Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Princeton Review: January-June, 1884
Bible is a human book; Christ was a gentleman, related to the Buddha and Plato families; Joseph was an ill-used man; death, so far as we have any reason to believe, is annihilation of person al existence; life is - the predicament of the body previous to death; morality is the enlightened selfishness of the greatest number; civilization is the compromises men make with one another in order to get the most they can out Of the world wis dom is acknowledgment of these propositions; folly is to hanker after what may lie beyond the sphere of sense. The supporter Of these doctrines by no means permits himself to be regarded as a rampant and dogmatic atheist; he is simply the modest and humble doubter of what he cannot prove. He even recognizes the persistence of the religious instinct in man, and caters to it by a new religion suited to the times - the Religion of Human ity. Thus he is secure at all points: for if the religion of the Bible turn out to be true, his disappointment will be an agree able one; and if it turns out false, he will not be disappointed at all. He is an agnostic - a person bound to be complacent what ever happens. He may indulge a gentle regret, a musing sad ness, a smiling pensiveness; but he will never refuse a comfort able dinner, and always wear something soft next his skin, nor can he altogether avoid the consciousness of his intellectual superiority. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
