The clergy complain of the enormous spread of bold books, from the infidel tract to the latest handling of the miracle question.

. . . is it to be understood that the principles of the Declaration of Independence bear no relation to half of the human race?

The voice of a whole people goes up in the silent workings of an institution.

It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring.

[On being deaf:] How much less pain there is in calmly estimating the enjoyments from which we must separate ourselves, of bravely saying, for once and for ever, 'Let them go,' than in feeling them waste and dwindle, till their very shadows escape from our grasp!

As the astronomer rejoices in new knowledge which compels him to give up the dignity of our globe as the centre, the pride, and even the final cause of the universe, so do those who have escaped from the Christian mythology enjoy their release from the superstition which fails to make them happy, fails to make them good, fails to make them wise, and has become as great an obstacle in the way of progress as the prior mythologies which it took the place of two thousand years ago.

it is a testament to the strength and purity of the democratic sentiment in the country, that the republic has not been overthrown by its newspapers.