There will be few readers of this book who have not been brought up
under the spell of some one of these systems of Supernaturalism; who
have not been taught to speak with respect of some particular priestly
order, to thrill with awe at some particular sacred rite, to seek
respite from earthly woes in some particular ceremonial spell. These
things are woven into our very fibre in childhood; they are sanctified
by memories of joys and griefs, they are confused with spiritual
struggles, they become part of all that is most vital in our lives.
The reader who wishes to emancipate himself from their thrall will do
well to begin with a study of the beliefs and practices of other sects
than his own--a field where he is free to observe and examine without
fear of sacrilege. Let him look into Madame Blavatsky's "Secret
Doctrine", or her "Isis Unveiled"--encyclopedias of the fantastic
inventions which terror and longing have wrung out of the tortured
soul of man. Here are mysteries and solemnities, charms and spells,
illuminations and transmigrations, angels and demons, guides, controls
and masters--all of which it is permissible to refuse to support with
gifts. Let the reader then go to James Freeman Clarke's "Ten Great
Religions", and realize how many billions of humans have lived and
died in the solemn certainty that their welfare on earth and in heaven
depended upon their accepting certain ideas and practicing certain
rites, all mutually exclusive and incompatible, each damning the
others and the followers of the others. So gradually the realization
will come to him that the test of a doctrine about life and its
welfare must be something else than the fact that one was born to it.

#The Great Fear#

It was not the fault of primitive man that he was ignorant, nor that
his ignorance made him a prey to dread. The traces of his mental