s before he was born,
or that he failed to grasp nature's beautiful ideas without confounding
them with supernatural fancies, does not detract in any way from his
nobility of purpose and his name should be mentioned in the future
history of the world as one of the great benefactors of the human race.
It seems a pity that his over-zealous followers have tried to place him
in the light of a deity, for in time to come, when your species begin to
reason, they might possibly regard him as an impostor. This should not
be the case however, for although Christ no doubt really believed in a
religious god, it is unjust to believe that he ever pretended to be
anything more than a mere human being himself, or that he knew anything
about the wonderful miracles it was subsequently claimed he had
performed.

"Any earthly being," said Arletta, as her face fairly beamed with
intelligence, "whether it be a man, an Apeman or a monkey, who claims to
be related to the Creator of the universe, or to be His prophet, or His
specially appointed spokesman, or in any way tries to lead others to
believe that he possesses supernatural powers, is either an impostor or
an idiot.

"When all earthly beings make use of the reasoning faculties nature
endows them with, all religions will perish through the agency of their
own untruths."

CHAPTER XII.

"Then am I to understand that your people were Atheists?" inquired I of
Arletta.

"Not at all," replied she. "We believed in Natural Law but not in
religion. Our most intellectual men decided that by no stretch of the
imagination could they build a god for religious purposes as great as
the Creator of the universe must naturally be, and knowing that it
remains for man himself to reach his highest state of perfection without
any supernatural influence whatsoever, they therefore abolished all
forms of religious worship and established a code of ethics which was
termed Natural Law.

"Religion teaches one to believe in an unnatural god who apparently must
be ever ready to answer anybody's prayerful cry and act as a general
servant to humanity by distributing good things to those who beg for
them; a sort of meddlesome god who enters into all the petty quarrels of
hunan beings and generally settles them in the wrong way.

"Natural Law teaches that there exists on grand supreme ruler who guides
the entire machinery of the universe; the Deity who created the
principle of life, and one who does not deviate