The churches point to their decayed saints, and their crumbled Popes
and say, "Do you know more than all the ministers that ever lived?"
And without the slightest egotism or blush I say, yes, and the name of
Humboldt outweighs them all. The men who stand in the front rank, the
men who know most of the secrets of nature, the men who know most are
to-day the advanced infidels of this world. I have lived long enough to
see the brand of intellectual inferiority on every orthodox brain.