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diff --git a/38104-8.txt b/38104-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6936ec --- /dev/null +++ b/38104-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4194 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of English Secularism, by George Jacob Holyoake + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: English Secularism + A Confession Of Belief + +Author: George Jacob Holyoake + +Release Date: November 22, 2011 [EBook #38104] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH SECULARISM *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +ENGLISH SECULARISM + +A CONFESSION OF BELIEF + +By George Jacob Holyoake + +1896 + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE. + +THE OPEN COURT, in which the series of articles constituting this +work originally appeared, has given account of many forms of faith, +supplementary or confirmatory of its own, and sometimes of forms of +opinions dissimilar where there appeared to be instruction in them. It +will be an advantage to the reader should its editor state objections, +or make comments, as he may deem necessary and useful. English +Secularism is as little known in America as American and Canadian +Secularisation is understood in Great Britain. The new form of free +thought known as English Secularism does not include either Theism or +Atheism. Whether Monism, which I can conceive as a nobler and scientific +form of Theism, might be a logical addition to the theory of Secularism, +as set forth in the following pages, the editor of The Open Court may +be able to show. If this be so, every open-minded reader will better see +the truth by comparison. Contrast is the incandescent light of argument. + + George Jacob Holyoake. + Eastern Lodge, + Brighton, England, February, 1896. + + + + +PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. + +AMONG the representative freethinkers of the world Mr. George J. +Holyoake takes a most prominent position. He is a leader of leaders, +he is the brain of the Secularist party in England, he is a hero and a +martyr of their cause. + +Judged as a man, Mr. Holyoake is of sterling character; he was not +afraid of prison, nor of unpopularity and ostracism, nor of persecution +of any kind. If he ever feared anything, it was being not true to +himself and committing himself to something that was not right. He was +an agitator all his life, and as an agitator he was--whether or not +we agree with his views--an ideal man. He is the originator of the +Secularist movement that was started in England; he invented the name +Secularism, and he was the backbone of the Secularist propaganda ever +since it began. Mr. Holyoake left his mark in the history of thought, +and the influence which he exercised will for good or evil remain an +indelible heirloom of the future. + +Secularism is not the cause which The Open Court Publishing Co. upholds, +but it is a movement which on account of its importance ought not to be +overlooked. Whatever our religious views may be, we must reckon with +the conditions that exist, and Secularism is powerful enough to deserve +general attention. + +What is Secularism? + +Secularism espouses the cause of the world versus theology; of the +secular and temporal versus the sacred and ecclesiastical. Secularism +claims that religion ought never to be anything but a private affair; it +denies the right of any kind of church to be associated with the public +life of a nation, and proposes to supersede the official influence which +religious institutions still exercise in both hemispheres. + +Rather than abolish religion or paralyse its influence, The Open Court +Publishing Co. would advocate on the one hand to let the religious +spirit pervade the whole body politic, together with all public +institutions, and also the private life of every single individual; and +on the other hand to carry all secular interests into the church, which +would make the church subservient to the real needs of mankind. + +Thus we publish Mr. Holyoake's Confession of Faith, which is y an +exposition of Secularism, not because we are Secularists, which we are +not, but because we believe that Mr. Holyoake is entitled to a hearing. +Mr. Holyoake is a man of unusually great common sense, of keen reasoning +faculty, and of indubitable sincerity. What he says he means, and what +he believes he lives up to, what he recognises to be right he will do, +even though the whole world would stand up against him. In a word, he is +a man who according to our conception of religion proves by his love of +truth that, however he himself may disclaim it, he is actually a deeply +religious man. His religious earnestness is rare, and our churches would +be a good deal better off if all the pulpits were filled with men of his +stamp. + +We publish Mr. Holyoake's Confession of Faith not for Secularists only, +but also and especially for the benefit of religious people, of +his adversaries, of his antagonists; for they ought to know him and +understand him; they ought to appreciate his motives for dissenting from +church views; and ought to learn why so many earnest and honest +people are leaving the church and will have nothing to do with church +institutions. + +Why is it that Christianity is losing its bold on mankind? Is it because +the Christian doctrines have become antiquated, and does the church no +longer adapt herself to the requirements of the present age? Is it that +the representative Christian thinkers are lacking in intellectuality and +moral strength? Or is it that the world at large has outgrown religion +and refuses to be guided by the spiritual counsel of popes and pastors? + +Whatever the reason may be, the fact itself cannot be doubted, and the +question is only, What will become of religion in the future? Will the +future of mankind be irreligious (as for instance Mr. Lecky and M. Guyau +prophesy); or will religion regain its former importance and become +again the leading power in life, dominating both public and private +affairs? + +The first condition of a reconciliation between religion and the +masses of mankind would be for religious men patiently to listen to +the complaints that are made by the adversaries of Christianity, and to +understand the position which honest and sensible freethinkers, such as +Mr. Holyoake, take. Religious leaders are too little acquainted with the +world at large; they avoid their antagonists like outcasts, and +rarely, if ever, try to comprehend their arguments. In the same way, +freethinkers as a rule despise clergymen as hypocrites who for the sake +of a living sell their souls and preach doctrines which they cannot +honestly believe. In order to arrive at a mutual understanding, it +would be necessary first of all that both parties should discontinue +ostracising one another and become mutually acquainted. They should lay +aside for a while the weapons with which they are wont to combat one +another in the public press and in tract literature; they should cease +scolding and ridiculing one another and simply present their own case in +terse terms. + +This Mr. Holyoake has done. His Confession of Faith is as concise as any +book of the kind can be; and he, being the originator of Secularism and +its standard-bearer, is the man who speaks with authority. + +For the sake of religion, therefore, and for promoting the mutual +understanding of men of a different turn of mind, we present his book to +the public and recommend its careful perusal especially to the clergy, +who will learn from this book some of the most important reasons why +Christianity has become unacceptable to a large class of truth-loving +men, who alone for the sake of truth find it best to stay out of the +church. + +The preface of a book is as a rule not deemed the right place to +criticise an author, but such is the frankness and impartiality of Mr. +Holyoake that he has kindly permitted the manager of The Open +Court Publishing Co. to criticise his book freely and to state the +disagreements that might obtain between publishers and author in the +very preface of the book. There is no need of making an extensive use of +this permission, as a few remarks will be sufficient to render clear the +difference between Secularism and the views of The Open Court Publishing +Co., which we briefly characterise as "the Religion of Science." + +Secularism divides life into what is secular and what is religious, +and would consign all matters of religion to the sphere of private +interests. The Religion of Science would not divide life into a secular +and a religious part, but would have both the secular and the religious +united. It would carry religion into all secular affairs so as to +sanctify and transfigure them; and for this purpose it would make +religion practical, so as to be suited to the various needs of life; it +would make religion scientifically sound, so as to be in agreement with +the best and most scientific thought of the age; it would reform church +doctrines and raise them from their dogmatic arbitrariness upon the +higher plain of objective truth. + +In emphasising our differences we should, however, not fail to recognise +the one main point of agreement, which is our belief in science. Mr. +Holyoake would settle all questions of doubt by the usual method of +scientific investigation. But there is a difference even here, which +is a different conception of science. While science to Mr. Holyoake +is secular, we insist on the holiness and religious significance of +science. If there is any revelation of God, it is truth; and what is +science but truth ascertained? Therefore we would advise all preachers +and all those to whose charge souls of men are committed, to take off +their shoes when science speaks to them, for science is the voice of +God. + +The statement is sometimes made by those who belittle science in the +vain hope of exalting religion, that the science of yesterday has been +upset by the science of to-day, and that the science of today may again +be upset by the science of to-morrow. Nothing can be more untrue. + +Of course, science must not be identified with the opinion of +scientists. Science is the systematic statement of facts, and not the +theories which are tentatively proposed to fill out the gaps of our +knowledge. What has once been proved to be a fact has never been +overthrown, and the actual stock of science has grown slowly but surely. +The discovery of new facts or the proposition of a new and reliable +hypothesis has often shown the old facts of science in a new light, but +it has never upset or disproved them. There are fashions in the opinions +of scientists, but science itself is above fashion, above change, +above human opinion. Science partakes of that stern immutability, it is +endowed with that eternality and that omnipresent universality which +have since olden times been regarded as the main attribute of Godhood. + +There appears in all religions, at a certain stage of the religious +development, a party of dogmatists. They are people who, in their zeal, +insist on the exclusiveness of their own religion, as if truth were a +commodity which, if possessed by one, cannot be possessed by anybody +else. They know little of the spirit that quickens, but believe blindly +in the letter of the dogma. It is not faith in their opinion that saves, +but the blindness of faith. They interpret Christ's words and declare +that he who has another interpretation must be condemned. + +The dogmatic phase in the development of religion is as natural as +boyhood in a human life and as immaturity in the growth of fruit; it +is natural and necessary, but it is a phase only which will pass as +inevitably by as boyhood changes into manhood, and as the prescientific +stage in the evolution of civilisation gives way to a better and deeper +knowledge of nature. + +The dogmatist is in the habit of identifying his dogmatism with +religion; and that is the reason why his definitions of religion and +morality will unfailingly come in conflict with the common sense of +the people. The dogmatist makes religion exclusive. In the attempt +of exalting religion he relegates it to supernatural spheres, thus +excluding it from the world and creating a contrast between the sacred +and the profane, between the divine and the secular, between religion +and life. Thus it happens that religion becomes something beyond, +something extraneous, something foreign to man's sphere of being. And +yet religion has developed for the sake of sanctifying the daily walks +of man, of making the secular sacred, of filling life with meaning and +consecrating even the most trivial duties of existence. + +Secularism is the reaction against dogmatism, but secularism still +accepts the views of the dogmatist on religion; for it is upon the +dogmatist's valuations and definitions that the secularist rejects +religion as worthless. + +* * * + +The religious movement, of which The Open Court Publishing Co. is an +exponent, represents one further step in the evolution of religious +aspirations. As alchemy develops into chemistry, and astrology into +astronomy, as blind faith changes into seeing face to face, as belief +changes into knowledge, so the religion of miracles, the religion of +a salvation by magic, the religion of the dogmatist, ripens into the +religion of pure and ascertainable truth. The old dogmas, which in their +literal acceptance appear as nonsensical errors, are now recognised +as allegories which symbolise deeper truths, and the old ideals are +preserved not with less, but with more, significance than before. + +God is not smaller but greater since we know more about Him, as to what +He is and what He is not, just as the universe is not smaller but larger +since Copernicus and Kepler opened our eyes and showed us what the +relation of our earth in the solar system is and what it is not. + +Secularism is one of the signs of the times. It represents the unbelief +in a religious alchemy; but its antagonism to the religion of dogmatism +does not bode destruction but advance. It represents the transition to +a purer conception of religion. It has not the power to abolish the +church, but only indicates the need of its reformation. + +It is this reformation of religion and of religious institutions which +is the sole aim of all the publications of The Open Court Publishing +Co., and we see in Secularism one of those agencies that are at work +preparing the way for a higher and nobler comprehension of the truth. + +Mr. Holyoake's aspirations, in our opinion, go beyond the aims which he +himself points out, and thus his Confession of Faith, although nominally +purely secular, will finally, even by churchmen, be recognised in its +religious importance. It will help to purify the confession of faith of +the dogmatist. + +In offering Mr. Holyoake's best and maturest thoughts to the public, we +hope that both the secularists and the believers in religion will by +and by learn to understand that Secularism as much as dogmatism is a +phase--both are natural and necessary phases--in the religious evolution +of mankind. There is no use in scolding either the dogmatist or the +secularist, or in denouncing the one on account of his credulity and +superstition, and the other on account of his dissent; but there is a +use in--nay, there is need of--understanding the aspirations of both. + +There is a need of mutual exchange of thought on the basis of mutual +esteem and good-will. Above all, there is a need of opening the church +doors to the secularist. + +The church, if it has any right of existence at all, is for the +world, and not for believers alone. Church members can learn from the +secularist many things which many believers seem to have forgotten, and, +on the other hand, they can teach the unbeliever what he has overlooked +in his sincere attempts at finding the truth, May Mr. Holyoake's +confession of faith be received in the spirit in which the author wrote +it, which is a candid love of truth, and also in the spirit in which +the publishers undertook its publication, with the irenic endeavor +of letting every honest aspiration be rightly understood and rightly +valued. + +Paul Carus, Manager of The Open Court Publishing Co. + + + + +CHAPTER I. OPEN THOUGHT THE FIRST STEP TO INTELLIGENCE + + "It is not prudent to be in the right too soon, nor to be in + the right against everybody else. And yet it sometimes + happens that after a certain lapse of time, greater or + lesser, you will find that one of those truths which you had + kept to yourself as premature, but which has got abroad in + spite of your teeth, has become the most commonplace thing + imaginable." + + --Alphonse Karr. + +ONE purpose of these chapters is to explain how unfounded are the +objections of many excellent Christians to Secular instruction in State, +public, or board schools. The Secular is distinct from theology, which +it neither ignores, assails, nor denies. Things Secular are as separate +from the Church as land from the ocean. And what nobody seems to discern +is that things Secular are in themselves quite distinct from Secularism. +The Secular is a mode of instruction; Secularism is a code of conduct. +Secularism does conflict with theology; Secularist teaching would, but +Secular instruction does not. + +Persuaded as I am that lack of consideration for the convictions of +the reader creates an impediment in the way of his agreement with the +writer, and even disinclines him to examine what is put before him; yet +some of these pages may be open to this objection. If so, it is owing +to want of thought or want of art in statement, and is no part of the +intention of the author. + +He would have diffidence in expressing, as he does in these pages, +his dissent from the opinions of many Christian advocates--for whose +character and convictions he has great respect, and for some even +affection--did he not perceive that few have any diffidence or +reservation (save in one or two exalted instances)* in maintaining their +views and dissenting from his. + +Open thought, which in this chapter is brought under the reader's notice +is sometimes called "self-thought," or "free thought," or "original +thought"--the opposite of conventional second-hand thought--which is all +that the custom-ridden mass of mankind is addicted to. + +Open thought has three stages: + +The first stage is that in which the right to think independently is +insisted on; and the free action of opinion--so formed--is maintained. +Conscious power thus acquired satisfies the pride of some; others limit +its exercise from prudence. Interests, which would be jeopardised by +applying independent thought to received opinion, keep more persons +silent, and thus many never pass from this stage. + + * Of whom the greatest is Mr. Gladstone. + +The second stage is that in which the right of self-thought is applied +to the criticism of theology, with a view to clear the way for life +according to reason. This is not the work of a day or year, but is so +prolonged that clearing the way becomes as it were a profession, and is +at length pursued as an end instead of a means. Disputation becomes +a passion and the higher state of life, of which criticism is the +necessary precursor, is lost sight of, and many remain at this stage +when it is reached and go no further. + +The third stage is that where ethical motives of conduct apart +from Christianity are vindicated for the guidance of those who are +indifferent about theology, or who reject it altogether. Supplying to +such persons Secular reasons for duty is Secularism, the range of +which is illimitable. It begins where free thought usually ends, and +constitutes a new form of constructive thought, the principles and +policy of which are quite different from those acted upon in the +preceding stages. Controversy concerns itself with what is; Secularism +with what ought to be. + +It is pertinent here to say that Christianity does not permit +eclecticism--that is, it does not tolerate others selecting portions of +Christian Scriptures possessing the mark of intrinsic truth, to which +many could cheerfully conform in their lives. This rule compels all who +cannot accept the entire Scriptures to deal with its teachings as +they find them expressed, and for which Christianity makes itself +responsible. + +All the while it is quite evident that Christians do permit eclecticism +among themselves. The great Congress of the Free Churches, recently held +in Nottingham, representing the personal and vital form of Christianity, +had a humanness and tolerance un manifested by Christianity before, +showing that humanity is stronger than historical integrity. If any one, +therefore, should draw up, as might be done, a theory of Christianity +solely from such doctrines as are represented in the elliptical +preaching, practice, and social life of Christians of to-day, a very +different estimate of the Christian system would have to be given from +that with which the author deals in the subsequent chapters. In them +Christianity is represented as Free-thought has found it, and as it +exists in the Scriptures, in the law, in the pulpit, and in the school, +which constitute its total force in the respects in which it represses +and discourages independent thought. Science, truth, and criticism have +engrafted themselves on historic Christianity. It has now new articles +of belief. When it avows them it will win larger concurrence and respect +than it can now command. + + + + +CHAPTER II. THE QUESTION STATED + + "Look forward--not backward; Look up--not down; Look around; + Lend a hand."* + + --Edward Everett Hale, D. D. + +Where a monarchy is master, inquiry is apt to be a disturbing element; +and though exercised in the interest of the commonwealth it is none the +less resented. Where the priest is master inquiry is sharply prohibited. +The priest represents a spiritual monarchy in which the tenets of belief +are fixed, assumed to be infallible, and to be prescribed by deity. Thus +the priest regards inquiry as proceeding from an impertinent distrust, +to which he is not reconciled on being assured that it is undertaken in +the interest of truth. Thus the king denounces inquiry as sedition, and +the priest as sin. In the end the inquirer finds himself an alien in +State and Church, and laws are made against his life, his liberty, +property, and veracity.