Christianity: The Logic of Creation

“ On the whole I am led to regard these so-called ‘ spirits’ rather as so many vermin revealing themselves in the tumble-down walls of our old theological hostelry, than as any very saintly and sweet persons, whose ac- quaintance it were edifying or even comfortable to make. I hope their pale activity — their bloodless and ghastly vivacity — may do indirect good by promoting a general disgust for the abject personal gossip which they deal out to us, and which has so long furnished the staple spiritual commodity of the old theology. But I vehe- mently discredit the prospect of any positive good. Man’s true good never comes from without him, but only from the depths of divinity within him, and whatever tends to divert his attention from this truth, and fix it on Ma- hommedan paradises, and salvation through electricity, claims his most vindictive anathema. Above all, a spi- Digitized by Google APPENDIX