tree. It was the devil's subtlety to assault the
+weaker vessel with his temptations, as we may suppose her inferior to
+Adam in knowledge, strength and presence of mind. Some think that Eve
+received the command not immediately from God, but at second hand from
+her husband, and might, therefore, be the more easily persuaded to
+discredit it. It was the policy of the devil to enter into discussion
+with her when she was alone. He took advantage by finding her near the
+forbidden tree. God permitted Satan to prevail over Eve, for wise and
+holy ends. Satan teaches men first to doubt, and then to deny. He makes
+skeptics first, and by degrees makes them atheists."
+
+We are compelled to admit that nothing could be more attractive to a
+woman than a snake walking erect, with a "spotted, dappled skin," unless
+it were a serpent with wings. Is it not humiliating to know that our
+ancestors believed these things? Why should we object to the Darwinian
+doctrine of descent after this?
+
+Our fathers thought it their duty to believe, thought it a sin to
+entertain the slightest doubt, and really supposed that their credulity
+was exceedingly gratifying to God. To them, the story was entirely real.
+They could see the garden, hear the babble of waters, smell the perfume
+of flowers. They believed there was a tree where knowledge grew like
+plums or pears; and they could plainly see the serpent coiled amid its
+rustling leaves, coaxing Eve to violate the laws of God.
+
+Where did the serpent come from? On which of the six days was he
+created? Who made him? Is it possible that God would make a successful
+rival? He must have known that Adam and Eve would fall. He knew what
+a snake with a "spotted, dappled skin" could do with an inexperienced
+woman. Why did he not defend his children? He knew that if the serpent
+got into the garden, Adam and Eve would sin, that he would have to drive
+them out, that afterwards the world would be destroyed, and that he
+himself would die upon the cross.
+
+Again, I ask what and who was this serpent? He was not a man, for only
+one man had been made. He was not a woman. He was not a beast of the
+field, because "he was more subtile than any beast of the field which
+the Lord God had made." He was neither fish nor fowl, nor snake, because
+he had the power of speech, and did not crawl upon his belly until after
+he was cursed. Where did this serpent come from? Why was he not kept out
+of the garden? Why did not the Lord God take him by the tail and snap
+his head off? Why did he not put Adam and Eve on their guard about this
+serpent? They, of course, were not acquainted in the neighborhood, and
+knew nothing about the serpent's reputation for truth and veracity
+among his neighbors. Probably Adam saw him when he was looking for "an
+helpmeet," and gave him a name, but Eve had never met him before. She
+was not surprised to hear a serpent talk, as that was the first one she
+had ever met. Every thing being new to her, and her husband not being
+with her just at that moment, it need hardly excite our wonder that she
+tasted the fruit by way of experiment. Neither should we be surprised
+that when she saw it was good and pleasant to the eye, and a fruit to
+be desired to make one wise, she had the generosity to divide with her
+husband.
+
+Theologians have filled thousands of volumes with abuse of this serpent,
+but it seems that he told the exact truth. We are told that this serpent
+was, in fact, Satan, the greatest enemy of mankind, and that he entered
+the serpent, appearing to our first parents in its body. If this is
+so, why should the serpent have been cursed? Why should God curse the
+serpent for what had really been done by the devil? Did Satan remain
+in the body of the serpent, and in some mysterious manner share his
+punishment? Is it true that when we kill a snake we also destroy an evil
+spirit, or is there but one devil, and did he perish at the death of
+the first serpent? Is it on account of that transaction in the garden
+of Eden, that all the descendents of Adam and Eve known as Jews and
+Christians hate serpents?
+
+Do you account for the snake-worship in Mexico, Africa and India in the
+same way?
+
+What was the form of the serpent when he entered the garden, and in what
+way did he move from place to place? Did he walk or fly? Certainly he
+did not crawl, because that mode of locomotion was pronounced upon him
+as a curse. Upon what food did he subsist before his conversation with
+Eve? We know that after that he lived upon dust, but what did he eat
+before? It may be that this is all poetic; and the truest poetry is,
+according to Touchstone, "the most feigning."
+
+In this same chapter we are informed that "unto Adam also and to his
+wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them." Where did
+the Lord God get those skins? He must have taken them from the animals;
+he was a butcher. Then he had to prepare them; he was a tanner. Then
+he made them into coats; he was a tailor. How did it happen that they
+needed coats of skins, when they had been perfectly comfortable in a
+nude condition? Did the "fall" produce a change in the climate?
+
+Is it really necessary to believe this account in order to be happy
+here, or hereafter? Does it tend to the elevation of the human race to
+speak of "God" as a butcher, tanner and tailor?
+
+And here, let me say once for all, that when I speak of God, I mean
+the being described by Moses: the Jehovah of the Jews. There may be for
+aught I--know, somewhere in the unknown shoreless vast, some being whose
+dreams are constellations and within whose thought the infinite exists.
+About this being, if such an one exists, I have nothing to say. He has
+written no books, inspired no barbarians, required no worship, and has
+prepared no hell in which to burn the honest seeker after truth.
+
+When I speak of God, I mean that god who prevented man from putting
+forth his hand and taking also of the fruit of the tree of life that
+he might live forever; of that god who multiplied the agonies of woman,
+increased the weary toil of man, and in his anger drowned a world--of
+that god whose altars reeked with human blood, who butchered babes,
+violated maidens, enslaved men and filled the earth with cruelty and
+crime; of that god who made heaven for the few, hell for the many,
+and who will gloat forever and ever upon the writhings of the lost and
+damned.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII. DAMPNESS.
+
+And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the
+earth, and daughters were born unto them.
+
+"That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and
+they took them wives of all which they chose.
+
+"And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that
+he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
+
+"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that
+when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare
+children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of
+renown.
+
+"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
+that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
+continually.
+
+"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it
+grieved him at his heart.
+
+"And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the
+face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the
+fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."
+
+From this account it seems that driving Adam and Eve out of Eden did not
+have the effect to improve them or their children. On the contrary, the
+world grew worse and worse. They were under the immediate control and
+government of God, and he from time to time made known his will; but in
+spite of this, man continued to increase in crime.
+
+Nothing in particular seems to have been done. Not a school was
+established. There was no written language. There was not a bible in the
+world. The "scheme of salvation" was kept a profound secret. The five
+points of Calvinism had not been taught. Sunday schools had not been
+opened. In short, nothing had been done for the reformation of the
+world. God did not even keep his own sons at home, but allowed them to
+leave their abode in the firmament, and make love to the daughters
+of men. As a result of this, the world was filled with wickedness and
+giants to such an extent that God regretted "that he had made man on
+the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."
+
+Of course God knew when he made man, that he would afterwards regret
+it. He knew that the people would grow worse and worse until destruction
+would be the only remedy. He knew that he would have to kill all except
+Noah and his family, and it is hard to see why he did not make Noah and
+his family in the first place, and leave Adam and Eve in the original
+dust. He knew that they would be tempted, that he would have to drive
+them out of the garden to keep them from eating of the tree of life;
+that the whole thing would be a failure; that Satan would defeat his
+plan; that he could not reform the people; that his own sons would
+corrupt them, and that at last he would have to drown them all except
+Noah and his family. Why was the garden of Eden planted? Why was the
+experiment made? Why were Adam and Eve exposed to the seductive arts of
+the serpent? Why did God wait until the cool of the day before looking
+after his children? Why was he not on hand in the morning?
+
+Why did he fill the world with his own children, knowing that he would
+have to destroy them? And why does this same God tell me how to raise my
+children when he had to drown his?
+
+It is a little curious that when God wished to reform the ante-diluvian
+world he said nothing about hell; that he had no revivals, no
+camp-meetings, no tracts, no outpourings of the Holy Ghost, no baptisms,
+no noon prayer meetings, and never mentioned the great doctrine of
+salvation by faith. If the orthodox creeds of the world are true, all
+those people went to hell without ever having heard that such a place
+existed. If eternal torment is a fact, surely these miserable wretches
+ought to have been N warned. They were threatened only with water when
+they were in fact doomed to eternal fire!
+
+Is it not strange that God said nothing to Adam and Eve about a future
+life; that he should have kept these "infinite verities" to himself and
+allowed millions to live and die without the hope of heaven, or the fear
+of hell?
+
+It may be that hell was not made at that time. In the six days of
+creation nothing is said about the construction of a bottomless pit, and
+the serpent himself did not make his appearance until after the creation
+of man and woman. Perhaps he was made on the first Sunday, and from that
+fact came, it may be, the old couplet,
+
+     "And Satan still some mischief finds
+     For idle hands to do."
+
+The sacred historian failed also to tell us when the cherubim and the
+flaming sword were made, and said nothing about two of the persons
+composing the trinity. It certainly would have been an easy thing to
+enlighten Adam and his immediate descendants. The world was then only
+about fifteen hundred and thirty-six years old, and only about three
+or four generations of men had lived. Adam had been dead only about
+six hundred and six years, and some of his grand children must, at that
+time, have been alive and well.
+
+It is hard to see why God did not civilize these people. He certainly
+had the power to use, and the wisdom to devise the proper means. What
+right has a god to fill a world with fiends? Can there be goodness in
+this? Why should he make experiments that he knows must fail? Is there
+wisdom in this? And what right has a man to charge an infinite being
+with wickedness and folly?
+
+According to Moses, God made up his mind not only to destroy the people,
+but the beasts and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air. What
+had the beasts, and the creeping things, and the birds done to excite
+the anger of God? Why did he repent having made them? Will some
+christian give us an explanation of this matter? No good man will
+inflict unnecessary pain upon a beast; how then can we worship a god who
+cares nothing for the agonies of the dumb creatures that he made?
+
+Why did he make animals that he knew he would destroy? Does God delight
+in causing pain? He had the power to make the beasts, and fowls, and
+creeping things in his own good time and way, and it is to be presumed
+that he made them according to his wish. Why should he destroy them?
+They had committed no sin. They had eaten no forbidden fruit, made no
+aprons, nor tried to reach the tree of life. Yet this god, in blind
+unreasoning wrath destroyed "all flesh wherein was the breath of life,
+and every living thing beneath the sky, and every substance wherein was
+life that he had made."
+
+Jehovah, having made up his mind to drown the world, told Noah to make
+an Ark of gopher wood three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and
+thirty cubits high. A cubit is twenty-two inches; so that the ark was
+five hundred and fifty feet long, ninety-one feet and eight inches wide
+and fifty-five feet high. This ark was divided into three stories, and
+had on top, one window twenty-two inches square. Ventilation must have
+been one of Jehovah's hobbies. Think of a ship larger than the Great
+Eastern with only one window, and that but twenty-two inches square!
+
+The ark also had one door set in the side thereof that shut from the
+outside. As soon as this ship was finished, and properly victualed, Noah
+received seven days notice to get the animals in the ark.
+
+It is claimed by some of the scientific theologians that the flood was
+partial, that the waters covered only a small portion of the world, and
+that consequently only a few animals were in the ark. It is impossible
+to conceive of language that can more clearly convey the idea of a
+universal flood than that found in the inspired account. If the flood
+was only partial, why did God say he would "destroy all flesh wherein
+is the breath of life from under heaven, and that every thing that is
+in the earth shall die?" Why did he say "I will destroy man whom I have
+created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping
+thing and the fowls of the air?" Why did he say "And every living
+substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the
+earth?" Would a partial, local flood have fulfilled these threats?
+
+Nothing can be clearer than that the writer of this account intended to
+convey, and did convey the idea that the flood was universal. Why should
+christians try to deprive God of the glory of having wrought the most
+stupendous of miracles? Is it possible that the Infinite could not
+overwhelm with waves this atom called the Earth? Do you doubt his power,
+his wisdom or his justice?
+
+Believers in miracles should not endeavor to explain them. There is but
+one way to explain anything, and that is to account for it by natural
+agencies. The moment you explain a miracle, it disappears. You should
+depend not upon explanation, but assertion. You should not be driven
+from the field because the miracle is shown to be unreasonable. You
+should reply that all miracles are unreasonable. Neither should you be
+in the least disheartened if it is shown to be impossible. The possible
+is not miraculous. You should take the ground that if miracles were
+reasonable, and possible, there would be no reward paid for believing
+them. The christian has the goodness to believe, while the sinner asks
+for evidence. It is enough for God to work miracles without being called
+upon to substantiate them for the benefit of unbelievers.
+
+Only a few years ago, the christians believed implicitly in the literal
+truth of every miracle recorded in the bible. Whoever tried to explain
+them in some natural way, was looked upon as an infidel in disguise,
+but now he is regarded as a benefactor. The credulity of the Church is
+decreasing, and the most marvelous miracles are now either "explained,"
+or allowed to take refuge behind the mistakes of the translators, or
+hide in the drapery of allegory.
+
+In the sixth chapter, Noah is ordered to take "of every living thing
+of all flesh, two of every sort into the ark--male and female." In the
+seventh chapter the order is changed, and Noah is commanded, according
+to the Protestant bible, as follows: "Of every clean beast thou shalt
+take to thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of beasts that are
+not clean, by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by
+sevens, the male and the female."
+
+According to the Catholic bible, Noah was commanded--"Of all clean
+beasts take seven and seven, the male and the female. But of the beasts
+that are unclean two and two, the male and the female. Of the fowls also
+of the air seven and seven, the male and the female."
+
+For the purpose of belittling this miracle, many commentators have
+taken the ground that Noah was not ordered to take seven males and seven
+females of each kind of clean beasts, but seven in all. Many christians
+contend that only seven clean beasts of each kind were taken into the
+ark--three and a half of each sex.
+
+If the account in the seventh chapter means anything, it means _first_,
+that of each kind of clean beasts, fourteen were to be taken, seven
+males, and seven females; _second_, that of unclean beasts should be
+taken, two of each kind, one of each sex, and _third_, that he should
+take of every kind of fowls, seven of each sex.
+
+It is equally clear that the command in the 19th and 20th verses of the
+6th chapter, is to take two of each sort, one male and one female. And
+this agrees exactly with the account in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 14th. 15th,
+and 16th verses of the 7th chapter.
+
+The next question is, how many beasts, fowls and creeping things did
+Noah take into the ark?
+
+There are now known and classified at least twelve thousand five hundred
+species of birds. There are still vast territories in China, South
+America, and Africa unknown to the ornithologist. Of the birds, Noah
+took fourteen of each species, according to the 3d verse of the 7th
+chapter, "Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female,"
+making a total of 175,000 birds.
+
+And right here allow me to ask a question. If the flood was simply a
+partial flood, why were birds taken into the ark? It seems to me that
+most birds, attending strictly to business, might avoid a partial flood.
+
+There are at least sixteen hundred and fifty-eight kinds of beasts. Let
+us suppose that twenty-five of these are clean. Of the clean, fourteen
+of each kind--seven of each sex--were taken. These amount to 350. Of
+the unclean--two of each kind, amounting to 3,266. There are some six
+hundred and fifty species of reptiles. Two of each kind amount to-1,300.
+And lastly, there are of insects including the creeping things, at least
+one million species, so that Noah and his folks had to get of these into
+the ark about 2,000,000.
+
+Animalculae have not been taken into consideration. There are probably
+many hundreds of thousands of species; many of them invisible; and
+yet Noah had to pick them out by pairs. Very few people have any just
+conception of the trouble Noah had.
+
+We know that there are many animals on this continent not found in the
+Old World. These must have been carried from here to the ark, and then
+brought back afterwards. Were the peccary, armadillo, ant-eater, sloth,
+agouti, vampire-bat, marmoset, howling and prehensile-tailed monkey, the
+raccoon and muskrat carried by the angels from America to Asia? How did
+they get there? Did the polar bear leave his field of ice and journey
+toward the tropics? How did he know where the ark was? Did the kangaroo
+swim or jump from Australia to Asia? Did the giraffe, hippopotamus,
+antelope and orang-outang journey from Africa in search of the ark? Can
+absurdities go farther than this?
+
+What had these animals to eat while on the journey? What did they eat
+while in the ark? What did they drink? When the rain came, of course
+the rivers ran to the seas, and these seas rose and finally covered the
+world. The waters of the seas, mingled with those of the flood, would
+make all salt. It has been calculated that it required, to drown the
+world, about eight times as much water as was in all the seas. To find
+how salt the waters of the flood must have been, take eight quarts of
+fresh water, and add one quart from the sea. Such water would create
+instead of allaying thirst. Noah had to take in his ark fresh water for
+all his beasts, birds and living things. He had to take the proper food
+for all. How long was he in the ark? Three hundred and seventy-seven
+days! Think of the food necessary for the monsters of the ante-diluvian
+world!
+
+Eight persons did all the work. They attended to the wants of 175,000
+birds, 3,616 beasts, 1,300 reptiles, and 2,000,000 insects, saying
+nothing of countless animalculae.
+
+Well, after they all got in, Noah pulled down the window, God shut the
+door, and the rain commenced.
+
+How long did it rain?
+
+Forty days.
+
+How deep did the water get?
+
+About five miles and a half.
+
+How much did it rain a day?
+
+Enough to cover the whole world to a depth of about seven hundred and
+forty-two feet.
+
+Some Christians say that the fountains of the great deep were broken up.
+Will they be kind enough to tell us what the fountains of the great deep
+are? Others say that God had vast stores of water in the center of the
+earth that he used on that occasion. How did these waters happen to run
+up hill?
+
+Gentlemen, allow me to tell you once more that you must not try to
+explain these things. Your efforts in that direction do no good, because
+your explanations are harder to believe than the miracle itself. Take my
+advice, stick to assertion, and let explanation alone.
+
+Then, as now, Dhawalagiri lifted its crown of snow twenty-nine thousand
+feet above the level of the sea, and on the cloudless cliffs of
+Chimborazo then, as now, sat the condor; and yet the waters rising seven
+hundred and twenty-six feet a day--thirty feet an hour, six inches
+a minute,--rose over the hills, over the volcanoes, filled the vast
+craters, extinguished all the fires, rose above every mountain peak
+until the vast world was but one shoreless sea covered with the
+innumerable dead.
+
+Was this the work of the most merciful God, the father of us all? If
+there is a God, can there be the slightest danger of incurring his
+displeasure by doubting even in a reverential way, the truth of such a
+cruel lie? If we think that God is kinder than he really is, will our
+poor souls be burned for that?
+
+How many trees can live under miles of water for a year? What became of
+the soil washed, scattered, dissolved, and covered with the _debris_ of
+a world? How were the tender plants and herbs preserved? How were the
+animals preserved after leaving the ark? There was no grass except such
+as had been submerged for a year. There were no animals to be devoured
+by the carnivorous beasts. What became of the birds that fed on worms
+and insects? What became of the birds that devoured other birds?
+
+It must be remembered that the pressure of the water when at the highest
+point--say twenty-nine thousand feet, would have been about eight
+hundred tons on each square foot. Such a pressure certainly would have
+destroyed nearly every vestige of vegetable life, so that when the
+animals came out of the ark, there was not a mouthful of food in the
+wide world. How were they supported until the world was again clothed
+with grass? How were those animals taken care of that subsisted on
+others? Where did the bees get honey, and the ants seeds? There was not
+a creeping thing upon the whole earth; not a breathing creature beneath
+the whole heavens; not a living substance. Where did the tenants of the
+ark get food?
+
+There is but one answer, if the story is true. The food necessary
+not only during the year of the flood, but sufficient for many months
+afterwards, must have been stored in the ark.
+
+There is probably not an animal in the world that will not, in a year,
+eat and drink ten times its weight. Noah must have provided food and
+water for a year while in the ark, and food for at least six months
+after they got ashore. It must have required for a pair of elephants,
+about one hundred and fifty tons of food and water. A couple of mammoths
+would have required about twice that amount. Of course there were other
+monsters that lived on trees; and in a year would have devoured quite a
+forest.
+
+How could eight persons have distributed this food, even if the ark had
+been large enough to hold it? How was the ark kept clean? We know how it
+was ventilated; but what was done with the filth? How were the animals
+watered? How were some portions of the ark heated for animals from the
+tropics, and others kept cool for the polar bears? How did the animals
+get back to their respective countries? Some had to creep back about
+six thousand miles, and they could only go a few feet a day. Some of the
+creeping things must have started for the ark just as soon as they were
+made, and kept up a steady jog for sixteen hundred years. Think of
+a couple of the slowest snails leaving a point opposite the ark and
+starting for the plains of Shinar, a distance of twelve thousand miles.
+Going at the rate of a mile a month, it would take them a thousand
+years. How did they get there? Polar bears must have gone several
+thousand miles, and so sudden a change in climate must have been
+exceedingly trying upon their health. How did they know the way to go?
+Of course, all the polar bears did not go. Only two were required. Who
+selected these?
+
+Two sloths had to make the journey from South America. These creatures
+cannot travel to exceed three rods a day. At this rate, they would make
+a mile in about a hundred days. They must have gone about six thousand
+five hundred miles, to reach the ark. Supposing them to have traveled by
+a reasonably direct route, in order to complete the journey before Noah
+hauled in the plank, they must have started several years before the
+world was created. We must also consider that these sloths had to board
+themselves on the way, and that most of their time had to be taken up
+getting food and water. It is exceedingly doubtful whether a sloth could
+travel six thousand miles and board himself in less than three thousand
+years.
+
+Volumes might be written upon the infinite absurdity of this most
+incredible, wicked and foolish of all the fables contained in that
+repository of the impossible, called the bible. To me it is a matter
+of amazement, that it ever was for a moment believed by any intelligent
+human being.
+
+Dr. Adam Clark says that "the animals were brought to the ark by the
+power of God, and their enmities were so removed or suspended, that the
+lion could dwell peaceably with the lamb, and the wolf sleep happily by
+the side of the kid. There is no positive evidence that animal food was
+ever used before the flood. Noah had the first grant of this kind."
+
+Dr. Scott remarks, "There seems to have been a very extraordinary
+miracle, perhaps by the ministration of angels, in bringing two of every
+species to Noah, and rendering them submissive, and peaceful with each
+other. Yet it seems not to have made any impression upon the hardened
+spectators. The suspension of the ferocity of the savage beasts during
+their continuance in the ark, is generally considered as an apt figure
+of the change that takes place in the disposition of sinners when they
+enter the true church of Christ."
+
+He believed the deluge to have been universal. In his day science had
+not demonstrated the absurdity of this belief, and he was not compelled
+to resort to some theory not found in the bible. He insisted that "by
+some vast convulsion, the very bowels of the earth were forced upwards,
+and rain poured down in cataracts and water-spouts, with no intermission
+for forty days and nights, and until in every place a universal deluge
+was effected.
+
+"The presence of God was the only comfort of Noah in his dreary
+confinement, and in witnessing the dire devastation of the earth and its
+inhabitants, and especially of the human species--of his companions, his
+neighbors, his relatives--all those to whom he had preached, for whom he
+had prayed and over whom he had wept, and even of many who had helped to
+build the ark.
+
+"It seems that by a peculiar providential interposition, no animal of
+any sort died, although they had been shut up in the ark above a year;
+and it does not appear that there had been any increase of them during
+that time.
+
+"The Ark was flat-bottomed--square at each end--roofed like a house so
+that it terminated at the top in the breadth of a cubit. It was divided
+into many little cabins for its intended inhabitants. Pitched within and
+without to keep it tight and sweet, and lighted from the upper part.
+But it must, at first sight, be evident that so large a vessel, thus
+constructed, with so few persons on board, was utterly unfitted to
+weather out the deluge, except it was under the immediate guidance and
+protection of the Almighty."
+
+Dr. Henry furnished the Christian world with the following:--
+
+"As our bodies have in them the humors which, when God pleases, become
+the springs and seeds of mortal disease, so the earth had, in its
+bowels, those waters which, at God's command, sprung up and flooded it.
+
+"God made the world in six days, but he was forty days in destroying it,
+because he is slow to anger.
+
+"The hostilities between the animals in the ark ceased, and ravenous
+creatures became mild and manageable, so that the wolf lay down with the
+lamb, and the lion ate straw like an ox.
+
+"God shut the door of the ark to secure Noah and to keep him safe, and
+because it was necessary that the door should be shut very close lest
+the water should break in and sink the ark, and very fast lest others
+might break it down.
+
+"The waters rose so high that not only the low flat countries were
+deluged, but to make sure work and that none might escape, the tops of
+the highest mountains were overflowed fifteen cubits. That is, seven
+and a half yards, so that salvation was not hoped for from hills or
+mountains.
+
+"Perhaps some of the people got to the top of the ark, and hoped to
+shift for themselves there. But either they perished there for want of
+food, or the dashing rain washed them off the top. Others, it may be,
+hoped to prevail with Noah for admission into the ark, and plead old
+acquaintance.
+
+"'Have we not eaten and drank in thy presence? Hast thou not preached
+in our streets? 'Yea,' said Noah, 'many a time, but to little purpose.
+I called but ye refused; and now it is not in my power to help you. God
+has shut the door and I cannot open it.'
+
+"We may suppose that some of those who perished in the deluge had
+themselves assisted Noah, or were employed by him in building the ark.
+
+"Hitherto, man had been confined to feed only upon the products of the
+earth. Fruits, herbs and roots, and all sorts of greens, and milk, which
+was the first grant; but the flood having perhaps washed away much
+of the fruits of the earth, and rendered them much less pleasant and
+nourishing, God enlarged the grant and allowed him to eat flesh, which
+perhaps man never thought of until now, that God directed him to it. Nor
+had he any more desire to it than the sheep has to suck blood like the
+wolf. But now, man is allowed to feed upon flesh as freely and safely as
+upon the green herb."
+
+Such was the debasing influence of a belief in the literal truth of the
+bible upon these men, that their commentaries are filled with passages
+utterly devoid of common sense.
+
+Dr. Clark speaking of the mammoth says:
+
+"This animal, an astonishing proof of God's power, he seems to have
+produced merely to show what he could do. And after suffering a few of
+them to propagate, he extinguished the race by a merciful providence,
+that they might not destroy both man and beast.
+
+"We are told that it would have been much easier for God to destroy all
+the people and make new ones, but he would not want to waste anything
+and no power or skill should be lavished where no necessity exists.
+
+"The animals were brought to the ark by the power of God."
+
+Again gentlemen, let me warn you of the danger of trying to explain a
+miracle. Let it alone. Say that you do not understand it, and do not
+expect to until taught in the schools of the New Jerusalem. The more
+reasons you give, the more unreasonable the miracle will appear. Through
+what you say in defence people are led to think, and as soon as they
+really think, the miracle is thrown away.
+
+Among the most ignorant nations you will find the most wonders, among
+the most enlightened, the least. It is with individuals, the same as
+with nations. Ignorance believes, Intelligence examines and explains.
+
+For about seven months the ark, with its cargo of men, animals and
+insects, tossed and wandered without rudder or sail upon a boundless
+sea. At last it grounded on the mountains of Ararat; and about three
+months afterwards the tops of the mountains became visible. It must not
+be forgotten that the mountain where the ark is supposed to have first
+touched bottom, was about seventeen thousand feet high. How were the
+animals from the tropics kept warm? When the waters were abated it would
+be intensely cold at a point seventeen thousand feet above the level of
+the sea. May be there were stoves, furnaces, fire places and steam coils
+in the ark, but they are not mentioned in the inspired narrative. How
+were the animals kept from freezing? It will not do to say that Ararat
+was not very high after all.
+
+If you will read the fourth and fifth verses of the eight chapter you
+will see that although the ark rested in the seventh month, on the
+seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat, it was not
+until the first day of the tenth month "that the tops of the mountains
+could be seen." From this it would seem that the ark must have rested
+upon about the highest peak in that country. Noah waited forty days
+more, and then for the first time opened the window and took a breath
+of fresh air. He then sent out a raven that did not return, then a dove
+that returned. He then waited seven days and sent forth a dove that
+returned not. From this he knew that the waters were abated. Is it
+possible that he could not see whether the waters had gone? Is it
+possible to conceive of a more perfectly childish way of ascertaining
+whether the earth was dry?
+
+At last Noah "removed the covering of the ark, and looked and behold the
+face of the ground was dry," and thereupon God told him to disembark. In
+his gratitude Noah built an altar and took of every clean beast and of
+every clean fowl, and offered "burnt offerings". And the Lord smelled a
+sweet savor and said in his heart that he would not any more curse the
+ground for man's sake. For saying this in his heart the Lord gives as a
+reason, not that man is, or will be good, but because "the imagination
+of man's heart is evil from his youth." God destroyed man because "the
+wickedness of man was great in the earth, and _because every imagination
+of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually_." And he
+promised for the same reason not to destroy him again. Will some
+gentleman skilled in theology give us an explanation?
+
+After God had smelled the sweet savor of sacrifice, he seems to have
+changed his idea as to the proper diet for man. When Adam and Eve were
+created they were allowed to eat herbs bearing seed, and the fruit of
+trees. When they were turned out of Eden, God said to them "Thou shalt
+eat the herb of the field." In the first chapter of Genesis the "green
+herb" was given for food to the beasts, fowls and creeping things. Upon
+being expelled from the garden, Adam and Eve, as to their food, were
+put upon an equality with the lower animals. According to this, the
+ante-diluvians were vegetarians. This may account for their wickedness
+and longevity.
+
+After Noah sacrificed, and God smelled the sweet savor; he said--"Every
+moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb
+have I given you all things." Afterwards this same God changed his mind
+again, and divided the beasts and birds into clean and unclean, and made
+it a crime for man to eat the unclean. Probably food was so scarce when
+Noah was let out of the ark that Jehovah generously allowed him to eat
+anything and everything he could find.
+
+According to the account, God then made a covenant with Noah to the
+effect that he would not again destroy the world with a flood, and as
+the attesting witness of this contract, a rainbow was set in the cloud.
+This bow was placed in the sky so that it might perpetually remind God
+of his promise and covenant. Without this visible witness and reminder,
+it would seem that Jehovah was liable to forget the contract, and drown
+the world again. Did the rainbow originate in this way? Did God put it
+in the cloud simply to keep his agreement in his memory?
+
+For me it is impossible to believe the story of the deluge. It seems so
+cruel, so barbaric, so crude in detail, so absurd in all its parts,
+and so contrary to all we know of law, that even credulity itself is
+shocked.
+
+Many nations have preserved accounts of a deluge in which all people,
+except a family or two, were destroyed. Babylon was certainly a city
+before Jerusalem was founded. Egypt was in the height of her power when
+there were only seventy Jews in the world, and India had a literature
+before the name of Jehovah had passed the lips of superstition. An
+account of a general deluge "was discovered by George Smith, translated
+from another account that was written about two thousand years before
+Christ." Of course it is impossible to tell how long the story had
+lived in the memory of tradition before it was reduced to writing by the
+Babylonians. According to this account, which is, without doubt, much
+older than the one given by Moses, Tamzi built a ship at the command of
+the god Hea, and put in it his family and the beasts of the field. He
+pitched the ship inside and outside with bitumen, and as soon as it was
+finished, there came a flood of rain and "destroyed all life from the
+face of the whole earth. On the seventh day there was a calm, and the
+ship stranded on the mountain Nizir." Tamzi waited for seven days more,
+and then let out a dove. Afterwards, he let out a swallow, and that, as
+well as the dove returned. Then he let out a raven, and as that did not
+return, he concluded that the water had dried away, and thereupon
+left the ship. Then he made an offering to god, or the gods, and "Hea
+interceded with Bel," so that the earth might never again be drowned.
+
+This is the Babylonian story, told without the contradictions of the
+original. For in that, it seems, there are two accounts, as well as
+in the bible. Is it not a strange coincidence that there should be
+contradictory accounts mingled in both the Babylonian and Jewish
+stories?
+
+In the bible there are two accounts. In one account, Noah was to take
+two of all beasts, birds, and creeping things into the ark, while in the
+other he was commanded to take of clean beasts, and all birds by
+sevens of each kind. According to one account, the flood only lasted
+one hundred and fifty days--as related in the third verse of the eighth
+chapter; while the other account fixes the time at three hundred and
+seventy-seven days. Both of these accounts cannot be true. Yet in order
+to be saved, it is not sufficient to believe one of them--you must
+believe both.
+
+Among the Egyptians there was a story to the effect that the great god
+Ra became utterly maddened with the people, and deliberately made up his
+mind that he would exterminate mankind. Thereupon he began to destroy,
+and continued in the terrible work until blood flowed in streams, when
+suddenly he ceased, and took an oath that he would not again destroy the
+human race. This myth was probably thousands of years old when Moses was
+born.
+
+So, in India, there was a fable about the flood. A fish warned Manu
+that a flood was coming. Manu built a "box" and the fish towed it to a
+mountain and saved all hands.
+
+The same kind of stories were told in Greece, and among our own Indian
+tribes. At one time the christian pointed to the fact that many nations
+told of a flood, as evidence of the truth of the Mosaic account; but
+now, it having been shown that other accounts are much older, and
+equally reasonable, that argument has ceased to be of any great value.
+
+It is probable that all these accounts had a common origin. They were
+likely born of something in nature visible to all nations. The idea of a
+universal flood, produced by a god to drown the world on account of
+the sins of the people, is infinitely absurd. The solution of all these
+stories has been supposed to be, the existence of partial floods in most
+countries; and for a long time this solution was satisfactory. But the
+fact that these stories are greatly alike, that only one man is warned,
+that only one family is saved, that a boat is built, that birds are sent
+out to find if the water had abated, tend to show that they had a common
+origin. Admitting that there were severe floods in all countries; it
+certainly cannot follow that in each instance only one family would be
+saved, or that the same story would in each instance be told. It may be
+urged that the natural tendency of man to exaggerate calamities, might
+account for this agreement in all the accounts, and it must be admitted
+that there is some force in the suggestion, I believe, though, that the
+real origin of all these myths is the same, and that it was originally
+an effort to account for the sun, moon and stars. The sun and moon
+were the man and wife, or the god and goddess, and the stars were their
+children. From a celestial myth, it became a terrestrial one; the air,
+or ether-ocean became a flood, produced by rain, and the sun moon and
+stars became man, woman and children.
+
+In the original story, the mountain was the place where in the far east
+the sky was supposed to touch the earth, and it was there that the ship
+containing the celestial passengers finally rested from its voyage. But
+whatever may be the origin of the stories of the flood, whether told
+first by Hindu, Babylonian or Hebrew, we may rest perfectly assured that
+they are all equally false.
+
+
+
+
+XIX. BACCHUS AND BABEL
+
+As soon as Noah had disembarked, he proceeded to plant a vineyard, and
+began to be a husbandman; and when the grapes were ripe he made wine and
+drank of it to excess; cursed his grandson, blessed Shem and Japheth,
+and after that lived for three hundred and fifty years. What he did
+during these three hundred and fifty years, we are not told. We never
+hear of him again. For three hundred and fifty years he lived among
+his sons, and daughters, and their descendants. He must have been a
+venerable man. He was the man to whom God had made known his intention
+of drowning the world. By his efforts, the human race had been saved.
+He must have been acquainted with Methuselah for six hundred years, and
+Methuselah was about two hundred and forty years old, when Adam died.
+Noah must himself have known the history of mankind, and must have been
+an object of almost infinite interest; and yet for three hundred and
+fifty years he is neither directly nor indirectly mentioned. When Noah
+died, Abraham must have been more than fifty years old; and Shem, the
+son of Noah, lived for several hundred years after the death of Abraham;
+and yet he is never mentioned. Noah when he died, was the oldest man in
+the whole world by about five hundred years; and everybody living at
+the time of his death knew that they were indebted to him, and yet no
+account is given of his burial. No monument was raised to mark the spot.
+This, however, is no more wonderful than the fact that no account is
+given of the death of Adam or of Eve, nor of the place of their burial.
+This may all be accounted for by the fact that the language of man was
+confounded at the building of the tower of Babel, whereby all tradition
+may have been lost, so that even the sons of Noah could not give an
+account of their voyage in the ark; and, consequently, some one had to
+be directly inspired to tell the story, after new languages had been
+formed.
+
+It has always been a mystery to me how Adam, Eve, and the serpent were
+taught the same language. Where did they get it? We know now, that
+it requires a great number of years to form a language; that it is of
+exceedingly slow growth. We also know that by language, man conveys to
+his fellows the impressions made upon him by what he sees, hears, smells
+and touches. We know that the language of the savage consists of a few
+sounds, capable of expressing only a few ideas or states of the
+mind, such as love, desire, fear, hatred, aversion and contempt. Many
+centuries are required to produce a language capable of expressing
+complex ideas. It does not seem to me that ideas can be manufactured by
+a deity and put in the brain of man. These ideas must be the result of
+observation and experience.
+
+Does anybody believe that God directly taught a language to Adam and
+Eve, or that he so made them that they, by intuition spoke Hebrew, or
+some language capable of conveying to each other their thoughts? How did
+the serpent learn the same language? Did God teach it to him, or did he
+happen to overhear God, when he was teaching Adam and Eve? We are told
+in the second chapter of Genesis that God caused all the animals to pass
+before Adam to see what he would call them. We cannot infer from this
+that God named the animals and informed Adam what to call them. Adam
+named them himself. Where did he get his words? We cannot imagine a man
+just made out of dust, without the experience of a moment, having the
+power to put his thoughts in language. In the first place, we cannot
+conceive of his having any thoughts until he has combined, through
+experience and observation, the impressions that nature had made upon
+him through the medium of his senses. We cannot imagine of his knowing
+anything, in the first instance, about different degrees of heat, nor
+about darkness, if he was made in the day-time, nor about light, if
+created at night, until the next morning. Before a man can have what we
+call thoughts, he must have had a little experience. Something must have
+happened to him before he can have a thought, and before he can express
+himself in language. Language is a growth, not a gift. We account now
+for the diversity of language by the fact that tribes and nations have
+had different experiences, different wants, different surroundings, and,
+one result of all these differences is, among other things, a difference
+in language. Nothing can be more absurd than to account for the
+different languages of the world by saying that the original language
+was confounded at the tower of Babel.
+
+According to the bible, up to the time of the building of that tower,
+the whole earth was of one language and of one speech, and would have so
+remained until the present time had not an effort been made to build
+a tower whose top should reach into heaven. Can any one imagine what
+objection God would have to the building of such a tower? And how could
+the confusion of tongues prevent its construction? How could language
+be confounded? It could be confounded only by the destruction of memory.
+Did God destroy the memory of mankind at that time, and if so, how?
+Did he paralyze that portion of the brain presiding over the organs
+of articulation, so that they could not speak the words, although they
+remembered them clearly, or did he so touch the brain that they
+could not hear? Will some theologian, versed in the machinery of the
+miraculous, tell us in what way God confounded the language of mankind?
+
+Why would the confounding of the language make them separate? Why would
+they not stay together until they could understand each other? People
+will not separate, from weakness. When in trouble they come together
+and desire the assistance of each other. Why, in this instance, did they
+separate? What particular ones would naturally come together if nobody
+understood the language of any other person? Would it not have been just
+as hard to agree when and where to go, without any language to express
+the agreement, as to go on with the building of the tower?
+
+Is it possible that any one now believes that the whole world would be
+of one speech had the language not been confounded at Babel? Do we not
+know that every word was suggested in some way by the experience of men?
+Do we not know that words are continually dying, and continually being
+born; that every language has its cradle and its cemetery--its buds, its
+blossoms, its fruits and its withered leaves? Man has loved, enjoyed,
+hated, suffered and hoped, and all words have been born of these
+experiences.
+
+Why did "the Lord come down to see the city and the tower?" Could he
+not see them from where he lived or from where he was? Where did he come
+down from? Did he come in the daytime, or in the night? We are taught
+now that God is everywhere; that he inhabits immensity; that he is in
+every atom, and in every star. If this is true, why did he "come down to
+see the city and the tower?" Will some theologian explain this?
+
+After all, is it not much easier and altogether more reasonable to say
+that Moses was mistaken, that he knew little of the science of language,
+and that he guessed a great deal more than he investigated?
+
+
+
+
+XX. FAITH IN FILTH
+
+No light whatever is shed upon what passed in the world after the
+confounding of language at Babel, until the birth of Abraham. But,
+before speaking of the history of the Jewish people, it may be proper
+for me to say that many things are recounted in Genesis, and other books
+attributed to Moses, of which I do not wish to speak. There are many
+pages of these books unfit to read, many stories not calculated, in my
+judgment, to improve the morals of mankind. I do not wish even to call
+the attention of my readers to these things, except in a general way. It
+is to be hoped that the time will come when such chapters and passages
+as cannot be read without leaving the blush of shame upon the cheek of
+modesty, will be left out, and not published as a part of the bible.
+If there is a God, it certainly is blasphemous to attribute to him the
+authorship of pages too obscene, beastly and vulgar to be read in the
+presence of men and women.
+
+The believers in the bible are loud in their denunciation of what they
+are pleased to call the immoral literature of the world; and yet few
+books have been published containing more moral filth than this inspired
+word of God. These stories are not redeemed by a single flash of wit or
+humor. They never rise above the dull details of stupid vice. For one,
+I cannot afford to soil my pages with extracts from them; and all such
+portions of the Scriptures I leave to be examined, written upon, and
+explained by the clergy. Clergymen may know some way by which they can
+extract honey from these flowers. Until these passages are expunged
+from the Old Testament, it is not a fit book to be read by either old
+or young. It contains pages that no minister in the United States would
+read to his congregation for any reward whatever. There are chapters
+that no gentleman would read in the presence of a lady. There are
+chapters that no father would read to his child. There are narratives
+utterly unfit to be told; and the time will come when mankind will
+wonder that such a book was ever called inspired.
+
+I know that in many books besides the bible there are immodest lines.
+Some of the greatest writers have soiled their pages with indecent
+words. We account for this by saying that the authors were human; that
+they catered to the taste and spirit of their times. We make excuses,
+but at the same time regret that in their works they left an impure
+word. But what shall we say of God? Is it possible that a being of
+infinite purity--the author of modesty, would smirch the pages of his
+book with stories lewd, licentious and obscene? If God is the author of
+the bible, it is, of course, the standard by which all other books can,
+and should be measured. If the bible is not obscene, what book is? Why
+should men be imprisoned simply for imitating God? The christian world
+should never say another word against immoral books until it makes the
+inspired volume clean. These vile and filthy things were not written
+for the purpose of conveying and enforcing moral truth, but seem to
+have been written because the author loved an unclean thing. There is
+no moral depth below that occupied by the writer or publisher of obscene
+books, that stain with lust, the loving heart of youth. Such men should
+be imprisoned and their books destroyed. The literature of the world
+should be rendered decent, and no book should be published that cannot
+be read by, and in the hearing of the best and purest people. But as
+long as the bible is considered as the work of God, it will be hard
+to make all men too good and pure to imitate it; and as long as it is
+imitated there will be vile and filthy books. The literature of our
+country will not be sweet and clean until the bible ceases to be
+regarded as the production of a god.
+
+We are continually told that the bible is the very foundation of modesty
+and morality; while many of its pages are so immodest and immoral that
+a minister, for reading them in the pulpit, would be instantly denounced
+as an unclean wretch. Every woman would leave the church, and if the men
+stayed, it would be for the purpose of chastising the minister.
+
+Is there any saving grace in hypocrisy? Will men become clean in speech
+by believing that God is unclean? Would it not be far better to admit
+that the bible was written by barbarians in a barbarous, coarse and
+vulgar age? Would it not be safer to charge Moses with vulgarity,
+instead of God? Is it not altogether more probable that some ignorant
+Hebrew would write the vulgar words? The christians tell me that God is
+the author of these vile and stupid things? I have examined the question
+to the best of my ability, and as to God my verdict is:--Not guilty.
+Faith should not rest in filth.
+
+Every foolish and immodest thing should be expunged from the bible.
+Let us keep the good. Let us preserve every great and splendid thought,
+every wise and prudent maxim, every just law, every elevated idea, and
+every word calculated to make man nobler and purer, and let us have
+the courage to throw the rest away. The souls of children should not
+be stained and soiled. The charming instincts of youth should not be
+corrupted and defiled. The girls and boys should not be taught that
+unclean words were uttered by "inspired" lips. Teach them that these
+words were born of savagery and lust. Teach them that the unclean is the
+unholy, and that only the pure is sacred.
+
+
+
+
+XXI. THE HEBREWS
+
+After language had been confounded and the people scattered, there
+appeared in the land of Canaan a tribe of Hebrews ruled by a chief or
+sheik called Abraham. They had a few cattle, lived in tents, practiced
+polygamy, wandered from place to place, and were the only folks in the
+whole world to whom God paid the slightest attention. At this time
+there were hundreds of cities in India filled with temples and palaces;
+millions of Egyptians worshiped Isis and Osiris, and had covered their
+land with marvelous monuments of industry, power and skill. But these
+civilizations were entirely neglected by the Deity, his whole attention
+being taken up with Abraham and his family.
+
+It seems, from the account, that God and Abraham were intimately
+acquainted, and conversed frequently upon a great variety of subjects.
+By the twelfth chapter of Genesis it appears that he made the following
+promises to Abraham. "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will
+bless thee, and make thy name great: and thou shalt be a blessing. And I
+will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee."
+
+After receiving this communication from the Almighty, Abraham went into
+the land of Canaan, and again God appeared to him and told him to take
+a heifer three years old, a goat of the same age, a sheep of equal
+antiquity, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Whereupon Abraham killed
+the animals "and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one
+against another." And it came to pass that when the sun went down and
+it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed
+between the raw and bleeding meat. The killing of these animals was
+a preparation for receiving a visit from God. Should an American
+missionary in Central Africa find a negro chief surrounded by
+a butchered heifer, a goat and a sheep, with which to receive a
+communication from the infinite God, my opinion is, that the missionary
+would regard the proceeding as the direct result of savagery. And if
+the chief insisted that he had seen a smoking furnace and a burning
+lamp going up and down between the pieces of meat, the missionary would
+certainly conclude that the chief was not altogether right in his mind.
+
+If the bible is true, this same God told Abraham to take and sacrifice
+his only son, or rather the only son of his wife, and a murder would
+have been committed had not God, just at the right moment, directed him
+to stay his hand and take a sheep instead.
+
+God made a great number of promises to Abraham, but few of them were
+ever kept. He agreed to make him the father of a great nation, but he
+did not. He solemnly promised to give him a great country, including all
+the land between the river of Egypt and the Euphrates, but he did not.
+
+In due time Abraham passed away, and his son Isaac took his place at
+the head of the tribe. Then came Jacob, who "watered stock" and enriched
+himself with the spoil of Laban. Joseph was sold into Egypt by his
+jealous brethren, where he became one of the chief men of the kingdom,
+and in a few years his father and brothers left their own country and
+settled in Egypt. At this time there were seventy Hebrews in the world,
+counting Joseph and his children. They remained in Egypt two hundred and
+fifteen years. It is claimed by some that they were in that country for
+four hundred and thirty years. This is a mistake. Josephus says they
+were in Egypt two hundred and fifteen years, and this statement is
+sustained by the best biblical scholars of all denominations. According
+to the 17th verse of the 3rd chapter of Galatians, it was four hundred
+and thirty years from the time the promise was made to Abraham to
+the giving of the law, and as the Hebrews did not go to Egypt for two
+hundred and fifteen years after the making of the promise to Abraham,
+they could in no event have been in Egypt more than two hundred and
+fifteen years. In our bible the 40th verse of the 12th chapter of
+Exodus, is as follows:--
+
+"Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was
+four hundred and thirty years."
+
+This passage does not say that the sojourning was all done in Egypt;
+neither does it say that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt four
+hundred and thirty years; but it does say that the sojourning of the
+children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty
+years. The Vatican copy of the Septuagint renders the same passage as
+follows:--
+
+"The sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt,
+and in the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years."
+
+The Alexandrian version says:--"The sojourning of the children of Israel
+which they and their fathers sojourned in Egypt, and in the land of
+Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years."
+
+And in the Samaritan bible we have:--"The sojourning of the children of
+Israel and of their fathers which they sojourned in the land of Canaan,
+and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years."
+
+There were seventy souls when they went down into Egypt, and they
+remained two hundred and fifteen years, and at the end of that time they
+had increased to about three million. How do we know that there were
+three million at the end of two hundred and fifteen years? We know it
+because we are informed by Moses that "there were six hundred thousand
+men of war." Now, to each man of war, there must have been at least five
+other people. In every State in this Union there will be to each voter,
+five other persons at least, and we all know that there are always more
+voters than men of war. If there were six hundred thousand men of war,
+there must have been a population of at least three million. Is it
+possible that seventy people could increase to that extent in two
+hundred and fifteen years? You may say that it was a miracle; but
+what need was there of working a miracle? Why should God miraculously
+increase the number of slaves? If he wished miraculously to increase the
+population, why did he not wait until the people were free?
+
+In 1776, we had in the American Colonies about three millions of people.
+In one hundred years we doubled four times: that is to say, six, twelve,
+twenty-four, forty-eight million,--our present population.
+
+We must not forget that during all these years there has been pouring
+into our country a vast stream of emigration, and that this, taken
+in connection with the fact that our country is productive beyond all
+others, gave us only four doubles in one hundred years. Admitting that
+the Hebrews increased as rapidly without emigration as we, in this
+country, have with it, we will give to them four doubles each century,
+commencing with seventy people, and they would have, at the end of
+two hundred years, a population of seventeen thousand nine hundred and
+twenty. Giving them another double for the odd fifteen years and there
+would be, provided no deaths had occurred, thirty-five thousand eight
+hundred and forty people. And yet we are told that instead of having
+this number, they had increased to such an extent that they had six
+hundred thousand men of war: that is to say, a population of more than
+three millions!
+
+Every sensible man knows that this account is not, and cannot be true.
+We know that seventy people could not increase to three million in two
+hundred and fifteen years.
+
+About this time the Hebrews took a census, and found that there were
+twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three first born males.
+It is reasonable to suppose that there were about as many first born
+females. This would make forty-four thousand five hundred and forty-six
+first born children. Now, there must have been about as many mothers
+as there were first born children. If there were only about forty-five
+thousand mothers and three millions of people, the mothers must have had
+on an average about sixty-six children apiece.
+
+At this time, the Hebrews were slaves, and had been for two hundred
+and fifteen years. A little while before, an order had been made by the
+Egyptians that all the male children of the Hebrews should be killed.
+One, contrary to this order, was saved in an ark made of bullrushes
+daubed with slime. This child was found by the daughter of Pharaoh, and
+was adopted, it seems, as her own, and, may be, was. He grew to be
+a man, sided with the Hebrews, killed an Egyptian that was smiting a
+slave, hid the body in the sand, and fled from Egypt to the land of
+Midian, became acquainted with a priest who had seven daughters, took
+the side of the daughters against the ill-mannered shepherds of that
+country, and married Zipporah, one of the girls, and became a shepherd
+for her father. Afterward, while tending his flock, the Lord appeared to
+him in a burning bush, and commanded him to go to the king of Egypt and
+demand from him the liberation of the Hebrews. In order to convince him
+that the something burning in the bush was actually God, the rod in his
+hand was changed into a serpent, which, upon being caught by the tail,
+became again a rod. Moses was also told to put his hand in his bosom,
+and when he took it out it was as leprous as snow. Quite a number of
+strange things were performed, and others promised. Moses then agreed to
+go back to Egypt provided his brother could go with him. Whereupon
+the Lord appeared to Aaron, and directed him to meet Moses in the
+wilderness. They met at the mount of God, went to Egypt, gathered
+together all the elders of the children of Israel, spake all the words
+which God had spoken unto Moses, and did all the signs in the sight of
+the people. The Israelites believed, bowed their heads and worshiped;
+and Moses and Aaron went in and told their message to Pharaoh the king.
+
+
+
+
+XXII. THE PLAGUES
+
+Three millions of people were in slavery. They were treated with the
+utmost rigor, and so fearful were their masters that they might, in
+time, increase in numbers sufficient to avenge themselves, that they
+took from the arms of mothers all the male children and destroyed
+them. If the account given is true, the Egyptians were the most cruel,
+heartless and infamous people of which history gives any record. God
+finally made up his mind to free the Hebrews; and for the accomplishment
+of this purpose he sent, as his agents, Moses and Aaron, to the king
+of Egypt. In order that the king might know that these men had a divine
+mission, God gave Moses the power of changing a stick into a serpent,
+and water into blood. Moses and Aaron went before the king, stating that
+the Lord God of Israel ordered the King of Egypt to let the Hebrews
+go that they might hold a feast with God in the wilderness. Thereupon
+Pharaoh, the king, enquired who the Lord was, at the same time stating
+that he had never made his acquaintance, and knew nothing about him.
+To this they replied that the God of the Hebrews had met with them, and
+they asked to go a three days journey into the desert and sacrifice
+unto this God, fearing that if they did not he would fall upon them with
+pestilence or the sword. This interview seems to have hardened Pharaoh,
+for he ordered the tasks of the children of Israel to be increased; so
+that the only effect of the first appeal was to render still worse the
+condition of the Hebrews. Thereupon, Moses returned unto the Lord and
+said "Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it
+that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name
+he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people
+at all."
+
+Apparently stung by this reproach, God answered:--
+
+"Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharoah; for with a strong hand
+shall he let them go; and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of
+his land."
+
+God then recounts the fact that he had appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and
+Jacob, that he had established a covenant with them to give them the
+land of Canaan, that he had heard the groanings of the children of
+Israel in Egyptian bondage; that their groanings had put him in mind of
+his covenant, and that he had made up his mind to redeem the children
+of Israel with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. Moses then
+spoke to the children' of Israel again, but they would listen to him no
+more. His first effort in their behalf had simply doubled their trouble
+and they seemed to have lost confidence in his power. Thereupon Jehovah
+promised Moses that he would make him a god unto Pharaoh, and that
+Aaron should be his prophet, but at the same time informed him that his
+message would be of no avail; that he would harden the heart of Pharaoh
+so that he would not listen; that he would so harden his heart that he
+might have an excuse for destroying the Egyptians. Accordingly, Moses
+and Aaron again went before Pharaoh. Moses said to Aaron;--"Cast down
+your rod before Pharaoh," which he did, and it became a serpent. Then
+Pharaoh not in the least surprised, called for his wise men and
+his sorcerers, and they threw down their rods and changed them into
+serpents. The serpent that had been changed from Aaron's rod was, at
+this time crawling upon the floor, and it proceeded to swallow the
+serpents that had been produced by the magicians of Egypt. What became
+of these serpents that were swallowed, whether they turned back into
+sticks again, is not stated. Can we believe that the stick was changed
+into a real living serpent, or did it assume simply the appearance of a
+serpent? If it bore only the appearance of a serpent it was a deception,
+and could not rise above the dignity of legerdemain. Is it necessary
+to believe that God is a kind of prestigiator--a sleight-of-hand
+per-former, a magician or sorcerer? Can it be possible that an infinite
+being would endeavor to secure the liberation of a race by performing a
+miracle that could be equally performed by the sorcerers and magicians
+of a barbarian king?
+
+Not one word was said by Moses or Aaron as to the wickedness of
+depriving a human being of his liberty. Not a word was said in favor
+of liberty. Not the slightest intimation that a human being was justly
+entitled to the product of his own labor. Not a word about the cruelty
+of masters who would destroy even the babes of slave mothers. It seems
+to me wonderful that this God did not tell the king of Egypt that no
+nation could enslave another, without also enslaving itself; that it was
+impossible to put a chain around the limbs of a slave, without putting
+manacles upon the brain of the master. Why did he not tell him that a
+nation founded upon slavery could not stand? Instead of declaring these
+things, instead of appealing to justice, to mercy and to liberty, he
+resorted to feats of jugglery. Suppose we wished to make a treaty with
+a barbarous nation, and the president should employ a sleight-of-hand
+performer as envoy extraordinary, and instruct him, that when he came
+into the presence of the savage monarch, he should cast down an umbrella
+or a walking stick, which would change into a lizard or a turtle; what
+would we think? Would we not regard such a performance as beneath the
+dignity even of a president? And what would be our feelings if the
+savage king sent for his sorcerers and had them perform the same feat?
+If such things would appear puerile and foolish in the president of a
+great republic, what shall be said when they were resorted to by the
+creator of all worlds? How small, how contemptible such a God appears!
+Pharaoh, it seems, took about this view of the matter, and he would not
+be persuaded that such tricks were performed by an infinite being.
+
+Again, Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh as he was going to the river
+s bank, and the same rod which had changed to a serpent, and, by this
+time changed back, was taken by Aaron, who, in the presence of Pharaoh,
+smote the water of the river, which was immediately turned to blood, as
+well as all the water in all the streams, ponds, and pools, as well as
+all water in vessels of wood and vessels of stone in the entire land of
+Egypt. As soon as all the waters in Egypt had been turned into blood,
+the magicians of that country did the same with their enchantments. We
+are not informed where they got the water to turn into blood, since
+all the water in Egypt had already been so changed. It seems from the
+account that the fish in the Nile died, and the river emitted a stench,
+and there was not a drop of water in the land of Egypt that had not been
+changed into blood. In consequence of this, the Egyptians digged "around
+about the river" for water to drink. Can we believe this story? Is it
+necessary to salvation to admit that all the rivers, pools, ponds and
+lakes of a country were changed into blood, in order that a king might
+be induced to allow the children of Israel the privilege of going a
+three days journey into the wilderness to make sacrifices to their God?
+
+It seems from the account that Pharaoh was told that the God of the
+Hebrews would, if he refused to let the Israelites go, change all the
+waters of Egypt into blood, and that, upon his refusal, they were so
+changed. This had, however, no influence upon him, for the reason that
+his own magicians did the same. It does not appear that Moses and Aaron
+expressed the least surprise at the success of the Egyptian sorcerers.
+At that time it was believed that each nation had its own god. The
+only claim that Moses and Aaron made for their God was, that he was the
+greatest and most powerful of all the gods, and that with anything like
+an equal chance he could vanquish the deity of any other nation.
+
+After the waters were changed to blood Moses and Aaron waited for seven
+days. At the end of that time God told Moses to again go to Pharaoh and
+demand the release of his people, and to inform him that, if he refused,
+God would strike all the borders of Egypt with frogs. That he would make
+frogs so plentiful that they would go into the houses of Pharaoh, into
+his bedchamber, upon his bed, into the houses of his servants, upon his
+people, into their ovens, and even into their kneading troughs,
+This threat had no effect whatever upon Pharaoh, And thereupon Aaron
+stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came
+up and covered the land. The magicians of Egypt did the same, and with
+their enchantments brought more frogs upon the land of Egypt These
+magicians do not seem to have been original in their ideas, but so far
+as imitation is concerned, were perfect masters of their art. The frogs
+seem to have made such an impression upon Pharaoh that he sent for Moses
+and asked him to entreat the Lord that he would take away the frogs.
+Moses agreed to remove them from the houses and the land, and allow
+them to remain only in the rivers. Accordingly the frogs died out of the
+houses, and out of the villages, and out of the fields, and the people
+gathered them together in heaps. As soon as the frogs had left the
+houses and fields, the heart of Pharaoh became again hardened, and he
+refused to let the people go.
+
+Aaron then, according to the command of God, stretched out his hand,
+holding the rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in
+man and in beast, and all the dust became lice throughout the land of
+Egypt. Pharaoh again sent for his magicians, and they sought to do
+the same with their enchantments, but they could not. Whereupon the
+sorcerers said unto Pharaoh: "This is the finger of God."
+
+Notwithstanding this, however, Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go.
+God then caused a grievous swarm of flies to come into the house of
+Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt,
+to such an extent that the whole land was corrupted by reason of the
+flies. But into that part of the country occupied by the children of
+Israel there came no flies. Thereupon Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron
+and said to them: "Go, and sacrifice to your God in this land." They
+were not willing to sacrifice in Egypt, and asked permission to go on a
+journey of three days into the wilderness. To this Pharaoh acceded, and
+in consideration of this Moses agreed to use his influence with the Lord
+to induce him to send the flies out of the country. He accordingly told
+the Lord of the bargain he had made with Pharaoh, and the Lord agreed to
+the compromise, and removed the flies from Pharaoh and from his servants
+and from his people, and there remained not a single fly in the land of
+Egypt. As soon as the flies were gone, Pharaoh again changed his mind,
+and concluded not to permit the children of Israel to depart. The Lord
+then directed Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him that if he did not
+allow the children of Israel to depart, he would destroy his cattle, his
+horses, his camels and his sheep; that these animals would be afflicted
+with a grievous disease, but that the animals belonging to the Hebrews
+should not be so afflicted. Moses did as he was bid. On the next day all
+the cattle of Egypt died; that is to say, all the horses, all the asses,
+all the camels, all the oxen and all the sheep; but of the animals owned
+by the Israelites, not one perished. This disaster had no effect upon
+Pharaoh, and he still refused to let the children of Israel go. The Lord
+then told Moses and Aaron to take some ashes out of a furnace, and
+told Moses to sprinkle them toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh;
+saying that the ashes should become small dust in all the land of Egypt,
+and should be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast
+throughout all the land.
+
+How these boils breaking out with blains, upon cattle that were already
+dead, should affect Pharaoh, is a little hard to understand. It must
+not be forgotten that all the cattle and all beasts had died with the
+murrain before the boils had broken out This was a most decisive victory
+for Moses and Aaron. The boils were upon the magicians to that extent
+that they could not stand before Moses. But it had no effect upon
+Pharaoh, who seems to have been a man of great firmness. The Lord then
+instructed Moses to get up early in the morning and tell Pharaoh that he
+would stretch out his hand and smite his people with a pestilence, and
+would, on the morrow, cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as
+had never been known in the land of Egypt. He also told Moses to give
+notice, so that they might get all the cattle that were in the fields
+under cover. It must be remembered that all these cattle had recently
+died of the murrain, and their dead bodies had been covered with boils
+and blains. This, however, had no effect, and Moses stretched forth his
+hand toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder, and hail and lightning,
+and fire that ran along the ground, and the hail fell upon all the land
+of Egypt, and all that were in the fields, both man and beast, were
+smitten, and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every
+tree of the country except that portion inhabited by the children of
+Israel; there, there was no hail.
+
+During this hail storm Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and admitted
+that he had sinned, that the Lord was righteous, and that the Egyptians
+were wicked, and requested them to ask the Lord that there be no more
+thunderings and hail, and that he would let the Hebrews go. Moses agreed
+that as soon as he got out of the city he would stretch forth his hands
+unto the Lord, and that the thunderings should cease and the hail should
+stop. But, when the rain and the hail and the thundering ceased, Pharaoh
+concluded that he would not let the children of Israel go.
+
+Again, God sent Moses and Aaron, instructing them to tell Pharaoh that
+if he refused to let the people go, the face of the earth would be
+covered with locusts, so that man would not be able to see the ground,
+and that these locusts would eat the residue of that which escaped from
+the hail; that they would eat every tree out of the field; that they
+would fill the houses of Pharaoh and the houses of all his servants, and
+the houses of all the Egyptians. Moses delivered the message, and went
+out from Pharaoh. Some of Pharaoh's servants entreated their master
+to let the children of Israel go. Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and
+asked them, who wished to go into the wilderness to sacrifice. They
+replied that they wished to go with the young and old; with their sons
+and daughters, with flocks and herds. Pharaoh would not consent to this,
+but agreed that the men might go. There upon Pharaoh drove Moses and
+Aaron out of his sight. Then God told Moses to stretch forth his hand
+upon the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they might come up and eat
+every herb, even all that the hail had left. "And Moses stretched out
+his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an East wind all
+that day and all that night; and and when it was morning the East wind
+brought the locusts; and they came up over all the land of Egypt and
+rested upon all the coasts covering the face of the whole earth, so that
+the land was darkened; and they ate every herb and all the fruit of the
+trees which the hail had left, and there remained not any green thing
+on the trees or in the herbs of the field throughout the land of Egypt."
+Pharaoh then called for Moses and Aaron in great haste, admitted that
+he had sinned against the Lord their God and against them, asked their
+forgiveness and requested them to intercede with God that he might take
+away the locusts. They went out from his presence and asked the Lord to
+drive the locusts away, "And the Lord made a strong west wind which took
+away the locusts, and cast them into the Red Sea so that there remained
+not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt."
+
+As soon as the locusts were gone, Pharaoh changed his mind, and, in the
+language of the sacred text, "the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that
+he would not let the children of Israel go."
+
+The Lord then told Moses to stretch out his hand toward heaven that
+there might be darkness over the land of Egypt, "even darkness which
+might be felt." "And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and
+there was a thick darkness over the land of Egypt for three days during
+which time they saw not each other, neither arose any of the people from
+their places for three days; but the children of Israel had light in
+their dwellings."
+
+It strikes me that when the land of Egypt was covered with thick
+darkness--so thick that it could be felt, and when light was in the
+dwellings of the Israelites, there could have been no better time for
+the Hebrews to have left the country.
+
+Pharaoh again called for Moses, and told him that his people could go
+and serve the Lord, provided they would leave their flocks and herds.
+Moses would not agree to this, for the reason that they needed the
+flocks and herds for sacrifices and burnt offerings, and he did not know
+how many of the animals God might require, and for that reason he could
+not leave a single hoof. Upon the question of the cattle, they divided,
+and Pharaoh again refused to let the people go. God then commanded Moses
+to tell the Hebrews to borrow, each of his neighbor, jewels of silver
+and gold. By a miraculous interposition the Hebrews found favor in the
+sight of the Egyptians so that they loaned the articles asked for. After
+this, Moses again went to Pharaoh and told him that all the first-born
+in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh upon the throne,
+unto the first-born of the maid-servant who was behind the mill, as well
+as the first-born of beasts, should die.
+
+As all the beasts had been destroyed by disease and hail, it is
+troublesome to understand the meaning of the threat as to their
+first-born.
+
+Preparations were accordingly made for carrying this frightful threat
+into execution. Blood was put on the door-posts of all houses inhabited
+by Hebrews, so that God, as he passed through that land, might not be
+mistaken and destroy the first-born of the Jews. "And it came to pass
+that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt,
+the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne, and the first-born of
+the captive who was in the dungeon. And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
+and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry
+in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead."
+
+What had these children done? Why should the babes in the cradle be
+destroyed on account of the crime of Pharaoh? Why should the cattle be
+destroyed because man had enslaved his brother? In those days women and
+children and cattle were put upon an exact equality, and all considered
+as the property of the men; and when man in some way excited the wrath
+of God, he punished them by destroying all their cattle, their wives,
+and their little ones. Where can words be found bitter enough to
+describe a god who would kill wives and babes because husbands and
+fathers had failed to keep his law? Every good man, and every good
+woman, must hate and despise such a deity.
+
+Upon the death of all the first-born Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron,
+and not only gave his consent that they might go with the Hebrews into
+the wilderness, but besought them to go at once.
+
+Is it possible that an infinite God, creator of all worlds and sustainer
+of all life, said to Pharaoh, "If you do not let my people go, I will
+turn all the water of your country into blood," and that upon the
+refusal of Pharaoh to release the people, God did turn all the waters
+into blood? Do you believe this?
+
+Do you believe that Pharaoh even after all the water was turned to
+blood, refused to let the Hebrews go, and that thereupon God told him he
+would cover his land with frogs? Do you believe this?
+
+Do you believe that after the land was covered with frogs Pharaoh still
+refused to let the people go, and that God then said to him, "I will
+cover you and all your people with lice?" Do you believe God would make
+this threat?
+
+Do you also believe that God told Pharaoh, "If you do not let these
+people go, I will fill all your houses and cover your country with
+flies?" Do you believe God makes such threats as this?
+
+Of course God must have known that turning the waters into blood,
+covering the country with frogs, infesting all flesh with lice, and
+filling all houses with flies, would not accomplish his object, and that
+all these plagues would have no effect whatever upon the Egyptian king.
+
+Do you believe that, failing to accomplish anything by the flies, God
+told Pharaoh that if he did not let the people go he would kill his
+cattle with murrain? Does such a threat sound God-like?
+
+Do you believe that, failing to effect anything by killing the cattle,
+this same God then threatened to afflict all the people with boils,
+including the magicians who had been rivaling him in the matter of
+miracles; and failing to do anything by boils, that he resorted to hail?
+Does this sound reasonable? The hail experiment having accomplished
+nothing, do you believe that God murdered the first-born of animals and
+men? Is it possible to conceive of anything more utterly absurd, stupid,
+revolting, cruel and senseless, than the miracles said to have been
+wrought by the Almighty for the purpose of inducing Pharaoh to liberate
+the children of Israel?
+
+Is it not altogether more reasonable to say that the Jewish people,
+being in slavery, accounted for the misfortunes and calamities, suffered
+by the Egyptians, by saying that they were the judgments of God?
+
+When the Armada of Spain was wrecked and scattered by the storm, the
+English people believed that God had interposed in their behalf,
+and publicly gave thanks. When the battle of Lepanto was won, it was
+believed by the catholic world that the victory was given in answer to
+prayer. So, our fore-fathers in their revolutionary struggle saw, or
+thought they saw, the hand of God, and most firmly believed that they
+achieved their independence by the interposition of the Most High.
+
+Now, it may be that while the Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptians,
+there were plagues of locusts and flies. It may be that there were
+some diseases by which many of the cattle perished. It may be that a
+pestilence visited that country so that in nearly every house there
+was some one dead. If so, it was but natural for the enslaved and
+superstitious Jews to account for these calamities by saying that they
+were punishments sent by their God. Such ideas will be found in the
+history of every country.
+
+For a long time the Jews held these opinions, and they were handed from
+father to son simply by tradition. By the time a written language had
+been produced, thousands of additions had been made, and numberless
+details invented; so that we have not only an account of the plagues
+suffered by the Egyptians, but the whole woven into a connected story,
+containing the threats made by Moses and Aaron, the miracles wrought by
+them, the promises of Pharaoh, and finally the release of the Hebrews,
+as a result of the marvelous things performed in their behalf by
+Jehovah.
+
+In any event it is infinitely more probable that the author was
+misinformed, than that the God of this universe was guilty of these
+childish, heartless and infamous things. The solution of the whole
+matter is this:--Moses was mistaken.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII. THE FLIGHT
+
+Three millions of people, with their flocks and herds, with borrowed
+jewelry and raiment, with unleavened dough in kneading troughs bound in
+their clothes upon their shoulders, in one night commenced their journey
+for the land of promise. We are not told how they were informed of the
+precise time to start. With all the modern appliances, it would require
+months of time to inform three millions of people of any fact.
+
+In this vast assemblage there were six hundred thousand men of war, and
+with them were the old, the young, the diseased and helpless. Where were
+those people going? They were going to the desert of Sinai, compared
+with which Sahara is a garden. Imagine an ocean of lava torn by storm
+and vexed by tempest, suddenly gazed at by a Gorgon and changed instantly
+to stone! Such was the desert of Sinai.
+
+All of the civilized nations of the world could not feed and support
+three millions of people on the desert of Sinai for forty years. It
+would cost more than one hundred thousand millions of dollars, and would
+bankrupt Christendom. They had with them their flocks and herds, and the
+sheep were so numerous that the Israelites sacrificed, at one time, more
+than one hundred and fifty thousand first-born lambs. How were these
+flocks supported? What did they eat? Where were meadows and pastures for
+them? There was no grass, no forests--nothing! There is no account
+of its having rained baled hay, nor is it even claimed that they were
+miraculously fed. To support these flocks, millions of acres of pasture
+would have been required. God did not take the Israelites through the
+land of the Philistines, for fear that when they saw the people of that
+country they would return to Egypt, but he took them by the way of
+the wilderness to the Red Sea, going before them by day in a pillar of
+cloud, and by night, in a pillar of fire.
+
+When it was told Pharaoh that the people had fled, he made ready
+and took six hundred chosen chariots of Egypt, and pursued after the
+children of Israel, overtaking them by the sea. As all the animals had
+long before that time been destroyed, we are not informed where Pharaoh
+obtained the horses for his chariots. The moment the children of Israel
+saw the hosts of Pharaoh, although they had six hundred thousand men
+of war, they immediately cried unto the Lord for protection. It is
+wonderful to me that a land that had been ravaged by the plagues
+described in the bible, still had the power to put in the field an army
+that would carry terror to the hearts of six hundred thousand men of
+war. Even with the help of God, it seems, they were not strong enough
+to meet the Egyptians in the open field, but resorted to strategy. Moses
+again stretched forth his wonderful rod over the waters of the Red Sea,
+and they were divided, and the Hebrews passed through on dry land, the
+waters standing up like a wall on either side. The Egyptians pursued
+them; "and in the morning watch the Lord looked into the hosts of the
+Egyptians, through the pillar of fire," and proceeded to take the wheels
+off their chariots. As soon as the wheels were off, God told Moses to
+stretch out his hand over the sea. Moses did so, and immediately "the
+waters returned and covered the chariots and horsemen and all the hosts
+of Pharaoh that came into the sea, and there remained not so much as one
+of them."
+
+This account may be true, but still it hardly looks reasonable that God
+would take the wheels off the chariots. How did he do it? Did he pull
+out the linch-pins, or did he just take them off by main force?
+
+What a picture this presents to the mind! God the creator of the
+universe, maker of every shining, glittering star, engaged in pulling
+off the wheels of wagons, that he might convince Pharaoh of his
+greatness and power!
+
+Where were these people going? They were going to the promised land.
+How large a country was that? About twelve thousand square miles. About
+one-fifth the size of the State of Illinois. It was a frightful country,
+covered with rocks and desolation. How many people were in the promised
+land already? Moses tells us there were seven nations in that country
+mightier than the Jews. As there were at least three millions of Jews,
+there must have been at least twenty-one millions of people already in
+that country. These had to be driven out in order that room might be
+made for the chosen people of God.
+
+It seems, however, that God was not willing to take the children of
+Israel into the promised land immediately. They were not fit to inhabit
+the land of Canaan; so he made up his mind to allow them to wander upon
+the desert until all except two, who had left Egypt, should perish. Of
+all the slaves released from Egyptian bondage, only two were allowed to
+reach the promised land!
+
+As soon as the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea, they found themselves
+without food, and with water unfit to drink by reason of its bitterness,
+and they began to murmur against Moses, who cried unto the Lord, and
+"the Lord showed him a tree." Moses cast this tree into the waters,
+and they became sweet. "And it came to pass in the morning the dew lay
+around about the camp; and when the dew that lay was gone, behold,
+upon the face of the wilderness lay a small round thing, small as the
+hoar-frost upon the ground. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread
+which the Lord hath given you to eat." This manna was a very peculiar
+thing. It would melt in the sun, and yet they could cook it by seething
+and baking. One would as soon think of frying snow or of broiling
+icicles. But this manna had another remarkable quality. No matter how
+much or little any person gathered, he would have an exact omer; if he
+gathered more, it would shrink to that amount, and if he gathered less,
+it would swell exactly to that amount. What a magnificent substance
+manna would be with which to make a currency--shrinking and swelling
+according to the great laws of supply and demand!
