t 20 ] 



frum nature's freaks by lightning conductors; light- 

 houses dot the whole length of our coasts ; the penny 

 postage conveys our thoughts to and fro throughout the 

 length and breadth of the land ; a free press ventilates 

 our grievances and enlightens our minds ; hospitals and 

 dispensaries minister to the sick and maimed wherever 

 we go ; and the Habeas Corpus Act endows each well- 

 disposed individual with freedom and liberty. What a 

 metamorphosis to be effected in so short a time ! 



The lesson we learn from such a cursory glance as 

 this necessarily is at the intellectual progress of Europe 

 during the last two thousand years is full of the deepest 

 meaning. We cannot help being struck by the dogged 

 manner in which the Christian religion has opposed all 

 progress, ruthlessly murdering in cold blood any who 

 dared to suggest that the now-established and universally- 

 accepted theories might possibly possess some little of 

 the truth. Every new scientific truth or discovery has 

 been denounced by the Church, every great benefactor 

 to the human race persecuted and hunted to death by 

 the sleuth-hounds of bigotry and intolerance, and every 

 European war or massacre hatched out of religious 

 differences. To this very day the Church, though robbed 

 of all its old power to inflict evil and misery, persists 

 in its denunciation of all scientific discoveries ; and not 

 one of the numerous sects which at present divide the 

 Christian Church is exempt from this charge. Hegel, 

 Bunscn, John Stuart Mill, Renan, Huxley, Darwin, 

 Tyndall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Carpenter, Herbert 

 Spencer, Emerson, Haeckel, Schopenhauer, Victor Hugo, 

 and, in short, all the leaders of thought of our century, 

 have incurred the bitter hostility of the various Christian 

 sects ; and yet what a^heirloom the works of these men 

 form for the coming generation ! 



The discovery of the power of chloroform and ether 

 to relieve pain was denounced by the Church because 

 it was proposed to apply it to the relief of the agony of 

 childbirth, the natural inheritance of woman under 

 the divine curse of Eden ; the abolition of slavery was 

 also opposed by these human parasites because the 

 practice was ordered in the Bible ; and it is well known 

 how the priests of the Church utilised for their own 



