It is true of all religions that into the warp of superstition the woof of a code of ethics is interwoven. In the earlier stages of culture it has long been one of the accepted criteria of any faith whether its accompanying science of duty, as developed in it, was relatively good or bad. That there is a logical connection between these two elements no one can doubt, but this inter-relation is more frequently accidental than it is essential. Facts show that the instituters and early promulgators of all of the great religions of which we have knowledge, have seized with avidity upon any moral stipulations which were necessary for their locality or condition of life, and that if capital could be made out of these peculiar provincial circumstances, they were not slow in coining them to their advantage. An instance of this will be readily recognized in the inculcating within their tenets such doctrines as the existence of an omnipresent and omniscient deity, whose favor may be won by supplication, humility, or sacrifice, or that of a personal immortality for each individual in a pleasurable condition as one of the rewards for belief and an endless existence of pain for its lack. As the number of converts increased, there has, in almost every case, grown up a powerful and wealthy sacerdotal class having special privileges. This cult of priesthood is soon corrupted by idleness and luxury, and the great influence which is attached to it by virtue of its vocation, has sooner or later been largely exerted to keep its parishioners under its control by means of ignorance and superstition. No matter how pure and sincere may have been its founder, or how elevating or altruistic its doctrines might be, practically all religions have suffered from the infamy and gross selfishness of their priesthoods, who by their short-sighted policies of opposing all adjustment of its dogma to newly-discovered facts, or their advancement along with contemporary civilizations, have but precipitated their downfall. From one to another of the gods of heaven has the "sceptre of power and the purple of authority" passed with advancing ages, until it is no wonder that thinking people are asking, "Who will next occupy the old throne?"