** + + * Dr. Hale did not popularise these energetic maxims of + earnestness in the connexion in which they are here used; + but their wisdom is of general application. + + **When martyrdoms and imprisonments ceased, disabling laws + remained which imposed the Christian oath on all who + appealed to the courts, and any who had the pride of + veracity and declined to to swear, were denied protection + for property, or credence of their word. + +Thus from the time when monarch and priest first set up their +pretensions in the world, the inquiring mind has had small +encouragement. When Protestantism came it merely conceded inquiry _under +direction_, and only so far as it tended to confirm its own anti-papal +tenets. But when inquiry claimed to be independent, unfettered, +uncontrolled,--in fact to be _free_ inquiry,--then Papist, Lutheran, and +Dissenter, alike regarded it as dangerous, and stigmatised it by every +term calculated to deter or dissuade people from it. + +But though this combined defamation of inquiry set many against it, it +did not intimidate men entirely. There arose independent thinkers who +held that unfettered investigation was the discoverer of truth and +dangerous to error only, and that the freer it was the more effective it +must be. + +Still timorous-minded persons remained suspicious of _free_ thought. +At its best they found it involved conflict with false opinion, and +conflict, to those without aspiration or conscience, is disquieting; and +where impartial investigation interfered with personal interests it was +opposed. No one could enter on the search for truth without finding his +path obstructed by theological errors and interdictions. Having taken +the side of truth, all who were loyal to it, were bound like Bunyan's + +Pilgrim to withstand the Apollyons who opposed it, and a combat began +which lasted for centuries, and is not yet ended. But though theology +was always in power, men of courage at length established the right of +free inquiry, and established also a free press for the publication of +the results arrived at. These rights were so indispensable for progress +and were so long resisted, that generations fought for them as ends in +themselves. Thus there grew up, as in military affairs, a class whose +profession was destruction, and free thinkers came to be regarded as +negationists. When I came into the field the combat was raging. Richard +Carlile had not long been liberated from successive imprisonments of +more than nine years duration in all. Charles Southwell was in Bristol +gaol. Before his sentence had half expired I was in Gloucester gaol. +George Adams was there; Mrs. Harriet Adams was committed for trial from +Cheltenham. Matilda Roalfe, Thomas Finlay, Thomas Paterson, and others +were incarcerated in Scotland. Robert Buchanan and Lloyd Jones, two +social missionaries--colleagues of my own--only escaped imprisonment by +swearing they believed what they did not believe,--an act I refused to +imitate, and no mean inconvenience has resulted to me from it. I took +part in the vindication of the free publicity of opinion until it was +practically conceded. At the time when I was arrested in 1842, the +Cheltenham magistrates who were angered at defiant remarks I made, had +the power (and used it) of committing me to the Quarter Sessions as a +"felon," where the same justices could resent, by penalties, what I had +said to them. On representations I made to Parliament--through my friend +John Arthur Roebuck and others--Sir James Graham caused a Bill to be +passed which removed trials for opinion to the Assizes. I was the first +person tried under this act. Thus for the first time heresy was ensured +a dispassionate trial and was no longer subject to the jurisdiction of +local prejudice and personal magisterial resentment. + +When overt acts of outrage were no longer possible against the adherents +of free thought, Christians, some from fairness, and others from +necessity, began to reason with them and asked: "Now you have +established your claim to be heard. What have you to say?" The reply +I proposed was: "Secularism--a form of opinion relating to the duty of +this life which substituted the piety of useful men for the usefulness +of piety." + + + + +CHAPTER III. THE FIRST STAGE OF FREE THOUGHT: ITS NATURE AND LIMITATION + + "He who cannot reason is defenceless; he who fears to reason + has a coward mind; he who will not reason is willing to be + deceived and will deceive all who listen to him." + + --Maxim of Free Thought. + +FREE THOUGHT is founded upon reason. It is the exercise of reason, +without which free thought is free foolishness. Free thought being +the precursor of Secularism, it is necessary first to describe its +principles and their limitation. Free thought means independent +self-thinking. Some say all thought is free since a man can think what +he pleases and no one can prevent him, which is not true. Unfortunately +thinking can be prevented by subtle spiritual intimidation, in earlier +and even in later life. + +When a police agent found young Mazzini in the fields of Genoa, +apparently meditating, his father's attention was called to the +youth. His father was told that the Austrian Government did not permit +thinking. The Inquisition intimidated nations from thinking. The priests +by preventing instruction and prohibiting books, limited thinking. +Archbishop Whately shows that no one can reason without words, and since +speech can be, and is, disallowed and made penal, the highway of +thought can be closed. No one can think to any purpose without inquiry +concerning his subject, and inquiry can be made impossible. It is of +little use that any one thinks who cannot verify his ideas by comparison +with those of his compeers. To prevent this is to discourage thought. In +fact thousands are prevented thinking by denying them the means and the +facilities of thinking. + +Free thought means fearless thought. It is not deterred by legal +penalties, nor by spiritual consequences. Dissent from the Bible does +not alarm the true investigator, who takes truth for authority not +authority for truth. The thinker who is really free, is independent; he +is under no dread; he yields to no menace; he is not dismayed by law, +nor custom, nor pulpits, nor society--whose opinion appals so many. He +who has the manly passion of free thought, has no fear of anything, save +the fear of error. + +Fearlessness is the essential condition of effective thought. If Satan +sits at the top of the Bible with perdition open underneath it, into +which its readers will be pushed who may doubt what they find in its +pages, the right of private judgment is a snare. A man is a fool who +inquires at this risk. He had better accept at once the superstition of +the first priest he meets. It is not conceivable how a Christian can be +a _free_ thinker. + +He who is afraid to know both sides of a question cannot think upon +it. Christians do not, as a rule, want to know what can be said against +their views, and they keep out of libraries all books which would inform +others. Thus such Christians cannot think freely, and are against others +doing it. Doubt comes of thinking; the Christian commonly regards doubt +as sin. How can he be a free thinker who thinks thinking is a sin? + +Free thought implies three things as conditions of truth: + +1. Free inquiry, which is the pathway to truth. + +2. Free publicity to the ideas acquired, in order to learn whether they +are useful--which is the encouragement of truth. + +3. The free discussion of convictions without which it is not possible +to know whether they are true or false, which is the verification of +truth. + +A man is not a man unless he is a thinker; he is a fool having no ideas +of his own. If he happens to live among men who do think, he browses +like an animal on their ideas. He is a sort of kept man being supported +by the thoughts of others. He is what in England is called a pauper, who +subsists upon "outdoor relief," allowed him by men of intellect. + +Without the right of publicity, individual thought, however praiseworthy +and however perfect, would be barren to the community. Algernon Sidney +said: "The best legacy I can leave my children is free speech and the +example of using it." + +The clergy of every denomination are unfriendly to its use. The soldiers +of the cross do not fight adversaries in the open. Mr. Gladstone alone +among eminent men of piety has insisted upon the duty of the Church to +prove its claims in discussion. In his Introduction to his address at +the Liverpool College (1872 or 1873) he said: "I wish to place on record +my conviction that belief cannot now be defended by reticence any more +than by railing, or by any privileges or assumption." Since the day of +Milton there has been no greater authority on the religious wisdom of +debate. + +Thought, even theological, is often useless, ill-informed, foolish, +mischievous, or even wicked; and he alone who submits it to free +criticism gives guarantees that he means well, and is self-convinced. By +criticism alone comes exposure, correction, or confirmation. The right +of criticism is the sole protection of the community against error +of custom, ignorance, prejudice, or incompetence. It is not until a +proposition has been generally accepted after open and fair examination, +that it can be considered as established and can safely be made a ground +of action or belief.* + + * See Formation of Opinions, by Samuel Bailey. + +These are the implementary rights of thought. They are what grammar is +to the writer, which teaches him how to express himself, but not what +to say. These rights are as the rules of navigation to the mariner. They +teach him how to steer a ship but do not instruct him where to steer to. + +The full exercise of these rights of mental freedom is what training +in the principles of jurisprudence is to the pleader, but it does not +provide him with a brief. It is conceivable that a man may come to be a +master of independent thinking and never put his powers to use; just as +a man may know every rule of grammar and yet never write a book. In +the same way a man may pass an examination in the art of navigation and +never take command of a vessel; or he may qualify for a Barrister, be +called to the Bar and never plead in any court. We know from experience +that many persons join in the combat for the right of intellectual +freedom for its own sake, without intending or caring to use the right +when won. Some are generous enough to claim and contend for these rights +from the belief that they may be useful to others. This is the first +stage of free thought, and, as has been said, many never pass beyond it. + +Independent thinking is concerned primarily with removing obstacles to +its own action, and in contests for liberty of speech by tongue and +pen. The free mind fights mainly for its own freedom. It may begin in +curiosity and may end in intellectual pride--unless conscience takes +care of it. Its nature is iconoclastic and it may exist without ideas of +reconstruction. + +Though a man goes no further, he is a better man than he who never went +as far. He has acquired a new power, and is sure of his own mind. +Just as one who has learned to fence, or to shoot, has a confidence in +encountering an adversary, which is seldom felt by one who never had +a sword in hand, or practised at a target. The sea is an element of +recreation to one who has learned to swim; it is an element of death to +one ignorant of the art. Besides, the thinker has attained a courage +and confidence unknown to the man of orthodox mind. Since God (we are +assured) is the God of truth, the honest searcher after truth has God on +his side, and has no dread of the King of Perdition--the terror of all +Christian people--since the business of Satan is with those who are +content with false ideas; not with those who seek the true. If it be a +duty to seek the truth and to live the truth, honest discussion, which +discerns it, identifies it, clears it, and establishes it, is a form +of worship of real honor to God and of true service to man. If the +clergyman's speech on behalf of God is rendered exact by criticism, the +criticism is a tribute, and no mean tribute to heaven. Thus the free +exercise of the rights of thought involve no risk hereafter. + +Moreover, so far as a man thinks he gains. Thought implies enterprise +and exertion of mind, and the result is wealth of understanding, to +be acquired in no other way. This intellectual property like other +property, has its rights and duties. The thinker's right is to be left +in undisturbed possession of what he has earned; and his duty is +to share his discoveries of truth with mankind, to whom he owes his +opportunities of acquiring it. + +Free expression involves consideration for others, on principle. +Democracy without personal deference becomes a nuisance; so free speech +without courtesy is repulsive, as free publicity would be, if not mainly +limited to reasoned truth. Otherwise every blatant impulse would have +the same right of utterance as verified ideas. Even truth can only claim +priority of utterance, when its utility is manifest. As the number and +length of hairs on a man's head is less important to know, than the +number and quality of the ideas in his brain. + +True free thought requires special qualities to insure itself +acceptance. It must be owned that the thinker is a disturber. He is a +truth-hunter, and there is no telling what he will find. Truth is an +exile which has been kept out of her kingdom, and Error is a usurper in +possession of it; and the moment Truth comes into her right, Error has +to give up its occupancy of her territory; and as everybody consciously, +or unconsciously harbors some of the emissaries of the usurper, they +do not like owning the fact, and they dispute the warrant of truth +to search their premises, though to be relieved of such deceitful and +costly inmates would be an advantage to them. + +An inalienable attribute of free thought, which no theology possesses, +is absolute toleration of all ideas put forward in the interests of +public truth, and submitted to public discussion. The true free thinker +is in favor of the free action of all opinion which injures no one else, +and of putting the best construction he can on the acts of others, not +only because he has thereby less to tolerate, but from perceiving that +he who lacks tolerance towards the ideas of others has no claim for +the tolerance of his own. The defender of toleration must himself be +tolerant. Condemning the coercion of ideas, he is pledged to combat +error only by reason. Vindictiveness towards the erring is not only +inconsistency, it is persecution. Thus free thought is not only +self-defence against error but, by the toleration it imposes, is itself +security for respectfulness in controversy. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE SECOND STAGE OF FREE THOUGHT: ENTERPRISE + + "Better wild ideas than no ideas at all." + + --Professor Nichol at Horsham. + +THE emancipation of the understanding from intimidation and penal +restraint soon incited thinkers of enterprise to put their new powers +to use. Theology being especially a forbidden subject and the greatest +repressive force, inquiry into its pretensions first attracted critical +attention. + +In every century forlorn hopes of truth had set out to storm one or +other of the ramparts of theology. Forces had been marshalled by +great leaders and battle often given in the open field; and unforeseen +victories are recorded, in the annals of the wars of infantine +rationalism, against the full-grown powers of superstition and darkness. +In every age valiant thinkers, scholars, philosophers, and critics, even +priests in defiance of power, ecclesiastical and civil, have, at their +own peril, explored the regions of forbidden truth. + +In Great Britain it was the courage of insurgent thinkers among the +working class--whom no imprisonment could intimidate--who caused the +right of free speech and free publicity to be finally conceded. Thus +rulers came round to the conclusion of Caballero, that "tolerance is as +necessary in ideas as in social relations." + +As soon as opinion was known to be emancipated, men began to think who +never thought before. The thinker no longer had to obtain a "Ticket +of Leave" from the Churches before he could inquire; he was free to +investigate where he would and what he would. Power is, as a rule, never +imparted nor acquired in vain, and honest men felt they owed it to those +who had won freedom for them, that they should extend it. Thus it +came to pass that independence was an inspiration to action in men +of intrepid minds. Professor Tyndall in the last words he wrote for +publication said, "I choose the nobler part of Emerson when, after +various disenchantments, he exclaims, 'I covet truth!'" On printing +these words the _Westminster Gazette_ added: "The gladness of true +heroism visits the heart of him who is really competent to say this." +The energies of intellectual intrepidity had doubtless been devoted to +science and social progress; but as philosophers have found, down +to Huxley's day, all exploration was impossible in that direction. +Murchison, Brewster, Buckland, and other pioneers of science were +intimidated. Lyell held back his book, on the Antiquity of Man, twenty +years. Tyndall, Huxley, and Spencer were waiting to be heard. As +Huxley has justly said: "there was no Thoroughfare into the Kingdom +of Nature--By Order--Moses." Hence, to examine theology, to discover +whether its authority was absolute, became a necessity. It was soon seen +that there was ground for scepticism. The priests resented criticism +by representing the sceptic of their pretensions, as being sceptical of +everything, whereas they were only sceptics of clerical infallibility. +They indeed did aver that branches of human knowledge, received as well +established, were really open to question, in order to show that if men +could not be confident of things of which they had experience, how could +the Churches be confident of things of which no man had experience--and +which contradicted experience? So far from disbelieving everything, +scepticism went everywhere in search of truth and certainty. Since the +Church could not be absolutely certain of the truth of its tenets, +its duty was to be tolerant. But being intolerant it became as Julian +Hibbert put it--"well-understood self-defence" to assail it. The Church +fought for power, the thinker fought for truth. Free thought among the +people may be likened to a good ship manned by adventurous mariners, +who, cruising about in the ocean of theology came upon sirens, as other +mariners had done before--dangerous to be followed by navigators +bound to ports of progress. Many were thereby decoyed to their own +destruction. The sirens of the Churches sang alluring songs whose +refrains were: + +1. The Bible the guide of God. + +2. The origin of the universe disclosed. + +3. The care of Providence assured. + +4. Deliverance from peril by prayer dependable. + +5. Original sin effaceable by grace. + +6. Perdition avoidable by faith in crucifixion. + +7. Future life revealed. + +These propositions were subjects of resonant hymns, sermons, and tracts, +and were not, and are not, disowned, but still defended in discussion by +orthodox and clerical advocates. Save salvation by the blood of Christ +(a painful idea to entertain), the other ideas might well fascinate the +uninquiring. They had enchanted many believers, but the explorers of +whom we speak had acquired the questioning spirit, and had learned +prudently to look at both sides of familiar subjects and soon discovered +that the fair-seeming propositions which had formerly imposed on their +imagination were unsound, unsightly, and unsafe. The Syracusans of +old kept a school in which slaves were taught the ways of bondage. +Christianity has kept such a school in which subjection of the +understanding was inculcated, and the pupils, now free to investigate, +resolved to see whether such things were true. + +Then began the reign of refutation of theological error, by some from +indignation at having been imposed upon, by others from zeal that +misconception should end; by more from enthusiasm for facts; by the +bolder sort from resentment at the intimidation and cruelty with which +inquiry had been suppressed so long; and by not a few from the love +of disputation which has for some the delight men have for chess or +cricket, or other pursuit which has conflict and conquest in it. + +Self-determined thought is a condition of the progress of nations. Where +would science be but for open thought, the nursing mother of enterprise, +of discovery, of invention, of new conditions of human betterment? + +A modern Hindu writer* tells us that: "The Hindu is sorely handicapped +by customs which are prescribed by his religious books. Hedged in by +minute rules and restrictions the various classes forming the Hindu +community have had but little room for expansion and progress. The +result has been stagnation. Caste has prevented the Hindus from sinking, +but it has also preventing them from rising." + + * Pramatha Nath Bose. + +The old miracle-bubbles which the Jews blew into the air of wonder two +thousand years ago, delight churches still in their childhood. The sea +of theology would have been stagnant centuries ago, had not insurgent +thinkers, at the peril of their lives, created commotion in it. Morals +would have been poisoned on the shores of theology had not free thought +purified the waters by putting the salt of reason into that sea, +freshening it year by year. + + + + +CHAPTER V. CONQUESTS OF INVESTIGATION + + "The secret of Genius is to suffer no fiction to live." + + --Goethe. + +THEOLOGIANS had so choked the human mind with a dense undergrowth of +dogmas that it was like cutting through an African forest, such as +Stanley encountered, to find the paths of truth. + +On that path, when found, many things unforeseen before, became plain. +The siren songs of orthodoxy were discovered to have strange discords of +sense in them. + +1. The Guide of God seemed to be very human--not authentic, not +consistent--containing things not readable nor explainable in the +family; pagan fictions, such as the Incarnation reluctantly believable +as the device of a moral deity. Men of genius and of noble ethical +sympathy do however deem it defensible. In any human book the paternal +exaction of such suffering as fell to Christ, would be regarded with +alarm and repugnance. Wonder was felt that Scripture, purporting to +contain the will of deity, should not be expressed so unmistakably that +ignorance could not misunderstand it, nor perversity misconstrue it. The +gods know how to write. + +2. The origin of all things has excited and disappointed the curiosity +of the greatest exploring minds of every age. That the secret of the +universe is undisclosed, is manifest from the different and differing +conjectures concerning it. The origin of the universe remains +unknowable. What awe fills or rather takes possession of the mind which +comprehends this! Why existence exists is the cardinal wonder. + +3. Pleasant and free from anxiety, life would be were it true, that +Providence is a present help in the day of need. Alas, to the poor it is +evident that Providence does not interfere, either to befriend the good +in their distress, or arrest the bad in the act of crime. + +4. The power of prayer has been the hope of the helpless and the +oppressed in every age. Every man wishes it was true that help could be +had that way. Then every just man could protect himself at will against +his adversaries. But experience shows that all entreaty is futile to +induce Providence to change its universal habit of non-intervention. +Prayer beguiles the poor but provides no dinner. Mr. Spurgeon said at +the Tabernacle that prayer filled his meal barrel when empty. I asked +that he should publish the recipe in the interests of the hungry. But he +made no reply. + +5. There is reason to think that original sin is not anything more than +original ignorance. The belief in natural depravity discourages all +efforts of progress. The primal imperfection of human nature is only +effaceable by knowledge and persistent endeavor. Even in things lawful +to do, excess is sin, judged by human standards. There may be error +without depravity. + +6. Eternal perdition for conscientious belief, whether erroneous or +not, is humanly incredible. The devisors of this doctrine must have +been unaware that belief is an affair of ignorance, prejudice, custom, +education, or evidence. The liability of the human race to eternal +punishment is the foundation on which all Christianity (except +Unitarianism) rests. This awful belief, if acted upon with the sincerity +that Christianity declares it should be, would terminate all enjoyment, +and all enterprise would cease in the world. None would ever marry. No +persons, with any humanity in their hearts would take upon themselves +the awful responsibility of increasing the number of the damned. The +registrar of births would be the most fiendish clerk conceivable. He +would be practically the secretary of hell. + +The theory that all the world was lost through a curious and +enterprising lady, eating an apricot or an apple, and that three +thousand or more years after, mankind had to be redeemed by the murder +of an innocent Jew, is of a nature to make men afraid to believe in a +deity accused of contriving so dreadful a scheme. + +Though this reasoning will seem to many an argument against the +existence of God whereas it is merely against the attributes of deity, +as ascribed to him by Christianity. If God be not moral, in the human +sense of the term, he may as well be not moral at all. It is only he +whose principles of justice, men can understand, that men can +trust. Prof. T. H. Huxley, conspicuous for his clearness of view and +dispassionateness of judgment, was of this opinion, and said: "The +suggestion arises, if God is the cause of all things he is responsible +for evil as well as for good, and it appears utterly irreconcilable with +our notions of justice that he should punish another for that which he +has in fact done himself." The poet concurs with the philosopher when he +exclaims: + + "The loving worm within its clod, + Were diviner than a loveless God Amid his worlds."* + + * Browning. + +Christianity indeed speaks of the _love_ of God in sending his son +to die for the security of others. But not less is the heart of the +intelligent and humane believer torn with fear, as he thinks what +must be the character of that God who could only be thus appeased. +The example of self-sacrifice is noble--but is it noble in any one +who deliberately creates the necessity for it? The better side of +Christianity seems overshadowed by the worse. + +7. Future life is uncertain, being unprovable and seemingly improbable, +judging from the dependence of life on material conditions. Christians +themselves do not seem confident of another existence. If they were +_sure_ of it, who of them would linger here when those they love and +honor have gone before? Ere we reach the middle of our days, the joy of +every heart lies in some tomb. If the Christian actually believed that +the future was real, would he hang black plumes over the hearse, and +speak of death as darkness? No! the cemeteries would be hung with joyful +lights, the grave would be the gate of Paradise. Every one would find +justifiable excuse for leaving this for the happier world. All tenets +which are contradicted by reason had better not be. + +Many preachers now disown, in controversy, these doctrines, but until +they carry the professions of the platform into the statute book, +the rubric, and the pulpit, such doctrines remain operative, and the +Churches remain answerable for them. Nonconformists do not protest +against a State Church on account of its doctrines herein enumerated. +When the doctrines which conflict with reason and humanity are disowned +by authority, ecclesiastical and legal, in all denominations, the duty +of controverting them as impediments to progress will cease. + +It may be said in reply to what is here set forth as tenets of Christian +Scripture, that the writer follows the letter and not the spirit of the +word. Yes, that is what he does. He is well aware of the new practice of +seeking refuge in the "spirit," of "expanding" the letter and taking a +"new range of view." He however holds that to drop the "letter" is to +drop the doctrine. To "expand" the "letter" is to change it. New "range +of view" is the term under which desertion of the text is disguised. +But "new range" means new thought, which in this insidious way is put +forward to supersede the old. The frank way is to say so, and admit +that the "letter" is obsolete--is gone, is disproved, and that new views +which are truer constitute the new letter of progress. The best thing to +do with the "dead hand" is to bury it. To try to expand dissolution is +but galvanising the corpse and tying the dead to the living. