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THE MODERN SKEPTIC 



A EECENT writer upon skepticism describes the 

 -'-■^ skeptic as generally a " malcontent," not only 

 in religion, but in politics and in society. " He is 

 the personification of the ancient belief regarding the 

 souls of the unburied dead," that is, he goes wan- 

 dering about homeless and disconsolate. But few 

 honest skeptics, I imagine, will see themselves in 

 this portrait. The religious skeptics of to-day are 

 a very large class, larger than ever before, and they 

 are by no means the restless and unhappy set they 

 are here described. On the contrary they are among 

 the most hopeful, intelligent, patriotic, upright, and 

 wisely conservative of our citizens. Let us see ; 

 probably four fifths of the literary men in this coun- 

 try and in Great Britain, and a still larger per cent 

 on the Continent, are what would be called skeptics ; 

 a large proportion of journalists and editors are 

 skeptics ; half the lawyers, more than half the doc- 

 tors, a large per cent of the teachers, a large per 

 cent of the business men, almost all the scientific 

 men, and a great many orthodox clergymen, if they 

 were to avow their real convictions, would confess to 

 some shade of skepticism or religious unbelief. 

 They find the creeds in which they were nurtured 



