--_Marilla M. Ricker_.
_Dover, New Hampshire December, Nineteen Hundred Fifteen_
As man advances, as his intellect enlarges, as his knowledge
increases, as his ideals become nobler, the Bibles and creeds will
lose their authority, the miraculous will be classed with the
impossible, and the idea of special providence will be discarded.
Thousands of religions have perished, innumerable gods have died,
and why should the religion of our time be exempt from the common
fate?
--_Robert Ingersoll._