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. STATIONARINESS OF CRITICISM + + "Zeal without knowledge is like expedition to a man in the + dark." + + --John Newton. + +CRITICISM in theology, as in literature, is with many an intoxication. +Zest in showing what is wrong is apt to blunt the taste for what is +right, which it is the true end of criticism to discover. Lord Byron +said critics disliked Pope because he afforded them so few chances +of objection. They found fault with him because he had no faults. The +criticism of theology begets complacency in many. There is a natural +satisfaction in being free from the superstition of the vulgar, in the +Church as well as out of it. No wonder many find abiding pleasure in the +intellectual refutation of the errors of supernaturalism and in putting +its priests to confusion. Absorbed in the antagonism of theology, many +lose sight of ultimate utility, and regard error, not as a misfortune +to be alleviated, so much as a fault to be exposed. Like the theologian +whose color they take, they do not much consider whether their method +causes men to dislike the truth through its manner of being offered +to them. Their ambition is to make those in error look foolish. Free +thinkers of zeal are apt to become intense, and like Jules Ferry (a late +French premier), care less for power, than for conflict, and the lover +of conflict is not easily induced to regard the disproof of theology +as a means to an end* higher than itself. It is difficult to impart to +uncalculating zealots a sense of proportion. They dash along the warpath +by their own momentum. Railway engineers find that it takes twice as +much power to stop an express train as it does to start it. + + * Buckle truly says, "Liberty is not a means, it is an end + in itself," But the uses of liberty are means to ends + Else why do we want liberty? + +When I first knew free thought societies they were engaged in +Church-fighting--which is still popular among them, and which has led +the public to confuse criticism with Secularism, an entirely different +thing. + +Insurgent thought exclusively directed, breeds, as is said elsewhere, +a distinguished class of men--among scholars as well as among the +uninformed--who have a passion for disputation, which like other +passions "grows by what it feeds upon." Yet a limited number of such +paladins of investigation are not without uses in the economy of +civilisations. They resemble the mighty hunters of old, they extirpate +beasts of prey which roam the theological forests, and thus they render +life more safe to dwellers in cities, open to the voracious incursions +of supernaturalism. + +Without the class of combatants described, in whom discussion is +irrepressible, and whose courage neither odium nor danger abates, +many castles of superstition would never be stormed. But mere +intellectual-ism generates a different and less useful species of +thinkers, who neither hunt in the jungles of theology nor storm +strongholds. We all know hundreds in every great town who have freed +themselves, or have been freed by others, from ecclesiastical error, who +remain supine. Content with their own superiority (which they owe to +the pioneers who went before them more generous than they) they speak no +word, and lend no aid towards conferring the same advantages upon such +as are still enslaved. They affect to despise the ignorance they ought +to be foremost to dissipate. They exclaim in the words of Goethe's +Coptic song: + + "Fools from their folly 'tis hopeless to stay, + Mules will be mules by the laws of their mulishness, + Then be advised and leave fools to their foolishness, + What from an ass can be got but a bray." + +These Coptic philosophers overlook that they would have been "asses" +also, had those who vindicated freedom before their day, and raised it +to a power, been as indifferent and as contemptuous as believers in +the fool-theory are. Coptic thinkers forget that every man is a fool +in respect of any question on which he gives an opinion without having +thought independently upon it. With patience you can make a thinker out +of a fool; and the first step from the fool stage is accomplished by a +little thinking. It is well to remember the exclamation of Thackeray: +"If thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man." + +It is, however, but justice to some who join the stationariness, to +own that they have fared badly on the warpath against error, and are +entitled to the sympathy we extend to the battered soldier who falls +out of the ranks on the march. Grote indicates what the severity of +the service is, in the following passage from his _Mischiefs of Natural +Religion_:--"Of all human antipathies that which the believer in a God +bears to the unbeliever, is the fullest, the most unqualified, and +the most universal. The mere circumstance of dissent involves a tacit +imputation of error and incapacity on the part of the priest, who +discerns that his persuasive power is not rated so highly by others +as it is by himself. This invariably begets dislike towards his +antagonist." + +Nevertheless it is a reproach to those whom militant thought has made +free, if they remain unmindful of the fate of their inferiors. Yet +Christian churches, with all self-complacent superiority to which +many of them are prone, are not free from the sins of indifference and +superfineness. This was conspicuously shown by Southey in a letter to +Sir Henry Taylor, in which he says:--"Have you seen the strange +book which Anastasius Hope left for publication and which his +representatives, in spite of all dissuasion, have published? His notion +of immortality and heaven is that at the consummation of all things he, +and you, and I, and John Murray, and Nebuchadnezzar, and Lambert the fat +man, and the Living Skeleton, and Queen Elizabeth, and the Hottentot, +Venus, and Thutell, and Probert, and the Twelve Apostles, and the noble +army of martyrs, and Genghis Khan and all his armies, and Noah with all +his ancestors and all his posterity,--yea, all men, and all women, and +all children that have ever been, or ever shall be, saints and sinners +alike, are all to be put together and made into one great celestial, +eternal human being.... I do not like the scheme. I don't like the +notion of being mixed up with Hume, and Hunt, and Whittle Harvey, and +Philpotts, and Lord Althorp, and the Huns, and the Hottentots, and the +Jews, and the Philistines, and the Scotch, and the Irish. God forbid! I +hope to be I, myself, in an English heaven, with you yourself,--you and +some others without whom heaven would be no heaven to me." + +Most of these persons would have the same dislike to be mixed up with +Mr. Southey. Lord Byron would not have been enthusiastic about it. The +Comtists have done something to preach a doctrine of humanity, and +to put an end to this pitiful contempt of a few men for their +fellows,--fellows who in many respects are often superior to those who +despise them. + +All superiority is apt to be contemptuous of inferiors, unless +conscience and generosity takes care of it, and incites it to instruct +inferior natures. The prayer of Browning is one of noble discernment:-- + + "Make no more giants, God-- + But elevate the race at once." + +Even free thought, so far as it confines itself to itself, becomes +stationary. Like the squirrel in its cage: + + "Whether it turns by wood or wire, + Never gets one hair's breadth higher." + +If any doubt whether stationariness of thought is possible, let them +think of Protestantism which climbed on to the ledge of private judgment +three centuries ago--and has remained there. Instead of mounting higher +and overrunning all the plateaus of error above them, it has done its +best to prevent any who would do it, from ascending. There is now, +however, a new order of insurgent thought of the excelsior caste which +seeks to climb the heights. Distinguished writers against theology in +the past have regarded destructive criticism as preparing the way to +higher conceptions of life and duty. If so little has been done in this +direction among working class thinkers, it is because destructiveness +is more easy. It needs only indignation to perfect it, and indignation +requires no effort. The faculty of constructiveness is more arduous in +exercise, and is later in germination. More men are able to take a state +than to make a state. Hence Secularism, though inevitable as the next +stage of militant progress, more slowly wins adherents and appreciation. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. THIRD STAGE OF FREE THOUGHT--SECULARISM + + "Nothing is destroyed until it has been replaced." + + --Madame de Staėl. + +SEEING this wise maxim in a paper by Auguste Comte, I asked my friend +Wm. de Fonvielle, who was in communication with Comte, to learn for me +the authorship of the phrase. Comte answered that it was the Emperor's +(Napoleon III.). It first appeared, as I afterwards found, in the +writings of Madame de Staėl, and more fully expressed by her. + +Self-regarding criticism having discovered the insufficiency of theology +for the guidance of man, next sought to ascertain what rules human +reason may supply for the independent conduct of life, which is the +object of Secularism. + +At first, the term was taken to be a "mask" concealing sinister +features--a "new name for an old thing"--or as a substitute term for +scepticism or atheism. If impressions were always knowledge, men would +be wise without inquiry, and explanations would be unnecessary. The +term Secularism was chosen to express the extension of free thought to +ethics. Free thinkers commonly go no further than saying, "We search for +truth"*; Secularists say we have found it--at least, so much as replaces +the chief errors and uncertainties of theology. + +Harriet Martineau, the most intrepid thinker among the women of her day, +wrote to Lloyd Garrison a letter (inserted in the _Liberator_, 1853) +approving "the term Secularism as including a large number of persons +who are not atheists and uniting them for action, which has Secularism +for its object. By the adoption of the new term a vast amount of +prejudice is got rid of." At length it was seen that the "new term" +designated a new conception. + +Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on +considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find +theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. + +Its essential principles are three: + +1. The improvement of this life by _material_ means. + +2. That science is the available** Providence of man. + +3. That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the +good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good. + + * M. Aurelius Antoninus said, "I seek the truth by which no + man was ever injured." It would be true had he said mankind. + Men are continually injured by the truth, or how do martyrs + come, or why do we honor them? + + **This phrase was a suggestion of my friend the Rev. Dr. H. + T. Crosskey about 1854. I afterwards used the word + "available" which does not deny, nor challenge, nor affirm + the belief in a theological Providence by others, who, + therefore, are not incited to assail the effectual + proposition that material resources are an available + Providence where a spiritual Providence is inactive. + +Individual good attained by methods conducive to the good of others, is +the highest aim of man, whether regard be had to human welfare in this +life or personal fitness for another. Precedence is therefore given to +the duties of this life. + +Being asked to send to the International Congress of Liberal Thinkers, +(1886), an account of the tenets of the English party known as +Secularists, I gave the following explanation to them. + +"The Secular is that, the issues of which can be tested by the +experience of this life. + +"The ground common to all self-determined thinkers is that of +independency of opinion, known as free thought, which though but an +impulse of intellectual courage in the search for truth, or an impulse +of aggression against hurtful or irritating error, or the caprice of +a restless mind, is to be encouraged. It is necessary to promote +independent thought--whatever its manner of manifestation--since +there can be no progress without it. A Secularist is intended to be +a reasoner, that is as Coleridge defined him, one who inquires what a +thing is, and not only what it is, but _why_ it is what it is. + +"One of two great forces of opinion created in this age, is what is +known as atheism,* which deprives superstition of its standing-ground +and compels theism to reason for its existence. The other force is +materialism which shows the physical consequences of error, supplying, +as it were, beacon lights to morality. + + * Huxley's term agnosticism implies a different thing-- + unknowingness without denial. + +"Though respecting the right of the atheist and theist to their theories +of the origin of nature, the Secularist regards them as belonging to the +debatable ground of speculation. Secularism neither asks nor gives any +opinion upon them, confining itself to the entirely independent field of +study--the order of the universe. Neither asserting nor denying theism +or a future life, having no sufficient reason to give if called upon; +the fact remains that material influences exist, vast and available for +good, as men have the will and wit to employ them. Whatever may be the +value of metaphysical or theological theories of morals, utility in +conduct is a daily test of common sense, and is capable of deciding +intelligently more questions of practical duty than any other rule. +Considerations which pertain to the general welfare, operate without the +machinery of theological creeds, and over masses of men in every land to +whom Christian incentives are alien, or disregarded." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THREE PRINCIPLES VINDICATED + + "Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise." + + --Francis Quarles. + +FIRST PRINCIPLE: _Of material means as conditions of welfare in this +world_.--Theology works by "spiritual" means, Secularism by _material_ +means. Christians and Secularists both intend raising the character of +the people, but their methods are very different. Christians are now +beginning to employ material agencies for the elevation of life, which +science, and not theology, has brought under their notice. But the +Christian does not trust these agencies; the Secularist does, and in his +mind the Secular is sacred. Spiritual means can never be depended upon +for food, raiment, art, or national defence. + +The Archbishop of York (Dr. Magee), a clearheaded and candid prelate, +surprised his contemporaries (at the Diocesan Conference, Leicester, +October 19, 1889) by declaring that "Christianity made no claim to +rearrange the economic relations of man in the State, or in society. He +hoped he would be understood when he said plainly that it was his firm +belief that any Christian State, carrying out in all its relations, the +Sermon on the Mount, could not exist for a week. It was perfectly clear +that a State could not continue to exist upon what were commonly called +Christian principles." + +From the first, Secularism had based its claims to be regarded on the +fact that only the rich could afford to be Christians, and the poor must +look to other principles for deliverance. + +Material means are those which are calculable, which are under the +control and command of man, and can be tested by human experience. +No definition of Secularism shows its distinctiveness which omits to +specify _material_ means as its method of procedure. + +But for the theological blasphemy of nature, representing it as the +unintelligent tool of God, the Secular would have ennobled common life +long ago. Sir Godfrey Kneller said, "He never looked on a bad picture +but he carried away in his mind a dirty tint." Secularism would efface +the dirty tints of life which Christianity has prayed over, but not +removed. + +Second Principle: _Of the providence of science_.--Men are limited +in power, and are oft in peril, and those who are taught to trust to +supernatural aid are betrayed to their own destruction. We are told we +should work as though there were no help in heaven, and pray as though +there were no help in ourselves. Since, however, praying saves no ship, +arrests no disease, and does not pay the tax-gatherer, it is better to +work at once and without the digression of sinking prayer-buckets +into empty wells, and spending life in drawing nothing up. The word +illuminating secular life is _self-help_. The Secularist vexes not the +ear of heaven by mendicant supplications. His is the only religion that +gives heaven no trouble. + +Third Principle: _Of goodness as fitness for this world or +another_.--Goodness is the service of others with a view to their +advantage. There is no higher human merit. Human welfare is the sanction +of morality. The measure of a good action is its conducive-ness to +progress. The utilitarian test of generous rightness in motive may be +open to objection,--there is no test which is not,--but the utilitarian +rule is one comprehensible by every mind. It is the only rule which +makes knowledge necessary, and becomes more luminous as knowledge +increases. A fool may be a believer,* but not a utilitarian who seeks +his ground of action in the largest field of relevant facts his mind is +able to survey. + + * The Guardian told as about 1887 that the Bishop of Exeter + confirmed five idiots. + +Utility in morals is measuring the good of one by its agreement with the +good of many. Large ideas are when a man measures the good of his parish +by the good of the town, the good of the town by the good of the county, +the good of the county by the good of the country, the good of the +country by the good of the continent, the good of the continent by the +cosmopolitanism of the world. + +Truth and solicitude for the social welfare of others are the proper +concern of a soul worth saving. Only minds with goodness in them have +the desert of future existence. Minds without veracity and generosity +die. The elements of death are in the selfish already. They could not +live in a better world if they were admitted. + +In a noble passage in his sermon on "Citizenship" the Rev. Stopford +Brooks said: "There are thousands of my fellow-citizens, men, and women, +and children, who are living in conditions in which they have no true +means of becoming healthy in body, trained in mind, or comforted by +beauty. Life is as hard for them as it is easy for me. I cannot help +them by giving them money, one by one, but I can help them by making the +condition of their life easier by a good government of the city in +which they live. And even if the charge on my property for this purpose +increases for a time, year by year, till the work is done, that charge I +will gladly pay. It shall be my ethics, _my religion_, my patriotism, my +citizenship to do it."* The great preacher whose words are here cited, +like Theodore Parker, the Jupiter of the pulpit in his day, as Wendell +Phillips described him to me, is not a Secularist; but he expresses here +the religion of the Secularist, if such a person can be supposed to have +a religion. + + * Preached in reference to the London County Council + election, March, 1892. + +A theological creed which the base may hold, and usually do, has none +of the merit of deeds of service to humanity, which only the good +intentionally perform. Conscience is the sense of right with regard +to others, it is a sense of duty towards others which tells us that we +should do justice to them; and if not able to do it individually, to +endeavor to get it done by others. At St. Peter's Gate there can be no +passport so safe as this. He was not far wrong who, when asked where +heaven lay, answered: "On the other side of a good action." + +If, as Dr. James Martineau says, "there is a thought of God in the thing +that is true, and a will of God in that which is right," Secularism, +caring for truth and duty, cannot be far wrong. Thus, it has a +reasonable regard for the contingencies of another life should it +supervene. Reasoned opinions rely for justification upon intelligent +conviction, and a well informed sincerity. + +The Secularist, is without presumption of an infallible creed, is +without the timorous indefiniteness of a creedless believer. He does +not disown a creed because theologians have promulgated Jew bound, +unalterable articles of faith. The Secularist has a creed as definite as +science, and as flexible as progress, increasing as the horizon of truth +is enlarged. His creed is a confession of his belief. There is more +unity of opinion among self-thinkers than is supposed. They all maintain +the necessity of independent opinion, for they all exercise it. They all +believe in the moral rightfulness of independent thought, or they are +guilty for propagating it. They all agree as to the right of publishing +well-considered thought, otherwise thinking would be of little use. They +all approve of free criticism, for there could be no reliance on thought +which did not use, or could not bear that. All agree as to the equal +action of opinion, without which opinion would be fruitless and action +a monopoly. All agree that truth is the object of free thought, for many +have died to gain it. All agree that scrutiny is the pathway to truth, +for they have all passed along it. They all attach importance to the +good of this life, teaching this as the first service to humanity. All +are of one opinion as to the efficacy of material means in promoting +human improvement, for they alone are distinguished by vindicating their +use. All hold that morals are effectively commended by reason, for all +self-thinkers have taught so. All believe that God, if he exists, is the +God of the honest, and that he respects conscience more than creeds, +for all free thinkers have died in this faith. Independent thinkers from +Socrates to Herbert Spencer and Huxley* have all agreed: + + * See Biographical Dictionary of Free Thinkers of all Ages + and Nations, by J. M. Wheeler, and Four Hundred Years of + Free Thought from Columbus to Ingersoll, by Samuel Porter + Putnam, containing upwards of 1,000 biographies. + +In the necessity of free thought. + +In the rightfulness of it. + +In the adequacy of it. + +In the considerate publicity of it. + +In the fair criticism of it. + +In the equal action of conviction. + +In the recognition of this life, and + +In the material control of it. + +The Secularist, like Karpos the gardener, may say of his creed, "Its +points are few and simple. They are: to be a good citizen, a good +husband, a good father, and a good workman. I go no further," said +Karpos, "but pray God to take it all in good part and have mercy on my +soul."* + + * Dialogue between Karpos the gardener and Bashiew Tucton, + by Voltaire. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. HOW SECULARISM AROSE + + "We must neither lead nor leave men to mistake falsehood for + truth. Not to undeceive is to deceive." + + --Archbishop Whately. + +BEING one of the social missionaries in the propaganda of Robert Owen, +I was, like H. Viewssiew, a writer of those days, a "student of +realities." It soon became clear to me, as to others, that men are much +influenced for good or evil, by their environments. The word was unused +then, "circumstances" was the term employed. Then as now there were +numerous persons everywhere to be met with who explained everything on +supernatural principles with all the confidence of infinite knowledge. +Not having this advantage, I profited as well as I could by such +observation as was in my power to make. I could see that material laws +counted for something in the world. This led me to the conclusion that +the duty of watching the ways of nature was incumbent on all who +would find true conditions of human betterment, or new reasons for +morality--both very much needed. To this end the name of Secularism was +given to certain principles which had for their object human improvement +by material means, regarding science as the providence of man and +justifying morality by considerations which pertain to this life alone. + +The rise and development (if I may use so fine a term) of these views +may be traced in the following records. + +1. "Materialism will be advanced as the only sound basis of rational +thought and practice." (Prospectus of the _Movement_, 1843, written by +me.) + +2. Five prizes awarded to me, for lectures to the Manchester Order of +Odd-fellows. These Degree Addresses (1846) were written on the principle +that morality, apart from theology, could be based on human reason and +experience. + +3. The _Reasoner_ restricts itself to the known, to the present, and +seeks to realise the life that is. (Preface to the _Reasoner_, 1846.) + +4. A series of papers was commenced in the _Reasoner_ entitled "The +Moral Remains of the Bible," one object of which was to show that those +who no longer held the Bible as an infallible book, might still value +it wherein it was ethically excellent. (_Reasoner_, Vol. V., No. 106, p. +17, 1848.) + +5. "To teach men to see that the sum of all knowledge and duty is +_Secular_ and that it pertains to this world alone." (_Reasoner_, Nov. +19, 1851. Article, "Truths to Teach," p. 1.) + +This was the first time the word "Secular" was applied as a general test +of principles of conduct apart from spiritual considerations. + +6. "Giving an account of ourselves in the whole extent of opinion, we +should use the word _Secularist_ as best indicating that province of +human duty which belongs to this life." (_Reasoner_, Dec. 3, 1851, p. +34.) + +This was the first time the word "Secularist" appeared in literature as +descriptive of a new way of thinking. + +7. "Mr. Holyoake, editor of the _Reasoner_, will lay before the meeting +[then proposed] the present position of Secularism in the provinces." +(_Reasoner_, Dec. 10, 1851, p. 62.) + +This was the first time the word "Secularism" appeared in the press. + +The meeting above mentioned was held December 29, 1851, at which +the statement made might be taken as an epitome of this book. (See +_Reasoner_, No. 294, Vol. 12, p. 129. 1852.) + +8. A letter on the "Future of Secularism" appeared in the _Reasoner_, +(_Reasoner_, Feb. 4, 1852, p. 187.) + +This was the first time Secularism was written upon as a movement. The +term was the heading of a letter by Charles Frederick Nicholls. + +9. "One public purpose is to obtain the repeal of all acts of Parliament +which interfere with Secular practice." (Article, "Nature of Secular +Societies," (Reasoner), No. 325, p. 146, Aug. 18, 1852.) + +This is exactly the attitude Secularism takes with regard to the Bible +and to Christianity. It rejects such parts of the Scriptures, or of +Christianism, or Acts of Parliament, as conflict with or obstruct +ethical truth. We do not seek the repeal of all Acts of Parliament, but +only of such as interfere with Secular progress. + +10. "The friends of 'Secular Education' [the Manchester Association was +then so known] are not Secularists. They do not pretend to be so, they +do not even wish to be so regarded, they merely use the word Secular as +an adjective, as applied to a mode of instruction. We apply it to the +_nature_ of all knowledge." We use the noun Secularism. No one else has +done it. With others the term Secular is merely a descriptive; with us +the term is used as a subject. With others it is a branch of knowledge; +with us it is the primary business of life,--the name of the province of +speculation to which we confine ourselves.* When so used in these +pages the word "Secularism" or "Secularist" is employed to mark the +distinction. + + * See article "The Seculars--the Propriety of Their Name," + by G.J. Holyoake. Reasoner, p. 177, Sep. 1, 1852. + +A Bolton clergyman reported in the _Bolton Guardian_ that Mr. Holyoake +had announced as the first subject of his Lectures, "Why do the Clergy +Avoid Discussion and the Secularists Seek it?" (_Reasoner_, No. 328, p. +294, Vol. 12, 1852.) + +These citations from my own writings are sufficient to show the origin +and nature of Secularism. Such views were widely accepted by liberal +thinkers of the day, as an improvement and extension of free thought +advocacy. Societies were formed, halls were given a Secular name, and +conferences were held to organise adherents of the new opinion. The +first was held in the Secular Institute, Manchester (Oct. 3, 1852). +Delegates were sent from Societies in Ashton-under-Lyne, Bolton, +Blackburn, Bradford, Burnley, Bury, Glasgow, Keighley, Leigh, London, +Manchester, Miles Platting, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oldham, Over Darwen, +Owen's Journal, Paisley, Preston, Rochdale, Stafford, Sheffield, +Stockport, Todmorden. + +Among the delegates were many well known, long known, and some still +known--James Charlton (now the famous manager of the Chicago and Alton +Railway), Abram Greenwood (now the cashier of the Cooperative Wholesale +Bank of Manchester), William Mallalieu of Todmorden (familiarly known as +the "Millionaire" of the original Rochdale Pioneers), Dr. Hiram Uttley +of Burnley, John Crank of Stockport, Thomas Hayes, then of Miles +Platting, now manager of the Crumpsall Biscuit Works of the Cooperative +Wholesale Society, Joseph Place of Nottingham, James Motherwell of +Paisley, Dr. Henry Travis (socialist writer on Owen's system), Samuel +Ingham of Manchester, J. R. Cooper of Manchester, and the present +writer. + + + + +CHAPTER X. HOW SECULARISM WAS DIFFUSED + + "Only by varied iteration can alien conceptions be forced on + reluctant minds." + + --Herbert Spencer. + +IN 1853 the Six-Night Discussion took place in Cowper Street School +Rooms, London, with the Rev. Brewin Grant, B. A. A report was published +by Partridge and Oakley at 2s. 6d, of which 45,900 were sold, which +widely diffused a knowledge of Secularistic views. + +Our adversary had been appointed with clerical ceremony, on a "Three +years' mission" against us. He had wit, readiness, and an electric +velocity of speech, boasting that he could speak three times faster than +any one else. But he proved to be of use to us without intending it, + + "His acrid words + Turned the sweet milk of kindness into curds." + +whereby he set many against the cause he represented. He had the +cleverness to see that there ought to be a "Christian Secularism," which +raised Secularism to the level of Christian curiosity. In Glasgow, in +1854, I met Mr. Grant again during several nights' discussion in the +City Hall. This debate also was published, as was one of three nights +with the Rev. J. H. Rutherford (afterwards Dr. Rutherford) in Newcastle +on Tyne, who aimed to prove that Christianity contained the better +Secularism. Thus that new form of free thought came to have public +recognition. + +The lease of a house, 147 Fleet Street, was bought (1852), where was +established a Secular Institute, connected with printing, book-selling, +and liberal publishing. Further conferences were held in July, 1854, one +at Stockport. At an adjourned conference Mr. Joseph Barker (whom we had +converted) presided.* We had a London Secular Society which met at the +Hall of Science, City Road, and held its Council meetings in Mr. Le +Blond's handsome house in London Wall. This work, and much more, was +done before and while Mr. Bradlaugh (who afterwards was conspicuously +identified with the movement) was in the army. + + * Reasoner, No. 428, Vol. XVII.. p. 87. + +It was in 1854 that I published the first pamphlet on _Secularism +the Practical Philosophy of the People_. It commenced by showing the +necessity of independent, self-helping, self-extricating opinions. Its +opening passage was as follows: + +"In a state of society in which every inch of land, every blade of +grass, every spray of water, every bird and flower has an owner, +what has the poor man to do with orthodox religion which begins by +proclaiming him a miserable sinner, and ends by leaving him a miserable +slave, as far as unrequited toil goes? + +"The poor man finds himself in an _armed_ world where might is God, +and poverty is fettered. Abroad the hired soldier blocks up the path +of freedom, and the priest the path of progress. Every penniless man, +woman, and child is virtually the property of the capitalist, no less +in England than is the slave in New Orleans.* Society blockades poverty, +leaving it scarce escape. The artisan is engaged in an imminent struggle +against wrong and injustice; then what has he the struggler, to do with +doctrines which brand him with inherited guilt, which paralyse him by an +arbitrary faith, which deny saving power to good works, which menace him +with eternal perdition?" + +The two first works of importance, controverting Secularist principles, +were by the Rev. Joseph Parker and Dr. J. A. Langford; Dr. Parker was +ingenious, Dr. Langford eloquent. I had discussed with Dr. Parker in +Banbury. In his _Six Chapters on Secularism_** which was the title of +his book, he makes pleasant references to that debate. The _Christian +Weekly News_ of that day said: "These Six Chapters have been written +by a young provincial minister of great power and promise, of whom the +world has not yet heard, but of whom it will hear pleasing things some +day." + + * Not entirely so. The English slave can run away--at his + own peril. + + ** Published by my, then, neighbour, William Freeman, of 69 + Fleet Street, himself an energetic, pleasant-minded + Christian. + +This prediction has come true. I had told Mr. Freeman that the "young +preacher" had given me that impression in the discussion with him. Dr. +Parker said in his first Chapter that, "If the New Testament teachings +oppose our own consciousness, violate our moral sense, lead us out of +sympathy with humanity, then we shall abandon them." This was exactly +the case of Secularism which he undertook to confute. Dr. Langford held +a more rational religion than Dr. Parker. His _Answer_, which reached +a second thousand, had passages of courtesy and friendship, yet he +contended with graceful vigor against opinions--three-fourths of which +justified his own. + +In an address delivered Sept. 29, 1851, I had said that, "There were +three classes of persons opposed to Christianity:-- + +"1. The dissolute. + +"2. The indifferent. + +"3. The intellectually independent. + +"The dissolute are against Christianity because they regard it as a foe +to sensuality. The indifferent reject it through being ignorant of it, +or not having time to attend to it, or not caring to attend to it, or +not being able to attend to it, through constitutional insensibility +to its appeals. The intellectually independent avoid it as opposed to +freedom, morality and progress." It was to these classes, and not to +Christians, that Secularism was addressed. Neither Dr. Parker nor Dr. +Langford took notice that it was intended to furnish ethical guidance +where Christianity, whatever might be its quality, or pretensions, or +merit, was inoperative.* + + * In 1857 Dr. Joseph Parker published a maturer and more + important volume, Helps to Truth Seekers, or, Christianity + and Scepticism, containing "The Secularist Theory--A + Critique." At a distance of more than thirty-five years it + seems to me an abler book, from the Christian point of view, + than I thought it on its appearance. + +The new form of free thought under the title of the "Principles of +Secularism" was submitted to John Stuart Mill, to whose friendship and +criticism I had often been indebted, and he approved the statement as +one likely to be useful to those outside the pale of Christianity. + +A remarkable thing occurred in 1854. A prize of £100 was offered by +the Evangelical Alliance for the best book on the "Aspects, Causes, and +Agencies" of what they called by the odious apostolic defamatory name +of "Infidelity."* The Rev. Thomas Pearson of Eyemouth won the prize by +a brilliant book, which I praised for its many relevant quotations, its +instruction and fairness, but I represented that its price (10s. 6d.) +prevented numerous humble readers from possessing it. The Evangelical +Alliance inferred that the "relevancy" was on their side, altogether, +whereas I meant relevant to the argument and to those supposed to be +confuted by it. They resolved to issue twenty-thousand copies at +one shilling a volume. The most eminent Evangelical ministers and +congregations of the day subscribed to the project. Four persons put +down their names for one thousand copies each, and a strong list of +subscribers was sent out. Unfortunately I published another article +intending to induce readers of the _Reasoner_ to procure copies, as they +would find in its candid pages a wealth of quotations of free-thought +opinion with which very few were acquainted. The number of eminent +writers, dissentients from Christianity, and the force and felicity +of their objections to it, as cited by Mr. Pearson, would astonish +and instruct Christians who were quite unfamiliar with the historic +literature of heretical thought. This unwise article stopped the +project. The "Shilling Edition" never appeared, and the public lost the +most useful and informing book written against us in my time. The Rev. +Mr. Pearson died not long after; all too soon, for he was a minister who +commanded respect. He had research, good faith, candor, and courtesy, +qualities rare in his day. + + * A term of intentional offence as here used. Infidelity + meant treachery to the truth, whereas the heretic has often + sacrificed his life from fidelity to it. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. SECULAR INSTRUCTION DISTINCT FROM SECULARISM + + "A mariner must have his eye on the rock and the sand as + well as upon the North Star." + + --Maxim of the Sea. + +IT IS time now to point out, what many never seem to understand, that +Secular instruction is entirely distinct from Secularism. In my earlier +days the term "scientific" was the distressing word in connexion with +education, but the trouble of later years is with the word "Secular." +Theological critics run on the "rock" there. + +Many persons regard Secular teaching with distrust, thinking it to be +the same as Secularism. Secular instruction is known by the sign of +separateness. It means knowledge given apart from theology. Secular +instruction comprises a set of rules for the guidance of industry, +commerce, science, and art. Secular teaching is as distinct from +theology as a poem from a sermon. A man may be a mathematician, an +architect, a lawyer, a musician, or a surgeon, and be a + +Christian all the same; as Faraday was both a chemist and a devout +Sandemanian; as Buckland was a geologist as well as a Dean. But +if theology be mixed up with professional knowledge, there will be +muddle-headedness.* At a separate time, theology can be taught, and +any learner will have a clearer and more commanding knowledge of +Christianity by its being distinctive in his mind. Secular instruction +neither assails Christianity nor prejudices the learner against it; any +more than sculpture assails jurisprudence, or than geometry prejudices +the mind against music. If the Secular instructor made it a point, as he +ought to do, to inculcate elementary ideas of morality, he would +confine himself to explaining how far truth and duty have sanctions +in considerations purely human--leaving it to teachers of religion to +supplement at another time and place, what they believe to be further +and higher sanctions. + + * Edward Baines (afterwards Sir Edward) was the greatest + opponent in his day, of national schools and Secular + instruction, sent his sou to a Secular school, because he + wanted him to be clever as well as Christian. He was both as + I well know. + +Secular instruction implies that the proper business of the +school-teacher is to impart a knowledge of the duties of this world; +and the proper business of chapel and church is to explain the duties +relevant to another world, which can only be done in a secondhand way +by the school-teacher. The wonder is that the pride of the minister does +not incite him to keep his own proper work in his own hands, and protest +against the school-teacher meddling with it. By doing so he would +augment his own dignity and the distinctiveness of his office. + +By keeping each kind of knowledge apart, a man learns both, more easily +and more effectually. Secular training is better for the scholar and +safer for the State; and better for the priest if he has a faith that +can stand by itself. + +If the reader does not distrust it as a paradox, he will assent that the +Secular is distinct from Secularism, as distinct as an act is +distinct from its motive. Secular teaching comprises a set of rules of +instruction in trade, business, and professional knowledge. Secularism +furnishes a set of principles for the ethical conduct of life. Secular +instruction is far more limited in its range than Secularism which +defends secular pursuits against theology, where theology attacks them +or obstructs them. But pure Secular knowledge is confined to its own +pursuit, and does not come in contact with theology any more than +architecture comes in contact with preaching. + +A man may be a shareholder in a gas company or a waterworks, a house +owner, a landlord, a farmer, or a workman. All these are secular +pursuits, and he who follows them may consult only his own interest. But +if he be a Secularist, he will consider not only his own interest, but, +as far as he can, the welfare of the community or the world, as his +action or example may tell for the good of universal society. He will do +"his best," not as Mr. Ruskin says, "the best of an ass," but "the best +of an intelligent man." In every act he will put his conscience and +character with a view so to discharge the duties of this life as to +merit another, if there be one. Just as a Christian seeks to serve God, +a Secularist seeks to serve man. This it is to be a Secularist. The +idea of this service is what Secularism puts into his mind. Professor +Clifford exclaimed: "The Kingdom of God has come--when comes the Kingdom +of man?" A Secularist is one who hastens the coming of this kingdom: +which must be agreeable to heaven if the people of this world are to +occupy the mansions there. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. THE DISTINCTIVENESS MADE FURTHER EVIDENT. + + "The cry that so-called secular education is Atheistic is + hardly worth notice. Cricket is not theological; at the same + time, it is not Atheistic." + + --Rev. Joseph Parker, D. D., Times, October 11, 1894. + +NOR is Secularism atheism. The laws of the universe are quite distinct +from the question of the origin of the universe. The study of the laws +of nature, which Secularism selects, is quite different from speculation +as to the authorship of nature. We may judge and prize the beauty +and uses of an ancient edifice, though we may never know the builder. +Secularism is a form of opinion which concerns itself only with +questions the issues of which can be tested by the experience of this +life. It is clear that the existence of deity and the actuality of +another life, are questions excluded from Secularism, which exacts no +denial of deity or immortality, from members of Secularist societies. +During their day only two persons of public distinction--the Bishop +of Peterborough and Charles Bradlaugh--maintained that the Secular was +atheistic. Yet Mr. Bradlaugh never put a profession of atheism as one of +the tenets of any Secularist Society. Atheism may be a personal +tenet, but it cannot be a Secularist tenet, from which it is wholly +disconnected. + +No one would confuse the Secular with the atheistic who understood that +the Secular is separate. Mr. Hodgson Pratt, a Christian, writing +in _Concord_ (October, 1894), a description of the burial of Angelo +Mazzoleni, said "the funeral was entirely Secular," meaning the ceremony +was distinct from that of the Church, being based on considerations +pertaining to duty in this world. + +In the indefiniteness of colloquial speech we constantly hear the +phrase, "School Board education." Yet School Boards cannot give +education. It is beyond their reach. Most persons confuse instruction +with education. Instruction relates to industrial, commercial, +agricultural, and scientific knowledge and like subjects. Education +implies the complete training and "drawing out of the whole powers of +the mind."* Thus instruction is different from education. Instruction is +departmental knowledge. Education includes all the influences of life; +instruction gives skill, education forms character. + + * Henry Drummond gave this definition in the House of + Commons, and it was adopted by W. J. Fox and other leaders + of opinion in that day. + +The Rev. Dr. Parker is the first Nonconformist preacher of distinction +who has avowed his concurrence with Secular instruction in Board +Schools. When Mr. W. E. Forster was framing his Education Act, I +besought him to raise English educational policy to the level of the +much smoking, much-pondering Dutch. "The system of education in Holland +dates from 1857. It is a Secular system, meaning by Secular that +the Bible is not allowed to be read in schools, nor is any religious +instruction allowed to be given. The use of the school-room is, however, +granted to ministers of all denominations for the purpose of teaching +religion out of school-hours. The schoolmaster is not allowed to give +religious instruction, or even to read the Bible in school at any +time."* + + * Report from the Hague, by Mr. (now Right Hon.) Jesse + Collings, M. P., May, 1870. + +No State rears better citizens or better Christians than the Dutch. +Mr. Gladstone, with his customary discernment, has said that "Secular +instruction does not involve denial of religious teaching, but merely +separation in point of time." It seems incredible that Christian +ministers, generally, do not see the advantage of this. I should +probably have become a Christian preacher myself, had it not been for +the incessantness with which religion was obtruded on me in childhood +and youth. Even now my mind aches when I think of it. For myself, I +respect the individuality of piety. It is always picturesque. Looking +at religion from the outside, I can see that concrete sectarianism is a +source of religious strength. A man is only master of his own faith +when he sees it clearly, distinctly, and separately. Rather than permit +Secular instruction and religious education to be imparted separately, +Christian ministers permit the great doctrines they profess to maintain +to be whittled down to a School Board average, in which, when done +honestly towards all opinions, no man can discern Christianity without +the aid of a microscope. And this passes, in these days, for good +ecclesiastical policy. In a recent letter (November, 1894) Mr. Gladstone +has re-affirmed his objection to "an undenominational system of religion +framed by, or under the authority of, the State." He says: "It would, +I think, be better for the State to limit itself to giving Secular +instruction, which, of course, is no complete education." Mr. Gladstone +does not confound Secular instruction with education, but is of the +way of thinking of Miltou, who says: "I call a complete and generous +education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and +magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and +war." Secular instruction touches no doctrine, menaces no creed, raises +no scepticism in the mind. But an average of belief introduces the +aggressive hand of heresy into every school, tampering with tenets +rooted in the conscience, wantonly alarming religious convictions, and +substituting for a clear, frank, and manly issue a disastrous, blind, +and timid policy, wriggling along like a serpent instead of walking with +self-dependent erectness. This manly erect-ness would be the rule +were the formula of the great preacher accepted who has said: "Secular +education by the State, and Christian education by the Christian Church +is my motto."