oning
that begins with doubting every thing, and accepting nothing till it is
proved by formal argument, will end in doubt of every thing that ought
to be believed. It will end, not only in Atheism, but in boundless
immorality, and in utter wretchedness and ruin. The man who would not be
undone by his logic, must pity Descartes instead of admiring him, and
instead of following him go just the contrary way. Descartes made a fool
of himself, or his method of reasoning made a fool of him, the very
first time he used it. His very first argument was a fallacy and a
folly. He pretended, first, to doubt, and then to prove, his own
existence. His argument was, 'I think; therefore I _exist_:' as if he
could be more sure that he _thought_, than he was that he existed. He
took his existence for granted when he said 'I think.'

20. Other things helped on the horrible change that was taking place in
my soul. I got a taste for reading a different kind of works from those
which I had been accustomed to read. I turned away from works on
religion and duty, and began to read the works of the critical,
destructive party. I turned away even from the best practical writers of
the orthodox school, such as Baxter, Tillotson and Barrow, and read
Theodore Parker, Martineau, W. F. Newman, W. J. Fox, and Froude. I also
read Carlyle, Emerson, and W. Mackay, the metaphysical bore, and C.
Mackay, the charming, fascinating, but not Christian poet. Theodore
Parker became my favorite among the prose writers. His beautiful style
and practical lessons had already reconciled me to his harsh expressions
about the Bible, and to his contemptuous treatment of miracles; and now
I had degenerated so far that I liked him for those very faults.

I read the writings of the American Abolitionists, all of which tended
to draw me from the Church and the Bible, and to bring me more fully
under skeptical influences. I began to look more freely and frequently
into works of science, and most of those waged covert war with
supernaturalism, and sought to bring down the Bible and Christianity to
the level of ordinary human thought. All ideas of authority in books and
religious systems, in ecclesiastical and social institutions, gradually
faded away. All ideas of superhuman authority, or divine obligation, in
marriage, in home, and in family life vanished. All things lost their
sacredness, and came down to the vulgar level of mere human opinion, or
of personal interest, con