He himself is
aware of all this, as are all who know him. At the early age of
thirty-three, before his views were generally known, he was our
Attorney-General. No political party will ever again dare to nominate
him for an office."
"This is all wrong," I said; "it savors of religious persecution."
"True," said Castleton, "it does; but the fact is as I state it. He
would if he ran for office lose enough votes from his own party to allow
his opponent to win."
"But, my dear doctor," I said, "I fail to catch your reasons for
thinking this man mistaken. You surely would not have him be untrue to
himself?"
"Oh, no--never that! I mean that he is intellectually mistaken in
thinking that the world is still to be benefited by agnostic agitation
among the masses. Voltaire had a good reason for proclaiming and
teaching his views, because in France, in his day, religious infidelity
was necessary to political liberty. Tom Paine had a good reason for his
course, because Christianity, misrepresented at that time by mistaken or
corrupt men, was arrayed on the side of the despot, and so continued up
to the beginning of the French Revolution. But this man has no good
excuse for a fight against church influence in the United States, now in
1877.
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