384 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



house-room in many minds. Possibly, the people who 

 hold such views might be able to illustrate them by in- 

 dividual instances. 



The fear of hell's a hangman's whip, 

 To keep the wretch in order. 



Eemove the fear, and the wretch, following his natural 

 instinct, may become disorderly; but I refuse to accept 

 him as a sample of humanity. "Let us eat and drink, for 

 to-morrow we die" is by no means the ethical consequence 

 of a rejection of dogma. To many of you the name of 

 George Jacob Holyoake is doubtless familiar, and you are 

 probably aware that at no man in England has the term 

 4 'atheist" been more frequently pelted. There are, more- 

 over, really few who have more completely liberated them- 

 selves from theologic notions. Among working-class poli- 

 ticians Mr. Holyoake is a leader. Does he exhort his 

 followers to "Eat and drink, for to-morrow we die"? 

 Not so. In the August number of the "Nineteenth Cent- 

 ury" y u will nn d these words from his pen: "The gospel 

 of dirt is bad enough, but the gospel of mere material 

 comfort is much worse." He contemptuously calls the 

 Comtist championship of the working man, "the cham- 

 pionship of the trencher." He would place "the leanest 

 liberty which brought with it the dignity and power of 

 self-help" higher than "any prospect of a full plate with- 

 out it." Such is the moral doctrine taught by this 

 "atheistic" leader; and no Christian, I apprehend, need 

 be ashamed of it. 



Most heartily do I recognize and admire the spiritual 

 radiance, if I may use the term, shed by religion on the 

 minds and lives of many personally known to me. At the 