+
+"Upon this manna the children of Israel lived for forty years, until
+they came to a habitable land. With this meat were they fed until
+they reached the borders of the land of Canaan." We are told in the
+twenty-first chapter of Numbers, that the people at last became tired of
+the manna, complained of God, and asked Moses why he brought them out of
+the land of Egypt to die in the wilderness. And they said:--"There is no
+bread, nor have we any water. Our soul loatheth this light food."
+
+We are told by some commentators that the Jews lived on manna for forty
+years; by others that they lived upon it for only a short time. As
+a matter of fact the accounts differ, and this difference is the
+opportunity for commentators. It also allows us to exercise faith in
+believing that both accounts are true. If the accounts agreed, and were
+reasonable, they would be believed by the wicked and unregenerated. But
+as they are different and unreasonable, they are believed only by the
+good. Whenever a statement in the bible is unreasonable, and you believe
+it, you are considered quite a good christian. If the statement is
+grossly absurd and infinitely impossible, and you still believe it, you
+are a saint.
+
+The children of Israel were in the desert, and they were out of water.
+They had nothing to eat but manna, and this they had had so long that
+the soul of every person abhorred it. Under these circumstances they
+complained to Moses. Now, as God is infinite, he could just as well have
+furnished them with an abundance of the purest and coolest of water, and
+could, without the slightest trouble to himself, have given them three
+excellent meals a day, with a generous variety of meats and vegetables,
+it is very hard to see why he did not do so. It is still harder to
+conceive why he fell into a rage when the people mildly suggested that
+they would like a change of diet. Day after day, week after week, month
+after month, year after year, nothing but manna. No doubt they did
+the best they could by cooking it in different ways, but in spite of
+themselves they began to loathe its sight and taste, and so they asked
+Moses to use his influence to secure a change in the bill of fare.
+
+Now, I ask, whether it was unreasonable for the Jews to suggest that a
+little meat would be very gratefully received? It seems, however, that
+as soon as the request was made, this God of infinite mercy became
+infinitely enraged, and instead of granting it, went into, partnership
+with serpents, for the purpose of punishing the hungry wretches to whom
+he had promised a land flowing with milk and honey.
+
+Where did these serpents come from? How did God convey the information
+to the serpents, that he wished them to go to the desert of Sinai and
+bite some Jews? It may be urged that these serpents were created for the
+express purpose of punishing the children of Israel for having had the
+presumption, like Oliver Twist, to ask for more.
+
+There is another account in the eleventh chapter of Numbers, of the
+people murmuring because of their food. They remembered the fish, the
+cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic of Egypt,
+and they asked for meat The people went to the tent of Moses and asked
+him for flesh. Moses cried unto the Lord and asked him why he did not
+take care of the multitude. God thereupon agreed that they should have
+meat, not for a day or two, but for a month, until the meat should come
+out of their nostrils and become loathsome to them. He then caused a
+wind to bring quails from beyond the sea, and cast them into the camp,
+on every side of the camp around about for the space of a days journey.
+And the people gathered them, and while the flesh was yet between their
+teeth the wrath of God being provoked against them, struck them with
+an exceeding great plague. Serpents, also, were sent among them, and
+thousands perished for the crime of having been hungry.
+
+The Rev. Alexander Cruden commenting upon this account says:--
+
+"God caused a wind to rise that drove the quails within and about the
+camp of the Israelites; and it is in this that the miracle consists,
+that they were brought so seasonably to this place, and in so great
+numbers as to suffice above a million of persons above a month. Some
+authors affirm, that in those eastern and southern countries, quails
+are innumerable, so that in one part of Italy within the compass of five
+miles, there were taken about an hundred thousand of them every day for
+a month together; and that sometimes they fly so thick over the sea,
+that being weary they fall into ships, sometimes in such numbers, that
+they sink them with their weight."
+
+No wonder Mr. Cruden believed the Mosaic account.
+
+Must we believe that God made an arrangement with hornets for the
+purpose of securing their services in driving the Canaanites from
+the land of promise? Is this belief necessary unto salvation? Must we
+believe that God said to the Jews that he would send hornets before them
+to drive out the Canaanites, as related in the twenty-third chapter of
+Exodus, and the seventh chapter of Deuteronomy? How would the hornets
+know a Canaanite? In what way would God put it in the mind of a hornet
+to attack a Canaanite? Did God create hornets for that especial purpose,
+implanting an instinct to attack a Canaanite, but not a Hebrew? Can
+we conceive of the Almighty granting letters of marque and reprisal to
+hornets? Of course it is admitted that nothing in the world would
+be better calculated to make a man leave his native land than a few
+hornets. Is it possible for us to believe that an infinite being would
+resort to such expedients in order to drive the Canaanites from their
+country? He could just as easily have spoken the Canaanites out of
+existence as to have spoken the hornets in. In this way a vast amount of
+trouble, pain and suffering would have been saved. Is it possible that
+there is, in this country, an intelligent clergyman who will insist that
+these stories are true; that we must believe them in in order to be good
+people in this world, and glorified souls in the next?
+
+We are also told that God instructed the Hebrews to kill the Canaanites
+slowly, giving as a reason that the beasts of the field might increase
+upon his chosen people. When we take into consideration the fact that
+the Holy Land contained only about eleven or twelve thousand square
+miles, and was at that time inhabited by at least twenty-one millions of
+people, it does not seem reasonable that the wild beasts could have been
+numerous enough to cause any great alarm. The same ratio of population
+would give to the State of Illinois at least one hundred and twenty
+millions of inhabitants. Can anybody believe that, under such
+circumstances, the danger from wild beasts could be very great? What
+would we think of a general, invading such a state, if he should order
+his soldiers to kill the people slowly, lest the wild beasts might
+increase upon them? Is it possible that a God capable of doing the
+miracles recounted in the Old Testament could not, in some way, have
+disposed of the wild beasts? After the Canaanites were driven out, could
+he not have employed the hornets to drive out the wild beasts? Think of
+a God that could drive twenty-one millions of people out of the promised
+land, could raise up innumerable stinging flies, and could cover
+the earth with fiery serpents, and yet seems to have been perfectly
+powerless against the wild beasts of the land of Canaan!
+
+Speaking of these hornets, one of the good old commentators, whose
+views have long been considered of great value by the believers in the
+inspiration of the bible, uses the following language:--"Hornets are a
+sort of strong flies, which the Lord used as instruments to plague
+the enemies of his people. They are of themselves very troublesome and
+mischievous, and those the Lord made use of were, it is thought, of an
+extraordinary bigness and perniciousness. It is said they live as the
+wasps, and that they have a king or captain, and pestilent stings
+as bees, and that, if twenty-seven of them sting man or beast, it is
+certain death to either. Nor is it strange that such creatures did drive
+out the Canaanites from their habitations; for many heathen writers give
+instances of some people driven from their seats by frogs, others by
+mice, others by bees and wasps. And it is said that a christian city,
+being besieged by Sapores, king of Persia, was delivered by hornets; for
+the elephants and beasts being stung by them, waxed unruly, and so the
+whole army fled."
+
+Only a few years ago, all such stories were believed by the christian
+world; and it is a historical fact, that Voltaire was the third man of
+any note in Europe, who took the ground that the mythologies of Greece
+and Rome were without foundation. Until his time, most christians
+believed as thoroughly in the miracles ascribed to the Greek and Roman
+gods as in those of Christ and Jehovah. The christian world cultivated
+credulity, not only as one of the virtues, but as the greatest of them
+all. But, when Luther and his followers left the church of Rome, they
+were compelled to deny the power of the catholic church, at that time,
+to suspend the laws of nature, but took the ground that such power
+ceased with the apostolic age. They insisted that all things now
+happened in accordance with the laws of nature, with the exception of a
+few special interferences in favor of the protestant church in answer
+to prayer. They taught their children a double philosophy: by one, they
+were to show the impossibility of catholic miracles, because opposed to
+the laws of nature; by the other, the probability of the miracles of the
+apostolic age, because they were in conformity with the statements of
+the scriptures. They had two foundations: one, the law of nature, and
+the other, the word of God. The protestants have endeavored to carry
+on this double process of reasoning, and the result has been a gradual
+increase of confidence in the law of nature, and a gradual decrease of
+confidence in the word of God.
+
+We are told, in this inspired account, that the clothing of the Jewish
+people did not wax old, and that their shoes refused to wear out. Some
+commentators have insisted that angels attended to the wardrobes of the
+Hebrews, patched their garments, and mended their shoes. Certain it is,
+however, that the same clothes lasted them for forty years, during the
+entire journey from Egypt to the Holy Land. Little boys starting out
+with their first pantaloons, grew as they traveled, and their clothes
+grew with them.
+
+Can it be necessary to believe a story like this? Will men make better
+husbands, fathers, neighbors, and citizens, simply by giving credence
+to these childish and impossible things? Certainly an infinite God could
+have transported the Jews to the Holy Land in a moment, and could, as
+easily, have removed the Canaanites to some other country. Surely there
+was no necessity for doing thousands and thousands of petty miracles,
+day after day for forty years, looking after the clothes of three
+millions of people, changing the nature of wool, and linen, and leather,
+so that they would not "wax old." Every step, every motion, would wear
+away some part of the clothing, some part of the shoes. Were these
+parts, so worn away, perpetually renewed, or was the nature of things
+so changed that they could not wear away? We know that whenever matter
+comes in contact with matter, certain atoms, by abrasion, are lost. Were
+these atoms gathered up every night by angels, and replaced on the soles
+of the shoes, on the elbows of coats, and on the knees of pantaloons, so
+that the next morning they would be precisely in the condition they were
+on the morning before? There must be a mistake somewhere.
+
+Can we believe that the real God, if there is one, ever ordered a man
+to be killed simply for making hair oil, or ointment? We are told in
+the thirtieth chapter of Exodus, that the Lord commanded Moses to take
+myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus, cassia, and olive oil, and make a
+holy ointment for the purpose of anointing the tabernacle, tables,
+candlesticks and other utensils, as well as Aaron and his sons; saying,
+at the same time, that whosoever compounded any like it, or whoever put
+any of it on a stranger, should be put to death. In the same chapter,
+the Lord furnishes Moses with a recipe for making a perfume, saying,
+that whoever should make any which smelled like it, should be cut off
+from his people. This, to me, sounds so unreasonable that I cannot
+believe it. Why should an infinite God care whether mankind made
+ointments and perfumes like his or not? Why should the Creator of all
+things threaten to kill a priest who approached his altar without having
+washed his hands and feet? These commandments and these penalties would
+disgrace the vainest tyrant that ever sat, by chance, upon a throne.
+There must be some mistake. I cannot believe that an infinite
+Intelligence appeared to Moses upon Mount Sinai having with him a
+variety of patterns for making a tabernacle, tongs, snuffers and dishes.
+Neither can I believe that God told Moses how to cut and trim a coat for
+a priest. Why should a God care about such things? Why should he insist
+on having buttons sewed in certain rows, and fringes of a certain color?
+Suppose an intelligent civilized man was to overhear, on Mount Sinai,
+the following instructions from God to Moses:--
+
+"You must consecrate my priests as follows:--You must kill a bullock
+for a sin offering, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands upon the
+head of the bullock. Then you must take the blood and put it upon the
+horns of the altar round about with your finger, and pour some blood at
+the bottom of the altar to make a reconciliation; and of the fat that
+is upon the inwards, the caul above the liver and two kidneys, and
+their fat, and burn them upon the altar. You must get a ram for a burnt
+offering, and Aaron and his sons must lay their hands upon the head of
+the ram. Then you must kill it and sprinkle the blood upon the altar,
+and cut the ram into pieces, and burn the head, and the pieces, and the
+fat, and wash the inwards and the lungs in water and then burn the whole
+ram upon the altar for a sweet savor unto me. Then you must get another
+ram, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands upon the head of that,
+then kill it and take of its blood, and put it on the top of Aaron s
+right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of
+his right foot. And you must also put a little of the blood upon the
+top of the right ears of Aaron's sons, and on the thumbs of their right
+hands and on the great toes of their right feet. And then you must take
+of the fat that is on the inwards, and the caul above the liver and the
+two kidneys, and their fat, and the right shoulder, and out of a basket
+of unleavened bread you must take one unleavened cake and another of oil
+bread, and one wafer, and put them on the fat of the right shoulder. And
+you must take of the anointing oil, and of the blood, and sprinkle it on
+Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons garments, and sanctify
+them and all their clothes."--Do you believe that he would have even
+suspected that the creator of the universe was talking?
+
+Can any one now tell why God commanded the Jews, when they were upon the
+desert of Sinai, to plant trees, telling them at the same time that they
+must not eat any of the fruit of such trees until after the fourth year?
+Trees could not have been planted in that desert, and if they had been,
+they could not have lived. Why did God tell Moses, while in the desert,
+to make curtains of fine linen? Where could he have obtained his flax?
+There was no land upon which it could have been produced. Why did he
+tell him to make things of gold, and silver, and precious stones, when
+they could not have been in possession of these things? There is but one
+answer, and that is, the Pentateuch was written hundreds of years after
+the Jews had settled in the Holy Land, and hundreds of years after Moses
+was dust and ashes.
+
+When the Jews had a written language, and that must have been long after
+their flight from Egypt, they wrote out their history and their laws.
+Tradition had filled the infancy of the nation with miracles and special
+interpositions in their behalf by Jehovah. Patriotism would not allow
+these wonders to grow small, and priestcraft never denied a miracle.
+There were traditions to the effect that God had spoken face to face
+with Moses; that he had given him the tables of the law, and had, in a
+thousand ways, made known his will; and whenever the priests wished to
+make new laws, or amend old ones, they pretended to have found something
+more that God said to Moses at Sinai. In this way obedience was more
+easily secured. Only a very few of the people could read, and, as a
+consequence, additions, interpolations and erasures had no fear of
+detection. In this way we account for the fact that Moses is made to
+speak of things that did not exist in his day, and were unknown for
+hundreds of years after his death.
+
+In the thirtieth chapter of Exodus, we are told that the people, when
+numbered, must give each one a half shekel after the shekel of the
+_sanctuary_. At that time no such money existed, and consequently the
+account could not, by any possibility, have been written until after
+there was a shekel of the sanctuary, and there was no such thing until
+long after the death of Moses. If we should read that Cęsar paid his
+troops in pounds, shillings and pence, we would certainly know that the
+account was not written by Cęsar, nor in his time, but we would know
+that it was written after the English had given these names to certain
+coins.
+
+So, we find, that when the Jews were upon the desert it was commanded
+that every mother should bring, as a sin offering, a couple of doves to
+the priests, and the priests were compelled to eat these doves in the
+most holy place. At the time this law appears to have been given, there
+were three million people, and only three priests, Aaron, Eleazer and
+Ithamar. Among three million people there would be, at least, three
+hundred births a day. Certainly we are not expected to believe that
+these three priests devoured six hundred pigeons every twenty-four
+hours.
+
+Why should a woman ask pardon of God for having been a mother? Why
+should that be considered a crime in Exodus, which is commanded as a
+duty in Genesis? Why should a mother be declared unclean? Why should
+giving birth to a daughter be regarded twice as criminal as giving birth
+to a son? Can we believe that such laws and ceremonies were made and
+instituted by a merciful and intelligent God? If there is anything in
+this poor world suggestive of, and standing for, all that is sweet,
+loving and pure, it is a mother holding in her thrilled and happy arms
+her prattling babe. Read the twelfth chapter of Leviticus, and you will
+see that when a woman became the mother of a boy she was so unclean
+that she was not allowed to touch a hallowed thing, nor to enter the
+sanctuary for forty days. If the babe was a girl, then the mother was
+unfit for eighty days, to enter the house of God, or to touch the sacred
+tongs and snuffers. These laws, born of barbarism, are unworthy of our
+day, and should be regarded simply as the mistakes of savages.
+
+Just as low in the scale of intelligence are the directions given in the
+fifth chapter of Numbers, for the trial of a wife of whom the husband
+was jealous. This foolish chapter has been the foundation of all appeals
+to God for the ascertainment of facts, such as the corsned, trial by
+battle, by water, and by fire, the last of which is our judicial oath.
+It is very easy to believe that in those days a guilty woman would
+be afraid to drink the water of jealousy and take the oath, and that,
+through fear, she might be made to confess. Admitting that the deception
+tended not only to prevent crime, but to discover it when committed,
+still, we cannot admit that an honest god would, for any purpose, resort
+to dishonest means. In all countries fear is employed as a means of
+getting at the truth, and in this there is nothing dishonest, provided
+falsehood is not resorted to for the purpose of producing the fear.
+Protestants laugh at catholics because of their belief in the efficacy
+of holy water, and yet they teach their children that a little holy
+water, in which had been thrown some dust from the floor of the
+sanctuary, would work a miracle in a woman's flesh. For hundreds of
+years our fathers believed that a perjurer could not swallow a piece of
+sacramental bread. Such stories belong to the childhood of our race, and
+are now believed only by mental infants and intellectual babes.
+
+I cannot believe that Moses had in his hands a couple of tables of
+stone, upon which God had written the ten commandments, and that when he
+saw the golden calf, and the dancing, that he dashed the tables to the
+earth and broke them in pieces. Neither do I believe that Moses took a
+golden calf, burnt it, ground it to powder, and made the people drink it
+with water, as related in the thirty-second chapter of Exodus.
+
+There is another account of the giving of the ten commandments to Moses,
+in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of Exodus. In this account not
+one word is said about the people having made a golden calf, nor about
+the breaking of the tables of stone. In the thirty-fourth chapter of
+Exodus, there is an account of the renewal of the broken tables of
+the law, and the commandments are given, but they are not the same
+commandments mentioned in the twentieth chapter. There are two accounts
+of the same transaction. Both of these stories cannot be true, and yet
+both must be believed. Any one who will take the trouble to read
+the nineteenth and twentieth chapters, and the last verse of the
+thirty-first chapter, the thirty-second, thirty-third, and thirty-fourth
+chapters of Exodus, will be compelled to admit that both accounts cannot
+be true.
+
+From the last account it appears that while Moses was upon Mount Sinai
+receiving the commandments from God, the people brought their jewelry
+to Aaron, and he cast for them a golden calf. This happened before any
+commandment against idolatry had been given. A god ought, certainly,
+to publish his laws before inflicting penalties for their violation. To
+inflict punishment for breaking unknown and unpublished laws is, in
+the last degree, cruel and unjust. It may be replied that the Jews knew
+better than to worship idols, before the law was given. If this is so,
+why should the law have been given? In all civilized countries, laws are
+made and promulgated, not simply for the purpose of informing the people
+as to what is right and wrong, but to inform them of the penalties to be
+visited upon those who violate the laws. When the ten commandments
+were given, no penalties were attached. Not one word was written on
+the tables of stone as to the punishments that would be inflicted for
+breaking any or all of the inspired laws. The people should not have
+been punished for violating a commandment before it was given. And yet,
+in this case, Moses commanded the sons of Levi to take their swords and
+slay every man his brother, his companion, and his neighbor. The brutal
+order was obeyed, and three thousand men were butchered. The Levites
+consecrated themselves unto the Lord by murdering their sons, and their
+brothers, for having violated a commandment before it had been given.
+
+It has been contended for many years that the ten commandments are the
+foundation of all ideas of justice and of law. Eminent jurists have
+bowed to popular prejudice, and deformed their works by statements to
+the effect that the Mosaic laws are the fountains from which sprang all
+ideas of right and wrong. Nothing can be more stupidly false than such
+assertions. Thousands of years before Moses was born, the Egyptians
+had a code of laws. They had laws against blasphemy, murder, adultery,
+larceny, perjury, laws for the collection of debts, the enforcement
+of contracts, the ascertainment of damages, the redemption of property
+pawned, and upon nearly every subject of human interest. The Egyptian
+code was far better than the Mosaic.
+
+Laws spring from the instinct of self-preservation, Industry objected
+to supporting idleness, and laws were made against theft. Laws were made
+against murder, because a very large majority of the people have always
+objected to being murdered. All fundamental laws were born simply of the
+instinct of self-defence. Long before the Jewish savages assembled at
+the foot of Sinai, laws had been made and enforced, not only in Egypt
+and India, but by every tribe that ever existed.
+
+It is impossible for human beings to exist together, without certain
+rules of conduct, certain ideas of the proper and improper, of the right
+and wrong, growing out of the relation. Certain rules must be made,
+and must be enforced. This implies law, trial and punishment. Whoever
+produces anything by weary labor, does not need a revelation from heaven
+to teach him that he has a right to the thing produced. Not one of
+the learned gentlemen who pretend that the Mosaic laws are filled with
+justice and intelligence, would live, for a moment, in any country where
+such laws were in force.
+
+Nothing can be more wonderful than the medical ideas of Jehovah. He
+had the strangest notions about the cause and cure of disease. With
+him everything was miracle and wonder. In the fourteenth chapter of
+Leviticus, we find the law for cleansing a leper:--"Then shall the
+priest take for him that is to be cleansed, two birds, alive and clean,
+and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command
+that one of the birds be killed in an _earthen_ vessel, over _running_
+water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and
+the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them, and the living bird,
+in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he
+shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy, seven
+times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird
+loose into the open field."
+
+We are told that God himself gave these directions to Moses. Does
+anybody believe this? Why should the bird be killed in an _earthen_
+vessel? Would the charm be broken if the vessel was of wood? Why over
+_running_ water? What would be thought of a physician now, who would
+give a prescription like that?
+
+Is it not strange that God, although he gave hundreds of directions for
+the purpose of discovering the presence of leprosy, and for cleansing
+the leper after he was healed, forgot to tell how that disease could be
+cured? Is it not wonderful that while God told his people what animals
+were fit for food, he failed to give a list of plants that man might
+eat? Why did he leave his children to find out the hurtful and the
+poisonous by experiment, knowing that experiment, in millions of cases,
+must be death?
+
+When reading the history of the Jewish people, of their flight from
+slavery to death, of their exchange of tyrants, I must confess that my
+sympathies are all aroused in their behalf. They were cheated, deceived
+and abused. Their god was quick-tempered unreasonable, cruel, revengeful
+and dishonest. He was always promising but never performed. He wasted
+time in ceremony and childish detail, and in the exaggeration of what
+he had done. It is impossible for me to conceive of a character more
+utterly detestable than that of the Hebrew god. He had solemnly promised
+the Jews that he would take them from Egypt to a land flowing with
+milk and honey. He had led them to believe that in a little while their
+troubles would be over, and that they would soon in the land of Canaan,
+surrounded by their wives and little ones, forget the stripes and tears
+of Egypt. After promising the poor wanderers again and again that he
+would lead them in safety to the promised land of joy and plenty, this
+God, forgetting every promise, said to the wretches in his power:--"Your
+carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander
+until your carcasses be wasted." This curse was the conclusion of the
+whole matter. Into this dust of death and night faded all the promises
+of God. Into this rottenness of wandering despair fell all the dreams
+of liberty and home. Millions of corpses were left to rot in the desert,
+and each one certified to the dishonesty of Jehovah. I cannot believe
+these things. They are so cruel and heartless, that my blood is chilled
+and my sense of justice shocked. A book that is equally abhorrent to my
+head and heart, cannot be accepted as a revelation from God.
+
+When we think of the poor Jews, destroyed, murdered, bitten by serpents,
+visited by plagues, decimated by famine, butchered by each, other,
+swallowed by the earth, frightened, cursed, starved, deceived, robbed
+and outraged, how thankful we should be that we are not the chosen
+people of God. No wonder that they longed for the slavery of Egypt,
+and remembered with sorrow the unhappy day when they exchanged masters.
+Compared with Jehovah, Pharaoh was a benefactor, and the tyranny of
+Egypt was freedom to those who suffered the liberty of God.
+
+While reading the Pentateuch, I am filled with indignation, pity and
+horror. Nothing can be sadder than the history of the starved and
+frightened wretches who wandered over the desolate crags and sands of
+wilderness and desert, the prey of famine, sword, and plague. Ignorant
+and superstitious to the last degree, governed by falsehood, plundered
+by hypocrisy, they were the sport of priests, and the food of fear. God
+was their greatest enemy, and death their only friend.
+
+It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable, hateful,
+and arrogant being, than the Jewish god. He is without a redeeming
+feature. In the mythology of the world he has no parallel. He, only, is
+never touched by agony and tears. He delights only in blood and pain.
+Human affections are naught to him. He cares neither for love nor music,
+beauty nor joy. A false friend, an unjust judge, a braggart, hypocrite,
+and tyrant, sincere in hatred, jealous, vain, and revengeful, false in
+promise, honest in curse, suspicious, ignorant, and changeable, infamous
+and hideous:--such is the God of the Pentateuch.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV. CONFESS AND AVOID
+
+The scientific christians now admit that the bible is not inspired in
+its astronomy, geology, botany, zoology, nor in any science. In other
+words, they admit that on these subjects, the bible cannot be depended
+upon. If all the statements in the scriptures were true, there would
+be no necessity for admitting that some of them are not inspired. A
+christian will not admit that a passage in the bible is uninspired,
+until he is satisfied that it is untrue. Orthodoxy itself has at last
+been compelled to say, that while a passage may be true and uninspired,
+it cannot be inspired if false.
+
+If the people of Europe had known as much of astronomy and geology when
+the bible was introduced among them, as they do now, there never could
+have been one believer in the doctrine of inspiration. If the writers of
+the various parts of the bible had known as much about the sciences as
+is now known by every intelligent man, the book never could have
+been written. It was produced by ignorance, and has been believed and
+defended by its author. It has lost power in the proportion that man
+has gained knowledge. A few years ago, this book was appealed to in the
+settlement of all scientific questions; but now, even the clergy
+confess that in such matters, it has ceased to speak with the voice
+of authority. For the establishment of facts, the word of man is now
+considered far better than the word of God. In the world of science,
+Jehovah was superseded by Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. All that God
+told Moses, admitting the entire account to be true, is dust and ashes
+compared to the discoveries of Des Cartes, La Place, and Humboldt. In
+matters of fact, the bible has ceased to be regarded as a standard.
+Science has succeeded in breaking the chains of theology. A few years
+ago, Science endeavored to show that it was not inconsistent with the
+bible. The tables have been turned, and now, Religion is endeavoring to
+prove that the bible is not inconsistent with Science. The standard has
+been changed.
+
+For many ages, the christians contended that the bible, viewed simply as
+a literary performance, was beyond all other books, and that man without
+the assistance of God could not produce its equal. This claim was made
+when but few books existed, and the bible, being the only book generally
+known, had no rival. But this claim, like the other, has been abandoned
+by many, and soon will be, by all. Compared with Shakespeare's "book
+and volume of the brain," the "sacred" bible shrinks and seems as feebly
+impotent and vain, as would a pipe of Pan, when some great organ, voiced
+with every tone, from the hoarse thunder of the sea to the winged warble
+of a mated bird, floods and fills cathedral aisles with all the wealth
+of sound.
+
+It is now maintained--and this appears to be the last fortification
+behind which the doctrine of inspiration skulks and crouches--that the
+bible, although false and mistaken in its astronomy, geology, geography,
+history and philosophy, is inspired in its morality. It is now claimed
+that had it not been for this book, the world would have been inhabited
+only by savages, and that had it not been for the holy scriptures, man
+never would have even dreamed of the unity of God. A belief in one God
+is claimed to be a dogma of almost infinite importance, that without
+this belief civilization is impossible, and that this fact is the sun
+around which all the virtues revolve, For my part, I think it infinitely
+more important to believe in man. Theology is a superstition--Humanity a
+religion.
+
+
+
+
+XXV. "INSPIRED" SLAVERY
+
+Perhaps the bible was inspired upon the subject of human slavery. Is
+there, in the civilized world, today, a clergyman who believes in the
+divinity of slavery? Does the bible teach man to enslave his brother? If
+it does, is it not blasphemous to say that it is inspired of God? If
+you find the institution of slavery upheld in a book said to have been
+written by God, what would you expect to find in a book inspired by the
+devil? Would you expect to find that book in favor of liberty? Modern
+christians, ashamed of the God of the Old Testament, endeavor now to
+show that slavery was neither commanded nor opposed by Jehovah. Nothing
+can be plainer than the following passages from the twenty-fifth chapter
+of Leviticus. "Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn
+among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with
+you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
+And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to
+inherit them for a possession, they shall be your bond-men forever. Both
+thy bond-men, and thy bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of
+the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bond-men, and
+bond-maids."
+
+Can we believe in this, the Nineteenth Century, that these infamous
+passages were inspired by God? that God approved not only of human
+slavery, but instructed his chosen people to buy the women, children and
+babes of the heathen round about them? If it was right for the Hebrews
+to buy, it was also right for the heathen to sell. This God, by
+commanding the Hebrews to buy, approved of the selling of sons and
+daughters. The Canaanite who, tempted by gold, lured by avarice, sold
+from the arms of his wife the dimpled babe, simply made it possible for
+the Hebrews to obey the orders of their God. If God is the author of
+the bible, the reading of these passages ought to cover his cheeks with
+shame. I ask the christian world to-day, was it right for the heathen
+to sell their children? Was it right for God not only to uphold, but to
+command the infamous traffic in human flesh? Could the most revengeful
+fiend, the most malicious vagrant in the gloom of hell, sink to a lower
+moral depth than this?
+
+According to this God, his chosen people were not only commanded to buy
+of the heathen round about them, but were also permitted to buy each
+other for a term of years. The law governing the purchase of Jews is
+laid down in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus. "If thou buy a Hebrew
+servant, six years shall he serve: and in the seventh he shall go out
+free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself:
+if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master
+have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the
+wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by
+himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my
+wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall
+bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto
+the door-post: and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl:
+and he shall serve him forever."
+
+Do you believe that God was the author of this infamous law? Do you
+believe that the loving father of us all, turned the dimpled arms of
+babes into manacles of iron? Do you believe that he baited the dungeon
+of servitude with wife and child? Is it possible to love a God who would
+make such laws? Is it possible not to hate and despise him?
+
+The heathen are not spoken of as human beings. Their rights are never
+mentioned. They were the rightful food of the sword, and their bodies
+were made for stripes and chains.
+
+In the same chapter of the same inspired book, we are told that, "if a
+man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he dies under his
+hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day
+or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money."
+
+Must we believe that God called some of his children the money of
+others? Can we believe that God made lashes upon the naked back, a
+legal tender for labor performed? Must we regard the auction block as an
+altar? Were blood hounds apostles? Was the slave-pen a temple? Were the
+stealers and whippers of babes and women the justified children of God?
+
+It is now contended that while the Old Testament is touched with the
+barbarism of its time, that the New Testament is morally perfect, and
+that on its pages can be found no blot or stain. As a matter of fact,
+the New Testament is more decidedly in favor of human slavery than the
+old.
+
+For my part, I never will, I never can, worship a God who upholds the
+institution of slavery. Such a God I hate and defy. I neither want his
+heaven, nor fear his hell.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI. "INSPIRED" MARRIAGE
+
+Is there an orthodox clergyman in the world, who will now declare that
+he believes the institution of polygamy to be right? Is there one who
+will publicly declare that, in his judgment, that institution ever was
+right? Was there ever a time in the history of the world when it was
+right to treat woman simply as property? Do not attempt to answer these
+questions by saying, that the bible is an exceedingly good book, that we
+are indebted for our civilization to the sacred volume, and that without
+it, man would lapse into savagery, and mental night. This is no answer.
+Was there a time when the institution of polygamy was the highest
+expression of human virtue? Is there a christian woman, civilized,
+intelligent, and free, who believes in the institution of polygamy? Are
+we better, purer, and more intelligent than God was four thousand years
+ago? Why should we imprison Mormons, and worship God? Polygamy is just
+as pure in Utah, as it could have been in the promised land. Love and
+Virtue are the same the whole world round, and Justice is the same in
+every star. All the languages of the world are not sufficient to express
+the filth of polygamy. It makes of man, a beast, of woman, a trembling
+slave. It destroys the fireside, makes virtue an outcast, takes from
+human speech its sweetest words, and leaves the heart a den, where crawl
+and hiss the slimy serpents of most loathsome lust. Civilization rests
+upon the family. The good family is the unit of good government. The
+virtues grow about the holy hearth of home--they cluster, bloom, and
+shed their perfume round the fireside where the one man loves the one
+woman. Lover--husband--wife--mother--father--child--home!--without these
+sacred words, the world is but a lair, and men and women merely beasts.
+
+Why should the innocent maiden and the loving mother worship the
+heartless Jewish God? Why should they, with pure and stainless lips,
+read the vile record of inspired lust?
+
+The marriage of the one man to the one woman is the citadel and fortress
+of civilization. Without this, woman becomes the prey and slave of lust
+and power, and man goes back to savagery and crime. From the bottom of
+my heart I hate, abhor and execrate all theories of life, of which the
+pure and sacred home is not the corner-stone. Take from the world the
+family, the fireside, the children born of wedded love, and there is
+nothing left. The home where virtue dwells with love is like a lily with
+a heart of fire--the fairest flower in all the world.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII. "INSPIRED" WAR
+
+If the bible be true, God commanded his chosen people to destroy men
+simply for the crime of defending their native land. They were not
+allowed to spare trembling and white-haired age, nor dimpled babes
+clasped in the mothers' arms. They were ordered to kill women, and to
+pierce, with the sword of war, the unborn child. "Our heavenly Father"
+commanded the Hebrews to kill the men and women, the fathers, sons and
+brothers, but to preserve the girls alive. Why were not the maidens also
+killed? Why were they spared? Read the thirty-first chapter of Numbers,
+and you will find that the maidens were given to the soldiers and the
+priests. Is there, in all the history of war, a more infamous thing than
+this? Is it possible that God permitted the violets of modesty, that
+grow and shed their perfume in the maiden's heart, to be trampled
+beneath the brutal feet of lust? If this was the order of God, what,
+under the same circumstances, would have been the command of a devil?
+When, in this age of the world, a woman, a wife, a mother, reads this
+record, she should, with scorn and loathing, throw the book away. A
+general, who now should make such an order, giving over to massacre
+and rapine a conquered people, would be held in execration by the whole
+civilized world. Yet, if the bible be true, the supreme and infinite God
+was once a savage.
+
+A little while ago, out upon the western plains, in a little path
+leading to a cabin, were found the bodies of two children and their
+mother. Her breast was filled with wounds received in the defence of her
+darlings. They had been murdered by the savages. Suppose when looking at
+their lifeless forms, some one had said, "This was done by the command
+of God!" In Canaan there were countless scenes like this. There was
+no pity in inspired war. God raised the black flag, and commanded his
+soldiers to kill even the smiling infant in its mother's arms. Who
+is the blasphemer; the man who denies the existence of God, or he who
+covers the robes of the Infinite with innocent blood?
+
+We are told in the Pentateuch, that God, the father of us all, gave
+thousands of maidens, after having killed their fathers, their mothers,
+and their brothers, to satisfy the brutal lusts of savage men. If there
+be a God, I pray him to write in his book, opposite my name, that I
+denied this lie for him.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII. "INSPIRED" RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
+
+According to the bible, God selected the Jewish people through whom to
+make known the great fact, that he was the only true and living God. For
+this purpose, he appeared on several occasions to Moses--came down to
+Sinai's top clothed in cloud and fire, and wrought a thousand miracles
+for the preservation and education of the Jewish people. In their
+presence he opened the waters of the sea. For them he caused bread to
+rain from heaven. To quench their thirst, water leaped from the dry and
+barren rock. Their enemies were miraculously destroyed; and for forty
+years, at least, this God took upon himself the government of the Jews.
+But, after all this, many of the people had less confidence in him
+than in gods of wood and stone. In moments of trouble, in periods of
+disaster, in the darkness of doubt, in the hunger and thirst of famine,
+instead of asking this God for aid, they turned and sought the help of
+senseless things. This God, with all his power and wisdom, could not
+even convince a few wandering and wretched savages that he was more
+potent than the idols of Egypt. This God was not willing that the Jews
+should think and investigate for themselves. For heresy, the penalty
+was death. Where this God reigned, intellectual liberty was unknown. He
+appealed only to brute force; he collected taxes by threatening
+plagues; he demanded worship on pain of sword and fire; acting as spy,
+inquisitor, judge and executioner.
+
+In the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, we have the ideas of God as to
+mental freedom. "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or
+the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul, entice
+thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast
+not known, thou nor thy fathers; _namely_ of the gods of the people
+which are around about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from
+the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth, Thou
+shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine
+eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare him, neither shalt thou conceal
+him. But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him
+to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And thou
+shalt stone him with stones that he die."
+
+This is the religious liberty of God; the toleration of Jehovah. If
+I had lived in Palestine at that time, and my wife, the mother of my
+children, had said to me, "I am tired of Jehovah, he is always asking
+for blood; he is never weary of killing; he is always telling of his
+might and strength; always telling what he has done for the Jews,
+always asking for sacrifices; for doves and lambs--blood, nothing
+but blood.--Let us worship the sun. Jehovah is too revengeful, too
+malignant, too exacting. Let us worship the sun. The sun has clothed the
+world in beauty; it has covered the earth with flowers; by its divine
+light I first saw your face, and my beautiful babe."--If I had obeyed
+the command of God, I would have killed her. My hand would have been
+first upon her, and after that the hands of all the people, and she
+would have been stoned with stones until she died. For my part, I would
+never kill my wife, even if commanded so to do by the real God of this
+universe. Think of taking up some ragged rock and hurling it against the
+white bosom filled with love for you; and when you saw oozing from
+the bruised lips of the death wound, the red current of her sweet
+life--think of looking up to heaven and receiving the congratulations of
+the infinite fiend whose commandment you had obeyed!
+
+Can we believe that any such command was ever given by a merciful and
+intelligent God? Suppose, however, that God did give this law to the
+Jews, and did tell them that whenever a man preached a heresy, or
+proposed to worship any other god that they should kill him; and suppose
+that afterward this same God took upon himself flesh, and came to this
+very chosen people and taught a different religion, and that thereupon
+the Jews crucified him; I ask you, did he not reap exactly what he
+had sown? What right would this God have to complain of a crucifixion
+suffered in accordance with his own command?
+
+Nothing can be more infamous than intellectual tyranny. To put chains
+upon the body is as nothing compared with putting shackles on the brain.
+No god is entitled to the worship or the respect of man who does not
+give, even to the meanest of his children, every right that he claims
+for himself.
+
+If the Pentateuch be true, religious persecution is a duty. The dungeons
+of the Inquisition were temples, and the clank of every chain upon
+the limbs of heresy was music in the ear of God. If the Pentateuch was
+inspired, every heretic should be destroyed; and every man who advocates
+a fact inconsistent with the sacred book, should be consumed by sword
+and flame.
+
+In the Old Testament no one is told to reason with a heretic, and not
+one word is said about relying upon argument, upon education, nor upon
+intellectual development--nothing except simple brute force. Is there
+to-day a christian who will say that four thousand years ago, it was
+the duty of a husband to kill his wife if she differed with him upon
+the subject of religion? Is there one who will now say that, under such
+circumstances, the wife ought to have been killed? Why should God be so
+jealous of the wooden idols of the heathen? Could he not compete with
+Baal? Was he envious of the success of the Egyptian magicians? Was it
+not possible for him to make such a convincing display of his power as
+to silence forever the voice of unbelief? Did this God have to resort to
+force to make converts? Was he so ignorant of the structure of the human
+mind as to believe all honest doubt a crime? If he wished to do away
+with the idolatry of the Canaanites, why did he not appear to them? Why
+did he not give them the tables of the law? Why did he only make known
+his will to a few wandering savages in the desert of Sinai? Will some
+theologian have the kindness to answer these questions? Will some
+minister, who now believes in religious liberty, and eloquently
+denounces the intolerance of Catholicism, explain these things; will he
+tell us why he worships an intolerant God? Is a god who will burn a soul
+forever in another world, better than a christian who burns the body for
+a few hours in this? Is there no intellectual liberty in heaven? Do the
+angels all discuss questions on the same side? Are all the investigators
+in perdition? Will the penitent thief, winged and crowned, laugh at the
+honest folks in hell? Will the agony of the damned increase or decrease
+the happiness of God? Will there be, in the universe, an eternal _auto
+da fe?_
+
+
+
+
+XXIX. CONCLUSION
+
+If the Pentateuch is not inspired in its astronomy, geology, geography,
+history or philosophy, if it is not inspired concerning slavery,
+polygamy, war, law, religious or political liberty, or the rights of
+men, women and children, what is it inspired in, or about? The unity
+of God?--that was believed long before Moses was born. Special
+providence?--that has been the doctrine of ignorance in all ages.
+The rights of property?--theft was always a crime. The sacrifice of
+animals?--that was a custom thousands of years before a Jew existed.
+The sacredness of life?--there have always been laws against murder.
+The wickedness of perjury?--truthfulness has always been a virtue.
+The beauty of chastity?--the Pentateuch does not teach it. Thou shalt
+worship no other God?--that has been the burden of all religions.
+
+Is it possible that the Pentateuch could not have been written by
+uninspired men? that the assistance of God was necessary to produce
+these books? Is it possible that Galileo ascertained the mechanical
+principles of "Virtual Velocity," the laws of falling bodies and of all
+motion; that Copernicus ascertained the true position of the earth and
+accounted for all celestial phenomena; that Kepler discovered his three
+laws--discoveries of such importance that the 8th of May, 1618, may be
+called the birth-day of modern science; that Newton gave to the world
+the Method of Fluxions, the Theory of Universal Gravitation, and
+the Decomposition of Light; that Euclid, Cavalieri, Des Cartes, and
+Leibnitz, almost completed the science of mathematics; that all the
+discoveries in optics, hydrostatics, pneumatics and chemistry, the
+experiments, discoveries, and inventions of Galvani, Volta, Franklin
+and Morse, of Trevethick, Watt and Fulton and of all the pioneers of
+progress--that all this was accomplished by uninspired men, while the
+writer of the Pentateuch was directed and inspired by an infinite God?
+Is it possible that the codes of China, India, Egypt, Greece and Rome
+were made by man, and that the laws recorded in the Pentateuch were
+alone given by God? Is it possible that Ęschylus and Shakespeare, Burns,
+and Beranger, Goethe and Schiller, and all the poets of the world, and
+all their wondrous tragedies and songs are but the work of men, while
+no intelligence except the infinite God could be the author of the
+Pentateuch? Is it possible that of all the books that crowd the
+libraries of the world, the books of science, fiction, history and song,
+that all save only one, have been produced by man? Is it possible that
+of all these, the bible only is the work of God?
+
+If the Pentateuch is inspired, the civilization of of our day is a
+mistake and crime. There should be no political liberty. Heresy should
+be trodden out beneath the bigot's brutal feet. Husbands should divorce
+their wives at will, and make the mothers of their children houseless
+and weeping wanderers. Polygamy ought to be practiced; women should
+become slaves; we should buy the sons and daughters of the heathen and
+make them bondmen and bondwomen forever. We should sell our own flesh
+and blood, and have the right to kill our slaves. Men and women should
+be stoned to death for laboring on the seventh day. "Mediums," such
+as have familiar spirits, should be burned with fire. Every vestige of
+mental liberty should be destroyed, and reason's holy torch extinguished
+in the martyr's blood.
+
+Is it not far better and wiser to say that the Pentateuch while
+containing some good laws, some truths, some wise and useful things is,
+after all, deformed and blackened by the savagery of its time? Is it not
+far better and wiser to take the good and throw the bad away?
+
+Let us admit what we know to be true; that Moses was mistaken about a
+thousand things; that the story of creation is not true; that the garden
+of Eden is a myth; that the serpent and the tree of knowledge, and the
+fall of man are but fragments of old mythologies lost and dead; that
+woman was not made out of a rib; that serpents never had the power of
+speech; that the sons of God did not marry the daughters of men; that
+the story of the flood and ark is not exactly true; that the tower of
+Babel is a mistake; that the confusion of tongues is a childish thing;
+that the origin of the rainbow is a foolish fancy; that Methuselah did
+not live nine hundred and sixty-nine years; that Enoch did not leave
+this world, taking with him his flesh and bones; that the story of Sodom
+and Gomorrah is somewhat improbable; that burning brimstone never fell
+like rain; that Lot's wife was not changed into chloride of sodium; that
+Jacob did not, in fact, put his hip out of joint wrestling with God;
+that the history of Tamar might just as well have been left out; that a
+belief in Pharaoh's dreams is not essential to salvation; that it makes
+but little difference whether the rod of Aaron was changed to a serpent
+or not; that of all the wonders said to have been performed in Egypt,
+the greatest is, that anybody ever believed the absurd account; that
+God did not torment the innocent cattle on account of the sins of their
+owners; that he did not kill the first born of the poor maid behind
+the mill because of Pharaoh's crimes; that flies and frogs were not
+ministers of God's wrath; that lice and locusts were not the executors
+of his will; that seventy people did not, in two hundred and fifteen
+years, increase to three million; that three priests could not eat
+six hundred pigeons in a day; that gazing at a brass serpent could not
+extract poison from the blood; that God did not go in partnership with
+hornets; that he did not murder people simply because they asked for
+something to eat; that he did not declare the making of hair oil
+and ointment an offence to be punished with death; that he did not
+miraculously preserve cloth and leather; that he was not afraid of wild
+beasts; that he did not punish heresy with sword and fire; that he was
+not jealous, revengeful, and unjust; that he knew all about the sun,
+moon, and stars; that he did not threaten to kill people for eating the
+fat of an ox; that he never told Aaron to draw cuts to see which of two
+goats should be killed; that he never objected to clothes made of woolen
+mixed with linen; that if he objected to dwarfs, people with flat noses
+and too many fingers, he ought not to have created such folks; that
+he did not demand human sacrifices as set forth in the last chapter
+of Leviticus; that he did not object to the raising of horses; that he
+never commanded widows to spit in the faces of their brothers-in-law;
+that several contradictory accounts of the same transaction cannot all
+be true; that God did not talk to Abraham as one man talks to another;
+that angels were not in the habit of walking about the earth eating veal
+dressed with milk and butter, and making bargains about the destruction
+of cities; that God never turned himself into a flame of fire, and lived
+in a bush; that he never met Moses in a hotel and tried to kill him;
+that it was absurd to perform miracles to induce a king to act in a
+certain way and then harden his heart so that he would refuse; that God
+was not kept from killing the Jews by the fear that the Egyptians would
+laugh at him; that he did not secretly bury a man and then allow the
+corpse to write an account of the funeral; that he never believed the
+firmament to be solid; that he knew slavery was and always would be a
+frightful crime; that polygamy is but stench and filth; that the brave
+soldier will always spare an unarmed foe; that only cruel cowards
+slay the conquered and the helpless; that no language can describe the
+murderer of a smiling babe; that God did not want the blood of doves and
+lambs; that he did not love the smell of burning flesh; that he did not
+want his altars daubed with blood; that he did not pretend that the sins
+of a people could be transferred to a goat; that he did not believe in
+witches, wizards, spooks, and devils; that he did not test the virtue of
+woman with dirty water; that he did not suppose that rabbits chewed the
+cud; that he never thought there were any four-footed birds; that he did
+not boast for several hundred years that he had vanquished an Egyptian
+king; that a dry stick did not bud, blossom, and bear almonds in one
+night; that manna did not shrink and swell, so that each man could
+gather only just one omer; that it was never wrong to "countenance the
+poor man in his cause;" that God never told a people not to live in
+peace with their neighbors; that he did not spend forty days with Moses
+on Mount Sinai giving him patterns for making clothes, tongs, basins,
+and snuffers; that maternity is not a sin; that physical deformity is
+not a crime; that an atonement cannot be made for the soul by shedding
+innocent blood; that killing a dove over running water will not make its
+blood a medicine; that a god who demands love knows nothing of the human
+heart; that one who frightens savages with loud noises is unworthy the
+love of civilized men; that one who destroys children on account of
+the sins of their fathers is a monster; that an infinite god never
+threatened to give people the itch; that he never sent wild beasts to
+devour babes; that he never ordered the violation of maidens; that
+he never regarded patriotism as a crime; that he never ordered the
+destruction of unborn children; that he never opened the earth and
+swallowed wives and babes because husbands and fathers had displeased
+him; that he never demanded that men should kill their sons and
+brothers, for the purpose of sanctifying themselves; that we cannot
+please God by believing the improbable; that credulity is not a virtue;
+that investigation is not a crime; that every mind should be free;
+that all religious persecution is infamous in God, as well as man; that
+without liberty, virtue is impossible; that without freedom, even love
+cannot exist; that every man should be allowed to think and to express
+his thoughts; that woman is the equal of man; that children should be
+governed by love and reason; that the family relation is sacred; that
+war is a hideous crime; that all intolerance is born of ignorance and
+hate; that the freedom of today is the hope of to-morrow; that the
+enlightened present ought not to fall upon its knees and blindly worship
+the barbaric past; and that every free, brave and enlightened man should
+publicly declare that all the ignorant, infamous, heartless, hideous
+things recorded in the "inspired" Pentateuch are not the words of God,
+but simply "Some Mistakes of Moses."
+
+
+
+
+
+A TRIBUTE
+
+TO
+
+Ebon C. ingersoll,
+
+BY HIS BROTHER
+
+Robert.
+
+Dec. 12, 1831. MAY 31, 1879.
+
+A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll,
+
+By his Brother Robert.
+
+THE RECORD OF A GENEROUS LIFE RUNS LIKE A VINE AROUND THE MEMORY OF OUR
+DEAD, AND EVERY SWEET, UNSELFISH ACT IS NOW A PERFUMED FLOWER.
+
+Dear Friends: I am going to do that which the dead oft promised he would
+do for me.
+
+The loved and loving brother, husband, father, friend, died where
+manhood's morning almost touches noon, and while the shadows still were
+falling toward the west.
+
+He had not passed on life's highway the stone that marks the highest
+point; but, being weary for a moment, he lay down by the wayside, and,
+using his burden for a pillow, fell into that dreamless sleep that
+kisses down his eyelids still. While yet in love with life and raptured
+with the world, he passed to silence and pathetic dust.
+
+Yet, after all, it may be best, just in the happiest, sunniest hour
+of all the voyage, while eager winds are kissing every sail, to dash
+against the unseen rock, and in an instant hear the billows roar above a
+sunken ship. For whether in mid sea or 'mong the breakers of the farther
+shore, a wreck at last must mark the end of each and all. And every
+life, no matter if its every hour is rich with love and every moment
+jeweled with a joy, will, at its close, become a tragedy as sad and deep
+and dark as can be woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death.
+
+This brave and tender man in every storm of life was oak and rock; but
+in the sunshine he was vine and flower. He was the friend of all heroic
+souls. He climbed the heights, and left all superstitions far below,
+while on his forehead fell the golden dawning, of the grander day.
+
+He loved the beautiful, and was with color, form, and music touched to
+tears. He sided with the weak, the poor, and wronged, and lovingly
+gave alms. With loyal heart and with the purest hands he faithfully
+discharged all public trusts.
+
+He was a worshipper of liberty, a friend of the oppressed. A thousand
+times I have heard him quote these words: "_For Justice all place a
+temple, and all season, summer!_" He believed that happiness was the
+only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the
+only religion, and love the only priest. He added to the sum of human
+joy; and were every one to whom he did some loving service to bring a
+blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of
+flowers.
+
+Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two
+eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud,
+and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless
+lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word; but in the night of
+death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.
+
+He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the
+return of health, whispered with his latest breath, "I am better now."
+Let us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and tears, that
+these dear words are true of all the countless dead.
+
+And now, to you, who have been chosen, from among the many men he loved,
+to do the last sad office for the dead, we give his sacred dust.
+
+Speech cannot contain our love. There was, there is, no gentler,
+stronger, manlier man.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Mistakes of Moses, by Robert G. Ingersoll
+
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diff --git a/38099-8.zip b/38099-8.zip
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Mistakes of Moses, by Robert G. Ingersoll.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mistakes of Moses, by Robert G. Ingersoll
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Mistakes of Moses
+
+Author: Robert G. Ingersoll
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2011 [EBook #38099]
+Last Updated: January 25, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISTAKES OF MOSES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      MISTAKES of MOSES
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Robert G. Ingersoll.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+      <h3>
+        The Destroyer Of Weeds, Thistles And Thorns, Is A Benefactor Whether He
+        Soweth Grain Or Not.
+      </h3>
+    <h4>
+      1880.
+    </h4>
+    <h3>
+      MRS. SUE M. FARRELL <br /><br /> IN LAW MY SISTER; <br /><br /> AND IN FACT MY
+      FRIEND, <br /><br /> THIS VOLUME, <br /><br /> AS A TOKEN OF RESPECT AND LOVE,
+      <br /><br /> IS DEDICATED.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a><br /><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0002"> I. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> II. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;FREE SCHOOLS <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0004"> III. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE POLITICIANS <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> IV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;MAN AND WOMAN <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> V. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE PENTATEUCH <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;MONDAY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0008"> VII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TUESDAY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0009"> VIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;WEDNESDAY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0010"> IX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THURSDAY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0011"> X. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;"HE MADE THE STARS ALSO" <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> XI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;FRIDAY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0013"> XII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;SATURDAY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0014"> XIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;LET US MAKE MAN <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> XIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;SUNDAY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0016"> XV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE NECESSITY FOR A GOOD
+        MEMORY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> XVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        GARDEN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> XVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        FALL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> XVIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;DAMPNESS
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> XIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;BACCHUS AND
+        BABEL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> XX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;FAITH IN
+        FILTH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> XXI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        HEBREWS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> XXII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        PLAGUES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> XXIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        FLIGHT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> XXIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;CONFESS
+        AND AVOID <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> XXV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;"INSPIRED"
+        SLAVERY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> XXVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;"INSPIRED"
+        MARRIAGE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> XXVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;"INSPIRED"
+        WAR <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> XXVIII.&nbsp; </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;"INSPIRED"
+        RELIGIOUS LIBERTY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> XXIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;CONCLUSION
+        <br /><br />
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      For many years I have regarded the Pentateuch simply as a record of a
+      barbarous people, in which are found a great number of the ceremonies of
+      savagery, many absurd and unjust laws, and thousands of ideas inconsistent
+      with known and demonstrated facts. To me it seemed almost a crime to teach
+      that this record was written by inspired men; that slavery, polygamy, wars
+      of conquest and extermination were right, and that there was a time when
+      men could win the approbation of infinite Intelligence, Justice, and
+      Mercy, by violating maidens and by butchering babes. To me it seemed more
+      reasonable that savage men had made these laws; and I endeavored in a
+      lecture, entitled "Some Mistakes of Moses," to point out some of the
+      errors, contradictions, and impossibilities contained in the Pentateuch.
+      The lecture was never written and consequently never delivered twice the
+      same. On several occasions it was reported and published without consent,
+      and without revision. All these publications were grossly and glaringly
+      incorrect. As published, they have been answered several hundred times,
+      and many of the clergy are still engaged in the great work. To keep these
+      reverend gentlemen from wasting their talents on the mistakes of reporters
+      and printers, I concluded to publish the principal points in all my
+      lectures on this subject. And here, it may be proper for me to say, that
+      arguments cannot be answered by personal abuse; that there is no logic in
+      slander, and that falsehood, in the long run, defeats itself. People who
+      love their enemies should, at least, tell the truth about their friends.
+      Should it turn out that I am the worst man in the whole world, the story
+      of the flood will remain just as improbable as before, and the
+      contradictions of the Pentateuch will still demand an explanation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a time when a falsehood, fulminated from the pulpit, smote like
+      a sword; but, the supply having greatly exceeded the demand, clerical
+      misrepresentation has at last become almost an innocent amusement.
+      Remembering that only a few years ago men, women, and even children, were
+      imprisoned, tortured and burned, for having expressed in an exceedingly
+      mild and gentle way, the ideas entertained by me, I congratulate myself
+      that calumny is now the pulpit's last resort. The old instruments of
+      torture are kept only to gratify curiosity; the chains are rusting away,
+      and the demolition of time has allowed even the dungeons of the
+      Inquisition to be visited by light. The church, impotent and malicious,
+      regrets, not the abuse, but the loss of her power, and seeks to hold by
+      falsehood what she gained by cruelty and force, by fire and fear.
+      Christianity cannot live in peace with any other form of faith. If that
+      religion be true, there is but one savior, one inspired book, and but one
+      little narrow grass-grown path that leads to heaven. Such a religion is
+      necessarily uncompromising, unreasoning, aggressive and insolent.
+      Christianity has held all other creeds and forms in infinite contempt,
+      divided the world into enemies and friends, and verified the awful
+      declaration of its founder&mdash;a declaration that wet with blood the
+      sword he came to bring, and made the horizon of a thousand years lurid
+      with the fagots' flames.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Too great praise challenges attention, and often brings to light a
+      thousand faults that otherwise the general eye would never see. Were we
+      allowed to read the bible as we do all other books, we would admire its
+      beauties, treasure its worthy thoughts, and account for all its absurd,
+      grotesque and cruel things, by saying that its authors lived in rude,
+      barbaric times. But we are told that it was written by inspired men; that
+      it contains the will of God; that it is perfect, pure, and true in all its
+      parts; the source and standard of all moral and religious truth; that it
+      is the star and anchor of all human hope; the only guide for man, the only
+      torch in Nature's night. These claims are so at variance with every known
+      recorded fact, so palpably absurd, that every free, unbiased soul is
+      forced to raise the standard of revolt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We read the pagan sacred books with profit and delight. With myth and
+      fable we are ever charmed, and find a pleasure in the endless repetition
+      of the beautiful, poetic, and absurd. We find, in all these records of the
+      past, philosophies and dreams, and efforts stained with tears, of great
+      and tender souls who tried to pierce the mystery of life and death, to
+      answer the eternal questions of the Whence and Whither, and vainly sought
+      to make, with bits of shattered glass, a mirror that would, in very truth,
+      reflect the face and form of Nature's perfect self.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These myths were born of hopes, and fears, and tears, and smiles, and they
+      were touched and colored by all there is of joy and grief between the rosy
+      dawn of birth, and death's sad night. They clothed even the stars with
+      passion, and gave to gods the faults and frailties of the sons of men. In
+      them, the winds and waves were music, and all the lakes, and streams, and
+      springs,&mdash;the mountains, woods and perfumed dells were haunted by a
+      thousand fairy forms. They thrilled the veins of Spring with tremulous
+      desire; made tawny Summer's billowed breast the throne and home of love;
+      filled Autumns arms with sun-kissed grapes, and gathered sheaves; and
+      pictured Winter as a weak old king who felt, like Lear upon his withered
+      face, Cordelia's tears. These myths, though false, are beautiful, and have
+      for many ages and in countless ways, enriched the heart and kindled
+      thought. But if the world were taught that all these things are true and
+      all inspired of God, and that eternal punishment will be the lot of him
+      who dares deny or doubt, the sweetest myth of all the Fable World would
+      lose its beauty, and become a scorned and hateful thing to every brave and
+      thoughtful man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Robert G. Ingersoll.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, D. C, <i>Oct. 7th, 1879</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I. SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      HE WHO ENDEAVORS TO CONTROL THE MIND BY FORCE IS A TYRANT, AND HE WHO
+      SUBMITS IS A SLAVE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I want to do what little I can to make my country truly free, to broaden
+      the intellectual horizon of our people, to destroy the prejudices born of
+      ignorance and fear, to do away with the blind worship of the ignoble past,
+      with the idea that all the great and good are dead, that the living are
+      totally depraved, that all pleasures are sins, that sighs and groans are
+      alone pleasing to God, that thought is dangerous, that intellectual
+      courage is a crime, that cowardice is a virtue, that a certain belief is
+      necessary to secure salvation, that to carry a cross in this world will
+      give us a palm in the next, and that we must allow some priest to be the
+      pilot of our souls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Until every soul is freely permitted to investigate every book, and creed,
+      and dogma for itself, the world cannot be free. Mankind will be enslaved
+      until there is mental grandeur enough to allow each man to have his
+      thought and say. This earth will be a paradise when men can, upon all
+      these questions differ, and yet grasp each other's hands as friends. It is
+      amazing to me that a difference of opinion upon subjects that we know
+      nothing with certainty about, should make us hate, persecute, and despise
+      each other. Why a difference of opinion upon predestination, or the
+      trinity, should make people imprison and burn each other seems beyond the
+      comprehension of man; and yet in all countries where Christians have
+      existed, they have destroyed each other to the exact extent of their
+      power. Why should a believer in God hate an atheist? Surely the atheist
+      has not injured God, and surely he is human, capable of joy and pain, and
+      entitled to all the rights of man. Would it not be far better to treat
+      this atheist, at least, as well as he treats us?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Christians tell me that they love their enemies, and yet all I ask is&mdash;not
+      that they love their enemies, not that they love their friends even, but
+      that they treat those who differ from them, with simple fairness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We do not wish to be forgiven, but we wish Christians to so act that we
+      will not have to forgive them. If all will admit that all have an equal
+      right to think, then the question is forever solved; but as long as
+      organized and powerful churches, pretending to hold the keys of heaven and
+      hell, denounce every person as an outcast and criminal who thinks for
+      himself and denies their authority, the world will be filled with hatred
+      and suffering. To hate man and worship God seems to be the sum of all the
+      creeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That which has happened in most countries, has happened in ours. When a
+      religion is founded, the educated, the powerful&mdash;that is to say, the
+      priests and nobles, tell the ignorant and superstitious&mdash;that is to
+      say, the people, that the religion of their country was given to their
+      fathers by God himself; that it is the only true religion; that all others
+      were conceived in falsehood and brought forth in fraud, and that all who
+      believe in the true religion will be happy forever, while all others will
+      burn in hell. For the purpose of governing the people, that is to say, for
+      the purpose of being supported by the people, the priests and nobles
+      declare this religion to be sacred, and that whoever adds to, or takes
+      from it, will be burned here by man, and hereafter by God. The result of
+      this is, that the priests and nobles will not allow the people to change;
+      and when, after a time, the priests, having intellectually advanced, wish
+      to take a step in the direction of progress, the people will not allow
+      them to change. At first, the rabble are enslaved by the priests, and
+      afterwards the rabble become the masters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the first things I wish to do, is to free the orthodox clergy. I am
+      a great friend of theirs, and in spite of all they may say against me, I
+      am going to do them a great and lasting service. Upon their necks are
+      visible the marks of the collar, and upon their backs those of the lash.
+      They are not allowed to read and think for themselves. They are taught
+      like parrots, and the best are those who repeat, with the fewest mistakes,
+      the sentences they have been taught. They sit like owls upon some dead
+      limb of the tree of knowledge, and hoot the same old hoots that have been
+      hooted for eighteen hundred years. Their congregations are not grand
+      enough, nor sufficiently civilized, to be willing that the poor preachers
+      shall think for themselves. They are not employed for that purpose.
+      Investigation is regarded as a dangerous experiment, and the ministers are
+      warned that none of that kind of work will be tolerated. They are notified
+      to stand by the old creed, and to avoid all original thought, as a mortal
+      pestilence. Every minister is employed like an attorney&mdash;either for
+      plaintiff or defendant,&mdash;and he is expected to be true to his client.
+      If he changes his mind, he is regarded as a deserter, and denounced,
+      hated, and slandered accordingly. Every orthodox clergyman agrees not to
+      change. He contracts not to find new facts, and makes a bargain that he
+      will deny them if he does. Such is the position of a protestant minister
+      in this Nineteenth Century. His condition excites my pity; and to better
+      it, I am going to do what little I can.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the clergy have the independence to break away, and the intellect
+      to maintain themselves as free men, but the most are compelled to submit
+      to the dictation of the orthodox, and the dead. They are not employed to
+      give their thoughts, but simply to repeat the ideas of others. They are
+      not expected to give even the doubts that may suggest themselves, but are
+      required to walk in the narrow, verdureless path trodden by the ignorance
+      of the past. The forests and fields on either side are nothing to them.
+      They must not even look at the purple hills, nor pause to hear the babble
+      of the brooks. They must remain in the dusty road where the guide-boards
+      are. They must confine themselves to the "fall of man" the expulsion from
+      the garden, the "scheme of salvation," the "second birth," the atonement,
+      the happiness of the redeemed, and the misery of the lost. They must be
+      careful not to express any new ideas upon these great questions. It is
+      much safer for them to quote from the works of the dead. The more vividly
+      they describe the sufferings of the unregenerate, of those who attended
+      theatres and balls, and drank wine in summer gardens on the sabbath-day,
+      and laughed at priests, the better ministers they are supposed to be. They
+      must show that misery fits the good for heaven, while happiness prepares
+      the bad for hell; that the wicked get all their good things in this life,
+      and the good all their evil; that in this world God punishes the people he
+      loves, and in the next, the ones he hates; that happiness makes us bad
+      here, but not in heaven; that pain makes us good here, but not in hell. No
+      matter how absurd these things may appear to the carnal mind, they must be
+      preached and they must be believed. If they were reasonable, there would
+      be no virtue in believing. Even the publicans and sinners believe
+      reasonable things. To believe without evidence, or in spite of it, is
+      accounted as righteousness to the sincere and humble christian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ministers are in duty bound to denounce all intellectual pride, and
+      show that we are never quite so dear to God as when we admit that we are
+      poor, corrupt and idiotic worms; that we never should have been born; that
+      we ought to be damned without the least delay; that we are so infamous
+      that we like to enjoy ourselves; that we love our wives and children
+      better than our God; that we are generous only because we are vile; that
+      we are honest from the meanest motives, and that sometimes we have fallen
+      so low that we have had doubts about the inspiration of the Jewish
+      scriptures. In short, they are expected to denounce all pleasant paths and
+      rustling trees, to curse the grass and flowers, and glorify the dust and
+      weeds. They are expected to malign the wicked people in the green and
+      happy fields, who sit and laugh beside the gurgling springs or climb the
+      hills and wander as they will. They are expected to point out the dangers
+      of freedom, the safety of implicit obedience, and to show the wickedness
+      of philosophy, the goodness of faith, the immorality of science and the
+      purity of ignorance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now and then, a few pious people discover some young man of a religious
+      turn of mind and a consumptive habit of body, not quite sickly enough to
+      die, nor healthy enough to be wicked. The idea occurs to them that he
+      would make a good orthodox minister. They take up a contribution, and send
+      the young man to some theological school where he can be taught to repeat
+      a creed and despise reason. Should it turn out that the young man had some
+      mind of his own, and, after graduating, should change his opinions and
+      preach a different doctrine from that taught in the school, every man who
+      contributed a dollar towards his education would feel that he had been
+      robbed, and would denounce him as a dishonest and ungrateful wretch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pulpit should not be a pillory. Congregations should allow the
+      minister a little liberty. They should, at least, permit him to tell the
+      truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They have, in Massachusetts, at a place called Andover, a kind of minister
+      factory, where each professor takes an oath once in five years&mdash;that
+      time being considered the life of an oath&mdash;that he has not, during
+      the last five years, and will not, during the next five years,
+      intellectually advance. There is probably no oath that they could easier
+      keep. Probably, since the foundation stone of that institution was laid
+      there has not been a single case of perjury. The old creed is still
+      taught. They still insist that God is infinitely wise, powerful and good,
+      and that all men are totally depraved. They insist that the best man God
+      ever made, deserved to be damned the moment he was finished. Andover puts
+      its brand upon every minister it turns out, the same as Sheffield and
+      Birmingham brand their wares, and all who see the brand know exactly what
+      the minister believes, the books he has read, the arguments he relies on,
+      and just what he intellectually is. They know just what he can be depended
+      on to preach, and that he will continue to shrink and shrivel, and grow
+      solemnly stupid day by day until he reaches the Andover of the grave and
+      becomes truly orthodox forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have not singled out the Andover factory because it is worse than the
+      others. They are all about the same. The professors, for the most part,
+      are ministers who failed in the pulpit and were retired to the seminary on
+      account of their deficiency in reason and their excess of faith. As a
+      rule, they know nothing of this world, and far less of the next; but they
+      have the power of stating the most absurd propositions with faces solemn
+      as stupidity touched by fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something should be done for the liberation of these men. They should be
+      allowed to grow&mdash;to have sunlight and air. They should no longer be
+      chained and tied to confessions of faith, to mouldy books and musty
+      creeds. Thousands of ministers are anxious to give their honest thoughts.
+      The hands of wives and babes now stop their mouths. They must have bread,
+      and so the husbands and fathers are forced to preach a doctrine that they
+      hold in scorn. For the sake of shelter, food and clothes, they are obliged
+      to defend the childish miracles of the past, and denounce the sublime
+      discoveries of to-day. They are compelled to attack all modern thought, to
+      point out the dangers of science, the wickedness of investigation and the
+      corrupting influence of logic. It is for them to show that virtue rests
+      upon ignorance and faith, while vice impudently feeds and fattens upon
+      fact and demonstration. It is a part of their business to malign and
+      vilify the Voltaires, Humes, Paines, Humboldts, Tyndals, Hęckels, Darwins,
+      Spencers, and Drapers, and to bow with uncovered heads before the
+      murderers, adulterers, and persecutors of the world. They are, for the
+      most part, engaged in poisoning the minds of the young, prejudicing
+      children against science, teaching the astronomy and geology of the bible,
+      and inducing all to desert the sublime standard of reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These orthodox ministers do not add to the sum of knowledge. They produce
+      nothing. They live upon alms. They hate laughter and joy. They officiate
+      at weddings, sprinkle water upon babes, and utter meaningless words and
+      barren promises above the dead. They laugh at the agony of unbelievers,
+      mock at their tears, and of their sorrows make a jest. There are some
+      noble exceptions. Now and then a pulpit holds a brave and honest man.
+      Their congregations are willing that they should think&mdash;willing that
+      their ministers should have a little freedom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we become civilized, more and more liberty will be accorded to these
+      men, until finally ministers will give their best and highest thoughts.
+      The congregations will finally get tired of hearing about the patriarchs
+      and saints, the miracles and wonders, and will insist upon knowing
+      something about the men and women of our day, and the accomplishments and
+      discoveries of our time. They will finally insist upon knowing how to
+      escape the evils of this world instead of the next. They will ask light
+      upon the enigmas of this life. They will wish to know what we shall do
+      with our criminals instead of what God will do with his&mdash;how we shall
+      do away with beggary and want&mdash;with crime and misery&mdash;with
+      prostitution, disease and famine,&mdash;with tyranny in all its cruel
+      forms&mdash;with prisons and scaffolds, and how we shall reward the honest
+      workers, and fill the world with happy homes! These are the problems for
+      the pulpits and congregations of an enlightened future. If Science cannot
+      finally answer these questions, it is a vain and worthless thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The clergy, however, will continue to answer them in the old way, until
+      their congregations are good enough to set them free. They will still talk
+      about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, as though that were the only
+      remedy for all human ills. They will still teach that retrogression is the
+      only path that leads to light; that we must go back, that faith is the
+      only sure guide, and that reason is a delusive glare, lighting only the
+      road to eternal pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Until the clergy are free they cannot be intellectually honest. We can
+      never tell what they really believe until they know that they can safely
+      speak. They console themselves now by a secret resolution to be as liberal
+      as they dare, with the hope that they can finally educate their
+      congregations to the point of allowing them to think a little for
+      themselves. They hardly know what they ought to do. The best part of their
+      lives has been wasted in studying subjects of no possible value. Most of
+      them are married, have families, and know but one way of making their
+      living. Some of them say that if they do not preach these foolish dogmas,
+      others will, and that they may through fear, after all, restrain mankind.
+      Besides, they hate publicly to admit that they are mistaken, that the
+      whole thing is a delusion, that the "scheme of salvation" is absurd, and
+      that the bible is no better than some other books, and worse than most.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You can hardly expect a bishop to leave his palace, or the pope to vacate
+      the Vatican. As long as people want popes, plenty of hypocrites will be
+      found to take the place. And as long as labor fatigues, there will be
+      found a good many men willing to preach once a week, if other folks will
+      work and give them bread. In other words, while the demand lasts, the
+      supply will never fail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the people were a little more ignorant, astrology would flourish&mdash;if
+      a little more enlightened, religion would perish!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II. FREE SCHOOLS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It is also my desire to free the schools. When a professor in a college
+      finds a fact, he should make it known, even if it is inconsistent with
+      something Moses said. Public opinion must not compel the professor to hide
+      a fact, and, "like the base Indian, throw the pearl away." With the single
+      exception of Cornell, there is not a college in the United States where
+      truth has ever been a welcome guest. The moment one of the teachers denies
+      the inspiration of the bible, he is discharged. If he discovers a fact
+      inconsistent with that book, so much the worse for the fact, and
+      especially for the discoverer of the fact. He must not corrupt the minds
+      of his pupils with demonstrations. He must beware of every truth that
+      cannot, in some way be made to harmonize with the superstitions of the
+      Jews. Science has nothing in common with religion. Facts and miracles
+      never did, and never will agree. They are not in the least related. They
+      are deadly foes. What has religion to do with facts? Nothing. Can there be
+      Methodist mathematics, Catholic astronomy, Presbyterian geology, Baptist
+      biology, or Episcopal botany? Why, then, should a sectarian college exist?
