Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/187
who, on all sides, persecute us with their sermons?"[1] And further on he makes these cynical remarks: "God! I do not acknowledge any God. God is, moreover, nothing but pure mysticism. If you wish us to listen to you, commence by banishing this word from your discourse; because the experience of three thousand years teaches me that he who speaks to me of God would rob me of my liberty or my purse. How much do you owe me? How much do I owe you? This is my religion and my God."[2] Then, in a paroxysm of rage, he breaks forth into these words: "This I say: the first duty of an intelligent and free man is immediately to discard the idea of God both from his soul and his conscience; because God, if he exists, is essentially hostile to our nature, and we are in nothing dependent upon him. ... By what right, moreover, could God say to me, be thou holy even as I am holy? Lying spirit! I would say to him in reply, imbecile God, thy sovereignty is already at an end; seek other victims among the brute creation. I know that I am not, neither can I ever become holy; and how canst thou be so if thou and I resemble each other? Eternal Father, Jupiter or Jehovah, whatever thou wishest me to call thee, learn from me that we know thee. Thou art, thou wast, and thou wilt ever be the rival of Adam, the tyrant of Prometheus."[3] And further on, in the same chapter, he apostrophizes the divinity that he denies, and says to him: "Thou dost triumph, and none dared contradict thee, when, after tormenting the just Job in soul and body, who was the type of our humanity, thou didst insult