IN THEIR OWN WORDS, COMPRISING RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED SCIEN- ERS, AND OTHERS. COMPILED AND EDITED BY JOHN KENYON KILBOURN, D.D. A man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him. Great men are too often unknown, or what is worse, misknown. ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED. PHILADELPHIA: HENRY T. COATES & CO. -Carlyle. EDITOR'S PREFACE. The labor which this volume represents has been performed in the interest of Truth. The sayings of noted men have been so frequently distorted by bigoted writers that the only way to reach a true version of their real beliefs is to go back to the men themselves. Fairness demands that they be judged from the words of their own mouths. The question is not what others say that they have said, but what they themselves have actually said. The editor believes that the deliberate declarations presented in this book more correctly express the sober second thoughts of the men whose names they bear, and more truthfully represent what their authors really were and are, than many other statements made in the heat of the moment, and probably repented of many times thereafter. This volume is also presented in the interest of Toleration. Too frequently in the past has fanaticism not only seen and exhibited the ill side of great and good men, but it has represented that to be the only side. The editor of this book finds that many men who have been almost universally regarded as "hard and bad" have in their serious moments given expression to thoughts which in truth and brilliancy rival the sayings of those men whom the world has worshiped and the church has canonized. It is but honest that these should be brought to light. At the risk of bringing together strange bed-fellows, the editor has here placed side by side the best thoughts on the subjects under consideration |