Excerpt from The Oracle of Reason, or Philosophy Vindicated, Vol. 1 The present age needed a few examples of sterling integrity and unflinching courage. Southwell and holyoake have furnished two, that will not soon be forgotten, and must fire every manly heart with a spirit of noble emulation. Southwell, single-handed, attacked the monster, superstition, in its very den. He challenged the big beast to mortal combat, and, though a prisoner, not a bone of his body is broken, not a drop Of his blood chilled, and now, as at first, his resolution is to destroy or be destroyed. Imprisonment will but give him ample leisure to grind his weapons, and train his body for another and more decisive encounter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.