The
arguments I advance are either good or bad. If they are bad they
can easily be answered by argument. If they are not they cannot
be answered by personalities or by ascribing to me selfish motives.
It is not a personal matter. It is a matter of logic, of sense--
not a matter of slander, vituperation or hatred. The writer of
the letter, R. H. S., may be an exceedingly good person, yet that
will add no weight to his or her argument. He or she may be a very
bad person, but that would not weaken the logic of the letter, if
it had any logic to begin with. It is not for me to say what my
motives are in what I do or say; it must be left to the judgment
of mankind. I presume I am about as bad as most folks, and as good
as some, but my goodness or badness has nothing to do with the
question. I may have committed every crime in the world, yet that
does not make the story of the flood reasonable, nor does it even
tend to show that the three gentlemen in the furnace were not
scorched. I may be the best man in the world, yet that does not
go to prove that Jonah was swallowed by the whale. Let me say
right here that if there is another world I believe that every soul
who finds the way to that shore will have an everlasting opportunity
to do right--of reforming. My objection to Christianity is that
it is infinitely cruel, infinitely selfish, and I might add infinitely
absurd. I deprive no one of any hope unless you call the expectation
of eternal pain a hope.

_Question_. Have you read the Rev. Father Lambert's "Notes on
Ingersoll," and if so, what have you to say of them or in reply to
them?

_Answer_. I have read a few pages or paragraphs of that pamphlet,
and do not feel called upon to say anything. Mr. Lambert has the
same right to publish his ideas that I have, and the readers must
judge. People who believe his way will probably think that he has
succeeded in answering me. After all, he must leave the public to
decide. I have no anxiety about the decision. Day by day the
people are advancing, and in a little while the sacred superstitions
of to-day will be cast aside with the foolish myths and fables of
the pagan world.

As a matter of fact there can be no argument in favor of the
supernatural. Suppose you should ask if I had read the work of
that gentleman who says that twice two are five. I should answer
you that no gentleman can prove that twice two are five; and yet
this is exactly as easy as to