I republish in this little volume a few of my numerous articles
that have appeared in the _Secularist_, the _Liberal_, the _National
Reformer_, and the _Freethinker_, during the last five or six years.
I have included nothing (I hope) of merely ephemeral interest. Every
article in this collection was at least written carefully, and with an
eye to more than the exigencies of the moment. In disentombing them
from the cemeteries of periodical literature, where so many of their
companions lie buried, I trust I have not allowed parental love to
outrun discretion.
I have not thought it necessary to indicate, in each case, the journal
in which the reprinted articles were first published.
Should anyone object to the freedom of my style, or the asperity of
my criticism, I would ask him to remember that Christianity still
persecutes to the full extent of its power, and that a Creed which
answers argument with prosecution cannot expect tender treatment in
return; and I would also ask him, in the words of Ruskin, "to consider
how much less harm is done in the world by ungraceful boldness than by
untimely fear."
London, November 15th, 1882.