



Produced by David Widger






MY PATH TO ATHEISM

By Annie Besant

[Third Edition]

London:

Freethought Publishing Company,

63, Fleet Street, E.C.

1885.

TO

THOMAS SCOTT,

WHOSE NAME IS HONORED AND REVERED WHEREVER

FREETHOUGHT HAS--

WHOSE WIDE HEART AND GENEROUS KINDNESS WELCOME

ALL FORMS OF THOUGHT, PROVIDED THE THOUGHT

BE EARNEST AND HONEST;

WHO KNOWS NO ORTHODOXY SAVE THAT OF HONESTY, AND

NO RELIGION SAVE THAT OF GOODNESS;

TO WHOM I OWE MOST GRATEFUL THANKS,

AS ONE OF THE EARLIEST OF MY FREETHOUGHT FRIENDS,

AND AS THE FIRST WHO AIDED ME IN MY NEED;--

TO HIM

I DEDICATE THESE PAGES,

KNOWING THAT, ALTHOUGH WE OFTEN DIFFER IN OUR

THOUGHT,

WE ARE ONE

IN OUR DESIRE FOR TRUTH.

ANNIE BESANT.




PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

The Essays which form the present book have been written at intervals
during the last five years, and are now issued in a single volume
without alterations of any kind. I have thought it more useful--as
marking the gradual growth of thought--to reprint them as they were
originally published, so as not to allow the later development to mould
the