PREFACE. LUSCIOUS PIETY. THE JEWISH SABBATH. PROFESSOR STOKES ON IMMORTALITY. PAUL BERT * BRADLAUGH'S GHOST. CHRIST AND BROTHERHOOD. THE SONS OF GOD. MELCHIZEDEK. S'W'ELP ME GOD. INFIDEL HOMES. * ARE ATHEISTS CRUEL? * ARE ATHEISTS WICKED? RAIN DOCTORS. PIOUS PUERILITIES. "THUS SAITH THE LORD." BELIEVE OR BE DAMNED. CHRISTIAN CHARITY. RELIGION AND MONEY. CLOTTED BOSH. LORD BACON ON ATHEISM. CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY. * CHRIST UP TO DATE. SECULARISM AND CHRISTIANITY. ALTAR AND THRONE. * MARTIN LUTHER. THE PRAISE OF FOLLY. HAPPY IN HELL. THE ACT OF GOD. KEIR HARDIE ON CHRIST. BLESSED BE YE POOR. CONVERTED INFIDELS. MRS. BOOTH'S GHOST. TALMAGE ON THE BIBLE. MRS. BESANT ON DEATH AND AFTER. THE POETS AND LIBERAL THEOLOGY. * CHRISTIANITY AND LABOR. * AN EASTER EGG FOR CHRISTIANS. * DUELLING. * DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN. * SMIRCHING A HERO. KIT MARLOWE AND JESUS CHRIST. * JEHOVAH THE RIPPER. * THE PARSONS' LIVING WAGE. * DID BRADLAUGH BACKSLIDE? * FREDERIC HARRISON ON ATHEISM. * SAVE THE BIBLE! * FORGIVE AND FORGET. * THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. THE GREAT GHOSTS * ATHEISM AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. * PIGOTTISM. * JESUS AT THE DERBY. * ATHEIST MURDERERS. * A RELIGION FOR EUNUCHS. * ROSE-WATER RELIGION. *
A little more than a year ago I put forth a collection of articles under the title of _Flowers of Freethought_. The little volume met with a favorable reception, and I now issue a Second Series. By a "favorable reception" I only mean that the volume found purchasers, and, it is to be presumed, readers; which is, after all, the one thing a writer needs to regard as of any real importance. Certainly the volume was not praised, nor recommended, nor even noticed, in the public journals. The time is not yet ripe for the ordinary reviewers to so much as mention a book of that character. Not that I charge the said reviewers with being concerned in a deliberate conspiracy of silence against such productions. They have to earn their livings, and often very humbly, despite the autocratic airs they give themselves; they serve under editors, who serve under proprietors, who in turn consult the tastes, the intelligence, and the prejudices of their respective customers. And thus it is, I conceive, that thorough-going Freethought--at least if written in a popular style and published at a popular price--is generally treated with a silence, which, in some cases, is far from a symptom of contempt.