* Uniformity of truth is desirable, and it will come, not +by contrivance, but by conviction. + + * The Rev. Joseph Parker, D. D. + +Some one quoted lately in the _Daily News_ (September 19, 1895) the +following sentences I wrote in 1870: + +"With secular instruction only in the day school, religion will acquire +freshness and new force. The clergyman and the minister will exercise +a new influence, because their ministrations will have dignity and +definiteness. They will no longer delegate things declared by them to +be sacred to be taught second-hand by the harassed, overworked, and +oft-reluctant schoolmaster and schoolmistress, who must contradict +the gentleness of religion by the peremptoriness of the pedagogue, and +efface the precept that 'God is love' by an incontinent application of +the birch.... It is not secular instruction which breeds irreverence, +but this ill-timed familiarity with the reputed things of God which robs +divinity of its divineness." + +The Bible in the school-room will not always be to the advantage of +clericalism, as it is thought to be now. + +Mr. Forster's Education Act created what Mr. Disraeli contemptuously +described as a new "sacerdotal caste,"--a body of second-hand preachers, +who are to be paid by the money of the State to do the work which +the minister and the clergyman avow they are called by heaven to +perform,--namely, to save the souls of the people. According to this +Act, the clergy are really no longer necessary; their work can be done +by a commoner and cheaper order of artificer. Mr. Forster insisted +that the Bible be introduced into the school-room, which gives great +advantage to the Freethinker, as it makes a critical agitation against +its character and pretensions a matter of self-defence for every family. +Another eminent preacher, Mr. C. H. Spurgeon, wrote, not openly in +the _Times_ as Dr. Parker did, but in _The Sword and Trowel_ thus: "We +should like to see established a system of universal application, +which would give a sound Secular education to children, and leave +the religious training to the home and the agencies of the Church of +Christ." It is worthy of the radiant common sense of the famous orator +of the Tabernacle that he should have said this anywhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. SELF-DEFENSIVE FOR THE PEOPLE + + "What suits the gods above + Only the gods can know; + What we want is + This World's sense + How to live below." + +BY its nature, Secularism is tolerant with regard to religions. I once +drew up a code of rules for an atheistic school. One rule was that the +children should be taught the tenets of the Christian, Catholic, Moslem, +Jewish, and the leading theological systems of the world, as well as +Secularistic and atheistic forms of thought; so that when the pupil +came to years of discretion he might be able, intelligently, to choose +a faith for himself. Less than this would be a fraud upon the +understanding of a man. In matters which concern himself alone, he must +be free to choose for himself, and know what he is choosing from. +That form of belief which has misgivings as to whether it can stand by +itself, is to be distrusted. + +It is the scandal of Christianity that, for twenty-five years, it has +paralysed School Board instruction by its discord of opinion as to +the religious tenets to be imparted; while in Secularity there is no +disunity. Everybody is agreed upon the rules of arithmetic. The laws +of grammar command general assent. There are no rival schools upon the +interpretation of geometrical problems. It is only in divinity that +irreconcilable diversity exists. When Secular instruction is conceded, +denominational differences will be respected, as aspects of the +integrity of conscience, which no longer obstruct the intellectual +progress of the people. + +But there are graver issues than the pride and preference of the +preacher; namely, the welfare of the children of the people. What the +working classes want is an industrial education. Poverty is a battle, +and the poor are always in a conflict--a conflict in which the most +ignorant ever go to the wall. The accepted policy of the State leaves +the increase of population to chance. It suffers none to be killed; it +compels people to be kept alive, and abandons their subsistence to the +accident of capitalists requiring to hire their services. Thus our great +towns are crowded with families, impelled there by the wild forces of +hunger and of passion. From the workingman thus situated, the governing +class exacts four duties: + +1. That he shall give the parish no disquietude by asking it to maintain +his family. + +2. That he shall pay whatever taxes are levied upon him. + +3. That he shall give no trouble to the police. + +4. That he shall fight generally whomsoever the Government may see fit +to involve the nation in war with. + +Whatever knowledge is necessary to enable the future workman to do these +things, is his right, and should be given to him in his youth in the +speediest manner; and any other inculcation which shall delay this +knowledge on its way, or confuse the learner in acquiring it, is a +cruelty to him and a peril to the community which permits it; and the +State, were it discerning and just, would forbid it. + +In April, 1870, in a letter which appeared in the _Spectator_; I wrote +as follows: + +"In the speech of the Bishop of Peterborough, delivered at the +Educational Conference at Leicester, and published in a separate form by +the National Education Union, his Lordship quotes from a recent letter +of mine to the _Daily News_ some words in which I explained that +'unsectarian education amounts to a new species of parliamentary piety.' +It is a satisfaction to find that the Bishop of Peterborough is able +to 'entirely endorse these words.' The Bishop asks: 'Whose words do you +suppose they are? They are the words of that reactionary maintainer of +creeds and dogmas--Mr. Holyoake.' So far from being a 'reactionary' +in this matter, I have always maintained that every form of sincere +opinion, religious or secular, should have free play and fair play. I +have never varied in advocating the right of free utterance and free +action of all earnest conviction. The State requires a self-supporting +and tax-paying population. But the State cannot insure this, except by +imparting _productive_ knowledge to the people. It is necessary for the +people to receive, it is the interest of the State to give, _productive_ +instruction in national schools." + +If people realised how much extended secular instruction is needed, +they would be impatient with the obstruction of it by contending +sects. Children want industrial education to fit them for emigrants. A +knowledge of soils, of cattle, of climate, and crops, and how to nail +up a wigwam and grow pork and corn, is what they need. For want of such +knowledge Clerkenwell watchmakers, Northampton shoemakers, Lancashire +weavers, and Durham miners perish as emigrants, and their bones +bleach the prairies. Yet all orthodox teaching turns out its pupils +uninstructed, for, as Tillottson has said, "He that does not know +those things which are of use and necessity for him to know, is but an +ignorant man, whatever he may know beside." To know this world, and the +Secular conditions of prosperity in it, is indispensable to the people. + +Christianity is entirely futile in industry. If a workman cannot pay +his taxes, the most devout Chancellor of the Exchequer will not abate +sixpence in consideration of the defaulter's piety. The poor man may +believe in the Thirty-nine Articles, be able to recite all the Collects; +he may spend his Sundays at church, and his evenings at prayer-meeting; +but the reverend magistrate, who has confirmed him and preached to him, +will send him to gaol if he does not pay. The sooner workmen understand +that Christianity has no commercial value, the better for them. + +Why should purely Secular instruction be regarded with distrust, when +purely religious education does not answer? It does not appear in human +experience that purely religious teaching, even when dispensed in a +clergyman's family, is a security for good conduct. It is matter of +common remark that the sons of clergymen turn out worse than the sons of +parents in other professions. + +We want no whining or puling population. The elements of science and +morality will give children the use of their minds, and minds to +use, and teach justice and kindness, self-direction, self-reliance, +fortitude, and truth. There is piety in this instruction,--piety to +mankind,--exactly that sort of piety for the want of which society +suffers. + +The principles for which during two centuries Nonconformity in England +has contended are, that the State should forbid no religion, impose no +religion, teach no religion, pay no religion. In 1870, the year in which +Mr. Forster's Act came into operation, I was the only person who +issued a public address to the "School Board Electors" in favor of free +compulsory, and Secular instruction. Two of the proposals, the least +likely to be favorably received, have since been adopted. The turn of +the third must be near, unless fools are always at the polls. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. REJECTED TENETS REPLACED BY BETTER + + "False ideas can be confuted by argument, but it is only by + true ideas they can be expelled." + + --Cardinal Newman. + +ERROR will live wherever vermin of the mind may burrow; and error, +if expelled, will return to its accustomed haunt, unless its place be +otherwise occupied by some tenant of truth. Suppose that criticism has +established: + +1. That God is unknown. + +2. That a future life is unprovable. + +3. That the Bible is not a practical guide. + +4. That Providence sleeps. + +5. That prayer is futile. + +6. That original sin is untrue. + +7. That eternal perdition is unreal. + +What is free thought going to do? All these theological ideas, however +untrue, are forces of opinion on the side of error. After taking these +doctrines out of the minds of men, as far as reasoning criticism may do +it, what is proposed to be put in their place? When we call out to men +that they are going down a wrong road, we are more likely to arrest +their attention if we can point out the right road to take. + +No mind is ever entirely empty. The objection to ignorance is not that +it has no ideas, but that it has wrong ones. Its ideas are narrow, +cramped, vicious. It likes without reason, hates without cause, and is +suspicious of what it might trust. It is not enough to tell a man who is +eating injurious food that it will harm him. If he has no other aliment, +he must go on feeding upon what he has. If you cannot supply better, you +cannot reproach him who takes the bad. But if you have true principles, +they should be offered as substitutes for the false. Secularist truth +should tread close upon the heels of theological error. + +1. For the study of the origin of the universe Secularism substitutes +the study of the laws and uses of the universe, which, Cardinal Newman +admitted, might be regarded as consonant to the will of its author. + +2. For a future state Secularism proposes the wise use of this, as +he who fails in this "duty nearest hand" has no moral fitness for any +other. + +3. For revelation it offers the guidance of observation, investigation, +and experience. Instead of taking authority for truth, it takes truth +for authority. + +4. For the providence of Scripture, Secularism directs men to the +providence of science, which provides against peril, or brings +deliverance when peril comes. + +5. For prayer it proposes self-help and the employment of all the +resources of manliness and industry. Jupiter himself rebuked the +waggoner who cried for aid, instead of putting his own shoulder to the +wheel. + +6. For original depravity, which infuses hopelessness into all effort +for personal excellence, Secularism counsels the creation of those +conditions, so far as human prevision can provide them, in which it +shall be "impossible for a man to be depraved or poor." The aim +of Secularism is to promote the moralisation of this world, which +Christianity has proved ineffectual to accomplish. + +7. For eternal perdition, which appals every human heart, Secularism +substitutes the warnings and penalties of causation attending the +violation of the laws of nature, or the laws of truth--penalties +inexorable and unevadable in their consequences. Though they extend to +the individual no farther than this life, they are without the +terrible element of divine vindictive-ness, yet, being near and +inevitable--following the offender close as the shadow of the +offence--are more deterrent than future punishment, which "faith" may +evade without merit. + +The aim of Secularism is to educate the conscience in the service of +man. It puts duty into free thought. Men inquired, for self-protection, +and from dislike of error. But if a man was in no danger himself, and +was indifferent whether an error--which no longer harmed him--prevailed +or not, Secularism holds that it is still a duty to aid in ending it for +the sake of others. It was W. J. Fox, the most heretical preacher of his +day, who said (1824): "I believe in the right of religion and the +_duty_ of free inquiry." He is a very exceptional person--as we know +in political as well as in questions of mental freedom--who cares for a +right he does not need himself. A man is generally of opinion, as I have +seen in many agitations, that nobody need care for a form of liberty he +does not want himself. It is as though a man on the bank should think +that a man in the water does not want a rope. Duty is devotion to the +right. Right in morals is that which is morally expedient. That is +morally expedient which is conducive to the happiness of the greatest +numbers. The service of others is the practical form of duty. "He," +says Buddha, "who was formerly heedless, and afterwards becomes earnest, +lights up the world like the moon escaped from a cloud." + +Constructiveness is an education which attains success but slowly. Some +men have no distinctive notion whatever of truth. It seems never to have +occurred to them that there is anything intrinsic in it, and they only +fall into it by accident. Others have a wholesome idea that truth is +essential, and that, as a rule, you ought to tell it, and some do it. +This is a small conception of truth, but it is good as far as it goes, +and ought to be valued, as it is scarce. If any one asks such a person +whether what he says is what he _thinks_, or what he _knows_, to be +true, he is perplexed. The difference between the two things has not +occurred to him. He has been under the impression that what he believes +is the same thing as what he knows, and when he finds the two things are +very different, his idea of truth is doubled and is twice as large as it +was before. + +There is yet a larger view, to which many never attain. To them all +truth is truth of equal value. All geese are geese, but all are not +equally tender. Though all horses are horses, all are not equally swift. +Yet many never observe that all facts are not equally succulent or +swift, nor all truth of equal value or usefulness. + +Social truth has three marks,--it must be explicit, relevant to the +question in hand, and of use for the purpose in hand. But it requires +some intelligence to observe this, and judgment to act upon it. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. MORALITY INDEPENDENT OF THEOLOGY + + "Religion, as dealing with the confessedly incomprehensible, + is not the basis for human union, in social, or industrial, + or political circles, but only that portion of old religion + which is now called moral." + + --Professor Francis William Newman. + +BISHOP ELLICOTT was the first prelate whom I heard admit (in a sermon to +the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science) +that men might be moral from other motives than those furnished by +Christianity. Renan says that Justin Martyr "in his _Apology_, never +attacks the principle of the empire. He wants the empire to examine the +Christian doctrines." A Secularist would have attacked the principle, +regarding freedom as of more consequence to progress than any doctrine +without it. Those who seek to guide life by reason are not without a +standard of appeal. "Secularism accepts no authority but that of nature, +adopts no methods but those of science and philosophy, and respects in +practice no rule but that of the conscience, illustrated by the common +sense of mankind. It values the lessons of the past, and looks to +tradition as presenting a storehouse of raw materials for thought, and +in many cases results of high wisdom for our reverence; but it +utterly disowns tradition as a ground of belief, whether miracles +and supernaturalism be claimed or not claimed on its side. No sacred +Scripture or ancient Church can be made a basis of belief, for the +obvious reason that their claims always need to be proved, and cannot +without absurdity be assumed. The association leaves to its individual +members to yield whatever respects their own good sense judges to be due +to the opinions of great men, living or dead, spoken or written; as also +to the practice of ancient communities, national or ecclesiastical. But +it disowns all appeal to such authorities as final tests of truth."* + + * I owe the expression of this passage, whose + comprehensiveness and felicity of phrase exceed the reach of + my pen, to Professor Francis William Newman. + +Morality can be inspired and confirmed by perception of the +consequences of conduct. Theology regards free will as the foundation of +responsibility. But free will saves no man from material consequences, +and diverts attention from material causes of evil and good. Under the +free will doctrine the wonder is that any morality is left in the world. +It is a doctrine which gives scoundrels the same chance as a saint. When +a man is assured that he can be saved when he believes, and that, having +free will, he can believe when he pleases, he, as a rule, never does +please until he has had his fill of vice, or is about to die,--either of +disease or by the hangman. If by the hangman, he is told that, provided +he repents before eight o'clock in the morning, he may find himself +nestling in Abraham's bosom before nine. Free will is the doctrine of +rascalism. It is time morality had other foundation than theology. The +relations of life can be made as impressive as ideas of supernaturalism. +But in this Christians not only lend no help, they disparage the attempt +to control life by reason. When Secularism was first talked of, the +President of the Congregational Union, the Rev. Dr. Harris, commended to +the Union the words of Bishop Lavington of a century earlier (1750): "My +brethren, I beg you will rise up with me against mere moral preaching."* +A writer of distinction, R. H. Hutton, writing on "Secularism" in the +_Expositor_ so late as 1881, argues strenuously that moral government is +impossible without supernatural convictions. The egotism of Christianity +is as conspicuous as that of politics. No ethic is genuine unless it +bears the hall-mark of the Church. Secularism does not deny the efficacy +of other theories of life upon those who accept them, and only claims +to be of use as commending morality on considerations purely human, +to those who reject theories purely spiritual. Any one familiar with +controversy knows that Christianity is advertised like a patent medicine +which will cure all the maladies of mankind. Everybody who tries +reasoned morality is encouraged to condemn it, and is denounced if he +commends it. + + * British Banner, October 27, 1852. + +It is a maxim of Secularism that, wherever there is a rightful object at +which men should aim, there is a Secular path to it. + +Nearly all inferior natures are susceptible of moral and physical +improvability, which improvability can be indefinitely advanced by +supplying proper material conditions. + +Since it is not capable of demonstration whether the inequalities of +human condition will be compensated for in another life, it is the +business of intelligence to rectify them in this world. The speculative +worship of superior beings, who cannot need it, seems a lesser duty +than the patient service of known inferior natures and the mitigation +of harsh destiny, so that the ignorant may be enlightened and the low +elevated. + +Christians often promote projects beneficial to men; but are they not +mainly incited thereto by the hope of inclining the hearts of those they +aid to their cause? Is not their motive proselytism? Is it not a higher +morality to do good for its own sake, careless whether those benefited +become adherents or not? + +Going to a distant town to mitigate some calamity there, will illustrate +the principle of Secularism. One man will go on this errand from pure +sympathy with the unfortunate; this is goodness. Another goes because +the priest bids him; this is obedience. Another goes because the +twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew tells him that all such persons will +pass to the right hand of the Father; this is calculation. Another goes +because he believes God commands him; this is theological piety. Another +goes because he is aware that the neglect of suffering will not answer; +this is utilitarianism. But another goes on the errand of mercy +because it is an immediate service to humanity, knowing that material +deliverance is piety and better than spiritual consolation; this is +Secularism. + +One whose reputation for spirituality is in all the Churches says: +"Properly speaking, all true work is religion, and whatsoever religion +is not work may go and dwell among the Brahmins, the Antinomians, +Spinning Dervishes, or where it will. Admirable was that maxim of the +old monks, _Laborare est orare_ (Work is worship)".* In his article on +Auguste Comte, Mr. J. S. Mill says he "uses religion in its modern sense +as signifying that which binds the convictions, whether to deity or to +duty,--deity in the theological sense, or duty in the moral sense." This +is the only sense in which a Secularist would employ the term. Religious +moralism is a term I might use, since it binds a man to humanity, which +religion does not. "Without God," said Mazzini to the Italian workingmen +forty years ago,--"without God you may compel, but not persuade. You may +become tyrants in your turn; you cannot be educators or apostles." +One night, when Mazzini was speaking in this way, in the hearing of +Garibaldi, arguing that there was no ground of duty unless based on the +idea of God, the General turned round and said: "I am an Atheist. Am I +deficient in the sense of duty?" "Ah," replied Mazzini, "you imbibed it +with your mother's milk." All around smiled at the quick-witted evasion. + + * Carlyle, Past and Present. + +In one sense Mazzini was as atheistic in mind as orthodox Christians. He +disbelieved that truth, duty, or humanity could have any vitality unless +derived from belief in God. Devout as few men are, in the Church or out +of it, yet Mazzini believed alone in God. Dogmas of the Churches were +to him as though they were not; yet there were times when he seemed to +admit that other motives than the one which inspired him might operate +for good in other minds. In a letter he once addressed to me there +occurred this splendid passage:-- + +"We pursue the same end,--progressive improvement, association, +transformation of the corrupted medium in which we are now living, the +overthrow of all idolatries, shams, lies, and conventionalities. We +both want man to be, not the poor, passive, cowardly, phantasmagoric +unreality of the actual time, thinking in one way and acting in another; +bending to power which he hates and despises; carrying empty popish +or Thirty-nine Article formulas on his brow, and none within; but +a fragment of the living truth, a real individual being linked to +collective humanity,--the bold seeker of things to come; the gentle, +mild, loving, yet firm, uncompromising, inexorable apostle of all that +is just and heroic,--the Priest, the Poet, and the Prophet." + +Mazzini saw in the conception of God the great "Indicator" of duty, and +that the one figure, "the most deeply inspired of God, men have seen on +the earth was Jesus." Mazzini's impassioned protest against unbelief was +itself a form of unbelief. He believed only in one God, not in three. +If Jesus was inspired of God, he was not God, or he would have been +self-inspired. But, apart from this repellent heresy, if Theism and +Christianism are essential to those who would serve humanity, all +propaganda of freedom must be delayed until converts are made to this +new faith. + +The question will be put, Has independent morality ever been seen in +action? + +Voltaire, at the peril of his liberty and life, rescued a friendless +family from the fire and the wheel the priests had prepared for them. +Paine inspired the independence of America, and Lloyd Garrison +gave liberty to the slaves whose bondage the clergy defended. The +Christianity of three nations produced no three men in their day who +did anything comparable to the achievement of these three sceptics, +who wrought this splendid good, not only without Christianity, but in +opposition to it. Save for Christian obstruction, they had accomplished +still greater good without the peril they had to brave. + +None of the earlier critics of Secularism, as has been said (and +not many in the later years), realised that it was addressed, not +to Christians, but to those who rejected Christianity, or who were +indifferent to it, and were outside it. Christians cannot do anything +to inspire _them_ with ethical principles, since they do not believe in +morality unless based on their supernatural tenets. They have to convert +men to Theism, to miracles, prophecy, inspiration of the Scriptures, the +Trinity, and other soul-wearying doctrines, before they can inculcate +morality they can trust. We do not rush in where they fear to tread. +Secularism moves where they do not tread at all. