272 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



that constitution to external things, and the necessity 

 of adaption to the Natural laws, it is questionable 

 whether free libraries help much in this direction. A 

 sensational and often morbid novel does little towards 

 education. It is even a question if it is not antago- 

 nistic to education. Is not such literature the chief 

 demand in our public and other libraries ? What does 

 civilization think of the literature of the bookstall at a 

 railway station ? 



No, this is not the direction of progress, in a small 

 way it may help. What is required is to destroy the 

 altars in our religious institutions, and substitute the 

 screen, and by means now at hand on that screen to 

 picture every phase of human life, and every pheno- 

 menon in Nature, to teach each and all how much the 

 human being is the creature of circumstances, that is 

 of his surroundings, and above all to teach forbearance 

 for our less fortunate brethren, and thus teach us how 

 to extract the greatest amount of human happiness, 

 not only for ourselves, but for others not only for our 

 nation, but for all nations. This should be the func- 

 tion of the priests. It must come, it is ordered by a 

 power stronger than human power. 1 Would it not 



1 " Christianity must be destroyed. The civilised world has out- 

 grown that religion, and is now in the condition of the Roman 

 Empire in the pagan days. A cold-hearted infidelity above, a sordid 

 superstition below, a school of Plutarchs who endeavour to reconcile 

 the fables of a barbarous people with the facts of science and the 

 lofty conceptions of philosophy ; a multitude of augurs who some- 

 times smile when they meet, but who more often feel inclined to- 

 sigh, for they are mostly serious and worthy men. Entering the 

 Church in their youth, before their minds were formed, they discover 

 too late what it is that they adore, and since they cannot tell the 

 truth, and let their wives and children starve, they are forced to lead 