+      Only that which somebody knows should be taught in our schools. We should
+      not collect taxes to pay people for guessing. The common school is the
+      bread of life for the people, and it should not be touched by the
+      withering hand of superstition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our country will never be filled with great institutions of learning until
+      there is an absolute divorce between Church and School. As long as the
+      mutilated records of a barbarous people are placed by priest and professor
+      above the reason of mankind, we shall reap but little benefit from church
+      or school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of dismissing professors for finding something out, let us rather
+      discharge those who do not. Let each teacher understand that investigation
+      is not dangerous for him; that his bread is safe, no matter how much truth
+      he may discover, and that his salary will not be reduced, simply because
+      he finds that the ancient Jews did not know the entire history of the
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides, it is not fair to make the Catholic support a Protestant school,
+      nor is it just to collect taxes from infidels and atheists to support
+      schools in which any system of religion is taught.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sciences are not sectarian. People do not persecute each other on
+      account of disagreements in mathematics. Families are not divided about
+      botany, and astronomy does not even tend to make a man hate his father and
+      mother. It is what people do not know, that they persecute each other
+      about. Science will bring, not a sword, but peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as long as religion has control of the schools, science will be an
+      outcast. Let us free our institutions of learning. Let us dedicate them to
+      the science of eternal truth. Let us tell every teacher to ascertain all
+      the facts he can&mdash;to give us light, to follow Nature, no matter where
+      she leads; to be infinitely true to himself and us; to feel that he is
+      without a chain, except the obligation to be honest; that he is bound by
+      no books, by no creed, neither by the sayings of the dead nor of the
+      living; that he is asked to look with his own eyes, to reason for himself
+      without fear, to investigate in every possible direction, and to bring us
+      the fruit of all his work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At present, a good many men engaged in scientific pursuits, and who have
+      signally failed in gaining recognition among their fellows, are
+      endeavoring to make reputations among the churches by delivering weak and
+      vapid lectures upon the "harmony of Genesis and Geology." Like all
+      hypocrites, these men overstate the case to such a degree, and so turn and
+      pervert facts and words that they succeed only in gaining the applause of
+      other hypocrites like themselves. Among the great scientists they are
+      regarded as generals regard sutlers who trade with both armies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surely the time must come when the wealth of the world will not be wasted
+      in the propagation of ignorant creeds and miraculous mistakes. The time
+      must come when churches and cathedrals will be dedicated to the use of
+      man; when minister and priest will deem the discoveries of the living of
+      more importance than the errors of the dead; when the truths of Nature
+      will outrank the "sacred" falsehoods of the past, and when a single fact
+      will outweigh all the miracles of Holy Writ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who can over estimate the progress of the world if all the money wasted in
+      superstition could be used to enlighten, elevate and civilize mankind?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When every church becomes a school, every cathedral a university, every
+      clergyman a teacher, and all their hearers brave and honest thinkers,
+      then, and not until then, will the dream of poet, patriot, philanthropist
+      and philosopher, become a real and blessed truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      III. THE POLITICIANS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I would like also to liberate the politician. At present, the successful
+      office-seeker is a good deal like the centre of the earth; he weighs
+      nothing himself, but draws everything else to him. There are so many
+      societies, so many churches, so many isms, that it is almost impossible
+      for an independent man to succeed in a political career. Candidates are
+      forced to pretend that they are catholics with protest-ant proclivities,
+      or christians with liberal tendencies, or temperance men who now and then
+      take a glass of wine, or, that although not members of any church their
+      wives are, and that they subscribe liberally to all. The result of all
+      this is that we reward hypocrisy and elect men entirely destitute of real
+      principle; and this will never change until the people become grand enough
+      to allow each other to do their own thinking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our government should be entirely and purely secular. The religious views
+      of a candidate should be kept entirely out of sight. He should not be
+      compelled to give his opinion as to the inspiration of the bible, the
+      propriety of infant baptism, or the immaculate conception. All these
+      things are private and personal. He should be allowed to settle such
+      things for himself, and should he decide contrary to the law and will of
+      God, let him settle the matter with God. The people ought to be wise
+      enough to select as their officers men who know something of political
+      affairs, who comprehend the present greatness, and clearly perceive the
+      future grandeur of our country. If we were in a storm at sea, with deck
+      wave-washed and masts strained and bent with storm, and it was necessary
+      to reef the top sail, we certainly would not ask the brave sailor who
+      volunteered to go aloft, what his opinion was on the five points of
+      Calvinism. Our government has nothing to do with religion. It is neither
+      christian nor pagan; it is secular. But as long as the people persist in
+      voting for or against men on account of their religious views, just so
+      long will hypocrisy hold place and power. Just so long will the candidates
+      crawl in the dust&mdash;hide their opinions, flatter those with whom they
+      differ, pretend to agree with those whom they despise; and just so long
+      will honest men be trampled under foot. Churches are becoming political
+      organizations. Nearly every Catholic is a democrat; nearly every Methodist
+      in the North is a republican.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It probably will not be long until the churches will divide as sharply
+      upon political, as upon theological questions; and when that day comes, if
+      there are not liberals enough to hold the balance of power, this
+      government will be destroyed. The liberty of man is not safe in the hands
+      of any church. Wherever the bible and sword are in partnership, man is a
+      slave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same
+      spirit that kindled the fires of the <i>auto da fe</i>, and lovingly built
+      the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing blasphemy&mdash;making
+      it a crime to give your honest ideas about the bible, or to laugh at the
+      ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself on the Sabbath, or to
+      give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by impudent bigots, and should
+      be at once repealed by honest men. An infinite God ought to be able to
+      protect himself, without going in partnership with state legislatures.
+      Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep him
+      from being laughed at. No one thinks of protecting Shakespeare from
+      ridicule, by the threat of fine and imprisonment. It strikes me that God
+      might write a book that would not necessarily excite the laughter of his
+      children. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that a real God could
+      produce a work that would excite the admiration of mankind. Surely
+      politicians could be better employed than in passing laws to protect the
+      literary reputation of the Jewish God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      IV. MAN AND WOMAN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Let us forget that we are Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians,
+      or Free-thinkers, and remember only that we are men and women. After all,
+      <i>man</i> and <i>woman</i> are the highest possible titles. All other
+      names belittle us, and show that we have, to a certain extent, given up
+      our individuality, and have consented to wear the collar of authority&mdash;that
+      we are followers. Throwing away these names, let us examine these
+      questions not as partisans, but as human beings with hopes and fears in
+      common.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We know that our opinions depend, to a great degree, upon our surroundings&mdash;upon
+      race, country, and education. We are all the result of numberless
+      conditions, and inherit vices and virtues, truths and prejudices. If we
+      had been born in England, surrounded by wealth and clothed with power,
+      most of us would have been Episcopalians, and believed in Church and
+      State. We should have insisted that the people needed a religion, and that
+      not having intellect enough to provide one for themselves, it was our duty
+      to make one for them, and then compel them to support it. We should have
+      believed it indecent to officiate in a pulpit without wearing a gown, and
+      that prayers should be read from a book. Had we belonged to the lower
+      classes, we might have been dissenters and protested against the mummeries
+      of the High Church. Had we been born in Turkey, most of us would have been
+      Mohammedans and believed in the inspiration of the Koran. We should have
+      believed that Mohammed actually visited Heaven and became acquainted with
+      an angel by the name of Gabriel, who was so broad between the eyes that it
+      required three hundred days for a very smart camel to travel the distance.
+      If some man had denied this story we should probably have denounced him as
+      a dangerous person, one who was endeavoring to undermine the foundations
+      of society, and to destroy all distinction between virtue and vice. We
+      should have said to him, "What do you propose to give us in place of that
+      angel? We cannot afford to give up an angel of that size for nothing." We
+      would have insisted that the best and wisest men believed the Koran. We
+      would have quoted from the works and letters of philosophers, generals and
+      sultans, to show that the Koran was the best of books, and that Turkey was
+      indebted to that book and to that alone for its greatness and prosperity.
+      We would have asked that man whether he knew more than all the great minds
+      of his country, whether he was so much wiser than his fathers? We would
+      have pointed out to him the fact that thousands had been consoled in the
+      hour of death by passages from the Koran; that they had died with glazed
+      eyes brightened by visions of the heavenly harem, and gladly left this
+      world of grief and tears. We would have regarded Christians as the vilest
+      of men, and on all occasions would have repeated "There is but one God,
+      and Mohammed is his prophet!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, if we had been born in India, we should in all probability have
+      believed in the religion of that country. We should have regarded the old
+      records as true and sacred, and looked upon a wandering priest as better
+      than the men from whom he begged, and by whose labor he lived. We should
+      have believed in a god with three heads instead of three gods with one
+      head, as we do now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now and then some one says that the religion of his father and mother is
+      good enough for him, and wonders why anybody should desire a better.
+      Surely we are not bound to follow our parents in religion any more than in
+      politics, science or art. China has been petrified by the worship of
+      ancestors. If our parents had been satisfied with the religion of theirs,
+      we would be still less advanced than we are. If we are, in any way, bound
+      by the belief of our fathers, the doctrine will hold good back to the
+      first people who had a religion; and if this doctrine is true, we ought
+      now to be believers in that first religion. In other words, we would all
+      be barbarians. You cannot show real respect to your parents by
+      perpetuating their errors. Good fathers and mothers wish their children to
+      advance, to overcome obstacles which baffled them, and to correct the
+      errors of their education. If you wish to reflect credit upon your
+      parents, accomplish more than they did, solve problems that they could not
+      understand, and build better than they knew. To sacrifice your manhood
+      upon the grave of your father is an honor to neither. Why should a son who
+      has examined a subject, throw away his reason and adopt the views of his
+      mother? Is not such a course dishonorable to both?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must remember that this "ancestor" argument is as old at least as the
+      second generation of men, that it has served no purpose except to enslave
+      mankind, and results mostly from the fact that acquiescence is easier than
+      investigation. This argument pushed to its logical conclusion, would
+      prevent the advance of all people whose parents were not free-thinkers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is hard for many people to give up the religion in which they were
+      born; to admit that their fathers were utterly mistaken, and that the
+      sacred records of their country are but collections of myths and fables.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when we look for a moment at the world, we find that each nation has
+      its "sacred records"&mdash;its religion, and its ideas of worship.
+      Certainly all cannot be right; and as it would require a life time to
+      investigate the claims of these various systems, it is hardly fair to damn
+      a man forever, simply because he happens to believe the wrong one. All
+      these religions were produced by barbarians. Civilized nations have
+      contented themselves with changing the religions of their barbaric
+      ancestors, but they have made none. Nearly all these religions are
+      intensely selfish. Each one was made by some contemptible little nation
+      that regarded itself as of almost infinite importance, and looked upon the
+      other nations as beneath the notice of their god. In all these countries
+      it was a crime to deny the sacred records, to laugh at the priests, to
+      speak disrespectfully of the gods, to fail to divide your substance with
+      the lazy hypocrites who managed your affairs in the next world upon
+      condition that you would support them in this. In the olden time these
+      theological people who quartered themselves upon the honest and
+      industrious, were called soothsayers, seers, charmers, prophets,
+      enchanters, sorcerers, wizards, astrologers, and impostors, but now, they
+      are known as clergymen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are no exception to the general rule, and consequently have our sacred
+      books as well as the rest. Of course, it is claimed by many of our people
+      that our books are the only true ones, the only ones that the real God
+      ever wrote, or had anything whatever to do with. They insist that all
+      other sacred books were written by hypocrites and impostors; that the Jews
+      were the only people that God ever had any personal intercourse with, and
+      that all other prophets and seers were inspired only by impudence and
+      mendacity. True, it seems somewhat strange that God should have chosen a
+      barbarous and unknown people who had little or nothing to do with the
+      other nations of the earth, as his messengers to the rest of mankind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not easy to account for an infinite God making people so low in the
+      scale of intellect as to require a revelation. Neither is it easy to
+      perceive why, if a revelation was necessary for all, it was made only to a
+      few. Of course, I know that it is extremely wicked to suggest these
+      thoughts, and that ignorance is the only armor that can effectually
+      protect you from the wrath of God. I am aware that investigators with all
+      their genius, never find the road to heaven; that those who look where
+      they are going are sure to miss it, and that only those who voluntarily
+      put out their eyes and implicitly depend upon blindness can surely keep
+      the narrow path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whoever reads our sacred book is compelled to believe it or suffer forever
+      the torments of the lost. We are told that we have the privilege of
+      examining it for ourselves; but this privilege is only extended to us on
+      the condition that we believe it whether it appears reasonable or not. We
+      may disagree with others as much as we please upon the meaning of all
+      passages in the bible, but we must not deny the truth of a single word. We
+      must believe that the book is inspired. If we obey its every precept
+      without believing in its inspiration we will be damned just as certainly
+      as though we disobeyed its every word. We have no right to weigh it in the
+      scales of reason&mdash;to test it by the laws of nature, or the facts of
+      observation and experience. To do this, we are told, is to put ourselves
+      above the word of God, and sit in judgment on the works of our creator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For my part, I cannot admit that belief is a voluntary thing. It seems to
+      me that evidence, even in spite of ourselves, will have its weight, and
+      that whatever our wish may be, we are compelled to stand with fairness by
+      the scales, and give the exact result. It will not do to say that we
+      reject the bible because we are wicked. Our wickedness must be ascertained
+      not from our belief but from our acts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am told by the clergy that I ought not to attack the bible; that I am
+      leading thousands to perdition and rendering certain the damnation of my
+      own soul. They have had the kindness to advise me that, if my object is to
+      make converts, I am pursuing the wrong course. They tell me to use gentler
+      expressions, and more cunning words. Do they really wish me to make more
+      converts? If their advice is honest, they are traitors to their trust. If
+      their advice is not honest, then they are unfair with me. Certainly they
+      should wish me to pursue the course that will make the fewest converts,
+      and yet they pretend to tell me how my influence could be increased. It
+      may be, that upon this principle John Bright advises America to adopt free
+      trade, so that our country can become a successful rival of Great Britain.
+      Sometimes I think that even ministers are not entirely candid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the advice of the clergy, I have concluded to pursue my
+      own course, to tell my honest thoughts, and to have my freedom in this
+      world whatever my fate may be in the next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The real oppressor, enslaver and corrupter of the people is the bible.
+      That book is the chain that binds, the dungeon that holds the clergy. That
+      book spreads the pall of superstition over the colleges and schools. That
+      book puts out the eyes of science, and makes honest investigation a crime.
+      That book unmans the politician and degrades the people. That book fills
+      the world with bigotry, hypocrisy and fear. It plays the same part in our
+      country that has been played by "sacred records" in all the nations of the
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little while ago I saw one of the bibles of the Middle Ages. It was
+      about two feet in length, and one and a half in width. It had immense
+      oaken covers, with hasps, and clasps, and hinges large enough almost for
+      the doors of a penitentiary. It was covered with pictures of winged angels
+      and aureoled saints. In my imagination I saw this book carried to the
+      cathedral altar in solemn pomp&mdash;heard the chant of robed and kneeling
+      priests, felt the strange tremor of the organ's peal; saw the colored
+      light streaming through windows stained and touched by blood and flame&mdash;the
+      swinging censer with its perfumed incense rising to the mighty roof, dim
+      with height and rich with legend carved in stone, while on the walls was
+      hung, written in light, and shade, and all the colors that can tell of joy
+      and tears, the pictured history of the martyred Christ. The people fell
+      upon their knees. The book was opened, and the priest read the messages
+      from God to man. To the multitude, the book itself was evidence enough
+      that it was not the work of human hands. How could those little marks and
+      lines and dots contain, like tombs, the thoughts of men, and how could
+      they, touched by a ray of light from human eyes, give up their dead? How
+      could these characters span the vast chasm dividing the present from the
+      past, and make it possible for the living still to hear the voices of the
+      dead?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      V. THE PENTATEUCH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The first five books in our bible are known as the Pentateuch. For a long
+      time it was supposed that Moses was the author, and among the ignorant the
+      supposition still prevails. As a matter of fact, it seems to be well
+      settled that Moses had nothing to do with these books, and that they were
+      not written until he had been dust and ashes for hundreds of years. But,
+      as all the churches still insist that he was the author, that he wrote
+      even an account of his own death and burial, let us speak of him as though
+      these books were in fact written by him. As the christians maintain that
+      God was the real author, it makes but little difference whom he employed
+      as his pen, or clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nearly all authors of sacred books have given an account of the creation
+      of the universe, the origin of matter, and the destiny of the human race.
+      Nearly all have pointed out the obligation that man is under to his
+      creator for having placed him upon the earth, and allowed him to live and
+      suffer, and have taught that nothing short of the most abject worship
+      could possibly compensate God for his trouble and labor suffered and done
+      for the good of man. They have nearly all insisted that we should thank
+      God for all that is good in life; but they have not all informed us as to
+      whom we should hold responsible for the evils we endure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moses differed from most of the makers of sacred books by his failure to
+      say anything of a future life, by failing to promise heaven, and to
+      threaten hell. Upon the subject of a future state, there is not one word
+      in the Pentateuch. Probably at that early day God did not deem it
+      important to make a revelation as to the eternal destiny of man. He seems
+      to have thought that he could control the Jews, at least, by rewards and
+      punishments in this world, and so he kept the frightful realities of
+      eternal joy and torment a profound secret from the people of his choice.
+      He thought it far more important to tell the Jews their origin than to
+      enlighten them as to their destiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must remember that every tribe and nation has some way in which, the
+      more striking phenomena of nature are accounted for. These accounts are
+      handed down by tradition, changed by numberless narrators as intelligence
+      increases, or to account for newly discovered facts, or for the purpose of
+      satisfying the appetite for the marvelous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The way in which a tribe or nation accounts for day and night, the change
+      of seasons, the fall of snow and rain, the flight of birds, the origin of
+      the rainbow, the peculiarities of animals, the dreams of sleep, the
+      visions of the insane, the existence of earthquakes, volcanoes, storms,
+      lightning and the thousand things that attract the attention and excite
+      the wonder, fear or admiration of mankind, may be called the philosophy of
+      that tribe or nation. And as all phenomena are, by savage and barbaric man
+      accounted for as the action of intelligent beings for the accomplishment
+      of certain objects, and as these beings were supposed to have the power to
+      assist or injure man, certain things were supposed necessary for man to do
+      in order to gain the assistance, and avoid the anger of these gods. Out of
+      this belief grew certain ceremonies, and these ceremonies united with the
+      belief, formed religion; and consequently every religion has for its
+      foundation a misconception of the cause of phenomena.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All worship is necessarily based upon the belief that some being exists
+      who can, if he will, change the natural order of events. The savage prays
+      to a stone that he calls a god, while the christian prays to a god that he
+      calls a spirit, and the prayers of both are equally useful. The savage and
+      the christian put behind the Universe an intelligent cause, and this cause
+      whether represented by one god or many, has been, in all ages, the object
+      of all worship. To carry a fetich, to utter a prayer, to count beads, to
+      abstain from food, to sacrifice a lamb, a child or an enemy, are simply
+      different ways by which the accomplishment of the same object is sought,
+      and are all the offspring of the same error.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many systems of religion must have existed many ages before the art of
+      writing was discovered, and must have passed through many changes before
+      the stories, miracles, histories, prophesies and mistakes became fixed and
+      petrified in written words. After that, change was possible only by giving
+      new meanings to old words, a process rendered necessary by the continual
+      acquisition of facts somewhat inconsistent with a literal interpretation
+      of the "sacred records." In this way an honest faith often prolongs its
+      life by dishonest methods; and in this way the Christians of to-day are
+      trying to harmonize the Mosaic account of creation with the theories and
+      discoveries of modern science.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Admitting that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, or that he gave to
+      the Jews a religion, the question arises as to where he obtained his
+      information. We are told by the theologians that he received his knowledge
+      from God, and that every word he wrote was and is the exact truth. It is
+      admitted at the same time that he was an adopted son of Pharaoh's
+      daughter, and enjoyed the rank and privilege of a prince. Under such
+      circumstances, he must have been well acquainted with the literature,
+      philosophy and religion of the Egyptians, and must have known what they
+      believed and taught as to the creation of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, if the account of the origin of this earth as given by Moses is
+      substantially like that given by the Egyptians, then we must conclude that
+      he learned it from them. Should we imagine that he was divinely inspired
+      because he gave to the Jews what the Egyptians had given him?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Egyptian priests taught <i>first</i>, that a god created the original
+      matter, leaving it in a state of chaos; <i>second</i>, that a god moulded
+      it into form; <i>third</i>, that the breath of a god moved upon the face
+      of the deep; <i>fourth</i>, that a god created simply by saying "Let it
+      be;" <i>fifth</i>, that a god created light before the sun existed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing can be clearer than that Moses received from the Egyptians the
+      principal parts of his narrative, making such changes and additions as
+      were necessary to satisfy the peculiar superstitions of his own people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If some man at the present day should assert that he had received from God
+      the theories of evolution, the survival of the fittest, and the law of
+      heredity, and we should afterwards find that he was not only an
+      Englishman, but had lived in the family of Charles Darwin, we certainly
+      would account for his having these theories in a natural way, So, if
+      Darwin himself should pretend that he was inspired, and had obtained his
+      peculiar theories from God, we should probably reply that his grandfather
+      suggested the the same ideas, and that Lamarck published substantially the
+      same theories the same year that Mr. Darwin was born.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, if we have sufficient courage, we will, by the same course of
+      reasoning, account for the story of creation found in the bible. We will
+      say that it contains the belief of Moses, and that he received his
+      information from the Egyptians, and not from God. If we take the account
+      as the absolute truth and use it for the purpose of determining the value
+      of modern thought, scientific advancement becomes impossible. And even if
+      the account of the Creation as given by Moses should turn out to be true,
+      and should be so admitted by all the scientific world, the claim that he
+      was inspired would still be without the least particle of proof. We would
+      be forced to admit that he knew more than we had supposed. It certainly is
+      no proof that a man is inspired simply because he is right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one pretends that Shakespeare was inspired, and yet all the writers of
+      the books of the Old Testament put together, could not have produced
+      Hamlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why should we, looking upon some rough and awkward thing, or god in stone,
+      say that it must have been produced by some inspired sculptor, and with
+      the same breath pronounce the <i>Venus de Milo</i> to be the work of man?
+      Why should we, looking at some ancient daub of angel, saint or virgin, say
+      its painter must have been assisted by a god?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us account for all we see by the facts we know. If there are things
+      for which we cannot account, let us wait for light. To account for
+      anything by supernatural agencies is, in fact to say that we do not know.
+      Theology is not what we know about God, but what we do not know about
+      Nature. In order to increase our respect for the bible, it became
+      necessary for the priests to exalt and extol that book, and at the same
+      time to decry and belittle the reasoning powers of man. The whole power of
+      the pulpit has been used for hundreds of years to destroy the confidence
+      of man in himself&mdash;to induce him to distrust his own powers of
+      thought, to believe that he was wholly unable to decide any question for
+      himself, and that all human virtue consists in faith and obedience. The
+      Church has said, "Believe, and obey! If you reason, you will become an
+      unbeliever, and unbelievers will be lost. If you disobey, you will do so
+      through vain pride and curiosity, and will, like Adam and Eve, be thrust
+      from paradise forever!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For my part, I care nothing for what the Church says, except in so far as
+      it accords with my reason; and the bible is nothing to me, only in so far
+      as it agrees with what I think or know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All books should be examined in the same spirit, and truth should be
+      welcomed and falsehood exposed, no matter in what volume they may be
+      found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us in this spirit examine the Pentateuch; and if anything appears
+      unreasonable, contradictory or absurd, let us have the honesty and courage
+      to admit it. Certainly no good can result either from deceiving ourselves
+      or others. Many millions have implicitly believed this book, and have just
+      as implicitly believed that polygamy was sanctioned by God. Millions have
+      regarded this book as the foundation of all human progress, and at the
+      same time looked upon slavery as a divine institution. Millions have
+      declared this book to have been infinitely holy, and to prove that they
+      were right, have imprisoned, robbed and burned their fellow men. The
+      inspiration of this book has been established by famine, sword and fire,
+      by dungeon, chain and whip, by dagger and by rack, by force and fear and
+      fraud, and generations have been frightened by threats of hell, and bribed
+      with promises of heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us examine a portion of this book, not in the darkness of our fear,
+      but in the light of reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And first, let us examine the account given of the Creation of this world,
+      commenced, according to the bible, on Monday morning about five thousand
+      eight hundred and eighty-three years ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VI. MONDAY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Moses commences his story by telling us that in the beginning God created
+      the heaven and the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If this means anything, it means that God produced, caused to exist,
+      called into being, the heaven and the earth. It will not do to say that he
+      formed the heaven and the earth of previously existing matter. Moses
+      conveys, and intended to convey the idea that the matter of which the
+      heaven and the earth are composed, was created.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is impossible for me to conceive of something being created from
+      nothing. Nothing, regarded in the light of a raw material, is a decided
+      failure. I cannot conceive of matter apart from force. Neither is it
+      possible to think of force disconnected with matter. You cannot imagine
+      matter going back to absolute nothing. Neither can you imagine nothing
+      being changed into something. You may be eternally damned if you do not
+      say that you can conceive these things, but you cannot conceive them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the constitution of the human mind that it cannot even think of a
+      commencement or an end of matter, or force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If God created the universe, there was a time when he commenced to create.
+      Back of that commencement there must have been an eternity. In that
+      eternity what was this God doing? He certainly did not think. There was
+      nothing to think about. He did not remember. Nothing had ever happened.
+      What did he do? Can you imagine anything more absurd than an infinite
+      intelligence in infinite nothing wasting an eternity?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not pretend to tell how all these things really are; but I do insist
+      that a statement that cannot possibly be comprehended by any human being,
+      and that appears utterly impossible, repugnant to every fact of
+      experience, and contrary to everything that we really know, must be
+      rejected by every honest man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We can conceive of eternity, because we cannot conceive of a cessation of
+      time. We can conceive of infinite space because we cannot conceive of so
+      much matter that our imagination will not stand upon the farthest star,
+      and see infinite space beyond. In other words, we cannot conceive of a
+      cessation of time; therefore eternity is a necessity of the mind. Eternity
+      sustains the same relation to time that space does to matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the time of Moses, it was perfectly safe for him to write an account of
+      the creation of the world. He had simply to put in form the crude notions
+      of the people. At that time, no other Jew could have written a better
+      account. Upon that subject he felt at liberty to give his imagination full
+      play. There was no one who could authoritatively contradict anything he
+      might say. It was substantially the same story that had been imprinted in
+      curious characters upon the clay records of Babylon, the gigantic
+      monuments of Egypt, and the gloomy temples of India. In those days there
+      was an almost infinite difference between the educated and ignorant. The
+      people were controlled almost entirely by signs and wonders. By the lever
+      of fear, priests moved the world. The sacred records were made and kept,
+      and altered by them. The people could not read, and looked upon one who
+      could, as almost a god. In our day it is hard to conceive of the influence
+      of an educated class in a barbarous age. It was only necessary to produce
+      the "sacred record," and ignorance fell upon its face. The people were
+      taught that the record was inspired, and therefore true. They were not
+      taught that it was true, and therefore inspired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After all, the real question is not whether the bible is inspired, but
+      whether it is true. If it is true, it does not need to be inspired. If it
+      is true, it makes no difference whether it was written by a man or a god.
+      The multiplication table is just as useful, just as true as though God had
+      arranged the figures himself. If the bible is really true, the claim of
+      inspiration need not be urged; and if it is not true, its inspiration can
+      hardly be established. As a matter of fact, the truth does not need to be
+      inspired. Nothing needs inspiration except a falsehood or a mistake. Where
+      truth ends, where probability stops, inspiration begins. A fact never went
+      into partnership with a miracle. Truth does not need the assistance of
+      miracle. A fact will fit every other fact in the Universe, because it is
+      the product of all other facts. A lie will fit nothing except another lie
+      made for the express purpose of fitting it. After a while the man gets
+      tired of lying, and then the last lie will not fit the next fact, and then
+      there is an opportunity to use a miracle. Just at that point, it is
+      necessary to have a little inspiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems to me that reason is the highest attribute of man, and that if
+      there can be any communication from God to man, it must be addressed to
+      his reason. It does not seem possible that in order to understand a
+      message from God it is absolutely essential to throw our reason away. How
+      could God make known his will to any being destitute of reason? How can
+      any man accept as a revelation from God that which is unreasonable to him?
+      God cannot make a revelation to another man for me. He must make it to me,
+      and until he convinces my reason that it is true, I cannot receive it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The statement that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,
+      I cannot accept. It is contrary to my reason, and I cannot believe it. It
+      appears reasonable to me that force has existed from eternity. Force
+      cannot, as it appears to me, exist apart from matter. Force, in its
+      nature, is forever active, and without matter it could not act; and so I
+      think matter must have existed forever. To conceive of matter without
+      force, or of force without matter, or of a time when neither existed, or
+      of a being who existed for an eternity without either, and who out of
+      nothing created both, is to me utterly impossible. I may be damned on this
+      account, but I cannot help it. In my judgment, Moses was mistaken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will not do to say that Moses merely intended to tell what God did, in
+      making the heavens and the earth out of matter then in existence. He
+      distinctly states that in the <i>beginning</i> God created them. If this
+      account is true, we must believe that God, existing in infinite space
+      surrounded by eternal nothing, naught and void, created, produced, called
+      into being, willed into existence this universe of countless stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next thing we are told by this inspired gentleman is, that God created
+      light, and proceeded to divide it from the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certainly, the person who wrote this believed that darkness was a thing,
+      an entity, a material that could get mixed and tangled up with light, and
+      that these entities, light and darkness, had to be separated. In his
+      imagination he probably saw God throwing pieces and chunks of darkness on
+      one side, and rays and beams of light on the other. It is hard for a man
+      who has been born but once to understand these things. For my part I
+      cannot understand how light can be separated from darkness. I had always
+      supposed that darkness was simply the absence of light, and that under no
+      circumstances could it be necessary to take the darkness away from the
+      light. It is certain, however, that Moses believed darkness to be a form
+      of matter, because I find that in another place he speaks of a darkness
+      that could be felt. They used to have on exhibition at Rome a bottle of
+      the darkness that overspread Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You cannot divide light from darkness any more than you can divide heat
+      from cold. Cold is an absence of heat, and darkness is an absence of
+      light. I suppose that we have no conception of absolute cold. We know only
+      degrees of heat. Twenty degrees below zero is just twenty degrees warmer
+      than forty degrees below zero. Neither cold nor darkness are entities, and
+      these words express simply either the absolute or partial absence of heat
+      or light. I cannot conceive how light can be divided from darkness, but I
+      can conceive how a barbarian several thousand years ago, writing upon a
+      subject about which he knew nothing, could make a mistake. The creator of
+      light could not have written in this way. If such a being exists, he must
+      have known the nature of that "mode of motion" that paints the earth on
+      every eye, and clothes in garments seven-hued this universe of worlds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VII. TUESDAY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We are next informed by Moses that "God said Let there be a firmament in
+      the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters;"
+      and that "God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under
+      the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What did the writer mean by the word firmament? Theologians now tell us
+      that he meant an "expanse." This will not do. How could an expanse divide
+      the waters from the waters, so that the waters above the expanse would not
+      fall into and mingle with the waters below the expanse? The truth is that
+      Moses regarded the firmament as a solid affair. It was where God lived,
+      and where water was kept. It was for this reason that they used to pray
+      for rain. They supposed that some angel could with a lever raise a gate
+      and let out the quantity of moisture desired. It was with the water from
+      this firmament that the world was drowned when the windows of heaven were
+      opened. It was in this firmament that the sons of God lived&mdash;the sons
+      who "saw the daughters of men that they were fair and took them wives of
+      all which they chose." The issue of such marriages were giants, and "the
+      same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing is clearer than that Moses regarded the firmament as a vast
+      material division that separated the waters of the world, and upon whose
+      floor God lived, surrounded by his sons. In no other way could he account
+      for rain. Where did the water come from? He knew nothing about the laws of
+      evaporation. He did not know that the sun wooed with amorous kisses the
+      waves of the sea, and that they, clad in glorified mist rising to meet
+      their lover, were, by disappointment, changed to tears and fell as rain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The idea that the firmament was the abode of the Deity must have been in
+      the mind of Moses when he related the dream of Jacob. "And he dreamed, and
+      behold, a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven;
+      and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it; and behold
+      the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, when the people were building the tower of Babel "the Lord came down
+      to see the city, and the tower which the children of men builded. And the
+      Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they have all one language: and
+      this they begin to do; and nothing will be restrained from them which they
+      imagined to do. Go to, let us go down and confound their language that
+      they may not understand one another's speech."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man who wrote that absurd account must have believed that God lived
+      above the earth, in the firmament. The same idea was in the mind of the
+      Psalmist when he said that God "bowed the heavens and came down."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, God could easily remove any person bodily to heaven, as it was
+      but a little way above the earth. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not,
+      for God took him." The accounts in the bible of the ascension of Elijah,
+      Christ and St. Paul were born of the belief that the firmament was the
+      dwelling-place of God. It probably never occurred to these writers that if
+      the firmament was seven or eight miles away, Enoch and the rest would have
+      been frozen perfectly stiff long before the journey could have been
+      completed. Possibly Elijah might have made the voyage, as he was carried
+      to heaven in a chariot of fire "by a whirlwind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth is, that Moses was mistaken, and upon that mistake the
+      christians located their heaven and their hell. The telescope destroyed
+      the firmament, did away with the heaven of the New Testament, rendered the
+      ascension of our Lord and the assumption of his Mother infinitely absurd,
+      crumbled to chaos the gates and palaces of the New Jerusalem, and in their
+      places gave to man a wilderness of worlds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VIII. WEDNESDAY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We are next informed by the historian of Creation, that after God had
+      finished making the firmament and had succeeded in dividing the waters by
+      means of an "expanse," he proceeded "to gather the waters on the earth
+      together in seas, so that the dry land might appear."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certainly the writer of this did not have any conception of the real form
+      of the earth. He could not have known anything of the attraction of
+      gravitation. He must have regarded the earth as flat and supposed that it
+      required considerable force and power to induce the water to leave the
+      mountains and collect in the valleys. Just as soon as the water was forced
+      to run down hill, the dry land appeared, and the grass began to grow, and
+      the mantles of green were thrown over the shoulders of the hills, and the
+      trees laughed into bud and blossom, and the branches were laden with
+      fruit. And all this happened before a ray had left the quiver of the sun,
+      before a glittering beam had thrilled the bosom of a flower, and before
+      the Dawn with trembling hands had drawn aside the curtains of the East and
+      welcomed to her arms the eager god of Day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It does not seem to me that grass and trees could grow and ripen into seed
+      and fruit without the sun. According to the account, this all happened on
+      the third day. Now, if, as the christians say, Moses did not mean by the
+      word day a period of twenty-four hours, but an immense and almost
+      measureless space of time, and as God did not, according to this view make
+      any animals until the fifth day, that is, not for millions of years after
+      he made the grass and trees, for what purpose did he cause the trees to
+      bear fruit?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moses says that God said on the third day, "Let the earth bring forth
+      grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his
+      kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth; and it was so. And the earth
+      brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree
+      yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind; and God saw that
+      it was good, and the evening and the morning were the third day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing to eat this fruit; not an insect with painted wings
+      sought the honey of the flowers; not a single living, breathing thing upon
+      the earth. Plenty of grass, a great variety of herbs, an abundance of
+      fruit, but not a mouth in all the world. If Moses is right, this state of
+      things lasted only two days; but if the modern theologians are correct, it
+      continued for millions of ages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is now well known that the organic history of the earth can be
+      properly divided into five epochs&mdash;the Primordial, Primary,
+      Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary. Each of these epochs is characterized
+      by animal and vegetable life peculiar to itself.. In the First will be
+      found Algae and Skull-less Vertebrates, in the Second, Ferns and Fishes,
+      in the Third, Pine Forests and Reptiles, in the Fourth, Foliaceous Forests
+      and Mammals, and in the Fifth, Man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How much more reasonable this is than the idea that the Earth was covered
+      with grass, and herbs, and trees loaded with fruit for millions of years
+      before an animal existed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is, in Nature, an even balance forever kept between the total
+      amounts of animal and vegetable life. "In her wonderful economy she must
+      form and bountifully nourish her vegetable progeny&mdash;twin-brother life
+      to her, with that of animals. The perfect balance between plant existences
+      and animal existences must always be maintained, while matter courses
+      through the eternal circle, becoming each in turn. If an animal be
+      resolved into its ultimate constituents in a period according to the
+      surrounding circumstances, say, of four hours, of four months, of four
+      years, or even of four thousand years,&mdash;for it is impossible to deny
+      that there may be instances of all these periods during which the process
+      has continued&mdash;those elements which assume the gaseous form mingle at
+      once with the atmosphere and are taken up from it without delay by the
+      ever-open mouths of vegetable life. By a thousand pores in every leaf the
+      carbonic acid which renders the atmosphere unfit for animal life is
+      absorbed, the carbon being separated, and assimilated to form the
+      vegetable fibre, which, as wood, makes and furnishes our houses and ships,
+      is burned for our warmth, or is stored up under pressure for coal. All
+      this carbon has played its part, and many parts in its time, as animal
+      existences from monad up to man. Our mahogany of to-day has been many
+      negroes in its turn, and before the African existed, was integral portions
+      of many a generation of extinct species."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems reasonable to suppose that certain kinds of vegetation and
+      certain kinds of animals should exist together, and that as the character
+      of the vegetation changed, a corresponding change would take place in the
+      animal world. It may be that I am led to these conclusions by "total
+      depravity," or that I lack the necessary humility of spirit to
+      satisfactorily harmonize Haeckel and Moses; or that I am carried away by
+      pride, blinded by reason, given over to hardness of heart that I might be
+      damned, but I never can believe that the earth was covered with leaves,
+      and buds, and flowers, and fruits before the sun with glittering spear had
+      driven back the hosts of Night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      IX. THURSDAY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      After the world was covered with vegetation, it occurred to Moses that it
+      was about time to make a sun and moon; and so we are told that on the
+      fourth day God said, "Let there be light in the firmament of the heaven to
+      divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons,
+      and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the
+      heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made two great
+      lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule
+      the night; he made the stars also."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can we believe that the inspired writer had any idea of the size of the
+      sun? Draw a circle five inches in diameter, and by its side thrust a pin
+      through the paper. The hole made by the pin will sustain about the same
+      relation to the circle that the earth does to the sun. Did he know that
+      the sun was eight hundred and sixty thousand miles in diameter; that it
+      was enveloped in an ocean of fire thousands of miles in depth, hotter even
+      than the christian's hell, over which sweep tempests of flame moving at
+      the rate of one hundred miles a second, compared with which the wildest
+      storm that ever wrecked the forests of this world was but a calm? Did he
+      know that the sun every moment of time throws out as much heat as could be
+      generated by the combustion of millions upon millions of tons of coal? Did
+      he know that the volume of the Earth is less than one-millionth of that of
+      the sun? Did he know of the one hundred and four planets belonging to our
+      solar system, all children of the sun? Did he know of Jupiter eighty-five
+      thousand miles in diameter, hundreds of times as large as our earth,
+      turning on his axis at the rate of twenty-five thousand miles an hour
+      accompanied by four moons, making the tour of his orbit in fifty years, a
+      distance of three thousand million miles? Did he know anything about
+      Saturn, his rings and his eight moons? Did he have the faintest idea that
+      all these planets were once a part of the sun; that the vast luminary was
+      once thousands of millions of miles in diameter; that Neptune, Uranus,
+      Saturn, Jupiter and Mars were all born before our earth, and that by no
+      possibility could this world have existed three days, nor three periods,
+      nor three "good whiles" before its source, the sun?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moses supposed the sun to be about three or four feet in diameter and the
+      moon about half that size. Compared with the earth they were but simple
+      specks. This idea seems to have been shared by all the "inspired" men. We
+      find in the book of Joshua that the sun stood still, and the moon stayed
+      until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. "So the sun
+      stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a
+      whole day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are told that the sacred writer wrote in common speech as we do when we
+      talk about the rising and setting of the sun, and that all he intended to
+      say was that the earth ceased to turn on its axis "for about a whole day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My own opinion is that General Joshua knew no more about the motions of
+      the earth than he did about mercy and justice. If he had known that the
+      earth turned upon its axis at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, and
+      swept in its course about the sun at the rate of sixty-eight thousand
+      miles an hour, he would have doubled the hailstones, spoken of in the same
+      chapter, that the Lord cast down from heaven, and allowed the sun and moon
+      to rise and set in the usual way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is impossible to conceive of a more absurd story than this about the
+      stopping of the sun and moon, and yet nothing so excites the malice of the
+      orthodox preacher as to call its truth in question. Some endeavor to
+      account for the phenomenon by natural causes, while others attempt to show
+      that God could, by the refraction of light have made the sun visible
+      although actually shining on the opposite side of the earth. The last
+      hypothesis has been seriously urged by ministers within the last few
+      months. The Rev. Henry M. Morey of South Bend, Indiana, says "that the
+      phenomenon was simply optical. The rotary motion of the earth was not
+      disturbed, but the light of the sun was prolonged by the same laws of
+      refraction and reflection by which the sun now appears to be above the
+      horizon when it is really below. The medium through which the sun's rays
+      passed may have been miraculously influenced so as to have caused the sun
+      to linger above the horizon long after its usual time for disappearance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the latest and ripest product of christian scholarship upon this
+      question no doubt, but still it is not entirely satisfactory to me.
+      According to the sacred account the sun did not linger, merely, above the
+      horizon, but stood still "in the midst of heaven for about a whole day,"
+      that is to say, for about twelve hours. If the air was miraculously
+      changed, so that it would refract the rays of the sun while the earth
+      turned over as usual for "about a whole day," then, at the end of that
+      time the sun must have been visible in the east, that is, it must by that
+      time have been the next morning. According to this, that most wonderful
+      day must have been at least thirty-six hours in length. We have first, the
+      twelve hours of natural light, then twelve hours of "refracted and
+      reflected" light. By that time it would again be morning, and the sun
+      would shine for twelve hours more in the natural way, making thirty-six
+      hours in all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the Rev. Morey would depend a little less on "refraction" and a little
+      more on "reflection," he would conclude that the whole story is simply a
+      barbaric myth and fable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It hardly seems reasonable that God, if there is one, would either stop
+      the globe, change the constitution of the atmosphere or the nature of
+      light simply to afford Joshua an opportunity to kill people on that day
+      when he could just as easily have waited until the next morning. It
+      certainly cannot be very gratifying to God for us to believe such childish
+      things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been demonstrated that force is eternal; that it is forever active,
+      and eludes destruction by change of form. Motion is a form of force, and
+      all arrested motion changes instantly to heat. The earth turns upon its
+      axis at about one thousand miles an hour. Let it be stopped and a force
+      beyond our imagination is changed to heat. It has been calculated that to
+      stop the world would produce as much heat as the burning of a solid piece
+      of coal three times the size of the earth. And yet we are asked to believe
+      that this was done in order that one barbarian might defeat another. Such
+      stories never would have been written, had not the belief been general
+      that the heavenly bodies were as nothing compared with the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The view of Moses was acquiesced in by the Jewish people and by the
+      Christian world for thousands of years. It is supposed that Moses lived
+      about fifteen hundred years before Christ, and although he was "inspired,"
+      and obtained his information directly from God, he did not know as much
+      about our solar system as the Chinese did a thousand years before he was
+      born. "The Emperor Chwenhio adopted as an epoch, a conjunction of the
+      planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which has been shown by M.
+      Bailly to have occurred no less than 2449 years before Christ." The
+      ancient Chinese knew not only the motions of the planets, but they could
+      calculate eclipses. "In the reign of the Emperor Chow-Kang, the chief
+      astronomers, Ho and Hi were condemned to death for neglecting to announce
+      a solar eclipse which took place 2169 B. C, a clear proof that the
+      prediction of eclipses was a part of the duty of the imperial
+      astronomers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it not strange that a Chinaman should find out by his own exertions
+      more about the material universe than Moses could when assisted by its
+      Creator?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About eight hundred years after God gave Moses the principal facts about
+      the creation of the "heaven and the earth" he performed another miracle
+      far more wonderful than stopping the world. On this occasion he not only
+      stopped the earth, but actually caused it to turn the other way. A Jewish
+      king was sick, and God, in order to convince him that he would ultimately
+      recover, offered to make the shadow on the dial go forward, or backward
+      ten degrees. The king thought it was too easy a thing to make the shadow
+      go forward, and asked that it be turned back. Thereupon, "Isaiah the
+      prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees
+      backward by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." I hardly see how
+      this miracle could be accounted for even by "refraction" and "reflection."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems, from the account, that this stupendous miracle was performed
+      after the king had been cured. The account of the shadow going backward is
+      given in the eleventh verse of the twentieth chapter of Second Kings,
+      while the cure is given in the seventh verse of the same chapter. "And
+      Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil,
+      and he recovered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stopping the world and causing it to turn back ten degrees after that,
+      seems to have been, as the boil was already cured by the figs, a useless
+      display of power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The easiest way to account for all these wonders is to say that the
+      "inspired" writers were mistaken. In this way a fearful burden is lifted
+      from the credulity of man, and he is left free to believe the evidences of
+      his own senses, and the demonstrations of science. In this way he can
+      emancipate himself from the slavery of superstition, the control of the
+      barbaric dead, and the despotism of the church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only about a hundred years ago, Buffon, the naturalist, was compelled by
+      the faculty of theology at Paris to publicly renounce fourteen "errors" in
+      his work on Natural History because they were at variance with the Mosaic
+      account of creation. The Pentateuch is still the scientific standard of
+      the church, and ignorant priests, armed with that, pronounce sentence upon
+      the vast accomplishments of modern thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      X. "HE MADE THE STARS ALSO."
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Moses came very near forgetting about the stars, and only gave five words
+      to all the hosts of heaven. Can it be possible that he knew anything about
+      the stars beyond the mere fact that he saw them shining above him?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did he know that the nearest star, the one we ought to be the best
+      acquainted with, is twenty-one billion of miles away, and that it is a sun
+      shining by its own light? Did he know of the next, that is thirty-seven
+      billion miles distant? Is it possible that he was acquainted with Sirius,
+      a sun two thousand six hundred and eighty-eight times larger than our own,
+      surrounded by a system of heavenly bodies, several of which are already
+      known, and distant from us eighty-two billion miles? Did he know that the
+      Polar star that tells the mariner his course and guided slaves to liberty
+      and joy, is distant from this little world two hundred and ninety-two
+      billion miles, and that Capella wheels and shines one hundred and
+      thirty-three billion miles beyond? Did he know that it would require about
+      seventy-two years for light to reach us from this star? Did he know that
+      light travels one hundred and eighty-five thousand miles a second? Did he
+      know that some stars are so far away in the infinite abysses that five
+      millions of years are required for their light to reach this globe?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If this is true, and if as the bible tells us, the stars were made after
+      the earth, then this world has been wheeling in its orbit for at least
+      five million years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be replied that it was not the intention of God to teach geology
+      and astronomy. Then why did he say anything upon these subjects? and if he
+      did say anything, why did he not give the facts?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the sacred records God created, on the first day, the heaven
+      and the earth, "moved upon the face of the waters," and made the light. On
+      the second day he made the firmament or the "expanse" and divided the
+      waters. On the third day he gathered the waters into seas, let the dry
+      land appear and caused the earth to bring forth grass, herbs and fruit
+      trees, and on the fourth day he made the sun, moon and stars and set them
+      in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth. This division of
+      labor is very striking. The work of the other days is as nothing when
+      compared with that of the fourth. Is it possible that it required the same
+      time and labor to make the grass, herbs and fruit trees, that it did to
+      fill with countless constellations the infinite expanse of space?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XI. FRIDAY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We are then told that on the next day "God said, Let the waters bring
+      forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life, and fowl that may
+      fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great
+      whales and every living creature which the waters brought forth
+      abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and
+      God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and
+      multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
+      earth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it true that while the dry land was covered with grass, and herbs, and
+      trees bearing fruit, the ocean was absolutely devoid of life, and so
+      remained for millions of years?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Moses meant twenty-four hours by the word day, then it would make but
+      little difference on which of the six days animals were made; but if the
+      word day was used to express millions of ages, during which life was
+      slowly evolved from monad up to man, then the account becomes infinitely
+      absurd, puerile and foolish. There is not a scientist of high standing who
+      will say that in his judgment the earth was covered with fruit bearing
+      trees before the moners, the ancestors it may be of the human race, felt
+      in Laurentian seas the first faint throb of life. Nor is there one who
+      will declare that there was a single spire of grass before the sun had
+      poured upon the world his flood of gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why should men in the name of religion try to harmonize the contradictions
+      that exist between Nature and a book? Why should philosophers be denounced
+      for placing more reliance upon what they know than upon what they have
+      been told? If there is a God, it is reasonably certain that he made the
+      world, but it is by no means certain that he is-the author of the bible.
+      Why then should we not place greater confidence in Nature than in a book?
+      And even if this God made not only the world but the book besides, it does
+      not follow that the book is the best part of Creation, and the only part
+      that we will be eternally punished for denying. It seems to me that it is
+      quite as important to know something of the solar system, something of the
+      physical history of this globe, as it is to know the adventures of Jonah
+      or the diet of Ezekiel. For my part, I would infinitely prefer to know all
+      the results of scientific investigation, than to be inspired as Moses was.
+      Supposing the bible to be true; why is it any worse or more wicked for
+      free-thinkers to deny it, than for priests to deny the doctrine of
+      Evolution, or the dynamic theory of heat? Why should we be damned for
+      laughing at Samson and his foxes, while others, holding the Nebular
+      Hypothesis in utter contempt, go straight to heaven? It seems to me that a
+      belief in the great truths of science are fully as essential to salvation,
+      as the creed of any church. We are taught that a man may be perfectly
+      acceptable to God even if he denies the rotundity of the earth, the
+      Copernican system, the three laws of Kepler, the indestructibility of
+      matter and the attraction of gravitation. And we are also taught that a
+      man may be right upon all these questions, and yet, for failing to believe
+      in the "scheme of salvation," be eternally lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XII. SATURDAY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On this, the last day of creation, God said:&mdash;"Let the earth bring
+      forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing and
+      beast of the earth after his kind; and it was so. And God made the beast
+      of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing
+      that creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and God saw that it was
+      good."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, is it true that the seas were filled with fish, the sky with fowls,
+      and the earth covered with grass, and herbs, and fruit bearing trees,
+      millions of ages before there was a creeping thing in existence? Must we
+      admit that plants and animals were the result of the fiat of some
+      incomprehensible intelligence independent of the operation of what are
+      known as natural causes? Why is a miracle any more necessary to account
+      for yesterday than for to-day or for to-morrow?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If there is an infinite Power, nothing can be more certain than that this
+      Power works in accordance with what we call law, that is, by and through
+      natural causes. If anything can be found without a pedigree of natural
+      antecedents, it will then be time enough to talk about the fiat of
+      creation. There must have been a time when plants and animals did not
+      exist upon this globe. The question, and the only question is, whether
+      they were naturally produced. If the account given by Moses is true, then
+      the vegetable and animal existences are the result of certain special
+      fiats of creation entirely independent of the operation of natural causes.
+      This is so grossly improbable, so at variance with the experience and
+      observation of mankind, that it cannot be adopted without abandoning
+      forever the basis of scientific thought and action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be urged that we do not understand the sacred record correctly. To
+      this it may be replied that for thousands of years the account of the
+      creation has, by the Jewish and Christian world, been regarded as
+      literally true. If it was inspired, of course God must have known just how
+      it would be understood, and consequently must have intended that it should
+      be understood just as he knew it would be. One man writing to another, may
+      mean one thing, and yet be understood as meaning something else. Now, if
+      the writer knew that he would be misunderstood, and also knew that he
+      could use other words that would convey his real meaning, but did not, we
+      would say that he used words on purpose to mislead, and was not an honest
+      man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If a being of infinite wisdom wrote the bible, or caused it to be written,
+      he must have known exactly how his words would be interpreted by all the
+      world, and he must have intended to convey the very meaning that was
+      conveyed. He must have known that by reading that book, man would form
+      erroneous views as to the shape, antiquity, and size of this world; that
+      he would be misled as to the time and order of creation; that he would
+      have the most childish and contemptible views of the creator; that the
+      "sacred word" would be used to support slavery and polygamy; that it would
+      build dungeons for the good, and light fagots to consume the brave, and
+      therefore he must have intended that these results should follow. He also
+      must have known that thousands and millions of men and women never could
+      believe his bible, and that the number of unbelievers would increase in
+      the exact ratio of civilization, and therefore, he must have intended that
+      result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us understand this. An honest finite being uses the best words, in his
+      judgment, to convey his meaning. This is the best he can do, because he
+      cannot certainly know the exact effect of his words on others. But an
+      infinite being must know not only the real meaning of the words, but the
+      exact meaning they will convey to every reader and hearer. He must know
+      every meaning that they are capable of conveying to every mind. He must
+      also know what explanations must be made to prevent misconception. If an
+      infinite being cannot, in making a revelation to man, use such words that
+      every person to whom a revelation is essential will understand distinctly
+      what that revelation is, then a revelation from God through the
+      instrumentality of language is impossible, or it is not essential that all
+      should understand it correctly. It may be urged that millions have not the
+      capacity to understand a revelation, although expressed in the plainest
+      words. To this it seems a sufficient reply to ask, why a being of infinite
+      power should create men so devoid of intelligence, that he cannot by any
+      means make known to them his will? We are told that it is exceedingly
+      plain, and that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. This
+      statement is refuted by the religious history of the christian world.
+      Every sect is a certificate that God has not plainly revealed his will to
+      man. To each reader the bible conveys a different meaning. About the
+      meaning of this book, called a revelation, there have been ages of war,
+      and centuries of sword and flame. If written by an infinite God, he must
+      have known that these results must follow; and thus knowing, he must be
+      responsible for all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it not infinitely more reasonable to say that this book is the work of
+      man, that it is filled with mingled truth and error, with mistakes and
+      facts, and reflects, too faithfully perhaps, the "very form and pressure
+      of its time?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If there are mistakes in the bible, certainly they were made by man. If
+      there is anything contrary to nature, it was written by man. If there is
+      anything immoral, cruel, heartless or infamous, it certainly was never
+      written by a being worthy of the adoration of mankind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XIII. LET US MAKE MAN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We are next informed by the author of the Pentateuch that God said "Let us
+      make man in our image, after our likeness," and that "God created man in
+      his own image, in the image of God created he him&mdash;male and female
+      created he them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If this account means anything, it means that man was created in the
+      physical image and likeness of God. Moses while he speaks of man as having
+      been made in the image of God, never speaks of God except as having the
+      form of a man. He speaks of God as "walking in the garden in the cool of
+      the day;" and that Adam and Eve "heard his voice." He is constantly
+      telling what God said, and in a thousand passages he refers to him as not
+      only having the human form, but as performing actions, such as man
+      performs. The God of Moses was a God with hands, with feet, with the
+      organs of speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A God of passion, of hatred, of revenge, of affection, of repentance; a
+      God who made mistakes:&mdash;in other words, an immense and powerful man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will not do to say that Moses meant to convey the idea that God made
+      man in his mental or moral image. Some have insisted that man was made in
+      the moral image of God because he was made pure. Purity cannot be
+      manufactured. A moral character cannot be made for man by a god. Every man
+      must make his own moral character. Consequently, if God is infinitely
+      pure, Adam and Eve were not made in his image in that respect. Others say
+      that Adam and Eve were made in the mental image of God. If it is meant by
+      that, that they were created with reasoning powers like, but not to the
+      extent of those possessed by a god, then this may be admitted. But
+      certainly this idea was not in the mind of Moses. He regarded the human
+      form as being in the image of God, and for that reason always spoke of God
+      as having that form. No one can read the Pentateuch without coming to the
+      conclusion that the author supposed that man was created in the physical
+      likeness of Deity. God said "Go to, let us go down." "God smelled a sweet
+      savor;" "God repented him that he had made man;" "and God said;" and
+      "walked;" and "talked;" and "rested." All these expressions are
+      inconsistent with any other idea than that the person using them regarded
+      God as having the form of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a matter of fact, it is impossible for a man to conceive of a personal
+      God, other than as a being having the human form. No one can think of an
+      infinite being having the form of a horse, or of a bird, or of any animal
+      beneath man. It is one of the necessities of the mind to associate forms
+      with intellectual capacities. The highest form of which we have any
+      conception is man's, and consequently, his is the only form that we can
+      find in imagination to give to a personal God, because all other forms
+      are, in our minds, connected with lower intelligences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is impossible to think of a personal God as a spirit without form. We
+      can use these words, but they do not convey to the mind any real and
+      tangible meaning. Every one who thinks of a personal God at all, thinks of
+      him as having the human form. Take from God the idea of form; speak of him
+      simply as an all pervading spirit&mdash;which means an all pervading
+      something about which we know nothing&mdash;and Pantheism is the result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are told that God made man; and the question naturally arises, how was
+      this done? Was it by a process of "evolution," "development;" the
+      "transmission of acquired habits;" the "survival of the fittest," or was
+      the necessary amount of clay kneaded to the proper consistency, and then
+      by the hands of God moulded into form? Modern science tells that man has
+      been evolved, through countless epochs, from the lower forms; that he is
+      the result of almost an infinite number of actions, reactions,
+      experiences, states, forms, wants and adaptations. Did Moses intend to
+      convey such a meaning, or did he believe that God took a sufficient amount
+      of dust, made it the proper shape, and breathed into it the breath of
+      life? Can any believer in the bible give any reasonable account of this
+      process of creation? Is it possible to imagine what was really done? Is
+      there any theologian who will contend that man was created directly from
+      the earth? Will he say that man was made substantially as he now is, with
+      all his muscles properly developed for walking and speaking, and
+      performing every variety of human action? That all his bones were formed
+      as they now are, and all the relations of nerve, ligament, brain and
+      motion as they are to-day?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking back over the history of animal life from the lowest to the
+      highest forms, we find that there has been a slow and gradual development;
+      a certain but constant relation between want and production; between use
+      and form. The Moner is said to be the simplest form of animal life that
+      has yet been found. It has been described as "an organism without organs."
+      It is a kind of structureless structure; a little mass of transparent
+      jelly that can flatten itself out, and can expand and contract around its
+      food. It can feed without a mouth, digest without a stomach, walk without
+      feet, and reproduce itself by simple division. By taking this Moner as the
+      commencement of animal life, or rather as the first animal, it is easy to
+      follow the development of the organic structure through all the forms of
+      life to man himself. In this way finally every muscle, bone and joint,
+      every organ, form and function may be accounted for. In this way, and in
+      this way only, can the existence of rudimentary organs be explained. Blot
+      from the human mind the ideas of evolution, heredity, adaptation, and "the
+      survival of the fittest," with which it has been enriched by Lamarck,
+      Goethe, Darwin, Hęckel and Spencer, and all the facts in the history of
+      animal life become utterly disconnected and meaningless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shall we throw away all that has been discovered with regard to organic
+      life, and in its place take the statements of one who lived in the rude
+      morning of a barbaric day? Will anybody now contend that man was a direct
+      and independent creation, and sustains and bears no relation to the
+      animals below him? Belief upon this subject must be governed at last by
+      evidence. Man cannot believe as he pleases. He can control his speech, and
+      can say that he believes or disbelieves; but after all, his will cannot
+      depress or raise the scales with which his reason finds the worth and
+      weight of facts. If this is not so, investigation, evidence, judgment and
+      reason are but empty words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I ask again, how were Adam and Eve created? In one account they are
+      created male and female, and apparently at the same time. In the next
+      account, Adam is made first, and Eve a long time afterwards, and from a
+      part of the man. Did God simply by his creative fiat cause a rib slowly to
+      expand, grow and divide into nerve, ligament, cartilage and flesh? How was
+      the woman created from a rib? How was man created simply from dust? For my
+      part, I cannot believe this statement. I may suffer for this in the world
+      to come; and may millions of years hence, sincerely wish that I had never
+      investigated the subject, but had been content to take the ideas of the
+      dead. I do not believe that any Deity works in that way. So far as my
+      experience goes, there is an unbroken procession of cause and effect. Each
+      thing is a necessary link in an infinite chain; and I cannot conceive of
+      this chain being broken even for one instant. Back of the simplest moner
+      there is a cause, and back of that another, and so on, it seems to me,
+      forever. In my philosophy I postulate neither beginning nor ending.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the Mosaic account is true, we know how long man has been upon this
+      earth. If that account can be relied on, the first man was made about five
+      thousand eight hundred and eighty-three years ago. Sixteen hundred and
+      fifty-six years after the making of the first man, the inhabitants of the
+      world, with the exception of eight people, were destroyed by a flood. This
+      flood occurred only about four thousand two hundred and twenty-seven years
+      ago. If this account is correct, at that time, only one kind of men
+      existed: Noah and his family were certainly of the same blood. It
+      therefore follows that all the differences we see between the various
+      races of men have been caused in about four thousand years. If the account
+      of the deluge is true, then since that event all the ancient kingdoms of
+      the earth were founded, and their inhabitants passed through all the
+      stages of savage, nomadic, barbaric and semi-civilized life; through the
+      epochs of Stone, Bronze and Iron; established commerce, cultivated the
+      arts, built cities, filled them with palaces and temples, invented
+      writing, produced a literature and slowly fell to shapeless ruin. We must
+      believe that all this has happened within a period of four thousand years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From representations found upon Egyptian granite made more than three
+      thousand years ago, we know that the negro was as black, his lips as full,
+      and his hair as closely curled then as now. If we know anything, we know
+      that there was at that time substantially the same difference between the
+      Egyptian and the Negro as now. If we know anything, we know that
+      magnificent statues were made in Egypt four thousand years before our era&mdash;that
+      is to say, about six thousand years ago. There was at the World's
+      Exposition, in the Egyptian department, a statue of king Cephren, known to
+      have been chiseled more than six thousand years ago. In other words, if
+      the Mosaic account must be believed, this statue was made before the
+      world. We also know, if we know anything, that men lived in Europe with
+      the hairy mammoth, the cave bear, the rhinoceros, and the hyena. Among the
+      bones of these animals have been found the stone hatchets and flint arrows
+      of our ancestors. In the caves where they lived have been discovered the
+      remains of these animals that had been conquered, killed and devoured as
+      food, hundreds of thousands of years ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If these facts are true, Moses was mistaken. For my part, I have
+      infinitely more confidence in the discoveries of to-day, than in the
+      records of a barbarous people. It will not now do to say that man has
+      existed upon this earth for only about six thousand years. One can hardly
+      compute in his imagination the time necessary for man to emerge from the
+      barbarous state, naked and helpless, surrounded by animals far more
+      powerful than he, to progress and finally create the civilizations of
+      India, Egypt and Athens. The distance from savagery to Shakespeare must be
+      measured not by hundreds, but by millions of years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XIV. SUNDAY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he
+      rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God
+      blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had
+      rested from all his work which God created and made."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great work had been accomplished, the world, the sun, and moon, and
+      all the hosts of heaven were finished; the earth was clothed in green, the
+      seas were filled with life, the cattle wandered by the brooks&mdash;insects
+      with painted wings were in the happy air, Adam and Eve were making each
+      other's acquaintance, and God was resting from his work. He was
+      contemplating the accomplishments of a week.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Because he rested on that day he sanctified it, and for that reason and
+      for that alone, it was by the Jews considered a holy day. If he only
+      rested on that day, there ought to be some account of what he did the
+      following Monday. Did he rest on that day? What did he do after he got
+      rested? Has he done anything in the way of creation since Saturday evening
+      of the first week?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is, now claimed by the "scientific" christians that the "days" of
+      creation were not ordinary days of twenty-four hours each, but immensely
+      long periods of time. If they are right, then how long was the seventh
+      day? Was that, too, a geologic period covering thousands of ages? That
+      cannot be, because Adam and Eve were created the Saturday evening before,
+      and according to the bible that was about five thousand eight hundred and
+      eighty-three years ago. I cannot state the time exactly, because there
+      have been as many as one hundred and forty different opinions given by
+      learned biblical students as to the time between the creation of the world
+      and the birth of Christ. We are quite certain, however, that, according to
+      the bible, it is not more than six thousand years since the creation of
+      Adam. From this it would appear that the seventh day was not a geologic
+      epoch, but was in fact a period of less than six thousand years, and
+      probably of only twenty-four hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The theologians who "answer" these things may take their choice. If they
+      take the ground that the "days" were periods of twenty-four hours, then
+      geology will force them to throw away the whole account. If, on the other
+      hand, they admit that the days were vast "periods," then the sacredness of
+      the sabbath must be given up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is found in the bible no intimation that there was the least
+      difference in the days. They are all spoken of in the same way. It may be
+      replied that our translation is incorrect. If this is so, then only those
+      who understand Hebrew, have had a revelation from God, and all the rest
+      have been deceived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How is it possible to sanctify a space of time? Is rest holier than labor?
+      If there is any difference between days, ought not that to be considered
+      best in which the most useful labor has been performed?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all the superstitions of mankind, this insanity about the "sacred
+      sabbath" is the most absurd. The idea of feeling it a duty to be solemn
+      and sad one-seventh of the time! To think that we can please an infinite
+      being by staying in some dark and sombre room, instead of walking in the
+      perfumed fields! Why should God hate to see a man happy? Why should it
+      excite his wrath to see a family in the woods, by some babbling stream,
+      talking, laughing and loving? Nature works on that "sacred" day. The earth
+      turns, the rivers run, the trees grow, buds burst into flower, and birds
+      fill the air with song. Why should we look sad, and think about death, and
+      hear about hell? Why should that day be filled with gloom instead of joy?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A poor mechanic, working all the week in dust and noise, needs a day of
+      rest and joy, a day to visit stream and wood&mdash;a day to live with wife
+      and child; a day in which to laugh at care, and gather hope and strength
+      for toils to come. And his weary wife needs a breath of sunny air, away
+      from street and wall, amid the hills or by the margin of the sea, where
+      she can sit and prattle with her babe, and fill with happy dreams the
+      long, glad day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The "sabbath" was born of asceticism, hatred of human joy, fanaticism,
+      ignorance, egotism of priests and the cowardice of the people. This day,
+      for thousands of years, has been dedicated to superstition, to the
+      dissemination of mistakes, and the establishment of falsehoods. Every
+      Freethinker, as a matter of duty, should violate this day. He should
+      assert his independence, and do all within his power to wrest the sabbath
+      from the gloomy church and give it back to liberty and joy. Freethinkers
+      should make the sabbath a day of mirth and music; a day to spend with wife
+      and child&mdash;a day of games, and books, and dreams&mdash;a day to put
+      fresh flowers above our sleeping dead&mdash;a day of memory and hope, of
+      love and rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why should we in this age of the world be dominated by the dead? Why
+      should barbarian Jews who went down to death and dust three thousand years
+      ago, control the living world? Why should we care for the superstition of
+      men who began the sabbath by paring their nails, "beginning at the fourth
+      finger, then going to the second, then to the fifth, then to the third,
+      and ending with the thumb?" How pleasing to God this must have been. The
+      Jews were very careful of these nail parings. They who threw them upon the
+      ground were wicked, because Satan used them to work evil upon the earth.
+      They believed that upon the Sabbath, souls were allowed to leave purgatory
+      and cool their burning souls in water. Fires were neither allowed to be
+      kindled nor extinguished, and upon that day it was a sin to bind up
+      wounds. "The lame might use a staff, but the blind could not." So strict
+      was the sabbath kept, that at one time "if a Jew on a journey was
+      overtaken by the 'sacred day' in a wood, or on the highway, no matter
+      where, nor under what circumstances, he must sit down," and there remain
+      until the day was gone. "If he fell down in the dirt, there he was
+      compelled to stay until the day was done." For violating the sabbath, the
+      punishment was death, for nothing short of the offender's blood could
+      satisfy the wrath of God. There are, in the Old Testament, two reasons
+      given for abstaining from labor on the sabbath:&mdash;the resting of God,
+      and the redemption of the Jews from the bondage of Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since the establishment of the Christian religion, the day has been
+      changed, and Christians do not regard the day as holy upon which God
+      actually rested, and which he sanctified. The Christian Sabbath, or the
+      "Lord's day" was legally established by the murderer Constantine, because
+      upon that day Christ was supposed to have risen from the dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not easy to see where Christians got the right to disregard the
+      direct command of God, to labor on the day he sanctified, and keep as
+      sacred, a day upon which he commanded men to labor. The sabbath of God is
+      Saturday, and if any day is to be kept holy, that is the one, and not the
+      Sunday of the Christian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us throw away these superstitions and take the higher, nobler ground,
+      that every day should be rendered sacred by some loving act, by increasing
+      the happinesss of man, giving birth to noble thoughts, putting in the path
+      of toil some flower of joy, helping the unfortunate, lifting the fallen,
+      dispelling gloom, destroying prejudice, defending the helpless and filling
+      homes with light and love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XV. THE NECESSITY FOR A GOOD MEMORY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It must not be forgotten that there are two accounts of the creation in
+      Genesis. The first account stops with the third verse of the second
+      chapter. The chapters have been improperly divided. In the original Hebrew
+      the Pentateuch was neither divided into chapters nor verses. There was not
+      even any system of punctuation. It was written wholly with consonants,
+      without vowels, and without any marks, dots, or lines to indicate them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These accounts are materially different, and both cannot be true. Let us
+      see wherein they differ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second account of the creation begins with the fourth verse of the
+      second chapter, and is as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were
+      created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb
+      of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain
+      upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the
+      ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into
+      his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the
+      man whom he had formed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
+      pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the
+      midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was
+      parted and became into four heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole
+      land of Havilah, where there is gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth
+      the whole land of Ethiopia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth
+      toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to
+      dress it and to keep it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden
+      thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
+      thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
+      shalt surely die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I
+      will make him an helpmeet for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
+      every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
+      call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
+      name thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to
+      every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helpmeet for
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and
+      he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and
+      brought her unto the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she
+      shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave
+      unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Order of creation in the first account:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. The heaven and the earth, and light were made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. The firmament was constructed and the waters divided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. The waters gathered into seas&mdash;and then came dry land, grass,
+      herbs and fruit trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. The sun and moon. He made the stars also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. Fishes, fowls, and great whales.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. Beasts, cattle, every creeping thing, man and woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Order of creation in the second account:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. The heavens and the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. A mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the
+      ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. Created a man out of dust, by the name of Adam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. Planted a garden eastward in Eden, and put the man in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. Created the beasts and fowls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. Created a woman out of one of the man's ribs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the second account, man was made <i>before</i> the beasts and fowls. If
+      this is true, the first account is false. And if the theologians of our
+      time are correct in their view that the Mosaic day means thousands of
+      ages, then, according to the second account, Adam existed millions of
+      years before Eve was formed. He must have lived one Mosaic day before
+      there were any trees, and another Mosaic day before the beasts and fowls
+      were created. Will some kind clergymen tell us upon what kind of food Adam
+      subsisted during these immense periods?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the second account a man is made, and the fact that he was without a
+      helpmeet did not occur to the Lord God until a couple "of vast periods"
+      afterwards. The Lord God suddenly coming to an appreciation of the
+      situation said, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make
+      him a helpmeet for him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, after concluding to make "an helpmeet" for Adam, what did the Lord
+      God do? Did he at once proceed to make a woman? No. What did he do? He
+      made the beasts, and tried to induce Adam to take one of them for "an
+      helpmeet." If I am incorrect, read the following account, and tell me what
+      it means:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I
+      will make him an helpmeet for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
+      every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
+      call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
+      name thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to
+      every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an helpmeet for
+      him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unless the Lord God was looking for an helpmeet for Adam, why did he cause
+      the animals to pass before him? And why did he, after the menagerie had
+      passed by, pathetically exclaim, "But for Adam there was not found an
+      helpmeet for him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems that Adam saw nothing that struck his fancy. The fairest ape, the
+      sprightliest chimpanzee, the loveliest baboon, the most bewitching
+      orangoutang, the most fascinating gorilla failed to touch with love's
+      sweet pain, poor Adam's lonely heart. Let us rejoice that this was so. Had
+      he fallen in love then, there never would have been a Freethinker in this
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Adam Clark, speaking of this remarkable proceeding says:&mdash;"God
+      caused the animals to pass before Adam to show him that no creature yet
+      formed could make him a suitable companion; that Adam was convinced that
+      none of these animals could be a suitable companion for him, and that
+      therefore he must continue in a state that was not good (celibacy) unless
+      he became a further debtor to the bounty of his maker, for among all the
+      animals which he had formed, there was not a helpmeet for Adam."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this same subject, Dr. Scott informs us "that it was not conducive to
+      the happiness of the man to remain without the consoling society, and
+      endearment of tender friendship, nor consistent with the end of his
+      creation to be without marriage by which the earth might be replenished
+      and worshipers and servants raised up to render him praise and glory. Adam
+      seems to have been vastly better acquainted by intuition or revelation
+      with the distinct properties of every creature than the most sagacious
+      observer since the fall of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Upon this review of the animals, not one was found in outward form his
+      counterpart, nor one suited to engage his affections, participate in his
+      enjoyments, or associate with him in the worship of God."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Matthew Henry admits that "God brought all the animals together to see
+      if there was a suitable match for Adam in any of the numerous families of
+      the inferior creatures, but there was none. They were all looked over, but
+      Adam could not be matched among them all. Therefore God created a new
+      thing to be a helpmeet for him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Failing to satisfy Adam with any of the inferior animals, the Lord God
+      caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, and while in this sleep took out one
+      of Adam's ribs and "closed up the flesh instead thereof." And out of this
+      rib, the Lord God made a woman, and brought her to the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was the Lord God compelled to take a part of the man because he had used
+      up all the original "nothing" out of which the universe was made? Is it
+      possible for any sane and intelligent man to believe this story? Must a
+      man be born a second time before this account seems reasonable?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Imagine the Lord God with a bone in his hand with which to start a woman,
+      trying to make up his mind whether to make a blonde or a brunette!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at this point it may be proper for me to warn all persons from
+      laughing at or making light of, any stories found in the "Holy Bible."
+      When you come to die, every laugh will be a thorn in your pillow. At that
+      solemn moment, as you look back upon the records of your life, no matter
+      how many men you may have wrecked and ruined; no matter how many women you
+      have deceived and deserted, all that can be forgiven; but if you remember
+      then that you have laughed at even one story in God's "sacred book" you
+      will see through the gathering shadows of death the forked tongues of
+      devils, and the leering eyes of fiends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These stories must be believed, or the work of regeneration can never be
+      commenced. No matter how well you act your part, live as honestly as you
+      may, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, divide your last farthing with the
+      poor, and you are simply traveling the broad road that leads inevitably to
+      eternal death, unless at the same time you implicitly believe the bible to
+      be the inspired word of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let me show you the result of unbelief. Let us suppose, for a moment, that
+      we are at the Day of Judgment, listening to the trial of souls as they
+      arrive. The Recording Secretary, or whoever does the cross-examining, says
+      to a soul:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where are you from?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am from the Earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What kind of a man were you?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, I don't like to talk about myself. I suppose you can tell by looking
+      at your books.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sir. You must tell what kind of a man you were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, I was what you might call a first-rate fellow. I loved my wife and
+      children. My home was my heaven. My fireside was a paradise to me. To sit
+      there and see the lights and shadows fall upon the faces of those I loved,
+      was to me a perfect joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How did you treat your family?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I never said an unkind word. I never caused my wife, nor one of my
+      children, a moment's pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did you pay your debts?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not owe a dollar when I died, and left enough to pay my funeral
+      expenses, and to keep the fierce wolf of want from the door of those I
+      loved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did you belong to any church?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sir. They were too narrow, pinched and bigoted for me, I never thought
+      that I could be very happy if other folks were damned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did you believe in eternal punishment?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, no. I always thought that God could get his revenge in far less
+      time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did you believe the rib story?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you mean the Adam and Eve business?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes! Did you believe that?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To tell you the God's truth, that was just a little more than I could
+      swallow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Away with him to hell!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where are you from? I am from the world too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did you belong to any church?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes sir, and to the Young Men's Christian Association besides.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was your business?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cashier in a Savings Bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did you ever run away with any money?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where I came from, a witness could not be compelled to criminate himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The law is different here. Answer the question. Did you run away with any
+      money?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes sir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How much?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One hundred thousand dollars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did you take anything else with you?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes sir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, what else?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I took my neighbor's wife&mdash;we sang together in the choir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did you have a wife and children of your own?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes sir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And you deserted them?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes sir, but such was my confidence in God that I believed he would take
+      care of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Have you heard of them since?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did you believe in the rib story?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bless your soul, of course I did. A thousand times I regretted that there
+      were no harder stories in the bible, so that I could have shown my wealth
+      of faith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you believe the rib story yet?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, with all my heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Give him a harp!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, as I was saying, God made a woman from Adam's rib. Of course, I do
+      not know exactly how this was done, but when he got the woman finished, he
+      presented her to Adam. He liked her, and they commenced house-keeping in
+      the celebrated garden of Eden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Must we, in order to be good, gentle and loving in our lives, believe that
+      the creation of woman was a second thought? That Jehovah really endeavored
+      to induce Adam to take one of the lower animals as an helpmeet for him?