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. ETHICAL CERTITUDE + + "You can tell more about a man's character by trading horses + with him once than you can by hearing him talk for a year in + prayer meeting." + + --American Maxim. + +A FORM of thought which has no certitude can command no intelligent +trust. Unless capable of verification, no opinion can claim attention, +nor retain attention, if it obtains it. + +If a sum in arithmetic be wrong, it can be discovered by a new way of +working; if a medical recipe is wrong, the effect is manifest in the +health; if a political law is wrong, it is sooner or later apparent in +the mischief it produces; if a theorem in navigation is erroneous, delay +or disaster warns the mariner of his mistake; if an insane moralist +teaches that adherence to truth is wrong, men can try the effects +of lying, when distrust and disgrace soon undeceive them. But if a +theological belief is wrong, we must die to find it out. Secularism, +therefore, is safer. It is best to follow the double lights of reason +and experience than the dark lantern of faith. "In all but religion," +exclaims a famous preacher,* "men know their true interests and use +their own understanding. Nobody takes anything on trust at market, nor +would anybody do so at church if there were but a hundredth part the +care for truth which there is for money." + + * W. J. Fox. + +Mr. Rathbone Greg has shown, in a memorable passage, that "the lot of +man--not perhaps altogether of the individual, but certainly of the +race--is in his own hands, from his being surrounded by _fixed laws_, on +knowledge of which, and conformity to which, his well-being depends. The +study of these and obedience to them form, therefore, the great aim of +public instruction. Men must be taught: + +"1. The physical laws on which health depends. + +"2. The moral laws on which happiness depends. + +"3. The intellectual laws on which knowledge depends. + +"4. The social and political laws on which national prosperity and +advancement depend. + +"5. The economic laws on which wealth depends." + +Mr. Spurgeon had flashes of Secularistic inspiration, as when engaging +a servant, who professed to have taken religion, he asked "whether she +swept under the mats." It was judging piety by a material test. + +There is no trust surer than the conclusions of reason and science. What +is incapable of proof is usually decided by desire, and is without the +conditions of uniformity or certitude. + +Duty consists in doing the right because it is just to others, and +because we must set the example of doing right to others, or we have no +claim that others shall do right to us. Certitude is best obtained by +the employment of material means, because we can better calculate them, +and because they are less likely to evade us, or betray us, than any +other means available to us. + +Orthodox religions are pale in the face now. They still keep the word +of material promise to the ear, and break it to the heart; and a great +number of people now know it, and many of the clergy know that they know +it. The poor need material aid, and prayer is the way not to get +it; while science, more provident than faith, has brought the people +generous gifts, and inspired them with just expectations. What men need +is a guide which stands on a business footing. The Churches administer +a system of foreign affairs in a very loose way, quite inconsistent with +sound commercial principles. For instance, a firm giving checks on +a bank in some distant country--not to be found in any gazetteer of +ascertained places, nor laid down in any chart, and from which +no persons who ever set out in search of it were ever known to +return--would do very little business among prudent men. Yet this is +precisely the nature of the business engaged in by orthodox firms. + +On the other hand, Secularism proposes to transact the business of +life on purely mercantile principles. It engages only in that class of +transactions the issue of which can be tested by the experience of this +life. Its checks, if I may so speak, are drawn upon duty, good sense, +and material effort, and are to be cashed from proceeds arising in our +midst--under our own eyes--subject to ordinary commercial tests. Nature +is the banker who pays all notes held by those who observe its laws. To +use the words of Macbeth, it is here, "on this bank and shoal of time" +upon which we are cast, that nature pays its checks, and not elsewhere; +which are honored now, and not in an unknown world, in some unknown +time, and in an entirely unknown way. By lack of judgment, or sense, the +Secularist may transact bad business; but he gives good security. His +surety is experience. His references are to the facts of the present +time. He puts all who have dealings with him on their guard. Secularism +tells men that they must look out for themselves, act for themselves, +within the limits of neither injuring nor harming others. Secularism +does not profess to be infallible, but it acts on honest principles. It +seeks to put progress on the business footing of good faith.* Adherents +who accept the theory of this life for this life dwell in a land of +their own--the land of certitude. Science and utilitarian morality are +kings in that country, and rule there by right of conquest over error +and superstition. In the kingdom of Thought there is no conquest +over men, but over foolishness only. Outside the world of science and +morality lies the great Debatable Ground of the existence of Deity and +a Future State. The Ruler of the Debatable Ground is named Probability, +and his two ministers are Curiosity and Speculation. Over that mighty +plain, which is as wide as the universe and as old as time, no voice of +the gods has ever been heard, and no footsteps of theirs have ever been +traced. Philosophers have explored the field with telescopes of a longer +range than the eyes of a thousand saints, and have recognised nothing +save the silent and distant horizon. Priests have denounced them for +not perceiving what was invisible. Sectaries have clamored, and the +most ignorant have howled--as the most ignorant always do--that there +is something there, because they want to see it. All the while the white +mystery is still unpenetrated in this life. + + * See Secularism a Religion which Gives Heaven no Trouble. + +But a future being undisclosed is no proof that there is no future. +Those who reason through their desires will believe there is; those who +reason through their understanding may yet hope that there is. In the +meantime, all stand before the portals of the untrodden world in equal +unknowingness. If faith can be piety, work is more so. To bring new +beauty out of common life--is not that piety? To change blank stupidity +into intelligent admiration of any work of nature--is not that piety? If +our towns and streets be made to give gladness and cheerfulness to all +who live or walk therein--is not that piety? If the prayer of innocence +ascend to heaven through a pure atmosphere, instead of through the +noisome and polluted air of uncleanness common in the purlieus of towns +and of churches, and even cathedrals--is not that piety? Can we, in +these days, conceive of religious persons being ignorant and dirty? +Yet they abound. If, therefore, we send to heaven clean, intelligent, +bright-minded saints--is not that piety? It is no bad religion--as +religions go--to believe in the good God of knowledge and cleanliness +and cheerfulness and beauty, and offer at his altar the daily sacrifice +of intelligent sincerity and material service. + +We leave to others their own way of faith and worship. We ask only +leave to take our own. Carlyle has told us that only two men are to be +honored, and no third--the mechanic and the thinker: he who works with +honest hand, making the world habitable; and he who works with his +brain, making thought artistic and true. "All the rest," he adds with +noble scorn, "are chaff, which the wind may blow whither it list-eth." +The certainty of heaven is for the useful alone. Mere belief is the +easiest, the poorest, the shabbiest device by which conscientious men +ever attempted to scale the walls of Paradise. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. THE ETHICAL METHOD OF CONTROVERSY + + "It was one of the secrets of my craft in the old days, when + I wanted to weld iron or work steel to a fine purpose, to + begin gently. If I began, as all learners do, to strike my + heaviest blows at the start, the iron would crumble instead + of welding, or the steel would suffer under my hammer, so + that when it came to be tempered it would 'fly,' as we used + to say, and rob the thing I had made of its finest quality." + + --Robert Coliyer, D. D. + +"THEY who believe that they have truth ask no favor, save that of being +heard; they dare the judgment of mankind; refused co-operation, they +invoke opposition, for opposition is their opportunity." This was the +maxim I wrote at the beginning of the Secularistic movement, to show +that we were willing to accept ourselves the controversy, which we +contended was the sole means of establishing truth. No proposition, as +Samuel Bailey showed, is to be trusted until it has been tested by very +wide discussion. We soon found that the free and open field of Milton +was not sufficient. It needed a "fair" as well as a "free and open +encounter." Disputants require to be equally matched in debate as in +arms. + +The Secularist policy is to accept the purely moral teaching of +the Bible, and to controvert its theology, in such respects as it +contradicts and discourages ethical effort. Yet theological questions +are always sought to be forced upon us. The Rev. Henry Townley followed +me to the _Leader_ office (1853-1854) to induce me to discuss the +question of the "existence of God." I never had done so, and objected +that it would give the impression that Secularism was atheistic. He was +so insistent and importunate that I consented to discuss the question +with him. Never after did I do so with any one. The Rev. Brewin Grant +endeavored to get my acceptance of propositions which pledged me to a +wild opposition to Christianity. Mr. Samuel Morley, honorable in all +things, admitted I had objected to it, but in the end I assented to +it, that the discussion might not be broken off. Thomas Cooper was +persistent that I should discuss with him the authenticity of the +Scriptures. What I proposed was the proposition that the authenticity of +the Scripture, its miracles, and prophecies are quite apart from moral +truth. + +The discussion took place in the city of York, lasting five nights. +Canon Robinson and Canon Hey presided alternately. Mr. Cooper was an +able man in dealing with the stock propositions of Christianity; but +their relevance as tests of morality was an entirely new subject to him. +He protested rather than reasoned, and declared he would never discuss +the question of the ethical test of the truth of Scriptures; nor have I +ever found any responsible minister willing to do so down to this +day. Thus Christians should condemn with reservation the tendency in +Secularists to debate theology, seeing how reluctant they are to do +otherwise themselves. Christians seem incapable of understanding how +much the objection to their cause arises in the revolt of the moral +sense against it. + +On first meeting Richard Carlile in 1842, some years before Secularism +took a distinctive form, he invited me to hear him lecture upon the +principles of the _Christian Warrior_,* of which he was editor, and to +give my opinion thereon. In doing so I explained the ideas from which +I have never departed; namely, that no theologic, astronomic, or +miraculous mode of proving Scriptural doctrine could ever be made even +intelligible, except to students of very considerable research. +Such theories, I contended, must rest, more or less, on critical and +conjectural interpretation, and could never enable a workingman to dare +the understanding of others in argument. Scientific interpretation laid +entirely outside Christian requirements, and seemed to Christians +as disingenuous evasion of what they took to be obvious truths. My +contention was that the people have no historic or critical knowledge +enabling them to determine the divine origin of Christianity. + + * The last periodical Mr. Carlile edited. + +On the platform he who has most knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin +will always be able to silence any dissentient who has not equal +information. If by accident a controversialist happen to possess this +knowledge, it goes for nothing unless he has credit for classical +competency. In controversy of this nature it is not enough for a man +to know; he must be known to know before his conclusions can command +attention. To myself it was not of moment whether the Scriptures were +authentic or inspired. My sole inquiry was, Did they contain clear moral +guidance? If they did, I accepted that guidance with gratitude. If I +found maxims obviously useful and true, judged by human experience, I +adopted them, whether given by inspiration or not. If precepts did not +answer to this test, they were not acceptable, though all the apostles +in session had signed them. To miracles I did not object, nor did I see +any sense in endeavoring to explain them away. We all have reason to +regret that no one performs them now. It was our misfortune that the +power, delegated with so much pomp of promise to the saints, had not +descended to these days. If any preacher or deacon could, in our day, +feed five thousand men on a few loaves and a few small fishes, and leave +as many baskets of fragments as would run a workhouse for a month, the +Poor Law Commissioners would make a king of that saint. But if a precept +enjoined me to believe what was not true, it would be a base precept, +and all the miracles in the Scriptures could not alter its character; +while, if a precept be honest and just, no miracle is wanted to attest +it; indeed, a miracle to allure credence in it would only cast suspicion +on its genuineness. The moral test of the Scriptures was sufficient, +since it had the commanding advantage of appealing to the common sense +of all sorts and conditions of men, of Christian or of Pagan persuasion. +Ethical criticism has this further merit, that on the platform of +discussion the miner, the weaver, or farm-laborer is on the same level +as the priest. A man goes to heaven upon his own judgment; whereas, +if his belief is based on the learning of others, he goes to heaven +second-hand. + +When Mr. J. A. Froude wrote for John Henry Newman the Life of St. +Belletin, he ended with the words: "And this is all that is known, _and +more than all_, of the life of a servant of God." In the Bible there +appears to be a great deal more than was ever known. This does not +concern the Secularist, though it does the scholar. If there be moral +maxims in the Scripture, what does it matter how they got there? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. ITS DISCRIMINATION + + "There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight" + + --Goethe. + +IN 1847 I commenced in the _Reasoner_ what I entitled "The Moral Remains +of the Bible,"--a selection of some splendid moral stories, incidents, +and sentences having ethical characteristics such as I doubted not would +"remain" when the Bible came to be regarded as a human book. I wrote +a "Logic of Life."* My _Trial of Theism_ was only "as accused of +obstructing Secular life," as stated on the title-page. The object was +to show how much useful criticism could be entered upon without touching +the questions of authenticity, or miracles, or the existence of deity. +Thus it was left to opponents to declare that things morally incredible +were inspired by God. In this case it was not I, but _they_, who +blasphemed. + + * Companion to the "Logic of Death," both contained in The + Trial of Theism. + +Take the case of Samson's famous engagement with the Philistines at +Ramath,--Lehi surrounded by a band of warlike Philistines (though, +as the text implies, 3,000 of his own armed countrymen were at hand). +Samson, who had no weapon, was not given one by them, but had to look +about for a "new jawbone of an ass." With this singular instrument he +killed, one after the other, a thousand Philistine soldiers, who were +big, strong men, and, unless every blow was fatal, it must have taken +several blows to kill some of them. + +Are there three places in the human body where a single blow will be +sure to kill a man? Did Samson know those places? And was he always +able to direct his blow with unerring precision to one or other of those +particular spots? If the thousand Philistines "surrounded" him, how did +he keep the others off while he struggled with the one he was killing? +It is not conceivable that the Philistines stood there to be killed, and +meekly submitted to ignoble blows, death, and degradation. The jawbone +must have been of strange texture to have crashed through armor, +and have turned aside spears and swords of stalwart warriors without +chipping, splitting, or breaking in two. What time it must have taken +Samson to pursue each man, beat off his comrades, drag him from their +midst, give him the asinine _coup de grāce_, drag and cast his dead body +upon the "heaps" of slain he was piling up! What struggling, scuffling, +and turmoil of blood and blows Samson must have gone through! Spurted +all over with blood, Barnum would have bought him for a Dime Museum +as the deepest-colored Red Indian known. No Deerfoot could have been +nimbler than Samson must have been on this mighty day. When this +Herculean fight was over, which, with the utmost expedition, must have +occupied Samson six days,--which would give 166 killed single-handed per +day,--the only effect produced upon Samson appears to have been that he +was "sore athirst." Even after this extraordinary use of the jawbone it +was in such good condition that, a hollow place being "clave" in it, a +fount of water gushed forth for refreshing this remarkable warrior. Were +it not recorded in the Bible, it would be said that the writer intended +to imply that the jawbone of the ass is to be found only in the mouth of +the reader. + +Can it need miracle or prophecy, authenticity, or inspiration, to attest +this story of the Jewish Jack-the-Giant-killer? What moral good can +arise from a narration which it is reverence to reject? By leaving it to +the Christian to say it is given by "inspiration" of God, it is he +who blasphemes. But if the question of authenticity were raised, the +character of the narrative would be lost sight of, and would not +come into question; while the test of moral probability decides the +invalidity of the story within the compass of the knowledge of an +ordinary audience. + +In the same manner, keeping to the policy of affirmation, he who +maintains the self-existence, the self-action, and eternity of the +universe can be met only by those who defame nature as a second-hand +tool of God. Such are atheists towards nature, the author of their +existence, and God must so regard them. + +A single precept of Christ's, "Take no thought for the morrow," has +bred swarms of mendicants in every age since this day; but a far more +dangerous precept is "Resist not evil," which has made Christianity +welcome to so many tyrants. Christ, whatever other sentiments he had, +had a slave heart. Every friend of freedom knows that "resistance is the +backbone of the world." The patriot poet* exclaims: + + "Land of our Fathers--in their hour of need + God help them, guarded by the passive creed." + + * Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. + +No miracle could make these precepts true, and he who proved their +authenticity would be the enemy of mankind. + +Whether Christ existed or not affects in no way what excellence and +inimitableness there was in his delineated character. His offer of +palpable materialistic evidence to Thomas showed that he recognised the +right of scepticism to relevant satisfaction. His concession of proof in +this case needed no supernatural testimony to render it admirable. + +The reader will now see what the policy of Secularist advocacy +is,--mainly to test theology by its ethical import. To many all policy +is restraint; they cry down policy, and erect blundering into a virtue. + +Whereas policy is guidance to a chosen end. Mathematics is but the +policy of measurement; grammar but the policy of speech; logic but the +policy of reason; arithmetic but the policy of calculation; temperance +but the policy of health; trigonometry but the policy of navigation; +roads but the policy of transit; music but the policy of controlling +sound; art but the policy of beauty; law but the policy of protection; +discipline but the policy of strength; love but the policy of affection. +An enemy may object to an adversary having a policy, because he is +futile without one. The policy adopted may be bad, but no policy at all +is idiocy, and commits a cause to the providence of Bedlam. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. APART FROM CHRISTIANISM + + "What is written by Moses can only be read by God." + + --Bikar Proverb. + +SECULARISM differs from Christianism in so far as it accepts only the +teachings which pertain to man, and which are consonant with reason and +experience. + +Parts of the Bible have moral splendor in them, but no Christian will +allow any one to take the parts he deems true, and reject as untrue +those he deems false. He who ventured to be thus eclectic would be +defamed as Paine was. Thus Christians compel those who would stand by +reason to stand apart from them. + +To accept a part, and put that forward as the whole--to pretend or even +to assume it to be the whole--is dishonest. To retain a portion, and +reject what you leave, and not say so, is deceiving. To contend that +what you accept as the spirit of Christianity is in accordance with +all that contradicts it, is to spend your days in harmonising opposite +statements--a pursuit demoralising to the understanding. The Secularist +has, therefore, to choose between dishonesty, the deception of +others and deception of himself, or ethical principles independent of +Christianity--and this is what he does: + +The Bible being a bundle of Hebrew tracts on tribal life and tribal +spite, its assumed infallibility is a burden, contradicting and +misleading to all who accept it as a divine handbook of duty. + +In papers issued by religious societies upon the Bible it is declared to +be "so complete a system that nothing can be added to it, or taken from +it," and that "it contains everything needful to be known or done." This +is so false that no one, perceiving it, could be honest and not protest +against it in the interest of others. Recently the Bishop of Worcester +said: "It was of no use resisting the Higher Criticism. God had not been +pleased to give us what might be called a perfect Bible."* Then it is +prudence to seek a more trustworthy guide. + + * Midland Evening News, 1893. + +If money were bequeathed to maintain the eclectic criticism of the +Scripture, it would be confiscated by Christian law. So to stand apart +is indispensable self-defence. Individual Christians, as I well know, +devote themselves with a noble earnestness to the service of man, as +they understand his interests; but so long as Christianity retains the +power of fraud, and uses it, Christianism as a system, or as a cause, +remains outside the pale of respect. Prayer, in which the oppressed and +poor are taught to trust, is of no avail for protection or food, and the +poor ought to know it. The Bishop of Manchester declared, in my hearing, +that the Lord's Prayer will not bring us "daily bread," but that "it +is an exercise of faith to ask for what we shall not receive." But if +prayer will not bring "daily bread," it is a dangerous deception to keep +up the belief that it will. The eyes of forethought are closed by trust +in such aid, thrift is an affront to the generosity of heaven, and +labor is foolishness. But, alas! aid does not come by supplication. The +prayer-maker dies in mendicancy. It is not reverence 'to pour into +the ears of God praise for protection never accorded. Dean Stanley, +admirable as a man as well as a saint, was killed in the Deanery, +Westminster, by a bad drain, in spite of all his Collects. Dean Farrar +has been driven from St. Margaret's Rectory, in Dean's Yard, by another +drain, which poisons in spite of the Thirty-nine Articles; and Canon +Eyton refuses to take up his residence until the sanitary engineers have +overhauled* the place, which, notwithstanding the invocations of +the Church, Providence does not see to. To keep silence on the +non-intervention of Providence would be to connive at the fate of those +who come to destruction by such dependence. + + "O mother, praying God will save + Thy sailor! + While thy head is bowed, + His heavy-shotted hammock-shroud + Drops in his vast and wandering grave!" + + * See Westminister Gazette London Letter, November 19, 1895. + +True respect would treat God as though at the least he is a gentlemen. +Christianity does not do this. No gentleman would accept thanks for +benefits he had not conferred, nor would he exact thanks daily and +hourly for gifts he had really made, nor have the vanity to covet +perpetual thanksgivings. He who would respect God, or respect himself, +must seek a faith apart from such Christianity. + +A divine, who excelled in good sense, said: "Dangerous it were for the +feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the Most High. Our +soundest knowledge is, to know that we know him not; _and our safest +eloquence concerning Him is our silence_; therefore it be-hoveth our +words to be wary and few."