could exceed the
heartlessness of the remarks made by the average clergyman. There
have been some noble exceptions, to whom I feel not only thankful
but grateful; but a very large majority have taken this occasion
to say most unfeeling and brutal things. I do not ask the clergy
to forgive me, but I do request that they will so act that I will
not have to forgive them. I have always insisted that those who
love their enemies should at least tell the truth about their
friends, but I suppose, after all, that religion must be supported
by the same means as those by which it was founded. Of course,
there are thousands of good ministers, men who are endeavoring to
make the world better, and whose failure is no particular fault of
their own. I have always been in doubt as to whether the clergy
were a necessary or an unnecessary evil.

_Question_. I would like to have a positive expression of your
views as to a future state?

_Answer_. Somebody asked Confucius about another world, and his
reply was: "How should I know anything about another world when
I know so little of this?" For my part, I know nothing of any
other state of existence, either before or after this, and I have
never become personally acquainted with anybody that did. There
may be another life, and if there is, the best way to prepare for
it is by making somebody happy in this. God certainly cannot afford
to put a man in hell who has made a little heaven in this world.
I propose simply to take my chances with the rest of the folks,
and prepare to go where the people I am best acquainted with will
probably settle. I cannot afford to leave the great ship and sneak
off to shore in some orthodox canoe. I hope there is another life,
for I would like to see how things come out in the world when I am
dead. There are some people I would like to see again, and hope
there are some who would not object to seeing me; but if there is
no other life I shall never know it. I do not remember a time when
I did not exist; and if, when I die, that is the end, I shall not
know it, because the last thing I shall know is that I am alive,
and if nothing is left, nothing will be left to know that I am
dead; so that so far as I am concerned I am immortal; that is to
say, I cannot recollect when I did not exist, and there never will
be a time when I shall remember that I do not exist. I would like
to have several millions of dollars, and I may say that I have a
lively