+      After all, is it not possible to live honest and courageous lives without
+      believing these fables? It is said that from Mount Sinai God gave, amid
+      thunderings and lightnings, ten commandments for the guidance of mankind;
+      and yet among them is not found&mdash;"Thou shalt believe the Bible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XVI. THE GARDEN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the first account we are told that God made man, male and female, and
+      said to them "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and
+      subdue it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the second account only the man is made, and he is put in a garden "to
+      dress it and to keep it." He is not told to subdue the earth, but to dress
+      and keep a garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first account man is given every herb bearing seed upon the face of
+      the earth and the fruit of every tree for food, and in the second, he is
+      given only the fruit of all the trees in the garden with the exception "of
+      the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" which was a deadly poison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was issuing from this garden a river that was parted into four
+      heads. The first of these, Pison, compassed the whole land of Havilah, the
+      second, Gihon, that compassed the whole land of Ethiopia, the third,
+      Heddekel, that flowed toward the east of Assyria, and the fourth, the
+      Euphrates. Where are these four rivers now? The brave prow of discovery
+      has visited every sea; the traveler has pressed with weary feet the soil
+      of every clime; and yet there has been found no place from which four
+      rivers sprang. The Euphrates still journeys to the gulf, but where are
+      Pison, Gihon and the mighty Heddekel? Surely by going to the source of the
+      Euphrates we ought to find either these three rivers or their ancient
+      beds. Will some minister when he answers the "Mistakes of Moses" tell us
+      where these rivers are or were? The maps of the world are incomplete
+      without these mighty streams. We have discovered the sources of the Nile;
+      the North Pole will soon be touched by an American; but these three rivers
+      still rise in unknown hills, still flow through unknown lands, and empty
+      still in unknown seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The account of these four rivers is what the Rev. David Swing would call
+      "a geographical poem." The orthodox clergy cover the whole affair with the
+      blanket of allegory, while the "scientific" christian folks talk about
+      cataclysms, upheavals, earthquakes, and vast displacements of the earth's
+      crust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question, then arises, whether within the last six thousand years
+      there have been such upheavals and displacements? Talk as you will about
+      the vast "creative periods" that preceded the appearance of man; it is,
+      according to the bible, only about six thousand years since man was
+      created. Moses gives us the generations of men from Adam until his day,
+      and this account cannot be explained away by calling centuries, days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the second account of creation, these four rivers were made
+      after the creation of man, and consequently they must have been
+      obliterated by convulsions of Nature within six thousand years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can we not account for these contradictions, absurdities, and falsehoods
+      by simply saying that although the writer may have done his level best, he
+      failed because he was limited in knowledge, led away by tradition, and
+      depended too implicitly upon the correctness of his imagination? Is not
+      such a course far more reasonable than to insist that all these things are
+      true and must stand though every science shall fall to mental dust?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can any reason be given for not allowing man to eat of the fruit of the
+      tree of knowledge? What kind of tree was that? If it is all an allegory,
+      what truth is sought to be conveyed? Why should God object to that fruit
+      being eaten by man? Why did he put it in the midst of the garden? There
+      was certainly plenty of room outside. If he wished to keep man and this
+      tree apart, why did he put them together? And why, after he had eaten, was
+      he thrust out? The only answer that we have a right to give, is the one
+      given in the bible. "And the Lord God said, Behold the man has become as
+      one of us to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and
+      take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the
+      Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from
+      whence he was taken."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Will some minister, some graduate of Andover, tell us what this means? Are
+      we bound to believe it without knowing what the meaning is? If it is a
+      revelation, what does it reveal? Did God object to education then, and
+      does that account for the hostile attitude still assumed by theologians
+      towards all scientific truth? Was there in the garden a tree of life, the
+      eating of which would have rendered Adam and Eve immortal? Is it true,
+      that after the Lord God drove them from the garden that he placed upon its
+      Eastern side "Cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep
+      the way of the tree of life?" Are the Cherubims and the flaming sword
+      guarding that tree yet, or was it destroyed, or did its rotting trunk, as
+      the Rev. Robert Collyer suggests "nourish a bank of violets?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What objection could God have had to the immortality of man? You see that
+      after all, this sacred record, instead of assuring us of immortality,
+      shows us only how we lost it. In this there is assuredly but little
+      consolation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to this story we have lost one Eden, but nowhere in the Mosaic
+      books are we told how we may gain another. I know that the Christians tell
+      us there is another, in which all true believers will finally be gathered,
+      and enjoy the unspeakable happiness of seeing the unbelievers in hell; but
+      they do not tell us where it is.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some commentators say that the Garden of Eden was in the third heaven&mdash;some
+      in the fourth, others have located it in the moon, some in the air beyond
+      the attraction of the earth, some on the Earth, some under the Earth, some
+      inside the Earth, some at the North Pole, others at the South, some in
+      Tartary, some in China, some on the borders of the Ganges, some in the
+      island of Ceylon, some in Armenia, some in Africa, some under the Equator,
+      others in Mesopotamia, in Syria, Persia, Arabia, Babylon, Assyria,
+      Palestine and Europe. Others have contended that it was invisible, that it
+      was an allegory, and must be spiritually understood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But whether you understand these things or not, you must believe them. You
+      may be laughed at in this world for insisting that God put Adam into a
+      deep sleep and made a woman out of one of his ribs, but you will be
+      crowned and glorified in the next You will also have the pleasure of
+      hearing the gentlemen howl there, who laughed at you here. While you will
+      not be permitted to take any revenge, you will be allowed to smilingly
+      express your entire acquiescence in the will of God. But where is the new
+      Eden? No one knows. The one was lost, and the other has not been found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it true that man was once perfectly pure and innocent, and that he
+      became degenerate by disobedience? No. The real truth is, and the history
+      of man shows, that he has advanced. Events, like the pendulum of a clock
+      have swung forward and backward, but after all, man, like the hands, has
+      gone steadily on. Man is growing grander. He is not degenerating. Nations
+      and individuals fail and die, and make room for higher forms. The
+      intellectual horizon of the world widens as the centuries pass. Ideals
+      grow grander and purer; the difference between justice and mercy becomes
+      less and less; liberty enlarges, and love intensifies as the years sweep
+      on. The ages of force and fear, of cruelty and wrong, are behind us and
+      the real Eden is beyond. It is said that a desire for knowledge lost us
+      the Eden of the past; but whether that is true or not, it will certainly
+      give us the Eden of the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XVII. THE FALL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We are told that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field,
+      that he had a conversation with Eve, in which he gave his opinion about
+      the effect of eating certain fruit; that he assured her it was good to
+      eat, that it was pleasant to the eye, that it would make her wise; that
+      she was induced to take some; that she persuaded her husband to try it;
+      that God found it out, that he then cursed the snake; condemning it to
+      crawl and eat the dust; that he multiplied the sorrows of Eve, cursed the
+      ground for Adam's sake, started thistles and thorns, condemned man to eat
+      the herb of the field in the sweat of his face, pronounced the curse of
+      death, "Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return," made coats of
+      skins for Adam and Eve, and drove them out of Eden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who, and what was this serpent? Dr. Adam Clark says:&mdash;"The serpent
+      must have walked erect, for this is necessarily implied in his punishment.
+      That he was endued with the gift of speech, also with reason. That these
+      things were given to this creature. The woman no doubt having often seen
+      him walking erect, and talking and reasoning, therefore she testifies no
+      sort of surprise when he accosts her in the language related in the text.
+      It therefore appears to me that a creature of the ape or orangoutang kind
+      is here intended, and that satan made use of this creature as the most
+      proper instrument for the accomplishment of his murderous purposes against
+      the life of the soul of man. Under this creature he lay hid, and by this
+      creature he seduced our first parents. Such a creature answers to every
+      part of the description in the text. It is evident from the structure of
+      its limbs and its muscles that it might have been originally designed to
+      walk erect, and that nothing else than the sovereign controlling power
+      could induce it to put down hands&mdash;in every respect formed like those
+      of man&mdash;and walk like those creatures whose claw-armed parts prove
+      them to have been designed to walk on all fours. The stealthy cunning, and
+      endless variety of the pranks and tricks of these creatures show them even
+      now to be wiser and more intelligent than any other creature man alone
+      excepted. Being obliged to walk on all fours and gather their food from
+      the ground, they are literally obliged to eat the dust; and though
+      exceeding cunning, and careful in a variety of instances to separate that
+      part which is wholesome and proper for food from that which is not so, in
+      the article of cleanliness they are lost to all sense of propriety. Add to
+      this their utter aversion to walk upright; it requires the utmost
+      discipline to bring them to it, and scarcely anything offends or irritates
+      them more than to be obliged to do it. Long observation of these animals
+      enables me to state these facts. For earnest, attentive watching, and for
+      chattering and babbling they (the ape) have no fellows in the animal
+      world. Indeed, the ability and propensity to chatter, is all they have
+      left of their original gift of speech, of which they appear to have been
+      deprived at the fall as a part of their punishment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here then is the "connecting link" between man and the lower creation. The
+      serpent was simply an orang-outang that spoke Hebrew with the greatest
+      ease, and had the outward appearance of a perfect gentleman, seductive in
+      manner, plausible, polite, and most admirably calculated to deceive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It never did seem reasonable to me that a long, cold and disgusting snake
+      with an apple in his mouth, could deceive anybody; and I am glad, even at
+      this late date to know that the something that persuaded Eve to taste the
+      forbidden fruit was, at least, in the shape of a man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Henry does not agree with the zoological explanation of Mr. Clark, but
+      insists that "it is certain that the devil that beguiled Eve is the old
+      serpent, a malignant by creation, an angel of light, an immediate
+      attendant upon God's throne, but by sin an apostate from his first state,
+      and a rebel against God's crown and dignity. He who attacked our first
+      parents was surely the prince of devils, the ring leader in rebellion. The
+      devil chose to act his part in a serpent, because it is a specious
+      creature, has a spotted, dappled skin, and then, went erect. Perhaps it
+      was a flying serpent which seemed to come from on high, as a messenger
+      from the upper world, one of the seraphim; because the serpent is a
+      subtile creature. What Eve thought of this serpent speaking to her, we are
+      not likely to tell, and, I believe, she herself did not know what to think
+      of it. At first, perhaps, she supposed it might be a good angel, and yet
+      afterwards might suspect something amiss. The person tempted was a woman,
+      now-alone, and at a distance from her husband, but near the forbidden
+      tree. It was the devil's subtlety to assault the weaker vessel with his
+      temptations, as we may suppose her inferior to Adam in knowledge, strength
+      and presence of mind. Some think that Eve received the command not
+      immediately from God, but at second hand from her husband, and might,
+      therefore, be the more easily persuaded to discredit it. It was the policy
+      of the devil to enter into discussion with her when she was alone. He took
+      advantage by finding her near the forbidden tree. God permitted Satan to
+      prevail over Eve, for wise and holy ends. Satan teaches men first to
+      doubt, and then to deny. He makes skeptics first, and by degrees makes
+      them atheists."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are compelled to admit that nothing could be more attractive to a woman
+      than a snake walking erect, with a "spotted, dappled skin," unless it were
+      a serpent with wings. Is it not humiliating to know that our ancestors
+      believed these things? Why should we object to the Darwinian doctrine of
+      descent after this?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our fathers thought it their duty to believe, thought it a sin to
+      entertain the slightest doubt, and really supposed that their credulity
+      was exceedingly gratifying to God. To them, the story was entirely real.
+      They could see the garden, hear the babble of waters, smell the perfume of
+      flowers. They believed there was a tree where knowledge grew like plums or
+      pears; and they could plainly see the serpent coiled amid its rustling
+      leaves, coaxing Eve to violate the laws of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where did the serpent come from? On which of the six days was he created?
+      Who made him? Is it possible that God would make a successful rival? He
+      must have known that Adam and Eve would fall. He knew what a snake with a
+      "spotted, dappled skin" could do with an inexperienced woman. Why did he
+      not defend his children? He knew that if the serpent got into the garden,
+      Adam and Eve would sin, that he would have to drive them out, that
+      afterwards the world would be destroyed, and that he himself would die
+      upon the cross.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, I ask what and who was this serpent? He was not a man, for only one
+      man had been made. He was not a woman. He was not a beast of the field,
+      because "he was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord
+      God had made." He was neither fish nor fowl, nor snake, because he had the
+      power of speech, and did not crawl upon his belly until after he was
+      cursed. Where did this serpent come from? Why was he not kept out of the
+      garden? Why did not the Lord God take him by the tail and snap his head
+      off? Why did he not put Adam and Eve on their guard about this serpent?
+      They, of course, were not acquainted in the neighborhood, and knew nothing
+      about the serpent's reputation for truth and veracity among his neighbors.
+      Probably Adam saw him when he was looking for "an helpmeet," and gave him
+      a name, but Eve had never met him before. She was not surprised to hear a
+      serpent talk, as that was the first one she had ever met. Every thing
+      being new to her, and her husband not being with her just at that moment,
+      it need hardly excite our wonder that she tasted the fruit by way of
+      experiment. Neither should we be surprised that when she saw it was good
+      and pleasant to the eye, and a fruit to be desired to make one wise, she
+      had the generosity to divide with her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theologians have filled thousands of volumes with abuse of this serpent,
+      but it seems that he told the exact truth. We are told that this serpent
+      was, in fact, Satan, the greatest enemy of mankind, and that he entered
+      the serpent, appearing to our first parents in its body. If this is so,
+      why should the serpent have been cursed? Why should God curse the serpent
+      for what had really been done by the devil? Did Satan remain in the body
+      of the serpent, and in some mysterious manner share his punishment? Is it
+      true that when we kill a snake we also destroy an evil spirit, or is there
+      but one devil, and did he perish at the death of the first serpent? Is it
+      on account of that transaction in the garden of Eden, that all the
+      descendents of Adam and Eve known as Jews and Christians hate serpents?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you account for the snake-worship in Mexico, Africa and India in the
+      same way?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was the form of the serpent when he entered the garden, and in what
+      way did he move from place to place? Did he walk or fly? Certainly he did
+      not crawl, because that mode of locomotion was pronounced upon him as a
+      curse. Upon what food did he subsist before his conversation with Eve? We
+      know that after that he lived upon dust, but what did he eat before? It
+      may be that this is all poetic; and the truest poetry is, according to
+      Touchstone, "the most feigning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this same chapter we are informed that "unto Adam also and to his wife
+      did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them." Where did the Lord
+      God get those skins? He must have taken them from the animals; he was a
+      butcher. Then he had to prepare them; he was a tanner. Then he made them
+      into coats; he was a tailor. How did it happen that they needed coats of
+      skins, when they had been perfectly comfortable in a nude condition? Did
+      the "fall" produce a change in the climate?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it really necessary to believe this account in order to be happy here,
+      or hereafter? Does it tend to the elevation of the human race to speak of
+      "God" as a butcher, tanner and tailor?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here, let me say once for all, that when I speak of God, I mean the
+      being described by Moses: the Jehovah of the Jews. There may be for aught
+      I&mdash;know, somewhere in the unknown shoreless vast, some being whose
+      dreams are constellations and within whose thought the infinite exists.
+      About this being, if such an one exists, I have nothing to say. He has
+      written no books, inspired no barbarians, required no worship, and has
+      prepared no hell in which to burn the honest seeker after truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I speak of God, I mean that god who prevented man from putting forth
+      his hand and taking also of the fruit of the tree of life that he might
+      live forever; of that god who multiplied the agonies of woman, increased
+      the weary toil of man, and in his anger drowned a world&mdash;of that god
+      whose altars reeked with human blood, who butchered babes, violated
+      maidens, enslaved men and filled the earth with cruelty and crime; of that
+      god who made heaven for the few, hell for the many, and who will gloat
+      forever and ever upon the writhings of the lost and damned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XVIII. DAMPNESS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth,
+      and daughters were born unto them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and
+      they took them wives of all which they chose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that
+      he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that when
+      the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children
+      to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
+      every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it
+      grieved him at his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face
+      of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls
+      of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this account it seems that driving Adam and Eve out of Eden did not
+      have the effect to improve them or their children. On the contrary, the
+      world grew worse and worse. They were under the immediate control and
+      government of God, and he from time to time made known his will; but in
+      spite of this, man continued to increase in crime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing in particular seems to have been done. Not a school was
+      established. There was no written language. There was not a bible in the
+      world. The "scheme of salvation" was kept a profound secret. The five
+      points of Calvinism had not been taught. Sunday schools had not been
+      opened. In short, nothing had been done for the reformation of the world.
+      God did not even keep his own sons at home, but allowed them to leave
+      their abode in the firmament, and make love to the daughters of men. As a
+      result of this, the world was filled with wickedness and giants to such an
+      extent that God regretted "that he had made man on the earth, and it
+      grieved him at his heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course God knew when he made man, that he would afterwards regret it.
+      He knew that the people would grow worse and worse until destruction would
+      be the only remedy. He knew that he would have to kill all except Noah and
+      his family, and it is hard to see why he did not make Noah and his family
+      in the first place, and leave Adam and Eve in the original dust. He knew
+      that they would be tempted, that he would have to drive them out of the
+      garden to keep them from eating of the tree of life; that the whole thing
+      would be a failure; that Satan would defeat his plan; that he could not
+      reform the people; that his own sons would corrupt them, and that at last
+      he would have to drown them all except Noah and his family. Why was the
+      garden of Eden planted? Why was the experiment made? Why were Adam and Eve
+      exposed to the seductive arts of the serpent? Why did God wait until the
+      cool of the day before looking after his children? Why was he not on hand
+      in the morning?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why did he fill the world with his own children, knowing that he would
+      have to destroy them? And why does this same God tell me how to raise my
+      children when he had to drown his?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a little curious that when God wished to reform the ante-diluvian
+      world he said nothing about hell; that he had no revivals, no
+      camp-meetings, no tracts, no outpourings of the Holy Ghost, no baptisms,
+      no noon prayer meetings, and never mentioned the great doctrine of
+      salvation by faith. If the orthodox creeds of the world are true, all
+      those people went to hell without ever having heard that such a place
+      existed. If eternal torment is a fact, surely these miserable wretches
+      ought to have been N warned. They were threatened only with water when
+      they were in fact doomed to eternal fire!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it not strange that God said nothing to Adam and Eve about a future
+      life; that he should have kept these "infinite verities" to himself and
+      allowed millions to live and die without the hope of heaven, or the fear
+      of hell?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be that hell was not made at that time. In the six days of creation
+      nothing is said about the construction of a bottomless pit, and the
+      serpent himself did not make his appearance until after the creation of
+      man and woman. Perhaps he was made on the first Sunday, and from that fact
+      came, it may be, the old couplet,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "And Satan still some mischief finds
+     For idle hands to do."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The sacred historian failed also to tell us when the cherubim and the
+      flaming sword were made, and said nothing about two of the persons
+      composing the trinity. It certainly would have been an easy thing to
+      enlighten Adam and his immediate descendants. The world was then only
+      about fifteen hundred and thirty-six years old, and only about three or
+      four generations of men had lived. Adam had been dead only about six
+      hundred and six years, and some of his grand children must, at that time,
+      have been alive and well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is hard to see why God did not civilize these people. He certainly had
+      the power to use, and the wisdom to devise the proper means. What right
+      has a god to fill a world with fiends? Can there be goodness in this? Why
+      should he make experiments that he knows must fail? Is there wisdom in
+      this? And what right has a man to charge an infinite being with wickedness
+      and folly?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to Moses, God made up his mind not only to destroy the people,
+      but the beasts and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air. What had
+      the beasts, and the creeping things, and the birds done to excite the
+      anger of God? Why did he repent having made them? Will some christian give
+      us an explanation of this matter? No good man will inflict unnecessary
+      pain upon a beast; how then can we worship a god who cares nothing for the
+      agonies of the dumb creatures that he made?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why did he make animals that he knew he would destroy? Does God delight in
+      causing pain? He had the power to make the beasts, and fowls, and creeping
+      things in his own good time and way, and it is to be presumed that he made
+      them according to his wish. Why should he destroy them? They had committed
+      no sin. They had eaten no forbidden fruit, made no aprons, nor tried to
+      reach the tree of life. Yet this god, in blind unreasoning wrath destroyed
+      "all flesh wherein was the breath of life, and every living thing beneath
+      the sky, and every substance wherein was life that he had made."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jehovah, having made up his mind to drown the world, told Noah to make an
+      Ark of gopher wood three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty
+      cubits high. A cubit is twenty-two inches; so that the ark was five
+      hundred and fifty feet long, ninety-one feet and eight inches wide and
+      fifty-five feet high. This ark was divided into three stories, and had on
+      top, one window twenty-two inches square. Ventilation must have been one
+      of Jehovah's hobbies. Think of a ship larger than the Great Eastern with
+      only one window, and that but twenty-two inches square!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ark also had one door set in the side thereof that shut from the
+      outside. As soon as this ship was finished, and properly victualed, Noah
+      received seven days notice to get the animals in the ark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is claimed by some of the scientific theologians that the flood was
+      partial, that the waters covered only a small portion of the world, and
+      that consequently only a few animals were in the ark. It is impossible to
+      conceive of language that can more clearly convey the idea of a universal
+      flood than that found in the inspired account. If the flood was only
+      partial, why did God say he would "destroy all flesh wherein is the breath
+      of life from under heaven, and that every thing that is in the earth shall
+      die?" Why did he say "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face
+      of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of
+      the air?" Why did he say "And every living substance that I have made will
+      I destroy from off the face of the earth?" Would a partial, local flood
+      have fulfilled these threats?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing can be clearer than that the writer of this account intended to
+      convey, and did convey the idea that the flood was universal. Why should
+      christians try to deprive God of the glory of having wrought the most
+      stupendous of miracles? Is it possible that the Infinite could not
+      overwhelm with waves this atom called the Earth? Do you doubt his power,
+      his wisdom or his justice?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Believers in miracles should not endeavor to explain them. There is but
+      one way to explain anything, and that is to account for it by natural
+      agencies. The moment you explain a miracle, it disappears. You should
+      depend not upon explanation, but assertion. You should not be driven from
+      the field because the miracle is shown to be unreasonable. You should
+      reply that all miracles are unreasonable. Neither should you be in the
+      least disheartened if it is shown to be impossible. The possible is not
+      miraculous. You should take the ground that if miracles were reasonable,
+      and possible, there would be no reward paid for believing them. The
+      christian has the goodness to believe, while the sinner asks for evidence.
+      It is enough for God to work miracles without being called upon to
+      substantiate them for the benefit of unbelievers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only a few years ago, the christians believed implicitly in the literal
+      truth of every miracle recorded in the bible. Whoever tried to explain
+      them in some natural way, was looked upon as an infidel in disguise, but
+      now he is regarded as a benefactor. The credulity of the Church is
+      decreasing, and the most marvelous miracles are now either "explained," or
+      allowed to take refuge behind the mistakes of the translators, or hide in
+      the drapery of allegory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the sixth chapter, Noah is ordered to take "of every living thing of
+      all flesh, two of every sort into the ark&mdash;male and female." In the
+      seventh chapter the order is changed, and Noah is commanded, according to
+      the Protestant bible, as follows: "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to
+      thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of beasts that are not clean,
+      by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the
+      male and the female."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the Catholic bible, Noah was commanded&mdash;"Of all clean
+      beasts take seven and seven, the male and the female. But of the beasts
+      that are unclean two and two, the male and the female. Of the fowls also
+      of the air seven and seven, the male and the female."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the purpose of belittling this miracle, many commentators have taken
+      the ground that Noah was not ordered to take seven males and seven females
+      of each kind of clean beasts, but seven in all. Many christians contend
+      that only seven clean beasts of each kind were taken into the ark&mdash;three
+      and a half of each sex.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the account in the seventh chapter means anything, it means <i>first</i>,
+      that of each kind of clean beasts, fourteen were to be taken, seven males,
+      and seven females; <i>second</i>, that of unclean beasts should be taken,
+      two of each kind, one of each sex, and <i>third</i>, that he should take
+      of every kind of fowls, seven of each sex.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is equally clear that the command in the 19th and 20th verses of the
+      6th chapter, is to take two of each sort, one male and one female. And
+      this agrees exactly with the account in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 14th. 15th, and
+      16th verses of the 7th chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next question is, how many beasts, fowls and creeping things did Noah
+      take into the ark?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are now known and classified at least twelve thousand five hundred
+      species of birds. There are still vast territories in China, South
+      America, and Africa unknown to the ornithologist. Of the birds, Noah took
+      fourteen of each species, according to the 3d verse of the 7th chapter,
+      "Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female," making a
+      total of 175,000 birds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And right here allow me to ask a question. If the flood was simply a
+      partial flood, why were birds taken into the ark? It seems to me that most
+      birds, attending strictly to business, might avoid a partial flood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are at least sixteen hundred and fifty-eight kinds of beasts. Let us
+      suppose that twenty-five of these are clean. Of the clean, fourteen of
+      each kind&mdash;seven of each sex&mdash;were taken. These amount to 350.
+      Of the unclean&mdash;two of each kind, amounting to 3,266. There are some
+      six hundred and fifty species of reptiles. Two of each kind amount
+      to-1,300. And lastly, there are of insects including the creeping things,
+      at least one million species, so that Noah and his folks had to get of
+      these into the ark about 2,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Animalculae have not been taken into consideration. There are probably
+      many hundreds of thousands of species; many of them invisible; and yet
+      Noah had to pick them out by pairs. Very few people have any just
+      conception of the trouble Noah had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We know that there are many animals on this continent not found in the Old
+      World. These must have been carried from here to the ark, and then brought
+      back afterwards. Were the peccary, armadillo, ant-eater, sloth, agouti,
+      vampire-bat, marmoset, howling and prehensile-tailed monkey, the raccoon
+      and muskrat carried by the angels from America to Asia? How did they get
+      there? Did the polar bear leave his field of ice and journey toward the
+      tropics? How did he know where the ark was? Did the kangaroo swim or jump
+      from Australia to Asia? Did the giraffe, hippopotamus, antelope and
+      orang-outang journey from Africa in search of the ark? Can absurdities go
+      farther than this?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What had these animals to eat while on the journey? What did they eat
+      while in the ark? What did they drink? When the rain came, of course the
+      rivers ran to the seas, and these seas rose and finally covered the world.
+      The waters of the seas, mingled with those of the flood, would make all
+      salt. It has been calculated that it required, to drown the world, about
+      eight times as much water as was in all the seas. To find how salt the
+      waters of the flood must have been, take eight quarts of fresh water, and
+      add one quart from the sea. Such water would create instead of allaying
+      thirst. Noah had to take in his ark fresh water for all his beasts, birds
+      and living things. He had to take the proper food for all. How long was he
+      in the ark? Three hundred and seventy-seven days! Think of the food
+      necessary for the monsters of the ante-diluvian world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eight persons did all the work. They attended to the wants of 175,000
+      birds, 3,616 beasts, 1,300 reptiles, and 2,000,000 insects, saying nothing
+      of countless animalculae.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, after they all got in, Noah pulled down the window, God shut the
+      door, and the rain commenced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How long did it rain?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Forty days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How deep did the water get?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About five miles and a half.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How much did it rain a day?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Enough to cover the whole world to a depth of about seven hundred and
+      forty-two feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some Christians say that the fountains of the great deep were broken up.
+      Will they be kind enough to tell us what the fountains of the great deep
+      are? Others say that God had vast stores of water in the center of the
+      earth that he used on that occasion. How did these waters happen to run up
+      hill?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gentlemen, allow me to tell you once more that you must not try to explain
+      these things. Your efforts in that direction do no good, because your
+      explanations are harder to believe than the miracle itself. Take my
+      advice, stick to assertion, and let explanation alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as now, Dhawalagiri lifted its crown of snow twenty-nine thousand
+      feet above the level of the sea, and on the cloudless cliffs of Chimborazo
+      then, as now, sat the condor; and yet the waters rising seven hundred and
+      twenty-six feet a day&mdash;thirty feet an hour, six inches a minute,&mdash;rose
+      over the hills, over the volcanoes, filled the vast craters, extinguished
+      all the fires, rose above every mountain peak until the vast world was but
+      one shoreless sea covered with the innumerable dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was this the work of the most merciful God, the father of us all? If there
+      is a God, can there be the slightest danger of incurring his displeasure
+      by doubting even in a reverential way, the truth of such a cruel lie? If
+      we think that God is kinder than he really is, will our poor souls be
+      burned for that?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How many trees can live under miles of water for a year? What became of
+      the soil washed, scattered, dissolved, and covered with the <i>debris</i>
+      of a world? How were the tender plants and herbs preserved? How were the
+      animals preserved after leaving the ark? There was no grass except such as
+      had been submerged for a year. There were no animals to be devoured by the
+      carnivorous beasts. What became of the birds that fed on worms and
+      insects? What became of the birds that devoured other birds?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be remembered that the pressure of the water when at the highest
+      point&mdash;say twenty-nine thousand feet, would have been about eight
+      hundred tons on each square foot. Such a pressure certainly would have
+      destroyed nearly every vestige of vegetable life, so that when the animals
+      came out of the ark, there was not a mouthful of food in the wide world.
+      How were they supported until the world was again clothed with grass? How
+      were those animals taken care of that subsisted on others? Where did the
+      bees get honey, and the ants seeds? There was not a creeping thing upon
+      the whole earth; not a breathing creature beneath the whole heavens; not a
+      living substance. Where did the tenants of the ark get food?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is but one answer, if the story is true. The food necessary not only
+      during the year of the flood, but sufficient for many months afterwards,
+      must have been stored in the ark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is probably not an animal in the world that will not, in a year, eat
+      and drink ten times its weight. Noah must have provided food and water for
+      a year while in the ark, and food for at least six months after they got
+      ashore. It must have required for a pair of elephants, about one hundred
+      and fifty tons of food and water. A couple of mammoths would have required
+      about twice that amount. Of course there were other monsters that lived on
+      trees; and in a year would have devoured quite a forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How could eight persons have distributed this food, even if the ark had
+      been large enough to hold it? How was the ark kept clean? We know how it
+      was ventilated; but what was done with the filth? How were the animals
+      watered? How were some portions of the ark heated for animals from the
+      tropics, and others kept cool for the polar bears? How did the animals get
+      back to their respective countries? Some had to creep back about six
+      thousand miles, and they could only go a few feet a day. Some of the
+      creeping things must have started for the ark just as soon as they were
+      made, and kept up a steady jog for sixteen hundred years. Think of a
+      couple of the slowest snails leaving a point opposite the ark and starting
+      for the plains of Shinar, a distance of twelve thousand miles. Going at
+      the rate of a mile a month, it would take them a thousand years. How did
+      they get there? Polar bears must have gone several thousand miles, and so
+      sudden a change in climate must have been exceedingly trying upon their
+      health. How did they know the way to go? Of course, all the polar bears
+      did not go. Only two were required. Who selected these?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two sloths had to make the journey from South America. These creatures
+      cannot travel to exceed three rods a day. At this rate, they would make a
+      mile in about a hundred days. They must have gone about six thousand five
+      hundred miles, to reach the ark. Supposing them to have traveled by a
+      reasonably direct route, in order to complete the journey before Noah
+      hauled in the plank, they must have started several years before the world
+      was created. We must also consider that these sloths had to board
+      themselves on the way, and that most of their time had to be taken up
+      getting food and water. It is exceedingly doubtful whether a sloth could
+      travel six thousand miles and board himself in less than three thousand
+      years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Volumes might be written upon the infinite absurdity of this most
+      incredible, wicked and foolish of all the fables contained in that
+      repository of the impossible, called the bible. To me it is a matter of
+      amazement, that it ever was for a moment believed by any intelligent human
+      being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Adam Clark says that "the animals were brought to the ark by the power
+      of God, and their enmities were so removed or suspended, that the lion
+      could dwell peaceably with the lamb, and the wolf sleep happily by the
+      side of the kid. There is no positive evidence that animal food was ever
+      used before the flood. Noah had the first grant of this kind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Scott remarks, "There seems to have been a very extraordinary miracle,
+      perhaps by the ministration of angels, in bringing two of every species to
+      Noah, and rendering them submissive, and peaceful with each other. Yet it
+      seems not to have made any impression upon the hardened spectators. The
+      suspension of the ferocity of the savage beasts during their continuance
+      in the ark, is generally considered as an apt figure of the change that
+      takes place in the disposition of sinners when they enter the true church
+      of Christ."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He believed the deluge to have been universal. In his day science had not
+      demonstrated the absurdity of this belief, and he was not compelled to
+      resort to some theory not found in the bible. He insisted that "by some
+      vast convulsion, the very bowels of the earth were forced upwards, and
+      rain poured down in cataracts and water-spouts, with no intermission for
+      forty days and nights, and until in every place a universal deluge was
+      effected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The presence of God was the only comfort of Noah in his dreary
+      confinement, and in witnessing the dire devastation of the earth and its
+      inhabitants, and especially of the human species&mdash;of his companions,
+      his neighbors, his relatives&mdash;all those to whom he had preached, for
+      whom he had prayed and over whom he had wept, and even of many who had
+      helped to build the ark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems that by a peculiar providential interposition, no animal of any
+      sort died, although they had been shut up in the ark above a year; and it
+      does not appear that there had been any increase of them during that time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Ark was flat-bottomed&mdash;square at each end&mdash;roofed like a
+      house so that it terminated at the top in the breadth of a cubit. It was
+      divided into many little cabins for its intended inhabitants. Pitched
+      within and without to keep it tight and sweet, and lighted from the upper
+      part. But it must, at first sight, be evident that so large a vessel, thus
+      constructed, with so few persons on board, was utterly unfitted to weather
+      out the deluge, except it was under the immediate guidance and protection
+      of the Almighty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Henry furnished the Christian world with the following:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As our bodies have in them the humors which, when God pleases, become the
+      springs and seeds of mortal disease, so the earth had, in its bowels,
+      those waters which, at God's command, sprung up and flooded it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God made the world in six days, but he was forty days in destroying it,
+      because he is slow to anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The hostilities between the animals in the ark ceased, and ravenous
+      creatures became mild and manageable, so that the wolf lay down with the
+      lamb, and the lion ate straw like an ox.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God shut the door of the ark to secure Noah and to keep him safe, and
+      because it was necessary that the door should be shut very close lest the
+      water should break in and sink the ark, and very fast lest others might
+      break it down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The waters rose so high that not only the low flat countries were
+      deluged, but to make sure work and that none might escape, the tops of the
+      highest mountains were overflowed fifteen cubits. That is, seven and a
+      half yards, so that salvation was not hoped for from hills or mountains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps some of the people got to the top of the ark, and hoped to shift
+      for themselves there. But either they perished there for want of food, or
+      the dashing rain washed them off the top. Others, it may be, hoped to
+      prevail with Noah for admission into the ark, and plead old acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "'Have we not eaten and drank in thy presence? Hast thou not preached in
+      our streets? 'Yea,' said Noah, 'many a time, but to little purpose. I
+      called but ye refused; and now it is not in my power to help you. God has
+      shut the door and I cannot open it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We may suppose that some of those who perished in the deluge had
+      themselves assisted Noah, or were employed by him in building the ark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hitherto, man had been confined to feed only upon the products of the
+      earth. Fruits, herbs and roots, and all sorts of greens, and milk, which
+      was the first grant; but the flood having perhaps washed away much of the
+      fruits of the earth, and rendered them much less pleasant and nourishing,
+      God enlarged the grant and allowed him to eat flesh, which perhaps man
+      never thought of until now, that God directed him to it. Nor had he any
+      more desire to it than the sheep has to suck blood like the wolf. But now,
+      man is allowed to feed upon flesh as freely and safely as upon the green
+      herb."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the debasing influence of a belief in the literal truth of the
+      bible upon these men, that their commentaries are filled with passages
+      utterly devoid of common sense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Clark speaking of the mammoth says:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This animal, an astonishing proof of God's power, he seems to have
+      produced merely to show what he could do. And after suffering a few of
+      them to propagate, he extinguished the race by a merciful providence, that
+      they might not destroy both man and beast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We are told that it would have been much easier for God to destroy all
+      the people and make new ones, but he would not want to waste anything and
+      no power or skill should be lavished where no necessity exists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The animals were brought to the ark by the power of God."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again gentlemen, let me warn you of the danger of trying to explain a
+      miracle. Let it alone. Say that you do not understand it, and do not
+      expect to until taught in the schools of the New Jerusalem. The more
+      reasons you give, the more unreasonable the miracle will appear. Through
+      what you say in defence people are led to think, and as soon as they
+      really think, the miracle is thrown away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the most ignorant nations you will find the most wonders, among the
+      most enlightened, the least. It is with individuals, the same as with
+      nations. Ignorance believes, Intelligence examines and explains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For about seven months the ark, with its cargo of men, animals and
+      insects, tossed and wandered without rudder or sail upon a boundless sea.
+      At last it grounded on the mountains of Ararat; and about three months
+      afterwards the tops of the mountains became visible. It must not be
+      forgotten that the mountain where the ark is supposed to have first
+      touched bottom, was about seventeen thousand feet high. How were the
+      animals from the tropics kept warm? When the waters were abated it would
+      be intensely cold at a point seventeen thousand feet above the level of
+      the sea. May be there were stoves, furnaces, fire places and steam coils
+      in the ark, but they are not mentioned in the inspired narrative. How were
+      the animals kept from freezing? It will not do to say that Ararat was not
+      very high after all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If you will read the fourth and fifth verses of the eight chapter you will
+      see that although the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth
+      day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat, it was not until the first
+      day of the tenth month "that the tops of the mountains could be seen."
+      From this it would seem that the ark must have rested upon about the
+      highest peak in that country. Noah waited forty days more, and then for
+      the first time opened the window and took a breath of fresh air. He then
+      sent out a raven that did not return, then a dove that returned. He then
+      waited seven days and sent forth a dove that returned not. From this he
+      knew that the waters were abated. Is it possible that he could not see
+      whether the waters had gone? Is it possible to conceive of a more
+      perfectly childish way of ascertaining whether the earth was dry?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last Noah "removed the covering of the ark, and looked and behold the
+      face of the ground was dry," and thereupon God told him to disembark. In
+      his gratitude Noah built an altar and took of every clean beast and of
+      every clean fowl, and offered "burnt offerings". And the Lord smelled a
+      sweet savor and said in his heart that he would not any more curse the
+      ground for man's sake. For saying this in his heart the Lord gives as a
+      reason, not that man is, or will be good, but because "the imagination of
+      man's heart is evil from his youth." God destroyed man because "the
+      wickedness of man was great in the earth, and <i>because every imagination
+      of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually</i>." And he
+      promised for the same reason not to destroy him again. Will some gentleman
+      skilled in theology give us an explanation?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After God had smelled the sweet savor of sacrifice, he seems to have
+      changed his idea as to the proper diet for man. When Adam and Eve were
+      created they were allowed to eat herbs bearing seed, and the fruit of
+      trees. When they were turned out of Eden, God said to them "Thou shalt eat
+      the herb of the field." In the first chapter of Genesis the "green herb"
+      was given for food to the beasts, fowls and creeping things. Upon being
+      expelled from the garden, Adam and Eve, as to their food, were put upon an
+      equality with the lower animals. According to this, the ante-diluvians
+      were vegetarians. This may account for their wickedness and longevity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After Noah sacrificed, and God smelled the sweet savor; he said&mdash;"Every
+      moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb
+      have I given you all things." Afterwards this same God changed his mind
+      again, and divided the beasts and birds into clean and unclean, and made
+      it a crime for man to eat the unclean. Probably food was so scarce when
+      Noah was let out of the ark that Jehovah generously allowed him to eat
+      anything and everything he could find.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the account, God then made a covenant with Noah to the effect
+      that he would not again destroy the world with a flood, and as the
+      attesting witness of this contract, a rainbow was set in the cloud. This
+      bow was placed in the sky so that it might perpetually remind God of his
+      promise and covenant. Without this visible witness and reminder, it would
+      seem that Jehovah was liable to forget the contract, and drown the world
+      again. Did the rainbow originate in this way? Did God put it in the cloud
+      simply to keep his agreement in his memory?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For me it is impossible to believe the story of the deluge. It seems so
+      cruel, so barbaric, so crude in detail, so absurd in all its parts, and so
+      contrary to all we know of law, that even credulity itself is shocked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many nations have preserved accounts of a deluge in which all people,
+      except a family or two, were destroyed. Babylon was certainly a city
+      before Jerusalem was founded. Egypt was in the height of her power when
+      there were only seventy Jews in the world, and India had a literature
+      before the name of Jehovah had passed the lips of superstition. An account
+      of a general deluge "was discovered by George Smith, translated from
+      another account that was written about two thousand years before Christ."
+      Of course it is impossible to tell how long the story had lived in the
+      memory of tradition before it was reduced to writing by the Babylonians.
+      According to this account, which is, without doubt, much older than the
+      one given by Moses, Tamzi built a ship at the command of the god Hea, and
+      put in it his family and the beasts of the field. He pitched the ship
+      inside and outside with bitumen, and as soon as it was finished, there
+      came a flood of rain and "destroyed all life from the face of the whole
+      earth. On the seventh day there was a calm, and the ship stranded on the
+      mountain Nizir." Tamzi waited for seven days more, and then let out a
+      dove. Afterwards, he let out a swallow, and that, as well as the dove
+      returned. Then he let out a raven, and as that did not return, he
+      concluded that the water had dried away, and thereupon left the ship. Then
+      he made an offering to god, or the gods, and "Hea interceded with Bel," so
+      that the earth might never again be drowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the Babylonian story, told without the contradictions of the
+      original. For in that, it seems, there are two accounts, as well as in the
+      bible. Is it not a strange coincidence that there should be contradictory
+      accounts mingled in both the Babylonian and Jewish stories?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the bible there are two accounts. In one account, Noah was to take two
+      of all beasts, birds, and creeping things into the ark, while in the other
+      he was commanded to take of clean beasts, and all birds by sevens of each
+      kind. According to one account, the flood only lasted one hundred and
+      fifty days&mdash;as related in the third verse of the eighth chapter;
+      while the other account fixes the time at three hundred and seventy-seven
+      days. Both of these accounts cannot be true. Yet in order to be saved, it
+      is not sufficient to believe one of them&mdash;you must believe both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the Egyptians there was a story to the effect that the great god Ra
+      became utterly maddened with the people, and deliberately made up his mind
+      that he would exterminate mankind. Thereupon he began to destroy, and
+      continued in the terrible work until blood flowed in streams, when
+      suddenly he ceased, and took an oath that he would not again destroy the
+      human race. This myth was probably thousands of years old when Moses was
+      born.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, in India, there was a fable about the flood. A fish warned Manu that a
+      flood was coming. Manu built a "box" and the fish towed it to a mountain
+      and saved all hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same kind of stories were told in Greece, and among our own Indian
+      tribes. At one time the christian pointed to the fact that many nations
+      told of a flood, as evidence of the truth of the Mosaic account; but now,
+      it having been shown that other accounts are much older, and equally
+      reasonable, that argument has ceased to be of any great value.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that all these accounts had a common origin. They were
+      likely born of something in nature visible to all nations. The idea of a
+      universal flood, produced by a god to drown the world on account of the
+      sins of the people, is infinitely absurd. The solution of all these
+      stories has been supposed to be, the existence of partial floods in most
+      countries; and for a long time this solution was satisfactory. But the
+      fact that these stories are greatly alike, that only one man is warned,
+      that only one family is saved, that a boat is built, that birds are sent
+      out to find if the water had abated, tend to show that they had a common
+      origin. Admitting that there were severe floods in all countries; it
+      certainly cannot follow that in each instance only one family would be
+      saved, or that the same story would in each instance be told. It may be
+      urged that the natural tendency of man to exaggerate calamities, might
+      account for this agreement in all the accounts, and it must be admitted
+      that there is some force in the suggestion, I believe, though, that the
+      real origin of all these myths is the same, and that it was originally an
+      effort to account for the sun, moon and stars. The sun and moon were the
+      man and wife, or the god and goddess, and the stars were their children.
+      From a celestial myth, it became a terrestrial one; the air, or
+      ether-ocean became a flood, produced by rain, and the sun moon and stars
+      became man, woman and children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the original story, the mountain was the place where in the far east
+      the sky was supposed to touch the earth, and it was there that the ship
+      containing the celestial passengers finally rested from its voyage. But
+      whatever may be the origin of the stories of the flood, whether told first
+      by Hindu, Babylonian or Hebrew, we may rest perfectly assured that they
+      are all equally false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XIX. BACCHUS AND BABEL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As soon as Noah had disembarked, he proceeded to plant a vineyard, and
+      began to be a husbandman; and when the grapes were ripe he made wine and
+      drank of it to excess; cursed his grandson, blessed Shem and Japheth, and
+      after that lived for three hundred and fifty years. What he did during
+      these three hundred and fifty years, we are not told. We never hear of him
+      again. For three hundred and fifty years he lived among his sons, and
+      daughters, and their descendants. He must have been a venerable man. He
+      was the man to whom God had made known his intention of drowning the
+      world. By his efforts, the human race had been saved. He must have been
+      acquainted with Methuselah for six hundred years, and Methuselah was about
+      two hundred and forty years old, when Adam died. Noah must himself have
+      known the history of mankind, and must have been an object of almost
+      infinite interest; and yet for three hundred and fifty years he is neither
+      directly nor indirectly mentioned. When Noah died, Abraham must have been
+      more than fifty years old; and Shem, the son of Noah, lived for several
+      hundred years after the death of Abraham; and yet he is never mentioned.
+      Noah when he died, was the oldest man in the whole world by about five
+      hundred years; and everybody living at the time of his death knew that
+      they were indebted to him, and yet no account is given of his burial. No
+      monument was raised to mark the spot. This, however, is no more wonderful
+      than the fact that no account is given of the death of Adam or of Eve, nor
+      of the place of their burial. This may all be accounted for by the fact
+      that the language of man was confounded at the building of the tower of
+      Babel, whereby all tradition may have been lost, so that even the sons of
+      Noah could not give an account of their voyage in the ark; and,
+      consequently, some one had to be directly inspired to tell the story,
+      after new languages had been formed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has always been a mystery to me how Adam, Eve, and the serpent were
+      taught the same language. Where did they get it? We know now, that it
+      requires a great number of years to form a language; that it is of
+      exceedingly slow growth. We also know that by language, man conveys to his
+      fellows the impressions made upon him by what he sees, hears, smells and
+      touches. We know that the language of the savage consists of a few sounds,
+      capable of expressing only a few ideas or states of the mind, such as
+      love, desire, fear, hatred, aversion and contempt. Many centuries are
+      required to produce a language capable of expressing complex ideas. It
+      does not seem to me that ideas can be manufactured by a deity and put in
+      the brain of man. These ideas must be the result of observation and
+      experience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Does anybody believe that God directly taught a language to Adam and Eve,
+      or that he so made them that they, by intuition spoke Hebrew, or some
+      language capable of conveying to each other their thoughts? How did the
+      serpent learn the same language? Did God teach it to him, or did he happen
+      to overhear God, when he was teaching Adam and Eve? We are told in the
+      second chapter of Genesis that God caused all the animals to pass before
+      Adam to see what he would call them. We cannot infer from this that God
+      named the animals and informed Adam what to call them. Adam named them
+      himself. Where did he get his words? We cannot imagine a man just made out
+      of dust, without the experience of a moment, having the power to put his
+      thoughts in language. In the first place, we cannot conceive of his having
+      any thoughts until he has combined, through experience and observation,
+      the impressions that nature had made upon him through the medium of his
+      senses. We cannot imagine of his knowing anything, in the first instance,
+      about different degrees of heat, nor about darkness, if he was made in the
+      day-time, nor about light, if created at night, until the next morning.
+      Before a man can have what we call thoughts, he must have had a little
+      experience. Something must have happened to him before he can have a
+      thought, and before he can express himself in language. Language is a
+      growth, not a gift. We account now for the diversity of language by the
+      fact that tribes and nations have had different experiences, different
+      wants, different surroundings, and, one result of all these differences
+      is, among other things, a difference in language. Nothing can be more
+      absurd than to account for the different languages of the world by saying
+      that the original language was confounded at the tower of Babel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the bible, up to the time of the building of that tower, the
+      whole earth was of one language and of one speech, and would have so
+      remained until the present time had not an effort been made to build a
+      tower whose top should reach into heaven. Can any one imagine what
+      objection God would have to the building of such a tower? And how could
+      the confusion of tongues prevent its construction? How could language be
+      confounded? It could be confounded only by the destruction of memory. Did
+      God destroy the memory of mankind at that time, and if so, how? Did he
+      paralyze that portion of the brain presiding over the organs of
+      articulation, so that they could not speak the words, although they
+      remembered them clearly, or did he so touch the brain that they could not
+      hear? Will some theologian, versed in the machinery of the miraculous,
+      tell us in what way God confounded the language of mankind?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why would the confounding of the language make them separate? Why would
+      they not stay together until they could understand each other? People will
+      not separate, from weakness. When in trouble they come together and desire
+      the assistance of each other. Why, in this instance, did they separate?
+      What particular ones would naturally come together if nobody understood
+      the language of any other person? Would it not have been just as hard to
+      agree when and where to go, without any language to express the agreement,
+      as to go on with the building of the tower?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it possible that any one now believes that the whole world would be of
+      one speech had the language not been confounded at Babel? Do we not know
+      that every word was suggested in some way by the experience of men? Do we
+      not know that words are continually dying, and continually being born;
+      that every language has its cradle and its cemetery&mdash;its buds, its
+      blossoms, its fruits and its withered leaves? Man has loved, enjoyed,
+      hated, suffered and hoped, and all words have been born of these
+      experiences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why did "the Lord come down to see the city and the tower?" Could he not
+      see them from where he lived or from where he was? Where did he come down
+      from? Did he come in the daytime, or in the night? We are taught now that
+      God is everywhere; that he inhabits immensity; that he is in every atom,
+      and in every star. If this is true, why did he "come down to see the city
+      and the tower?" Will some theologian explain this?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After all, is it not much easier and altogether more reasonable to say
+      that Moses was mistaken, that he knew little of the science of language,
+      and that he guessed a great deal more than he investigated?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XX. FAITH IN FILTH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      No light whatever is shed upon what passed in the world after the
+      confounding of language at Babel, until the birth of Abraham. But, before
+      speaking of the history of the Jewish people, it may be proper for me to
+      say that many things are recounted in Genesis, and other books attributed
+      to Moses, of which I do not wish to speak. There are many pages of these
+      books unfit to read, many stories not calculated, in my judgment, to
+      improve the morals of mankind. I do not wish even to call the attention of
+      my readers to these things, except in a general way. It is to be hoped
+      that the time will come when such chapters and passages as cannot be read
+      without leaving the blush of shame upon the cheek of modesty, will be left
+      out, and not published as a part of the bible. If there is a God, it
+      certainly is blasphemous to attribute to him the authorship of pages too
+      obscene, beastly and vulgar to be read in the presence of men and women.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The believers in the bible are loud in their denunciation of what they are
+      pleased to call the immoral literature of the world; and yet few books
+      have been published containing more moral filth than this inspired word of
+      God. These stories are not redeemed by a single flash of wit or humor.
+      They never rise above the dull details of stupid vice. For one, I cannot
+      afford to soil my pages with extracts from them; and all such portions of
+      the Scriptures I leave to be examined, written upon, and explained by the
+      clergy. Clergymen may know some way by which they can extract honey from
+      these flowers. Until these passages are expunged from the Old Testament,
+      it is not a fit book to be read by either old or young. It contains pages
+      that no minister in the United States would read to his congregation for
+      any reward whatever. There are chapters that no gentleman would read in
+      the presence of a lady. There are chapters that no father would read to
+      his child. There are narratives utterly unfit to be told; and the time
+      will come when mankind will wonder that such a book was ever called
+      inspired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know that in many books besides the bible there are immodest lines. Some
+      of the greatest writers have soiled their pages with indecent words. We
+      account for this by saying that the authors were human; that they catered
+      to the taste and spirit of their times. We make excuses, but at the same
+      time regret that in their works they left an impure word. But what shall
+      we say of God? Is it possible that a being of infinite purity&mdash;the
+      author of modesty, would smirch the pages of his book with stories lewd,
+      licentious and obscene? If God is the author of the bible, it is, of
+      course, the standard by which all other books can, and should be measured.
+      If the bible is not obscene, what book is? Why should men be imprisoned
+      simply for imitating God? The christian world should never say another
+      word against immoral books until it makes the inspired volume clean. These
+      vile and filthy things were not written for the purpose of conveying and
+      enforcing moral truth, but seem to have been written because the author
+      loved an unclean thing. There is no moral depth below that occupied by the
+      writer or publisher of obscene books, that stain with lust, the loving
+      heart of youth. Such men should be imprisoned and their books destroyed.
+      The literature of the world should be rendered decent, and no book should
+      be published that cannot be read by, and in the hearing of the best and
+      purest people. But as long as the bible is considered as the work of God,
+      it will be hard to make all men too good and pure to imitate it; and as
+      long as it is imitated there will be vile and filthy books. The literature
+      of our country will not be sweet and clean until the bible ceases to be
+      regarded as the production of a god.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are continually told that the bible is the very foundation of modesty
+      and morality; while many of its pages are so immodest and immoral that a
+      minister, for reading them in the pulpit, would be instantly denounced as
+      an unclean wretch. Every woman would leave the church, and if the men
+      stayed, it would be for the purpose of chastising the minister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is there any saving grace in hypocrisy? Will men become clean in speech by
+      believing that God is unclean? Would it not be far better to admit that
+      the bible was written by barbarians in a barbarous, coarse and vulgar age?
+      Would it not be safer to charge Moses with vulgarity, instead of God? Is
+      it not altogether more probable that some ignorant Hebrew would write the
+      vulgar words? The christians tell me that God is the author of these vile
+      and stupid things? I have examined the question to the best of my ability,
+      and as to God my verdict is:&mdash;Not guilty. Faith should not rest in
+      filth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every foolish and immodest thing should be expunged from the bible. Let us
+      keep the good. Let us preserve every great and splendid thought, every
+      wise and prudent maxim, every just law, every elevated idea, and every
+      word calculated to make man nobler and purer, and let us have the courage
+      to throw the rest away. The souls of children should not be stained and
+      soiled. The charming instincts of youth should not be corrupted and
+      defiled. The girls and boys should not be taught that unclean words were
+      uttered by "inspired" lips. Teach them that these words were born of
+      savagery and lust. Teach them that the unclean is the unholy, and that
+      only the pure is sacred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XXI. THE HEBREWS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      After language had been confounded and the people scattered, there
+      appeared in the land of Canaan a tribe of Hebrews ruled by a chief or
+      sheik called Abraham. They had a few cattle, lived in tents, practiced
+      polygamy, wandered from place to place, and were the only folks in the
+      whole world to whom God paid the slightest attention. At this time there
+      were hundreds of cities in India filled with temples and palaces; millions
+      of Egyptians worshiped Isis and Osiris, and had covered their land with
+      marvelous monuments of industry, power and skill. But these civilizations
+      were entirely neglected by the Deity, his whole attention being taken up
+      with Abraham and his family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems, from the account, that God and Abraham were intimately
+      acquainted, and conversed frequently upon a great variety of subjects. By
+      the twelfth chapter of Genesis it appears that he made the following
+      promises to Abraham. "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless
+      thee, and make thy name great: and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will
+      bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After receiving this communication from the Almighty, Abraham went into
+      the land of Canaan, and again God appeared to him and told him to take a
+      heifer three years old, a goat of the same age, a sheep of equal
+      antiquity, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Whereupon Abraham killed the
+      animals "and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against
+      another." And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark,
+      behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between the raw
+      and bleeding meat. The killing of these animals was a preparation for
+      receiving a visit from God. Should an American missionary in Central
+      Africa find a negro chief surrounded by a butchered heifer, a goat and a
+      sheep, with which to receive a communication from the infinite God, my
+      opinion is, that the missionary would regard the proceeding as the direct
+      result of savagery. And if the chief insisted that he had seen a smoking
+      furnace and a burning lamp going up and down between the pieces of meat,
+      the missionary would certainly conclude that the chief was not altogether
+      right in his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the bible is true, this same God told Abraham to take and sacrifice his
+      only son, or rather the only son of his wife, and a murder would have been
+      committed had not God, just at the right moment, directed him to stay his
+      hand and take a sheep instead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      God made a great number of promises to Abraham, but few of them were ever
+      kept. He agreed to make him the father of a great nation, but he did not.
+      He solemnly promised to give him a great country, including all the land
+      between the river of Egypt and the Euphrates, but he did not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In due time Abraham passed away, and his son Isaac took his place at the
+      head of the tribe. Then came Jacob, who "watered stock" and enriched
+      himself with the spoil of Laban. Joseph was sold into Egypt by his jealous
+      brethren, where he became one of the chief men of the kingdom, and in a
+      few years his father and brothers left their own country and settled in
+      Egypt. At this time there were seventy Hebrews in the world, counting
+      Joseph and his children. They remained in Egypt two hundred and fifteen
+      years. It is claimed by some that they were in that country for four
+      hundred and thirty years. This is a mistake. Josephus says they were in
+      Egypt two hundred and fifteen years, and this statement is sustained by
+      the best biblical scholars of all denominations. According to the 17th
+      verse of the 3rd chapter of Galatians, it was four hundred and thirty
+      years from the time the promise was made to Abraham to the giving of the
+      law, and as the Hebrews did not go to Egypt for two hundred and fifteen
+      years after the making of the promise to Abraham, they could in no event
+      have been in Egypt more than two hundred and fifteen years. In our bible
+      the 40th verse of the 12th chapter of Exodus, is as follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was
+      four hundred and thirty years."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This passage does not say that the sojourning was all done in Egypt;
+      neither does it say that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt four
+      hundred and thirty years; but it does say that the sojourning of the
+      children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
+      The Vatican copy of the Septuagint renders the same passage as follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt,
+      and in the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Alexandrian version says:&mdash;"The sojourning of the children of
+      Israel which they and their fathers sojourned in Egypt, and in the land of
+      Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And in the Samaritan bible we have:&mdash;"The sojourning of the children
+      of Israel and of their fathers which they sojourned in the land of Canaan,
+      and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were seventy souls when they went down into Egypt, and they remained
+      two hundred and fifteen years, and at the end of that time they had
+      increased to about three million. How do we know that there were three
+      million at the end of two hundred and fifteen years? We know it because we
+      are informed by Moses that "there were six hundred thousand men of war."
+      Now, to each man of war, there must have been at least five other people.
+      In every State in this Union there will be to each voter, five other
+      persons at least, and we all know that there are always more voters than
+      men of war. If there were six hundred thousand men of war, there must have
+      been a population of at least three million. Is it possible that seventy
+      people could increase to that extent in two hundred and fifteen years? You
+      may say that it was a miracle; but what need was there of working a
+      miracle? Why should God miraculously increase the number of slaves? If he
+      wished miraculously to increase the population, why did he not wait until
+      the people were free?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1776, we had in the American Colonies about three millions of people.
+      In one hundred years we doubled four times: that is to say, six, twelve,
+      twenty-four, forty-eight million,&mdash;our present population.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must not forget that during all these years there has been pouring into
+      our country a vast stream of emigration, and that this, taken in
+      connection with the fact that our country is productive beyond all others,
+      gave us only four doubles in one hundred years. Admitting that the Hebrews
+      increased as rapidly without emigration as we, in this country, have with
+      it, we will give to them four doubles each century, commencing with
+      seventy people, and they would have, at the end of two hundred years, a
+      population of seventeen thousand nine hundred and twenty. Giving them
+      another double for the odd fifteen years and there would be, provided no
+      deaths had occurred, thirty-five thousand eight hundred and forty people.
+      And yet we are told that instead of having this number, they had increased
+      to such an extent that they had six hundred thousand men of war: that is
+      to say, a population of more than three millions!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every sensible man knows that this account is not, and cannot be true. We
+      know that seventy people could not increase to three million in two
+      hundred and fifteen years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this time the Hebrews took a census, and found that there were
+      twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three first born males. It is
+      reasonable to suppose that there were about as many first born females.
+      This would make forty-four thousand five hundred and forty-six first born
+      children. Now, there must have been about as many mothers as there were
+      first born children. If there were only about forty-five thousand mothers
+      and three millions of people, the mothers must have had on an average
+      about sixty-six children apiece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this time, the Hebrews were slaves, and had been for two hundred and
+      fifteen years. A little while before, an order had been made by the
+      Egyptians that all the male children of the Hebrews should be killed. One,
+      contrary to this order, was saved in an ark made of bullrushes daubed with
+      slime. This child was found by the daughter of Pharaoh, and was adopted,
+      it seems, as her own, and, may be, was. He grew to be a man, sided with
+      the Hebrews, killed an Egyptian that was smiting a slave, hid the body in
+      the sand, and fled from Egypt to the land of Midian, became acquainted
+      with a priest who had seven daughters, took the side of the daughters
+      against the ill-mannered shepherds of that country, and married Zipporah,
+      one of the girls, and became a shepherd for her father. Afterward, while
+      tending his flock, the Lord appeared to him in a burning bush, and
+      commanded him to go to the king of Egypt and demand from him the
+      liberation of the Hebrews. In order to convince him that the something
+      burning in the bush was actually God, the rod in his hand was changed into
+      a serpent, which, upon being caught by the tail, became again a rod. Moses
+      was also told to put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out it was
+      as leprous as snow. Quite a number of strange things were performed, and
+      others promised. Moses then agreed to go back to Egypt provided his
+      brother could go with him. Whereupon the Lord appeared to Aaron, and
+      directed him to meet Moses in the wilderness. They met at the mount of
+      God, went to Egypt, gathered together all the elders of the children of
+      Israel, spake all the words which God had spoken unto Moses, and did all
+      the signs in the sight of the people. The Israelites believed, bowed their
+      heads and worshiped; and Moses and Aaron went in and told their message to
+      Pharaoh the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XXII. THE PLAGUES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Three millions of people were in slavery. They were treated with the
+      utmost rigor, and so fearful were their masters that they might, in time,
+      increase in numbers sufficient to avenge themselves, that they took from
+      the arms of mothers all the male children and destroyed them. If the
+      account given is true, the Egyptians were the most cruel, heartless and
+      infamous people of which history gives any record. God finally made up his
+      mind to free the Hebrews; and for the accomplishment of this purpose he
+      sent, as his agents, Moses and Aaron, to the king of Egypt. In order that
+      the king might know that these men had a divine mission, God gave Moses
+      the power of changing a stick into a serpent, and water into blood. Moses
+      and Aaron went before the king, stating that the Lord God of Israel
+      ordered the King of Egypt to let the Hebrews go that they might hold a
+      feast with God in the wilderness. Thereupon Pharaoh, the king, enquired
+      who the Lord was, at the same time stating that he had never made his
+      acquaintance, and knew nothing about him. To this they replied that the
+      God of the Hebrews had met with them, and they asked to go a three days
+      journey into the desert and sacrifice unto this God, fearing that if they
+      did not he would fall upon them with pestilence or the sword. This
+      interview seems to have hardened Pharaoh, for he ordered the tasks of the
+      children of Israel to be increased; so that the only effect of the first
+      appeal was to render still worse the condition of the Hebrews. Thereupon,
+      Moses returned unto the Lord and said "Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil
+      entreated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came
+      to Pharaoh to speak in thy name he hath done evil to this people; neither
+      hast thou delivered thy people at all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Apparently stung by this reproach, God answered:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharoah; for with a strong hand
+      shall he let them go; and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of
+      his land."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      God then recounts the fact that he had appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and
+      Jacob, that he had established a covenant with them to give them the land
+      of Canaan, that he had heard the groanings of the children of Israel in
+      Egyptian bondage; that their groanings had put him in mind of his
+      covenant, and that he had made up his mind to redeem the children of
+      Israel with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. Moses then spoke
+      to the children' of Israel again, but they would listen to him no more.
+      His first effort in their behalf had simply doubled their trouble and they
+      seemed to have lost confidence in his power. Thereupon Jehovah promised
+      Moses that he would make him a god unto Pharaoh, and that Aaron should be
+      his prophet, but at the same time informed him that his message would be
+      of no avail; that he would harden the heart of Pharaoh so that he would
+      not listen; that he would so harden his heart that he might have an excuse
+      for destroying the Egyptians. Accordingly, Moses and Aaron again went
+      before Pharaoh. Moses said to Aaron;&mdash;"Cast down your rod before
+      Pharaoh," which he did, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh not in the
+      least surprised, called for his wise men and his sorcerers, and they threw
+      down their rods and changed them into serpents. The serpent that had been
+      changed from Aaron's rod was, at this time crawling upon the floor, and it
+      proceeded to swallow the serpents that had been produced by the magicians
+      of Egypt. What became of these serpents that were swallowed, whether they
+      turned back into sticks again, is not stated. Can we believe that the
+      stick was changed into a real living serpent, or did it assume simply the
+      appearance of a serpent? If it bore only the appearance of a serpent it
+      was a deception, and could not rise above the dignity of legerdemain. Is
+      it necessary to believe that God is a kind of prestigiator&mdash;a
+      sleight-of-hand per-former, a magician or sorcerer? Can it be possible
+      that an infinite being would endeavor to secure the liberation of a race
+      by performing a miracle that could be equally performed by the sorcerers
+      and magicians of a barbarian king?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not one word was said by Moses or Aaron as to the wickedness of depriving
+      a human being of his liberty. Not a word was said in favor of liberty. Not
+      the slightest intimation that a human being was justly entitled to the
+      product of his own labor. Not a word about the cruelty of masters who
+      would destroy even the babes of slave mothers. It seems to me wonderful
+      that this God did not tell the king of Egypt that no nation could enslave
+      another, without also enslaving itself; that it was impossible to put a
+      chain around the limbs of a slave, without putting manacles upon the brain
+      of the master. Why did he not tell him that a nation founded upon slavery
+      could not stand? Instead of declaring these things, instead of appealing
+      to justice, to mercy and to liberty, he resorted to feats of jugglery.
+      Suppose we wished to make a treaty with a barbarous nation, and the
+      president should employ a sleight-of-hand performer as envoy
+      extraordinary, and instruct him, that when he came into the presence of
+      the savage monarch, he should cast down an umbrella or a walking stick,
+      which would change into a lizard or a turtle; what would we think? Would
+      we not regard such a performance as beneath the dignity even of a
+      president? And what would be our feelings if the savage king sent for his
+      sorcerers and had them perform the same feat? If such things would appear
+      puerile and foolish in the president of a great republic, what shall be
+      said when they were resorted to by the creator of all worlds? How small,
+      how contemptible such a God appears! Pharaoh, it seems, took about this
+      view of the matter, and he would not be persuaded that such tricks were
+      performed by an infinite being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh as he was going to the river s
+      bank, and the same rod which had changed to a serpent, and, by this time
+      changed back, was taken by Aaron, who, in the presence of Pharaoh, smote
+      the water of the river, which was immediately turned to blood, as well as
+      all the water in all the streams, ponds, and pools, as well as all water
+      in vessels of wood and vessels of stone in the entire land of Egypt. As
+      soon as all the waters in Egypt had been turned into blood, the magicians
+      of that country did the same with their enchantments. We are not informed
+      where they got the water to turn into blood, since all the water in Egypt
+      had already been so changed. It seems from the account that the fish in
+      the Nile died, and the river emitted a stench, and there was not a drop of
+      water in the land of Egypt that had not been changed into blood. In
+      consequence of this, the Egyptians digged "around about the river" for
+      water to drink. Can we believe this story? Is it necessary to salvation to
+      admit that all the rivers, pools, ponds and lakes of a country were
+      changed into blood, in order that a king might be induced to allow the
+      children of Israel the privilege of going a three days journey into the
+      wilderness to make sacrifices to their God?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems from the account that Pharaoh was told that the God of the
+      Hebrews would, if he refused to let the Israelites go, change all the
+      waters of Egypt into blood, and that, upon his refusal, they were so
+      changed. This had, however, no influence upon him, for the reason that his
+      own magicians did the same. It does not appear that Moses and Aaron
+      expressed the least surprise at the success of the Egyptian sorcerers. At
+      that time it was believed that each nation had its own god. The only claim
+      that Moses and Aaron made for their God was, that he was the greatest and
+      most powerful of all the gods, and that with anything like an equal chance
+      he could vanquish the deity of any other nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the waters were changed to blood Moses and Aaron waited for seven
+      days. At the end of that time God told Moses to again go to Pharaoh and
+      demand the release of his people, and to inform him that, if he refused,
+      God would strike all the borders of Egypt with frogs. That he would make
+      frogs so plentiful that they would go into the houses of Pharaoh, into his
+      bedchamber, upon his bed, into the houses of his servants, upon his
+      people, into their ovens, and even into their kneading troughs, This
+      threat had no effect whatever upon Pharaoh, And thereupon Aaron stretched
+      out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered
+      the land. The magicians of Egypt did the same, and with their enchantments
+      brought more frogs upon the land of Egypt These magicians do not seem to
+      have been original in their ideas, but so far as imitation is concerned,
+      were perfect masters of their art. The frogs seem to have made such an
+      impression upon Pharaoh that he sent for Moses and asked him to entreat
+      the Lord that he would take away the frogs. Moses agreed to remove them
+      from the houses and the land, and allow them to remain only in the rivers.
+      Accordingly the frogs died out of the houses, and out of the villages, and
+      out of the fields, and the people gathered them together in heaps. As soon
+      as the frogs had left the houses and fields, the heart of Pharaoh became
+      again hardened, and he refused to let the people go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aaron then, according to the command of God, stretched out his hand,
+      holding the rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in
+      man and in beast, and all the dust became lice throughout the land of
+      Egypt. Pharaoh again sent for his magicians, and they sought to do the
+      same with their enchantments, but they could not. Whereupon the sorcerers
+      said unto Pharaoh: "This is the finger of God."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding this, however, Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go. God
+      then caused a grievous swarm of flies to come into the house of Pharaoh
+      and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt, to such an
+      extent that the whole land was corrupted by reason of the flies. But into
+      that part of the country occupied by the children of Israel there came no
+      flies. Thereupon Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them: "Go,
+      and sacrifice to your God in this land." They were not willing to
+      sacrifice in Egypt, and asked permission to go on a journey of three days
+      into the wilderness. To this Pharaoh acceded, and in consideration of this
+      Moses agreed to use his influence with the Lord to induce him to send the
+      flies out of the country. He accordingly told the Lord of the bargain he
+      had made with Pharaoh, and the Lord agreed to the compromise, and removed
+      the flies from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people, and
+      there remained not a single fly in the land of Egypt. As soon as the flies
+      were gone, Pharaoh again changed his mind, and concluded not to permit the
+      children of Israel to depart. The Lord then directed Moses to go to
+      Pharaoh and tell him that if he did not allow the children of Israel to
+      depart, he would destroy his cattle, his horses, his camels and his sheep;
+      that these animals would be afflicted with a grievous disease, but that
+      the animals belonging to the Hebrews should not be so afflicted. Moses did
+      as he was bid. On the next day all the cattle of Egypt died; that is to
+      say, all the horses, all the asses, all the camels, all the oxen and all
+      the sheep; but of the animals owned by the Israelites, not one perished.
+      This disaster had no effect upon Pharaoh, and he still refused to let the
+      children of Israel go. The Lord then told Moses and Aaron to take some
+      ashes out of a furnace, and told Moses to sprinkle them toward the heavens
+      in the sight of Pharaoh; saying that the ashes should become small dust in
+      all the land of Egypt, and should be a boil breaking forth with blains
+      upon man and upon beast throughout all the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How these boils breaking out with blains, upon cattle that were already
+      dead, should affect Pharaoh, is a little hard to understand. It must not
+      be forgotten that all the cattle and all beasts had died with the murrain
+      before the boils had broken out This was a most decisive victory for Moses
+      and Aaron. The boils were upon the magicians to that extent that they
+      could not stand before Moses. But it had no effect upon Pharaoh, who seems
+      to have been a man of great firmness. The Lord then instructed Moses to
+      get up early in the morning and tell Pharaoh that he would stretch out his
+      hand and smite his people with a pestilence, and would, on the morrow,
+      cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as had never been known in the
+      land of Egypt. He also told Moses to give notice, so that they might get
+      all the cattle that were in the fields under cover. It must be remembered
+      that all these cattle had recently died of the murrain, and their dead
+      bodies had been covered with boils and blains. This, however, had no
+      effect, and Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and the Lord
+      sent thunder, and hail and lightning, and fire that ran along the ground,
+      and the hail fell upon all the land of Egypt, and all that were in the
+      fields, both man and beast, were smitten, and the hail smote every herb of
+      the field, and broke every tree of the country except that portion
+      inhabited by the children of Israel; there, there was no hail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During this hail storm Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and admitted that
+      he had sinned, that the Lord was righteous, and that the Egyptians were
+      wicked, and requested them to ask the Lord that there be no more
+      thunderings and hail, and that he would let the Hebrews go. Moses agreed
+      that as soon as he got out of the city he would stretch forth his hands
+      unto the Lord, and that the thunderings should cease and the hail should
+      stop. But, when the rain and the hail and the thundering ceased, Pharaoh
+      concluded that he would not let the children of Israel go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, God sent Moses and Aaron, instructing them to tell Pharaoh that if
+      he refused to let the people go, the face of the earth would be covered
+      with locusts, so that man would not be able to see the ground, and that
+      these locusts would eat the residue of that which escaped from the hail;
+      that they would eat every tree out of the field; that they would fill the
+      houses of Pharaoh and the houses of all his servants, and the houses of
+      all the Egyptians. Moses delivered the message, and went out from Pharaoh.