* + +Mrs. Barbauld may have borrowed from Richard Hooker her fine line: + + "Silence is our least injurious praise."** + + * Ecclesiastical Polity, book I., | 2. + + ** Charles Lamb was of this opinion when he remarked: "Had I + to say grace, I would rather say it over a good book than + over a mutton chop." Christians say grace over an + indigestible meal. But perhaps they are right, since they + need supernatural aid to assimilate it. + +An earnest Christian, not a religious man (for all Christians are not +religious), assuming the professional familiarity with the mind of God, +said to me: "Should the Lord call you to-day, are you prepared to meet +Him?" I answered: Certainly; for the service of man in some form is +seldom absent from my thoughts, and must be consonant with his will. +Were I to pray, I should pray God to spare me from the presumption of +expecting to meet him, and from the vanity and conceit of thinking that +the God of the universe will take an opportunity of meeting me. + +Who can have moral longing for a religion which represents God as +hanging over York Castle to receive the soul of Dove, the debauchee, who +slowly poisoned his wife, and whose final spiritual progress was posted +day by day on the Castle gates until the hour of the hangman came? +Dove's confession was as appalling as instructive. It ran thus: + + "I know that the Eternal One, + Upon His throne divine, + Gorged with the blood of His own Son, + No longer thirsts for mine. + + "Many a man has passed his life + In doing naught but good, + Who has not half the confidence I have + In Jesus Christ, His blood."* + + * From a volume of verse privately circulated in Liverpool + at the time, by W. H. Rathbone. + +By quoting these lines, which Burns might have written, the writer is +sorry to portray, in their naked form, principles which so many cherish. +But the anatomy of creeds can no more be explained, with the garments +of tradition and sentiment upon them, than a surgeon can demonstrate +the structure of the body with the clothes on. Divine perdition is an +ethical impossibility. + +Christianism is too often but a sour influence on life. It tolerates +nature, but does not enjoy it. Instead of giving men two Sundays, as it +might,--one for recreation and one for contemplation,--it converts the +only day of the poor into a penal infliction. It is always more or less +against art, parks, clubs, sanitation, equity to labor, freedom, and +many other things. If any Christians eventually accept these material +ideas, they mostly dislike them. Art takes attention from the Gospel. +In parks many delight to walk, when they might be at chapel or +church. Clubs teach men toleration, and toleration is thought to +beget indifference. Sanitation is a form of blasphemy. Every Christian +sings:-- + + "Diseases are Thy servants, Lord; + They come at Thy command." + +But sanitation assassinates these "servants of the Lord." In every +hospital they are tried, condemned, and executed as the enemies of +mankind. If labor had justice, it would be independent, and no longer +hopeless, as the poor always are. Freedom renders men defiant of +subjection, which all priests are prone to exercise. Secularism has +none of this distrust and fear. It elects to be on the side of human +progress, and takes that side, withstand it who may. Thus, those who +care for the improvement of mankind must act on principles dissociated +from doctrines repellent to humanity and deterrent of ameliorative +enterprise. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. SECULARISM CREATES A NEW RESPONSIBILITY + + "Mankind is an ass, who kicks those who endeavor to take off + his panniers." + + --Spanish Proverb. + +NO ONE need go to Spain to meet with animals who kick you if you serve +them. Spanish asses are to be found in every land. Could we see the legs +of truth, we should find them black and blue with the kicks received in +unloosening the panniers of error, strapped by priests on the backs of +the people. Even philosophers kick as well as the ignorant, when new +ideas are brought before them. No improvement would ever be attempted if +friends of truth were afraid of the asses' hoofs in the air. + +He who maintains that mankind can be largely improved by material means, +imposes on himself the responsibility of employing such means, and +of promoting their use as far as he can, and trusting to their +efficacy,--not being discouraged because he is but one, and mankind are +many. No man can read all the books, or do all the work, of the world. +It is enough that each reads what he needs, and, in matter of moral +action, does all he can. He who does less, fails in his duty to himself +and to others. + +Christian doctrine has none of the responsibility which Secularism +imposes. If there be vice or rapine, oppression or murder, the purely +Christian conscience is absolved. It is the Lord's world, and nothing +could occur unless he permitted it. If any Christian heart is moved to +compassion, it commonly exudes in prayer. He "puts the matter before the +Lord and leaves it in His hands." The Secularist takes it into his own. +What are his hands for? The Christian can sit still and see children +grow up with rickets in their body and rickets in their soul. He will +see them die in a foul atmosphere, where no angel could come to receive +their spirit without first stopping his nose with his handkerchief, as +I have seen Lord Palmerston do on entering Harrow on Speech Day. The +Christian can make money out of unrequited labor. When he dies, he makes +no reparation to those who earned his wealth, but leaves it to build a +church, as though he thought God was blind, not knowing (if Christ spake +truly) that the Devil is sitting in the fender in his room, ready to +carry his soul up the chimney to bear Dives company. Why should he be +anxious to mitigate inequality of human condition? It is the Lord's +will, or it would not be. When it was seen that I was ceasing to believe +this, Christians in the church to which I belonged knelt around me, and +prayed that I might be influenced not to go out into the world to see +if these things could be improved. It was no light duty I imposed on +myself. + +A Secularist is mindful of Carlyle's saying, "No man is a saint in his +sleep." Indeed, if any one takes upon himself the responsibility of +bettering by reason the state of things, he will be kept pretty well +awake with his understanding. + +Many persons think their own superiority sufficient for mankind, and do +not wish their exclusiveness to be encroached upon. Their plea is that +they distrust the effect of setting the multitude free from mental +tyranny, and they distrust democracy, which would sooner or later end +political tyranny. + +These men of dainty distrust have a crowd of imitators, in whom nobody +recognises any superiority to justify their misgivings as to others. The +distrust of independence in the hands of the people arises mainly from +the dislike of the trouble it takes to educate the ignorant in its use +and limit. The Secularist undertakes this trouble as far as his means +permit. As an advocate of open thought and the free action of opinion, +he counts the responsibility of trust in the people as a duty. + +It will be asked, What are the deterrent influences upon which +Secularism relies for rendering vice, of the major or minor kind, +repellent? It relies upon making it clear that in the order of nature +retribution treads upon the heels of transgression, and, if tardy in +doing it, its steps should be hastened. + +The mark of error of life is--disease. Science can take the body to +pieces, and display mischief palpable to the eyes, when the results of +vice startle, like an apparition, those who discern that: + + "Their acts their angels are,--if good; if ill, + Their fatal shadows that walk by them still." + +A man is not so ready to break the laws of nature when he sees he will +break himself in doing it. He may not fear God, but he fears fever +and consumption. He may have a gay heart, but he will not like the +occupation of being his own sexton and digging his own grave. When he +sees that death lurks in the frequent glass, for instance, that spoils +the flavor of the wine. He takes less pride in the beeswing who sees +the shroud in the bottle. He may hope that God will forgive him, but he +knows that death will not. He who holds the scythe is accustomed to cut +down fools, whether they be peers or sweeps. Death knows the fool at a +glance. To prevent any mistake, Disease has marked him with her broad +arrow. The young man who once has his eyes well open to this state +of the case, will be considerate as to the quality of his pleasures, +especially when he knows that alluring but unwholesome pleasure is in +the pay of death. Temperance advocates made more converts by exhibiting +the biological effects of alcohol than by all their exhortations. + +The moral nature of man is as palpable as the physical to those who look +for its signs. There is a moral squint in the judgment, as plain to be +seen as a cast in the eyes. The voice is not honest; it has the accent +of a previous conviction in it. The speech has contortions of meaning in +it. The sense is limp and flaccid, showing that the mind is flabby. +Such a one has the backbone of a fish; he does not stand upright. As the +Americans say, he does not "stand square" to anything. There is no moral +pulse in his heart. If you could take hold of his soul, it would feel +like a dead oyster, and would slip through your fingers. Everybody knows +these people. You don't consult them; you don't trust them. You would +rather have no business transactions with them. If they are in a +political movement, you know they will shuffle when the pinch of +principle comes. + +Crime has its consequences, and criminals, little and great, know it. +When Alaric A. Watts wrote of the last Emperor of the French:-- + + "Safe art thou, Louis!--for a time; + But tremble!--never yet was crime, + Beyond one little space, secure. + The coward and the brave alike + Can wait and watch, can rush and strike. + Which marks thee? One of them, be rare,--" + +few thought the bold prediction true; but it came to pass, and the +Napoleonic name and race became extinct, to the relief of Europe. + +Trouble comes from avowing unpopular ideas. Diderot well saw this when +he said: "There is less inconvenience in being mad with the mad than +in being wise by oneself." One who regards truth as duty will accept +responsibilities. It is the American idea + + "To make a man and leave him be." + +But we must be sure we have made him a man,--self-acting, guided by +reasoned proof, and one who, as Archbishop Whately said, "believes the +principles he maintains, and maintains them because he believes them." + +A man is not a man while under superstition, nor is he a man when free +from it, unless his mind is built on principles conducive and incentive +to the service of man. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. THROUGH OPPOSITION TO RECOGNITION + + "So many gods, so many creeds-- + So many paths that wind and wind, + While just the art of being kind + Is all the sad world needs." + + --Ella Wheeler Wilcox. + +LADY HESTER STANHOPE said she knew "Lord Byron must be a bad man, for he +was always _intending_ something." Any improvement in the method of +life is "intending something," and society ought to be tolerant of those +whose badness takes no worse form. The rules Secularism prescribes +for human conduct are few, and no intelligent preacher would say they +indicate a dangerous form of "badness." They are: + +1. Truth in speech. + +2. Honesty in transaction. + +3. Industry in business. + +4. Equity in according the gain among those whose diligence and +vigilance help to produce it. + + "Though this world be but a bubble, + Two things stand like stone-- + Kindness in another's trouble, + Courage in your own." + +Learning and fortune do but illuminate these virtues. They cannot +supersede them. The germs of these qualities are in every human heart. +It is only necessary that we cultivate them. Men are like billiard +balls--they would all go into the right pockets in a few generations, if +rightly propelled. Yet these principles, simple and unpretending as +they are, being founded on considerations apart from modes of orthodox +thought, have had a militant career. The Spanish proverb has been in +request: "Beware of an ox before, of a mule behind, and of a monk +on every side." The monk, tonsured and untonsured, is found in every +religion. + +In Glasgow I sometimes delivered lectures on the Sunday in a quaint old +hall situated up a wynd in Candleriggs. On the Saturday night I gave a +woman half-a-crown to wash and whiten the stairs leading to the hall, +and the passage leading to the street and across the causeway, so +that the entrance to the hall should be clean and sweet. Sermons were +preached in the same hall when the stairs were repulsively dirty. The +woman remarked to a neighbor that "Mr. Holyoake's views were wrang, but +he seemed to have clean principles." He who believes in the influence +of material conditions will do what he can to have them pure, not +only where he speaks, but where he frequents and where he resides. The +theological reader, who by accident or curiosity looks over these pages, +will find much from which he will dissent; but I hope he will be able +to regard this book as one of "clean principles," as far as the limited +light of the author goes. Accepting the "golden rule" of Huxley--"Give +unqualified assent to no propositions but those the truth of which is so +clear and distinct that they cannot be doubted"--causes the Secularist +to credit less than his neighbors, and that goes against him; being, as +it were, a reproach of their avidity of belief. One reason for writing +this book is to explain--to as many of the new generation as may +happen to read it--the discrimination of Secularism. Newspapers and the +clerical class, who ought to be well informed, continually speak of mere +free-thinking as Secularism. How this has been caused has already been +indicated. Two or three remarkable and conspicuous representatives of +free thought, who found iconoclasticism easier, less responsible, +and more popular, have given to many erroneous impressions. When +Mr. Bradlaugh, Mrs. Besant, and Mr. Foote came into the Secularistic +movement, which preceded their day, they gave proof that they understood +its principles, which they afterwards disregarded or postponed. I cite +their opinions lest the reader should think that this book gives an +account of a form of thought not previously known. One wrote: + +"From very necessity, Secularism is affirmative and constructive; it +is impossible to thoroughly negate any falsehood without making more or +less clear the opposing truth."* + + * "Secularism: What Is It?" National Secular Society's + Tracts--No. 7. By Charles Bradlaugh. + +Again: + +"Secularism conflicts with theology in this: that the Secularist teaches +the improvability of humanity by human means; while the theologian +not only denies this, but rather teaches that the Secular effort is +blasphemous and unavailing unless preceded and accompanied by reliance +on divine aid."* + +Mrs. Besant said: + +"Still we have won a plot of ground--men's and women's hearts. To them +Secularism has a message; to them it brings a rule of conduct; to them +it gives a test of morality, and a guide through the difficulties of +life. Our morality is tested only--be it noted--by utility in this life +and in this world."** + +Mr. Foote was not less discerning and usefully explicit, saying: + +"Secularism is founded upon the distinction between the things of time +and the things of eternity.... The good of others Secularism declares +to be the law of morality; and although certain theologies secondarily +teach the same doctrine, yet they differ from Secularism in founding +it upon the supposed will of God, thus admitting the possibility of its +being set aside in obedience to some other equally or more imperative +divine injunction."*** + + * "Why Are We Secularists?" National Secular Society's + Tracts--No. 8. By Charles Bradlaugh. + + ** "Secular Morality." National Secular Society's Tracts-- + No. 3. By Annie Besant. + + *** Secularism and Its Misrepresentation, by G. W. Foote, + who subsequently succeeded Mr. Bradlaugh as President of the + National Secular Society. + +For several years the _National Reformer_ bore the subtitle of "Secular +Advocate." + +We could not expect early concurrence with the policy of preferring +ethical to theological questions of theism and unprovable immortality. +We accepted the maxim of Sir Philip Sydney--namely, that "Reason cannot +show itself more reasonable than to leave reasoning on things above +reason." We are not in the land of the real yet, common sense is not +half so romantic to the average man as the transcendental, and an +atheistical advocacy got the preference with the impetuous. The +Secularistic proposal to consult the instruction of an adversary proved +less exciting than his destruction. The patience and resource it implies +to work by reason alone are not to the taste of those to whom a kick is +easier than a kindness, and less troublesome than explanation. Those who +have the refutatory passion intense say you must clear the ground before +you can build upon it. Granted; nevertheless, the signs of the times +show that a good deal of ground has been cleared. The instinct of +progress renders the minority, who reflect, more interested in the +builder than the undertaker. What would be thought of a general who +delayed occupying a country he had conquered until he had extirpated all +the inhabitants in it? So, in the kingdom of error, he who will go on +breaking images, without setting statues up in their place, will give +superstition a long life. The savage man does not desert his idols +because you call them ugly. It is only by slow degrees, and under the +influence of better-carved gods, that his taste is changed and his +worship improved. The reader will see that Secularism leaves the mystery +of deity to the chartered imagination of man, and does not attempt +to close the door of the future, but holds that the desert of another +existence belongs only to those who engage in the service of man in this +life. Prof. F. W. Newman says: "The conditions of a future life being +unknown, there is no imaginable means of benefiting ourselves and others +in it, except by aiming after present goodness."* + +Men have a right to look beyond this world, but not to overlook it. +Men, if they can, may connect themselves with eternity, but they cannot +disconnect themselves from humanity without sacrificing duty. The +purport of Secularism is not far from the tenor of the famous sermon by +the Rev. James Caird, of which the Queen said: + +"He explained in the most simple manner what real religion is--not a +thing to drive us from the world, not a perpetual moping over 'good' +books; but being and doing good."** + + * Prof. P. W. Newman, who is always clear beyond all + scholars, and candid beyond all theologians, has published a + Palinode retracting former conclusions he had published, and + admitting the uncertainty of the evidence in favor of after- + existence. + + ** The Queen on the Rev. J. Caird's sermon, Leaves from the + Journal of Our Life in the Highlands. + +This end we reach not by a theological, but by a Secular, path. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. SELF-EXTENDING PRINCIPLES + + "Prodigious actions may as well be done + By weaver's issue as by prince's son." + + --Dryden. + +SO FAR as Secularism is reasonable, it must be self-extending among all +who think. Adherents of that class are slowly acquired. Accessions begin +in criticism, though that, as we have seen, is apt to stop there. In +all movements the most critical persons are the least suggestive of +improvements. Constructiveness only excites enthusiasm in fertile +minds. After the Cowper Street Discussion with the Rev. Brewin Grant in +1853, see Chapter X, page 50, societies, halls, and newspapers adopted +the Secular name. In 1863 appeared the _Christian Reasoner_, edited by +the Rev. Dr. Rylance, a really reasoning clergyman, whom I afterwards +had the pleasure to know in New York. His publication was intended to be +a substitute for the _Reasoner_, which I had then edited for seventeen +years. But when the _Reasoner_ commenced, in 1846, Christian believing +was far more thought of than Christian reasoning. One line in Dr. +Rylance's _Christian Reasoner_ was remarkable, which charged us with +"forgetfulness of the necessary incompleteness of Re-velation." + +So far from forgetting it, it was one of the grounds on which Secularism +was founded. However, it is to the credit of Dr. Rylance that he should +have preceded, by thirty years, the Bishop of Worcester in discerning +the shortcomings of Revelation, as cited in Chapter XIX, page 101. + +In 1869 we obtained the first Act of Secular affirmation, which Mr. J. +S. Mill said was mainly due to my exertions, and to my example of never +taking an oath. In obtaining the Act, I had no help from Mr. Bradlaugh, +he being an ostentatious oath-taker at that time. It was owing to Mr. +G. W. Hastings (then, or afterwards, M. P.), the founder of the Social +Science Association, that the Affirmation clause was added to the Act of +1869. One of the objects we avowed was "to procure a law of affirmation +for persons who objected to take the oath."* + +Another of our aims was stated to be: "To convert churches and chapels +into temples of instruction for the people.... to solicit priests to +be teachers of useful knowledge."** We strove to promote these ends +by holding in honor all who gave effect to such human precepts as were +contained in Christianity. This fairness and justice has led many to +suppose that I accepted the theological as well as the ethical passages +in the Scriptures. But how can a Christian preacher be inclined to risk +the suspicion of the narrower-minded members of his congregation, if no +one gives him credit for doing right when he does it? + + * Secularism the Practical Philosophy of the People, p. 13; + 1854. Fifteen years before the first Act was passed. + + ** Secularism the Practical Philosophy of the People, by G. + J. Holyoake, p. 12; 1854. + +With our limited means and newness of doctrine, we could not hope to +rival an opulent hierarchy and occupy its temples; but we knew that the +truth, if we had it, and could diffuse it in a reasonable manner, would +make its way and gradually change the convictions of a theological +caste. The very nature of Free-thought makes it impossible for a long +time yet, that we should have many wealthy or well-placed supporters. +Where the platform is open to every subject likely to be of public +service--subjects suppressed everywhere else, and open to the discussion +of the wise or foolish present who may arise to speak, outrages of good +taste will occur. Persons who forget that abuse does not destroy use, +and that freedom is more precious than propriety, cease to support a +free-speaking Society. The advocacy of slave emancipation was once an +outrage in America. It is now regarded as the glory of the nation. In +an eloquent passage it has been pointed out what society owes to the +unfriended efforts of those who established and have maintained the +right of free speech. + +"Theology of the old stamp, so far from encouraging us to love nature, +teaches us that it is under a curse. It teaches us to look upon the +animal creation with shuddering disgust; upon the whole race of man, +outside our narrow sect, as delivered over to the Devil; and upon the +laws of nature at large as a temporary mechanism, in which we have been +caught, but from which we are to anticipate a joyful deliverance. It is +science, not theology, which has changed all this; it is the atheists, +infidels, and rationalists, as they are kindly called, who have taught +us to take fresh interest in our poor fellow denizens of the world, and +not to despise them because Almighty Benevolence could not be expected +to admit them to Heaven. To the same teaching we owe the recognition +of the noble aspirations embodied in every form of religion, and the +destruction of the ancient monopoly of divine influences."* + + * Leslie Stephens's Freetkinking and Plain Speaking. + +Those who, in storm and stress, bring truth into the world may not be +able to complete its triumph, but it makes its own way, and finally +conquers the understanding of mankind. + +Priestley, without fortune, with only the slender income of a Unitarian +minister, created and kept up a chemical laboratory. There alone he +discovered oxygen. Few regarded him, few applauded him; only a few +Parisian philosophers thanked him. He had no disciples to spread his new +truth. He was not even tolerated in the town which he endowed with +the fame of his priceless discovery. His house was burnt by a +Church-and-King mob; his instruments, books, and manuscripts destroyed; +and he had to seek his fortune in a foreign land. + +Yet what has come out of his discovery? It has become part of the +civilisation of the world, and mankind owe more to him than they yet +understand. + +When a young man, he forsook the Calvinism in which he was reared. "I +came," he said, "to embrace what is called heterodox views on every +question."