it till you come to
die!" He does not always use these very words, but this is the meaning
of all his verbiage. He forgets, or does not know, that philosophy
destroys the terror of death. A rational man is aware of the truth
expressed by Mill, that death is but one incident in life, and often the
least important. He recognises with Bacon that we die daily. He knows
that every hour is a step towards death. He does not play, like an
ostrich, with the universal law of mortality; nor, on the other hand,
does he allow the tomb to cast its chill obscurity over the business and
pleasure of life. He lives without hypocrisy, and when the time comes he
will die without fear. As Hamlet says, "the readiness is all." Another
word also comes from the wisest of men--"Cowards do often taste of
death; the valiant die but once."

A belief that will do for life will do for death. The religionists
prove this themselves. Whatever a man is confident of is sustaining. The
Christian dies a Christian, and the Mohammedan a Mohammedan. The one
has dying visions of angels--or may be of devils; the other sees heaven
burst open, and the black-eyed houris of paradise beckon him with rosy
fingers. What they leaned on in life supports them in death. Its truth
or falsity makes no difference at that moment.

Freethinkers are sustained by _convictions_. Intellect and emotion
concur in their case. They have no visions of angels or devils, but dear
loved faces are better than phantoms, and he who has done a little good
in the world, however humbly and obscurely, may dream of the happier and
nobler days to come, when true words and good deeds will have brought
forth the glorious fruit of happiness for the children of men.

We do not mean to assert that no Freethinker, at any time, ever relapsed
on his death-bed. Such cases have apparently occurred during life, and
while one particular religion is in the ascendant it is not difficult to
understand them. The relapses are always to the creed a man finds about
him, or to the creed of his childhood. They simply prove the power of
environment and early training, and that a man needs all his strength
to stand against big majorities. At best they are cases of mental
pathology.

Great historic Freethinkers have always died true to their convictions.
They were used to standing alone. For ample proof of this the reader is
referred to my _Infidel Death Beds_. And when smaller Freethinkers are
numerous enough they av