WHY
I Ak
AN
AGNOSIIC,
63
&em kiss the unconscious lips as their hot tears fall on the pallid faces of the dead. I see the nations as they fade and fail. I see them captured and enslaved. I see their altars mingle with the common earth, their temples crumble slowly back to dust. I see their gods grow old and weak, infirm and faint. I see them fall from vague and misty thrones, helpless and dead. The worshipers receive no help. Toilers are paid with the lash, Injustice triumphs. -babes are sold,-the innocent stand on scaffolds, and the heroic perish in flames. I see the earthq,uakes devour, the volcanoes overwhelm, the cyclones wreck, the floods destroy, and the iightnings kill. The nations perished. The gods died. The toil and wealth were lost. The. temples were built in vain, and all the prayers died unanswered in the heedless air. Then I asked myself the question : Is there a supernatural power-an arbitrary mind -an enthroned God-a supreme will that sways the tides and currents of the world-to which all causes bow? I do not deny. I do not know-but I do not believe. I believe that the natural is supreme-that from the infinite chain no link can be l&t or broken -that there is no supernatural power that can