in an essay on
Atheism. He was bound to be circumspect in a composition level to the
intelligence of every educated reader. We prefer to take him where he
enjoys greater freedom. Under the veil of a story, for instance, he
aims a dart at the superstition of a special providence, which is an
ineradicable part of the Christian faith.

Bion, the Atheist, being shown the votive tablets in the temple of
Neptune, presented by those who prayed to the god in a storm and were
saved, asked where were the tablets of those who were drowned. Bacon
tells the story with evident gusto, and it is in such things that we
seem to get at his real thoughts. In a set essay on Atheism, a man
of his worldly wisdom, and un-heroic temper, was sure to kneel at the
regular altars. The single query "Why should they trouble themselves?"
explains it all.

CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY. *

* Christianity and Slavery. No. 18 of Oxford House Papers.
By H. Henley Henson, B.A., Head of the Oxford House in
Bethnal Green. London: Rivingtons.

Some time ago I delivered a lecture in the London Hall of Science on
"Christianity and Slavery." Among my critics there was one gentleman,
and the circumstance was so noteworthy that my friend the chairman
expressed a wish, which I cordially echoed, that we might have the
pleasure of hearing him again. A few days ago a pamphlet reached me on
the subject of that lecture, written by my friendly opponent, who turns
out to be the head of the Oxford House in Bethnal Green. Mr. Henson
sends me the pamphlet himself "with his compliments," and I have read
it carefully. Indeed, I have marked it in dozens of places where his
statements strike me as inaccurate and his arguments as fallacious; and,
on the whole, I think it best to give him a set answer in this journal.
Mr. Henson's paper is not, in my opinion, a very forcible one on the
intellectual side. But perhaps that is, in a certain sense, one of its
merits; for the Christian case in this dispute is so bad that sentiment
does it more service than logic. I must, however, allow that Mr. Henson
is a courteous disputant, and I hope I shall reciprocate his good
feeling. When he opposed me at the Hall of Science, he admits that I
treated him "with a courtesy which relieves controversy of its worst
aspects." I trust he will be equally satisfied with my rejoinder.
Whenever I may have occasion to express myself strongly, I shall simply
be in earnest about the the