become a kind of palimpsest upon
which, and over the writings of Nature, superstition has scribbled her
countless lies. Our great trouble is that most teachers are dishonest.
They teach as certainties those things concerning which they entertain
doubts. They do not say, "We think this is so." but "We know this is
so." They do not appeal to the reason of the pupil, but they command
his faith. They keep all doubts to themselves; they do not explain,
they assert. All this is infamous. In this way you make Christians,
but you cannot make men; you cannot make women. You can make followers
but no leaders; disciples, but no Christs. You may promise power,
honor, and happiness to all those who will blindly follow, but you
cannot keep your promise.

An eastern monarch said to a hermit, "Come with me and I will give you
power." "I have all the power that I know how to use," replied the
hermit. "Come," said the king, "I will give you wealth." "I have no
wants that money can supply." "I will give you honor." "Ah! honor
cannot be given; it must be earned." "Come," said the king, making a
last appeal, "and I will give you happiness." "No," said the man of
solitude; "there is no happiness without liberty, and he who follows
cannot be free." "You shall have liberty too." "Then I will stay."
And all the king's courtiers thought the hermit a fool.

Now and then somebody examines, and, in spite of all, keeps up his
manhood and has courage to follow where his reason leads. Then the
pious get together and repeat wise saws and exchange knowing nods and
most prophetic winks. The stupidly wise sit owl-like on the dead limbs
of the tree of knowledge, and solemnly, hoot. Wealth sneers, and
fashion laughs, and respectability passes on the other side, and scorn
points with all her skinny fingers, and, like the snakes of
superstition, writhe and hiss, and slander lends her tongue, and infamy
her brand, perjury her oath, and the law its power; and bigotry
tortures and the church kills.

The church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason that a robber
dislikes a sheriff, or that a thief despises the prosecuting witness.
Tyranny likes courtiers, flatterers, followers, fawners, and
superstition wants believers, disciples, zealots, hypocrites, and
subscribers. The church demands worship, the very thing that man
should give to no being, human or divine. To worship another is to
degrade yourself. Worship is awe, and dread, an