nd give me more credulity--that is, he would be
obliged to lessen my reasoning power. Then I would believe not
only without evidence, but in spite of evidence. All the miracles
would appear perfectly natural. It would then seem as easy to
raise the dead as to waken the sleeping. In addition to this, God
would so change my mind that I would hold all reason in contempt
and put entire confidence in faith. I would then regard science
as the enemy of human happiness, and ignorance as the soil in which
virtues grow. Then I would throw away Darwin and Humboldt, and
rely on the sermons of orthodox preachers. In other words, I would
become a little child and amuse myself with a religious rattle and
a Gabriel horn. Then I would rely on a man who has been dead for
nearly two thousand years to secure me a seat in Paradise.

After conversion, it is not pretended that I will be any better so
far as my actions are concerned; no more charitable, no more honest,
no more generous. The great difference will be that I will believe
more and think less.

After all, the converted people do not seem to be better than the
sinners. I never heard of a poor wretch clad in rags, limping into
a town and asking for the house of a Christian.

I think that I had better remain as I am. I had better follow the
light of my reason, be true to myself, express my honest thoughts,
and do the little I can for the destruction of superstition, the
little I can for the development of the brain, for the increase of
intellectual hospitality and the happiness of my fellow-beings.
One world at a time.

--_New York Journal_, December 15, 1895.

SPIRITUALISM.

There are several good things about Spiritualism. First, they are
not bigoted; second, they do not believe in salvation by faith;
third, they don't expect to be happy in another world because Christ
was good in this; fourth, they do not preach the consolation of
hell; fifth, they do not believe in God as an infinite monster;
sixth, the Spiritualists believe in intellectual hospitality. In
these respects they differ from our Christian brethren, and in
these respects they are far superior to the saints.

I think that the Spiritualists have done good. They believe in
enjoying themselves--in having a little pleasure in this world.
They are social, cheerful and good-natured. They are not the slaves
of a book. Their hands and feet are not tied with passages of
Scripture. They are not troubli