first priest. If there
was no death in the world there would be no superstition. The church
has taken great pains to show that the last moments of all infidels
have been infinitely wretched. Upon this point, Catholics and
Protestants have always stood together. They are no longer men; they
become hyenas, they dig open graves. They devour the dead. It is an
auto da fe presided over by God and his angels. These men believed in
the accountability of men in the practice of virtue and justice. They
believed in liberty, but they did not believe in the inspiration of the
bible. That was their crime. In order to show that infidels died
overwhelmed with remorse and fear they have generally selected from all
the infidels since the days of Christ until now five men--the Emperor
Julian, Bruno, Diderot, David Hume and Thomas Paine.

They forget that Christ himself was not a Christian, that He did what
He could to tear down the religion of His day; that He held the temple
in contempt. I like Him because He held the old Jewish religion in
contempt; because He had sense enough to say that doctrine was not
true. In vain have their calumniators been called upon to prove their
statements. They simply charge it, they simply relate it, but that is
no evidence. The Emperor Julian did what he could to prevent
Christians destroying each other. He held pomp and pride in contempt.
In battle with the Persians he was mortally wounded. Feeling that he
had but a short time to live, he spent his last hours in discussing
with his friends the immortality of the soul. He declared that he was
satisfied with his conduct, and that he had no remorse to express for
any act he had ever done.

The first great infidel was Giordano Bruno. He was born in the year of
grace 1550. He was a Dominican friar--Catholic--and afterwards he
changed his mind.

The reason he changed was because he had a mind. He was a lover of
nature, and said to the poor hermits in their caves, to the poor monks
in their monasteries, to the poor nuns in their cells: "Come out in the
glad fields; come and breathe the fresh, free air; come and enjoy all
the beauty there is in the world. There is no God who can be made
happier by you being miserable; there is no God who delights to see
upon the human face the tears of pain, of grief, of agony. Come out
and enjoy all there is of human life; enjoy progress, enjoy thought,
enjoy being somebody and belonging to yourself."