ng priesthood."

"How comes it, then, that a man is an object of contempt for acting in
accordance with the principles of this much lauded progress?" asked the
millionaire, with unexpected sarcasm. "We are indebted to progress for
the abolition of a legal rate of interest. Shund takes advantage of
this conquest, and for doing so citizens who boast of being progressive
look upon him with aversion. A further triumph secured by progress is
freedom from the tyranny of dogmas and the tortures of a conscience
created by a contracted morality. This beautiful fruit of the tree of
enlightened knowledge Shund partakes of and enjoys; and for this he has
the distinction of passing for a vampire. And because he displays the
spirit of an energetic business man, because his capacity for
speculating occasionally overwhelms blockheads and dunces, he is
decried as a ravenous wolf. It is sad! If your statements are correct,
Mr. Schwefel, our city ought not to boast of being progressive. Its
citizens are still groping in the midnight darkness of religious
superstition, scarcely even united with modern intellectual
advancement. And to me the consciousness is most uncomfortable of
breathing an atmosphere poisoned by the decaying remnants of an age
long since buried."

"My own personal views accord with yours," protested Schwefel candidly.
"The subversion of the antiquated, absurd articles of faith and moral
precept necessarily entails the abrogation of the consequences that
flow from them for public life. For centuries the cross was a symbol of
dignity, and the doctrine of the Crucified resulted in holiness.
Paganism, on the contrary, looked upon the gospel as foolishness, as a
hallucination, and upon the cross as a sign of shame. I belong to the
classic ranks, and so do millions like myself--among them Mr. Shund.
Viewed in the light of progress, Shund is neither a vampire nor a wolf;
at the worst, he is merely an ill used business man. They who suffer
themselves to be humbugged and fleeced by him have their own stupidity
to thank for it. This exposition will convince you that I stand on a
level with yourself in the matter of advanced enlightenment.
Nevertheless, you overlook, Mr. Greifmann, that, so far as the masses
of the people are concerned, reverence for the cross and the holiness
of its doctrines continue to prevail. The acquisitions of progress are
not yet generally diffused. The mines of modern intellectual culture
are being provi