My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

SELF-EDUCATION IN SCIENCE, ETC. 119never dealt sufficiently with the mystery, the greatness,the ideal and emotional aspects of religion,which only appealed to me occasionally in some ofthe grander psalms and hymns, or through the wordsof some preacher more impassioned than usual.As might have been expected, therefore, whatlittle religious belief I had very quickly vanishedunder the influence of philosophical or scientificscepticism. This came first upon me when I spenta month or two in London with my brother John, asalready related ; and during the seven years I livedwith my brother William, though the subject ofreligion was not often mentioned, there was a pervadingspirit of scepticism, or free-thought as it wasthen called, which strengthened and confirmed mydoubts as to the truth or value of all ordinary religiousteaching.He occasionally borrowed interesting books whichI usually read. One of these was an old edition ofRabelais' works, which both interested and greatlyamused me ; but that which bears most upon thepresent subject was a reprint of lectures on Strauss'" Life of Jesus," which had not then been translatedinto English. These lectures were, I think, deliveredby some Unitarian minister or writer, and they gavean admirable and most interesting summary of thewhole work. The now well-known argument, that allthe miracles related in the Gospels were mere myths,which in periods of ignorance and credulity alwaysgrow up around all great men, and especially aroundall great moral teachers when the actual witnesses ofhis career are gone and his disciples begin to writeabout him, was set forth with great skill. This argumentappeared conclusive to my brother and some ofhis friends with whom he discussed it, and, of course,