ave a better, a
clearer idea of justice, and pay their debts better, and treat
their wives and children better than ever before. The higher and
better qualities of the soul have more to do with the average life.
To-day men have greater admiration and respect for women, greater
regard for the social and domestic obligations than their fathers
had.

_Question_. What led you to begin lecturing on your present subject,
and what was your first lecture?

_Answer_. My first lecture was entitled "Progress." I began
lecturing because I thought the creeds of the orthodox church false
and horrible, and because I thought the Bible cruel and absurd,
and because I like intellectual liberty.

--New York, May 5, 1893.

SUNDAY A DAY OF PLEASURE.

_Question_. What do you think of the religious spirit that seeks
to regulate by legislation the manner in which the people of this
country shall spend their Sundays?

_Answer_. The church is not willing to stand alone, not willing
to base its influence on reason and on the character of its members.
It seeks the aid of the State. The cross is in partnership with
the sword. People should spend Sundays as they do other days; that
is to say, as they please. No one has the right to do anything on
Monday that interferes with the rights of his neighbors, and everyone
has the right to do anything he pleases on Sunday that does not
interfere with the rights of his neighbors. Sunday is a day of
rest, not of religion. We are under obligation to do right on all
days.

Nothing can be more absurd than the idea that any particular space
of time is sacred. Everything in nature goes on the same on Sunday
as on other days, and if beyond nature there be a God, then God
works on Sunday as he does on all other days. There is no rest in
nature. There is perpetual activity in every possible direction.
The old idea that God made the world and then rested, is idiotic.
There were two reasons given to the Hebrews for keeping the Sabbath
--one because Jehovah rested on that day, the other because the
Hebrews were brought out of Egypt. The first reason, we know, is
false, and the second reason is good only for the Hebrews. According
to the Bible, Sunday, or rather the Sabbath, was not for the world,
but for the Hebrews, and the Hebrews alone. Our Sunday is pagan
and is the day of the sun, as Monday is the day of the moon. All
our day names are pagan. I am opposed to all Sunday legislation.