mistake a single utterance. In it doctrines are traced to their
genetic development, and held to be the luxuriant growth of the seeds of
error. The truths of Christianity are surrounded by a halo to which it
is no more entitled than the sagas of the Northmen. The old dogma was
born of prejudice and error, hence the modern conception of it is sheer
illusion. Faith and science are irreconcilable foes, for faith is the
perversion, and science the development of human nature. Believing and
knowing, religion and philosophy, are born antagonists, and man can make
no rapid progress if he grovel in the errors of faith. The personality
of God is not that of the individual but of the universal. The pantheism
of Spinoza is the best solution of God's existence; "for," says
Strauss, "God is not the personal, but the infinite personifying of
himself."

The oracular responses of Feuerbach[67] were a step beyond even this
skeptical usurpation. Religion is man's conduct to himself. Man, from
time immemorial, has been buried in self-love, and become so far carried
away by it that his religion is now one monstrous hallucination.
Religion springs not from his intellect but from his imagination. He
wishes to get to heaven; he desires to be comfortable; therefore he
believes. He will put himself to no little trouble to propitiate the
favor of one whom he considers divine. Here is the mystery of all
sacrifices. They are offered by all people from the mere inner force of
abject egotism. God has no absolute existence whatever. Christianity
needs to be attacked historically. Its chief elements are Judaism and
paganism. That it is a collection of absurdities, corruptions, and
prejudices, can be perceived on its very face. But still man needs
religion, though he can only gain it either by rejecting Christianity
altogether or purifying it from its thick envelope of dross.

The _Halle Year-Books_, published 1838-'42, were the principal organ of
the new atheistic doctrines. They commenced with the laudation of
Strauss, then passed over into the service of Feuerbach, and finally
served the cause of Bruno Baur and his fanatical adherents. They were
under the chief editorship of Ruge; and, being popular and youthful in
style, they wielded an unbounded influence on the dissatisfied and
skeptical classes. They broke through all the restraints of religion,
and propagated the wildest perversions of Hegel's opinions. Though
short-lived, they gained an autho