What is God? The effectual cause of the phenomena of the universe; an entity whose existence it is scientifically unpleasant to assume, but logically impossible to deny.
Note.—Whereas, God was once very much of a man, now man is very much of a God.
What is Man? The supreme product of the development forces acting on organic forms.
Note.—Originally man was simply a cell, now he is a complex one.
Of What is Man made? Of protoplasm.
Note.—Formerly organisms were supposed to be made of dust, now we know dust to be made of organisms.
At Death, to what does Man return? To gas.
Note.—Spiritualism would make this a verb in the infinite; science shows that this supremest product of cosmic forces drops at once into its first element.
What is the Chief End of Man? To attain "sweetness and light."
Note.—This only applies to the upper classes.
What is true Morality? Complete adaptation to one's environment.
Note.—This rule makes up by its universality for the limitations of the previous one. It reaches from man to the polype.
What is Religion? A form of sensibility, the expression of a class of emotions (affecting especially women) developed by the desire to know our origin, destiny, and moral nature.
Note.—Religion is universal, and will always be indispensable, except to those who have attained sweetness and light.
What is Faith? Faith is an emotion clinging to the high things which reason has not yet demonstrated.
Note.—There are two kinds: (a) Religious faith, the belief in an ennobling supernaturalism; (b) Scientific faith, the belief in an alluring hypothesis.—C. L. Dana, in January Scribner.