"But in what way does the belief, or want of belief, of an agnostic,
prevent an otherwise able man from being a statesman?" I asked.

"No doubt some of the best statesmen living are agnostics; but they are
not agnostic agitators. Men who are able to digest and assimilate
agnostic opinions, are able to initiate those ideas for themselves; and
only men who are able to properly digest and assimilate such ideas
should have them at all."

"Can you," I asked, "state an instance in which what you indicate as
premature education of the masses in agnostic ideas, might lead to
injury to the persons so instructed, or to society at large?"

"Yes, sir, I can. Your ignorant American--the 'cracker' element of the
South, your ignorant Italian, and your ignorant Irishman are injured by
taking away their religious beliefs. The first of these, when church
people, dress neatly, are honorable, and have some upward-tending
ambitions; whilst those of them that are infidels are reduced--men and
women--to a state of ambitionless inertia and tobacco saturation--if no
worse. The two latter are either under religious control, or under
secret-society control. If the lower-class Irishman or Italian,
unendowed with judgment to rightly use the little knowledge he already
possesses--to properly interpret his own feelings or guide his own
impulses--has not his church with its priestly control, he will have his
secret-society with its secret executive control, its bovine fury, and
its senseless pertinacity, the poison-bowl and the dagger. For my part,
if a man must either seek liberty from ambush, and learn independence
through treachery, or else be on his knees before a graven image, suited
to his mental calibre--let us keep him on his knees till he can rise to