Let us compare these Infidels with the founders of sectarian churches; you will see how narrow, how bigoted, how cruel were their founders, and how broad, how generous, how noble, were these infidels.
Let us be honest. The great effort of the human mind is to ascertain the order of facts by which we are surrounded—the history of things.
Who has accomplished the most in this direction—the church, or the unbelievers? Upon one side write all that the church has discovered—every phenomenon that has been explained by a creed, every new fact in Nature that has been discovered by a church, and on the other side write the discoveries of Humboldt, and the observations and demonstrations of Darwin!
Who has made Germany famous—her priests, or her scientists?
Goethe.
Kant: That immortal man who said: "Whoever thinks that he can please God in any way except by discharging his obligations to his fellows, is superstitious."
And that greatest and bravest of thinkers, Ernst
Haeckel.
Humboldt.
Italy:—Mazzini. Garibaldi.