_Question_. What do you think of the revision of the Westminster
creed?
_Answer_. I think that the intelligence and morality of the age
demand the revision. The Westminster creed is infamous. It makes
God an infinite monster, and men the most miserable of beings.
That creed has made millions insane. It has furrowed countless
cheeks with tears. Under its influence the sentiments and sympathies
of the heart have withered. This creed was written by the worst
of men. The civilized Presbyterians do not believe it. The
intelligent clergyman will not preach it, and all good men who
understand it, hold it in abhorrence. But the fact is that it is
just as good as the creed of any orthodox church. All these creeds
must be revised. Young America will not be consoled by the doctrine
of eternal pain. Yes, the creeds must be revised or the churches
will be closed.
_Question_. What do you think of the influence of the press on
religion?
_Answer_. If you mean on orthodox religion, then I say the press
is helping to destroy it. Just to the extent that the press is
intelligent and fearless, it is and must be the enemy of superstition.
Every fact in the universe is the enemy of every falsehood. The
press furnishes food for, and excites thought. This tends to the
destruction of the miraculous and absurd. I regard the press as
the friend of progress and consequently the foe of orthodox religion.
The old dogmas do not make the people happy. What is called religion
is full of fear and grief. The clergy are always talking about
dying, about the grave and eternal pain. They do not add to the
sunshine of life. If they could have their way all the birds would
stop singing, the flowers would lose their color and perfume, and
all the owls would sit on dead trees and hoot, "Broad is the road
that leads to death."
_Question_. If you should write your last sentence on religious
topics what would be your closing?
_Answer_. I now in the presence of death affirm and reaffirm the
truth of all that I have said against the superstitions of the
world. I would say at least that much on the subject with my last
breath.
_Question_. What, in your opinion, will be Browning's position in
the literature of the future?
_Answer_. Lower than at present. Mrs. Browning was far greater
than her husband. He never wrote anything comparable to "Mother
and Poet." Browning lacked form, and that is as great a lack in
poetry as it is in sculpture. He was the author of some great
lines, some great thoughts, but he was obscure, uneven and was
always mixing the poetic with the commonplace. To me he cannot be
compared with Shelley or Keats, or with our own Walt Whitman. Of
course poetry cannot be very well discussed. Each man knows what
he likes, what touches his heart and what words burst into blossom,
but he cannot judge for others. After one has read Shakespeare,
Burns and Byron, and Shelley and Keats; after he has read the
"Sonnets" and the "Daisy" and the "Prisoner of Chillon" and the
"Skylark" and the "Ode to the Grecian Urn"--the "Flight of the
Duchess" seems a little weak.
--_The Post-Express_, Rochester, New York, June 23, 1890.