as.

In a word, then, as to creed, I find no satisfactory platform save that
of the broadest eclecticism. The motto of the old Greek, 'Know that good
is in all,' is mine. I am aware that the danger accruing from this style
of creed is, that one often gets, in the effort at impartiality, into
the meshes of pantheism; and then your list of gods many and lords many
comprises all the chief divinities, from Brahm and Buddh to Thor; you
priding yourself the while upon the consideration shown for 'local
prejudices' by your not putting Christ at the end of the list. But,
after life-long investigation, I am not ashamed to say, in the words,
though not in the spirit of Emperor Julian, 'Galilean, thou hast
conquered;' with Augustine, 'Let my soul calm itself in Thee; I say, let
the great sea of my soul, that swelleth with waves, calm itself in
Thee;' with De Stael, 'Inconcevable enigme de la vie; que la passion, ni
la douleur, ni le genie ne peuvent decouvrir, vous revelerez-vous a la
priere;' with practical Napoleon, 'I know men, and Jesus Christ was not
a man;' with a Chevalier Bunsen and a Beecher, 'Jesus Christ is my God,
without any ifs or buts.' I can assent more decidedly than does
Teuflesdroeck, in the 'Everlasting Nay,' to the doctrine of regeneration.
I narrow the whole matter down to these plain facts: Of all religions,
Christianity is best calculated to elevate man's nature; and of all
Christians, they reach the highest spiritual condition who regard Christ
as utterly divine.

On this other matter that enters so largely into my narrative--the
conjugality of disembodied spirits--I cannot forbear some further
discourse before proceeding historically. The absurd idea is still
prevalent that there is no sex in heaven. Those who retain this notion,
despite the revelations of science concerning the universality of sex
throughout creation, cannot reason very candidly. When we find in the
earth positives but no negatives, light but no heat, strength but no
beauty, action but no passivity, wisdom but no love, intellection but no
intuition, reflection but no perception, science but no religion, then,
at last, may we expect to see in the heavens men but no women.

Take the conjugal element from human creatures, and you have Hamlet
without the ghost. Excepting, perhaps, the religious, it is the most
powerful, prominent, exacting part of our nature. In 'man's unregenerate
state,' at least, the love story is the most interesting b