LECTURE xvr. 469 



tlie platforms of tlie missions^ the" chairs of the consistories, 

 resound with the pretended attacks on the foundations of human 

 existence made by materialism and Darwinism. They feel 

 surprised, that people with such views can be good citizens, 

 honest men, good husbands and fathers. There are priests, 

 who, while defrauding the state of taxes, mount the pulpit and 

 preach : that when materialists and Darwinists do not commit 

 all sorts of crimes, it is not from righteousness but from 

 hypocrisy. 



Let them rage ! They require the fear of punishment, the 

 hope of reward in a dreamt-of beyond, to keep in the right 

 path — for us suffices the consciousness of being men amongst 

 men, and the acknowledgment of their equal rights. We have 

 no other hope than that of receiving the acknowledgments of 

 our fellow-men ; no other fear than that of seeing our human 

 dignity violated — a dignity we value the more, since it has 

 been conquered with the greatest labour by us and our ances- 

 tors, down to the ape. 



To our friends we return thanks for their support, and con- 

 clude with an anecdote. 



In a satii'ical journal, edited by my late friend, Fritz Jenni, 

 called Der GucTihasten (The Show -box), there is a picture of a 

 cowkeeper with his milk-cans, and before him a cur, barking 

 furiously. Says the milkman, " Thou barkest ! Thou always 

 barkest ! Thou barkest at all the dogs ! Thou barkest at me, 

 and barkest till thou hast done barking, and canst bark no 

 more ! " 



Then let them bark, till they can bark no more. 



THE END. 



