ability, and found that people were palming off upon
children and upon one another as the inspired word of God a book
that upheld slavery, polygamy and almost every other crime. Whether
I am right or wrong, I became convinced that the Bible is not an
inspired book; and then the only question for me to settle was as
to whether I should say what I believed or not. This really was
not the question in my mind, because, before even thinking of such
a question, I expressed my belief, and I simply claim that right
and expect to exercise it as long as I live. I may be damned for
it in the next world, but it is a great source of pleasure to me
in this.

_Question_. It is reported that you are the son of a Presbyterian
minister?

_Answer_. Yes, I am the son of a New School Presbyterian minister.

_Question_. About what age were you when you began this investigation
which led to your present convictions?

_Answer_. I cannot remember when I believed the Bible doctrine of
eternal punishment. I have a dim recollection of hating Jehovah
when I was exceedingly small.

_Question_. Then your present convictions began to form themselves
while you were listening to the teachings of religion as taught by
your father?

_Answer_. Yes, they did.

_Question_. Did you discuss the matter with him?

_Answer_. I did for many years, and before he died he utterly gave
up the idea that this life is a period of probation. He utterly
gave up the idea of eternal punishment, and before he died he had
the happiness of believing that God was almost as good and generous
as he was himself.

_Question_. I suppose this gossip about a change in your religious
views arose or was created by the expression used at your brother's
funeral, "In the night of death hope sees a star and listening love
can hear the rustle of a wing"?

_Answer_. I never willingly will destroy a solitary human hope.
I have always said that I did not know whether man was or was not
immortal, but years before my brother died, in a lecture entitled
"The Ghosts," which has since been published, I used the following
words: "The idea of immortality, that like a sea has ebbed and
flowed in the human heart, with its countless waves of hope and
fear, beating against the shores and rocks of time and fate, was
not born of any book, nor of any creed, nor of any religion. It
was born of human affection, and it will continue to ebb and flow
beneath the mists and clouds of