In my leisure I have examined into the various religious systems and found them to be rubbish.

I am convinced that we are but highly-developed mammals born by chance, and when our day is done, departing into the black nothingness out of which we came.

Everything else, that is, what is called the higher and spiritual part, I attribute to the superstitions incident to the terror of the hideous position in which we find ourselves, that of gods of a sort hemmed in by a few years of fearful and tormented life.

But you know the old arguments, so why should I enter on them?
And now I am confronted with an experience which I cannot explain.

I certainly thought that in the office on Friday evening I saw that gold mask to which I had taken so strange a fancy that I offered to give Vernon L17,000 for it because I thought that it brought us luck, swim across the floor of our room and look first into your face and then into mine.