reasonably happy, I never would say a solitary word
against the church, but just as long as they preach that the majority
of mankind will suffer eternal pain, just so long I shall oppose
them; that is to say, as long as I live.

_Question_. Do you believe in a God; and, if so, what kind of a
God?

_Answer_. Let me, in the first place, lay a foundation for an
answer.

First.--Man gets all food for thought through the medium of the
senses. The effect of nature upon the senses, and through the
senses upon the brain, must be natural. All food for thought,
then, is natural. As a consequence of this, there can be no
supernatural idea in the human brain. Whatever idea there is must
have been a natural product. If, then, there is no supernatural
idea in the human brain, then there cannot be in the human brain
an idea of the supernatural. If we can have no idea of the
supernatural, and if the God of whom you spoke is admitted to be
supernatural, then, of course, I can have no idea of him, and I
certainly can have no very fixed belief on any subject about which
I have no idea.

There may be a God for all I know. There may be thousands of them.
But the idea of an infinite Being outside and independent of nature
is inconceivable. I do not know of any word that would explain my
doctrine or my views upon the subject. I suppose Pantheism is as
near as I could go. I believe in the eternity of matter and in
the eternity of intelligence, but I do not believe in any Being
outside of nature. I do not believe in any personal Deity. I do
not believe in any aristocracy of the air. I know nothing about
origin or destiny. Between these two horizons I live, whether I
wish to or not, and must be satisfied with what I find between
these two horizons. I have never heard any God described that I
believe in. I have never heard any religion explained that I
accept. To make something out of nothing cannot be more absurd
than that an infinite intelligence made this world, and proceeded
to fill it with crime and want and agony, and then, not satisfied
with the evil he had wrought, made a hell in which to consummate
the great mistake.

_Question_. Do you believe that the world, and all that is in it
came by chance?

_Answer_. I do not believe anything comes by chance. I regard
the present as the necessary child of a necessary past. I believe
matter is eternal; that it has eternally existed and eternally will
exist. I bel