ogma of inspiration! It is no longer claimed that the Bible
is true--but _inspired_.

_Question_. Yet the sacred volume, no matter who wrote it, is a
mine of wealth to the student and the philosopher, is it not?
Would you have us discard it altogether?

_Answer_. Inspiration must be abandoned, and the Bible must take
its place among the books of the world. It contains some good
passages, a little poetry, some good sense, and some kindness; but
its philosophy is frightful. In fact, if the book had never existed
I think it would have been far better for mankind. It is not enough
to give up the Bible; that is only the beginning. The _supernatural_
must be given up. It must be admitted that Nature has no master;
that there never has been any interference from without; that man
has received no help from heaven; and that all the prayers that
have ever been uttered have died unanswered in the heedless air.
The religion of the supernatural has been a curse. We want the
religion of usefulness.

_Question_. But have you no use whatever for prayer--even in the
sense of aspiration--or for faith, in the sense of confidence in
the ultimate triumph of the right?

_Answer_. There is a difference between wishing, hoping, believing,
and--knowing. We can wish without evidence or probability, and we
can wish for the impossible--for what we believe can never be. We
cannot hope unless there is in the mind a possibility that the
thing hoped for can happen. We can believe only in accordance with
evidence, and we know only that which has been demonstrated. I
have no use for prayer; but I do a good deal of wishing and hoping.
I hope that some time the right will triumph--that Truth will gain
the victory; but I have no faith in gaining the assistance of any
god, or of any supernatural power. I never pray.

_Question_. However fully materialism, as a philosophy, may accord
with the merely human _reason_, is it not wholly antagonistic to
the instinctive faculties of the mind?

_Answer_. Human reason is the final arbiter. Any system that does
not commend itself to the reason must fall. I do not know exactly
what you mean by _materialism_. I do not know what matter is. I
am satisfied, however, that without matter there can be no force,
no life, no thought, no reason. It seems to me that mind is a form
of force, and force cannot exist apart from matter. If it is said
that God created the universe, then there must have b