function it is to expel disease and leave the patient sound and well. No
sick man claims that the doctor shall supply him with something in place
of his malady. It is enough that the enemy of his health is driven out.
He is then in a position to act for himself. He has legs to walk with,
a brain to devise, and hands to execute his will What more does he need?
What more can he ask without declaring himself a weakling or a fool? So
it is with superstition, the deadliest disease of the mind. Freethought
casts it out, with its blindness and its terrors, and leaves the mind
clear and free. All nature is then before us to study and enjoy.
Truth shines on us with celestial light, Goodness smiles on our best
endeavors, and Beauty thrills our senses and kindles our imagination
with the subtle magic of her charms.

What a boon it is to think freely, to let the intellect dart out in
quest of truth at every point of the compass, to feel the delight of
the chase and the gladness of capture! What a noble privilege to pour
treasures of knowledge into the alembic of the brain, and separate the
gold from the dross!

The Freethinker takes nothing on trust, if he can help it; he dissects,
analyses, and proves everything, Does this make him a barren sceptic?
Not so. What he discards he knows to be worthless, and he also knows
the value of what he prizes. If one sweet vision turns out a mirage, how
does it lessen our enjoyment at the true oasis, or shake our certitude
of water and shade under the palm-trees by the well?

The masses of men do not think freely. They scarcely think at all out of
their round of business; They are trained not to think. From the cradle
to the grave orthodoxy has them in its clutches. Their religion is
settled by priests, and their political and social institutions by
custom. They look askance at the man who dares to question what is
established, not reflecting that all orthodoxies were once heterodox,
that without innovation there could never have been any progress, and
that if inquisitive fellows had not gone prying about in forbidden
quarters ages ago, the world would still be peopled by savages dressed
in nakedness, war-paint, and feathers. The mental stultification which
begins in youth reaches ossification as men grow older. Lack of thought
ends in incapacity to think.

Real Freethought is impossible without education. The mind cannot
operate without means or construct without materials. Theology opposes