ruled by a malignant "President of the Immortals," who delights in the anguish of his subjects. That is untrue, for the world knows many keen joys and happy hours; still, it knows also much evil, much of undeserved misery, and many a cause in which the worse side gets a verdict. I hope with the General that the devils will not win; still, I cannot forget that the Turks won at Constantinople five and a half centuries ago, and have been a pest and a scourge to Europe ever since.
So, as I say, there is a good deal to be said, not, perhaps, for a theoretical atheism, a reasoned disbelief in God, but for a practical atheism, an elimination of God from all our considerations. It would be easy enough to regard the chances and changes, joys and misfortunes of the world as a game of cards, a mixture of skill and luck, without
