position. She declined with thanks and went her own way. It was another argument in favor of the utter worthlessness of Christian teachings. Whether Sheldon's religious infidelity was a reaction of Edward Jonathan's piety, she did not know, but if this was the case, to quote her own words, "the bigotry of the pious gentleman with the ten children was not in vain, it resulted in freeing at least one brain from the thraldom of inherent superstition." She struggled to "keep her head above water" in a large city like New York, without money in her pocket. It was the injustice of human nature, what she considered to be the so-called handiwork of God, that prompted her to an occasional effort in the Freethought direction, "not but that people are welcome to any faith they choose but because a God that one could respect must be a welcome innovation." Such a God she found in "science". "Faith", "hope", and "love" represented nothing to her but the highest possible achievement of the physical organism, yet they lost nothing of their value springing from a source that was both reasonable and demonstrable. The little help and favors which she received through life did not come from churches, home missions or Christians. For years, she visited the outcasts of New York City with the members of some so-called "mission" or other, but the spectacle of some hypocrite, exhorting an honest sinner to "be good," was too much of a strain for a candid nature. Said Sheldon: "I have found the happiness of life in the companionship of books, animals and an occasional true frienc' and the satisfaction in dividing a dollar with one more destitute than myself. The rest is only a panorama of injustice and folly, a farce in which serious things, like child-bearing, are treated indifferently, and absurd matters like the salvation of a soul, which we do not know exists, are carried to the extreme of bloodshed and torture." Personal life Though Sheldon was troubled by poor health, she traveled in the United States, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. She felt that no woman was ever contented with less of the world's goods than she was, and felt that the bitterness of life lay in unrewarded merit. She lived alone in a flat and shunned society for the reason that "the only people whom she ever agrees with are found in