+      Some of Pharaoh's servants entreated their master to let the children of
+      Israel go. Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and asked them, who wished to
+      go into the wilderness to sacrifice. They replied that they wished to go
+      with the young and old; with their sons and daughters, with flocks and
+      herds. Pharaoh would not consent to this, but agreed that the men might
+      go. There upon Pharaoh drove Moses and Aaron out of his sight. Then God
+      told Moses to stretch forth his hand upon the land of Egypt for the
+      locusts, that they might come up and eat every herb, even all that the
+      hail had left. "And Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt,
+      and the Lord brought an East wind all that day and all that night; and and
+      when it was morning the East wind brought the locusts; and they came up
+      over all the land of Egypt and rested upon all the coasts covering the
+      face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every
+      herb and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, and there
+      remained not any green thing on the trees or in the herbs of the field
+      throughout the land of Egypt." Pharaoh then called for Moses and Aaron in
+      great haste, admitted that he had sinned against the Lord their God and
+      against them, asked their forgiveness and requested them to intercede with
+      God that he might take away the locusts. They went out from his presence
+      and asked the Lord to drive the locusts away, "And the Lord made a strong
+      west wind which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red Sea so
+      that there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the locusts were gone, Pharaoh changed his mind, and, in the
+      language of the sacred text, "the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he
+      would not let the children of Israel go."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lord then told Moses to stretch out his hand toward heaven that there
+      might be darkness over the land of Egypt, "even darkness which might be
+      felt." "And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a
+      thick darkness over the land of Egypt for three days during which time
+      they saw not each other, neither arose any of the people from their places
+      for three days; but the children of Israel had light in their dwellings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It strikes me that when the land of Egypt was covered with thick darkness&mdash;so
+      thick that it could be felt, and when light was in the dwellings of the
+      Israelites, there could have been no better time for the Hebrews to have
+      left the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pharaoh again called for Moses, and told him that his people could go and
+      serve the Lord, provided they would leave their flocks and herds. Moses
+      would not agree to this, for the reason that they needed the flocks and
+      herds for sacrifices and burnt offerings, and he did not know how many of
+      the animals God might require, and for that reason he could not leave a
+      single hoof. Upon the question of the cattle, they divided, and Pharaoh
+      again refused to let the people go. God then commanded Moses to tell the
+      Hebrews to borrow, each of his neighbor, jewels of silver and gold. By a
+      miraculous interposition the Hebrews found favor in the sight of the
+      Egyptians so that they loaned the articles asked for. After this, Moses
+      again went to Pharaoh and told him that all the first-born in the land of
+      Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh upon the throne, unto the first-born
+      of the maid-servant who was behind the mill, as well as the first-born of
+      beasts, should die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As all the beasts had been destroyed by disease and hail, it is
+      troublesome to understand the meaning of the threat as to their
+      first-born.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Preparations were accordingly made for carrying this frightful threat into
+      execution. Blood was put on the door-posts of all houses inhabited by
+      Hebrews, so that God, as he passed through that land, might not be
+      mistaken and destroy the first-born of the Jews. "And it came to pass that
+      at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, the
+      first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne, and the first-born of the
+      captive who was in the dungeon. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, and all
+      his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt,
+      for there was not a house where there was not one dead."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What had these children done? Why should the babes in the cradle be
+      destroyed on account of the crime of Pharaoh? Why should the cattle be
+      destroyed because man had enslaved his brother? In those days women and
+      children and cattle were put upon an exact equality, and all considered as
+      the property of the men; and when man in some way excited the wrath of
+      God, he punished them by destroying all their cattle, their wives, and
+      their little ones. Where can words be found bitter enough to describe a
+      god who would kill wives and babes because husbands and fathers had failed
+      to keep his law? Every good man, and every good woman, must hate and
+      despise such a deity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon the death of all the first-born Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and
+      not only gave his consent that they might go with the Hebrews into the
+      wilderness, but besought them to go at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it possible that an infinite God, creator of all worlds and sustainer
+      of all life, said to Pharaoh, "If you do not let my people go, I will turn
+      all the water of your country into blood," and that upon the refusal of
+      Pharaoh to release the people, God did turn all the waters into blood? Do
+      you believe this?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you believe that Pharaoh even after all the water was turned to blood,
+      refused to let the Hebrews go, and that thereupon God told him he would
+      cover his land with frogs? Do you believe this?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you believe that after the land was covered with frogs Pharaoh still
+      refused to let the people go, and that God then said to him, "I will cover
+      you and all your people with lice?" Do you believe God would make this
+      threat?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you also believe that God told Pharaoh, "If you do not let these people
+      go, I will fill all your houses and cover your country with flies?" Do you
+      believe God makes such threats as this?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course God must have known that turning the waters into blood, covering
+      the country with frogs, infesting all flesh with lice, and filling all
+      houses with flies, would not accomplish his object, and that all these
+      plagues would have no effect whatever upon the Egyptian king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you believe that, failing to accomplish anything by the flies, God told
+      Pharaoh that if he did not let the people go he would kill his cattle with
+      murrain? Does such a threat sound God-like?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you believe that, failing to effect anything by killing the cattle,
+      this same God then threatened to afflict all the people with boils,
+      including the magicians who had been rivaling him in the matter of
+      miracles; and failing to do anything by boils, that he resorted to hail?
+      Does this sound reasonable? The hail experiment having accomplished
+      nothing, do you believe that God murdered the first-born of animals and
+      men? Is it possible to conceive of anything more utterly absurd, stupid,
+      revolting, cruel and senseless, than the miracles said to have been
+      wrought by the Almighty for the purpose of inducing Pharaoh to liberate
+      the children of Israel?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it not altogether more reasonable to say that the Jewish people, being
+      in slavery, accounted for the misfortunes and calamities, suffered by the
+      Egyptians, by saying that they were the judgments of God?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Armada of Spain was wrecked and scattered by the storm, the
+      English people believed that God had interposed in their behalf, and
+      publicly gave thanks. When the battle of Lepanto was won, it was believed
+      by the catholic world that the victory was given in answer to prayer. So,
+      our fore-fathers in their revolutionary struggle saw, or thought they saw,
+      the hand of God, and most firmly believed that they achieved their
+      independence by the interposition of the Most High.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, it may be that while the Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptians,
+      there were plagues of locusts and flies. It may be that there were some
+      diseases by which many of the cattle perished. It may be that a pestilence
+      visited that country so that in nearly every house there was some one
+      dead. If so, it was but natural for the enslaved and superstitious Jews to
+      account for these calamities by saying that they were punishments sent by
+      their God. Such ideas will be found in the history of every country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time the Jews held these opinions, and they were handed from
+      father to son simply by tradition. By the time a written language had been
+      produced, thousands of additions had been made, and numberless details
+      invented; so that we have not only an account of the plagues suffered by
+      the Egyptians, but the whole woven into a connected story, containing the
+      threats made by Moses and Aaron, the miracles wrought by them, the
+      promises of Pharaoh, and finally the release of the Hebrews, as a result
+      of the marvelous things performed in their behalf by Jehovah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In any event it is infinitely more probable that the author was
+      misinformed, than that the God of this universe was guilty of these
+      childish, heartless and infamous things. The solution of the whole matter
+      is this:&mdash;Moses was mistaken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XXIII. THE FLIGHT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Three millions of people, with their flocks and herds, with borrowed
+      jewelry and raiment, with unleavened dough in kneading troughs bound in
+      their clothes upon their shoulders, in one night commenced their journey
+      for the land of promise. We are not told how they were informed of the
+      precise time to start. With all the modern appliances, it would require
+      months of time to inform three millions of people of any fact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this vast assemblage there were six hundred thousand men of war, and
+      with them were the old, the young, the diseased and helpless. Where were
+      those people going? They were going to the desert of Sinai, compared with
+      which Sahara is a garden. Imagine an ocean of lava torn by storm and vexed
+      by tempest, suddenly gazed at by a Gorgon and changed instantly to stone!
+      Such was the desert of Sinai.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All of the civilized nations of the world could not feed and support three
+      millions of people on the desert of Sinai for forty years. It would cost
+      more than one hundred thousand millions of dollars, and would bankrupt
+      Christendom. They had with them their flocks and herds, and the sheep were
+      so numerous that the Israelites sacrificed, at one time, more than one
+      hundred and fifty thousand first-born lambs. How were these flocks
+      supported? What did they eat? Where were meadows and pastures for them?
+      There was no grass, no forests&mdash;nothing! There is no account of its
+      having rained baled hay, nor is it even claimed that they were
+      miraculously fed. To support these flocks, millions of acres of pasture
+      would have been required. God did not take the Israelites through the land
+      of the Philistines, for fear that when they saw the people of that country
+      they would return to Egypt, but he took them by the way of the wilderness
+      to the Red Sea, going before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by
+      night, in a pillar of fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When it was told Pharaoh that the people had fled, he made ready and took
+      six hundred chosen chariots of Egypt, and pursued after the children of
+      Israel, overtaking them by the sea. As all the animals had long before
+      that time been destroyed, we are not informed where Pharaoh obtained the
+      horses for his chariots. The moment the children of Israel saw the hosts
+      of Pharaoh, although they had six hundred thousand men of war, they
+      immediately cried unto the Lord for protection. It is wonderful to me that
+      a land that had been ravaged by the plagues described in the bible, still
+      had the power to put in the field an army that would carry terror to the
+      hearts of six hundred thousand men of war. Even with the help of God, it
+      seems, they were not strong enough to meet the Egyptians in the open
+      field, but resorted to strategy. Moses again stretched forth his wonderful
+      rod over the waters of the Red Sea, and they were divided, and the Hebrews
+      passed through on dry land, the waters standing up like a wall on either
+      side. The Egyptians pursued them; "and in the morning watch the Lord
+      looked into the hosts of the Egyptians, through the pillar of fire," and
+      proceeded to take the wheels off their chariots. As soon as the wheels
+      were off, God told Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea. Moses did
+      so, and immediately "the waters returned and covered the chariots and
+      horsemen and all the hosts of Pharaoh that came into the sea, and there
+      remained not so much as one of them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This account may be true, but still it hardly looks reasonable that God
+      would take the wheels off the chariots. How did he do it? Did he pull out
+      the linch-pins, or did he just take them off by main force?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a picture this presents to the mind! God the creator of the universe,
+      maker of every shining, glittering star, engaged in pulling off the wheels
+      of wagons, that he might convince Pharaoh of his greatness and power!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where were these people going? They were going to the promised land. How
+      large a country was that? About twelve thousand square miles. About
+      one-fifth the size of the State of Illinois. It was a frightful country,
+      covered with rocks and desolation. How many people were in the promised
+      land already? Moses tells us there were seven nations in that country
+      mightier than the Jews. As there were at least three millions of Jews,
+      there must have been at least twenty-one millions of people already in
+      that country. These had to be driven out in order that room might be made
+      for the chosen people of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems, however, that God was not willing to take the children of Israel
+      into the promised land immediately. They were not fit to inhabit the land
+      of Canaan; so he made up his mind to allow them to wander upon the desert
+      until all except two, who had left Egypt, should perish. Of all the slaves
+      released from Egyptian bondage, only two were allowed to reach the
+      promised land!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea, they found themselves without
+      food, and with water unfit to drink by reason of its bitterness, and they
+      began to murmur against Moses, who cried unto the Lord, and "the Lord
+      showed him a tree." Moses cast this tree into the waters, and they became
+      sweet. "And it came to pass in the morning the dew lay around about the
+      camp; and when the dew that lay was gone, behold, upon the face of the
+      wilderness lay a small round thing, small as the hoar-frost upon the
+      ground. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath
+      given you to eat." This manna was a very peculiar thing. It would melt in
+      the sun, and yet they could cook it by seething and baking. One would as
+      soon think of frying snow or of broiling icicles. But this manna had
+      another remarkable quality. No matter how much or little any person
+      gathered, he would have an exact omer; if he gathered more, it would
+      shrink to that amount, and if he gathered less, it would swell exactly to
+      that amount. What a magnificent substance manna would be with which to
+      make a currency&mdash;shrinking and swelling according to the great laws
+      of supply and demand!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Upon this manna the children of Israel lived for forty years, until they
+      came to a habitable land. With this meat were they fed until they reached
+      the borders of the land of Canaan." We are told in the twenty-first
+      chapter of Numbers, that the people at last became tired of the manna,
+      complained of God, and asked Moses why he brought them out of the land of
+      Egypt to die in the wilderness. And they said:&mdash;"There is no bread,
+      nor have we any water. Our soul loatheth this light food."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are told by some commentators that the Jews lived on manna for forty
+      years; by others that they lived upon it for only a short time. As a
+      matter of fact the accounts differ, and this difference is the opportunity
+      for commentators. It also allows us to exercise faith in believing that
+      both accounts are true. If the accounts agreed, and were reasonable, they
+      would be believed by the wicked and unregenerated. But as they are
+      different and unreasonable, they are believed only by the good. Whenever a
+      statement in the bible is unreasonable, and you believe it, you are
+      considered quite a good christian. If the statement is grossly absurd and
+      infinitely impossible, and you still believe it, you are a saint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The children of Israel were in the desert, and they were out of water.
+      They had nothing to eat but manna, and this they had had so long that the
+      soul of every person abhorred it. Under these circumstances they
+      complained to Moses. Now, as God is infinite, he could just as well have
+      furnished them with an abundance of the purest and coolest of water, and
+      could, without the slightest trouble to himself, have given them three
+      excellent meals a day, with a generous variety of meats and vegetables, it
+      is very hard to see why he did not do so. It is still harder to conceive
+      why he fell into a rage when the people mildly suggested that they would
+      like a change of diet. Day after day, week after week, month after month,
+      year after year, nothing but manna. No doubt they did the best they could
+      by cooking it in different ways, but in spite of themselves they began to
+      loathe its sight and taste, and so they asked Moses to use his influence
+      to secure a change in the bill of fare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, I ask, whether it was unreasonable for the Jews to suggest that a
+      little meat would be very gratefully received? It seems, however, that as
+      soon as the request was made, this God of infinite mercy became infinitely
+      enraged, and instead of granting it, went into, partnership with serpents,
+      for the purpose of punishing the hungry wretches to whom he had promised a
+      land flowing with milk and honey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where did these serpents come from? How did God convey the information to
+      the serpents, that he wished them to go to the desert of Sinai and bite
+      some Jews? It may be urged that these serpents were created for the
+      express purpose of punishing the children of Israel for having had the
+      presumption, like Oliver Twist, to ask for more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is another account in the eleventh chapter of Numbers, of the people
+      murmuring because of their food. They remembered the fish, the cucumbers,
+      the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic of Egypt, and they asked
+      for meat The people went to the tent of Moses and asked him for flesh.
+      Moses cried unto the Lord and asked him why he did not take care of the
+      multitude. God thereupon agreed that they should have meat, not for a day
+      or two, but for a month, until the meat should come out of their nostrils
+      and become loathsome to them. He then caused a wind to bring quails from
+      beyond the sea, and cast them into the camp, on every side of the camp
+      around about for the space of a days journey. And the people gathered
+      them, and while the flesh was yet between their teeth the wrath of God
+      being provoked against them, struck them with an exceeding great plague.
+      Serpents, also, were sent among them, and thousands perished for the crime
+      of having been hungry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rev. Alexander Cruden commenting upon this account says:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God caused a wind to rise that drove the quails within and about the camp
+      of the Israelites; and it is in this that the miracle consists, that they
+      were brought so seasonably to this place, and in so great numbers as to
+      suffice above a million of persons above a month. Some authors affirm,
+      that in those eastern and southern countries, quails are innumerable, so
+      that in one part of Italy within the compass of five miles, there were
+      taken about an hundred thousand of them every day for a month together;
+      and that sometimes they fly so thick over the sea, that being weary they
+      fall into ships, sometimes in such numbers, that they sink them with their
+      weight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No wonder Mr. Cruden believed the Mosaic account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Must we believe that God made an arrangement with hornets for the purpose
+      of securing their services in driving the Canaanites from the land of
+      promise? Is this belief necessary unto salvation? Must we believe that God
+      said to the Jews that he would send hornets before them to drive out the
+      Canaanites, as related in the twenty-third chapter of Exodus, and the
+      seventh chapter of Deuteronomy? How would the hornets know a Canaanite? In
+      what way would God put it in the mind of a hornet to attack a Canaanite?
+      Did God create hornets for that especial purpose, implanting an instinct
+      to attack a Canaanite, but not a Hebrew? Can we conceive of the Almighty
+      granting letters of marque and reprisal to hornets? Of course it is
+      admitted that nothing in the world would be better calculated to make a
+      man leave his native land than a few hornets. Is it possible for us to
+      believe that an infinite being would resort to such expedients in order to
+      drive the Canaanites from their country? He could just as easily have
+      spoken the Canaanites out of existence as to have spoken the hornets in.
+      In this way a vast amount of trouble, pain and suffering would have been
+      saved. Is it possible that there is, in this country, an intelligent
+      clergyman who will insist that these stories are true; that we must
+      believe them in in order to be good people in this world, and glorified
+      souls in the next?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are also told that God instructed the Hebrews to kill the Canaanites
+      slowly, giving as a reason that the beasts of the field might increase
+      upon his chosen people. When we take into consideration the fact that the
+      Holy Land contained only about eleven or twelve thousand square miles, and
+      was at that time inhabited by at least twenty-one millions of people, it
+      does not seem reasonable that the wild beasts could have been numerous
+      enough to cause any great alarm. The same ratio of population would give
+      to the State of Illinois at least one hundred and twenty millions of
+      inhabitants. Can anybody believe that, under such circumstances, the
+      danger from wild beasts could be very great? What would we think of a
+      general, invading such a state, if he should order his soldiers to kill
+      the people slowly, lest the wild beasts might increase upon them? Is it
+      possible that a God capable of doing the miracles recounted in the Old
+      Testament could not, in some way, have disposed of the wild beasts? After
+      the Canaanites were driven out, could he not have employed the hornets to
+      drive out the wild beasts? Think of a God that could drive twenty-one
+      millions of people out of the promised land, could raise up innumerable
+      stinging flies, and could cover the earth with fiery serpents, and yet
+      seems to have been perfectly powerless against the wild beasts of the land
+      of Canaan!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Speaking of these hornets, one of the good old commentators, whose views
+      have long been considered of great value by the believers in the
+      inspiration of the bible, uses the following language:&mdash;"Hornets are
+      a sort of strong flies, which the Lord used as instruments to plague the
+      enemies of his people. They are of themselves very troublesome and
+      mischievous, and those the Lord made use of were, it is thought, of an
+      extraordinary bigness and perniciousness. It is said they live as the
+      wasps, and that they have a king or captain, and pestilent stings as bees,
+      and that, if twenty-seven of them sting man or beast, it is certain death
+      to either. Nor is it strange that such creatures did drive out the
+      Canaanites from their habitations; for many heathen writers give instances
+      of some people driven from their seats by frogs, others by mice, others by
+      bees and wasps. And it is said that a christian city, being besieged by
+      Sapores, king of Persia, was delivered by hornets; for the elephants and
+      beasts being stung by them, waxed unruly, and so the whole army fled."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only a few years ago, all such stories were believed by the christian
+      world; and it is a historical fact, that Voltaire was the third man of any
+      note in Europe, who took the ground that the mythologies of Greece and
+      Rome were without foundation. Until his time, most christians believed as
+      thoroughly in the miracles ascribed to the Greek and Roman gods as in
+      those of Christ and Jehovah. The christian world cultivated credulity, not
+      only as one of the virtues, but as the greatest of them all. But, when
+      Luther and his followers left the church of Rome, they were compelled to
+      deny the power of the catholic church, at that time, to suspend the laws
+      of nature, but took the ground that such power ceased with the apostolic
+      age. They insisted that all things now happened in accordance with the
+      laws of nature, with the exception of a few special interferences in favor
+      of the protestant church in answer to prayer. They taught their children a
+      double philosophy: by one, they were to show the impossibility of catholic
+      miracles, because opposed to the laws of nature; by the other, the
+      probability of the miracles of the apostolic age, because they were in
+      conformity with the statements of the scriptures. They had two
+      foundations: one, the law of nature, and the other, the word of God. The
+      protestants have endeavored to carry on this double process of reasoning,
+      and the result has been a gradual increase of confidence in the law of
+      nature, and a gradual decrease of confidence in the word of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are told, in this inspired account, that the clothing of the Jewish
+      people did not wax old, and that their shoes refused to wear out. Some
+      commentators have insisted that angels attended to the wardrobes of the
+      Hebrews, patched their garments, and mended their shoes. Certain it is,
+      however, that the same clothes lasted them for forty years, during the
+      entire journey from Egypt to the Holy Land. Little boys starting out with
+      their first pantaloons, grew as they traveled, and their clothes grew with
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can it be necessary to believe a story like this? Will men make better
+      husbands, fathers, neighbors, and citizens, simply by giving credence to
+      these childish and impossible things? Certainly an infinite God could have
+      transported the Jews to the Holy Land in a moment, and could, as easily,
+      have removed the Canaanites to some other country. Surely there was no
+      necessity for doing thousands and thousands of petty miracles, day after
+      day for forty years, looking after the clothes of three millions of
+      people, changing the nature of wool, and linen, and leather, so that they
+      would not "wax old." Every step, every motion, would wear away some part
+      of the clothing, some part of the shoes. Were these parts, so worn away,
+      perpetually renewed, or was the nature of things so changed that they
+      could not wear away? We know that whenever matter comes in contact with
+      matter, certain atoms, by abrasion, are lost. Were these atoms gathered up
+      every night by angels, and replaced on the soles of the shoes, on the
+      elbows of coats, and on the knees of pantaloons, so that the next morning
+      they would be precisely in the condition they were on the morning before?
+      There must be a mistake somewhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can we believe that the real God, if there is one, ever ordered a man to
+      be killed simply for making hair oil, or ointment? We are told in the
+      thirtieth chapter of Exodus, that the Lord commanded Moses to take myrrh,
+      cinnamon, sweet calamus, cassia, and olive oil, and make a holy ointment
+      for the purpose of anointing the tabernacle, tables, candlesticks and
+      other utensils, as well as Aaron and his sons; saying, at the same time,
+      that whosoever compounded any like it, or whoever put any of it on a
+      stranger, should be put to death. In the same chapter, the Lord furnishes
+      Moses with a recipe for making a perfume, saying, that whoever should make
+      any which smelled like it, should be cut off from his people. This, to me,
+      sounds so unreasonable that I cannot believe it. Why should an infinite
+      God care whether mankind made ointments and perfumes like his or not? Why
+      should the Creator of all things threaten to kill a priest who approached
+      his altar without having washed his hands and feet? These commandments and
+      these penalties would disgrace the vainest tyrant that ever sat, by
+      chance, upon a throne. There must be some mistake. I cannot believe that
+      an infinite Intelligence appeared to Moses upon Mount Sinai having with
+      him a variety of patterns for making a tabernacle, tongs, snuffers and
+      dishes. Neither can I believe that God told Moses how to cut and trim a
+      coat for a priest. Why should a God care about such things? Why should he
+      insist on having buttons sewed in certain rows, and fringes of a certain
+      color? Suppose an intelligent civilized man was to overhear, on Mount
+      Sinai, the following instructions from God to Moses:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must consecrate my priests as follows:&mdash;You must kill a bullock
+      for a sin offering, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands upon the
+      head of the bullock. Then you must take the blood and put it upon the
+      horns of the altar round about with your finger, and pour some blood at
+      the bottom of the altar to make a reconciliation; and of the fat that is
+      upon the inwards, the caul above the liver and two kidneys, and their fat,
+      and burn them upon the altar. You must get a ram for a burnt offering, and
+      Aaron and his sons must lay their hands upon the head of the ram. Then you
+      must kill it and sprinkle the blood upon the altar, and cut the ram into
+      pieces, and burn the head, and the pieces, and the fat, and wash the
+      inwards and the lungs in water and then burn the whole ram upon the altar
+      for a sweet savor unto me. Then you must get another ram, and have Aaron
+      and his sons lay their hands upon the head of that, then kill it and take
+      of its blood, and put it on the top of Aaron s right ear, and on the thumb
+      of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot. And you must
+      also put a little of the blood upon the top of the right ears of Aaron's
+      sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of
+      their right feet. And then you must take of the fat that is on the
+      inwards, and the caul above the liver and the two kidneys, and their fat,
+      and the right shoulder, and out of a basket of unleavened bread you must
+      take one unleavened cake and another of oil bread, and one wafer, and put
+      them on the fat of the right shoulder. And you must take of the anointing
+      oil, and of the blood, and sprinkle it on Aaron, and on his garments, and
+      on his sons garments, and sanctify them and all their clothes."&mdash;Do
+      you believe that he would have even suspected that the creator of the
+      universe was talking?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can any one now tell why God commanded the Jews, when they were upon the
+      desert of Sinai, to plant trees, telling them at the same time that they
+      must not eat any of the fruit of such trees until after the fourth year?
+      Trees could not have been planted in that desert, and if they had been,
+      they could not have lived. Why did God tell Moses, while in the desert, to
+      make curtains of fine linen? Where could he have obtained his flax? There
+      was no land upon which it could have been produced. Why did he tell him to
+      make things of gold, and silver, and precious stones, when they could not
+      have been in possession of these things? There is but one answer, and that
+      is, the Pentateuch was written hundreds of years after the Jews had
+      settled in the Holy Land, and hundreds of years after Moses was dust and
+      ashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Jews had a written language, and that must have been long after
+      their flight from Egypt, they wrote out their history and their laws.
+      Tradition had filled the infancy of the nation with miracles and special
+      interpositions in their behalf by Jehovah. Patriotism would not allow
+      these wonders to grow small, and priestcraft never denied a miracle. There
+      were traditions to the effect that God had spoken face to face with Moses;
+      that he had given him the tables of the law, and had, in a thousand ways,
+      made known his will; and whenever the priests wished to make new laws, or
+      amend old ones, they pretended to have found something more that God said
+      to Moses at Sinai. In this way obedience was more easily secured. Only a
+      very few of the people could read, and, as a consequence, additions,
+      interpolations and erasures had no fear of detection. In this way we
+      account for the fact that Moses is made to speak of things that did not
+      exist in his day, and were unknown for hundreds of years after his death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the thirtieth chapter of Exodus, we are told that the people, when
+      numbered, must give each one a half shekel after the shekel of the <i>sanctuary</i>.
+      At that time no such money existed, and consequently the account could
+      not, by any possibility, have been written until after there was a shekel
+      of the sanctuary, and there was no such thing until long after the death
+      of Moses. If we should read that Cęsar paid his troops in pounds,
+      shillings and pence, we would certainly know that the account was not
+      written by Cęsar, nor in his time, but we would know that it was written
+      after the English had given these names to certain coins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, we find, that when the Jews were upon the desert it was commanded that
+      every mother should bring, as a sin offering, a couple of doves to the
+      priests, and the priests were compelled to eat these doves in the most
+      holy place. At the time this law appears to have been given, there were
+      three million people, and only three priests, Aaron, Eleazer and Ithamar.
+      Among three million people there would be, at least, three hundred births
+      a day. Certainly we are not expected to believe that these three priests
+      devoured six hundred pigeons every twenty-four hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why should a woman ask pardon of God for having been a mother? Why should
+      that be considered a crime in Exodus, which is commanded as a duty in
+      Genesis? Why should a mother be declared unclean? Why should giving birth
+      to a daughter be regarded twice as criminal as giving birth to a son? Can
+      we believe that such laws and ceremonies were made and instituted by a
+      merciful and intelligent God? If there is anything in this poor world
+      suggestive of, and standing for, all that is sweet, loving and pure, it is
+      a mother holding in her thrilled and happy arms her prattling babe. Read
+      the twelfth chapter of Leviticus, and you will see that when a woman
+      became the mother of a boy she was so unclean that she was not allowed to
+      touch a hallowed thing, nor to enter the sanctuary for forty days. If the
+      babe was a girl, then the mother was unfit for eighty days, to enter the
+      house of God, or to touch the sacred tongs and snuffers. These laws, born
+      of barbarism, are unworthy of our day, and should be regarded simply as
+      the mistakes of savages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as low in the scale of intelligence are the directions given in the
+      fifth chapter of Numbers, for the trial of a wife of whom the husband was
+      jealous. This foolish chapter has been the foundation of all appeals to
+      God for the ascertainment of facts, such as the corsned, trial by battle,
+      by water, and by fire, the last of which is our judicial oath. It is very
+      easy to believe that in those days a guilty woman would be afraid to drink
+      the water of jealousy and take the oath, and that, through fear, she might
+      be made to confess. Admitting that the deception tended not only to
+      prevent crime, but to discover it when committed, still, we cannot admit
+      that an honest god would, for any purpose, resort to dishonest means. In
+      all countries fear is employed as a means of getting at the truth, and in
+      this there is nothing dishonest, provided falsehood is not resorted to for
+      the purpose of producing the fear. Protestants laugh at catholics because
+      of their belief in the efficacy of holy water, and yet they teach their
+      children that a little holy water, in which had been thrown some dust from
+      the floor of the sanctuary, would work a miracle in a woman's flesh. For
+      hundreds of years our fathers believed that a perjurer could not swallow a
+      piece of sacramental bread. Such stories belong to the childhood of our
+      race, and are now believed only by mental infants and intellectual babes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot believe that Moses had in his hands a couple of tables of stone,
+      upon which God had written the ten commandments, and that when he saw the
+      golden calf, and the dancing, that he dashed the tables to the earth and
+      broke them in pieces. Neither do I believe that Moses took a golden calf,
+      burnt it, ground it to powder, and made the people drink it with water, as
+      related in the thirty-second chapter of Exodus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is another account of the giving of the ten commandments to Moses,
+      in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of Exodus. In this account not
+      one word is said about the people having made a golden calf, nor about the
+      breaking of the tables of stone. In the thirty-fourth chapter of Exodus,
+      there is an account of the renewal of the broken tables of the law, and
+      the commandments are given, but they are not the same commandments
+      mentioned in the twentieth chapter. There are two accounts of the same
+      transaction. Both of these stories cannot be true, and yet both must be
+      believed. Any one who will take the trouble to read the nineteenth and
+      twentieth chapters, and the last verse of the thirty-first chapter, the
+      thirty-second, thirty-third, and thirty-fourth chapters of Exodus, will be
+      compelled to admit that both accounts cannot be true.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the last account it appears that while Moses was upon Mount Sinai
+      receiving the commandments from God, the people brought their jewelry to
+      Aaron, and he cast for them a golden calf. This happened before any
+      commandment against idolatry had been given. A god ought, certainly, to
+      publish his laws before inflicting penalties for their violation. To
+      inflict punishment for breaking unknown and unpublished laws is, in the
+      last degree, cruel and unjust. It may be replied that the Jews knew better
+      than to worship idols, before the law was given. If this is so, why should
+      the law have been given? In all civilized countries, laws are made and
+      promulgated, not simply for the purpose of informing the people as to what
+      is right and wrong, but to inform them of the penalties to be visited upon
+      those who violate the laws. When the ten commandments were given, no
+      penalties were attached. Not one word was written on the tables of stone
+      as to the punishments that would be inflicted for breaking any or all of
+      the inspired laws. The people should not have been punished for violating
+      a commandment before it was given. And yet, in this case, Moses commanded
+      the sons of Levi to take their swords and slay every man his brother, his
+      companion, and his neighbor. The brutal order was obeyed, and three
+      thousand men were butchered. The Levites consecrated themselves unto the
+      Lord by murdering their sons, and their brothers, for having violated a
+      commandment before it had been given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been contended for many years that the ten commandments are the
+      foundation of all ideas of justice and of law. Eminent jurists have bowed
+      to popular prejudice, and deformed their works by statements to the effect
+      that the Mosaic laws are the fountains from which sprang all ideas of
+      right and wrong. Nothing can be more stupidly false than such assertions.
+      Thousands of years before Moses was born, the Egyptians had a code of
+      laws. They had laws against blasphemy, murder, adultery, larceny, perjury,
+      laws for the collection of debts, the enforcement of contracts, the
+      ascertainment of damages, the redemption of property pawned, and upon
+      nearly every subject of human interest. The Egyptian code was far better
+      than the Mosaic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Laws spring from the instinct of self-preservation, Industry objected to
+      supporting idleness, and laws were made against theft. Laws were made
+      against murder, because a very large majority of the people have always
+      objected to being murdered. All fundamental laws were born simply of the
+      instinct of self-defence. Long before the Jewish savages assembled at the
+      foot of Sinai, laws had been made and enforced, not only in Egypt and
+      India, but by every tribe that ever existed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is impossible for human beings to exist together, without certain rules
+      of conduct, certain ideas of the proper and improper, of the right and
+      wrong, growing out of the relation. Certain rules must be made, and must
+      be enforced. This implies law, trial and punishment. Whoever produces
+      anything by weary labor, does not need a revelation from heaven to teach
+      him that he has a right to the thing produced. Not one of the learned
+      gentlemen who pretend that the Mosaic laws are filled with justice and
+      intelligence, would live, for a moment, in any country where such laws
+      were in force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing can be more wonderful than the medical ideas of Jehovah. He had
+      the strangest notions about the cause and cure of disease. With him
+      everything was miracle and wonder. In the fourteenth chapter of Leviticus,
+      we find the law for cleansing a leper:&mdash;"Then shall the priest take
+      for him that is to be cleansed, two birds, alive and clean, and cedar
+      wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of
+      the birds be killed in an <i>earthen</i> vessel, over <i>running</i>
+      water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and
+      the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them, and the living bird, in
+      the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall
+      sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy, seven times,
+      and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into
+      the open field."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are told that God himself gave these directions to Moses. Does anybody
+      believe this? Why should the bird be killed in an <i>earthen</i> vessel?
+      Would the charm be broken if the vessel was of wood? Why over <i>running</i>
+      water? What would be thought of a physician now, who would give a
+      prescription like that?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it not strange that God, although he gave hundreds of directions for
+      the purpose of discovering the presence of leprosy, and for cleansing the
+      leper after he was healed, forgot to tell how that disease could be cured?
+      Is it not wonderful that while God told his people what animals were fit
+      for food, he failed to give a list of plants that man might eat? Why did
+      he leave his children to find out the hurtful and the poisonous by
+      experiment, knowing that experiment, in millions of cases, must be death?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When reading the history of the Jewish people, of their flight from
+      slavery to death, of their exchange of tyrants, I must confess that my
+      sympathies are all aroused in their behalf. They were cheated, deceived
+      and abused. Their god was quick-tempered unreasonable, cruel, revengeful
+      and dishonest. He was always promising but never performed. He wasted time
+      in ceremony and childish detail, and in the exaggeration of what he had
+      done. It is impossible for me to conceive of a character more utterly
+      detestable than that of the Hebrew god. He had solemnly promised the Jews
+      that he would take them from Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey.
+      He had led them to believe that in a little while their troubles would be
+      over, and that they would soon in the land of Canaan, surrounded by their
+      wives and little ones, forget the stripes and tears of Egypt. After
+      promising the poor wanderers again and again that he would lead them in
+      safety to the promised land of joy and plenty, this God, forgetting every
+      promise, said to the wretches in his power:&mdash;"Your carcasses shall
+      fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander until your
+      carcasses be wasted." This curse was the conclusion of the whole matter.
+      Into this dust of death and night faded all the promises of God. Into this
+      rottenness of wandering despair fell all the dreams of liberty and home.
+      Millions of corpses were left to rot in the desert, and each one certified
+      to the dishonesty of Jehovah. I cannot believe these things. They are so
+      cruel and heartless, that my blood is chilled and my sense of justice
+      shocked. A book that is equally abhorrent to my head and heart, cannot be
+      accepted as a revelation from God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we think of the poor Jews, destroyed, murdered, bitten by serpents,
+      visited by plagues, decimated by famine, butchered by each, other,
+      swallowed by the earth, frightened, cursed, starved, deceived, robbed and
+      outraged, how thankful we should be that we are not the chosen people of
+      God. No wonder that they longed for the slavery of Egypt, and remembered
+      with sorrow the unhappy day when they exchanged masters. Compared with
+      Jehovah, Pharaoh was a benefactor, and the tyranny of Egypt was freedom to
+      those who suffered the liberty of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While reading the Pentateuch, I am filled with indignation, pity and
+      horror. Nothing can be sadder than the history of the starved and
+      frightened wretches who wandered over the desolate crags and sands of
+      wilderness and desert, the prey of famine, sword, and plague. Ignorant and
+      superstitious to the last degree, governed by falsehood, plundered by
+      hypocrisy, they were the sport of priests, and the food of fear. God was
+      their greatest enemy, and death their only friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable, hateful, and
+      arrogant being, than the Jewish god. He is without a redeeming feature. In
+      the mythology of the world he has no parallel. He, only, is never touched
+      by agony and tears. He delights only in blood and pain. Human affections
+      are naught to him. He cares neither for love nor music, beauty nor joy. A
+      false friend, an unjust judge, a braggart, hypocrite, and tyrant, sincere
+      in hatred, jealous, vain, and revengeful, false in promise, honest in
+      curse, suspicious, ignorant, and changeable, infamous and hideous:&mdash;such
+      is the God of the Pentateuch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XXIV. CONFESS AND AVOID
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The scientific christians now admit that the bible is not inspired in its
+      astronomy, geology, botany, zoology, nor in any science. In other words,
+      they admit that on these subjects, the bible cannot be depended upon. If
+      all the statements in the scriptures were true, there would be no
+      necessity for admitting that some of them are not inspired. A christian
+      will not admit that a passage in the bible is uninspired, until he is
+      satisfied that it is untrue. Orthodoxy itself has at last been compelled
+      to say, that while a passage may be true and uninspired, it cannot be
+      inspired if false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the people of Europe had known as much of astronomy and geology when
+      the bible was introduced among them, as they do now, there never could
+      have been one believer in the doctrine of inspiration. If the writers of
+      the various parts of the bible had known as much about the sciences as is
+      now known by every intelligent man, the book never could have been
+      written. It was produced by ignorance, and has been believed and defended
+      by its author. It has lost power in the proportion that man has gained
+      knowledge. A few years ago, this book was appealed to in the settlement of
+      all scientific questions; but now, even the clergy confess that in such
+      matters, it has ceased to speak with the voice of authority. For the
+      establishment of facts, the word of man is now considered far better than
+      the word of God. In the world of science, Jehovah was superseded by
+      Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. All that God told Moses, admitting the
+      entire account to be true, is dust and ashes compared to the discoveries
+      of Des Cartes, La Place, and Humboldt. In matters of fact, the bible has
+      ceased to be regarded as a standard. Science has succeeded in breaking the
+      chains of theology. A few years ago, Science endeavored to show that it
+      was not inconsistent with the bible. The tables have been turned, and now,
+      Religion is endeavoring to prove that the bible is not inconsistent with
+      Science. The standard has been changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For many ages, the christians contended that the bible, viewed simply as a
+      literary performance, was beyond all other books, and that man without the
+      assistance of God could not produce its equal. This claim was made when
+      but few books existed, and the bible, being the only book generally known,
+      had no rival. But this claim, like the other, has been abandoned by many,
+      and soon will be, by all. Compared with Shakespeare's "book and volume of
+      the brain," the "sacred" bible shrinks and seems as feebly impotent and
+      vain, as would a pipe of Pan, when some great organ, voiced with every
+      tone, from the hoarse thunder of the sea to the winged warble of a mated
+      bird, floods and fills cathedral aisles with all the wealth of sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is now maintained&mdash;and this appears to be the last fortification
+      behind which the doctrine of inspiration skulks and crouches&mdash;that
+      the bible, although false and mistaken in its astronomy, geology,
+      geography, history and philosophy, is inspired in its morality. It is now
+      claimed that had it not been for this book, the world would have been
+      inhabited only by savages, and that had it not been for the holy
+      scriptures, man never would have even dreamed of the unity of God. A
+      belief in one God is claimed to be a dogma of almost infinite importance,
+      that without this belief civilization is impossible, and that this fact is
+      the sun around which all the virtues revolve, For my part, I think it
+      infinitely more important to believe in man. Theology is a superstition&mdash;Humanity
+      a religion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XXV. "INSPIRED" SLAVERY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps the bible was inspired upon the subject of human slavery. Is
+      there, in the civilized world, today, a clergyman who believes in the
+      divinity of slavery? Does the bible teach man to enslave his brother? If
+      it does, is it not blasphemous to say that it is inspired of God? If you
+      find the institution of slavery upheld in a book said to have been written
+      by God, what would you expect to find in a book inspired by the devil?
+      Would you expect to find that book in favor of liberty? Modern christians,
+      ashamed of the God of the Old Testament, endeavor now to show that slavery
+      was neither commanded nor opposed by Jehovah. Nothing can be plainer than
+      the following passages from the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus.
+      "Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of
+      them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they
+      begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take
+      them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a
+      possession, they shall be your bond-men forever. Both thy bond-men, and
+      thy bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are
+      round about you; of them shall ye buy bond-men, and bond-maids."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can we believe in this, the Nineteenth Century, that these infamous
+      passages were inspired by God? that God approved not only of human
+      slavery, but instructed his chosen people to buy the women, children and
+      babes of the heathen round about them? If it was right for the Hebrews to
+      buy, it was also right for the heathen to sell. This God, by commanding
+      the Hebrews to buy, approved of the selling of sons and daughters. The
+      Canaanite who, tempted by gold, lured by avarice, sold from the arms of
+      his wife the dimpled babe, simply made it possible for the Hebrews to obey
+      the orders of their God. If God is the author of the bible, the reading of
+      these passages ought to cover his cheeks with shame. I ask the christian
+      world to-day, was it right for the heathen to sell their children? Was it
+      right for God not only to uphold, but to command the infamous traffic in
+      human flesh? Could the most revengeful fiend, the most malicious vagrant
+      in the gloom of hell, sink to a lower moral depth than this?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to this God, his chosen people were not only commanded to buy of
+      the heathen round about them, but were also permitted to buy each other
+      for a term of years. The law governing the purchase of Jews is laid down
+      in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus. "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six
+      years shall he serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
+      If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married,
+      then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife,
+      and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall
+      be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall
+      plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out
+      free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring
+      him to the door, or unto the door-post: and his master shall bore his ear
+      through with an awl: and he shall serve him forever."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you believe that God was the author of this infamous law? Do you
+      believe that the loving father of us all, turned the dimpled arms of babes
+      into manacles of iron? Do you believe that he baited the dungeon of
+      servitude with wife and child? Is it possible to love a God who would make
+      such laws? Is it possible not to hate and despise him?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heathen are not spoken of as human beings. Their rights are never
+      mentioned. They were the rightful food of the sword, and their bodies were
+      made for stripes and chains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the same chapter of the same inspired book, we are told that, "if a man
+      smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he
+      shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he
+      shall not be punished, for he is his money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Must we believe that God called some of his children the money of others?
+      Can we believe that God made lashes upon the naked back, a legal tender
+      for labor performed? Must we regard the auction block as an altar? Were
+      blood hounds apostles? Was the slave-pen a temple? Were the stealers and
+      whippers of babes and women the justified children of God?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is now contended that while the Old Testament is touched with the
+      barbarism of its time, that the New Testament is morally perfect, and that
+      on its pages can be found no blot or stain. As a matter of fact, the New
+      Testament is more decidedly in favor of human slavery than the old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For my part, I never will, I never can, worship a God who upholds the
+      institution of slavery. Such a God I hate and defy. I neither want his
+      heaven, nor fear his hell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XXVI. "INSPIRED" MARRIAGE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Is there an orthodox clergyman in the world, who will now declare that he
+      believes the institution of polygamy to be right? Is there one who will
+      publicly declare that, in his judgment, that institution ever was right?
+      Was there ever a time in the history of the world when it was right to
+      treat woman simply as property? Do not attempt to answer these questions
+      by saying, that the bible is an exceedingly good book, that we are
+      indebted for our civilization to the sacred volume, and that without it,
+      man would lapse into savagery, and mental night. This is no answer. Was
+      there a time when the institution of polygamy was the highest expression
+      of human virtue? Is there a christian woman, civilized, intelligent, and
+      free, who believes in the institution of polygamy? Are we better, purer,
+      and more intelligent than God was four thousand years ago? Why should we
+      imprison Mormons, and worship God? Polygamy is just as pure in Utah, as it
+      could have been in the promised land. Love and Virtue are the same the
+      whole world round, and Justice is the same in every star. All the
+      languages of the world are not sufficient to express the filth of
+      polygamy. It makes of man, a beast, of woman, a trembling slave. It
+      destroys the fireside, makes virtue an outcast, takes from human speech
+      its sweetest words, and leaves the heart a den, where crawl and hiss the
+      slimy serpents of most loathsome lust. Civilization rests upon the family.
+      The good family is the unit of good government. The virtues grow about the
+      holy hearth of home&mdash;they cluster, bloom, and shed their perfume
+      round the fireside where the one man loves the one woman. Lover&mdash;husband&mdash;wife&mdash;mother&mdash;father&mdash;child&mdash;home!&mdash;without
+      these sacred words, the world is but a lair, and men and women merely
+      beasts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why should the innocent maiden and the loving mother worship the heartless
+      Jewish God? Why should they, with pure and stainless lips, read the vile
+      record of inspired lust?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The marriage of the one man to the one woman is the citadel and fortress
+      of civilization. Without this, woman becomes the prey and slave of lust
+      and power, and man goes back to savagery and crime. From the bottom of my
+      heart I hate, abhor and execrate all theories of life, of which the pure
+      and sacred home is not the corner-stone. Take from the world the family,
+      the fireside, the children born of wedded love, and there is nothing left.
+      The home where virtue dwells with love is like a lily with a heart of fire&mdash;the
+      fairest flower in all the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XXVII. "INSPIRED" WAR
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      If the bible be true, God commanded his chosen people to destroy men
+      simply for the crime of defending their native land. They were not allowed
+      to spare trembling and white-haired age, nor dimpled babes clasped in the
+      mothers' arms. They were ordered to kill women, and to pierce, with the
+      sword of war, the unborn child. "Our heavenly Father" commanded the
+      Hebrews to kill the men and women, the fathers, sons and brothers, but to
+      preserve the girls alive. Why were not the maidens also killed? Why were
+      they spared? Read the thirty-first chapter of Numbers, and you will find
+      that the maidens were given to the soldiers and the priests. Is there, in
+      all the history of war, a more infamous thing than this? Is it possible
+      that God permitted the violets of modesty, that grow and shed their
+      perfume in the maiden's heart, to be trampled beneath the brutal feet of
+      lust? If this was the order of God, what, under the same circumstances,
+      would have been the command of a devil? When, in this age of the world, a
+      woman, a wife, a mother, reads this record, she should, with scorn and
+      loathing, throw the book away. A general, who now should make such an
+      order, giving over to massacre and rapine a conquered people, would be
+      held in execration by the whole civilized world. Yet, if the bible be
+      true, the supreme and infinite God was once a savage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little while ago, out upon the western plains, in a little path leading
+      to a cabin, were found the bodies of two children and their mother. Her
+      breast was filled with wounds received in the defence of her darlings.
+      They had been murdered by the savages. Suppose when looking at their
+      lifeless forms, some one had said, "This was done by the command of God!"
+      In Canaan there were countless scenes like this. There was no pity in
+      inspired war. God raised the black flag, and commanded his soldiers to
+      kill even the smiling infant in its mother's arms. Who is the blasphemer;
+      the man who denies the existence of God, or he who covers the robes of the
+      Infinite with innocent blood?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are told in the Pentateuch, that God, the father of us all, gave
+      thousands of maidens, after having killed their fathers, their mothers,
+      and their brothers, to satisfy the brutal lusts of savage men. If there be
+      a God, I pray him to write in his book, opposite my name, that I denied
+      this lie for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XXVIII. "INSPIRED" RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      According to the bible, God selected the Jewish people through whom to
+      make known the great fact, that he was the only true and living God. For
+      this purpose, he appeared on several occasions to Moses&mdash;came down to
+      Sinai's top clothed in cloud and fire, and wrought a thousand miracles for
+      the preservation and education of the Jewish people. In their presence he
+      opened the waters of the sea. For them he caused bread to rain from
+      heaven. To quench their thirst, water leaped from the dry and barren rock.
+      Their enemies were miraculously destroyed; and for forty years, at least,
+      this God took upon himself the government of the Jews. But, after all
+      this, many of the people had less confidence in him than in gods of wood
+      and stone. In moments of trouble, in periods of disaster, in the darkness
+      of doubt, in the hunger and thirst of famine, instead of asking this God
+      for aid, they turned and sought the help of senseless things. This God,
+      with all his power and wisdom, could not even convince a few wandering and
+      wretched savages that he was more potent than the idols of Egypt. This God
+      was not willing that the Jews should think and investigate for themselves.
+      For heresy, the penalty was death. Where this God reigned, intellectual
+      liberty was unknown. He appealed only to brute force; he collected taxes
+      by threatening plagues; he demanded worship on pain of sword and fire;
+      acting as spy, inquisitor, judge and executioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, we have the ideas of God as to
+      mental freedom. "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or the
+      wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul, entice thee
+      secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not
+      known, thou nor thy fathers; <i>namely</i> of the gods of the people which
+      are around about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one
+      end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth, Thou shalt not
+      consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him,
+      neither shalt thou spare him, neither shalt thou conceal him. But thou
+      shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to
+      death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him
+      with stones that he die."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the religious liberty of God; the toleration of Jehovah. If I had
+      lived in Palestine at that time, and my wife, the mother of my children,
+      had said to me, "I am tired of Jehovah, he is always asking for blood; he
+      is never weary of killing; he is always telling of his might and strength;
+      always telling what he has done for the Jews, always asking for
+      sacrifices; for doves and lambs&mdash;blood, nothing but blood.&mdash;Let
+      us worship the sun. Jehovah is too revengeful, too malignant, too
+      exacting. Let us worship the sun. The sun has clothed the world in beauty;
+      it has covered the earth with flowers; by its divine light I first saw
+      your face, and my beautiful babe."&mdash;If I had obeyed the command of
+      God, I would have killed her. My hand would have been first upon her, and
+      after that the hands of all the people, and she would have been stoned
+      with stones until she died. For my part, I would never kill my wife, even
+      if commanded so to do by the real God of this universe. Think of taking up
+      some ragged rock and hurling it against the white bosom filled with love
+      for you; and when you saw oozing from the bruised lips of the death wound,
+      the red current of her sweet life&mdash;think of looking up to heaven and
+      receiving the congratulations of the infinite fiend whose commandment you
+      had obeyed!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can we believe that any such command was ever given by a merciful and
+      intelligent God? Suppose, however, that God did give this law to the Jews,
+      and did tell them that whenever a man preached a heresy, or proposed to
+      worship any other god that they should kill him; and suppose that
+      afterward this same God took upon himself flesh, and came to this very
+      chosen people and taught a different religion, and that thereupon the Jews
+      crucified him; I ask you, did he not reap exactly what he had sown? What
+      right would this God have to complain of a crucifixion suffered in
+      accordance with his own command?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing can be more infamous than intellectual tyranny. To put chains upon
+      the body is as nothing compared with putting shackles on the brain. No god
+      is entitled to the worship or the respect of man who does not give, even
+      to the meanest of his children, every right that he claims for himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the Pentateuch be true, religious persecution is a duty. The dungeons
+      of the Inquisition were temples, and the clank of every chain upon the
+      limbs of heresy was music in the ear of God. If the Pentateuch was
+      inspired, every heretic should be destroyed; and every man who advocates a
+      fact inconsistent with the sacred book, should be consumed by sword and
+      flame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the Old Testament no one is told to reason with a heretic, and not one
+      word is said about relying upon argument, upon education, nor upon
+      intellectual development&mdash;nothing except simple brute force. Is there
+      to-day a christian who will say that four thousand years ago, it was the
+      duty of a husband to kill his wife if she differed with him upon the
+      subject of religion? Is there one who will now say that, under such
+      circumstances, the wife ought to have been killed? Why should God be so
+      jealous of the wooden idols of the heathen? Could he not compete with
+      Baal? Was he envious of the success of the Egyptian magicians? Was it not
+      possible for him to make such a convincing display of his power as to
+      silence forever the voice of unbelief? Did this God have to resort to
+      force to make converts? Was he so ignorant of the structure of the human
+      mind as to believe all honest doubt a crime? If he wished to do away with
+      the idolatry of the Canaanites, why did he not appear to them? Why did he
+      not give them the tables of the law? Why did he only make known his will
+      to a few wandering savages in the desert of Sinai? Will some theologian
+      have the kindness to answer these questions? Will some minister, who now
+      believes in religious liberty, and eloquently denounces the intolerance of
+      Catholicism, explain these things; will he tell us why he worships an
+      intolerant God? Is a god who will burn a soul forever in another world,
+      better than a christian who burns the body for a few hours in this? Is
+      there no intellectual liberty in heaven? Do the angels all discuss
+      questions on the same side? Are all the investigators in perdition? Will
+      the penitent thief, winged and crowned, laugh at the honest folks in hell?
+      Will the agony of the damned increase or decrease the happiness of God?
+      Will there be, in the universe, an eternal <i>auto da fe?</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      XXIX. CONCLUSION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      If the Pentateuch is not inspired in its astronomy, geology, geography,
+      history or philosophy, if it is not inspired concerning slavery, polygamy,
+      war, law, religious or political liberty, or the rights of men, women and
+      children, what is it inspired in, or about? The unity of God?&mdash;that
+      was believed long before Moses was born. Special providence?&mdash;that
+      has been the doctrine of ignorance in all ages. The rights of property?&mdash;theft
+      was always a crime. The sacrifice of animals?&mdash;that was a custom
+      thousands of years before a Jew existed. The sacredness of life?&mdash;there
+      have always been laws against murder. The wickedness of perjury?&mdash;truthfulness
+      has always been a virtue. The beauty of chastity?&mdash;the Pentateuch
+      does not teach it. Thou shalt worship no other God?&mdash;that has been
+      the burden of all religions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it possible that the Pentateuch could not have been written by
+      uninspired men? that the assistance of God was necessary to produce these
+      books? Is it possible that Galileo ascertained the mechanical principles
+      of "Virtual Velocity," the laws of falling bodies and of all motion; that
+      Copernicus ascertained the true position of the earth and accounted for
+      all celestial phenomena; that Kepler discovered his three laws&mdash;discoveries
+      of such importance that the 8th of May, 1618, may be called the birth-day
+      of modern science; that Newton gave to the world the Method of Fluxions,
+      the Theory of Universal Gravitation, and the Decomposition of Light; that
+      Euclid, Cavalieri, Des Cartes, and Leibnitz, almost completed the science
+      of mathematics; that all the discoveries in optics, hydrostatics,
+      pneumatics and chemistry, the experiments, discoveries, and inventions of
+      Galvani, Volta, Franklin and Morse, of Trevethick, Watt and Fulton and of
+      all the pioneers of progress&mdash;that all this was accomplished by
+      uninspired men, while the writer of the Pentateuch was directed and
+      inspired by an infinite God? Is it possible that the codes of China,
+      India, Egypt, Greece and Rome were made by man, and that the laws recorded
+      in the Pentateuch were alone given by God? Is it possible that Ęschylus
+      and Shakespeare, Burns, and Beranger, Goethe and Schiller, and all the
+      poets of the world, and all their wondrous tragedies and songs are but the
+      work of men, while no intelligence except the infinite God could be the
+      author of the Pentateuch? Is it possible that of all the books that crowd
+      the libraries of the world, the books of science, fiction, history and
+      song, that all save only one, have been produced by man? Is it possible
+      that of all these, the bible only is the work of God?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the Pentateuch is inspired, the civilization of of our day is a mistake
+      and crime. There should be no political liberty. Heresy should be trodden
+      out beneath the bigot's brutal feet. Husbands should divorce their wives
+      at will, and make the mothers of their children houseless and weeping
+      wanderers. Polygamy ought to be practiced; women should become slaves; we
+      should buy the sons and daughters of the heathen and make them bondmen and
+      bondwomen forever. We should sell our own flesh and blood, and have the
+      right to kill our slaves. Men and women should be stoned to death for
+      laboring on the seventh day. "Mediums," such as have familiar spirits,
+      should be burned with fire. Every vestige of mental liberty should be
+      destroyed, and reason's holy torch extinguished in the martyr's blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it not far better and wiser to say that the Pentateuch while containing
+      some good laws, some truths, some wise and useful things is, after all,
+      deformed and blackened by the savagery of its time? Is it not far better
+      and wiser to take the good and throw the bad away?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us admit what we know to be true; that Moses was mistaken about a
+      thousand things; that the story of creation is not true; that the garden
+      of Eden is a myth; that the serpent and the tree of knowledge, and the
+      fall of man are but fragments of old mythologies lost and dead; that woman
+      was not made out of a rib; that serpents never had the power of speech;
+      that the sons of God did not marry the daughters of men; that the story of
+      the flood and ark is not exactly true; that the tower of Babel is a
+      mistake; that the confusion of tongues is a childish thing; that the
+      origin of the rainbow is a foolish fancy; that Methuselah did not live
+      nine hundred and sixty-nine years; that Enoch did not leave this world,
+      taking with him his flesh and bones; that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah
+      is somewhat improbable; that burning brimstone never fell like rain; that
+      Lot's wife was not changed into chloride of sodium; that Jacob did not, in
+      fact, put his hip out of joint wrestling with God; that the history of
+      Tamar might just as well have been left out; that a belief in Pharaoh's
+      dreams is not essential to salvation; that it makes but little difference
+      whether the rod of Aaron was changed to a serpent or not; that of all the
+      wonders said to have been performed in Egypt, the greatest is, that
+      anybody ever believed the absurd account; that God did not torment the
+      innocent cattle on account of the sins of their owners; that he did not
+      kill the first born of the poor maid behind the mill because of Pharaoh's
+      crimes; that flies and frogs were not ministers of God's wrath; that lice
+      and locusts were not the executors of his will; that seventy people did
+      not, in two hundred and fifteen years, increase to three million; that
+      three priests could not eat six hundred pigeons in a day; that gazing at a
+      brass serpent could not extract poison from the blood; that God did not go
+      in partnership with hornets; that he did not murder people simply because
+      they asked for something to eat; that he did not declare the making of
+      hair oil and ointment an offence to be punished with death; that he did
+      not miraculously preserve cloth and leather; that he was not afraid of
+      wild beasts; that he did not punish heresy with sword and fire; that he
+      was not jealous, revengeful, and unjust; that he knew all about the sun,
+      moon, and stars; that he did not threaten to kill people for eating the
+      fat of an ox; that he never told Aaron to draw cuts to see which of two
+      goats should be killed; that he never objected to clothes made of woolen
+      mixed with linen; that if he objected to dwarfs, people with flat noses
+      and too many fingers, he ought not to have created such folks; that he did
+      not demand human sacrifices as set forth in the last chapter of Leviticus;
+      that he did not object to the raising of horses; that he never commanded
+      widows to spit in the faces of their brothers-in-law; that several
+      contradictory accounts of the same transaction cannot all be true; that
+      God did not talk to Abraham as one man talks to another; that angels were
+      not in the habit of walking about the earth eating veal dressed with milk
+      and butter, and making bargains about the destruction of cities; that God
+      never turned himself into a flame of fire, and lived in a bush; that he
+      never met Moses in a hotel and tried to kill him; that it was absurd to
+      perform miracles to induce a king to act in a certain way and then harden
+      his heart so that he would refuse; that God was not kept from killing the
+      Jews by the fear that the Egyptians would laugh at him; that he did not
+      secretly bury a man and then allow the corpse to write an account of the
+      funeral; that he never believed the firmament to be solid; that he knew
+      slavery was and always would be a frightful crime; that polygamy is but
+      stench and filth; that the brave soldier will always spare an unarmed foe;
+      that only cruel cowards slay the conquered and the helpless; that no
+      language can describe the murderer of a smiling babe; that God did not
+      want the blood of doves and lambs; that he did not love the smell of
+      burning flesh; that he did not want his altars daubed with blood; that he
+      did not pretend that the sins of a people could be transferred to a goat;
+      that he did not believe in witches, wizards, spooks, and devils; that he
+      did not test the virtue of woman with dirty water; that he did not suppose
+      that rabbits chewed the cud; that he never thought there were any
+      four-footed birds; that he did not boast for several hundred years that he
+      had vanquished an Egyptian king; that a dry stick did not bud, blossom,
+      and bear almonds in one night; that manna did not shrink and swell, so
+      that each man could gather only just one omer; that it was never wrong to
+      "countenance the poor man in his cause;" that God never told a people not
+      to live in peace with their neighbors; that he did not spend forty days
+      with Moses on Mount Sinai giving him patterns for making clothes, tongs,
+      basins, and snuffers; that maternity is not a sin; that physical deformity
+      is not a crime; that an atonement cannot be made for the soul by shedding
+      innocent blood; that killing a dove over running water will not make its
+      blood a medicine; that a god who demands love knows nothing of the human
+      heart; that one who frightens savages with loud noises is unworthy the
+      love of civilized men; that one who destroys children on account of the
+      sins of their fathers is a monster; that an infinite god never threatened
+      to give people the itch; that he never sent wild beasts to devour babes;
+      that he never ordered the violation of maidens; that he never regarded
+      patriotism as a crime; that he never ordered the destruction of unborn
+      children; that he never opened the earth and swallowed wives and babes
+      because husbands and fathers had displeased him; that he never demanded
+      that men should kill their sons and brothers, for the purpose of
+      sanctifying themselves; that we cannot please God by believing the
+      improbable; that credulity is not a virtue; that investigation is not a
+      crime; that every mind should be free; that all religious persecution is
+      infamous in God, as well as man; that without liberty, virtue is
+      impossible; that without freedom, even love cannot exist; that every man
+      should be allowed to think and to express his thoughts; that woman is the
+      equal of man; that children should be governed by love and reason; that
+      the family relation is sacred; that war is a hideous crime; that all
+      intolerance is born of ignorance and hate; that the freedom of today is
+      the hope of to-morrow; that the enlightened present ought not to fall upon
+      its knees and blindly worship the barbaric past; and that every free,
+      brave and enlightened man should publicly declare that all the ignorant,
+      infamous, heartless, hideous things recorded in the "inspired" Pentateuch
+      are not the words of God, but simply "Some Mistakes of Moses."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      A TRIBUTE
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Ebon C. ingersoll,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      BY HIS BROTHER
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Robert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dec. 12, 1831. MAY 31, 1879.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By his Brother Robert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE RECORD OF A GENEROUS LIFE RUNS LIKE A VINE AROUND THE MEMORY OF OUR
+      DEAD, AND EVERY SWEET, UNSELFISH ACT IS NOW A PERFUMED FLOWER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Friends: I am going to do that which the dead oft promised he would
+      do for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The loved and loving brother, husband, father, friend, died where
+      manhood's morning almost touches noon, and while the shadows still were
+      falling toward the west.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had not passed on life's highway the stone that marks the highest
+      point; but, being weary for a moment, he lay down by the wayside, and,
+      using his burden for a pillow, fell into that dreamless sleep that kisses
+      down his eyelids still. While yet in love with life and raptured with the
+      world, he passed to silence and pathetic dust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, after all, it may be best, just in the happiest, sunniest hour of all
+      the voyage, while eager winds are kissing every sail, to dash against the
+      unseen rock, and in an instant hear the billows roar above a sunken ship.
+      For whether in mid sea or 'mong the breakers of the farther shore, a wreck
+      at last must mark the end of each and all. And every life, no matter if
+      its every hour is rich with love and every moment jeweled with a joy,
+      will, at its close, become a tragedy as sad and deep and dark as can be
+      woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This brave and tender man in every storm of life was oak and rock; but in
+      the sunshine he was vine and flower. He was the friend of all heroic
+      souls. He climbed the heights, and left all superstitions far below, while
+      on his forehead fell the golden dawning, of the grander day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He loved the beautiful, and was with color, form, and music touched to
+      tears. He sided with the weak, the poor, and wronged, and lovingly gave
+      alms. With loyal heart and with the purest hands he faithfully discharged
+      all public trusts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a worshipper of liberty, a friend of the oppressed. A thousand
+      times I have heard him quote these words: "<i>For Justice all place a
+      temple, and all season, summer!</i>" He believed that happiness was the
+      only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the
+      only religion, and love the only priest. He added to the sum of human joy;
+      and were every one to whom he did some loving service to bring a blossom
+      to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities.
+      We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only
+      answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the
+      unreplying dead there comes no word; but in the night of death hope sees a
+      star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the
+      return of health, whispered with his latest breath, "I am better now." Let
+      us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and tears, that these
+      dear words are true of all the countless dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, to you, who have been chosen, from among the many men he loved,
+      to do the last sad office for the dead, we give his sacred dust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Speech cannot contain our love. There was, there is, no gentler, stronger,
+      manlier man.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mistakes of Moses, by Robert G. Ingersoll
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Mistakes of Moses
+
+Author: Robert G. Ingersoll
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2011 [EBook #38099]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISTAKES OF MOSES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISTAKES of MOSES
+
+By Robert G. Ingersoll.
+
+The Destroyer Of Weeds, Thistles And Thorns, Is A Benefactor Whether He
+Soweth Grain Or Not.
+
+1880.
+
+
+MRS. SUE M. FARRELL
+
+IN LAW MY SISTER;
+
+AND IN FACT MY FRIEND,
+
+THIS VOLUME,
+
+AS A TOKEN OF RESPECT AND LOVE,
+
+IS DEDICATED.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+For many years I have regarded the Pentateuch simply as a record of a
+barbarous people, in which are found a great number of the ceremonies
+of savagery, many absurd and unjust laws, and thousands of ideas
+inconsistent with known and demonstrated facts. To me it seemed almost
+a crime to teach that this record was written by inspired men; that
+slavery, polygamy, wars of conquest and extermination were right, and
+that there was a time when men could win the approbation of infinite
+Intelligence, Justice, and Mercy, by violating maidens and by butchering
+babes. To me it seemed more reasonable that savage men had made these
+laws; and I endeavored in a lecture, entitled "Some Mistakes of Moses,"
+to point out some of the errors, contradictions, and impossibilities
+contained in the Pentateuch. The lecture was never written and
+consequently never delivered twice the same. On several occasions it was
+reported and published without consent, and without revision. All these
+publications were grossly and glaringly incorrect. As published, they
+have been answered several hundred times, and many of the clergy are
+still engaged in the great work. To keep these reverend gentlemen from
+wasting their talents on the mistakes of reporters and printers, I
+concluded to publish the principal points in all my lectures on this
+subject. And here, it may be proper for me to say, that arguments cannot
+be answered by personal abuse; that there is no logic in slander, and
+that falsehood, in the long run, defeats itself. People who love their
+enemies should, at least, tell the truth about their friends. Should it
+turn out that I am the worst man in the whole world, the story of the
+flood will remain just as improbable as before, and the contradictions
+of the Pentateuch will still demand an explanation.
+
+There was a time when a falsehood, fulminated from the pulpit, smote
+like a sword; but, the supply having greatly exceeded the demand,
+clerical misrepresentation has at last become almost an innocent
+amusement. Remembering that only a few years ago men, women, and even
+children, were imprisoned, tortured and burned, for having expressed
+in an exceedingly mild and gentle way, the ideas entertained by me, I
+congratulate myself that calumny is now the pulpit's last resort. The
+old instruments of torture are kept only to gratify curiosity; the
+chains are rusting away, and the demolition of time has allowed even the
+dungeons of the Inquisition to be visited by light. The church, impotent
+and malicious, regrets, not the abuse, but the loss of her power, and
+seeks to hold by falsehood what she gained by cruelty and force, by
+fire and fear. Christianity cannot live in peace with any other form of
+faith. If that religion be true, there is but one savior, one inspired
+book, and but one little narrow grass-grown path that leads to heaven.
+Such a religion is necessarily uncompromising, unreasoning, aggressive
+and insolent. Christianity has held all other creeds and forms in
+infinite contempt, divided the world into enemies and friends, and
+verified the awful declaration of its founder--a declaration that
+wet with blood the sword he came to bring, and made the horizon of a
+thousand years lurid with the fagots' flames.
+
+Too great praise challenges attention, and often brings to light a
+thousand faults that otherwise the general eye would never see. Were we
+allowed to read the bible as we do all other books, we would admire its
+beauties, treasure its worthy thoughts, and account for all its absurd,
+grotesque and cruel things, by saying that its authors lived in rude,
+barbaric times. But we are told that it was written by inspired men;
+that it contains the will of God; that it is perfect, pure, and true in
+all its parts; the source and standard of all moral and religious truth;
+that it is the star and anchor of all human hope; the only guide for
+man, the only torch in Nature's night. These claims are so at variance
+with every known recorded fact, so palpably absurd, that every free,
+unbiased soul is forced to raise the standard of revolt.
+
+We read the pagan sacred books with profit and delight. With myth and
+fable we are ever charmed, and find a pleasure in the endless repetition
+of the beautiful, poetic, and absurd. We find, in all these records of
+the past, philosophies and dreams, and efforts stained with tears,
+of great and tender souls who tried to pierce the mystery of life and
+death, to answer the eternal questions of the Whence and Whither, and
+vainly sought to make, with bits of shattered glass, a mirror that
+would, in very truth, reflect the face and form of Nature's perfect
+self.
+
+These myths were born of hopes, and fears, and tears, and smiles, and
+they were touched and colored by all there is of joy and grief between
+the rosy dawn of birth, and death's sad night. They clothed even the
+stars with passion, and gave to gods the faults and frailties of the
+sons of men. In them, the winds and waves were music, and all the lakes,
+and streams, and springs,--the mountains, woods and perfumed dells were
+haunted by a thousand fairy forms. They thrilled the veins of Spring
+with tremulous desire; made tawny Summer's billowed breast the throne
+and home of love; filled Autumns arms with sun-kissed grapes, and
+gathered sheaves; and pictured Winter as a weak old king who felt,
+like Lear upon his withered face, Cordelia's tears. These myths, though
+false, are beautiful, and have for many ages and in countless ways,
+enriched the heart and kindled thought. But if the world were taught
+that all these things are true and all inspired of God, and that eternal
+punishment will be the lot of him who dares deny or doubt, the sweetest
+myth of all the Fable World would lose its beauty, and become a scorned
+and hateful thing to every brave and thoughtful man.
+
+Robert G. Ingersoll.
+
+Washington, D. C, _Oct. 7th, 1879_
+
+
+
+
+I. SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES
+
+HE WHO ENDEAVORS TO CONTROL THE MIND BY FORCE IS A TYRANT, AND HE WHO
+SUBMITS IS A SLAVE.
+
+I want to do what little I can to make my country truly free, to broaden
+the intellectual horizon of our people, to destroy the prejudices born
+of ignorance and fear, to do away with the blind worship of the ignoble
+past, with the idea that all the great and good are dead, that the
+living are totally depraved, that all pleasures are sins, that sighs
+and groans are alone pleasing to God, that thought is dangerous, that
+intellectual courage is a crime, that cowardice is a virtue, that a
+certain belief is necessary to secure salvation, that to carry a cross
+in this world will give us a palm in the next, and that we must allow
+some priest to be the pilot of our souls.
+
+Until every soul is freely permitted to investigate every book, and
+creed, and dogma for itself, the world cannot be free. Mankind will be
+enslaved until there is mental grandeur enough to allow each man to have
+his thought and say. This earth will be a paradise when men can, upon
+all these questions differ, and yet grasp each other's hands as friends.
+It is amazing to me that a difference of opinion upon subjects that we
+know nothing with certainty about, should make us hate, persecute, and
+despise each other. Why a difference of opinion upon predestination,
+or the trinity, should make people imprison and burn each other
+seems beyond the comprehension of man; and yet in all countries where
+Christians have existed, they have destroyed each other to the exact
+extent of their power. Why should a believer in God hate an atheist?
+Surely the atheist has not injured God, and surely he is human, capable
+of joy and pain, and entitled to all the rights of man. Would it not be
+far better to treat this atheist, at least, as well as he treats us?
+
+Christians tell me that they love their enemies, and yet all I ask
+is--not that they love their enemies, not that they love their friends
+even, but that they treat those who differ from them, with simple
+fairness.
+
+We do not wish to be forgiven, but we wish Christians to so act that we
+will not have to forgive them. If all will admit that all have an equal
+right to think, then the question is forever solved; but as long as
+organized and powerful churches, pretending to hold the keys of heaven
+and hell, denounce every person as an outcast and criminal who thinks
+for himself and denies their authority, the world will be filled with
+hatred and suffering. To hate man and worship God seems to be the sum of
+all the creeds.
+
+That which has happened in most countries, has happened in ours. When
+a religion is founded, the educated, the powerful--that is to say, the
+priests and nobles, tell the ignorant and superstitious--that is to
+say, the people, that the religion of their country was given to their
+fathers by God himself; that it is the only true religion; that all
+others were conceived in falsehood and brought forth in fraud, and that
+all who believe in the true religion will be happy forever, while all
+others will burn in hell. For the purpose of governing the people, that
+is to say, for the purpose of being supported by the people, the priests
+and nobles declare this religion to be sacred, and that whoever adds to,
+or takes from it, will be burned here by man, and hereafter by God. The
+result of this is, that the priests and nobles will not allow the people
+to change; and when, after a time, the priests, having intellectually
+advanced, wish to take a step in the direction of progress, the people
+will not allow them to change. At first, the rabble are enslaved by the
+priests, and afterwards the rabble become the masters.
+
+One of the first things I wish to do, is to free the orthodox clergy.
+I am a great friend of theirs, and in spite of all they may say against
+me, I am going to do them a great and lasting service. Upon their necks
+are visible the marks of the collar, and upon their backs those of the
+lash. They are not allowed to read and think for themselves. They are
+taught like parrots, and the best are those who repeat, with the fewest
+mistakes, the sentences they have been taught. They sit like owls upon
+some dead limb of the tree of knowledge, and hoot the same old hoots
+that have been hooted for eighteen hundred years. Their congregations
+are not grand enough, nor sufficiently civilized, to be willing that
+the poor preachers shall think for themselves. They are not employed for
+that purpose. Investigation is regarded as a dangerous experiment,
+and the ministers are warned that none of that kind of work will be
+tolerated. They are notified to stand by the old creed, and to avoid
+all original thought, as a mortal pestilence. Every minister is employed
+like an attorney--either for plaintiff or defendant,--and he is expected
+to be true to his client. If he changes his mind, he is regarded as
+a deserter, and denounced, hated, and slandered accordingly. Every
+orthodox clergyman agrees not to change. He contracts not to find new
+facts, and makes a bargain that he will deny them if he does. Such is
+the position of a protestant minister in this Nineteenth Century. His
+condition excites my pity; and to better it, I am going to do what
+little I can.
