luded that making mouths at a priest would not necessarily cause an
earthquake. He noticed, and no doubt with considerable astonishment,
that very good men were occasionally struck by lightning, while very
bad ones escaped. He was frequently forced to the painful conclusion
(and it is the most painful to which any human being ever was forced)
that the right did not always prevail. He noticed that the gods did not
interfere in behalf of the weak and innocent. He was now and then
astonished by seeing an unbeliever in the enjoyment of most excellent
health. He finally ascertained that there could be no possible
connection between an unusually severe winter and his failure to give
sheep to a priest. He began to suspect that the order of the universe
was not constantly being changed to assist him because he repeated a
creed. He observed that some children would steal after having been
regularly baptized. He noticed a vast difference between religions and
justice, and that the worshipers of the same God took delight in
cutting each other's throats. He saw that these religious disputes
filled the world with hatred and slavery. At last he had the courage
to suspect, that no God at any time interferes with the order of
events. He learned a few facts, and these facts positively refused to
harmonize with the ignorant superstitions of his fathers. Finding his
sacred books incorrect and false in some particulars, his faith in
their authenticity began to be shaken; finding his priests ignorant on
some points, he began to lose respect for the cloth. This was the
commencement of intellectual freedom.

The civilization of man has increased just to the same extent that
religious power has decreased. The intellectual advancement of man
depends upon how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new
truth. The Church never enabled a human being to make even one of
these exchanges; on the contrary, all her power has been used to
prevent them. In spite, however, of the Church, man found that some of
his religious conceptions were wrong. By reading his bible, he found
that the ideas of his God were more cruel and brutal than those of the
most depraved savage. He also discovered that this holy book was
filled with ignorance, and that it must have been written by persons
wholly unacquainted with the nature of the phenomena by which we are
surrounded; and now and then, some man had the goodness and courage to
speak his honest