obloquy, social ostracism, and imprisonment for his principles, is
indifferent to the interest of society? Let Christianity strike
Freethinkers if it will, but why add insult to injury? Why brand
us as cowards when you martyr us? Why charge us with hypocrisy
when we dare your hate?

Persecution, like superstition, dies hard, but it dies. What though
I have suffered the heaviest punishment inflicted on a Freethinker
for a hundred and twenty years? Is not the night always darkest
and coldest before the dawn? Is not the tiger's dying spring most
fierce and terrible?

My sufferings, therefore, are not without the balm of consolation.
I see that the future is already brightening with a new hope. Without
rising to the supreme height of Danton, who cried "Let my name be
blighted that France be free," I feel a humbler pleasure in reflecting
that I may have been instrumental in breaking the last fetter on the
freedom of the press.

G. W. FOOTE.

_February 1st_, 1886.





CHAPTER I.

THE STORM BREWING.