+
+Some of the clergy have the independence to break away, and the
+intellect to maintain themselves as free men, but the most are compelled
+to submit to the dictation of the orthodox, and the dead. They are
+not employed to give their thoughts, but simply to repeat the ideas of
+others. They are not expected to give even the doubts that may suggest
+themselves, but are required to walk in the narrow, verdureless path
+trodden by the ignorance of the past. The forests and fields on either
+side are nothing to them. They must not even look at the purple hills,
+nor pause to hear the babble of the brooks. They must remain in the
+dusty road where the guide-boards are. They must confine themselves
+to the "fall of man" the expulsion from the garden, the "scheme of
+salvation," the "second birth," the atonement, the happiness of the
+redeemed, and the misery of the lost. They must be careful not to
+express any new ideas upon these great questions. It is much safer for
+them to quote from the works of the dead. The more vividly they describe
+the sufferings of the unregenerate, of those who attended theatres and
+balls, and drank wine in summer gardens on the sabbath-day, and laughed
+at priests, the better ministers they are supposed to be. They must show
+that misery fits the good for heaven, while happiness prepares the bad
+for hell; that the wicked get all their good things in this life, and
+the good all their evil; that in this world God punishes the people he
+loves, and in the next, the ones he hates; that happiness makes us bad
+here, but not in heaven; that pain makes us good here, but not in hell.
+No matter how absurd these things may appear to the carnal mind, they
+must be preached and they must be believed. If they were reasonable,
+there would be no virtue in believing. Even the publicans and sinners
+believe reasonable things. To believe without evidence, or in spite of
+it, is accounted as righteousness to the sincere and humble christian.
+
+The ministers are in duty bound to denounce all intellectual pride, and
+show that we are never quite so dear to God as when we admit that we are
+poor, corrupt and idiotic worms; that we never should have been born;
+that we ought to be damned without the least delay; that we are so
+infamous that we like to enjoy ourselves; that we love our wives and
+children better than our God; that we are generous only because we are
+vile; that we are honest from the meanest motives, and that sometimes we
+have fallen so low that we have had doubts about the inspiration of the
+Jewish scriptures. In short, they are expected to denounce all pleasant
+paths and rustling trees, to curse the grass and flowers, and glorify
+the dust and weeds. They are expected to malign the wicked people in the
+green and happy fields, who sit and laugh beside the gurgling springs or
+climb the hills and wander as they will. They are expected to point out
+the dangers of freedom, the safety of implicit obedience, and to show
+the wickedness of philosophy, the goodness of faith, the immorality of
+science and the purity of ignorance.
+
+Now and then, a few pious people discover some young man of a religious
+turn of mind and a consumptive habit of body, not quite sickly enough
+to die, nor healthy enough to be wicked. The idea occurs to them that
+he would make a good orthodox minister. They take up a contribution, and
+send the young man to some theological school where he can be taught to
+repeat a creed and despise reason. Should it turn out that the young
+man had some mind of his own, and, after graduating, should change his
+opinions and preach a different doctrine from that taught in the school,
+every man who contributed a dollar towards his education would feel that
+he had been robbed, and would denounce him as a dishonest and ungrateful
+wretch.
+
+The pulpit should not be a pillory. Congregations should allow the
+minister a little liberty. They should, at least, permit him to tell the
+truth.
+
+They have, in Massachusetts, at a place called Andover, a kind of
+minister factory, where each professor takes an oath once in five
+years--that time being considered the life of an oath--that he has not,
+during the last five years, and will not, during the next five years,
+intellectually advance. There is probably no oath that they could easier
+keep. Probably, since the foundation stone of that institution was laid
+there has not been a single case of perjury. The old creed is still
+taught. They still insist that God is infinitely wise, powerful and
+good, and that all men are totally depraved. They insist that the best
+man God ever made, deserved to be damned the moment he was finished.
+Andover puts its brand upon every minister it turns out, the same as
+Sheffield and Birmingham brand their wares, and all who see the brand
+know exactly what the minister believes, the books he has read, the
+arguments he relies on, and just what he intellectually is. They know
+just what he can be depended on to preach, and that he will continue to
+shrink and shrivel, and grow solemnly stupid day by day until he reaches
+the Andover of the grave and becomes truly orthodox forever.
+
+I have not singled out the Andover factory because it is worse than the
+others. They are all about the same. The professors, for the most part,
+are ministers who failed in the pulpit and were retired to the seminary
+on account of their deficiency in reason and their excess of faith. As
+a rule, they know nothing of this world, and far less of the next; but
+they have the power of stating the most absurd propositions with faces
+solemn as stupidity touched by fear.
+
+Something should be done for the liberation of these men. They should
+be allowed to grow--to have sunlight and air. They should no longer
+be chained and tied to confessions of faith, to mouldy books and
+musty creeds. Thousands of ministers are anxious to give their honest
+thoughts. The hands of wives and babes now stop their mouths. They
+must have bread, and so the husbands and fathers are forced to preach
+a doctrine that they hold in scorn. For the sake of shelter, food and
+clothes, they are obliged to defend the childish miracles of the past,
+and denounce the sublime discoveries of to-day. They are compelled to
+attack all modern thought, to point out the dangers of science, the
+wickedness of investigation and the corrupting influence of logic. It is
+for them to show that virtue rests upon ignorance and faith, while vice
+impudently feeds and fattens upon fact and demonstration. It is a part
+of their business to malign and vilify the Voltaires, Humes, Paines,
+Humboldts, Tyndals, Haeckels, Darwins, Spencers, and Drapers, and to bow
+with uncovered heads before the murderers, adulterers, and persecutors
+of the world. They are, for the most part, engaged in poisoning the
+minds of the young, prejudicing children against science, teaching
+the astronomy and geology of the bible, and inducing all to desert the
+sublime standard of reason.
+
+These orthodox ministers do not add to the sum of knowledge. They
+produce nothing. They live upon alms. They hate laughter and joy. They
+officiate at weddings, sprinkle water upon babes, and utter meaningless
+words and barren promises above the dead. They laugh at the agony of
+unbelievers, mock at their tears, and of their sorrows make a jest.
+There are some noble exceptions. Now and then a pulpit holds a brave
+and honest man. Their congregations are willing that they should
+think--willing that their ministers should have a little freedom.
+
+As we become civilized, more and more liberty will be accorded to these
+men, until finally ministers will give their best and highest thoughts.
+The congregations will finally get tired of hearing about the patriarchs
+and saints, the miracles and wonders, and will insist upon knowing
+something about the men and women of our day, and the accomplishments
+and discoveries of our time. They will finally insist upon knowing how
+to escape the evils of this world instead of the next. They will ask
+light upon the enigmas of this life. They will wish to know what we
+shall do with our criminals instead of what God will do with his--how
+we shall do away with beggary and want--with crime and misery--with
+prostitution, disease and famine,--with tyranny in all its cruel
+forms--with prisons and scaffolds, and how we shall reward the honest
+workers, and fill the world with happy homes! These are the problems
+for the pulpits and congregations of an enlightened future. If Science
+cannot finally answer these questions, it is a vain and worthless thing.
+
+The clergy, however, will continue to answer them in the old way, until
+their congregations are good enough to set them free. They will still
+talk about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, as though that were the
+only remedy for all human ills. They will still teach that retrogression
+is the only path that leads to light; that we must go back, that faith
+is the only sure guide, and that reason is a delusive glare, lighting
+only the road to eternal pain.
+
+Until the clergy are free they cannot be intellectually honest. We can
+never tell what they really believe until they know that they can safely
+speak. They console themselves now by a secret resolution to be as
+liberal as they dare, with the hope that they can finally educate
+their congregations to the point of allowing them to think a little for
+themselves. They hardly know what they ought to do. The best part of
+their lives has been wasted in studying subjects of no possible value.
+Most of them are married, have families, and know but one way of making
+their living. Some of them say that if they do not preach these foolish
+dogmas, others will, and that they may through fear, after all, restrain
+mankind. Besides, they hate publicly to admit that they are mistaken,
+that the whole thing is a delusion, that the "scheme of salvation" is
+absurd, and that the bible is no better than some other books, and worse
+than most.
+
+You can hardly expect a bishop to leave his palace, or the pope to
+vacate the Vatican. As long as people want popes, plenty of hypocrites
+will be found to take the place. And as long as labor fatigues, there
+will be found a good many men willing to preach once a week, if other
+folks will work and give them bread. In other words, while the demand
+lasts, the supply will never fail.
+
+If the people were a little more ignorant, astrology would flourish--if
+a little more enlightened, religion would perish!
+
+
+
+
+II. FREE SCHOOLS
+
+It is also my desire to free the schools. When a professor in a college
+finds a fact, he should make it known, even if it is inconsistent with
+something Moses said. Public opinion must not compel the professor to
+hide a fact, and, "like the base Indian, throw the pearl away." With the
+single exception of Cornell, there is not a college in the United
+States where truth has ever been a welcome guest. The moment one of the
+teachers denies the inspiration of the bible, he is discharged. If he
+discovers a fact inconsistent with that book, so much the worse for the
+fact, and especially for the discoverer of the fact. He must not corrupt
+the minds of his pupils with demonstrations. He must beware of
+every truth that cannot, in some way be made to harmonize with the
+superstitions of the Jews. Science has nothing in common with religion.
+Facts and miracles never did, and never will agree. They are not in the
+least related. They are deadly foes. What has religion to do with
+facts? Nothing. Can there be Methodist mathematics, Catholic astronomy,
+Presbyterian geology, Baptist biology, or Episcopal botany? Why, then,
+should a sectarian college exist? Only that which somebody knows should
+be taught in our schools. We should not collect taxes to pay people for
+guessing. The common school is the bread of life for the people, and it
+should not be touched by the withering hand of superstition.
+
+Our country will never be filled with great institutions of learning
+until there is an absolute divorce between Church and School. As long
+as the mutilated records of a barbarous people are placed by priest and
+professor above the reason of mankind, we shall reap but little benefit
+from church or school.
+
+Instead of dismissing professors for finding something out, let us
+rather discharge those who do not. Let each teacher understand that
+investigation is not dangerous for him; that his bread is safe, no
+matter how much truth he may discover, and that his salary will not be
+reduced, simply because he finds that the ancient Jews did not know the
+entire history of the world.
+
+Besides, it is not fair to make the Catholic support a Protestant
+school, nor is it just to collect taxes from infidels and atheists to
+support schools in which any system of religion is taught.
+
+The sciences are not sectarian. People do not persecute each other on
+account of disagreements in mathematics. Families are not divided about
+botany, and astronomy does not even tend to make a man hate his father
+and mother. It is what people do not know, that they persecute each
+other about. Science will bring, not a sword, but peace.
+
+Just as long as religion has control of the schools, science will be an
+outcast. Let us free our institutions of learning. Let us dedicate them
+to the science of eternal truth. Let us tell every teacher to ascertain
+all the facts he can--to give us light, to follow Nature, no matter
+where she leads; to be infinitely true to himself and us; to feel that
+he is without a chain, except the obligation to be honest; that he is
+bound by no books, by no creed, neither by the sayings of the dead nor
+of the living; that he is asked to look with his own eyes, to reason for
+himself without fear, to investigate in every possible direction, and to
+bring us the fruit of all his work.
+
+At present, a good many men engaged in scientific pursuits, and who
+have signally failed in gaining recognition among their fellows, are
+endeavoring to make reputations among the churches by delivering weak
+and vapid lectures upon the "harmony of Genesis and Geology." Like all
+hypocrites, these men overstate the case to such a degree, and so
+turn and pervert facts and words that they succeed only in gaining the
+applause of other hypocrites like themselves. Among the great scientists
+they are regarded as generals regard sutlers who trade with both armies.
+
+Surely the time must come when the wealth of the world will not be
+wasted in the propagation of ignorant creeds and miraculous mistakes.
+The time must come when churches and cathedrals will be dedicated to the
+use of man; when minister and priest will deem the discoveries of the
+living of more importance than the errors of the dead; when the truths
+of Nature will outrank the "sacred" falsehoods of the past, and when a
+single fact will outweigh all the miracles of Holy Writ.
+
+Who can over estimate the progress of the world if all the money
+wasted in superstition could be used to enlighten, elevate and civilize
+mankind?
+
+When every church becomes a school, every cathedral a university, every
+clergyman a teacher, and all their hearers brave and honest
+thinkers, then, and not until then, will the dream of poet, patriot,
+philanthropist and philosopher, become a real and blessed truth.
+
+
+
+
+III. THE POLITICIANS.
+
+I would like also to liberate the politician. At present, the successful
+office-seeker is a good deal like the centre of the earth; he weighs
+nothing himself, but draws everything else to him. There are so many
+societies, so many churches, so many isms, that it is almost impossible
+for an independent man to succeed in a political career. Candidates are
+forced to pretend that they are catholics with protest-ant proclivities,
+or christians with liberal tendencies, or temperance men who now and
+then take a glass of wine, or, that although not members of any church
+their wives are, and that they subscribe liberally to all. The result of
+all this is that we reward hypocrisy and elect men entirely destitute of
+real principle; and this will never change until the people become grand
+enough to allow each other to do their own thinking.
+
+Our government should be entirely and purely secular. The religious
+views of a candidate should be kept entirely out of sight. He should not
+be compelled to give his opinion as to the inspiration of the bible,
+the propriety of infant baptism, or the immaculate conception. All these
+things are private and personal. He should be allowed to settle such
+things for himself, and should he decide contrary to the law and will
+of God, let him settle the matter with God. The people ought to be wise
+enough to select as their officers men who know something of political
+affairs, who comprehend the present greatness, and clearly perceive the
+future grandeur of our country. If we were in a storm at sea, with deck
+wave-washed and masts strained and bent with storm, and it was necessary
+to reef the top sail, we certainly would not ask the brave sailor who
+volunteered to go aloft, what his opinion was on the five points of
+Calvinism. Our government has nothing to do with religion. It is neither
+christian nor pagan; it is secular. But as long as the people persist in
+voting for or against men on account of their religious views, just
+so long will hypocrisy hold place and power. Just so long will the
+candidates crawl in the dust--hide their opinions, flatter those with
+whom they differ, pretend to agree with those whom they despise; and
+just so long will honest men be trampled under foot. Churches are
+becoming political organizations. Nearly every Catholic is a democrat;
+nearly every Methodist in the North is a republican.
+
+It probably will not be long until the churches will divide as sharply
+upon political, as upon theological questions; and when that day comes,
+if there are not liberals enough to hold the balance of power, this
+government will be destroyed. The liberty of man is not safe in the
+hands of any church. Wherever the bible and sword are in partnership,
+man is a slave.
+
+All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same
+spirit that kindled the fires of the _auto da fe_, and lovingly built
+the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing
+blasphemy--making it a crime to give your honest ideas about the bible,
+or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself
+on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by
+impudent bigots, and should be at once repealed by honest men. An
+infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in
+partnership with state legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act
+that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at. No one
+thinks of protecting Shakespeare from ridicule, by the threat of fine
+and imprisonment. It strikes me that God might write a book that would
+not necessarily excite the laughter of his children. In fact, I think
+it would be safe to say that a real God could produce a work that would
+excite the admiration of mankind. Surely politicians could be better
+employed than in passing laws to protect the literary reputation of the
+Jewish God.
+
+
+
+
+IV. MAN AND WOMAN
+
+Let us forget that we are Baptists, Methodists, Catholics,
+Presbyterians, or Free-thinkers, and remember only that we are men and
+women. After all, _man_ and _woman_ are the highest possible titles.
+All other names belittle us, and show that we have, to a certain extent,
+given up our individuality, and have consented to wear the collar of
+authority--that we are followers. Throwing away these names, let us
+examine these questions not as partisans, but as human beings with hopes
+and fears in common.
+
+We know that our opinions depend, to a great degree, upon our
+surroundings--upon race, country, and education. We are all the result
+of numberless conditions, and inherit vices and virtues, truths and
+prejudices. If we had been born in England, surrounded by wealth and
+clothed with power, most of us would have been Episcopalians, and
+believed in Church and State. We should have insisted that the people
+needed a religion, and that not having intellect enough to provide one
+for themselves, it was our duty to make one for them, and then compel
+them to support it. We should have believed it indecent to officiate in
+a pulpit without wearing a gown, and that prayers should be read from
+a book. Had we belonged to the lower classes, we might have been
+dissenters and protested against the mummeries of the High Church.
+Had we been born in Turkey, most of us would have been Mohammedans and
+believed in the inspiration of the Koran. We should have believed that
+Mohammed actually visited Heaven and became acquainted with an angel by
+the name of Gabriel, who was so broad between the eyes that it required
+three hundred days for a very smart camel to travel the distance. If
+some man had denied this story we should probably have denounced him as
+a dangerous person, one who was endeavoring to undermine the foundations
+of society, and to destroy all distinction between virtue and vice. We
+should have said to him, "What do you propose to give us in place
+of that angel? We cannot afford to give up an angel of that size for
+nothing." We would have insisted that the best and wisest men
+believed the Koran. We would have quoted from the works and letters of
+philosophers, generals and sultans, to show that the Koran was the best
+of books, and that Turkey was indebted to that book and to that alone
+for its greatness and prosperity. We would have asked that man whether
+he knew more than all the great minds of his country, whether he was so
+much wiser than his fathers? We would have pointed out to him the fact
+that thousands had been consoled in the hour of death by passages from
+the Koran; that they had died with glazed eyes brightened by visions of
+the heavenly harem, and gladly left this world of grief and tears.
+We would have regarded Christians as the vilest of men, and on all
+occasions would have repeated "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his
+prophet!"
+
+So, if we had been born in India, we should in all probability have
+believed in the religion of that country. We should have regarded the
+old records as true and sacred, and looked upon a wandering priest as
+better than the men from whom he begged, and by whose labor he lived.
+We should have believed in a god with three heads instead of three gods
+with one head, as we do now.
+
+Now and then some one says that the religion of his father and mother
+is good enough for him, and wonders why anybody should desire a better.
+Surely we are not bound to follow our parents in religion any more than
+in politics, science or art. China has been petrified by the worship
+of ancestors. If our parents had been satisfied with the religion of
+theirs, we would be still less advanced than we are. If we are, in any
+way, bound by the belief of our fathers, the doctrine will hold good
+back to the first people who had a religion; and if this doctrine is
+true, we ought now to be believers in that first religion. In other
+words, we would all be barbarians. You cannot show real respect to your
+parents by perpetuating their errors. Good fathers and mothers wish
+their children to advance, to overcome obstacles which baffled them, and
+to correct the errors of their education. If you wish to reflect credit
+upon your parents, accomplish more than they did, solve problems that
+they could not understand, and build better than they knew. To sacrifice
+your manhood upon the grave of your father is an honor to neither. Why
+should a son who has examined a subject, throw away his reason and adopt
+the views of his mother? Is not such a course dishonorable to both?
+
+We must remember that this "ancestor" argument is as old at least as
+the second generation of men, that it has served no purpose except to
+enslave mankind, and results mostly from the fact that acquiescence
+is easier than investigation. This argument pushed to its logical
+conclusion, would prevent the advance of all people whose parents were
+not free-thinkers.
+
+It is hard for many people to give up the religion in which they were
+born; to admit that their fathers were utterly mistaken, and that the
+sacred records of their country are but collections of myths and fables.
+
+But when we look for a moment at the world, we find that each nation has
+its "sacred records"--its religion, and its ideas of worship. Certainly
+all cannot be right; and as it would require a life time to investigate
+the claims of these various systems, it is hardly fair to damn a man
+forever, simply because he happens to believe the wrong one. All these
+religions were produced by barbarians. Civilized nations have contented
+themselves with changing the religions of their barbaric ancestors, but
+they have made none. Nearly all these religions are intensely selfish.
+Each one was made by some contemptible little nation that regarded
+itself as of almost infinite importance, and looked upon the other
+nations as beneath the notice of their god. In all these countries it
+was a crime to deny the sacred records, to laugh at the priests, to
+speak disrespectfully of the gods, to fail to divide your substance
+with the lazy hypocrites who managed your affairs in the next world upon
+condition that you would support them in this. In the olden time
+these theological people who quartered themselves upon the honest
+and industrious, were called soothsayers, seers, charmers, prophets,
+enchanters, sorcerers, wizards, astrologers, and impostors, but now,
+they are known as clergymen.
+
+We are no exception to the general rule, and consequently have our
+sacred books as well as the rest. Of course, it is claimed by many of
+our people that our books are the only true ones, the only ones that the
+real God ever wrote, or had anything whatever to do with. They insist
+that all other sacred books were written by hypocrites and impostors;
+that the Jews were the only people that God ever had any personal
+intercourse with, and that all other prophets and seers were inspired
+only by impudence and mendacity. True, it seems somewhat strange that
+God should have chosen a barbarous and unknown people who had little or
+nothing to do with the other nations of the earth, as his messengers to
+the rest of mankind.
+
+It is not easy to account for an infinite God making people so low in
+the scale of intellect as to require a revelation. Neither is it easy to
+perceive why, if a revelation was necessary for all, it was made only
+to a few. Of course, I know that it is extremely wicked to suggest these
+thoughts, and that ignorance is the only armor that can effectually
+protect you from the wrath of God. I am aware that investigators with
+all their genius, never find the road to heaven; that those who look
+where they are going are sure to miss it, and that only those who
+voluntarily put out their eyes and implicitly depend upon blindness can
+surely keep the narrow path.
+
+Whoever reads our sacred book is compelled to believe it or suffer
+forever the torments of the lost. We are told that we have the privilege
+of examining it for ourselves; but this privilege is only extended to
+us on the condition that we believe it whether it appears reasonable or
+not. We may disagree with others as much as we please upon the meaning
+of all passages in the bible, but we must not deny the truth of a single
+word. We must believe that the book is inspired. If we obey its every
+precept without believing in its inspiration we will be damned just as
+certainly as though we disobeyed its every word. We have no right to
+weigh it in the scales of reason--to test it by the laws of nature, or
+the facts of observation and experience. To do this, we are told, is to
+put ourselves above the word of God, and sit in judgment on the works of
+our creator.
+
+For my part, I cannot admit that belief is a voluntary thing. It seems
+to me that evidence, even in spite of ourselves, will have its weight,
+and that whatever our wish may be, we are compelled to stand with
+fairness by the scales, and give the exact result. It will not do to say
+that we reject the bible because we are wicked. Our wickedness must be
+ascertained not from our belief but from our acts.
+
+I am told by the clergy that I ought not to attack the bible; that I am
+leading thousands to perdition and rendering certain the damnation of my
+own soul. They have had the kindness to advise me that, if my object is
+to make converts, I am pursuing the wrong course. They tell me to use
+gentler expressions, and more cunning words. Do they really wish me
+to make more converts? If their advice is honest, they are traitors to
+their trust. If their advice is not honest, then they are unfair with
+me. Certainly they should wish me to pursue the course that will make
+the fewest converts, and yet they pretend to tell me how my influence
+could be increased. It may be, that upon this principle John Bright
+advises America to adopt free trade, so that our country can become a
+successful rival of Great Britain. Sometimes I think that even ministers
+are not entirely candid.
+
+Notwithstanding the advice of the clergy, I have concluded to pursue my
+own course, to tell my honest thoughts, and to have my freedom in this
+world whatever my fate may be in the next.
+
+The real oppressor, enslaver and corrupter of the people is the bible.
+That book is the chain that binds, the dungeon that holds the clergy.
+That book spreads the pall of superstition over the colleges and
+schools. That book puts out the eyes of science, and makes honest
+investigation a crime. That book unmans the politician and degrades the
+people. That book fills the world with bigotry, hypocrisy and fear.
+It plays the same part in our country that has been played by "sacred
+records" in all the nations of the world.
+
+A little while ago I saw one of the bibles of the Middle Ages. It was
+about two feet in length, and one and a half in width. It had immense
+oaken covers, with hasps, and clasps, and hinges large enough almost
+for the doors of a penitentiary. It was covered with pictures of winged
+angels and aureoled saints. In my imagination I saw this book carried
+to the cathedral altar in solemn pomp--heard the chant of robed and
+kneeling priests, felt the strange tremor of the organ's peal; saw the
+colored light streaming through windows stained and touched by blood
+and flame--the swinging censer with its perfumed incense rising to the
+mighty roof, dim with height and rich with legend carved in stone, while
+on the walls was hung, written in light, and shade, and all the colors
+that can tell of joy and tears, the pictured history of the martyred
+Christ. The people fell upon their knees. The book was opened, and the
+priest read the messages from God to man. To the multitude, the book
+itself was evidence enough that it was not the work of human hands. How
+could those little marks and lines and dots contain, like tombs, the
+thoughts of men, and how could they, touched by a ray of light from
+human eyes, give up their dead? How could these characters span the vast
+chasm dividing the present from the past, and make it possible for the
+living still to hear the voices of the dead?
+
+
+
+
+V. THE PENTATEUCH
+
+The first five books in our bible are known as the Pentateuch. For
+a long time it was supposed that Moses was the author, and among the
+ignorant the supposition still prevails. As a matter of fact, it seems
+to be well settled that Moses had nothing to do with these books, and
+that they were not written until he had been dust and ashes for hundreds
+of years. But, as all the churches still insist that he was the author,
+that he wrote even an account of his own death and burial, let us
+speak of him as though these books were in fact written by him. As the
+christians maintain that God was the real author, it makes but little
+difference whom he employed as his pen, or clerk.
+
+Nearly all authors of sacred books have given an account of the creation
+of the universe, the origin of matter, and the destiny of the human
+race. Nearly all have pointed out the obligation that man is under to
+his creator for having placed him upon the earth, and allowed him to
+live and suffer, and have taught that nothing short of the most abject
+worship could possibly compensate God for his trouble and labor suffered
+and done for the good of man. They have nearly all insisted that we
+should thank God for all that is good in life; but they have not all
+informed us as to whom we should hold responsible for the evils we
+endure.
+
+Moses differed from most of the makers of sacred books by his failure
+to say anything of a future life, by failing to promise heaven, and to
+threaten hell. Upon the subject of a future state, there is not one
+word in the Pentateuch. Probably at that early day God did not deem
+it important to make a revelation as to the eternal destiny of man.
+He seems to have thought that he could control the Jews, at least, by
+rewards and punishments in this world, and so he kept the frightful
+realities of eternal joy and torment a profound secret from the people
+of his choice. He thought it far more important to tell the Jews their
+origin than to enlighten them as to their destiny.
+
+We must remember that every tribe and nation has some way in which, the
+more striking phenomena of nature are accounted for. These accounts
+are handed down by tradition, changed by numberless narrators as
+intelligence increases, or to account for newly discovered facts, or for
+the purpose of satisfying the appetite for the marvelous.
+
+The way in which a tribe or nation accounts for day and night, the
+change of seasons, the fall of snow and rain, the flight of birds,
+the origin of the rainbow, the peculiarities of animals, the dreams
+of sleep, the visions of the insane, the existence of earthquakes,
+volcanoes, storms, lightning and the thousand things that attract the
+attention and excite the wonder, fear or admiration of mankind, may be
+called the philosophy of that tribe or nation. And as all phenomena are,
+by savage and barbaric man accounted for as the action of intelligent
+beings for the accomplishment of certain objects, and as these beings
+were supposed to have the power to assist or injure man, certain things
+were supposed necessary for man to do in order to gain the assistance,
+and avoid the anger of these gods. Out of this belief grew certain
+ceremonies, and these ceremonies united with the belief, formed
+religion; and consequently every religion has for its foundation a
+misconception of the cause of phenomena.
+
+All worship is necessarily based upon the belief that some being exists
+who can, if he will, change the natural order of events. The savage
+prays to a stone that he calls a god, while the christian prays to a god
+that he calls a spirit, and the prayers of both are equally useful. The
+savage and the christian put behind the Universe an intelligent cause,
+and this cause whether represented by one god or many, has been, in all
+ages, the object of all worship. To carry a fetich, to utter a prayer,
+to count beads, to abstain from food, to sacrifice a lamb, a child or an
+enemy, are simply different ways by which the accomplishment of the same
+object is sought, and are all the offspring of the same error.
+
+Many systems of religion must have existed many ages before the art of
+writing was discovered, and must have passed through many changes before
+the stories, miracles, histories, prophesies and mistakes became fixed
+and petrified in written words. After that, change was possible only by
+giving new meanings to old words, a process rendered necessary by the
+continual acquisition of facts somewhat inconsistent with a literal
+interpretation of the "sacred records." In this way an honest faith
+often prolongs its life by dishonest methods; and in this way the
+Christians of to-day are trying to harmonize the Mosaic account of
+creation with the theories and discoveries of modern science.
+
+Admitting that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, or that he gave
+to the Jews a religion, the question arises as to where he obtained
+his information. We are told by the theologians that he received his
+knowledge from God, and that every word he wrote was and is the exact
+truth. It is admitted at the same time that he was an adopted son of
+Pharaoh's daughter, and enjoyed the rank and privilege of a prince.
+Under such circumstances, he must have been well acquainted with the
+literature, philosophy and religion of the Egyptians, and must have
+known what they believed and taught as to the creation of the world.
+
+Now, if the account of the origin of this earth as given by Moses is
+substantially like that given by the Egyptians, then we must conclude
+that he learned it from them. Should we imagine that he was divinely
+inspired because he gave to the Jews what the Egyptians had given him?
+
+The Egyptian priests taught _first_, that a god created the original
+matter, leaving it in a state of chaos; _second_, that a god moulded it
+into form; _third_, that the breath of a god moved upon the face of
+the deep; _fourth_, that a god created simply by saying "Let it be;"
+_fifth_, that a god created light before the sun existed.
+
+Nothing can be clearer than that Moses received from the Egyptians the
+principal parts of his narrative, making such changes and additions as
+were necessary to satisfy the peculiar superstitions of his own people.
+
+If some man at the present day should assert that he had received from
+God the theories of evolution, the survival of the fittest, and the
+law of heredity, and we should afterwards find that he was not only an
+Englishman, but had lived in the family of Charles Darwin, we certainly
+would account for his having these theories in a natural way, So, if
+Darwin himself should pretend that he was inspired, and had obtained
+his peculiar theories from God, we should probably reply that his
+grandfather suggested the the same ideas, and that Lamarck published
+substantially the same theories the same year that Mr. Darwin was born.
+
+Now, if we have sufficient courage, we will, by the same course of
+reasoning, account for the story of creation found in the bible. We
+will say that it contains the belief of Moses, and that he received his
+information from the Egyptians, and not from God. If we take the account
+as the absolute truth and use it for the purpose of determining the
+value of modern thought, scientific advancement becomes impossible. And
+even if the account of the Creation as given by Moses should turn out
+to be true, and should be so admitted by all the scientific world, the
+claim that he was inspired would still be without the least particle
+of proof. We would be forced to admit that he knew more than we had
+supposed. It certainly is no proof that a man is inspired simply because
+he is right.
+
+No one pretends that Shakespeare was inspired, and yet all the writers
+of the books of the Old Testament put together, could not have produced
+Hamlet.
+
+Why should we, looking upon some rough and awkward thing, or god in
+stone, say that it must have been produced by some inspired sculptor,
+and with the same breath pronounce the _Venus de Milo_ to be the work
+of man? Why should we, looking at some ancient daub of angel, saint or
+virgin, say its painter must have been assisted by a god?
+
+Let us account for all we see by the facts we know. If there are things
+for which we cannot account, let us wait for light. To account for
+anything by supernatural agencies is, in fact to say that we do not
+know. Theology is not what we know about God, but what we do not know
+about Nature. In order to increase our respect for the bible, it became
+necessary for the priests to exalt and extol that book, and at the same
+time to decry and belittle the reasoning powers of man. The whole
+power of the pulpit has been used for hundreds of years to destroy the
+confidence of man in himself--to induce him to distrust his own powers
+of thought, to believe that he was wholly unable to decide any question
+for himself, and that all human virtue consists in faith and obedience.
+The Church has said, "Believe, and obey! If you reason, you will become
+an unbeliever, and unbelievers will be lost. If you disobey, you will
+do so through vain pride and curiosity, and will, like Adam and Eve, be
+thrust from paradise forever!"
+
+For my part, I care nothing for what the Church says, except in so far
+as it accords with my reason; and the bible is nothing to me, only in so
+far as it agrees with what I think or know.
+
+All books should be examined in the same spirit, and truth should be
+welcomed and falsehood exposed, no matter in what volume they may be
+found.
+
+Let us in this spirit examine the Pentateuch; and if anything appears
+unreasonable, contradictory or absurd, let us have the honesty and
+courage to admit it. Certainly no good can result either from deceiving
+ourselves or others. Many millions have implicitly believed this book,
+and have just as implicitly believed that polygamy was sanctioned by
+God. Millions have regarded this book as the foundation of all
+human progress, and at the same time looked upon slavery as a divine
+institution. Millions have declared this book to have been infinitely
+holy, and to prove that they were right, have imprisoned, robbed
+and burned their fellow men. The inspiration of this book has been
+established by famine, sword and fire, by dungeon, chain and whip, by
+dagger and by rack, by force and fear and fraud, and generations have
+been frightened by threats of hell, and bribed with promises of heaven.
+
+Let us examine a portion of this book, not in the darkness of our fear,
+but in the light of reason.
+
+And first, let us examine the account given of the Creation of this
+world, commenced, according to the bible, on Monday morning about five
+thousand eight hundred and eighty-three years ago.
+
+
+
+
+VI. MONDAY
+
+Moses commences his story by telling us that in the beginning God
+created the heaven and the earth.
+
+If this means anything, it means that God produced, caused to exist,
+called into being, the heaven and the earth. It will not do to say that
+he formed the heaven and the earth of previously existing matter. Moses
+conveys, and intended to convey the idea that the matter of which the
+heaven and the earth are composed, was created.
+
+It is impossible for me to conceive of something being created from
+nothing. Nothing, regarded in the light of a raw material, is a decided
+failure. I cannot conceive of matter apart from force. Neither is it
+possible to think of force disconnected with matter. You cannot imagine
+matter going back to absolute nothing. Neither can you imagine nothing
+being changed into something. You may be eternally damned if you do not
+say that you can conceive these things, but you cannot conceive them.
+
+Such is the constitution of the human mind that it cannot even think of
+a commencement or an end of matter, or force.
+
+If God created the universe, there was a time when he commenced to
+create. Back of that commencement there must have been an eternity. In
+that eternity what was this God doing? He certainly did not think.
+There was nothing to think about. He did not remember. Nothing had ever
+happened. What did he do? Can you imagine anything more absurd than an
+infinite intelligence in infinite nothing wasting an eternity?
+
+I do not pretend to tell how all these things really are; but I do
+insist that a statement that cannot possibly be comprehended by any
+human being, and that appears utterly impossible, repugnant to every
+fact of experience, and contrary to everything that we really know, must
+be rejected by every honest man.
+
+We can conceive of eternity, because we cannot conceive of a cessation
+of time. We can conceive of infinite space because we cannot conceive
+of so much matter that our imagination will not stand upon the farthest
+star, and see infinite space beyond. In other words, we cannot conceive
+of a cessation of time; therefore eternity is a necessity of the mind.
+Eternity sustains the same relation to time that space does to matter.
+
+In the time of Moses, it was perfectly safe for him to write an account
+of the creation of the world. He had simply to put in form the crude
+notions of the people. At that time, no other Jew could have written
+a better account. Upon that subject he felt at liberty to give his
+imagination full play. There was no one who could authoritatively
+contradict anything he might say. It was substantially the same story
+that had been imprinted in curious characters upon the clay records
+of Babylon, the gigantic monuments of Egypt, and the gloomy temples of
+India. In those days there was an almost infinite difference between
+the educated and ignorant. The people were controlled almost entirely
+by signs and wonders. By the lever of fear, priests moved the world. The
+sacred records were made and kept, and altered by them. The people could
+not read, and looked upon one who could, as almost a god. In our day it
+is hard to conceive of the influence of an educated class in a barbarous
+age. It was only necessary to produce the "sacred record," and ignorance
+fell upon its face. The people were taught that the record was inspired,
+and therefore true. They were not taught that it was true, and therefore
+inspired.
+
+After all, the real question is not whether the bible is inspired, but
+whether it is true. If it is true, it does not need to be inspired. If
+it is true, it makes no difference whether it was written by a man or a
+god. The multiplication table is just as useful, just as true as though
+God had arranged the figures himself. If the bible is really true,
+the claim of inspiration need not be urged; and if it is not true, its
+inspiration can hardly be established. As a matter of fact, the truth
+does not need to be inspired. Nothing needs inspiration except a
+falsehood or a mistake. Where truth ends, where probability stops,
+inspiration begins. A fact never went into partnership with a miracle.
+Truth does not need the assistance of miracle. A fact will fit every
+other fact in the Universe, because it is the product of all other
+facts. A lie will fit nothing except another lie made for the express
+purpose of fitting it. After a while the man gets tired of lying, and
+then the last lie will not fit the next fact, and then there is an
+opportunity to use a miracle. Just at that point, it is necessary to
+have a little inspiration.
+
+It seems to me that reason is the highest attribute of man, and that if
+there can be any communication from God to man, it must be addressed
+to his reason. It does not seem possible that in order to understand a
+message from God it is absolutely essential to throw our reason away.
+How could God make known his will to any being destitute of reason? How
+can any man accept as a revelation from God that which is unreasonable
+to him? God cannot make a revelation to another man for me. He must make
+it to me, and until he convinces my reason that it is true, I cannot
+receive it.
+
+The statement that in the beginning God created the heaven and the
+earth, I cannot accept. It is contrary to my reason, and I cannot
+believe it. It appears reasonable to me that force has existed from
+eternity. Force cannot, as it appears to me, exist apart from matter.
+Force, in its nature, is forever active, and without matter it could
+not act; and so I think matter must have existed forever. To conceive
+of matter without force, or of force without matter, or of a time when
+neither existed, or of a being who existed for an eternity without
+either, and who out of nothing created both, is to me utterly
+impossible. I may be damned on this account, but I cannot help it. In my
+judgment, Moses was mistaken.
+
+It will not do to say that Moses merely intended to tell what God did,
+in making the heavens and the earth out of matter then in existence.
+He distinctly states that in the _beginning_ God created them. If this
+account is true, we must believe that God, existing in infinite space
+surrounded by eternal nothing, naught and void, created, produced,
+called into being, willed into existence this universe of countless
+stars.
+
+The next thing we are told by this inspired gentleman is, that God
+created light, and proceeded to divide it from the darkness.
+
+Certainly, the person who wrote this believed that darkness was a thing,
+an entity, a material that could get mixed and tangled up with light,
+and that these entities, light and darkness, had to be separated. In his
+imagination he probably saw God throwing pieces and chunks of darkness
+on one side, and rays and beams of light on the other. It is hard for a
+man who has been born but once to understand these things. For my part I
+cannot understand how light can be separated from darkness. I had always
+supposed that darkness was simply the absence of light, and that under
+no circumstances could it be necessary to take the darkness away from
+the light. It is certain, however, that Moses believed darkness to be
+a form of matter, because I find that in another place he speaks of a
+darkness that could be felt. They used to have on exhibition at Rome a
+bottle of the darkness that overspread Egypt.
+
+You cannot divide light from darkness any more than you can divide heat
+from cold. Cold is an absence of heat, and darkness is an absence of
+light. I suppose that we have no conception of absolute cold. We know
+only degrees of heat. Twenty degrees below zero is just twenty degrees
+warmer than forty degrees below zero. Neither cold nor darkness are
+entities, and these words express simply either the absolute or partial
+absence of heat or light. I cannot conceive how light can be divided
+from darkness, but I can conceive how a barbarian several thousand years
+ago, writing upon a subject about which he knew nothing, could make a
+mistake. The creator of light could not have written in this way. If
+such a being exists, he must have known the nature of that "mode of
+motion" that paints the earth on every eye, and clothes in garments
+seven-hued this universe of worlds.
+
+
+
+
+VII. TUESDAY
+
+We are next informed by Moses that "God said Let there be a firmament in
+the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters;"
+and that "God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were
+under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament."
+
+What did the writer mean by the word firmament? Theologians now tell
+us that he meant an "expanse." This will not do. How could an expanse
+divide the waters from the waters, so that the waters above the expanse
+would not fall into and mingle with the waters below the expanse? The
+truth is that Moses regarded the firmament as a solid affair. It was
+where God lived, and where water was kept. It was for this reason that
+they used to pray for rain. They supposed that some angel could with a
+lever raise a gate and let out the quantity of moisture desired. It was
+with the water from this firmament that the world was drowned when the
+windows of heaven were opened. It was in this firmament that the sons
+of God lived--the sons who "saw the daughters of men that they were
+fair and took them wives of all which they chose." The issue of such
+marriages were giants, and "the same became mighty men which were of
+old, men of renown."
+
+Nothing is clearer than that Moses regarded the firmament as a vast
+material division that separated the waters of the world, and upon
+whose floor God lived, surrounded by his sons. In no other way could he
+account for rain. Where did the water come from? He knew nothing about
+the laws of evaporation. He did not know that the sun wooed with amorous
+kisses the waves of the sea, and that they, clad in glorified mist
+rising to meet their lover, were, by disappointment, changed to tears
+and fell as rain.
+
+The idea that the firmament was the abode of the Deity must have been in
+the mind of Moses when he related the dream of Jacob. "And he dreamed,
+and behold, a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to
+heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it; and
+behold the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God."
+
+So, when the people were building the tower of Babel "the Lord came down
+to see the city, and the tower which the children of men builded. And
+the Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they have all one language:
+and this they begin to do; and nothing will be restrained from them
+which they imagined to do. Go to, let us go down and confound their
+language that they may not understand one another's speech."
+
+The man who wrote that absurd account must have believed that God lived
+above the earth, in the firmament. The same idea was in the mind of the
+Psalmist when he said that God "bowed the heavens and came down."
+
+Of course, God could easily remove any person bodily to heaven, as it
+was but a little way above the earth. "Enoch walked with God, and he was
+not, for God took him." The accounts in the bible of the ascension of
+Elijah, Christ and St. Paul were born of the belief that the firmament
+was the dwelling-place of God. It probably never occurred to these
+writers that if the firmament was seven or eight miles away, Enoch and
+the rest would have been frozen perfectly stiff long before the journey
+could have been completed. Possibly Elijah might have made the voyage,
+as he was carried to heaven in a chariot of fire "by a whirlwind."
+
+The truth is, that Moses was mistaken, and upon that mistake the
+christians located their heaven and their hell. The telescope destroyed
+the firmament, did away with the heaven of the New Testament, rendered
+the ascension of our Lord and the assumption of his Mother infinitely
+absurd, crumbled to chaos the gates and palaces of the New Jerusalem,
+and in their places gave to man a wilderness of worlds.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. WEDNESDAY
+
+We are next informed by the historian of Creation, that after God had
+finished making the firmament and had succeeded in dividing the waters
+by means of an "expanse," he proceeded "to gather the waters on the
+earth together in seas, so that the dry land might appear."
+
+Certainly the writer of this did not have any conception of the real
+form of the earth. He could not have known anything of the attraction of
+gravitation. He must have regarded the earth as flat and supposed that
+it required considerable force and power to induce the water to leave
+the mountains and collect in the valleys. Just as soon as the water was
+forced to run down hill, the dry land appeared, and the grass began to
+grow, and the mantles of green were thrown over the shoulders of the
+hills, and the trees laughed into bud and blossom, and the branches were
+laden with fruit. And all this happened before a ray had left the quiver
+of the sun, before a glittering beam had thrilled the bosom of a flower,
+and before the Dawn with trembling hands had drawn aside the curtains of
+the East and welcomed to her arms the eager god of Day.
+
+It does not seem to me that grass and trees could grow and ripen into
+seed and fruit without the sun. According to the account, this all
+happened on the third day. Now, if, as the christians say, Moses did not
+mean by the word day a period of twenty-four hours, but an immense and
+almost measureless space of time, and as God did not, according to this
+view make any animals until the fifth day, that is, not for millions of
+years after he made the grass and trees, for what purpose did he cause
+the trees to bear fruit?
+
+Moses says that God said on the third day, "Let the earth bring forth
+grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after
+his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth; and it was so. And the
+earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the
+tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind; and God saw
+that it was good, and the evening and the morning were the third day."
+
+There was nothing to eat this fruit; not an insect with painted wings
+sought the honey of the flowers; not a single living, breathing thing
+upon the earth. Plenty of grass, a great variety of herbs, an abundance
+of fruit, but not a mouth in all the world. If Moses is right, this
+state of things lasted only two days; but if the modern theologians are
+correct, it continued for millions of ages.
+
+"It is now well known that the organic history of the earth can be
+properly divided into five epochs--the Primordial, Primary, Secondary,
+Tertiary, and Quaternary. Each of these epochs is characterized by
+animal and vegetable life peculiar to itself.. In the First will be
+found Algae and Skull-less Vertebrates, in the Second, Ferns and Fishes,
+in the Third, Pine Forests and Reptiles, in the Fourth, Foliaceous
+Forests and Mammals, and in the Fifth, Man."
+
+How much more reasonable this is than the idea that the Earth was
+covered with grass, and herbs, and trees loaded with fruit for millions
+of years before an animal existed.
+
+There is, in Nature, an even balance forever kept between the total
+amounts of animal and vegetable life. "In her wonderful economy she must
+form and bountifully nourish her vegetable progeny--twin-brother life to
+her, with that of animals. The perfect balance between plant existences
+and animal existences must always be maintained, while matter courses
+through the eternal circle, becoming each in turn. If an animal be
+resolved into its ultimate constituents in a period according to the
+surrounding circumstances, say, of four hours, of four months, of four
+years, or even of four thousand years,--for it is impossible to deny
+that there may be instances of all these periods during which the
+process has continued--those elements which assume the gaseous form
+mingle at once with the atmosphere and are taken up from it without
+delay by the ever-open mouths of vegetable life. By a thousand pores
+in every leaf the carbonic acid which renders the atmosphere unfit for
+animal life is absorbed, the carbon being separated, and assimilated to
+form the vegetable fibre, which, as wood, makes and furnishes our houses
+and ships, is burned for our warmth, or is stored up under pressure for
+coal. All this carbon has played its part, and many parts in its time,
+as animal existences from monad up to man. Our mahogany of to-day has
+been many negroes in its turn, and before the African existed, was
+integral portions of many a generation of extinct species."
+
+It seems reasonable to suppose that certain kinds of vegetation
+and certain kinds of animals should exist together, and that as the
+character of the vegetation changed, a corresponding change would take
+place in the animal world. It may be that I am led to these conclusions
+by "total depravity," or that I lack the necessary humility of spirit to
+satisfactorily harmonize Haeckel and Moses; or that I am carried away by
+pride, blinded by reason, given over to hardness of heart that I might
+be damned, but I never can believe that the earth was covered with
+leaves, and buds, and flowers, and fruits before the sun with glittering
+spear had driven back the hosts of Night.
+
+
+
+
+IX. THURSDAY
+
+After the world was covered with vegetation, it occurred to Moses that
+it was about time to make a sun and moon; and so we are told that on the
+fourth day God said, "Let there be light in the firmament of the heaven
+to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for
+seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the
+firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And
+God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the
+lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also."
+
+Can we believe that the inspired writer had any idea of the size of the
+sun? Draw a circle five inches in diameter, and by its side thrust a pin
+through the paper. The hole made by the pin will sustain about the same
+relation to the circle that the earth does to the sun. Did he know that
+the sun was eight hundred and sixty thousand miles in diameter; that it
+was enveloped in an ocean of fire thousands of miles in depth, hotter
+even than the christian's hell, over which sweep tempests of flame
+moving at the rate of one hundred miles a second, compared with which
+the wildest storm that ever wrecked the forests of this world was but a
+calm? Did he know that the sun every moment of time throws out as much
+heat as could be generated by the combustion of millions upon millions
+of tons of coal? Did he know that the volume of the Earth is less than
+one-millionth of that of the sun? Did he know of the one hundred and
+four planets belonging to our solar system, all children of the sun? Did
+he know of Jupiter eighty-five thousand miles in diameter, hundreds
+of times as large as our earth, turning on his axis at the rate of
+twenty-five thousand miles an hour accompanied by four moons, making the
+tour of his orbit in fifty years, a distance of three thousand million
+miles? Did he know anything about Saturn, his rings and his eight moons?
+Did he have the faintest idea that all these planets were once a part of
+the sun; that the vast luminary was once thousands of millions of miles
+in diameter; that Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars were all
+born before our earth, and that by no possibility could this world have
+existed three days, nor three periods, nor three "good whiles" before
+its source, the sun?
+
+Moses supposed the sun to be about three or four feet in diameter and
+the moon about half that size. Compared with the earth they were but
+simple specks. This idea seems to have been shared by all the "inspired"
+men. We find in the book of Joshua that the sun stood still, and the
+moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.
+"So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go
+down about a whole day."
+
+We are told that the sacred writer wrote in common speech as we do
+when we talk about the rising and setting of the sun, and that all he
+intended to say was that the earth ceased to turn on its axis "for about
+a whole day."
+
+My own opinion is that General Joshua knew no more about the motions of
+the earth than he did about mercy and justice. If he had known that the
+earth turned upon its axis at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, and
+swept in its course about the sun at the rate of sixty-eight thousand
+miles an hour, he would have doubled the hailstones, spoken of in the
+same chapter, that the Lord cast down from heaven, and allowed the sun
+and moon to rise and set in the usual way.
+
+It is impossible to conceive of a more absurd story than this about the
+stopping of the sun and moon, and yet nothing so excites the malice of
+the orthodox preacher as to call its truth in question. Some endeavor
+to account for the phenomenon by natural causes, while others attempt
+to show that God could, by the refraction of light have made the sun
+visible although actually shining on the opposite side of the earth. The
+last hypothesis has been seriously urged by ministers within the last
+few months. The Rev. Henry M. Morey of South Bend, Indiana, says "that
+the phenomenon was simply optical. The rotary motion of the earth was
+not disturbed, but the light of the sun was prolonged by the same laws
+of refraction and reflection by which the sun now appears to be above
+the horizon when it is really below. The medium through which the sun's
+rays passed may have been miraculously influenced so as to have caused
+the sun to linger above the horizon long after its usual time for
+disappearance."
+
+This is the latest and ripest product of christian scholarship upon
+this question no doubt, but still it is not entirely satisfactory to me.
+According to the sacred account the sun did not linger, merely, above
+the horizon, but stood still "in the midst of heaven for about a
+whole day," that is to say, for about twelve hours. If the air was
+miraculously changed, so that it would refract the rays of the sun while
+the earth turned over as usual for "about a whole day," then, at the
+end of that time the sun must have been visible in the east, that is,
+it must by that time have been the next morning. According to this, that
+most wonderful day must have been at least thirty-six hours in length.
+We have first, the twelve hours of natural light, then twelve hours of
+"refracted and reflected" light. By that time it would again be morning,
+and the sun would shine for twelve hours more in the natural way, making
+thirty-six hours in all.
+
+If the Rev. Morey would depend a little less on "refraction" and a
+little more on "reflection," he would conclude that the whole story is
+simply a barbaric myth and fable.
+
+It hardly seems reasonable that God, if there is one, would either stop
+the globe, change the constitution of the atmosphere or the nature of
+light simply to afford Joshua an opportunity to kill people on that
+day when he could just as easily have waited until the next morning.
+It certainly cannot be very gratifying to God for us to believe such
+childish things.
+
+It has been demonstrated that force is eternal; that it is forever
+active, and eludes destruction by change of form. Motion is a form of
+force, and all arrested motion changes instantly to heat. The earth
+turns upon its axis at about one thousand miles an hour. Let it be
+stopped and a force beyond our imagination is changed to heat. It has
+been calculated that to stop the world would produce as much heat as the
+burning of a solid piece of coal three times the size of the earth.
+And yet we are asked to believe that this was done in order that one
+barbarian might defeat another. Such stories never would have been
+written, had not the belief been general that the heavenly bodies were
+as nothing compared with the earth.
+
+The view of Moses was acquiesced in by the Jewish people and by the
+Christian world for thousands of years. It is supposed that Moses
+lived about fifteen hundred years before Christ, and although he was
+"inspired," and obtained his information directly from God, he did not
+know as much about our solar system as the Chinese did a thousand
+years before he was born. "The Emperor Chwenhio adopted as an epoch, a
+conjunction of the planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which has
+been shown by M. Bailly to have occurred no less than 2449 years before
+Christ." The ancient Chinese knew not only the motions of the planets,
+but they could calculate eclipses. "In the reign of the Emperor
+Chow-Kang, the chief astronomers, Ho and Hi were condemned to death for
+neglecting to announce a solar eclipse which took place 2169 B. C, a
+clear proof that the prediction of eclipses was a part of the duty of
+the imperial astronomers."
+
+Is it not strange that a Chinaman should find out by his own exertions
+more about the material universe than Moses could when assisted by its
+Creator?
+
+About eight hundred years after God gave Moses the principal facts about
+the creation of the "heaven and the earth" he performed another miracle
+far more wonderful than stopping the world. On this occasion he not
+only stopped the earth, but actually caused it to turn the other way.
+A Jewish king was sick, and God, in order to convince him that he would
+ultimately recover, offered to make the shadow on the dial go forward,
+or backward ten degrees. The king thought it was too easy a thing to
+make the shadow go forward, and asked that it be turned back. Thereupon,
+"Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow
+ten degrees backward by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." I
+hardly see how this miracle could be accounted for even by "refraction"
+and "reflection."
+
+It seems, from the account, that this stupendous miracle was performed
+after the king had been cured. The account of the shadow going backward
+is given in the eleventh verse of the twentieth chapter of Second Kings,
+while the cure is given in the seventh verse of the same chapter. "And
+Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil,
+and he recovered."
+
+Stopping the world and causing it to turn back ten degrees after that,
+seems to have been, as the boil was already cured by the figs, a useless
+display of power.
+
+The easiest way to account for all these wonders is to say that the
+"inspired" writers were mistaken. In this way a fearful burden is lifted
+from the credulity of man, and he is left free to believe the evidences
+of his own senses, and the demonstrations of science. In this way he can
+emancipate himself from the slavery of superstition, the control of the
+barbaric dead, and the despotism of the church.
+
+Only about a hundred years ago, Buffon, the naturalist, was compelled by
+the faculty of theology at Paris to publicly renounce fourteen "errors"
+in his work on Natural History because they were at variance with the
+Mosaic account of creation. The Pentateuch is still the scientific
+standard of the church, and ignorant priests, armed with that, pronounce
+sentence upon the vast accomplishments of modern thought.
+
+
+
+
+X. "HE MADE THE STARS ALSO."
+
+Moses came very near forgetting about the stars, and only gave five
+words to all the hosts of heaven. Can it be possible that he knew
+anything about the stars beyond the mere fact that he saw them shining
+above him?
+
+Did he know that the nearest star, the one we ought to be the best
+acquainted with, is twenty-one billion of miles away, and that it is
+a sun shining by its own light? Did he know of the next, that is
+thirty-seven billion miles distant? Is it possible that he was
+acquainted with Sirius, a sun two thousand six hundred and eighty-eight
+times larger than our own, surrounded by a system of heavenly bodies,
+several of which are already known, and distant from us eighty-two
+billion miles? Did he know that the Polar star that tells the mariner
+his course and guided slaves to liberty and joy, is distant from this
+little world two hundred and ninety-two billion miles, and that Capella
+wheels and shines one hundred and thirty-three billion miles beyond? Did
+he know that it would require about seventy-two years for light to
+reach us from this star? Did he know that light travels one hundred and
+eighty-five thousand miles a second? Did he know that some stars are
+so far away in the infinite abysses that five millions of years are
+required for their light to reach this globe?
+
+If this is true, and if as the bible tells us, the stars were made after
+the earth, then this world has been wheeling in its orbit for at least
+five million years.
+
+It may be replied that it was not the intention of God to teach geology
+and astronomy. Then why did he say anything upon these subjects? and if
+he did say anything, why did he not give the facts?
+
+According to the sacred records God created, on the first day, the
+heaven and the earth, "moved upon the face of the waters," and made
+the light. On the second day he made the firmament or the "expanse" and
+divided the waters. On the third day he gathered the waters into seas,
+let the dry land appear and caused the earth to bring forth grass, herbs
+and fruit trees, and on the fourth day he made the sun, moon and stars
+and set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth.
+This division of labor is very striking. The work of the other days is
+as nothing when compared with that of the fourth. Is it possible that
+it required the same time and labor to make the grass, herbs and fruit
+trees, that it did to fill with countless constellations the infinite
+expanse of space?
+
+
+
+
+XI. FRIDAY
+
+We are then told that on the next day "God said, Let the waters bring
+forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life, and fowl that may
+fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created
+great whales and every living creature which the waters brought forth
+abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and
+God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and
+multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
+earth."
+
+Is it true that while the dry land was covered with grass, and herbs,
+and trees bearing fruit, the ocean was absolutely devoid of life, and so
+remained for millions of years?
+
+If Moses meant twenty-four hours by the word day, then it would make but
+little difference on which of the six days animals were made; but if
+the word day was used to express millions of ages, during which life was
+slowly evolved from monad up to man, then the account becomes infinitely
+absurd, puerile and foolish. There is not a scientist of high standing
+who will say that in his judgment the earth was covered with fruit
+bearing trees before the moners, the ancestors it may be of the human
+race, felt in Laurentian seas the first faint throb of life. Nor is
+there one who will declare that there was a single spire of grass before
+the sun had poured upon the world his flood of gold.
+
+Why should men in the name of religion try to harmonize the
+contradictions that exist between Nature and a book? Why should
+philosophers be denounced for placing more reliance upon what they know
+than upon what they have been told? If there is a God, it is reasonably
+certain that he made the world, but it is by no means certain that
+he is-the author of the bible. Why then should we not place greater
+confidence in Nature than in a book? And even if this God made not only
+the world but the book besides, it does not follow that the book is
+the best part of Creation, and the only part that we will be eternally
+punished for denying. It seems to me that it is quite as important to
+know something of the solar system, something of the physical history
+of this globe, as it is to know the adventures of Jonah or the diet of
+Ezekiel. For my part, I would infinitely prefer to know all the results
+of scientific investigation, than to be inspired as Moses was.
+Supposing the bible to be true; why is it any worse or more wicked
+for free-thinkers to deny it, than for priests to deny the doctrine of
+Evolution, or the dynamic theory of heat? Why should we be damned for
+laughing at Samson and his foxes, while others, holding the Nebular
+Hypothesis in utter contempt, go straight to heaven? It seems to me
+that a belief in the great truths of science are fully as essential to
+salvation, as the creed of any church. We are taught that a man may
+be perfectly acceptable to God even if he denies the rotundity of
+the earth, the Copernican system, the three laws of Kepler, the
+indestructibility of matter and the attraction of gravitation. And we
+are also taught that a man may be right upon all these questions, and
+yet, for failing to believe in the "scheme of salvation," be eternally
+lost.
+
+
+
+
+XII. SATURDAY
+
+On this, the last day of creation, God said:--"Let the earth bring forth
+the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing and beast
+of the earth after his kind; and it was so. And God made the beast of
+the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing
+that creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and God saw that it was
+good."
+
+Now, is it true that the seas were filled with fish, the sky with fowls,
+and the earth covered with grass, and herbs, and fruit bearing trees,
+millions of ages before there was a creeping thing in existence? Must
+we admit that plants and animals were the result of the fiat of some
+incomprehensible intelligence independent of the operation of what are
+known as natural causes? Why is a miracle any more necessary to account
+for yesterday than for to-day or for to-morrow?
+
+If there is an infinite Power, nothing can be more certain than that
+this Power works in accordance with what we call law, that is, by and
+through natural causes. If anything can be found without a pedigree of
+natural antecedents, it will then be time enough to talk about the fiat
+of creation. There must have been a time when plants and animals did not
+exist upon this globe. The question, and the only question is, whether
+they were naturally produced. If the account given by Moses is true,
+then the vegetable and animal existences are the result of certain
+special fiats of creation entirely independent of the operation of
+natural causes. This is so grossly improbable, so at variance with the
+experience and observation of mankind, that it cannot be adopted without
+abandoning forever the basis of scientific thought and action.
+
+It may be urged that we do not understand the sacred record correctly.
+To this it may be replied that for thousands of years the account of
+the creation has, by the Jewish and Christian world, been regarded as
+literally true. If it was inspired, of course God must have known just
+how it would be understood, and consequently must have intended that
+it should be understood just as he knew it would be. One man writing to
+another, may mean one thing, and yet be understood as meaning something
+else. Now, if the writer knew that he would be misunderstood, and also
+knew that he could use other words that would convey his real meaning,
+but did not, we would say that he used words on purpose to mislead, and
+was not an honest man.
+
+If a being of infinite wisdom wrote the bible, or caused it to be
+written, he must have known exactly how his words would be interpreted
+by all the world, and he must have intended to convey the very meaning
+that was conveyed. He must have known that by reading that book, man
+would form erroneous views as to the shape, antiquity, and size of this
+world; that he would be misled as to the time and order of creation;
+that he would have the most childish and contemptible views of the
+creator; that the "sacred word" would be used to support slavery and
+polygamy; that it would build dungeons for the good, and light fagots
+to consume the brave, and therefore he must have intended that these
+results should follow. He also must have known that thousands and
+millions of men and women never could believe his bible, and that the
+number of unbelievers would increase in the exact ratio of civilization,
+and therefore, he must have intended that result.
+
+Let us understand this. An honest finite being uses the best words, in
+his judgment, to convey his meaning. This is the best he can do, because
+he cannot certainly know the exact effect of his words on others. But an
+infinite being must know not only the real meaning of the words, but the
+exact meaning they will convey to every reader and hearer. He must know
+every meaning that they are capable of conveying to every mind. He must
+also know what explanations must be made to prevent misconception. If
+an infinite being cannot, in making a revelation to man, use such words
+that every person to whom a revelation is essential will understand
+distinctly what that revelation is, then a revelation from God through
+the instrumentality of language is impossible, or it is not essential
+that all should understand it correctly. It may be urged that millions
+have not the capacity to understand a revelation, although expressed in
+the plainest words. To this it seems a sufficient reply to ask, why a
+being of infinite power should create men so devoid of intelligence,
+that he cannot by any means make known to them his will? We are told
+that it is exceedingly plain, and that a wayfaring man, though a fool,
+need not err therein. This statement is refuted by the religious history
+of the christian world. Every sect is a certificate that God has not
+plainly revealed his will to man. To each reader the bible conveys a
+different meaning. About the meaning of this book, called a revelation,
+there have been ages of war, and centuries of sword and flame. If
+written by an infinite God, he must have known that these results must
+follow; and thus knowing, he must be responsible for all.
+
+Is it not infinitely more reasonable to say that this book is the work
+of man, that it is filled with mingled truth and error, with mistakes
+and facts, and reflects, too faithfully perhaps, the "very form and
+pressure of its time?"
+
+If there are mistakes in the bible, certainly they were made by man. If
+there is anything contrary to nature, it was written by man. If there is
+anything immoral, cruel, heartless or infamous, it certainly was never
+written by a being worthy of the adoration of mankind.
+
+
+
+
+XIII. LET US MAKE MAN
+
+We are next informed by the author of the Pentateuch that God said "Let
+us make man in our image, after our likeness," and that "God created man
+in his own image, in the image of God created he him--male and female
+created he them."
+
+If this account means anything, it means that man was created in the
+physical image and likeness of God. Moses while he speaks of man as
+having been made in the image of God, never speaks of God except as
+having the form of a man. He speaks of God as "walking in the garden
+in the cool of the day;" and that Adam and Eve "heard his voice." He is
+constantly telling what God said, and in a thousand passages he refers
+to him as not only having the human form, but as performing actions,
+such as man performs. The God of Moses was a God with hands, with feet,
+with the organs of speech.
+
+A God of passion, of hatred, of revenge, of affection, of repentance; a
+God who made mistakes:--in other words, an immense and powerful man.
+
+It will not do to say that Moses meant to convey the idea that God made
+man in his mental or moral image. Some have insisted that man was made
+in the moral image of God because he was made pure. Purity cannot be
+manufactured. A moral character cannot be made for man by a god.
+Every man must make his own moral character. Consequently, if God
+is infinitely pure, Adam and Eve were not made in his image in that
+respect. Others say that Adam and Eve were made in the mental image
+of God. If it is meant by that, that they were created with reasoning
+powers like, but not to the extent of those possessed by a god, then
+this may be admitted. But certainly this idea was not in the mind of
+Moses. He regarded the human form as being in the image of God, and for
+that reason always spoke of God as having that form. No one can read
+the Pentateuch without coming to the conclusion that the author supposed
+that man was created in the physical likeness of Deity. God said "Go to,
+let us go down." "God smelled a sweet savor;" "God repented him that he
+had made man;" "and God said;" and "walked;" and "talked;" and "rested."
+All these expressions are inconsistent with any other idea than that the
+person using them regarded God as having the form of man.
+
+As a matter of fact, it is impossible for a man to conceive of a
+personal God, other than as a being having the human form. No one can
+think of an infinite being having the form of a horse, or of a bird, or
+of any animal beneath man. It is one of the necessities of the mind to
+associate forms with intellectual capacities. The highest form of which
+we have any conception is man's, and consequently, his is the only form
+that we can find in imagination to give to a personal God, because all
+other forms are, in our minds, connected with lower intelligences.
+
+It is impossible to think of a personal God as a spirit without form.
+We can use these words, but they do not convey to the mind any real and
+tangible meaning. Every one who thinks of a personal God at all, thinks
+of him as having the human form. Take from God the idea of form; speak
+of him simply as an all pervading spirit--which means an all pervading
+something about which we know nothing--and Pantheism is the result.
+
+We are told that God made man; and the question naturally arises, how
+was this done? Was it by a process of "evolution," "development;" the
+"transmission of acquired habits;" the "survival of the fittest," or was
+the necessary amount of clay kneaded to the proper consistency, and then
+by the hands of God moulded into form? Modern science tells that man has
+been evolved, through countless epochs, from the lower forms; that he
+is the result of almost an infinite number of actions, reactions,
+experiences, states, forms, wants and adaptations. Did Moses intend
+to convey such a meaning, or did he believe that God took a sufficient
+amount of dust, made it the proper shape, and breathed into it the
+breath of life? Can any believer in the bible give any reasonable
+account of this process of creation? Is it possible to imagine what
+was really done? Is there any theologian who will contend that man
+was created directly from the earth? Will he say that man was made
+substantially as he now is, with all his muscles properly developed for
+walking and speaking, and performing every variety of human action?
+That all his bones were formed as they now are, and all the relations of
+nerve, ligament, brain and motion as they are to-day?
+
+Looking back over the history of animal life from the lowest to
+the highest forms, we find that there has been a slow and gradual
+development; a certain but constant relation between want and
+production; between use and form. The Moner is said to be the simplest
+form of animal life that has yet been found. It has been described as
+"an organism without organs." It is a kind of structureless structure;
+a little mass of transparent jelly that can flatten itself out, and can
+expand and contract around its food. It can feed without a mouth, digest
+without a stomach, walk without feet, and reproduce itself by simple
+division. By taking this Moner as the commencement of animal life, or
+rather as the first animal, it is easy to follow the development of the
+organic structure through all the forms of life to man himself. In this
+way finally every muscle, bone and joint, every organ, form and function
+may be accounted for. In this way, and in this way only, can the
+existence of rudimentary organs be explained. Blot from the human mind
+the ideas of evolution, heredity, adaptation, and "the survival of the
+fittest," with which it has been enriched by Lamarck, Goethe, Darwin,
+Haeckel and Spencer, and all the facts in the history of animal life
+become utterly disconnected and meaningless.
+
+Shall we throw away all that has been discovered with regard to organic
+life, and in its place take the statements of one who lived in the
+rude morning of a barbaric day? Will anybody now contend that man was a
+direct and independent creation, and sustains and bears no relation to
+the animals below him? Belief upon this subject must be governed at
+last by evidence. Man cannot believe as he pleases. He can control his
+speech, and can say that he believes or disbelieves; but after all, his
+will cannot depress or raise the scales with which his reason finds the
+worth and weight of facts. If this is not so, investigation, evidence,
+judgment and reason are but empty words.
+
+I ask again, how were Adam and Eve created? In one account they are
+created male and female, and apparently at the same time. In the next
+account, Adam is made first, and Eve a long time afterwards, and from a
+part of the man. Did God simply by his creative fiat cause a rib slowly
+to expand, grow and divide into nerve, ligament, cartilage and flesh?
+How was the woman created from a rib? How was man created simply from
+dust? For my part, I cannot believe this statement. I may suffer for
+this in the world to come; and may millions of years hence, sincerely
+wish that I had never investigated the subject, but had been content
+to take the ideas of the dead. I do not believe that any Deity works in
+that way. So far as my experience goes, there is an unbroken procession
+of cause and effect. Each thing is a necessary link in an infinite
+chain; and I cannot conceive of this chain being broken even for one
+instant. Back of the simplest moner there is a cause, and back of
+that another, and so on, it seems to me, forever. In my philosophy I
+postulate neither beginning nor ending.
+
+If the Mosaic account is true, we know how long man has been upon this
+earth. If that account can be relied on, the first man was made about
+five thousand eight hundred and eighty-three years ago. Sixteen hundred
+and fifty-six years after the making of the first man, the inhabitants
+of the world, with the exception of eight people, were destroyed by
+a flood. This flood occurred only about four thousand two hundred and
+twenty-seven years ago. If this account is correct, at that time, only
+one kind of men existed: Noah and his family were certainly of the same
+blood. It therefore follows that all the differences we see between the
+various races of men have been caused in about four thousand years. If
+the account of the deluge is true, then since that event all the ancient
+kingdoms of the earth were founded, and their inhabitants passed through
+all the stages of savage, nomadic, barbaric and semi-civilized life;
+through the epochs of Stone, Bronze and Iron; established commerce,
+cultivated the arts, built cities, filled them with palaces and temples,
+invented writing, produced a literature and slowly fell to shapeless
+ruin. We must believe that all this has happened within a period of four
+thousand years.
+
+From representations found upon Egyptian granite made more than three
+thousand years ago, we know that the negro was as black, his lips as
+full, and his hair as closely curled then as now. If we know anything,
+we know that there was at that time substantially the same difference
+between the Egyptian and the Negro as now. If we know anything, we know
+that magnificent statues were made in Egypt four thousand years before
+our era--that is to say, about six thousand years ago. There was at
+the World's Exposition, in the Egyptian department, a statue of king
+Cephren, known to have been chiseled more than six thousand years ago.
+In other words, if the Mosaic account must be believed, this statue was
+made before the world. We also know, if we know anything, that men lived
+in Europe with the hairy mammoth, the cave bear, the rhinoceros, and
+the hyena. Among the bones of these animals have been found the stone
+hatchets and flint arrows of our ancestors. In the caves where they
+lived have been discovered the remains of these animals that had been
+conquered, killed and devoured as food, hundreds of thousands of years
+ago.
+
+If these facts are true, Moses was mistaken. For my part, I have
+infinitely more confidence in the discoveries of to-day, than in the
+records of a barbarous people. It will not now do to say that man has
+existed upon this earth for only about six thousand years. One can
+hardly compute in his imagination the time necessary for man to emerge
+from the barbarous state, naked and helpless, surrounded by animals far
+more powerful than he, to progress and finally create the civilizations
+of India, Egypt and Athens. The distance from savagery to Shakespeare
+must be measured not by hundreds, but by millions of years.
+
+
+
+
+XIV. SUNDAY
+
+"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he
+rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God
+blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had
+rested from all his work which God created and made."
+
+The great work had been accomplished, the world, the sun, and moon, and
+all the hosts of heaven were finished; the earth was clothed in
+green, the seas were filled with life, the cattle wandered by the
+brooks--insects with painted wings were in the happy air, Adam and Eve
+were making each other's acquaintance, and God was resting from his
+work. He was contemplating the accomplishments of a week.
+
+Because he rested on that day he sanctified it, and for that reason and
+for that alone, it was by the Jews considered a holy day. If he only
+rested on that day, there ought to be some account of what he did the
+following Monday. Did he rest on that day? What did he do after he
+got rested? Has he done anything in the way of creation since Saturday
+evening of the first week?
+
+It is, now claimed by the "scientific" christians that the "days" of
+creation were not ordinary days of twenty-four hours each, but immensely
+long periods of time. If they are right, then how long was the seventh
+day? Was that, too, a geologic period covering thousands of ages?
+That cannot be, because Adam and Eve were created the Saturday evening
+before, and according to the bible that was about five thousand eight
+hundred and eighty-three years ago. I cannot state the time exactly,
+because there have been as many as one hundred and forty different
+opinions given by learned biblical students as to the time between the
+creation of the world and the birth of Christ. We are quite certain,
+however, that, according to the bible, it is not more than six thousand
+years since the creation of Adam. From this it would appear that the
+seventh day was not a geologic epoch, but was in fact a period of less
+than six thousand years, and probably of only twenty-four hours.
+
+The theologians who "answer" these things may take their choice. If they
+take the ground that the "days" were periods of twenty-four hours, then
+geology will force them to throw away the whole account. If, on the
+other hand, they admit that the days were vast "periods," then the
+sacredness of the sabbath must be given up.
+
+There is found in the bible no intimation that there was the least
+difference in the days. They are all spoken of in the same way. It may
+be replied that our translation is incorrect. If this is so, then only
+those who understand Hebrew, have had a revelation from God, and all the
+rest have been deceived.
+
+How is it possible to sanctify a space of time? Is rest holier than
+labor? If there is any difference between days, ought not that to be
+considered best in which the most useful labor has been performed?
+
+Of all the superstitions of mankind, this insanity about the "sacred
+sabbath" is the most absurd. The idea of feeling it a duty to be solemn
+and sad one-seventh of the time! To think that we can please an infinite
+being by staying in some dark and sombre room, instead of walking in the
+perfumed fields! Why should God hate to see a man happy? Why should it
+excite his wrath to see a family in the woods, by some babbling stream,
+talking, laughing and loving? Nature works on that "sacred" day. The
+earth turns, the rivers run, the trees grow, buds burst into flower, and
+birds fill the air with song. Why should we look sad, and think about
+death, and hear about hell? Why should that day be filled with gloom
+instead of joy?
