of the South--she hungry for liberty--Webster took the side
of the bloodhounds. Such a man is no authority for me. Bacon
denied the Copernican system of astronomy; he is an unsafe guide.
Wesley believed in witches; I cannot follow him. No man should
quote a name instead of an argument; no man should bring forward
a person instead of a principle, unless he is willing to accept
all the ideas of that person.

_Question_. Is not a pleasant illusion preferable to a dreary
truth--a future life being in question?

_Answer_. I think it is. I think that a pleasing illusion is
better then a terrible truth, so far as its immediate results are
concerned. I would rather think the one I love living, than to
think her dead. I would rather think that I had a large balance
in bank than that my account was overdrawn. I would rather think
I was healthy than to know that I had a cancer. But if we have an
illusion, let us have it pleasing. The orthodox illusion is the
worst that can possibly be conceived. Take hell out of that
illusion, take eternal pain away from that dream, and say that the
whole world is to be happy forever--then you might have an excuse
for calling it a pleasant illusion; but it is, in fact, a nightmare
--a perpetual horror--a cross, on which the happiness of man has
been crucified.

_Question_. Are not religion and morals inseparable?

_Answer_. Religion and morality have nothing in common, and yet
there is no religion except the practice of morality. But what
you call religion is simply superstition. Religion as it is now
taught teaches our duties toward God--our obligations to the
Infinite, and the results of a failure to discharge those obligations.
I believe that we are under no obligations to the Infinite; that
we cannot be. All our obligations are to each other, and to sentient
beings. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved," has nothing to do with morality. "Do unto other as ye
would that others should do unto you" has nothing to do with
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism has nothing to do with
morality. "Pay your honest debts." That has nothing to do with
baptism. What is called religion is simple superstition, with
which morality has nothing to do.

The churches do not prevent people from committing natural offences,
but restrain them from committing artificial ones. As for instance,
the Catholic Church can prevent one of its members from eating meat