or
the sake of those who are near and dear to him, for the sake of the
multitudes who must be influenced, for good or evil, by his speeches and
writings, let him lay to heart the solemn words of Sir Humphrey
Davy;--"I envy no quality of mind or intellect in others,--not genius,
power, wit, or fancy: but if I could choose what would be most
delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer _a firm
religious belief_ to every other blessing; for it makes life a
discipline of goodness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish,
and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most
gorgeous of all lights, calling up the most delightful visions, where
the sensualist and skeptic view only gloom, decay, and annihilation."

"Attempt how vain,--
With things of earthly sort, with aught but God,
With aught but moral excellence, truth, and love
To satisfy and fill the immortal soul!
To satisfy the ocean with a drop;--
To marry immortality to death;
And with the unsubstantial Shade of Time
To fill the embrace of all Eternity."

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[251] GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE, "Paley Refuted in his own Words," Third
Edition. London, 1850. TOWNLEY AND HOLYOAKE, "A Public Discussion on the
Being of a God," Third Thousand. London, 1852. GRANT AND HOLYOAKE,
"Christianity and Secularism; a Public Discussion held on six successive
Thursday evenings," Seventh Thousand. London, 1853.

[252] "The Reasoner," New Series, No. VIII. 115. Of this serial it is
said (XII. 6, 81), "The Reasoner, which was established in 1846, has
come to be regarded as the accredited organ of Freethinking in Great
Britain. Indeed, for a long time, it has been the principal professed
exponent of these views, _addressed to the working and thinking
classes_."

[253] Ibid., XI. 15, 222; XII. 4, 6, 49, 81.

[254] "The Reasoner," XII. 4, 50.

[255] Ibid., XI. 18, 271.

[256] Ibid., XI. 15, 232.

[257] "The Reasoner," XII. 24, 376.

[258] Ibid., New Series, pp. 9, 130.

[259] Ibid., XI. 24, 368.

[260] DR. CHALMERS' "Works," I. 64.

[261] "Paley Refuted," p. 12.

[262] GRANT AND HOLYOAKE, "Discussion," pp. 5. 8, 221.

[263] "The Reasoner Reasoned with," p. 13. "Holyoake's Reply to Dr.
Forbes of Glasgow."

[264] "The Logic of 'Logic of Death,'" p. 10.

[265] "Paley Refuted," p. 37.

[266] TOWNLEY AND HOLYOAKE, "Discussion," p. 13.

[267] "The Converted Atheist's Testimony."