+
+A poor mechanic, working all the week in dust and noise, needs a day of
+rest and joy, a day to visit stream and wood--a day to live with wife
+and child; a day in which to laugh at care, and gather hope and strength
+for toils to come. And his weary wife needs a breath of sunny air, away
+from street and wall, amid the hills or by the margin of the sea, where
+she can sit and prattle with her babe, and fill with happy dreams the
+long, glad day.
+
+The "sabbath" was born of asceticism, hatred of human joy, fanaticism,
+ignorance, egotism of priests and the cowardice of the people. This
+day, for thousands of years, has been dedicated to superstition, to the
+dissemination of mistakes, and the establishment of falsehoods. Every
+Freethinker, as a matter of duty, should violate this day. He should
+assert his independence, and do all within his power to wrest the
+sabbath from the gloomy church and give it back to liberty and joy.
+Freethinkers should make the sabbath a day of mirth and music; a day to
+spend with wife and child--a day of games, and books, and dreams--a day
+to put fresh flowers above our sleeping dead--a day of memory and hope,
+of love and rest.
+
+Why should we in this age of the world be dominated by the dead? Why
+should barbarian Jews who went down to death and dust three thousand
+years ago, control the living world? Why should we care for the
+superstition of men who began the sabbath by paring their nails,
+"beginning at the fourth finger, then going to the second, then to the
+fifth, then to the third, and ending with the thumb?" How pleasing
+to God this must have been. The Jews were very careful of these nail
+parings. They who threw them upon the ground were wicked, because Satan
+used them to work evil upon the earth. They believed that upon the
+Sabbath, souls were allowed to leave purgatory and cool their
+burning souls in water. Fires were neither allowed to be kindled nor
+extinguished, and upon that day it was a sin to bind up wounds. "The
+lame might use a staff, but the blind could not." So strict was the
+sabbath kept, that at one time "if a Jew on a journey was overtaken
+by the 'sacred day' in a wood, or on the highway, no matter where, nor
+under what circumstances, he must sit down," and there remain until the
+day was gone. "If he fell down in the dirt, there he was compelled to
+stay until the day was done." For violating the sabbath, the punishment
+was death, for nothing short of the offender's blood could satisfy the
+wrath of God. There are, in the Old Testament, two reasons given for
+abstaining from labor on the sabbath:--the resting of God, and the
+redemption of the Jews from the bondage of Egypt.
+
+Since the establishment of the Christian religion, the day has been
+changed, and Christians do not regard the day as holy upon which God
+actually rested, and which he sanctified. The Christian Sabbath, or
+the "Lord's day" was legally established by the murderer Constantine,
+because upon that day Christ was supposed to have risen from the dead.
+
+It is not easy to see where Christians got the right to disregard the
+direct command of God, to labor on the day he sanctified, and keep as
+sacred, a day upon which he commanded men to labor. The sabbath of God
+is Saturday, and if any day is to be kept holy, that is the one, and not
+the Sunday of the Christian.
+
+Let us throw away these superstitions and take the higher, nobler
+ground, that every day should be rendered sacred by some loving act,
+by increasing the happinesss of man, giving birth to noble thoughts,
+putting in the path of toil some flower of joy, helping the unfortunate,
+lifting the fallen, dispelling gloom, destroying prejudice, defending
+the helpless and filling homes with light and love.
+
+
+
+
+XV. THE NECESSITY FOR A GOOD MEMORY
+
+It must not be forgotten that there are two accounts of the creation
+in Genesis. The first account stops with the third verse of the second
+chapter. The chapters have been improperly divided. In the original
+Hebrew the Pentateuch was neither divided into chapters nor verses.
+There was not even any system of punctuation. It was written wholly with
+consonants, without vowels, and without any marks, dots, or lines to
+indicate them.
+
+These accounts are materially different, and both cannot be true. Let us
+see wherein they differ.
+
+The second account of the creation begins with the fourth verse of the
+second chapter, and is as follows:
+
+"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they
+were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the
+heavens.
+
+"And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb
+of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain
+upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
+
+"But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of
+the ground.
+
+"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
+into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
+
+"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put
+the man whom he had formed.
+
+"And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
+pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the
+midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
+
+"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it
+was parted and became into four heads.
+
+"The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole
+land of Havilah, where there is gold.
+
+"And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx
+stone.
+
+"And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that
+compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
+
+"And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth
+toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
+
+"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to
+dress it and to keep it.
+
+"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden
+thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and
+evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof
+thou shalt surely die.
+
+"And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I
+will make him an helpmeet for him.
+
+"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
+every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
+call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was
+the name thereof.
+
+"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to
+every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helpmeet
+for him.
+
+"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept;
+and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.
+
+"And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and
+brought her unto the man.
+
+"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she
+shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.
+
+"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave
+unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.
+
+"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
+
+Order of creation in the first account:
+
+1. The heaven and the earth, and light were made.
+
+2. The firmament was constructed and the waters divided.
+
+3. The waters gathered into seas--and then came dry land, grass, herbs
+and fruit trees.
+
+4. The sun and moon. He made the stars also.
+
+5. Fishes, fowls, and great whales.
+
+6. Beasts, cattle, every creeping thing, man and woman.
+
+Order of creation in the second account:
+
+1. The heavens and the earth.
+
+2. A mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the
+ground.
+
+3. Created a man out of dust, by the name of Adam.
+
+4. Planted a garden eastward in Eden, and put the man in it.
+
+5. Created the beasts and fowls.
+
+6. Created a woman out of one of the man's ribs.
+
+In the second account, man was made _before_ the beasts and fowls. If
+this is true, the first account is false. And if the theologians of our
+time are correct in their view that the Mosaic day means thousands of
+ages, then, according to the second account, Adam existed millions of
+years before Eve was formed. He must have lived one Mosaic day before
+there were any trees, and another Mosaic day before the beasts and fowls
+were created. Will some kind clergymen tell us upon what kind of food
+Adam subsisted during these immense periods?
+
+In the second account a man is made, and the fact that he was without a
+helpmeet did not occur to the Lord God until a couple "of vast periods"
+afterwards. The Lord God suddenly coming to an appreciation of the
+situation said, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will
+make him a helpmeet for him."
+
+Now, after concluding to make "an helpmeet" for Adam, what did the Lord
+God do? Did he at once proceed to make a woman? No. What did he do? He
+made the beasts, and tried to induce Adam to take one of them for "an
+helpmeet." If I am incorrect, read the following account, and tell me
+what it means:
+
+"And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I
+will make him an helpmeet for him.
+
+"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
+every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
+call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was
+the name thereof.
+
+"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to
+every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an helpmeet
+for him."
+
+Unless the Lord God was looking for an helpmeet for Adam, why did
+he cause the animals to pass before him? And why did he, after the
+menagerie had passed by, pathetically exclaim, "But for Adam there was
+not found an helpmeet for him?"
+
+It seems that Adam saw nothing that struck his fancy. The fairest ape,
+the sprightliest chimpanzee, the loveliest baboon, the most bewitching
+orangoutang, the most fascinating gorilla failed to touch with love's
+sweet pain, poor Adam's lonely heart. Let us rejoice that this was so.
+Had he fallen in love then, there never would have been a Freethinker in
+this world.
+
+Dr. Adam Clark, speaking of this remarkable proceeding says:--"God
+caused the animals to pass before Adam to show him that no creature yet
+formed could make him a suitable companion; that Adam was convinced that
+none of these animals could be a suitable companion for him, and that
+therefore he must continue in a state that was not good (celibacy)
+unless he became a further debtor to the bounty of his maker, for among
+all the animals which he had formed, there was not a helpmeet for Adam."
+
+Upon this same subject, Dr. Scott informs us "that it was not conducive
+to the happiness of the man to remain without the consoling society,
+and endearment of tender friendship, nor consistent with the end of his
+creation to be without marriage by which the earth might be replenished
+and worshipers and servants raised up to render him praise and glory.
+Adam seems to have been vastly better acquainted by intuition or
+revelation with the distinct properties of every creature than the most
+sagacious observer since the fall of man.
+
+"Upon this review of the animals, not one was found in outward form his
+counterpart, nor one suited to engage his affections, participate in his
+enjoyments, or associate with him in the worship of God."
+
+Dr. Matthew Henry admits that "God brought all the animals together
+to see if there was a suitable match for Adam in any of the numerous
+families of the inferior creatures, but there was none. They were all
+looked over, but Adam could not be matched among them all. Therefore God
+created a new thing to be a helpmeet for him."
+
+Failing to satisfy Adam with any of the inferior animals, the Lord God
+caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, and while in this sleep took out
+one of Adam's ribs and "closed up the flesh instead thereof." And out of
+this rib, the Lord God made a woman, and brought her to the man.
+
+Was the Lord God compelled to take a part of the man because he had used
+up all the original "nothing" out of which the universe was made? Is it
+possible for any sane and intelligent man to believe this story? Must a
+man be born a second time before this account seems reasonable?
+
+Imagine the Lord God with a bone in his hand with which to start
+a woman, trying to make up his mind whether to make a blonde or a
+brunette!
+
+Just at this point it may be proper for me to warn all persons from
+laughing at or making light of, any stories found in the "Holy Bible."
+When you come to die, every laugh will be a thorn in your pillow. At
+that solemn moment, as you look back upon the records of your life, no
+matter how many men you may have wrecked and ruined; no matter how many
+women you have deceived and deserted, all that can be forgiven; but
+if you remember then that you have laughed at even one story in God's
+"sacred book" you will see through the gathering shadows of death the
+forked tongues of devils, and the leering eyes of fiends.
+
+These stories must be believed, or the work of regeneration can never be
+commenced. No matter how well you act your part, live as honestly as you
+may, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, divide your last farthing
+with the poor, and you are simply traveling the broad road that leads
+inevitably to eternal death, unless at the same time you implicitly
+believe the bible to be the inspired word of God.
+
+Let me show you the result of unbelief. Let us suppose, for a moment,
+that we are at the Day of Judgment, listening to the trial of souls
+as they arrive. The Recording Secretary, or whoever does the
+cross-examining, says to a soul:
+
+Where are you from?
+
+I am from the Earth.
+
+What kind of a man were you?
+
+Well, I don't like to talk about myself. I suppose you can tell by
+looking at your books.
+
+No sir. You must tell what kind of a man you were.
+
+Well, I was what you might call a first-rate fellow. I loved my wife and
+children. My home was my heaven. My fireside was a paradise to me. To
+sit there and see the lights and shadows fall upon the faces of those I
+loved, was to me a perfect joy.
+
+How did you treat your family?
+
+I never said an unkind word. I never caused my wife, nor one of my
+children, a moment's pain.
+
+Did you pay your debts?
+
+I did not owe a dollar when I died, and left enough to pay my funeral
+expenses, and to keep the fierce wolf of want from the door of those I
+loved.
+
+Did you belong to any church?
+
+No sir. They were too narrow, pinched and bigoted for me, I never
+thought that I could be very happy if other folks were damned.
+
+Did you believe in eternal punishment?
+
+Well, no. I always thought that God could get his revenge in far less
+time.
+
+Did you believe the rib story?
+
+Do you mean the Adam and Eve business?
+
+Yes! Did you believe that?
+
+To tell you the God's truth, that was just a little more than I could
+swallow.
+
+Away with him to hell!
+
+Next!
+
+Where are you from? I am from the world too.
+
+Did you belong to any church?
+
+Yes sir, and to the Young Men's Christian Association besides.
+
+What was your business?
+
+Cashier in a Savings Bank.
+
+Did you ever run away with any money?
+
+Where I came from, a witness could not be compelled to criminate
+himself.
+
+The law is different here. Answer the question. Did you run away with
+any money?
+
+Yes sir.
+
+How much?
+
+One hundred thousand dollars.
+
+Did you take anything else with you?
+
+Yes sir.
+
+Well, what else?
+
+I took my neighbor's wife--we sang together in the choir.
+
+Did you have a wife and children of your own?
+
+Yes sir.
+
+And you deserted them?
+
+Yes sir, but such was my confidence in God that I believed he would take
+care of them.
+
+Have you heard of them since?
+
+No sir.
+
+Did you believe in the rib story?
+
+Bless your soul, of course I did. A thousand times I regretted that
+there were no harder stories in the bible, so that I could have shown my
+wealth of faith.
+
+Do you believe the rib story yet?
+
+Yes, with all my heart.
+
+Give him a harp!
+
+Well, as I was saying, God made a woman from Adam's rib. Of course, I do
+not know exactly how this was done, but when he got the woman finished,
+he presented her to Adam. He liked her, and they commenced house-keeping
+in the celebrated garden of Eden.
+
+Must we, in order to be good, gentle and loving in our lives, believe
+that the creation of woman was a second thought? That Jehovah really
+endeavored to induce Adam to take one of the lower animals as an
+helpmeet for him? After all, is it not possible to live honest and
+courageous lives without believing these fables? It is said that from
+Mount Sinai God gave, amid thunderings and lightnings, ten commandments
+for the guidance of mankind; and yet among them is not found--"Thou
+shalt believe the Bible."
+
+
+
+
+XVI. THE GARDEN
+
+In the first account we are told that God made man, male and female,
+and said to them "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and
+subdue it."
+
+In the second account only the man is made, and he is put in a garden
+"to dress it and to keep it." He is not told to subdue the earth, but to
+dress and keep a garden.
+
+In the first account man is given every herb bearing seed upon the face
+of the earth and the fruit of every tree for food, and in the second,
+he is given only the fruit of all the trees in the garden with the
+exception "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" which was a
+deadly poison.
+
+There was issuing from this garden a river that was parted into four
+heads. The first of these, Pison, compassed the whole land of Havilah,
+the second, Gihon, that compassed the whole land of Ethiopia, the third,
+Heddekel, that flowed toward the east of Assyria, and the fourth, the
+Euphrates. Where are these four rivers now? The brave prow of discovery
+has visited every sea; the traveler has pressed with weary feet the soil
+of every clime; and yet there has been found no place from which four
+rivers sprang. The Euphrates still journeys to the gulf, but where are
+Pison, Gihon and the mighty Heddekel? Surely by going to the source
+of the Euphrates we ought to find either these three rivers or their
+ancient beds. Will some minister when he answers the "Mistakes of
+Moses" tell us where these rivers are or were? The maps of the world are
+incomplete without these mighty streams. We have discovered the sources
+of the Nile; the North Pole will soon be touched by an American; but
+these three rivers still rise in unknown hills, still flow through
+unknown lands, and empty still in unknown seas.
+
+The account of these four rivers is what the Rev. David Swing would call
+"a geographical poem." The orthodox clergy cover the whole affair with
+the blanket of allegory, while the "scientific" christian folks talk
+about cataclysms, upheavals, earthquakes, and vast displacements of the
+earth's crust.
+
+The question, then arises, whether within the last six thousand years
+there have been such upheavals and displacements? Talk as you will about
+the vast "creative periods" that preceded the appearance of man; it
+is, according to the bible, only about six thousand years since man was
+created. Moses gives us the generations of men from Adam until his day,
+and this account cannot be explained away by calling centuries, days.
+
+According to the second account of creation, these four rivers were
+made after the creation of man, and consequently they must have been
+obliterated by convulsions of Nature within six thousand years.
+
+Can we not account for these contradictions, absurdities, and falsehoods
+by simply saying that although the writer may have done his level best,
+he failed because he was limited in knowledge, led away by tradition,
+and depended too implicitly upon the correctness of his imagination?
+Is not such a course far more reasonable than to insist that all these
+things are true and must stand though every science shall fall to mental
+dust?
+
+Can any reason be given for not allowing man to eat of the fruit of the
+tree of knowledge? What kind of tree was that? If it is all an allegory,
+what truth is sought to be conveyed? Why should God object to that fruit
+being eaten by man? Why did he put it in the midst of the garden? There
+was certainly plenty of room outside. If he wished to keep man and this
+tree apart, why did he put them together? And why, after he had eaten,
+was he thrust out? The only answer that we have a right to give, is
+the one given in the bible. "And the Lord God said, Behold the man has
+become as one of us to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth
+his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:
+Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till
+the ground from whence he was taken."
+
+Will some minister, some graduate of Andover, tell us what this means?
+Are we bound to believe it without knowing what the meaning is? If it is
+a revelation, what does it reveal? Did God object to education then, and
+does that account for the hostile attitude still assumed by theologians
+towards all scientific truth? Was there in the garden a tree of life,
+the eating of which would have rendered Adam and Eve immortal? Is it
+true, that after the Lord God drove them from the garden that he placed
+upon its Eastern side "Cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every
+way to keep the way of the tree of life?" Are the Cherubims and the
+flaming sword guarding that tree yet, or was it destroyed, or did its
+rotting trunk, as the Rev. Robert Collyer suggests "nourish a bank of
+violets?"
+
+What objection could God have had to the immortality of man? You
+see that after all, this sacred record, instead of assuring us of
+immortality, shows us only how we lost it. In this there is assuredly
+but little consolation.
+
+According to this story we have lost one Eden, but nowhere in the Mosaic
+books are we told how we may gain another. I know that the Christians
+tell us there is another, in which all true believers will finally be
+gathered, and enjoy the unspeakable happiness of seeing the unbelievers
+in hell; but they do not tell us where it is.
+
+Some commentators say that the Garden of Eden was in the third
+heaven--some in the fourth, others have located it in the moon, some
+in the air beyond the attraction of the earth, some on the Earth, some
+under the Earth, some inside the Earth, some at the North Pole, others
+at the South, some in Tartary, some in China, some on the borders of the
+Ganges, some in the island of Ceylon, some in Armenia, some in Africa,
+some under the Equator, others in Mesopotamia, in Syria, Persia, Arabia,
+Babylon, Assyria, Palestine and Europe. Others have contended that
+it was invisible, that it was an allegory, and must be spiritually
+understood.
+
+But whether you understand these things or not, you must believe them.
+You may be laughed at in this world for insisting that God put Adam into
+a deep sleep and made a woman out of one of his ribs, but you will be
+crowned and glorified in the next You will also have the pleasure of
+hearing the gentlemen howl there, who laughed at you here. While you
+will not be permitted to take any revenge, you will be allowed to
+smilingly express your entire acquiescence in the will of God. But where
+is the new Eden? No one knows. The one was lost, and the other has not
+been found.
+
+Is it true that man was once perfectly pure and innocent, and that
+he became degenerate by disobedience? No. The real truth is, and the
+history of man shows, that he has advanced. Events, like the pendulum
+of a clock have swung forward and backward, but after all, man, like
+the hands, has gone steadily on. Man is growing grander. He is not
+degenerating. Nations and individuals fail and die, and make room
+for higher forms. The intellectual horizon of the world widens as the
+centuries pass. Ideals grow grander and purer; the difference between
+justice and mercy becomes less and less; liberty enlarges, and love
+intensifies as the years sweep on. The ages of force and fear, of
+cruelty and wrong, are behind us and the real Eden is beyond. It is said
+that a desire for knowledge lost us the Eden of the past; but whether
+that is true or not, it will certainly give us the Eden of the future.
+
+
+
+
+XVII. THE FALL
+
+We are told that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
+field, that he had a conversation with Eve, in which he gave his opinion
+about the effect of eating certain fruit; that he assured her it was
+good to eat, that it was pleasant to the eye, that it would make her
+wise; that she was induced to take some; that she persuaded her husband
+to try it; that God found it out, that he then cursed the snake;
+condemning it to crawl and eat the dust; that he multiplied the sorrows
+of Eve, cursed the ground for Adam's sake, started thistles and thorns,
+condemned man to eat the herb of the field in the sweat of his face,
+pronounced the curse of death, "Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou
+return," made coats of skins for Adam and Eve, and drove them out of
+Eden.
+
+Who, and what was this serpent? Dr. Adam Clark says:--"The serpent must
+have walked erect, for this is necessarily implied in his punishment.
+That he was endued with the gift of speech, also with reason. That these
+things were given to this creature. The woman no doubt having often seen
+him walking erect, and talking and reasoning, therefore she testifies
+no sort of surprise when he accosts her in the language related in
+the text. It therefore appears to me that a creature of the ape or
+orangoutang kind is here intended, and that satan made use of this
+creature as the most proper instrument for the accomplishment of his
+murderous purposes against the life of the soul of man. Under this
+creature he lay hid, and by this creature he seduced our first parents.
+Such a creature answers to every part of the description in the text. It
+is evident from the structure of its limbs and its muscles that it might
+have been originally designed to walk erect, and that nothing else than
+the sovereign controlling power could induce it to put down hands--in
+every respect formed like those of man--and walk like those creatures
+whose claw-armed parts prove them to have been designed to walk on
+all fours. The stealthy cunning, and endless variety of the pranks
+and tricks of these creatures show them even now to be wiser and more
+intelligent than any other creature man alone excepted. Being obliged
+to walk on all fours and gather their food from the ground, they are
+literally obliged to eat the dust; and though exceeding cunning,
+and careful in a variety of instances to separate that part which is
+wholesome and proper for food from that which is not so, in the article
+of cleanliness they are lost to all sense of propriety. Add to this
+their utter aversion to walk upright; it requires the utmost discipline
+to bring them to it, and scarcely anything offends or irritates them
+more than to be obliged to do it. Long observation of these animals
+enables me to state these facts. For earnest, attentive watching, and
+for chattering and babbling they (the ape) have no fellows in the animal
+world. Indeed, the ability and propensity to chatter, is all they have
+left of their original gift of speech, of which they appear to have been
+deprived at the fall as a part of their punishment."
+
+Here then is the "connecting link" between man and the lower creation.
+The serpent was simply an orang-outang that spoke Hebrew with the
+greatest ease, and had the outward appearance of a perfect gentleman,
+seductive in manner, plausible, polite, and most admirably calculated to
+deceive.
+
+It never did seem reasonable to me that a long, cold and disgusting
+snake with an apple in his mouth, could deceive anybody; and I am glad,
+even at this late date to know that the something that persuaded Eve to
+taste the forbidden fruit was, at least, in the shape of a man.
+
+Dr. Henry does not agree with the zoological explanation of Mr. Clark,
+but insists that "it is certain that the devil that beguiled Eve is the
+old serpent, a malignant by creation, an angel of light, an immediate
+attendant upon God's throne, but by sin an apostate from his first
+state, and a rebel against God's crown and dignity. He who attacked
+our first parents was surely the prince of devils, the ring leader in
+rebellion. The devil chose to act his part in a serpent, because it is
+a specious creature, has a spotted, dappled skin, and then, went erect.
+Perhaps it was a flying serpent which seemed to come from on high, as a
+messenger from the upper world, one of the seraphim; because the serpent
+is a subtile creature. What Eve thought of this serpent speaking to her,
+we are not likely to tell, and, I believe, she herself did not know
+what to think of it. At first, perhaps, she supposed it might be a good
+angel, and yet afterwards might suspect something amiss. The person
+tempted was a woman, now-alone, and at a distance from her husband,
+but near the forbidden tree. It was the devil's subtlety to assault the
+weaker vessel with his temptations, as we may suppose her inferior to
+Adam in knowledge, strength and presence of mind. Some think that Eve
+received the command not immediately from God, but at second hand from
+her husband, and might, therefore, be the more easily persuaded to
+discredit it. It was the policy of the devil to enter into discussion
+with her when she was alone. He took advantage by finding her near the
+forbidden tree. God permitted Satan to prevail over Eve, for wise and
+holy ends. Satan teaches men first to doubt, and then to deny. He makes
+skeptics first, and by degrees makes them atheists."
+
+We are compelled to admit that nothing could be more attractive to a
+woman than a snake walking erect, with a "spotted, dappled skin," unless
+it were a serpent with wings. Is it not humiliating to know that our
+ancestors believed these things? Why should we object to the Darwinian
+doctrine of descent after this?
+
+Our fathers thought it their duty to believe, thought it a sin to
+entertain the slightest doubt, and really supposed that their credulity
+was exceedingly gratifying to God. To them, the story was entirely real.
+They could see the garden, hear the babble of waters, smell the perfume
+of flowers. They believed there was a tree where knowledge grew like
+plums or pears; and they could plainly see the serpent coiled amid its
+rustling leaves, coaxing Eve to violate the laws of God.
+
+Where did the serpent come from? On which of the six days was he
+created? Who made him? Is it possible that God would make a successful
+rival? He must have known that Adam and Eve would fall. He knew what
+a snake with a "spotted, dappled skin" could do with an inexperienced
+woman. Why did he not defend his children? He knew that if the serpent
+got into the garden, Adam and Eve would sin, that he would have to drive
+them out, that afterwards the world would be destroyed, and that he
+himself would die upon the cross.
+
+Again, I ask what and who was this serpent? He was not a man, for only
+one man had been made. He was not a woman. He was not a beast of the
+field, because "he was more subtile than any beast of the field which
+the Lord God had made." He was neither fish nor fowl, nor snake, because
+he had the power of speech, and did not crawl upon his belly until after
+he was cursed. Where did this serpent come from? Why was he not kept out
+of the garden? Why did not the Lord God take him by the tail and snap
+his head off? Why did he not put Adam and Eve on their guard about this
+serpent? They, of course, were not acquainted in the neighborhood, and
+knew nothing about the serpent's reputation for truth and veracity
+among his neighbors. Probably Adam saw him when he was looking for "an
+helpmeet," and gave him a name, but Eve had never met him before. She
+was not surprised to hear a serpent talk, as that was the first one she
+had ever met. Every thing being new to her, and her husband not being
+with her just at that moment, it need hardly excite our wonder that she
+tasted the fruit by way of experiment. Neither should we be surprised
+that when she saw it was good and pleasant to the eye, and a fruit to
+be desired to make one wise, she had the generosity to divide with her
+husband.
+
+Theologians have filled thousands of volumes with abuse of this serpent,
+but it seems that he told the exact truth. We are told that this serpent
+was, in fact, Satan, the greatest enemy of mankind, and that he entered
+the serpent, appearing to our first parents in its body. If this is
+so, why should the serpent have been cursed? Why should God curse the
+serpent for what had really been done by the devil? Did Satan remain
+in the body of the serpent, and in some mysterious manner share his
+punishment? Is it true that when we kill a snake we also destroy an evil
+spirit, or is there but one devil, and did he perish at the death of
+the first serpent? Is it on account of that transaction in the garden
+of Eden, that all the descendents of Adam and Eve known as Jews and
+Christians hate serpents?
+
+Do you account for the snake-worship in Mexico, Africa and India in the
+same way?
+
+What was the form of the serpent when he entered the garden, and in what
+way did he move from place to place? Did he walk or fly? Certainly he
+did not crawl, because that mode of locomotion was pronounced upon him
+as a curse. Upon what food did he subsist before his conversation with
+Eve? We know that after that he lived upon dust, but what did he eat
+before? It may be that this is all poetic; and the truest poetry is,
+according to Touchstone, "the most feigning."
+
+In this same chapter we are informed that "unto Adam also and to his
+wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them." Where did
+the Lord God get those skins? He must have taken them from the animals;
+he was a butcher. Then he had to prepare them; he was a tanner. Then
+he made them into coats; he was a tailor. How did it happen that they
+needed coats of skins, when they had been perfectly comfortable in a
+nude condition? Did the "fall" produce a change in the climate?
+
+Is it really necessary to believe this account in order to be happy
+here, or hereafter? Does it tend to the elevation of the human race to
+speak of "God" as a butcher, tanner and tailor?
+
+And here, let me say once for all, that when I speak of God, I mean
+the being described by Moses: the Jehovah of the Jews. There may be for
+aught I--know, somewhere in the unknown shoreless vast, some being whose
+dreams are constellations and within whose thought the infinite exists.
+About this being, if such an one exists, I have nothing to say. He has
+written no books, inspired no barbarians, required no worship, and has
+prepared no hell in which to burn the honest seeker after truth.
+
+When I speak of God, I mean that god who prevented man from putting
+forth his hand and taking also of the fruit of the tree of life that
+he might live forever; of that god who multiplied the agonies of woman,
+increased the weary toil of man, and in his anger drowned a world--of
+that god whose altars reeked with human blood, who butchered babes,
+violated maidens, enslaved men and filled the earth with cruelty and
+crime; of that god who made heaven for the few, hell for the many,
+and who will gloat forever and ever upon the writhings of the lost and
+damned.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII. DAMPNESS.
+
+And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the
+earth, and daughters were born unto them.
+
+"That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and
+they took them wives of all which they chose.
+
+"And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that
+he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
+
+"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that
+when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare
+children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of
+renown.
+
+"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
+that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
+continually.
+
+"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it
+grieved him at his heart.
+
+"And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the
+face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the
+fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."
+
+From this account it seems that driving Adam and Eve out of Eden did not
+have the effect to improve them or their children. On the contrary, the
+world grew worse and worse. They were under the immediate control and
+government of God, and he from time to time made known his will; but in
+spite of this, man continued to increase in crime.
+
+Nothing in particular seems to have been done. Not a school was
+established. There was no written language. There was not a bible in the
+world. The "scheme of salvation" was kept a profound secret. The five
+points of Calvinism had not been taught. Sunday schools had not been
+opened. In short, nothing had been done for the reformation of the
+world. God did not even keep his own sons at home, but allowed them to
+leave their abode in the firmament, and make love to the daughters
+of men. As a result of this, the world was filled with wickedness and
+giants to such an extent that God regretted "that he had made man on
+the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."
+
+Of course God knew when he made man, that he would afterwards regret
+it. He knew that the people would grow worse and worse until destruction
+would be the only remedy. He knew that he would have to kill all except
+Noah and his family, and it is hard to see why he did not make Noah and
+his family in the first place, and leave Adam and Eve in the original
+dust. He knew that they would be tempted, that he would have to drive
+them out of the garden to keep them from eating of the tree of life;
+that the whole thing would be a failure; that Satan would defeat his
+plan; that he could not reform the people; that his own sons would
+corrupt them, and that at last he would have to drown them all except
+Noah and his family. Why was the garden of Eden planted? Why was the
+experiment made? Why were Adam and Eve exposed to the seductive arts of
+the serpent? Why did God wait until the cool of the day before looking
+after his children? Why was he not on hand in the morning?
+
+Why did he fill the world with his own children, knowing that he would
+have to destroy them? And why does this same God tell me how to raise my
+children when he had to drown his?
+
+It is a little curious that when God wished to reform the ante-diluvian
+world he said nothing about hell; that he had no revivals, no
+camp-meetings, no tracts, no outpourings of the Holy Ghost, no baptisms,
+no noon prayer meetings, and never mentioned the great doctrine of
+salvation by faith. If the orthodox creeds of the world are true, all
+those people went to hell without ever having heard that such a place
+existed. If eternal torment is a fact, surely these miserable wretches
+ought to have been N warned. They were threatened only with water when
+they were in fact doomed to eternal fire!
+
+Is it not strange that God said nothing to Adam and Eve about a future
+life; that he should have kept these "infinite verities" to himself and
+allowed millions to live and die without the hope of heaven, or the fear
+of hell?
+
+It may be that hell was not made at that time. In the six days of
+creation nothing is said about the construction of a bottomless pit, and
+the serpent himself did not make his appearance until after the creation
+of man and woman. Perhaps he was made on the first Sunday, and from that
+fact came, it may be, the old couplet,
+
+     "And Satan still some mischief finds
+     For idle hands to do."
+
+The sacred historian failed also to tell us when the cherubim and the
+flaming sword were made, and said nothing about two of the persons
+composing the trinity. It certainly would have been an easy thing to
+enlighten Adam and his immediate descendants. The world was then only
+about fifteen hundred and thirty-six years old, and only about three
+or four generations of men had lived. Adam had been dead only about
+six hundred and six years, and some of his grand children must, at that
+time, have been alive and well.
+
+It is hard to see why God did not civilize these people. He certainly
+had the power to use, and the wisdom to devise the proper means. What
+right has a god to fill a world with fiends? Can there be goodness in
+this? Why should he make experiments that he knows must fail? Is there
+wisdom in this? And what right has a man to charge an infinite being
+with wickedness and folly?
+
+According to Moses, God made up his mind not only to destroy the people,
+but the beasts and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air. What
+had the beasts, and the creeping things, and the birds done to excite
+the anger of God? Why did he repent having made them? Will some
+christian give us an explanation of this matter? No good man will
+inflict unnecessary pain upon a beast; how then can we worship a god who
+cares nothing for the agonies of the dumb creatures that he made?
+
+Why did he make animals that he knew he would destroy? Does God delight
+in causing pain? He had the power to make the beasts, and fowls, and
+creeping things in his own good time and way, and it is to be presumed
+that he made them according to his wish. Why should he destroy them?
+They had committed no sin. They had eaten no forbidden fruit, made no
+aprons, nor tried to reach the tree of life. Yet this god, in blind
+unreasoning wrath destroyed "all flesh wherein was the breath of life,
+and every living thing beneath the sky, and every substance wherein was
+life that he had made."
+
+Jehovah, having made up his mind to drown the world, told Noah to make
+an Ark of gopher wood three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and
+thirty cubits high. A cubit is twenty-two inches; so that the ark was
+five hundred and fifty feet long, ninety-one feet and eight inches wide
+and fifty-five feet high. This ark was divided into three stories, and
+had on top, one window twenty-two inches square. Ventilation must have
+been one of Jehovah's hobbies. Think of a ship larger than the Great
+Eastern with only one window, and that but twenty-two inches square!
+
+The ark also had one door set in the side thereof that shut from the
+outside. As soon as this ship was finished, and properly victualed, Noah
+received seven days notice to get the animals in the ark.
+
+It is claimed by some of the scientific theologians that the flood was
+partial, that the waters covered only a small portion of the world, and
+that consequently only a few animals were in the ark. It is impossible
+to conceive of language that can more clearly convey the idea of a
+universal flood than that found in the inspired account. If the flood
+was only partial, why did God say he would "destroy all flesh wherein
+is the breath of life from under heaven, and that every thing that is
+in the earth shall die?" Why did he say "I will destroy man whom I have
+created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping
+thing and the fowls of the air?" Why did he say "And every living
+substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the
+earth?" Would a partial, local flood have fulfilled these threats?
+
+Nothing can be clearer than that the writer of this account intended to
+convey, and did convey the idea that the flood was universal. Why should
+christians try to deprive God of the glory of having wrought the most
+stupendous of miracles? Is it possible that the Infinite could not
+overwhelm with waves this atom called the Earth? Do you doubt his power,
+his wisdom or his justice?
+
+Believers in miracles should not endeavor to explain them. There is but
+one way to explain anything, and that is to account for it by natural
+agencies. The moment you explain a miracle, it disappears. You should
+depend not upon explanation, but assertion. You should not be driven
+from the field because the miracle is shown to be unreasonable. You
+should reply that all miracles are unreasonable. Neither should you be
+in the least disheartened if it is shown to be impossible. The possible
+is not miraculous. You should take the ground that if miracles were
+reasonable, and possible, there would be no reward paid for believing
+them. The christian has the goodness to believe, while the sinner asks
+for evidence. It is enough for God to work miracles without being called
+upon to substantiate them for the benefit of unbelievers.
+
+Only a few years ago, the christians believed implicitly in the literal
+truth of every miracle recorded in the bible. Whoever tried to explain
+them in some natural way, was looked upon as an infidel in disguise,
+but now he is regarded as a benefactor. The credulity of the Church is
+decreasing, and the most marvelous miracles are now either "explained,"
+or allowed to take refuge behind the mistakes of the translators, or
+hide in the drapery of allegory.
+
+In the sixth chapter, Noah is ordered to take "of every living thing
+of all flesh, two of every sort into the ark--male and female." In the
+seventh chapter the order is changed, and Noah is commanded, according
+to the Protestant bible, as follows: "Of every clean beast thou shalt
+take to thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of beasts that are
+not clean, by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by
+sevens, the male and the female."
+
+According to the Catholic bible, Noah was commanded--"Of all clean
+beasts take seven and seven, the male and the female. But of the beasts
+that are unclean two and two, the male and the female. Of the fowls also
+of the air seven and seven, the male and the female."
+
+For the purpose of belittling this miracle, many commentators have
+taken the ground that Noah was not ordered to take seven males and seven
+females of each kind of clean beasts, but seven in all. Many christians
+contend that only seven clean beasts of each kind were taken into the
+ark--three and a half of each sex.
+
+If the account in the seventh chapter means anything, it means _first_,
+that of each kind of clean beasts, fourteen were to be taken, seven
+males, and seven females; _second_, that of unclean beasts should be
+taken, two of each kind, one of each sex, and _third_, that he should
+take of every kind of fowls, seven of each sex.
+
+It is equally clear that the command in the 19th and 20th verses of the
+6th chapter, is to take two of each sort, one male and one female. And
+this agrees exactly with the account in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 14th. 15th,
+and 16th verses of the 7th chapter.
+
+The next question is, how many beasts, fowls and creeping things did
+Noah take into the ark?
+
+There are now known and classified at least twelve thousand five hundred
+species of birds. There are still vast territories in China, South
+America, and Africa unknown to the ornithologist. Of the birds, Noah
+took fourteen of each species, according to the 3d verse of the 7th
+chapter, "Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female,"
+making a total of 175,000 birds.
+
+And right here allow me to ask a question. If the flood was simply a
+partial flood, why were birds taken into the ark? It seems to me that
+most birds, attending strictly to business, might avoid a partial flood.
+
+There are at least sixteen hundred and fifty-eight kinds of beasts. Let
+us suppose that twenty-five of these are clean. Of the clean, fourteen
+of each kind--seven of each sex--were taken. These amount to 350. Of
+the unclean--two of each kind, amounting to 3,266. There are some six
+hundred and fifty species of reptiles. Two of each kind amount to-1,300.
+And lastly, there are of insects including the creeping things, at least
+one million species, so that Noah and his folks had to get of these into
+the ark about 2,000,000.
+
+Animalculae have not been taken into consideration. There are probably
+many hundreds of thousands of species; many of them invisible; and
+yet Noah had to pick them out by pairs. Very few people have any just
+conception of the trouble Noah had.
+
+We know that there are many animals on this continent not found in the
+Old World. These must have been carried from here to the ark, and then
+brought back afterwards. Were the peccary, armadillo, ant-eater, sloth,
+agouti, vampire-bat, marmoset, howling and prehensile-tailed monkey, the
+raccoon and muskrat carried by the angels from America to Asia? How did
+they get there? Did the polar bear leave his field of ice and journey
+toward the tropics? How did he know where the ark was? Did the kangaroo
+swim or jump from Australia to Asia? Did the giraffe, hippopotamus,
+antelope and orang-outang journey from Africa in search of the ark? Can
+absurdities go farther than this?
+
+What had these animals to eat while on the journey? What did they eat
+while in the ark? What did they drink? When the rain came, of course
+the rivers ran to the seas, and these seas rose and finally covered the
+world. The waters of the seas, mingled with those of the flood, would
+make all salt. It has been calculated that it required, to drown the
+world, about eight times as much water as was in all the seas. To find
+how salt the waters of the flood must have been, take eight quarts of
+fresh water, and add one quart from the sea. Such water would create
+instead of allaying thirst. Noah had to take in his ark fresh water for
+all his beasts, birds and living things. He had to take the proper food
+for all. How long was he in the ark? Three hundred and seventy-seven
+days! Think of the food necessary for the monsters of the ante-diluvian
+world!
+
+Eight persons did all the work. They attended to the wants of 175,000
+birds, 3,616 beasts, 1,300 reptiles, and 2,000,000 insects, saying
+nothing of countless animalculae.
+
+Well, after they all got in, Noah pulled down the window, God shut the
+door, and the rain commenced.
+
+How long did it rain?
+
+Forty days.
+
+How deep did the water get?
+
+About five miles and a half.
+
+How much did it rain a day?
+
+Enough to cover the whole world to a depth of about seven hundred and
+forty-two feet.
+
+Some Christians say that the fountains of the great deep were broken up.
+Will they be kind enough to tell us what the fountains of the great deep
+are? Others say that God had vast stores of water in the center of the
+earth that he used on that occasion. How did these waters happen to run
+up hill?
+
+Gentlemen, allow me to tell you once more that you must not try to
+explain these things. Your efforts in that direction do no good, because
+your explanations are harder to believe than the miracle itself. Take my
+advice, stick to assertion, and let explanation alone.
+
+Then, as now, Dhawalagiri lifted its crown of snow twenty-nine thousand
+feet above the level of the sea, and on the cloudless cliffs of
+Chimborazo then, as now, sat the condor; and yet the waters rising seven
+hundred and twenty-six feet a day--thirty feet an hour, six inches
+a minute,--rose over the hills, over the volcanoes, filled the vast
+craters, extinguished all the fires, rose above every mountain peak
+until the vast world was but one shoreless sea covered with the
+innumerable dead.
+
+Was this the work of the most merciful God, the father of us all? If
+there is a God, can there be the slightest danger of incurring his
+displeasure by doubting even in a reverential way, the truth of such a
+cruel lie? If we think that God is kinder than he really is, will our
+poor souls be burned for that?
+
+How many trees can live under miles of water for a year? What became of
+the soil washed, scattered, dissolved, and covered with the _debris_ of
+a world? How were the tender plants and herbs preserved? How were the
+animals preserved after leaving the ark? There was no grass except such
+as had been submerged for a year. There were no animals to be devoured
+by the carnivorous beasts. What became of the birds that fed on worms
+and insects? What became of the birds that devoured other birds?
+
+It must be remembered that the pressure of the water when at the highest
+point--say twenty-nine thousand feet, would have been about eight
+hundred tons on each square foot. Such a pressure certainly would have
+destroyed nearly every vestige of vegetable life, so that when the
+animals came out of the ark, there was not a mouthful of food in the
+wide world. How were they supported until the world was again clothed
+with grass? How were those animals taken care of that subsisted on
+others? Where did the bees get honey, and the ants seeds? There was not
+a creeping thing upon the whole earth; not a breathing creature beneath
+the whole heavens; not a living substance. Where did the tenants of the
+ark get food?
+
+There is but one answer, if the story is true. The food necessary
+not only during the year of the flood, but sufficient for many months
+afterwards, must have been stored in the ark.
+
+There is probably not an animal in the world that will not, in a year,
+eat and drink ten times its weight. Noah must have provided food and
+water for a year while in the ark, and food for at least six months
+after they got ashore. It must have required for a pair of elephants,
+about one hundred and fifty tons of food and water. A couple of mammoths
+would have required about twice that amount. Of course there were other
+monsters that lived on trees; and in a year would have devoured quite a
+forest.
+
+How could eight persons have distributed this food, even if the ark had
+been large enough to hold it? How was the ark kept clean? We know how it
+was ventilated; but what was done with the filth? How were the animals
+watered? How were some portions of the ark heated for animals from the
+tropics, and others kept cool for the polar bears? How did the animals
+get back to their respective countries? Some had to creep back about
+six thousand miles, and they could only go a few feet a day. Some of the
+creeping things must have started for the ark just as soon as they were
+made, and kept up a steady jog for sixteen hundred years. Think of
+a couple of the slowest snails leaving a point opposite the ark and
+starting for the plains of Shinar, a distance of twelve thousand miles.
+Going at the rate of a mile a month, it would take them a thousand
+years. How did they get there? Polar bears must have gone several
+thousand miles, and so sudden a change in climate must have been
+exceedingly trying upon their health. How did they know the way to go?
+Of course, all the polar bears did not go. Only two were required. Who
+selected these?
+
+Two sloths had to make the journey from South America. These creatures
+cannot travel to exceed three rods a day. At this rate, they would make
+a mile in about a hundred days. They must have gone about six thousand
+five hundred miles, to reach the ark. Supposing them to have traveled by
+a reasonably direct route, in order to complete the journey before Noah
+hauled in the plank, they must have started several years before the
+world was created. We must also consider that these sloths had to board
+themselves on the way, and that most of their time had to be taken up
+getting food and water. It is exceedingly doubtful whether a sloth could
+travel six thousand miles and board himself in less than three thousand
+years.
+
+Volumes might be written upon the infinite absurdity of this most
+incredible, wicked and foolish of all the fables contained in that
+repository of the impossible, called the bible. To me it is a matter
+of amazement, that it ever was for a moment believed by any intelligent
+human being.
+
+Dr. Adam Clark says that "the animals were brought to the ark by the
+power of God, and their enmities were so removed or suspended, that the
+lion could dwell peaceably with the lamb, and the wolf sleep happily by
+the side of the kid. There is no positive evidence that animal food was
+ever used before the flood. Noah had the first grant of this kind."
+
+Dr. Scott remarks, "There seems to have been a very extraordinary
+miracle, perhaps by the ministration of angels, in bringing two of every
+species to Noah, and rendering them submissive, and peaceful with each
+other. Yet it seems not to have made any impression upon the hardened
+spectators. The suspension of the ferocity of the savage beasts during
+their continuance in the ark, is generally considered as an apt figure
+of the change that takes place in the disposition of sinners when they
+enter the true church of Christ."
+
+He believed the deluge to have been universal. In his day science had
+not demonstrated the absurdity of this belief, and he was not compelled
+to resort to some theory not found in the bible. He insisted that "by
+some vast convulsion, the very bowels of the earth were forced upwards,
+and rain poured down in cataracts and water-spouts, with no intermission
+for forty days and nights, and until in every place a universal deluge
+was effected.
+
+"The presence of God was the only comfort of Noah in his dreary
+confinement, and in witnessing the dire devastation of the earth and its
+inhabitants, and especially of the human species--of his companions, his
+neighbors, his relatives--all those to whom he had preached, for whom he
+had prayed and over whom he had wept, and even of many who had helped to
+build the ark.
+
+"It seems that by a peculiar providential interposition, no animal of
+any sort died, although they had been shut up in the ark above a year;
+and it does not appear that there had been any increase of them during
+that time.
+
+"The Ark was flat-bottomed--square at each end--roofed like a house so
+that it terminated at the top in the breadth of a cubit. It was divided
+into many little cabins for its intended inhabitants. Pitched within and
+without to keep it tight and sweet, and lighted from the upper part.
+But it must, at first sight, be evident that so large a vessel, thus
+constructed, with so few persons on board, was utterly unfitted to
+weather out the deluge, except it was under the immediate guidance and
+protection of the Almighty."
+
+Dr. Henry furnished the Christian world with the following:--
+
+"As our bodies have in them the humors which, when God pleases, become
+the springs and seeds of mortal disease, so the earth had, in its
+bowels, those waters which, at God's command, sprung up and flooded it.
+
+"God made the world in six days, but he was forty days in destroying it,
+because he is slow to anger.
+
+"The hostilities between the animals in the ark ceased, and ravenous
+creatures became mild and manageable, so that the wolf lay down with the
+lamb, and the lion ate straw like an ox.
+
+"God shut the door of the ark to secure Noah and to keep him safe, and
+because it was necessary that the door should be shut very close lest
+the water should break in and sink the ark, and very fast lest others
+might break it down.
+
+"The waters rose so high that not only the low flat countries were
+deluged, but to make sure work and that none might escape, the tops of
+the highest mountains were overflowed fifteen cubits. That is, seven
+and a half yards, so that salvation was not hoped for from hills or
+mountains.
+
+"Perhaps some of the people got to the top of the ark, and hoped to
+shift for themselves there. But either they perished there for want of
+food, or the dashing rain washed them off the top. Others, it may be,
+hoped to prevail with Noah for admission into the ark, and plead old
+acquaintance.
+
+"'Have we not eaten and drank in thy presence? Hast thou not preached
+in our streets? 'Yea,' said Noah, 'many a time, but to little purpose.
+I called but ye refused; and now it is not in my power to help you. God
+has shut the door and I cannot open it.'
+
+"We may suppose that some of those who perished in the deluge had
+themselves assisted Noah, or were employed by him in building the ark.
+
+"Hitherto, man had been confined to feed only upon the products of the
+earth. Fruits, herbs and roots, and all sorts of greens, and milk, which
+was the first grant; but the flood having perhaps washed away much
+of the fruits of the earth, and rendered them much less pleasant and
+nourishing, God enlarged the grant and allowed him to eat flesh, which
+perhaps man never thought of until now, that God directed him to it. Nor
+had he any more desire to it than the sheep has to suck blood like the
+wolf. But now, man is allowed to feed upon flesh as freely and safely as
+upon the green herb."
+
+Such was the debasing influence of a belief in the literal truth of the
+bible upon these men, that their commentaries are filled with passages
+utterly devoid of common sense.
+
+Dr. Clark speaking of the mammoth says:
+
+"This animal, an astonishing proof of God's power, he seems to have
+produced merely to show what he could do. And after suffering a few of
+them to propagate, he extinguished the race by a merciful providence,
+that they might not destroy both man and beast.
+
+"We are told that it would have been much easier for God to destroy all
+the people and make new ones, but he would not want to waste anything
+and no power or skill should be lavished where no necessity exists.
+
+"The animals were brought to the ark by the power of God."
+
+Again gentlemen, let me warn you of the danger of trying to explain a
+miracle. Let it alone. Say that you do not understand it, and do not
+expect to until taught in the schools of the New Jerusalem. The more
+reasons you give, the more unreasonable the miracle will appear. Through
+what you say in defence people are led to think, and as soon as they
+really think, the miracle is thrown away.
+
+Among the most ignorant nations you will find the most wonders, among
+the most enlightened, the least. It is with individuals, the same as
+with nations. Ignorance believes, Intelligence examines and explains.
+
+For about seven months the ark, with its cargo of men, animals and
+insects, tossed and wandered without rudder or sail upon a boundless
+sea. At last it grounded on the mountains of Ararat; and about three
+months afterwards the tops of the mountains became visible. It must not
+be forgotten that the mountain where the ark is supposed to have first
+touched bottom, was about seventeen thousand feet high. How were the
+animals from the tropics kept warm? When the waters were abated it would
+be intensely cold at a point seventeen thousand feet above the level of
+the sea. May be there were stoves, furnaces, fire places and steam coils
+in the ark, but they are not mentioned in the inspired narrative. How
+were the animals kept from freezing? It will not do to say that Ararat
+was not very high after all.
+
+If you will read the fourth and fifth verses of the eight chapter you
+will see that although the ark rested in the seventh month, on the
+seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat, it was not
+until the first day of the tenth month "that the tops of the mountains
+could be seen." From this it would seem that the ark must have rested
+upon about the highest peak in that country. Noah waited forty days
+more, and then for the first time opened the window and took a breath
+of fresh air. He then sent out a raven that did not return, then a dove
+that returned. He then waited seven days and sent forth a dove that
+returned not. From this he knew that the waters were abated. Is it
+possible that he could not see whether the waters had gone? Is it
+possible to conceive of a more perfectly childish way of ascertaining
+whether the earth was dry?
+
+At last Noah "removed the covering of the ark, and looked and behold the
+face of the ground was dry," and thereupon God told him to disembark. In
+his gratitude Noah built an altar and took of every clean beast and of
+every clean fowl, and offered "burnt offerings". And the Lord smelled a
+sweet savor and said in his heart that he would not any more curse the
+ground for man's sake. For saying this in his heart the Lord gives as a
+reason, not that man is, or will be good, but because "the imagination
+of man's heart is evil from his youth." God destroyed man because "the
+wickedness of man was great in the earth, and _because every imagination
+of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually_." And he
+promised for the same reason not to destroy him again. Will some
+gentleman skilled in theology give us an explanation?
+
+After God had smelled the sweet savor of sacrifice, he seems to have
+changed his idea as to the proper diet for man. When Adam and Eve were
+created they were allowed to eat herbs bearing seed, and the fruit of
+trees. When they were turned out of Eden, God said to them "Thou shalt
+eat the herb of the field." In the first chapter of Genesis the "green
+herb" was given for food to the beasts, fowls and creeping things. Upon
+being expelled from the garden, Adam and Eve, as to their food, were
+put upon an equality with the lower animals. According to this, the
+ante-diluvians were vegetarians. This may account for their wickedness
+and longevity.
+
+After Noah sacrificed, and God smelled the sweet savor; he said--"Every
+moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb
+have I given you all things." Afterwards this same God changed his mind
+again, and divided the beasts and birds into clean and unclean, and made
+it a crime for man to eat the unclean. Probably food was so scarce when
+Noah was let out of the ark that Jehovah generously allowed him to eat
+anything and everything he could find.
+
+According to the account, God then made a covenant with Noah to the
+effect that he would not again destroy the world with a flood, and as
+the attesting witness of this contract, a rainbow was set in the cloud.
+This bow was placed in the sky so that it might perpetually remind God
+of his promise and covenant. Without this visible witness and reminder,
+it would seem that Jehovah was liable to forget the contract, and drown
+the world again. Did the rainbow originate in this way? Did God put it
+in the cloud simply to keep his agreement in his memory?
+
+For me it is impossible to believe the story of the deluge. It seems so
+cruel, so barbaric, so crude in detail, so absurd in all its parts,
+and so contrary to all we know of law, that even credulity itself is
+shocked.
+
+Many nations have preserved accounts of a deluge in which all people,
+except a family or two, were destroyed. Babylon was certainly a city
+before Jerusalem was founded. Egypt was in the height of her power when
+there were only seventy Jews in the world, and India had a literature
+before the name of Jehovah had passed the lips of superstition. An
+account of a general deluge "was discovered by George Smith, translated
+from another account that was written about two thousand years before
+Christ." Of course it is impossible to tell how long the story had
+lived in the memory of tradition before it was reduced to writing by the
+Babylonians. According to this account, which is, without doubt, much
+older than the one given by Moses, Tamzi built a ship at the command of
+the god Hea, and put in it his family and the beasts of the field. He
+pitched the ship inside and outside with bitumen, and as soon as it was
+finished, there came a flood of rain and "destroyed all life from the
+face of the whole earth. On the seventh day there was a calm, and the
+ship stranded on the mountain Nizir." Tamzi waited for seven days more,
+and then let out a dove. Afterwards, he let out a swallow, and that, as
+well as the dove returned. Then he let out a raven, and as that did not
+return, he concluded that the water had dried away, and thereupon
+left the ship. Then he made an offering to god, or the gods, and "Hea
+interceded with Bel," so that the earth might never again be drowned.
+
+This is the Babylonian story, told without the contradictions of the
+original. For in that, it seems, there are two accounts, as well as
+in the bible. Is it not a strange coincidence that there should be
+contradictory accounts mingled in both the Babylonian and Jewish
+stories?
+
+In the bible there are two accounts. In one account, Noah was to take
+two of all beasts, birds, and creeping things into the ark, while in the
+other he was commanded to take of clean beasts, and all birds by
+sevens of each kind. According to one account, the flood only lasted
+one hundred and fifty days--as related in the third verse of the eighth
+chapter; while the other account fixes the time at three hundred and
+seventy-seven days. Both of these accounts cannot be true. Yet in order
+to be saved, it is not sufficient to believe one of them--you must
+believe both.
+
+Among the Egyptians there was a story to the effect that the great god
+Ra became utterly maddened with the people, and deliberately made up his
+mind that he would exterminate mankind. Thereupon he began to destroy,
+and continued in the terrible work until blood flowed in streams, when
+suddenly he ceased, and took an oath that he would not again destroy the
+human race. This myth was probably thousands of years old when Moses was
+born.
+
+So, in India, there was a fable about the flood. A fish warned Manu
+that a flood was coming. Manu built a "box" and the fish towed it to a
+mountain and saved all hands.
+
+The same kind of stories were told in Greece, and among our own Indian
+tribes. At one time the christian pointed to the fact that many nations
+told of a flood, as evidence of the truth of the Mosaic account; but
+now, it having been shown that other accounts are much older, and
+equally reasonable, that argument has ceased to be of any great value.
+
+It is probable that all these accounts had a common origin. They were
+likely born of something in nature visible to all nations. The idea of a
+universal flood, produced by a god to drown the world on account of
+the sins of the people, is infinitely absurd. The solution of all these
+stories has been supposed to be, the existence of partial floods in most
+countries; and for a long time this solution was satisfactory. But the
+fact that these stories are greatly alike, that only one man is warned,
+that only one family is saved, that a boat is built, that birds are sent
+out to find if the water had abated, tend to show that they had a common
+origin. Admitting that there were severe floods in all countries; it
+certainly cannot follow that in each instance only one family would be
+saved, or that the same story would in each instance be told. It may be
+urged that the natural tendency of man to exaggerate calamities, might
+account for this agreement in all the accounts, and it must be admitted
+that there is some force in the suggestion, I believe, though, that the
+real origin of all these myths is the same, and that it was originally
+an effort to account for the sun, moon and stars. The sun and moon
+were the man and wife, or the god and goddess, and the stars were their
+children. From a celestial myth, it became a terrestrial one; the air,
+or ether-ocean became a flood, produced by rain, and the sun moon and
+stars became man, woman and children.
+
+In the original story, the mountain was the place where in the far east
+the sky was supposed to touch the earth, and it was there that the ship
+containing the celestial passengers finally rested from its voyage. But
+whatever may be the origin of the stories of the flood, whether told
+first by Hindu, Babylonian or Hebrew, we may rest perfectly assured that
+they are all equally false.
+
+
+
+
+XIX. BACCHUS AND BABEL
+
+As soon as Noah had disembarked, he proceeded to plant a vineyard, and
+began to be a husbandman; and when the grapes were ripe he made wine and
+drank of it to excess; cursed his grandson, blessed Shem and Japheth,
+and after that lived for three hundred and fifty years. What he did
+during these three hundred and fifty years, we are not told. We never
+hear of him again. For three hundred and fifty years he lived among
+his sons, and daughters, and their descendants. He must have been a
+venerable man. He was the man to whom God had made known his intention
+of drowning the world. By his efforts, the human race had been saved.
+He must have been acquainted with Methuselah for six hundred years, and
+Methuselah was about two hundred and forty years old, when Adam died.
+Noah must himself have known the history of mankind, and must have been
+an object of almost infinite interest; and yet for three hundred and
+fifty years he is neither directly nor indirectly mentioned. When Noah
+died, Abraham must have been more than fifty years old; and Shem, the
+son of Noah, lived for several hundred years after the death of Abraham;
+and yet he is never mentioned. Noah when he died, was the oldest man in
+the whole world by about five hundred years; and everybody living at
+the time of his death knew that they were indebted to him, and yet no
+account is given of his burial. No monument was raised to mark the spot.
+This, however, is no more wonderful than the fact that no account is
+given of the death of Adam or of Eve, nor of the place of their burial.
+This may all be accounted for by the fact that the language of man was
+confounded at the building of the tower of Babel, whereby all tradition
+may have been lost, so that even the sons of Noah could not give an
+account of their voyage in the ark; and, consequently, some one had to
+be directly inspired to tell the story, after new languages had been
+formed.
+
+It has always been a mystery to me how Adam, Eve, and the serpent were
+taught the same language. Where did they get it? We know now, that
+it requires a great number of years to form a language; that it is of
+exceedingly slow growth. We also know that by language, man conveys to
+his fellows the impressions made upon him by what he sees, hears, smells
+and touches. We know that the language of the savage consists of a few
+sounds, capable of expressing only a few ideas or states of the
+mind, such as love, desire, fear, hatred, aversion and contempt. Many
+centuries are required to produce a language capable of expressing
+complex ideas. It does not seem to me that ideas can be manufactured by
+a deity and put in the brain of man. These ideas must be the result of
+observation and experience.
+
+Does anybody believe that God directly taught a language to Adam and
+Eve, or that he so made them that they, by intuition spoke Hebrew, or
+some language capable of conveying to each other their thoughts? How did
+the serpent learn the same language? Did God teach it to him, or did he
+happen to overhear God, when he was teaching Adam and Eve? We are told
+in the second chapter of Genesis that God caused all the animals to pass
+before Adam to see what he would call them. We cannot infer from this
+that God named the animals and informed Adam what to call them. Adam
+named them himself. Where did he get his words? We cannot imagine a man
+just made out of dust, without the experience of a moment, having the
+power to put his thoughts in language. In the first place, we cannot
+conceive of his having any thoughts until he has combined, through
+experience and observation, the impressions that nature had made upon
+him through the medium of his senses. We cannot imagine of his knowing
+anything, in the first instance, about different degrees of heat, nor
+about darkness, if he was made in the day-time, nor about light, if
+created at night, until the next morning. Before a man can have what we
+call thoughts, he must have had a little experience. Something must have
+happened to him before he can have a thought, and before he can express
+himself in language. Language is a growth, not a gift. We account now
+for the diversity of language by the fact that tribes and nations have
+had different experiences, different wants, different surroundings, and,
+one result of all these differences is, among other things, a difference
+in language. Nothing can be more absurd than to account for the
+different languages of the world by saying that the original language
+was confounded at the tower of Babel.
+
+According to the bible, up to the time of the building of that tower,
+the whole earth was of one language and of one speech, and would have so
+remained until the present time had not an effort been made to build
+a tower whose top should reach into heaven. Can any one imagine what
+objection God would have to the building of such a tower? And how could
+the confusion of tongues prevent its construction? How could language
+be confounded? It could be confounded only by the destruction of memory.
+Did God destroy the memory of mankind at that time, and if so, how?
+Did he paralyze that portion of the brain presiding over the organs
+of articulation, so that they could not speak the words, although they
+remembered them clearly, or did he so touch the brain that they
+could not hear? Will some theologian, versed in the machinery of the
+miraculous, tell us in what way God confounded the language of mankind?
+
+Why would the confounding of the language make them separate? Why would
+they not stay together until they could understand each other? People
+will not separate, from weakness. When in trouble they come together
+and desire the assistance of each other. Why, in this instance, did they
+separate? What particular ones would naturally come together if nobody
+understood the language of any other person? Would it not have been just
+as hard to agree when and where to go, without any language to express
+the agreement, as to go on with the building of the tower?
+
+Is it possible that any one now believes that the whole world would be
+of one speech had the language not been confounded at Babel? Do we not
+know that every word was suggested in some way by the experience of men?
+Do we not know that words are continually dying, and continually being
+born; that every language has its cradle and its cemetery--its buds, its
+blossoms, its fruits and its withered leaves? Man has loved, enjoyed,
+hated, suffered and hoped, and all words have been born of these
+experiences.
+
+Why did "the Lord come down to see the city and the tower?" Could he
+not see them from where he lived or from where he was? Where did he come
+down from? Did he come in the daytime, or in the night? We are taught
+now that God is everywhere; that he inhabits immensity; that he is in
+every atom, and in every star. If this is true, why did he "come down to
+see the city and the tower?" Will some theologian explain this?
+
+After all, is it not much easier and altogether more reasonable to say
+that Moses was mistaken, that he knew little of the science of language,
+and that he guessed a great deal more than he investigated?
+
+
+
+
+XX. FAITH IN FILTH
+
+No light whatever is shed upon what passed in the world after the
+confounding of language at Babel, until the birth of Abraham. But,
+before speaking of the history of the Jewish people, it may be proper
+for me to say that many things are recounted in Genesis, and other books
+attributed to Moses, of which I do not wish to speak. There are many
+pages of these books unfit to read, many stories not calculated, in my
+judgment, to improve the morals of mankind. I do not wish even to call
+the attention of my readers to these things, except in a general way. It
+is to be hoped that the time will come when such chapters and passages
+as cannot be read without leaving the blush of shame upon the cheek of
+modesty, will be left out, and not published as a part of the bible.
+If there is a God, it certainly is blasphemous to attribute to him the
+authorship of pages too obscene, beastly and vulgar to be read in the
+presence of men and women.
+
+The believers in the bible are loud in their denunciation of what they
+are pleased to call the immoral literature of the world; and yet few
+books have been published containing more moral filth than this inspired
+word of God. These stories are not redeemed by a single flash of wit or
+humor. They never rise above the dull details of stupid vice. For one,
+I cannot afford to soil my pages with extracts from them; and all such
+portions of the Scriptures I leave to be examined, written upon, and
+explained by the clergy. Clergymen may know some way by which they can
+extract honey from these flowers. Until these passages are expunged
+from the Old Testament, it is not a fit book to be read by either old
+or young. It contains pages that no minister in the United States would
+read to his congregation for any reward whatever. There are chapters
+that no gentleman would read in the presence of a lady. There are
+chapters that no father would read to his child. There are narratives
+utterly unfit to be told; and the time will come when mankind will
+wonder that such a book was ever called inspired.
+
+I know that in many books besides the bible there are immodest lines.
+Some of the greatest writers have soiled their pages with indecent
+words. We account for this by saying that the authors were human; that
+they catered to the taste and spirit of their times. We make excuses,
+but at the same time regret that in their works they left an impure
+word. But what shall we say of God? Is it possible that a being of
+infinite purity--the author of modesty, would smirch the pages of his
+book with stories lewd, licentious and obscene? If God is the author of
+the bible, it is, of course, the standard by which all other books can,
+and should be measured. If the bible is not obscene, what book is? Why
+should men be imprisoned simply for imitating God? The christian world
+should never say another word against immoral books until it makes the
+inspired volume clean. These vile and filthy things were not written
+for the purpose of conveying and enforcing moral truth, but seem to
+have been written because the author loved an unclean thing. There is
+no moral depth below that occupied by the writer or publisher of obscene
+books, that stain with lust, the loving heart of youth. Such men should
+be imprisoned and their books destroyed. The literature of the world
+should be rendered decent, and no book should be published that cannot
+be read by, and in the hearing of the best and purest people. But as
+long as the bible is considered as the work of God, it will be hard
+to make all men too good and pure to imitate it; and as long as it is
+imitated there will be vile and filthy books. The literature of our
+country will not be sweet and clean until the bible ceases to be
+regarded as the production of a god.
+
+We are continually told that the bible is the very foundation of modesty
+and morality; while many of its pages are so immodest and immoral that
+a minister, for reading them in the pulpit, would be instantly denounced
+as an unclean wretch. Every woman would leave the church, and if the men
+stayed, it would be for the purpose of chastising the minister.
+
+Is there any saving grace in hypocrisy? Will men become clean in speech
+by believing that God is unclean? Would it not be far better to admit
+that the bible was written by barbarians in a barbarous, coarse and
+vulgar age? Would it not be safer to charge Moses with vulgarity,
+instead of God? Is it not altogether more probable that some ignorant
+Hebrew would write the vulgar words? The christians tell me that God is
+the author of these vile and stupid things? I have examined the question
+to the best of my ability, and as to God my verdict is:--Not guilty.
+Faith should not rest in filth.
+
+Every foolish and immodest thing should be expunged from the bible.
+Let us keep the good. Let us preserve every great and splendid thought,
+every wise and prudent maxim, every just law, every elevated idea, and
+every word calculated to make man nobler and purer, and let us have
+the courage to throw the rest away. The souls of children should not
+be stained and soiled. The charming instincts of youth should not be
+corrupted and defiled. The girls and boys should not be taught that
+unclean words were uttered by "inspired" lips. Teach them that these
+words were born of savagery and lust. Teach them that the unclean is the
+unholy, and that only the pure is sacred.
+
+
+
+
+XXI. THE HEBREWS
+
+After language had been confounded and the people scattered, there
+appeared in the land of Canaan a tribe of Hebrews ruled by a chief or
+sheik called Abraham. They had a few cattle, lived in tents, practiced
+polygamy, wandered from place to place, and were the only folks in the
+whole world to whom God paid the slightest attention. At this time
+there were hundreds of cities in India filled with temples and palaces;
+millions of Egyptians worshiped Isis and Osiris, and had covered their
+land with marvelous monuments of industry, power and skill. But these
+civilizations were entirely neglected by the Deity, his whole attention
+being taken up with Abraham and his family.
+
+It seems, from the account, that God and Abraham were intimately
+acquainted, and conversed frequently upon a great variety of subjects.
+By the twelfth chapter of Genesis it appears that he made the following
+promises to Abraham. "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will
+bless thee, and make thy name great: and thou shalt be a blessing. And I
+will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee."
+
+After receiving this communication from the Almighty, Abraham went into
+the land of Canaan, and again God appeared to him and told him to take
+a heifer three years old, a goat of the same age, a sheep of equal
+antiquity, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Whereupon Abraham killed
+the animals "and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one
+against another." And it came to pass that when the sun went down and
+it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed
+between the raw and bleeding meat. The killing of these animals was
+a preparation for receiving a visit from God. Should an American
+missionary in Central Africa find a negro chief surrounded by
+a butchered heifer, a goat and a sheep, with which to receive a
+communication from the infinite God, my opinion is, that the missionary
+would regard the proceeding as the direct result of savagery. And if
+the chief insisted that he had seen a smoking furnace and a burning
+lamp going up and down between the pieces of meat, the missionary would
+certainly conclude that the chief was not altogether right in his mind.
+
+If the bible is true, this same God told Abraham to take and sacrifice
+his only son, or rather the only son of his wife, and a murder would
+have been committed had not God, just at the right moment, directed him
+to stay his hand and take a sheep instead.
+
+God made a great number of promises to Abraham, but few of them were
+ever kept. He agreed to make him the father of a great nation, but he
+did not. He solemnly promised to give him a great country, including all
+the land between the river of Egypt and the Euphrates, but he did not.
+
+In due time Abraham passed away, and his son Isaac took his place at
+the head of the tribe. Then came Jacob, who "watered stock" and enriched
+himself with the spoil of Laban. Joseph was sold into Egypt by his
+jealous brethren, where he became one of the chief men of the kingdom,
+and in a few years his father and brothers left their own country and
+settled in Egypt. At this time there were seventy Hebrews in the world,
+counting Joseph and his children. They remained in Egypt two hundred and
+fifteen years. It is claimed by some that they were in that country for
+four hundred and thirty years. This is a mistake. Josephus says they
+were in Egypt two hundred and fifteen years, and this statement is
+sustained by the best biblical scholars of all denominations. According
+to the 17th verse of the 3rd chapter of Galatians, it was four hundred
+and thirty years from the time the promise was made to Abraham to
+the giving of the law, and as the Hebrews did not go to Egypt for two
+hundred and fifteen years after the making of the promise to Abraham,
+they could in no event have been in Egypt more than two hundred and
+fifteen years. In our bible the 40th verse of the 12th chapter of
+Exodus, is as follows:--
+
+"Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was
+four hundred and thirty years."
+
+This passage does not say that the sojourning was all done in Egypt;
+neither does it say that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt four
+hundred and thirty years; but it does say that the sojourning of the
+children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty
+years. The Vatican copy of the Septuagint renders the same passage as
+follows:--
+
+"The sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt,
+and in the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years."
+
+The Alexandrian version says:--"The sojourning of the children of Israel
+which they and their fathers sojourned in Egypt, and in the land of
+Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years."
+
+And in the Samaritan bible we have:--"The sojourning of the children of
+Israel and of their fathers which they sojourned in the land of Canaan,
+and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years."
+
+There were seventy souls when they went down into Egypt, and they
+remained two hundred and fifteen years, and at the end of that time they
+had increased to about three million. How do we know that there were
+three million at the end of two hundred and fifteen years? We know it
+because we are informed by Moses that "there were six hundred thousand
+men of war." Now, to each man of war, there must have been at least five
+other people. In every State in this Union there will be to each voter,
+five other persons at least, and we all know that there are always more
+voters than men of war. If there were six hundred thousand men of war,
+there must have been a population of at least three million. Is it
+possible that seventy people could increase to that extent in two
+hundred and fifteen years? You may say that it was a miracle; but
+what need was there of working a miracle? Why should God miraculously
+increase the number of slaves? If he wished miraculously to increase the
+population, why did he not wait until the people were free?
+
+In 1776, we had in the American Colonies about three millions of people.
+In one hundred years we doubled four times: that is to say, six, twelve,
+twenty-four, forty-eight million,--our present population.
+
+We must not forget that during all these years there has been pouring
+into our country a vast stream of emigration, and that this, taken
+in connection with the fact that our country is productive beyond all
+others, gave us only four doubles in one hundred years. Admitting that
+the Hebrews increased as rapidly without emigration as we, in this
+country, have with it, we will give to them four doubles each century,
+commencing with seventy people, and they would have, at the end of
+two hundred years, a population of seventeen thousand nine hundred and
+twenty. Giving them another double for the odd fifteen years and there
+would be, provided no deaths had occurred, thirty-five thousand eight
+hundred and forty people. And yet we are told that instead of having
+this number, they had increased to such an extent that they had six
+hundred thousand men of war: that is to say, a population of more than
+three millions!
+
+Every sensible man knows that this account is not, and cannot be true.
+We know that seventy people could not increase to three million in two
+hundred and fifteen years.
+
+About this time the Hebrews took a census, and found that there were
+twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three first born males.
+It is reasonable to suppose that there were about as many first born
+females. This would make forty-four thousand five hundred and forty-six
+first born children. Now, there must have been about as many mothers
+as there were first born children. If there were only about forty-five
+thousand mothers and three millions of people, the mothers must have had
+on an average about sixty-six children apiece.
+
+At this time, the Hebrews were slaves, and had been for two hundred
+and fifteen years. A little while before, an order had been made by the
+Egyptians that all the male children of the Hebrews should be killed.
+One, contrary to this order, was saved in an ark made of bullrushes
+daubed with slime. This child was found by the daughter of Pharaoh, and
+was adopted, it seems, as her own, and, may be, was. He grew to be
+a man, sided with the Hebrews, killed an Egyptian that was smiting a
+slave, hid the body in the sand, and fled from Egypt to the land of
+Midian, became acquainted with a priest who had seven daughters, took
+the side of the daughters against the ill-mannered shepherds of that
+country, and married Zipporah, one of the girls, and became a shepherd
+for her father. Afterward, while tending his flock, the Lord appeared to
+him in a burning bush, and commanded him to go to the king of Egypt and
+demand from him the liberation of the Hebrews. In order to convince him
+that the something burning in the bush was actually God, the rod in his
+hand was changed into a serpent, which, upon being caught by the tail,
+became again a rod. Moses was also told to put his hand in his bosom,
+and when he took it out it was as leprous as snow. Quite a number of
+strange things were performed, and others promised. Moses then agreed to
+go back to Egypt provided his brother could go with him. Whereupon
+the Lord appeared to Aaron, and directed him to meet Moses in the
+wilderness. They met at the mount of God, went to Egypt, gathered
+together all the elders of the children of Israel, spake all the words
+which God had spoken unto Moses, and did all the signs in the sight of
+the people. The Israelites believed, bowed their heads and worshiped;
+and Moses and Aaron went in and told their message to Pharaoh the king.
