he Plain Dealer_, Cleveland, Ohio, Dec. 11, 1884.

RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE.

_Question_. Will a time ever come when political campaigns will
be conducted independently of religious prejudice?

_Answer_. As long as men are prejudiced, they will probably be
religious, and certainly as long as they are religious they will
be prejudiced, and every religionist who imagines the next world
infinitely more important than this, and who imagines that he gets
his orders from God instead of from his own reason, or from his
fellow-citizens, and who thinks that he should do something for
the glory of God instead of for the benefit of his fellow-citizens
--just as long as they believe these things, just so long their
prejudices will control their votes. Every good, ignorant, orthodox
Christian places his Bible above laws and constitutions. Every
good, sincere and ignorant Catholic puts pope above king and
president, as well as above the legally expressed will of a majority
of his countrymen. Every Christian believes God to be the source
of all authority. I believe that the authority to govern comes
from the consent of the governed. Man is the source of power, and
to protect and increase human happiness should be the object of
government. I think that religious prejudices are growing weaker
because religious belief is growing weaker. And these prejudices
--should men ever become really civilized--will finally fade away.
I think that a Presbyterian, to-day, has no more prejudice against
an Atheist than he has against a Catholic. A Catholic does not
dislike an Infidel any more than he does a Presbyterian, and I
believe, to-day, that most of the Presbyterians would rather see
and Atheist President than a pronounced Catholic.

_Question_. Is Agnosticism gaining ground in the United States?

_Answer_. Of course, there are thousands and thousands of men who
have now advanced intellectually to the point of perceiving the
limit of human knowledge. In other words, at last they are beginning
to know enough to know what can and cannot be known. Sensible men
know that nobody knows whether an infinite God exists or not.
Sensible men know that an infinite personality cannot, by human
testimony, be established. Sensible men are giving up trying to
answer the questions of origin and destiny, and are paying more
attention to what happens between these questions--that is to say,
to this world. Infidelity increases as knowledge increa