t forget not
our loyal services. Remember, beloved, that the laborer is worthy of his
hire, and--shell out!"

The services of the black-coats are imaginary, and their payment should
be of the same description. Let them live on _their own_ faith, and
trust to him who fed Elijah in the desert with sandwiches brought by
ravens' beaks.

Clearly the belief in spooks is profitable to the clergy. Just as
clearly it is expensive to the people. Whistling between the hedges is
as good as keeping a parson. But that is not the priest's teaching. He
says the spooks are real, and he is the only person to keep them off.
Grant the first point, and the second is sure to follow. But _are_ the
spooks real? Can the clergy show a single live specimen? They cannot,
and they know they cannot, either for love or money. Why then does
the business hold out? Because an imaginary spook is as good as a real
spook, if the clergy can twist and prejudice the youthful mind in their
direction. If a showman never lifts the curtain, it does not matter
whether he has anything or nothing on the other side.

The belief in spooks is more than profitable to the priests. It
enervates and paralyses the human mind. It is the parent of all sorts of
mischief. It is our worst inheritance from our savage progenitors. The
black spirits that haunted the swamps and forests of primeval ages, and
terrified the ape-man who lived in mystery and fear, are not suffered to
depart with the ignorance that gave them birth. They are cultivated by
priests, and used to overawe the cradles and schools of civilisation.

The Freethinker does not fight spooks. He would not waste an ounce
of powder upon them. He fights the fighters of spooks. He assails the
superstition on which they flourish. He seeks to free the human mind
from gratuitous fears. He dispels the shadows and deepens the sunshine
of life.

Surely this is a good work. Whoever takes part in it is giving the race
an unmixed blessing. War with the army of enslavement! Down with the
seducers of childhood--the spiritual profligates who debauch the youthful
mind! Banish them, with their spooks, from the school, the college, the
court of justice, the hall of legislation! Let us train generations of
sound minds in sound bodies, full of rich blood, and nervous energy, and
frank inquiry, and dauntless courage, and starry hope; with faces that
never pale at truth, hearts that hold no terms with falsehood, knees
that never bend b