* He cared for this world as well as for another, and hence +was distrusted by all "true believers." Though he had "spiritual hopes," +he agreed that he should be called a materialist. + +We have now had (1895) a London Reform Sunday, more than two hundred and +fifty (one list gave four hundred) preachers of all denominations +taking for their unprecedented text, "The Duties and Responsibilities +of Citizenship,"--a thing the most sanguine deemed incredible when +suggested by me in 1854.** Within twenty years Dr. Felix Adler has +founded noble Ethical Societies. Dr. Stanton Coit is extending them +in Great Britain. They are Secularist societies in their nature. South +Place Chapel now has taken the name of Ethical Society. Since the days +of W. J. Fox, who first made it famous, it has been the only successor +in London of the Moral Church opened by Thomas Holcroft. + + * See Chambers's Encyclopaedia (1888); article: Priestley. + + ** We have now a Museum Sunday. Even twenty years ago those + who advocated the Sunday opening of museums were counted + irreverent and beyond the pale of grace. Their opening is + now legalised (1896). + +Though modern Secular societies, to which these pages relate, have +been anti-theological mainly, the Secular Society of Leicester is a +distinguished exception. It has long had a noble hall of its own, and +from the earliest inception of Secularism it has been consistent and +persistent in its principles. As stated elsewhere,* the "Principles of +Secularism" were submitted to John Stuart Mill in 1854, and his approval +was of importance in the eyes of their advocates. In the first issue of +_Chambers's Encyclopaedia_ a special article appeared upon these views, +and in the later issue of that work in 1888 a new article was written +on Secularism. In the Rev. Dr. Molesworth's _History of England_ a very +clear account was given of the rise of Secularist opinions. This will be +sufficient information for readers unacquainted with the subject. + + * Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life, Chap. CX. + +The cause of reason has had more to confront than the cause of +Christianity, which has always been on the side of power since the days +of Christ. The two most influential ideas which, in every age since +Christianity arose, have given it currency among the ignorant and the +credulous, have been the ideas of Hell and prayer. Hell has been the +terror, and prayer the bribe, which have won the allegiance of the +timid and the needy. These two master passions of alarm and despair have +brought the unfortunate portions of mankind to the foot of the Cross. + +The cause of reason has no advantages of this nature, and only the +intelligent have confidence in its progress. If we have expected to do +more than we have, we are not the only party who have been prematurely +sanguine. The Rev. David Bogue, preaching in Whitfield's Tabernacle, +Tottenham-Court Road, at the foundation of the Foreign Missionary +Society (1790) of the Congregational denomination, exclaimed amid almost +unequalled enthusiasm: "We are called together this evening to the +funeral of bigotry." Judging from what has happened since, bigotry +was not dead when its funeral was prepared, or it was not effectually +buried, as it has been seen much about since that day. + +Bigotry, like Charles II., takes an unconscionable time in dying. +Down to Sir Charles Lyell's days, so harmless a study as geology was +distrusted, and Lyell, like Priestley, had to seek auditors in America. +While he lectured at Boston to 1,500 persons, 2,000 more were unable to +obtain tickets, which were bought at a guinea each extra. At our +great ancient seat of learning, Oxford, Buckland lectured on the same +interesting subject to an audience of three. + +Secularism keeps the lamp of free thought burning by aiding and honoring +all who would infuse an ethical passion into those who lead the growing +army of independent thinkers. Our lamp is not yet a large one, and its +supply of oil is limited by Christian law; but, like the fire in the +Temple of Montezuma, we keep it burning. In all the centuries since the +torch of free thought was first lighted, though often threatened, often +assailed, often dimned, it has never been extinguished. We could not +hope to captivate society by splendid edifices, nor many cultivated +advocates; but truth of principle will penetrate where those who +maintain it will never be seen and never heard. The day cometh when +other torches will be lighted at the obscure fire, which, borne aloft by +other and stronger hands, will shed lasting illumination where otherwise +darkness would permanently prevail. As Elizabeth Barrett Browning has +said: "Truth is like sacramental bread,--we must pass it on." + + + + +SECULARIST CEREMONIES. + + "Death is the decisive test of the value of the education + and morality of society; Secular funerals are the symbol of + the social renovation." + + --J. P. Proudhon. + +CERTAIN ceremonies are common to all human society, and should be +consistent with the opinions of those in whose name the ceremonies take +place. The marriage service of the Church contains things no bride could +hear without a blush, if she understood them; and the Burial Service +includes statements the minister ought to know to be untrue, and by +which the sadness of death is desecrated. The Secularist naturally seeks +other forms of speech. It being a principle of Secularism to endeavor to +replace what it deems bad by something better--or more consistent with +its profession--the following addresses are given. Other hands may +supply happier examples; but, in the meantime, these which follow may +meet with the needs of those who have no one at hand to speak for them, +and are not accustomed to speak for themselves. + + + + +ON MARRIAGE. + +Marriage involves several things of which few persons think beforehand, +and which it is useful to call their attention to at this time. The +bridegroom, by the act of marriage, professes that he has chosen out +of all the women of the world, known to him, the one to whom he will +be faithful while life shall last. He declares the bride to be his +preference, and, whoever he may see hereafter, or like, or love, the +door of association shall be shut upon them in his heart for ever. The +bride, on her part, declares and promises the same things. The belief +in each other's perfection is the most beautiful illusion of love. +Sometimes the illusion happily continues during life. It may happen--it +does happen sometimes--that each discovers that the other is not +perfect. The Quaker's advice was: "Open your eyes wide before marriage, +but shut them afterwards." Those who have neglected the first part of +this counsel will still profit by observing the second. Let those who +will look about, and put tormenting constructions on innocent acts: +beware of jealousy, which kills more happiness than ever Love created. + +The result of marriage is usually offspring, when society will have +imposed upon it an addition to its number. It is necessary for the +credit of the parents, as well as for the welfare of the children, that +they should be born healthy, reared healthy, and be well educated; so +that they may be strong and intelligent when the time comes for them to +encounter, for themselves, the vicissitudes of life. Those who marry +are considered to foreknow and to foresee these duties, and to pledge +themselves to do the best in their power to discharge them. + +In the meantime, and ever afterwards, let love reign between you. +And remember the minister of Love is deference towards each other. +Ceremonial manners are conducive to affection. Love is not a business, +but the permanence of love is a business. + +Unless there are good humor, patience, pleasantness, discretion, and +forbearance, love will cease. Those who expect perfection will lose +happiness. A wise tolerance is the sunshine of love, and they who +maintain the sentiment will come to count their marriage the beginning +of the brightness of life. + + + + +NAMING CHILDREN. + +In naming children it is well to avoid names whose associations pledge +the child, without its consent, to some line of action it may have no +mind to, or capacity for, when grown up. A child called "Brutus" would +be expected to stab Cęsar--and the Cęsars are always about. The name +"Washington" destroyed a politician of promise who bore it. He could +never live up to it. A name should be a pleasant mark to be known by, +not a badge to be borne. + +In formally naming a child it is the parents alone to whom useful words +can be addressed. + +Heredity, which means qualities derived from parentage, is a prophecy of +life. Therefore let parents render themselves as perfect in health, as +wise in mind, and as self-respecting in manners as they can; for their +qualities in some degree will appear in their offspring. One advantage +of children is that they contribute unconsciously to the education +of parents. No parents of sense can fail to see that children are as +imitative as monkeys, and have better memories. Not only do they imitate +actions, but repeat forms of expression, and will remember them ever +after. The manners of parents become more or less part of the manners +and mind of the child. Sensible parents, seeing this, will put a guard +upon their conduct and speech, so that their example in act and word may +be a store-house of manners and taste from which their children may draw +wisdom in conduct and speech. The minds of children are as photographic +plates on which parents are always printing something which will +be indelibly visible in future days. Therefore the society, the +surroundings, the teachers of the child, so far as the parents can +control them, should be well chosen, in order that the name borne by the +young shall command respect when their time comes to play a part in the +drama of life. To this end a child should be taught to take care what he +promises, and that when he has given his promise he has to keep it, for +he whose word is not to be trusted is always suspected, and his opinion +is not sought by others, or is disregarded when uttered. A child should +early learn that debt is dependence, and the habit of it is the meanness +of living upon loans. There can be no independence, no reliance upon the +character of any one, who will buy without the means of payment, or who +lives beyond his income. Such persons intend to live on the income of +some one else, and do it whether they intend it or not. He alone can be +independent who trusts to himself for advancement. No one ought to be +helped forward who does not possess this quality, or will not put his +hand to any honest work open to him. Beware of the child who has too +much pride to do what he can for his own support, but has not too much +pride to live upon his parents, or upon friends. Such pride is idleness, +or thoughtlessness, or both, unless illness causes the inability. + +Since offspring have to be trained in health and educated in the +understanding, there must not be many in the family unless the parents +have property. The poor cannot afford to have many children if they +intend to do their duty by them. It is immoral in the rich to have +many because the example is bad, and because they are sooner or later +quartered upon the people to keep them; or, if they are provided for +by their parents, they are under no obligation to do anything for +themselves, which is neither good for them nor good for the community, +to which they contribute nothing. + +Believing this child will be trained by its parents to be an honor to +them, and a welcome addition to the family of humanity, it is publicly +named with pleasure. + + + + +OVER THE DEAD. + +I.----READING AT A GRAVE. + +Esdras and Uriel, + +[An argument in which the Prophet speaks as a Secularist.] + +And the angel that was sent unto me, whose name was Uriel, said:--I am +sent to show thee three ways, and to set forth three similitudes before +thee: whereof, if thou canst declare me one, I will show thee also the +way that thou desirest to see.... + +And I said, Tell on, my Lord. + +Then said he unto me, Go thy way; weigh me the weight of the fire, or +measure me the blast of the wind, or call me again the day that is past. + +Then answered I and said, What man is able to do that, that thou +shouldest ask such things of me? + +And he said unto me, If I should ask thee how great dwellings are in the +midst of the sea, or how many springs are in the beginning of the deep, +or how many springs are above the firmament, or which are the outgoings +of Paradise, peradventure thou wouldst say unto me, I never went down +into the deep, nor as yet into Hell, neither did I ever climb up into +Heaven. + +Nevertheless, now have I asked thee but only of the fire, and wind, and +of the day wherethrough thou hast passed, and of things from which thou +canst not be separated, and yet canst thou give me no answer of them. + +He said, moreover, unto me, Thine own things, and such as are grown up +with thee, canst thou not know? How should thy vessel, then, be able to +comprehend the way of the Highest?.... + +Then said I unto him, It were better that we were not at all than +that we should live still in wickedness and to suffer, and not to know +wherefor. + +He answered me and said, I went into a forest, into a plain, and the +trees took counsel, and said, Come, let us go and make war against the +sea, that it may depart away before us, and that we may make us more +woods. + +The floods of the sea also in like manner took counsel, and said, Come, +let us go up and subdue the woods of the plain: that there also we may +make us another country. + +The thought of the wood was in vain, for the fire came and consumed it. +The thought of the floods of the sea came likewise to nought, for the +sand stood up and stopped them. + +If thou wert judge now betwixt these two, whom wouldest thou begin to +justify? or whom wouldest thou condemn? + +I answered, and said, Verily it is a foolish thought that they both have +devised; for the ground is given unto the wood, and the sea also hath +his place to bear his floods. + +Then answered he me and said, Thou hast given a right judgment; but why +judgest thou not thyself also? For like as the ground is given unto the +woods, and the sea to his floods, even so they that dwell upon the earth +may understand nothing but that which is upon the earth: and he that +dwelleth upon the heavens may only understand the things that are above +the height of the heavens. + +Then answered I and said, I beseech thee, O Lord, let me have +understanding. + +For it was not my mind to be curious of the high things y but of such as +pass by us daily. + +Harriet Martineau's Hymn.* + + * Which may be sung where it can be so arranged. + +[The only hymn known to me in which a Supreme Cause is implied without +being asserted or denied, or the reader committed to belief in it.] + + Beneath this starry arch + Nought resteth or is still, + But all things hold their march + As if by one great will: + Moves one, move all: + Hark to the footfall! + On, on, for ever! + + Yon sheaves were once but seed; + Will ripens into deed. + As eave-drops swell the streams, + Day-thoughts feed nightly dreams; + And sorrow tracketh wrong, + As echo follows song, + On, on, for ever! + + By night, like stars on high, + The hours reveal their train; + They whisper and go by; + I never watch in vain: + Moves one, move all: + Hark to the footfall! + On, on, for ever! + + They pass the cradle-head, + And there a promise shed; + They pass the moist new grave, + And bid bright verdure wave; + They bear through every clime, + The harvests of all time, + On, on, for ever! + +II.--AT THE GRAVE OF A CHILD. + +The death of a child is alone its parents' sorrow. Too young to know, +too innocent to fear, its life is a smile and its death a sleep. As the +sun goes down before our eyes, so a mother's love vanishes from the +gaze of infancy, and death, like evening, comes to it with quietness, +gentleness, and rest. We measure the loss of a child by the grief we +feel. When its love is gone, its promise over, and its prattle silent, +its fate excites the parents' tears; but we forget that infancy, like +the rose, is unconscious of the sweetness it sheds, and it parts without +pain from the pleasure it was too young to comprehend, though engaging +enough to give to others. The death of a child is like the death of a +day, of which George Herbert sings: + + "Sweet day, so clear, so calm, so bright + Bridal of the earth and sky; + The dew shall weep thy fall to-night-- + For thou must die." + +It is no consolation to say, "When a child dies it is taken from the +sorrows of life." Yes! it is taken from the sorrows of life, and from +its joys also. When the young die they are taken away from the evil, and +from good as well. What parents' love does not include the happiness of +its offspring? No! we will not cheat ourselves. Death is a real loss to +those who mourn, and the world is never the same again to those who have +wept by the grave of a child. Argument does not, in that hour, reach the +heart. It is human to weep, and sympathy is the only medicine of great +grief. The sight of the empty shoe in the corner will efface the most +relevant logic. Not all the preaching since Adam has made death other +than death. Yet, though sorrow cannot be checked at once by reason, it +may be chastened by it. Wisdom teaches that all human passions must +be subordinate to the higher purposes of life. We must no more abandon +ourselves to grief than to vice. The condition of life is the liability +to vicissitude, and, while it is human to feel, it is duty to endure. +The flowers fade, and the stars go down, and youth and loveliness vanish +in the eternal change. Though we cannot but regret a vital loss, it is +wisdom to love all that is good for its own sake; to enjoy its presence +fully, but not to build on its continuance, doing what we can to insure +its continuance, and bearing with fortitude its loss when it comes. If +the death of infancy teaches us this lesson, the past may be a charmed +memory, with courage and dignity in it. + +III.--MEN OR WOMEN. + +The science of life teaches us that while there is pain there is life. +It would seem, therefore, that death, with silent and courteous step, +never comes save to the unconscious. A niece of Franklin's, known for +her wit and consideration for others, arrived at her last hour at the +age of ninety-eight. In her composure a friend gently touched her. "Ah," +murmured the old lady, "I was dying so beautifully when you brought +me back! But never mind, my dear; I shall try it again." This bright +resignation, worthy of the niece of a philosopher, is making its way in +popular affection. + +Lord Tennyson, when death came near to him, wrote: + + "Sunset and evening star, + And one clear call for me! + And may there be no moaning of the bar + When I put out to sea. + + "Twilight and evening bell, + And after that the dark, + And may there be no sadness of farewell + When I embark." + +There is just a touch of superstition in these genial lines. He writes: +"After death the dark." How did he know that? What evidence is there +that the unknown land is "dark"? Why not light? The unknown has no +determinate or ascertained color. + +Where we know nothing, neither priest nor poet has any right to speak +as though he had knowledge. Improbability does not imply impossibility. +That which invests death with romantic interest is, that it may be a +venture on untried existence. If a future state be true, it will befall +those who do not expect it as well as those who do. Another world, if +such there be, will come most benefitingly and most agreeably to those who +have qualified themselves for it, by having made the best use in their +power of this. By best use is meant the service of man. Desert consists +alone in the service of others. Kindness and cheerfulness are the two +virtues which most brighten human life. + +Wide-eyed philanthropy is not merely money-giving goodness, but the +wider kindness which aids the ascendancy of the right and minimises +misery everywhere. + +Death teaches, as nothing else does, one useful lesson. Whatever +affection or friendship we may have shown to one we have lost, +Death brings to our memory countless acts of tenderness which we had +neglected. Conscience makes us sensible of these omissions now it is too +late to repair them. But we can pay to the living what we think we owe +to the dead; whereby we transmute the dead we honor into benefactors of +those they leave behind. This is a useful form of consolation, of which +all survivors may avail themselves. + +Mrs. Ernestine Rose--a brave advocate of unfriended right--when age and +infirmity brought her near to death, recalled the perils and triumphs +in which she had shared, the slave she had helped to set free from the +bondage of ownership, and the slave minds she had set free from the +bondage of authority; she was cheered, and exclaimed: "But I have +lived." + +The day will come when all around this grave shall meet death; but it +will be a proud hour if, looking back upon a useful and generous past, +we each can say: "I have _lived_." + +IV.----ON A CAREER OF PUBLIC USEFULNESS. + +In reasoning upon death no one has surpassed the argument of Socrates, +who said: "Death is one of two things: either the dead may be nothing +and have no feeling--well, then, if there be no feeling, but it be like +sleep, when the sleeper has no dream, surely death would be a marvellous +gain, for thus all futurity appears to be nothing more than one night. +If, on the other hand, death be a removal hence to another place, and +what is said be true, that all the dead are there, what greater blessing +can there be than this?" + +Sir Edwin Arnold, in his _Secret of Death_, writes: + + "Nay, but as when one layeth + His worn-out robes away, + And, taking new ones, sayeth, + 'These will I wear to-day!' + + So putteth by the spirit + Lightly its garb of flesh, + And passeth to inherit + A residence afresh." + +This may be true, and there is no objection to it if it is. But the pity +is, nobody seems to be sure about it. At death we may mourn, but duty +ceaseth not. If we desist in endeavors for the right because a combatant +falls at our side, no battle will ever be won. "Life," Mazzini used +to say, "is a battle and a march." Those who serve others at their own +peril are always in + +"battle." Let us honor them as they pass. Some of them have believed: + + "Though love repine and reason chafe, + There came a voice without reply-- + 'Tis man's perdition to be safe, + When for the truth he ought to die.'" + +They are of those who, as another poet has said, "are not to be mourned, +but to be imitated."* The mystery of death is no greater than +the mystery of life. All that precedes our existence was unseen, +unimaginable, and unknown to us. What may succeed in the future is +unprovable by philosopher or priest: + + "A flower above and the mould below: + And this is all that the mourners know."** + +The ideal of life which gives calmness and confidence in death is +the same in the mind of the wise Christian as in the mind of the +philosopher. Sydney Smith says: "Add to the power of discovering truth +the desire of using it for the promotion of human happiness, and +you have the great end and object of our existence."*** Putting just +intention into action, a man fulfils the supreme duty of life, which +casts out all fear of the future. + + * W. J. Linton. + + ** Barry Cornwall. + + *** Moral Philosophy. + +A poet who thought to reconcile to their loss those whose lines have not +fallen to them in pleasant places wrote: + + "A little rule, a little sway, + A sunbeam on a winter's day, + Is all the proud and mighty have + Between the cradle and the grave." + +This is not true; the proud and mighty have rest at choice, and play at +will. The "sunbeam" is on them all their days. Between the cradle and +the grave is the whole existence of man. The splendid inheritance of +the "proud and mighty" ought to be shared by all whose labor creates and +makes possible the good fortune of those who "toil not, neither do they +spin"*, and whoever has sought to endow the industrious with liberty and +intelligence, with competence and leisure, we may commit to the earth in +the sure and certain hope that they deserve well, and will fare well, in +any "land of the leal" to which mankind may go. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's English Secularism, by George Jacob Holyoake + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH SECULARISM *** + +***** This file should be named 38104-8.txt or 38104-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/1/0/38104/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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