ence, would have no fears--not the
slightest.

If a man has a diamond that has been examined by the lapidaries of the
world, and some ignorant stonecutter tells him that it is nothing but
an ordinary rock, he laughs at him; but if it has not been examined by
lapidaries, and he is a little suspicious himself that it is not
genuine, it makes him mad. Any doctrine that will not bear
investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man. Any
man who is afraid to have his doctrine investigated is not only a
coward but a hypocrite. Now, all I ask is simply an opportunity to say
my say. I will give that right to everybody else in the world. I
understand that owing to my success in the lecture field several
clergymen have taken it into their heads to lecture--some of them, I
believe, this evening. I say all that I claim is the right I give to
others, and any man who will not give that right is a dishonest man, no
matter what church he may belong to or not belong to--if he does not
freely accord to all others the right to think, he is not an honest
man. I said some time ago that if there was any being who would
eternally damn one of his children for the expression of an honest
opinion that he was not a God, but that he was a demon; and from that
they have said first, that I did not believe in any God, and, secondly,
that I called Him a demon. If I did not believe in Him how could I
call Him anything? These things hardly hang together. But that makes
no difference; I expect to be maligned; I expect to be slandered; I
expect to have my reputation blackened by gentlemen who are not fit to
blacken my shoes.

But letting that pass--I simply believe in liberty; that is my
religion; that is the altar where I worship; that is my shrine--that
every human being shall have every right that I have--that is my
religion. I am going to live up to it and going to say what little I
can to make the American people brave enough and generous enough and
kind enough to give everybody else the rights they have themselves.
Can there ever be any progress in this world to amount to anything
until we have liberty? The thoughts of a man who is not free are not
worth much. A man who thinks with the club of a creed above his head--a
man who thinks casting his eye askance at the flames of hell, is not
apt to have very good thoughts. And for my part, I would not care to
have any status or social position even in heaven if I had to admit