NOT CONDUCIVE TO PROGRESS, 137 



implicit reliance upon the new force philosophy appear some- 

 how to have begotten a bitter animosity against the teachers 

 of the old religion. The hatred has sometimes reached 

 such a pitch of intensity as to raise the question whether 

 any priest ought to be permitted to train the mind of a child. 

 Nay, it has even been whispered that it might be a good thing 

 for the people if those who lived to promulgate religion could 

 be improved off the face of the earth, for then the gene- 

 rations of little children might be trained in the true philo- 

 sophy, without their minds being corrupted and cramped by 

 the baneful influences of religion, and undisturbed by the 

 interference of those who were specially retained to preach 

 a particular faith and enforce dogma. But such views are 

 not new, neither are they peculiar to the times in which we 

 live. These very ideas prevailed among certain sects of 

 the ancient philosophers, and in every age have been 

 embraced by some of the foremost among those who have 

 believed in the supremacy of pure intellect. Indeed, the 

 weakness as well as the power of the ancient Epicurean is 

 not unfrequently displayed by the modern Materialist. 

 " Atom and void " appear to have afforded solace to many 

 generations of aspiring philosophers, and to have been very 

 acceptable as an idea to some advanced minds of the 

 present day. But those who accept the doctrine are 

 neither satisfied with the happiness they profess to derive 

 from its contemplation, nor with that which ought to result 

 from teaching those who are anxious to learn concerning 

 the ideas so very highly prized by the advanced minds. 

 The whole intellectual world must be re-converted, and the 

 long neglected Epicurean inimitable revived. Unfortu- 

 nately, philosophic views invariably spread slowly. Neoteric 