+
+
+
+
+XXII. THE PLAGUES
+
+Three millions of people were in slavery. They were treated with the
+utmost rigor, and so fearful were their masters that they might, in
+time, increase in numbers sufficient to avenge themselves, that they
+took from the arms of mothers all the male children and destroyed
+them. If the account given is true, the Egyptians were the most cruel,
+heartless and infamous people of which history gives any record. God
+finally made up his mind to free the Hebrews; and for the accomplishment
+of this purpose he sent, as his agents, Moses and Aaron, to the king
+of Egypt. In order that the king might know that these men had a divine
+mission, God gave Moses the power of changing a stick into a serpent,
+and water into blood. Moses and Aaron went before the king, stating that
+the Lord God of Israel ordered the King of Egypt to let the Hebrews
+go that they might hold a feast with God in the wilderness. Thereupon
+Pharaoh, the king, enquired who the Lord was, at the same time stating
+that he had never made his acquaintance, and knew nothing about him.
+To this they replied that the God of the Hebrews had met with them, and
+they asked to go a three days journey into the desert and sacrifice
+unto this God, fearing that if they did not he would fall upon them with
+pestilence or the sword. This interview seems to have hardened Pharaoh,
+for he ordered the tasks of the children of Israel to be increased; so
+that the only effect of the first appeal was to render still worse the
+condition of the Hebrews. Thereupon, Moses returned unto the Lord and
+said "Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it
+that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name
+he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people
+at all."
+
+Apparently stung by this reproach, God answered:--
+
+"Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharoah; for with a strong hand
+shall he let them go; and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of
+his land."
+
+God then recounts the fact that he had appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and
+Jacob, that he had established a covenant with them to give them the
+land of Canaan, that he had heard the groanings of the children of
+Israel in Egyptian bondage; that their groanings had put him in mind of
+his covenant, and that he had made up his mind to redeem the children
+of Israel with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. Moses then
+spoke to the children' of Israel again, but they would listen to him no
+more. His first effort in their behalf had simply doubled their trouble
+and they seemed to have lost confidence in his power. Thereupon Jehovah
+promised Moses that he would make him a god unto Pharaoh, and that
+Aaron should be his prophet, but at the same time informed him that his
+message would be of no avail; that he would harden the heart of Pharaoh
+so that he would not listen; that he would so harden his heart that he
+might have an excuse for destroying the Egyptians. Accordingly, Moses
+and Aaron again went before Pharaoh. Moses said to Aaron;--"Cast down
+your rod before Pharaoh," which he did, and it became a serpent. Then
+Pharaoh not in the least surprised, called for his wise men and
+his sorcerers, and they threw down their rods and changed them into
+serpents. The serpent that had been changed from Aaron's rod was, at
+this time crawling upon the floor, and it proceeded to swallow the
+serpents that had been produced by the magicians of Egypt. What became
+of these serpents that were swallowed, whether they turned back into
+sticks again, is not stated. Can we believe that the stick was changed
+into a real living serpent, or did it assume simply the appearance of a
+serpent? If it bore only the appearance of a serpent it was a deception,
+and could not rise above the dignity of legerdemain. Is it necessary
+to believe that God is a kind of prestigiator--a sleight-of-hand
+per-former, a magician or sorcerer? Can it be possible that an infinite
+being would endeavor to secure the liberation of a race by performing a
+miracle that could be equally performed by the sorcerers and magicians
+of a barbarian king?
+
+Not one word was said by Moses or Aaron as to the wickedness of
+depriving a human being of his liberty. Not a word was said in favor
+of liberty. Not the slightest intimation that a human being was justly
+entitled to the product of his own labor. Not a word about the cruelty
+of masters who would destroy even the babes of slave mothers. It seems
+to me wonderful that this God did not tell the king of Egypt that no
+nation could enslave another, without also enslaving itself; that it was
+impossible to put a chain around the limbs of a slave, without putting
+manacles upon the brain of the master. Why did he not tell him that a
+nation founded upon slavery could not stand? Instead of declaring these
+things, instead of appealing to justice, to mercy and to liberty, he
+resorted to feats of jugglery. Suppose we wished to make a treaty with
+a barbarous nation, and the president should employ a sleight-of-hand
+performer as envoy extraordinary, and instruct him, that when he came
+into the presence of the savage monarch, he should cast down an umbrella
+or a walking stick, which would change into a lizard or a turtle; what
+would we think? Would we not regard such a performance as beneath the
+dignity even of a president? And what would be our feelings if the
+savage king sent for his sorcerers and had them perform the same feat?
+If such things would appear puerile and foolish in the president of a
+great republic, what shall be said when they were resorted to by the
+creator of all worlds? How small, how contemptible such a God appears!
+Pharaoh, it seems, took about this view of the matter, and he would not
+be persuaded that such tricks were performed by an infinite being.
+
+Again, Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh as he was going to the river
+s bank, and the same rod which had changed to a serpent, and, by this
+time changed back, was taken by Aaron, who, in the presence of Pharaoh,
+smote the water of the river, which was immediately turned to blood, as
+well as all the water in all the streams, ponds, and pools, as well as
+all water in vessels of wood and vessels of stone in the entire land of
+Egypt. As soon as all the waters in Egypt had been turned into blood,
+the magicians of that country did the same with their enchantments. We
+are not informed where they got the water to turn into blood, since
+all the water in Egypt had already been so changed. It seems from the
+account that the fish in the Nile died, and the river emitted a stench,
+and there was not a drop of water in the land of Egypt that had not been
+changed into blood. In consequence of this, the Egyptians digged "around
+about the river" for water to drink. Can we believe this story? Is it
+necessary to salvation to admit that all the rivers, pools, ponds and
+lakes of a country were changed into blood, in order that a king might
+be induced to allow the children of Israel the privilege of going a
+three days journey into the wilderness to make sacrifices to their God?
+
+It seems from the account that Pharaoh was told that the God of the
+Hebrews would, if he refused to let the Israelites go, change all the
+waters of Egypt into blood, and that, upon his refusal, they were so
+changed. This had, however, no influence upon him, for the reason that
+his own magicians did the same. It does not appear that Moses and Aaron
+expressed the least surprise at the success of the Egyptian sorcerers.
+At that time it was believed that each nation had its own god. The
+only claim that Moses and Aaron made for their God was, that he was the
+greatest and most powerful of all the gods, and that with anything like
+an equal chance he could vanquish the deity of any other nation.
+
+After the waters were changed to blood Moses and Aaron waited for seven
+days. At the end of that time God told Moses to again go to Pharaoh and
+demand the release of his people, and to inform him that, if he refused,
+God would strike all the borders of Egypt with frogs. That he would make
+frogs so plentiful that they would go into the houses of Pharaoh, into
+his bedchamber, upon his bed, into the houses of his servants, upon his
+people, into their ovens, and even into their kneading troughs,
+This threat had no effect whatever upon Pharaoh, And thereupon Aaron
+stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came
+up and covered the land. The magicians of Egypt did the same, and with
+their enchantments brought more frogs upon the land of Egypt These
+magicians do not seem to have been original in their ideas, but so far
+as imitation is concerned, were perfect masters of their art. The frogs
+seem to have made such an impression upon Pharaoh that he sent for Moses
+and asked him to entreat the Lord that he would take away the frogs.
+Moses agreed to remove them from the houses and the land, and allow
+them to remain only in the rivers. Accordingly the frogs died out of the
+houses, and out of the villages, and out of the fields, and the people
+gathered them together in heaps. As soon as the frogs had left the
+houses and fields, the heart of Pharaoh became again hardened, and he
+refused to let the people go.
+
+Aaron then, according to the command of God, stretched out his hand,
+holding the rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in
+man and in beast, and all the dust became lice throughout the land of
+Egypt. Pharaoh again sent for his magicians, and they sought to do
+the same with their enchantments, but they could not. Whereupon the
+sorcerers said unto Pharaoh: "This is the finger of God."
+
+Notwithstanding this, however, Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go.
+God then caused a grievous swarm of flies to come into the house of
+Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt,
+to such an extent that the whole land was corrupted by reason of the
+flies. But into that part of the country occupied by the children of
+Israel there came no flies. Thereupon Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron
+and said to them: "Go, and sacrifice to your God in this land." They
+were not willing to sacrifice in Egypt, and asked permission to go on a
+journey of three days into the wilderness. To this Pharaoh acceded, and
+in consideration of this Moses agreed to use his influence with the Lord
+to induce him to send the flies out of the country. He accordingly told
+the Lord of the bargain he had made with Pharaoh, and the Lord agreed to
+the compromise, and removed the flies from Pharaoh and from his servants
+and from his people, and there remained not a single fly in the land of
+Egypt. As soon as the flies were gone, Pharaoh again changed his mind,
+and concluded not to permit the children of Israel to depart. The Lord
+then directed Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him that if he did not
+allow the children of Israel to depart, he would destroy his cattle, his
+horses, his camels and his sheep; that these animals would be afflicted
+with a grievous disease, but that the animals belonging to the Hebrews
+should not be so afflicted. Moses did as he was bid. On the next day all
+the cattle of Egypt died; that is to say, all the horses, all the asses,
+all the camels, all the oxen and all the sheep; but of the animals owned
+by the Israelites, not one perished. This disaster had no effect upon
+Pharaoh, and he still refused to let the children of Israel go. The Lord
+then told Moses and Aaron to take some ashes out of a furnace, and
+told Moses to sprinkle them toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh;
+saying that the ashes should become small dust in all the land of Egypt,
+and should be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast
+throughout all the land.
+
+How these boils breaking out with blains, upon cattle that were already
+dead, should affect Pharaoh, is a little hard to understand. It must
+not be forgotten that all the cattle and all beasts had died with the
+murrain before the boils had broken out This was a most decisive victory
+for Moses and Aaron. The boils were upon the magicians to that extent
+that they could not stand before Moses. But it had no effect upon
+Pharaoh, who seems to have been a man of great firmness. The Lord then
+instructed Moses to get up early in the morning and tell Pharaoh that he
+would stretch out his hand and smite his people with a pestilence, and
+would, on the morrow, cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as
+had never been known in the land of Egypt. He also told Moses to give
+notice, so that they might get all the cattle that were in the fields
+under cover. It must be remembered that all these cattle had recently
+died of the murrain, and their dead bodies had been covered with boils
+and blains. This, however, had no effect, and Moses stretched forth his
+hand toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder, and hail and lightning,
+and fire that ran along the ground, and the hail fell upon all the land
+of Egypt, and all that were in the fields, both man and beast, were
+smitten, and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every
+tree of the country except that portion inhabited by the children of
+Israel; there, there was no hail.
+
+During this hail storm Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and admitted
+that he had sinned, that the Lord was righteous, and that the Egyptians
+were wicked, and requested them to ask the Lord that there be no more
+thunderings and hail, and that he would let the Hebrews go. Moses agreed
+that as soon as he got out of the city he would stretch forth his hands
+unto the Lord, and that the thunderings should cease and the hail should
+stop. But, when the rain and the hail and the thundering ceased, Pharaoh
+concluded that he would not let the children of Israel go.
+
+Again, God sent Moses and Aaron, instructing them to tell Pharaoh that
+if he refused to let the people go, the face of the earth would be
+covered with locusts, so that man would not be able to see the ground,
+and that these locusts would eat the residue of that which escaped from
+the hail; that they would eat every tree out of the field; that they
+would fill the houses of Pharaoh and the houses of all his servants, and
+the houses of all the Egyptians. Moses delivered the message, and went
+out from Pharaoh. Some of Pharaoh's servants entreated their master
+to let the children of Israel go. Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and
+asked them, who wished to go into the wilderness to sacrifice. They
+replied that they wished to go with the young and old; with their sons
+and daughters, with flocks and herds. Pharaoh would not consent to this,
+but agreed that the men might go. There upon Pharaoh drove Moses and
+Aaron out of his sight. Then God told Moses to stretch forth his hand
+upon the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they might come up and eat
+every herb, even all that the hail had left. "And Moses stretched out
+his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an East wind all
+that day and all that night; and and when it was morning the East wind
+brought the locusts; and they came up over all the land of Egypt and
+rested upon all the coasts covering the face of the whole earth, so that
+the land was darkened; and they ate every herb and all the fruit of the
+trees which the hail had left, and there remained not any green thing
+on the trees or in the herbs of the field throughout the land of Egypt."
+Pharaoh then called for Moses and Aaron in great haste, admitted that
+he had sinned against the Lord their God and against them, asked their
+forgiveness and requested them to intercede with God that he might take
+away the locusts. They went out from his presence and asked the Lord to
+drive the locusts away, "And the Lord made a strong west wind which took
+away the locusts, and cast them into the Red Sea so that there remained
+not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt."
+
+As soon as the locusts were gone, Pharaoh changed his mind, and, in the
+language of the sacred text, "the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that
+he would not let the children of Israel go."
+
+The Lord then told Moses to stretch out his hand toward heaven that
+there might be darkness over the land of Egypt, "even darkness which
+might be felt." "And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and
+there was a thick darkness over the land of Egypt for three days during
+which time they saw not each other, neither arose any of the people from
+their places for three days; but the children of Israel had light in
+their dwellings."
+
+It strikes me that when the land of Egypt was covered with thick
+darkness--so thick that it could be felt, and when light was in the
+dwellings of the Israelites, there could have been no better time for
+the Hebrews to have left the country.
+
+Pharaoh again called for Moses, and told him that his people could go
+and serve the Lord, provided they would leave their flocks and herds.
+Moses would not agree to this, for the reason that they needed the
+flocks and herds for sacrifices and burnt offerings, and he did not know
+how many of the animals God might require, and for that reason he could
+not leave a single hoof. Upon the question of the cattle, they divided,
+and Pharaoh again refused to let the people go. God then commanded Moses
+to tell the Hebrews to borrow, each of his neighbor, jewels of silver
+and gold. By a miraculous interposition the Hebrews found favor in the
+sight of the Egyptians so that they loaned the articles asked for. After
+this, Moses again went to Pharaoh and told him that all the first-born
+in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh upon the throne,
+unto the first-born of the maid-servant who was behind the mill, as well
+as the first-born of beasts, should die.
+
+As all the beasts had been destroyed by disease and hail, it is
+troublesome to understand the meaning of the threat as to their
+first-born.
+
+Preparations were accordingly made for carrying this frightful threat
+into execution. Blood was put on the door-posts of all houses inhabited
+by Hebrews, so that God, as he passed through that land, might not be
+mistaken and destroy the first-born of the Jews. "And it came to pass
+that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt,
+the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne, and the first-born of
+the captive who was in the dungeon. And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
+and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry
+in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead."
+
+What had these children done? Why should the babes in the cradle be
+destroyed on account of the crime of Pharaoh? Why should the cattle be
+destroyed because man had enslaved his brother? In those days women and
+children and cattle were put upon an exact equality, and all considered
+as the property of the men; and when man in some way excited the wrath
+of God, he punished them by destroying all their cattle, their wives,
+and their little ones. Where can words be found bitter enough to
+describe a god who would kill wives and babes because husbands and
+fathers had failed to keep his law? Every good man, and every good
+woman, must hate and despise such a deity.
+
+Upon the death of all the first-born Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron,
+and not only gave his consent that they might go with the Hebrews into
+the wilderness, but besought them to go at once.
+
+Is it possible that an infinite God, creator of all worlds and sustainer
+of all life, said to Pharaoh, "If you do not let my people go, I will
+turn all the water of your country into blood," and that upon the
+refusal of Pharaoh to release the people, God did turn all the waters
+into blood? Do you believe this?
+
+Do you believe that Pharaoh even after all the water was turned to
+blood, refused to let the Hebrews go, and that thereupon God told him he
+would cover his land with frogs? Do you believe this?
+
+Do you believe that after the land was covered with frogs Pharaoh still
+refused to let the people go, and that God then said to him, "I will
+cover you and all your people with lice?" Do you believe God would make
+this threat?
+
+Do you also believe that God told Pharaoh, "If you do not let these
+people go, I will fill all your houses and cover your country with
+flies?" Do you believe God makes such threats as this?
+
+Of course God must have known that turning the waters into blood,
+covering the country with frogs, infesting all flesh with lice, and
+filling all houses with flies, would not accomplish his object, and that
+all these plagues would have no effect whatever upon the Egyptian king.
+
+Do you believe that, failing to accomplish anything by the flies, God
+told Pharaoh that if he did not let the people go he would kill his
+cattle with murrain? Does such a threat sound God-like?
+
+Do you believe that, failing to effect anything by killing the cattle,
+this same God then threatened to afflict all the people with boils,
+including the magicians who had been rivaling him in the matter of
+miracles; and failing to do anything by boils, that he resorted to hail?
+Does this sound reasonable? The hail experiment having accomplished
+nothing, do you believe that God murdered the first-born of animals and
+men? Is it possible to conceive of anything more utterly absurd, stupid,
+revolting, cruel and senseless, than the miracles said to have been
+wrought by the Almighty for the purpose of inducing Pharaoh to liberate
+the children of Israel?
+
+Is it not altogether more reasonable to say that the Jewish people,
+being in slavery, accounted for the misfortunes and calamities, suffered
+by the Egyptians, by saying that they were the judgments of God?
+
+When the Armada of Spain was wrecked and scattered by the storm, the
+English people believed that God had interposed in their behalf,
+and publicly gave thanks. When the battle of Lepanto was won, it was
+believed by the catholic world that the victory was given in answer to
+prayer. So, our fore-fathers in their revolutionary struggle saw, or
+thought they saw, the hand of God, and most firmly believed that they
+achieved their independence by the interposition of the Most High.
+
+Now, it may be that while the Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptians,
+there were plagues of locusts and flies. It may be that there were
+some diseases by which many of the cattle perished. It may be that a
+pestilence visited that country so that in nearly every house there
+was some one dead. If so, it was but natural for the enslaved and
+superstitious Jews to account for these calamities by saying that they
+were punishments sent by their God. Such ideas will be found in the
+history of every country.
+
+For a long time the Jews held these opinions, and they were handed from
+father to son simply by tradition. By the time a written language had
+been produced, thousands of additions had been made, and numberless
+details invented; so that we have not only an account of the plagues
+suffered by the Egyptians, but the whole woven into a connected story,
+containing the threats made by Moses and Aaron, the miracles wrought by
+them, the promises of Pharaoh, and finally the release of the Hebrews,
+as a result of the marvelous things performed in their behalf by
+Jehovah.
+
+In any event it is infinitely more probable that the author was
+misinformed, than that the God of this universe was guilty of these
+childish, heartless and infamous things. The solution of the whole
+matter is this:--Moses was mistaken.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII. THE FLIGHT
+
+Three millions of people, with their flocks and herds, with borrowed
+jewelry and raiment, with unleavened dough in kneading troughs bound in
+their clothes upon their shoulders, in one night commenced their journey
+for the land of promise. We are not told how they were informed of the
+precise time to start. With all the modern appliances, it would require
+months of time to inform three millions of people of any fact.
+
+In this vast assemblage there were six hundred thousand men of war, and
+with them were the old, the young, the diseased and helpless. Where were
+those people going? They were going to the desert of Sinai, compared
+with which Sahara is a garden. Imagine an ocean of lava torn by storm
+and vexed by tempest, suddenly gazed at by a Gorgon and changed instantly
+to stone! Such was the desert of Sinai.
+
+All of the civilized nations of the world could not feed and support
+three millions of people on the desert of Sinai for forty years. It
+would cost more than one hundred thousand millions of dollars, and would
+bankrupt Christendom. They had with them their flocks and herds, and the
+sheep were so numerous that the Israelites sacrificed, at one time, more
+than one hundred and fifty thousand first-born lambs. How were these
+flocks supported? What did they eat? Where were meadows and pastures for
+them? There was no grass, no forests--nothing! There is no account
+of its having rained baled hay, nor is it even claimed that they were
+miraculously fed. To support these flocks, millions of acres of pasture
+would have been required. God did not take the Israelites through the
+land of the Philistines, for fear that when they saw the people of that
+country they would return to Egypt, but he took them by the way of
+the wilderness to the Red Sea, going before them by day in a pillar of
+cloud, and by night, in a pillar of fire.
+
+When it was told Pharaoh that the people had fled, he made ready
+and took six hundred chosen chariots of Egypt, and pursued after the
+children of Israel, overtaking them by the sea. As all the animals had
+long before that time been destroyed, we are not informed where Pharaoh
+obtained the horses for his chariots. The moment the children of Israel
+saw the hosts of Pharaoh, although they had six hundred thousand men
+of war, they immediately cried unto the Lord for protection. It is
+wonderful to me that a land that had been ravaged by the plagues
+described in the bible, still had the power to put in the field an army
+that would carry terror to the hearts of six hundred thousand men of
+war. Even with the help of God, it seems, they were not strong enough
+to meet the Egyptians in the open field, but resorted to strategy. Moses
+again stretched forth his wonderful rod over the waters of the Red Sea,
+and they were divided, and the Hebrews passed through on dry land, the
+waters standing up like a wall on either side. The Egyptians pursued
+them; "and in the morning watch the Lord looked into the hosts of the
+Egyptians, through the pillar of fire," and proceeded to take the wheels
+off their chariots. As soon as the wheels were off, God told Moses to
+stretch out his hand over the sea. Moses did so, and immediately "the
+waters returned and covered the chariots and horsemen and all the hosts
+of Pharaoh that came into the sea, and there remained not so much as one
+of them."
+
+This account may be true, but still it hardly looks reasonable that God
+would take the wheels off the chariots. How did he do it? Did he pull
+out the linch-pins, or did he just take them off by main force?
+
+What a picture this presents to the mind! God the creator of the
+universe, maker of every shining, glittering star, engaged in pulling
+off the wheels of wagons, that he might convince Pharaoh of his
+greatness and power!
+
+Where were these people going? They were going to the promised land.
+How large a country was that? About twelve thousand square miles. About
+one-fifth the size of the State of Illinois. It was a frightful country,
+covered with rocks and desolation. How many people were in the promised
+land already? Moses tells us there were seven nations in that country
+mightier than the Jews. As there were at least three millions of Jews,
+there must have been at least twenty-one millions of people already in
+that country. These had to be driven out in order that room might be
+made for the chosen people of God.
+
+It seems, however, that God was not willing to take the children of
+Israel into the promised land immediately. They were not fit to inhabit
+the land of Canaan; so he made up his mind to allow them to wander upon
+the desert until all except two, who had left Egypt, should perish. Of
+all the slaves released from Egyptian bondage, only two were allowed to
+reach the promised land!
+
+As soon as the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea, they found themselves
+without food, and with water unfit to drink by reason of its bitterness,
+and they began to murmur against Moses, who cried unto the Lord, and
+"the Lord showed him a tree." Moses cast this tree into the waters,
+and they became sweet. "And it came to pass in the morning the dew lay
+around about the camp; and when the dew that lay was gone, behold,
+upon the face of the wilderness lay a small round thing, small as the
+hoar-frost upon the ground. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread
+which the Lord hath given you to eat." This manna was a very peculiar
+thing. It would melt in the sun, and yet they could cook it by seething
+and baking. One would as soon think of frying snow or of broiling
+icicles. But this manna had another remarkable quality. No matter how
+much or little any person gathered, he would have an exact omer; if he
+gathered more, it would shrink to that amount, and if he gathered less,
+it would swell exactly to that amount. What a magnificent substance
+manna would be with which to make a currency--shrinking and swelling
+according to the great laws of supply and demand!
+
+"Upon this manna the children of Israel lived for forty years, until
+they came to a habitable land. With this meat were they fed until
+they reached the borders of the land of Canaan." We are told in the
+twenty-first chapter of Numbers, that the people at last became tired of
+the manna, complained of God, and asked Moses why he brought them out of
+the land of Egypt to die in the wilderness. And they said:--"There is no
+bread, nor have we any water. Our soul loatheth this light food."
+
+We are told by some commentators that the Jews lived on manna for forty
+years; by others that they lived upon it for only a short time. As
+a matter of fact the accounts differ, and this difference is the
+opportunity for commentators. It also allows us to exercise faith in
+believing that both accounts are true. If the accounts agreed, and were
+reasonable, they would be believed by the wicked and unregenerated. But
+as they are different and unreasonable, they are believed only by the
+good. Whenever a statement in the bible is unreasonable, and you believe
+it, you are considered quite a good christian. If the statement is
+grossly absurd and infinitely impossible, and you still believe it, you
+are a saint.
+
+The children of Israel were in the desert, and they were out of water.
+They had nothing to eat but manna, and this they had had so long that
+the soul of every person abhorred it. Under these circumstances they
+complained to Moses. Now, as God is infinite, he could just as well have
+furnished them with an abundance of the purest and coolest of water, and
+could, without the slightest trouble to himself, have given them three
+excellent meals a day, with a generous variety of meats and vegetables,
+it is very hard to see why he did not do so. It is still harder to
+conceive why he fell into a rage when the people mildly suggested that
+they would like a change of diet. Day after day, week after week, month
+after month, year after year, nothing but manna. No doubt they did
+the best they could by cooking it in different ways, but in spite of
+themselves they began to loathe its sight and taste, and so they asked
+Moses to use his influence to secure a change in the bill of fare.
+
+Now, I ask, whether it was unreasonable for the Jews to suggest that a
+little meat would be very gratefully received? It seems, however, that
+as soon as the request was made, this God of infinite mercy became
+infinitely enraged, and instead of granting it, went into, partnership
+with serpents, for the purpose of punishing the hungry wretches to whom
+he had promised a land flowing with milk and honey.
+
+Where did these serpents come from? How did God convey the information
+to the serpents, that he wished them to go to the desert of Sinai and
+bite some Jews? It may be urged that these serpents were created for the
+express purpose of punishing the children of Israel for having had the
+presumption, like Oliver Twist, to ask for more.
+
+There is another account in the eleventh chapter of Numbers, of the
+people murmuring because of their food. They remembered the fish, the
+cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic of Egypt,
+and they asked for meat The people went to the tent of Moses and asked
+him for flesh. Moses cried unto the Lord and asked him why he did not
+take care of the multitude. God thereupon agreed that they should have
+meat, not for a day or two, but for a month, until the meat should come
+out of their nostrils and become loathsome to them. He then caused a
+wind to bring quails from beyond the sea, and cast them into the camp,
+on every side of the camp around about for the space of a days journey.
+And the people gathered them, and while the flesh was yet between their
+teeth the wrath of God being provoked against them, struck them with
+an exceeding great plague. Serpents, also, were sent among them, and
+thousands perished for the crime of having been hungry.
+
+The Rev. Alexander Cruden commenting upon this account says:--
+
+"God caused a wind to rise that drove the quails within and about the
+camp of the Israelites; and it is in this that the miracle consists,
+that they were brought so seasonably to this place, and in so great
+numbers as to suffice above a million of persons above a month. Some
+authors affirm, that in those eastern and southern countries, quails
+are innumerable, so that in one part of Italy within the compass of five
+miles, there were taken about an hundred thousand of them every day for
+a month together; and that sometimes they fly so thick over the sea,
+that being weary they fall into ships, sometimes in such numbers, that
+they sink them with their weight."
+
+No wonder Mr. Cruden believed the Mosaic account.
+
+Must we believe that God made an arrangement with hornets for the
+purpose of securing their services in driving the Canaanites from
+the land of promise? Is this belief necessary unto salvation? Must we
+believe that God said to the Jews that he would send hornets before them
+to drive out the Canaanites, as related in the twenty-third chapter of
+Exodus, and the seventh chapter of Deuteronomy? How would the hornets
+know a Canaanite? In what way would God put it in the mind of a hornet
+to attack a Canaanite? Did God create hornets for that especial purpose,
+implanting an instinct to attack a Canaanite, but not a Hebrew? Can
+we conceive of the Almighty granting letters of marque and reprisal to
+hornets? Of course it is admitted that nothing in the world would
+be better calculated to make a man leave his native land than a few
+hornets. Is it possible for us to believe that an infinite being would
+resort to such expedients in order to drive the Canaanites from their
+country? He could just as easily have spoken the Canaanites out of
+existence as to have spoken the hornets in. In this way a vast amount of
+trouble, pain and suffering would have been saved. Is it possible that
+there is, in this country, an intelligent clergyman who will insist that
+these stories are true; that we must believe them in in order to be good
+people in this world, and glorified souls in the next?
+
+We are also told that God instructed the Hebrews to kill the Canaanites
+slowly, giving as a reason that the beasts of the field might increase
+upon his chosen people. When we take into consideration the fact that
+the Holy Land contained only about eleven or twelve thousand square
+miles, and was at that time inhabited by at least twenty-one millions of
+people, it does not seem reasonable that the wild beasts could have been
+numerous enough to cause any great alarm. The same ratio of population
+would give to the State of Illinois at least one hundred and twenty
+millions of inhabitants. Can anybody believe that, under such
+circumstances, the danger from wild beasts could be very great? What
+would we think of a general, invading such a state, if he should order
+his soldiers to kill the people slowly, lest the wild beasts might
+increase upon them? Is it possible that a God capable of doing the
+miracles recounted in the Old Testament could not, in some way, have
+disposed of the wild beasts? After the Canaanites were driven out, could
+he not have employed the hornets to drive out the wild beasts? Think of
+a God that could drive twenty-one millions of people out of the promised
+land, could raise up innumerable stinging flies, and could cover
+the earth with fiery serpents, and yet seems to have been perfectly
+powerless against the wild beasts of the land of Canaan!
+
+Speaking of these hornets, one of the good old commentators, whose
+views have long been considered of great value by the believers in the
+inspiration of the bible, uses the following language:--"Hornets are a
+sort of strong flies, which the Lord used as instruments to plague
+the enemies of his people. They are of themselves very troublesome and
+mischievous, and those the Lord made use of were, it is thought, of an
+extraordinary bigness and perniciousness. It is said they live as the
+wasps, and that they have a king or captain, and pestilent stings
+as bees, and that, if twenty-seven of them sting man or beast, it is
+certain death to either. Nor is it strange that such creatures did drive
+out the Canaanites from their habitations; for many heathen writers give
+instances of some people driven from their seats by frogs, others by
+mice, others by bees and wasps. And it is said that a christian city,
+being besieged by Sapores, king of Persia, was delivered by hornets; for
+the elephants and beasts being stung by them, waxed unruly, and so the
+whole army fled."
+
+Only a few years ago, all such stories were believed by the christian
+world; and it is a historical fact, that Voltaire was the third man of
+any note in Europe, who took the ground that the mythologies of Greece
+and Rome were without foundation. Until his time, most christians
+believed as thoroughly in the miracles ascribed to the Greek and Roman
+gods as in those of Christ and Jehovah. The christian world cultivated
+credulity, not only as one of the virtues, but as the greatest of them
+all. But, when Luther and his followers left the church of Rome, they
+were compelled to deny the power of the catholic church, at that time,
+to suspend the laws of nature, but took the ground that such power
+ceased with the apostolic age. They insisted that all things now
+happened in accordance with the laws of nature, with the exception of a
+few special interferences in favor of the protestant church in answer
+to prayer. They taught their children a double philosophy: by one, they
+were to show the impossibility of catholic miracles, because opposed to
+the laws of nature; by the other, the probability of the miracles of the
+apostolic age, because they were in conformity with the statements of
+the scriptures. They had two foundations: one, the law of nature, and
+the other, the word of God. The protestants have endeavored to carry
+on this double process of reasoning, and the result has been a gradual
+increase of confidence in the law of nature, and a gradual decrease of
+confidence in the word of God.
+
+We are told, in this inspired account, that the clothing of the Jewish
+people did not wax old, and that their shoes refused to wear out. Some
+commentators have insisted that angels attended to the wardrobes of the
+Hebrews, patched their garments, and mended their shoes. Certain it is,
+however, that the same clothes lasted them for forty years, during the
+entire journey from Egypt to the Holy Land. Little boys starting out
+with their first pantaloons, grew as they traveled, and their clothes
+grew with them.
+
+Can it be necessary to believe a story like this? Will men make better
+husbands, fathers, neighbors, and citizens, simply by giving credence
+to these childish and impossible things? Certainly an infinite God could
+have transported the Jews to the Holy Land in a moment, and could, as
+easily, have removed the Canaanites to some other country. Surely there
+was no necessity for doing thousands and thousands of petty miracles,
+day after day for forty years, looking after the clothes of three
+millions of people, changing the nature of wool, and linen, and leather,
+so that they would not "wax old." Every step, every motion, would wear
+away some part of the clothing, some part of the shoes. Were these
+parts, so worn away, perpetually renewed, or was the nature of things
+so changed that they could not wear away? We know that whenever matter
+comes in contact with matter, certain atoms, by abrasion, are lost. Were
+these atoms gathered up every night by angels, and replaced on the soles
+of the shoes, on the elbows of coats, and on the knees of pantaloons, so
+that the next morning they would be precisely in the condition they were
+on the morning before? There must be a mistake somewhere.
+
+Can we believe that the real God, if there is one, ever ordered a man
+to be killed simply for making hair oil, or ointment? We are told in
+the thirtieth chapter of Exodus, that the Lord commanded Moses to take
+myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus, cassia, and olive oil, and make a
+holy ointment for the purpose of anointing the tabernacle, tables,
+candlesticks and other utensils, as well as Aaron and his sons; saying,
+at the same time, that whosoever compounded any like it, or whoever put
+any of it on a stranger, should be put to death. In the same chapter,
+the Lord furnishes Moses with a recipe for making a perfume, saying,
+that whoever should make any which smelled like it, should be cut off
+from his people. This, to me, sounds so unreasonable that I cannot
+believe it. Why should an infinite God care whether mankind made
+ointments and perfumes like his or not? Why should the Creator of all
+things threaten to kill a priest who approached his altar without having
+washed his hands and feet? These commandments and these penalties would
+disgrace the vainest tyrant that ever sat, by chance, upon a throne.
+There must be some mistake. I cannot believe that an infinite
+Intelligence appeared to Moses upon Mount Sinai having with him a
+variety of patterns for making a tabernacle, tongs, snuffers and dishes.
+Neither can I believe that God told Moses how to cut and trim a coat for
+a priest. Why should a God care about such things? Why should he insist
+on having buttons sewed in certain rows, and fringes of a certain color?
+Suppose an intelligent civilized man was to overhear, on Mount Sinai,
+the following instructions from God to Moses:--
+
+"You must consecrate my priests as follows:--You must kill a bullock
+for a sin offering, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands upon the
+head of the bullock. Then you must take the blood and put it upon the
+horns of the altar round about with your finger, and pour some blood at
+the bottom of the altar to make a reconciliation; and of the fat that
+is upon the inwards, the caul above the liver and two kidneys, and
+their fat, and burn them upon the altar. You must get a ram for a burnt
+offering, and Aaron and his sons must lay their hands upon the head of
+the ram. Then you must kill it and sprinkle the blood upon the altar,
+and cut the ram into pieces, and burn the head, and the pieces, and the
+fat, and wash the inwards and the lungs in water and then burn the whole
+ram upon the altar for a sweet savor unto me. Then you must get another
+ram, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands upon the head of that,
+then kill it and take of its blood, and put it on the top of Aaron s
+right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of
+his right foot. And you must also put a little of the blood upon the
+top of the right ears of Aaron's sons, and on the thumbs of their right
+hands and on the great toes of their right feet. And then you must take
+of the fat that is on the inwards, and the caul above the liver and the
+two kidneys, and their fat, and the right shoulder, and out of a basket
+of unleavened bread you must take one unleavened cake and another of oil
+bread, and one wafer, and put them on the fat of the right shoulder. And
+you must take of the anointing oil, and of the blood, and sprinkle it on
+Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons garments, and sanctify
+them and all their clothes."--Do you believe that he would have even
+suspected that the creator of the universe was talking?
+
+Can any one now tell why God commanded the Jews, when they were upon the
+desert of Sinai, to plant trees, telling them at the same time that they
+must not eat any of the fruit of such trees until after the fourth year?
+Trees could not have been planted in that desert, and if they had been,
+they could not have lived. Why did God tell Moses, while in the desert,
+to make curtains of fine linen? Where could he have obtained his flax?
+There was no land upon which it could have been produced. Why did he
+tell him to make things of gold, and silver, and precious stones, when
+they could not have been in possession of these things? There is but one
+answer, and that is, the Pentateuch was written hundreds of years after
+the Jews had settled in the Holy Land, and hundreds of years after Moses
+was dust and ashes.
+
+When the Jews had a written language, and that must have been long after
+their flight from Egypt, they wrote out their history and their laws.
+Tradition had filled the infancy of the nation with miracles and special
+interpositions in their behalf by Jehovah. Patriotism would not allow
+these wonders to grow small, and priestcraft never denied a miracle.
+There were traditions to the effect that God had spoken face to face
+with Moses; that he had given him the tables of the law, and had, in a
+thousand ways, made known his will; and whenever the priests wished to
+make new laws, or amend old ones, they pretended to have found something
+more that God said to Moses at Sinai. In this way obedience was more
+easily secured. Only a very few of the people could read, and, as a
+consequence, additions, interpolations and erasures had no fear of
+detection. In this way we account for the fact that Moses is made to
+speak of things that did not exist in his day, and were unknown for
+hundreds of years after his death.
+
+In the thirtieth chapter of Exodus, we are told that the people, when
+numbered, must give each one a half shekel after the shekel of the
+_sanctuary_. At that time no such money existed, and consequently the
+account could not, by any possibility, have been written until after
+there was a shekel of the sanctuary, and there was no such thing until
+long after the death of Moses. If we should read that Caesar paid his
+troops in pounds, shillings and pence, we would certainly know that the
+account was not written by Caesar, nor in his time, but we would know
+that it was written after the English had given these names to certain
+coins.
+
+So, we find, that when the Jews were upon the desert it was commanded
+that every mother should bring, as a sin offering, a couple of doves to
+the priests, and the priests were compelled to eat these doves in the
+most holy place. At the time this law appears to have been given, there
+were three million people, and only three priests, Aaron, Eleazer and
+Ithamar. Among three million people there would be, at least, three
+hundred births a day. Certainly we are not expected to believe that
+these three priests devoured six hundred pigeons every twenty-four
+hours.
+
+Why should a woman ask pardon of God for having been a mother? Why
+should that be considered a crime in Exodus, which is commanded as a
+duty in Genesis? Why should a mother be declared unclean? Why should
+giving birth to a daughter be regarded twice as criminal as giving birth
+to a son? Can we believe that such laws and ceremonies were made and
+instituted by a merciful and intelligent God? If there is anything in
+this poor world suggestive of, and standing for, all that is sweet,
+loving and pure, it is a mother holding in her thrilled and happy arms
+her prattling babe. Read the twelfth chapter of Leviticus, and you will
+see that when a woman became the mother of a boy she was so unclean
+that she was not allowed to touch a hallowed thing, nor to enter the
+sanctuary for forty days. If the babe was a girl, then the mother was
+unfit for eighty days, to enter the house of God, or to touch the sacred
+tongs and snuffers. These laws, born of barbarism, are unworthy of our
+day, and should be regarded simply as the mistakes of savages.
+
+Just as low in the scale of intelligence are the directions given in the
+fifth chapter of Numbers, for the trial of a wife of whom the husband
+was jealous. This foolish chapter has been the foundation of all appeals
+to God for the ascertainment of facts, such as the corsned, trial by
+battle, by water, and by fire, the last of which is our judicial oath.
+It is very easy to believe that in those days a guilty woman would
+be afraid to drink the water of jealousy and take the oath, and that,
+through fear, she might be made to confess. Admitting that the deception
+tended not only to prevent crime, but to discover it when committed,
+still, we cannot admit that an honest god would, for any purpose, resort
+to dishonest means. In all countries fear is employed as a means of
+getting at the truth, and in this there is nothing dishonest, provided
+falsehood is not resorted to for the purpose of producing the fear.
+Protestants laugh at catholics because of their belief in the efficacy
+of holy water, and yet they teach their children that a little holy
+water, in which had been thrown some dust from the floor of the
+sanctuary, would work a miracle in a woman's flesh. For hundreds of
+years our fathers believed that a perjurer could not swallow a piece of
+sacramental bread. Such stories belong to the childhood of our race, and
+are now believed only by mental infants and intellectual babes.
+
+I cannot believe that Moses had in his hands a couple of tables of
+stone, upon which God had written the ten commandments, and that when he
+saw the golden calf, and the dancing, that he dashed the tables to the
+earth and broke them in pieces. Neither do I believe that Moses took a
+golden calf, burnt it, ground it to powder, and made the people drink it
+with water, as related in the thirty-second chapter of Exodus.
+
+There is another account of the giving of the ten commandments to Moses,
+in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of Exodus. In this account not
+one word is said about the people having made a golden calf, nor about
+the breaking of the tables of stone. In the thirty-fourth chapter of
+Exodus, there is an account of the renewal of the broken tables of
+the law, and the commandments are given, but they are not the same
+commandments mentioned in the twentieth chapter. There are two accounts
+of the same transaction. Both of these stories cannot be true, and yet
+both must be believed. Any one who will take the trouble to read
+the nineteenth and twentieth chapters, and the last verse of the
+thirty-first chapter, the thirty-second, thirty-third, and thirty-fourth
+chapters of Exodus, will be compelled to admit that both accounts cannot
+be true.
+
+From the last account it appears that while Moses was upon Mount Sinai
+receiving the commandments from God, the people brought their jewelry
+to Aaron, and he cast for them a golden calf. This happened before any
+commandment against idolatry had been given. A god ought, certainly,
+to publish his laws before inflicting penalties for their violation. To
+inflict punishment for breaking unknown and unpublished laws is, in
+the last degree, cruel and unjust. It may be replied that the Jews knew
+better than to worship idols, before the law was given. If this is so,
+why should the law have been given? In all civilized countries, laws are
+made and promulgated, not simply for the purpose of informing the people
+as to what is right and wrong, but to inform them of the penalties to be
+visited upon those who violate the laws. When the ten commandments
+were given, no penalties were attached. Not one word was written on
+the tables of stone as to the punishments that would be inflicted for
+breaking any or all of the inspired laws. The people should not have
+been punished for violating a commandment before it was given. And yet,
+in this case, Moses commanded the sons of Levi to take their swords and
+slay every man his brother, his companion, and his neighbor. The brutal
+order was obeyed, and three thousand men were butchered. The Levites
+consecrated themselves unto the Lord by murdering their sons, and their
+brothers, for having violated a commandment before it had been given.
+
+It has been contended for many years that the ten commandments are the
+foundation of all ideas of justice and of law. Eminent jurists have
+bowed to popular prejudice, and deformed their works by statements to
+the effect that the Mosaic laws are the fountains from which sprang all
+ideas of right and wrong. Nothing can be more stupidly false than such
+assertions. Thousands of years before Moses was born, the Egyptians
+had a code of laws. They had laws against blasphemy, murder, adultery,
+larceny, perjury, laws for the collection of debts, the enforcement
+of contracts, the ascertainment of damages, the redemption of property
+pawned, and upon nearly every subject of human interest. The Egyptian
+code was far better than the Mosaic.
+
+Laws spring from the instinct of self-preservation, Industry objected
+to supporting idleness, and laws were made against theft. Laws were made
+against murder, because a very large majority of the people have always
+objected to being murdered. All fundamental laws were born simply of the
+instinct of self-defence. Long before the Jewish savages assembled at
+the foot of Sinai, laws had been made and enforced, not only in Egypt
+and India, but by every tribe that ever existed.
+
+It is impossible for human beings to exist together, without certain
+rules of conduct, certain ideas of the proper and improper, of the right
+and wrong, growing out of the relation. Certain rules must be made,
+and must be enforced. This implies law, trial and punishment. Whoever
+produces anything by weary labor, does not need a revelation from heaven
+to teach him that he has a right to the thing produced. Not one of
+the learned gentlemen who pretend that the Mosaic laws are filled with
+justice and intelligence, would live, for a moment, in any country where
+such laws were in force.
+
+Nothing can be more wonderful than the medical ideas of Jehovah. He
+had the strangest notions about the cause and cure of disease. With
+him everything was miracle and wonder. In the fourteenth chapter of
+Leviticus, we find the law for cleansing a leper:--"Then shall the
+priest take for him that is to be cleansed, two birds, alive and clean,
+and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command
+that one of the birds be killed in an _earthen_ vessel, over _running_
+water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and
+the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them, and the living bird,
+in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he
+shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy, seven
+times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird
+loose into the open field."
+
+We are told that God himself gave these directions to Moses. Does
+anybody believe this? Why should the bird be killed in an _earthen_
+vessel? Would the charm be broken if the vessel was of wood? Why over
+_running_ water? What would be thought of a physician now, who would
+give a prescription like that?
+
+Is it not strange that God, although he gave hundreds of directions for
+the purpose of discovering the presence of leprosy, and for cleansing
+the leper after he was healed, forgot to tell how that disease could be
+cured? Is it not wonderful that while God told his people what animals
+were fit for food, he failed to give a list of plants that man might
+eat? Why did he leave his children to find out the hurtful and the
+poisonous by experiment, knowing that experiment, in millions of cases,
+must be death?
+
+When reading the history of the Jewish people, of their flight from
+slavery to death, of their exchange of tyrants, I must confess that my
+sympathies are all aroused in their behalf. They were cheated, deceived
+and abused. Their god was quick-tempered unreasonable, cruel, revengeful
+and dishonest. He was always promising but never performed. He wasted
+time in ceremony and childish detail, and in the exaggeration of what
+he had done. It is impossible for me to conceive of a character more
+utterly detestable than that of the Hebrew god. He had solemnly promised
+the Jews that he would take them from Egypt to a land flowing with
+milk and honey. He had led them to believe that in a little while their
+troubles would be over, and that they would soon in the land of Canaan,
+surrounded by their wives and little ones, forget the stripes and tears
+of Egypt. After promising the poor wanderers again and again that he
+would lead them in safety to the promised land of joy and plenty, this
+God, forgetting every promise, said to the wretches in his power:--"Your
+carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander
+until your carcasses be wasted." This curse was the conclusion of the
+whole matter. Into this dust of death and night faded all the promises
+of God. Into this rottenness of wandering despair fell all the dreams
+of liberty and home. Millions of corpses were left to rot in the desert,
+and each one certified to the dishonesty of Jehovah. I cannot believe
+these things. They are so cruel and heartless, that my blood is chilled
+and my sense of justice shocked. A book that is equally abhorrent to my
+head and heart, cannot be accepted as a revelation from God.
+
+When we think of the poor Jews, destroyed, murdered, bitten by serpents,
+visited by plagues, decimated by famine, butchered by each, other,
+swallowed by the earth, frightened, cursed, starved, deceived, robbed
+and outraged, how thankful we should be that we are not the chosen
+people of God. No wonder that they longed for the slavery of Egypt,
+and remembered with sorrow the unhappy day when they exchanged masters.
+Compared with Jehovah, Pharaoh was a benefactor, and the tyranny of
+Egypt was freedom to those who suffered the liberty of God.
+
+While reading the Pentateuch, I am filled with indignation, pity and
+horror. Nothing can be sadder than the history of the starved and
+frightened wretches who wandered over the desolate crags and sands of
+wilderness and desert, the prey of famine, sword, and plague. Ignorant
+and superstitious to the last degree, governed by falsehood, plundered
+by hypocrisy, they were the sport of priests, and the food of fear. God
+was their greatest enemy, and death their only friend.
+
+It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable, hateful,
+and arrogant being, than the Jewish god. He is without a redeeming
+feature. In the mythology of the world he has no parallel. He, only, is
+never touched by agony and tears. He delights only in blood and pain.
+Human affections are naught to him. He cares neither for love nor music,
+beauty nor joy. A false friend, an unjust judge, a braggart, hypocrite,
+and tyrant, sincere in hatred, jealous, vain, and revengeful, false in
+promise, honest in curse, suspicious, ignorant, and changeable, infamous
+and hideous:--such is the God of the Pentateuch.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV. CONFESS AND AVOID
+
+The scientific christians now admit that the bible is not inspired in
+its astronomy, geology, botany, zoology, nor in any science. In other
+words, they admit that on these subjects, the bible cannot be depended
+upon. If all the statements in the scriptures were true, there would
+be no necessity for admitting that some of them are not inspired. A
+christian will not admit that a passage in the bible is uninspired,
+until he is satisfied that it is untrue. Orthodoxy itself has at last
+been compelled to say, that while a passage may be true and uninspired,
+it cannot be inspired if false.
+
+If the people of Europe had known as much of astronomy and geology when
+the bible was introduced among them, as they do now, there never could
+have been one believer in the doctrine of inspiration. If the writers of
+the various parts of the bible had known as much about the sciences as
+is now known by every intelligent man, the book never could have
+been written. It was produced by ignorance, and has been believed and
+defended by its author. It has lost power in the proportion that man
+has gained knowledge. A few years ago, this book was appealed to in the
+settlement of all scientific questions; but now, even the clergy
+confess that in such matters, it has ceased to speak with the voice
+of authority. For the establishment of facts, the word of man is now
+considered far better than the word of God. In the world of science,
+Jehovah was superseded by Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. All that God
+told Moses, admitting the entire account to be true, is dust and ashes
+compared to the discoveries of Des Cartes, La Place, and Humboldt. In
+matters of fact, the bible has ceased to be regarded as a standard.
+Science has succeeded in breaking the chains of theology. A few years
+ago, Science endeavored to show that it was not inconsistent with the
+bible. The tables have been turned, and now, Religion is endeavoring to
+prove that the bible is not inconsistent with Science. The standard has
+been changed.
+
+For many ages, the christians contended that the bible, viewed simply as
+a literary performance, was beyond all other books, and that man without
+the assistance of God could not produce its equal. This claim was made
+when but few books existed, and the bible, being the only book generally
+known, had no rival. But this claim, like the other, has been abandoned
+by many, and soon will be, by all. Compared with Shakespeare's "book
+and volume of the brain," the "sacred" bible shrinks and seems as feebly
+impotent and vain, as would a pipe of Pan, when some great organ, voiced
+with every tone, from the hoarse thunder of the sea to the winged warble
+of a mated bird, floods and fills cathedral aisles with all the wealth
+of sound.
+
+It is now maintained--and this appears to be the last fortification
+behind which the doctrine of inspiration skulks and crouches--that the
+bible, although false and mistaken in its astronomy, geology, geography,
+history and philosophy, is inspired in its morality. It is now claimed
+that had it not been for this book, the world would have been inhabited
+only by savages, and that had it not been for the holy scriptures, man
+never would have even dreamed of the unity of God. A belief in one God
+is claimed to be a dogma of almost infinite importance, that without
+this belief civilization is impossible, and that this fact is the sun
+around which all the virtues revolve, For my part, I think it infinitely
+more important to believe in man. Theology is a superstition--Humanity a
+religion.
+
+
+
+
+XXV. "INSPIRED" SLAVERY
+
+Perhaps the bible was inspired upon the subject of human slavery. Is
+there, in the civilized world, today, a clergyman who believes in the
+divinity of slavery? Does the bible teach man to enslave his brother? If
+it does, is it not blasphemous to say that it is inspired of God? If
+you find the institution of slavery upheld in a book said to have been
+written by God, what would you expect to find in a book inspired by the
+devil? Would you expect to find that book in favor of liberty? Modern
+christians, ashamed of the God of the Old Testament, endeavor now to
+show that slavery was neither commanded nor opposed by Jehovah. Nothing
+can be plainer than the following passages from the twenty-fifth chapter
+of Leviticus. "Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn
+among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with
+you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
+And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to
+inherit them for a possession, they shall be your bond-men forever. Both
+thy bond-men, and thy bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of
+the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bond-men, and
+bond-maids."
+
+Can we believe in this, the Nineteenth Century, that these infamous
+passages were inspired by God? that God approved not only of human
+slavery, but instructed his chosen people to buy the women, children and
+babes of the heathen round about them? If it was right for the Hebrews
+to buy, it was also right for the heathen to sell. This God, by
+commanding the Hebrews to buy, approved of the selling of sons and
+daughters. The Canaanite who, tempted by gold, lured by avarice, sold
+from the arms of his wife the dimpled babe, simply made it possible for
+the Hebrews to obey the orders of their God. If God is the author of
+the bible, the reading of these passages ought to cover his cheeks with
+shame. I ask the christian world to-day, was it right for the heathen
+to sell their children? Was it right for God not only to uphold, but to
+command the infamous traffic in human flesh? Could the most revengeful
+fiend, the most malicious vagrant in the gloom of hell, sink to a lower
+moral depth than this?
+
+According to this God, his chosen people were not only commanded to buy
+of the heathen round about them, but were also permitted to buy each
+other for a term of years. The law governing the purchase of Jews is
+laid down in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus. "If thou buy a Hebrew
+servant, six years shall he serve: and in the seventh he shall go out
+free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself:
+if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master
+have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the
+wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by
+himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my
+wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall
+bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto
+the door-post: and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl:
+and he shall serve him forever."
+
+Do you believe that God was the author of this infamous law? Do you
+believe that the loving father of us all, turned the dimpled arms of
+babes into manacles of iron? Do you believe that he baited the dungeon
+of servitude with wife and child? Is it possible to love a God who would
+make such laws? Is it possible not to hate and despise him?
+
+The heathen are not spoken of as human beings. Their rights are never
+mentioned. They were the rightful food of the sword, and their bodies
+were made for stripes and chains.
+
+In the same chapter of the same inspired book, we are told that, "if a
+man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he dies under his
+hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day
+or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money."
+
+Must we believe that God called some of his children the money of
+others? Can we believe that God made lashes upon the naked back, a
+legal tender for labor performed? Must we regard the auction block as an
+altar? Were blood hounds apostles? Was the slave-pen a temple? Were the
+stealers and whippers of babes and women the justified children of God?
+
+It is now contended that while the Old Testament is touched with the
+barbarism of its time, that the New Testament is morally perfect, and
+that on its pages can be found no blot or stain. As a matter of fact,
+the New Testament is more decidedly in favor of human slavery than the
+old.
+
+For my part, I never will, I never can, worship a God who upholds the
+institution of slavery. Such a God I hate and defy. I neither want his
+heaven, nor fear his hell.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI. "INSPIRED" MARRIAGE
+
+Is there an orthodox clergyman in the world, who will now declare that
+he believes the institution of polygamy to be right? Is there one who
+will publicly declare that, in his judgment, that institution ever was
+right? Was there ever a time in the history of the world when it was
+right to treat woman simply as property? Do not attempt to answer these
+questions by saying, that the bible is an exceedingly good book, that we
+are indebted for our civilization to the sacred volume, and that without
+it, man would lapse into savagery, and mental night. This is no answer.
+Was there a time when the institution of polygamy was the highest
+expression of human virtue? Is there a christian woman, civilized,
+intelligent, and free, who believes in the institution of polygamy? Are
+we better, purer, and more intelligent than God was four thousand years
+ago? Why should we imprison Mormons, and worship God? Polygamy is just
+as pure in Utah, as it could have been in the promised land. Love and
+Virtue are the same the whole world round, and Justice is the same in
+every star. All the languages of the world are not sufficient to express
+the filth of polygamy. It makes of man, a beast, of woman, a trembling
+slave. It destroys the fireside, makes virtue an outcast, takes from
+human speech its sweetest words, and leaves the heart a den, where crawl
+and hiss the slimy serpents of most loathsome lust. Civilization rests
+upon the family. The good family is the unit of good government. The
+virtues grow about the holy hearth of home--they cluster, bloom, and
+shed their perfume round the fireside where the one man loves the one
+woman. Lover--husband--wife--mother--father--child--home!--without these
+sacred words, the world is but a lair, and men and women merely beasts.
+
+Why should the innocent maiden and the loving mother worship the
+heartless Jewish God? Why should they, with pure and stainless lips,
+read the vile record of inspired lust?
+
+The marriage of the one man to the one woman is the citadel and fortress
+of civilization. Without this, woman becomes the prey and slave of lust
+and power, and man goes back to savagery and crime. From the bottom of
+my heart I hate, abhor and execrate all theories of life, of which the
+pure and sacred home is not the corner-stone. Take from the world the
+family, the fireside, the children born of wedded love, and there is
+nothing left. The home where virtue dwells with love is like a lily with
+a heart of fire--the fairest flower in all the world.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII. "INSPIRED" WAR
+
+If the bible be true, God commanded his chosen people to destroy men
+simply for the crime of defending their native land. They were not
+allowed to spare trembling and white-haired age, nor dimpled babes
+clasped in the mothers' arms. They were ordered to kill women, and to
+pierce, with the sword of war, the unborn child. "Our heavenly Father"
+commanded the Hebrews to kill the men and women, the fathers, sons and
+brothers, but to preserve the girls alive. Why were not the maidens also
+killed? Why were they spared? Read the thirty-first chapter of Numbers,
+and you will find that the maidens were given to the soldiers and the
+priests. Is there, in all the history of war, a more infamous thing than
+this? Is it possible that God permitted the violets of modesty, that
+grow and shed their perfume in the maiden's heart, to be trampled
+beneath the brutal feet of lust? If this was the order of God, what,
+under the same circumstances, would have been the command of a devil?
+When, in this age of the world, a woman, a wife, a mother, reads this
+record, she should, with scorn and loathing, throw the book away. A
+general, who now should make such an order, giving over to massacre
+and rapine a conquered people, would be held in execration by the whole
+civilized world. Yet, if the bible be true, the supreme and infinite God
+was once a savage.
+
+A little while ago, out upon the western plains, in a little path
+leading to a cabin, were found the bodies of two children and their
+mother. Her breast was filled with wounds received in the defence of her
+darlings. They had been murdered by the savages. Suppose when looking at
+their lifeless forms, some one had said, "This was done by the command
+of God!" In Canaan there were countless scenes like this. There was
+no pity in inspired war. God raised the black flag, and commanded his
+soldiers to kill even the smiling infant in its mother's arms. Who
+is the blasphemer; the man who denies the existence of God, or he who
+covers the robes of the Infinite with innocent blood?
+
+We are told in the Pentateuch, that God, the father of us all, gave
+thousands of maidens, after having killed their fathers, their mothers,
+and their brothers, to satisfy the brutal lusts of savage men. If there
+be a God, I pray him to write in his book, opposite my name, that I
+denied this lie for him.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII. "INSPIRED" RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
+
+According to the bible, God selected the Jewish people through whom to
+make known the great fact, that he was the only true and living God. For
+this purpose, he appeared on several occasions to Moses--came down to
+Sinai's top clothed in cloud and fire, and wrought a thousand miracles
+for the preservation and education of the Jewish people. In their
+presence he opened the waters of the sea. For them he caused bread to
+rain from heaven. To quench their thirst, water leaped from the dry and
+barren rock. Their enemies were miraculously destroyed; and for forty
+years, at least, this God took upon himself the government of the Jews.
+But, after all this, many of the people had less confidence in him
+than in gods of wood and stone. In moments of trouble, in periods of
+disaster, in the darkness of doubt, in the hunger and thirst of famine,
+instead of asking this God for aid, they turned and sought the help of
+senseless things. This God, with all his power and wisdom, could not
+even convince a few wandering and wretched savages that he was more
+potent than the idols of Egypt. This God was not willing that the Jews
+should think and investigate for themselves. For heresy, the penalty
+was death. Where this God reigned, intellectual liberty was unknown. He
+appealed only to brute force; he collected taxes by threatening
+plagues; he demanded worship on pain of sword and fire; acting as spy,
+inquisitor, judge and executioner.
+
+In the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, we have the ideas of God as to
+mental freedom. "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or
+the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul, entice
+thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast
+not known, thou nor thy fathers; _namely_ of the gods of the people
+which are around about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from
+the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth, Thou
+shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine
+eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare him, neither shalt thou conceal
+him. But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him
+to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And thou
+shalt stone him with stones that he die."
+
+This is the religious liberty of God; the toleration of Jehovah. If
+I had lived in Palestine at that time, and my wife, the mother of my
+children, had said to me, "I am tired of Jehovah, he is always asking
+for blood; he is never weary of killing; he is always telling of his
+might and strength; always telling what he has done for the Jews,
+always asking for sacrifices; for doves and lambs--blood, nothing
+but blood.--Let us worship the sun. Jehovah is too revengeful, too
+malignant, too exacting. Let us worship the sun. The sun has clothed the
+world in beauty; it has covered the earth with flowers; by its divine
+light I first saw your face, and my beautiful babe."--If I had obeyed
+the command of God, I would have killed her. My hand would have been
+first upon her, and after that the hands of all the people, and she
+would have been stoned with stones until she died. For my part, I would
+never kill my wife, even if commanded so to do by the real God of this
+universe. Think of taking up some ragged rock and hurling it against the
+white bosom filled with love for you; and when you saw oozing from
+the bruised lips of the death wound, the red current of her sweet
+life--think of looking up to heaven and receiving the congratulations of
+the infinite fiend whose commandment you had obeyed!
+
+Can we believe that any such command was ever given by a merciful and
+intelligent God? Suppose, however, that God did give this law to the
+Jews, and did tell them that whenever a man preached a heresy, or
+proposed to worship any other god that they should kill him; and suppose
+that afterward this same God took upon himself flesh, and came to this
+very chosen people and taught a different religion, and that thereupon
+the Jews crucified him; I ask you, did he not reap exactly what he
+had sown? What right would this God have to complain of a crucifixion
+suffered in accordance with his own command?
+
+Nothing can be more infamous than intellectual tyranny. To put chains
+upon the body is as nothing compared with putting shackles on the brain.
+No god is entitled to the worship or the respect of man who does not
+give, even to the meanest of his children, every right that he claims
+for himself.
+
+If the Pentateuch be true, religious persecution is a duty. The dungeons
+of the Inquisition were temples, and the clank of every chain upon
+the limbs of heresy was music in the ear of God. If the Pentateuch was
+inspired, every heretic should be destroyed; and every man who advocates
+a fact inconsistent with the sacred book, should be consumed by sword
+and flame.
+
+In the Old Testament no one is told to reason with a heretic, and not
+one word is said about relying upon argument, upon education, nor upon
+intellectual development--nothing except simple brute force. Is there
+to-day a christian who will say that four thousand years ago, it was
+the duty of a husband to kill his wife if she differed with him upon
+the subject of religion? Is there one who will now say that, under such
+circumstances, the wife ought to have been killed? Why should God be so
+jealous of the wooden idols of the heathen? Could he not compete with
+Baal? Was he envious of the success of the Egyptian magicians? Was it
+not possible for him to make such a convincing display of his power as
+to silence forever the voice of unbelief? Did this God have to resort to
+force to make converts? Was he so ignorant of the structure of the human
+mind as to believe all honest doubt a crime? If he wished to do away
+with the idolatry of the Canaanites, why did he not appear to them? Why
+did he not give them the tables of the law? Why did he only make known
+his will to a few wandering savages in the desert of Sinai? Will some
+theologian have the kindness to answer these questions? Will some
+minister, who now believes in religious liberty, and eloquently
+denounces the intolerance of Catholicism, explain these things; will he
+tell us why he worships an intolerant God? Is a god who will burn a soul
+forever in another world, better than a christian who burns the body for
+a few hours in this? Is there no intellectual liberty in heaven? Do the
+angels all discuss questions on the same side? Are all the investigators
+in perdition? Will the penitent thief, winged and crowned, laugh at the
+honest folks in hell? Will the agony of the damned increase or decrease
+the happiness of God? Will there be, in the universe, an eternal _auto
+da fe?_
+
+
+
+
+XXIX. CONCLUSION
+
+If the Pentateuch is not inspired in its astronomy, geology, geography,
+history or philosophy, if it is not inspired concerning slavery,
+polygamy, war, law, religious or political liberty, or the rights of
+men, women and children, what is it inspired in, or about? The unity
+of God?--that was believed long before Moses was born. Special
+providence?--that has been the doctrine of ignorance in all ages.
+The rights of property?--theft was always a crime. The sacrifice of
+animals?--that was a custom thousands of years before a Jew existed.
+The sacredness of life?--there have always been laws against murder.
+The wickedness of perjury?--truthfulness has always been a virtue.
+The beauty of chastity?--the Pentateuch does not teach it. Thou shalt
+worship no other God?--that has been the burden of all religions.
+
+Is it possible that the Pentateuch could not have been written by
+uninspired men? that the assistance of God was necessary to produce
+these books? Is it possible that Galileo ascertained the mechanical
+principles of "Virtual Velocity," the laws of falling bodies and of all
+motion; that Copernicus ascertained the true position of the earth and
+accounted for all celestial phenomena; that Kepler discovered his three
+laws--discoveries of such importance that the 8th of May, 1618, may be
+called the birth-day of modern science; that Newton gave to the world
+the Method of Fluxions, the Theory of Universal Gravitation, and
+the Decomposition of Light; that Euclid, Cavalieri, Des Cartes, and
+Leibnitz, almost completed the science of mathematics; that all the
+discoveries in optics, hydrostatics, pneumatics and chemistry, the
+experiments, discoveries, and inventions of Galvani, Volta, Franklin
+and Morse, of Trevethick, Watt and Fulton and of all the pioneers of
+progress--that all this was accomplished by uninspired men, while the
+writer of the Pentateuch was directed and inspired by an infinite God?
+Is it possible that the codes of China, India, Egypt, Greece and Rome
+were made by man, and that the laws recorded in the Pentateuch were
+alone given by God? Is it possible that AEschylus and Shakespeare, Burns,
+and Beranger, Goethe and Schiller, and all the poets of the world, and
+all their wondrous tragedies and songs are but the work of men, while
+no intelligence except the infinite God could be the author of the
+Pentateuch? Is it possible that of all the books that crowd the
+libraries of the world, the books of science, fiction, history and song,
+that all save only one, have been produced by man? Is it possible that
+of all these, the bible only is the work of God?
+
+If the Pentateuch is inspired, the civilization of of our day is a
+mistake and crime. There should be no political liberty. Heresy should
+be trodden out beneath the bigot's brutal feet. Husbands should divorce
+their wives at will, and make the mothers of their children houseless
+and weeping wanderers. Polygamy ought to be practiced; women should
+become slaves; we should buy the sons and daughters of the heathen and
+make them bondmen and bondwomen forever. We should sell our own flesh
+and blood, and have the right to kill our slaves. Men and women should
+be stoned to death for laboring on the seventh day. "Mediums," such
+as have familiar spirits, should be burned with fire. Every vestige of
+mental liberty should be destroyed, and reason's holy torch extinguished
+in the martyr's blood.
+
+Is it not far better and wiser to say that the Pentateuch while
+containing some good laws, some truths, some wise and useful things is,
+after all, deformed and blackened by the savagery of its time? Is it not
+far better and wiser to take the good and throw the bad away?
+
+Let us admit what we know to be true; that Moses was mistaken about a
+thousand things; that the story of creation is not true; that the garden
+of Eden is a myth; that the serpent and the tree of knowledge, and the
+fall of man are but fragments of old mythologies lost and dead; that
+woman was not made out of a rib; that serpents never had the power of
+speech; that the sons of God did not marry the daughters of men; that
+the story of the flood and ark is not exactly true; that the tower of
+Babel is a mistake; that the confusion of tongues is a childish thing;
+that the origin of the rainbow is a foolish fancy; that Methuselah did
+not live nine hundred and sixty-nine years; that Enoch did not leave
+this world, taking with him his flesh and bones; that the story of Sodom
+and Gomorrah is somewhat improbable; that burning brimstone never fell
+like rain; that Lot's wife was not changed into chloride of sodium; that
+Jacob did not, in fact, put his hip out of joint wrestling with God;
+that the history of Tamar might just as well have been left out; that a
+belief in Pharaoh's dreams is not essential to salvation; that it makes
+but little difference whether the rod of Aaron was changed to a serpent
+or not; that of all the wonders said to have been performed in Egypt,
+the greatest is, that anybody ever believed the absurd account; that
+God did not torment the innocent cattle on account of the sins of their
+owners; that he did not kill the first born of the poor maid behind
+the mill because of Pharaoh's crimes; that flies and frogs were not
+ministers of God's wrath; that lice and locusts were not the executors
+of his will; that seventy people did not, in two hundred and fifteen
+years, increase to three million; that three priests could not eat
+six hundred pigeons in a day; that gazing at a brass serpent could not
+extract poison from the blood; that God did not go in partnership with
+hornets; that he did not murder people simply because they asked for
+something to eat; that he did not declare the making of hair oil
+and ointment an offence to be punished with death; that he did not
+miraculously preserve cloth and leather; that he was not afraid of wild
+beasts; that he did not punish heresy with sword and fire; that he was
+not jealous, revengeful, and unjust; that he knew all about the sun,
+moon, and stars; that he did not threaten to kill people for eating the
+fat of an ox; that he never told Aaron to draw cuts to see which of two
+goats should be killed; that he never objected to clothes made of woolen
+mixed with linen; that if he objected to dwarfs, people with flat noses
+and too many fingers, he ought not to have created such folks; that
+he did not demand human sacrifices as set forth in the last chapter
+of Leviticus; that he did not object to the raising of horses; that he
+never commanded widows to spit in the faces of their brothers-in-law;
+that several contradictory accounts of the same transaction cannot all
+be true; that God did not talk to Abraham as one man talks to another;
+that angels were not in the habit of walking about the earth eating veal
+dressed with milk and butter, and making bargains about the destruction
+of cities; that God never turned himself into a flame of fire, and lived
+in a bush; that he never met Moses in a hotel and tried to kill him;
+that it was absurd to perform miracles to induce a king to act in a
+certain way and then harden his heart so that he would refuse; that God
+was not kept from killing the Jews by the fear that the Egyptians would
+laugh at him; that he did not secretly bury a man and then allow the
+corpse to write an account of the funeral; that he never believed the
+firmament to be solid; that he knew slavery was and always would be a
+frightful crime; that polygamy is but stench and filth; that the brave
+soldier will always spare an unarmed foe; that only cruel cowards
+slay the conquered and the helpless; that no language can describe the
+murderer of a smiling babe; that God did not want the blood of doves and
+lambs; that he did not love the smell of burning flesh; that he did not
+want his altars daubed with blood; that he did not pretend that the sins
+of a people could be transferred to a goat; that he did not believe in
+witches, wizards, spooks, and devils; that he did not test the virtue of
+woman with dirty water; that he did not suppose that rabbits chewed the
+cud; that he never thought there were any four-footed birds; that he did
+not boast for several hundred years that he had vanquished an Egyptian
+king; that a dry stick did not bud, blossom, and bear almonds in one
+night; that manna did not shrink and swell, so that each man could
+gather only just one omer; that it was never wrong to "countenance the
+poor man in his cause;" that God never told a people not to live in
+peace with their neighbors; that he did not spend forty days with Moses
+on Mount Sinai giving him patterns for making clothes, tongs, basins,
+and snuffers; that maternity is not a sin; that physical deformity is
+not a crime; that an atonement cannot be made for the soul by shedding
+innocent blood; that killing a dove over running water will not make its
+blood a medicine; that a god who demands love knows nothing of the human
+heart; that one who frightens savages with loud noises is unworthy the
+love of civilized men; that one who destroys children on account of
+the sins of their fathers is a monster; that an infinite god never
+threatened to give people the itch; that he never sent wild beasts to
+devour babes; that he never ordered the violation of maidens; that
+he never regarded patriotism as a crime; that he never ordered the
+destruction of unborn children; that he never opened the earth and
+swallowed wives and babes because husbands and fathers had displeased
+him; that he never demanded that men should kill their sons and
+brothers, for the purpose of sanctifying themselves; that we cannot
+please God by believing the improbable; that credulity is not a virtue;
+that investigation is not a crime; that every mind should be free;
+that all religious persecution is infamous in God, as well as man; that
+without liberty, virtue is impossible; that without freedom, even love
+cannot exist; that every man should be allowed to think and to express
+his thoughts; that woman is the equal of man; that children should be
+governed by love and reason; that the family relation is sacred; that
+war is a hideous crime; that all intolerance is born of ignorance and
+hate; that the freedom of today is the hope of to-morrow; that the
+enlightened present ought not to fall upon its knees and blindly worship
+the barbaric past; and that every free, brave and enlightened man should
+publicly declare that all the ignorant, infamous, heartless, hideous
+things recorded in the "inspired" Pentateuch are not the words of God,
+but simply "Some Mistakes of Moses."
+
+
+
+
+
+A TRIBUTE
+
+TO
+
+Ebon C. ingersoll,
+
+BY HIS BROTHER
+
+Robert.
+
+Dec. 12, 1831. MAY 31, 1879.
+
+A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll,
+
+By his Brother Robert.
+
+THE RECORD OF A GENEROUS LIFE RUNS LIKE A VINE AROUND THE MEMORY OF OUR
+DEAD, AND EVERY SWEET, UNSELFISH ACT IS NOW A PERFUMED FLOWER.
+
+Dear Friends: I am going to do that which the dead oft promised he would
+do for me.
+
+The loved and loving brother, husband, father, friend, died where
+manhood's morning almost touches noon, and while the shadows still were
+falling toward the west.
+
+He had not passed on life's highway the stone that marks the highest
+point; but, being weary for a moment, he lay down by the wayside, and,
+using his burden for a pillow, fell into that dreamless sleep that
+kisses down his eyelids still. While yet in love with life and raptured
+with the world, he passed to silence and pathetic dust.
+
+Yet, after all, it may be best, just in the happiest, sunniest hour
+of all the voyage, while eager winds are kissing every sail, to dash
+against the unseen rock, and in an instant hear the billows roar above a
+sunken ship. For whether in mid sea or 'mong the breakers of the farther
+shore, a wreck at last must mark the end of each and all. And every
+life, no matter if its every hour is rich with love and every moment
+jeweled with a joy, will, at its close, become a tragedy as sad and deep
+and dark as can be woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death.
+
+This brave and tender man in every storm of life was oak and rock; but
+in the sunshine he was vine and flower. He was the friend of all heroic
+souls. He climbed the heights, and left all superstitions far below,
+while on his forehead fell the golden dawning, of the grander day.
+
+He loved the beautiful, and was with color, form, and music touched to
+tears. He sided with the weak, the poor, and wronged, and lovingly
+gave alms. With loyal heart and with the purest hands he faithfully
+discharged all public trusts.
+
+He was a worshipper of liberty, a friend of the oppressed. A thousand
+times I have heard him quote these words: "_For Justice all place a
+temple, and all season, summer!_" He believed that happiness was the
+only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the
+only religion, and love the only priest. He added to the sum of human
+joy; and were every one to whom he did some loving service to bring a
+blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of
+flowers.
+
+Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two
+eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud,
+and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless
+lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word; but in the night of
+death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.
+
+He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the
+return of health, whispered with his latest breath, "I am better now."
+Let us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and tears, that
+these dear words are true of all the countless dead.
+
+And now, to you, who have been chosen, from among the many men he loved,
+to do the last sad office for the dead, we give his sacred dust.
+
+Speech cannot contain our love. There was, there is, no gentler,
+stronger, manlier man.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Mistakes of Moses, by Robert G. Ingersoll
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