pened twenty years before: nor, had it happened, would it
have been respectfully announced.

There are people who are very unfortunate in the expression of their
meaning. Mr. Holyoake, in the name of the "London Society" etc., forwarded
a pamphlet on the existence of God, and said that the Society trusted I
"may be induced to give" the subject my "consideration." How could I know
the Society was one person, who supposed I had arrived at a conclusion and
wanted a "_guiding word_"? But so it seems it was: Mr. Holyoake, in the
_English {401} Leader_ of October 15, 1864, and in a private letter to me,
writes as follows:

"The gentleman who was the author of the argument, and who asked me to send
it to Mr. De Morgan, never assumed that that gentleman had 'that particular
subject to begin'--on the contrary, he supposed that one whom we all knew
to be eminent as a thinker _had_ come to a conclusion upon it, and would
perhaps vouchsafe a guiding word to one who was, as yet, seeking the
solution of the Great Problem of Theology. I told my friend that 'Mr. De
Morgan was doubtless preoccupied, and that he must be content to wait. On
some day of courtesy and leisure he might have the kindness to write.' Nor
was I wrong--the answer appears in your pages at the lapse of seventeen
years."

I suppose Mr. Holyoake's way of putting his request was the _stylus curiae_
of the Society. A worthy Quaker who was sued for debt in the King's Bench
was horrified to find himself charged in the declaration with detaining his
creditor's money by force and arms, contrary to the peace of our Lord the
King, etc. It's only the _stylus curiae_, said a friend: I don't know
_curiae_, said the Quaker, but he shouldn't style us peace-breakers.

The notion that the _non_-existence of God can be _proved_, has died out
under the light of discussion: had the only lights shone from the pulpit
and the prison, so great a step would never have been made. The question
now is as above. The dictum that Christianity is "part and parcel of the
law of the land" is also abrogated: at the same time, and the coincidence
is not an accident, it is becoming somewhat nearer the truth that the law
of the land is part and parcel of Christianity. It must also be noticed
that _Christianity_ was part and parcel of the articles of _war_; and so
was _duelling_. Any officer speaking against religion was to be cashiered;
and any officer receiving an affront without, in the last resort,