tomb."

How well the ecclesiastical psychologists have grasped this fact, and
how well they have fashioned a strong chain for the mind out of this
weakness of human minds!

Church and government have been well aware of this psychology, and have
fought constantly the spread of Freethought literature to the masses.
Professor Bury, in his "History of Freedom of Thought," speaking of
England, tells us, "If we take the cases in which the civil authorities
have intervened to repress the publication of unorthodox opinions during
the last two centuries, we find that the object has always been to
prevent the spread of free thought among the masses."

Think but a moment how well the above is borne out by the attitude of
the Church in the stand that it took during the Middle Ages, when she
prohibited the reading of the Bible by any person except her clergy.
When she prohibited the printing of all books except those that she
approved of; books that minutely agreed in all details with the
phantastic fables of her Bible were the only ones allowed to be printed.

The Church also strenuously objected to the printing of Bibles in the
languages of the masses. That most efficient shackle to the mind, that
precept that there was no knowledge, whether material or spiritual, that
was not contained in the Bible, how strenuously the Church upheld that
doctrine!

And in our own day, the ridiculous assumption that "mysteries" (a
special form of ignorance) are the special province of the Church.
Considering these few examples as well as all ecclesiastical endeavor,
no rational mind can escape the fact that that primeval curse, religion,
has had for its object, down through the centuries, the sadistic desire
to enslave and trample on the mind of man. It has been a defensive
measure on the part of the Church, for she well recognizes that once the
mind is free, it will free itself of the shackles of religion also.

Nor is this all. I execrate the enslavement of the mind of our young
children by the ecclesiastics. Is anything so pitiful to behold as the
firm grasp that the Church places on the mind of the youngest of
children? Children at play, children of four and five years of age, will
be heard to mention with fearful tones various religious rites, such as
baptism and confirmation, and to perform in their manner these rites
with their dolls. Fear! Fear! instilled into the minds of the
impressionable children! Think of the degradation that th