The New York Hooroarer: A Story of Newspaper Enterprise, Containing a Visit to the Infernal Regions and Return

Excerpt from The New York Hooroarer: A Story of Newspaper Enterprise, Containing a Visit to the Infernal Regions and ReturnThe heathen worship gods of wood and lead. And Christians worship god with wooden head.It has been said that I have treated in a light and frivolous manner that which should have elicited seriousness. I reply - not forgetting the inalienable rights of others as well as my own -that if I believe that there is not in existence a place answering to a literal, material carbon-consuming hell, should not that lingering remnant of Paganism, or rather its belief, be treated with frivolity and laughed out of existence As one paper pointed out, in a leading article, that Dante treated the subject seriously - Mr. Edwards has made a joke of it. Certainly, Dante's conceptions were in accord with the spirit of the age in which he lived, but in this age of progress, thinkers of all classes recognize the doct1ine as moribund, and will welcome the laugh that accompanies its kick out of existence.Quite lateby a Methodist minister, and Pastor of a New York church, said to me I believe as you do, and thousands more believe like you; but you are outspoken and we are not. Why, he added, I would not deny to some of my people the solid com fort they get out of their belief in a literal hell, for anything, my friend.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.