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. 



Remove 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 

 "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" J 011 will find 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 



