were stricken with awe; and rascals took advantage of that awe.

Now they say that the book is inspired. I do not care whether it is or
not; the question is: Is it true? If it is true it doesn't need to be
inspired. Nothing needs inspiration except a falsehood or a mistake.
A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the
assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the
universe, and that is how you can tell--whether it is or not a fact. A
lie will not fit anything except a lie made for the express purpose;
and, finally, some one gets tired of lying, and the last lie will not
fit the next fact, and then there is a chance for inspiration. Right
then and there a miracle is needed. The real question is, in the light
of science, in the light of the brain and heart of the nineteenth
century, is this book true? The gentleman who wrote it begins by
telling us that God made the universe out of nothing. That I cannot
conceive; it may be so, but I cannot conceive it. Nothing in the light
of raw material, is, to my mind, a decided and disastrous failure. I
cannot imagine of nothing being made into something, any more than I
can of something being changed back into nothing. I cannot conceive of
force aside from matter, because force to be force must be active, and
unless there is matter there is nothing for force to act upon, and
consequently it cannot be active. So I simply say I cannot comprehend
it. I cannot believe it. I may roast for this, but it is my honest
opinion. The next thing he proceeds to tell us is that God divided the
darkness from the light, and right here let me say when I speak about
God I simply mean the being described by the Jews. There may be in
immensity a being beneath whose wing the universe exists, whose every
thought is a glittering star, but I know nothing about Him,--not the
slightest,--and this afternoon I am simply talking about the being
described by the Jewish people. When I say God, I mean Him. Moses
describes God dividing the light from the darkness. I suppose that at
that time they must have been mixed. You can readily see how light and
darkness can get mixed. They must have been entities. The reason I
think so is because in that same book I find that darkness overspread
Egypt so thick that it could be felt, and they used to have on
exhibition in Rome a bottle of the darkness that once overspread Egypt.
The gentleman who wrote this in imaginati