CHAPTER II 



THE NEW SECULARISM OF TO-DAY 



Thirty years have nearly elapsed, and we now find Mr. 

 F. J. Gould writing on "' The New Secularism " in the 

 Agnostic Annual (an ethical review, 1903). He dis- 

 tinguishes present-day Secularism from the old by " the 

 almost complete disappearance of the appetite for theo- 

 logical debate " ; and he asks the question : " By what 

 other methods shall Rationalism be propagated ? " 



He wonders what it has been doing for the last 

 thirty years. 



" We need an aim, an organic association, a moral 

 and intellectual solidarity which will supply the appeal, 

 the motive, and the force." 



Secularism must be in a poor way if it have none of 

 these three things, all of which are to be found to the full 

 in Christianity. 



" The age of analj'sis is passing and the age of 

 synthesis is demanded." 



Mr. Gould proceeds to complain that " those who 

 have been bred in the old school are too content to live 

 as disparate units". 



" The supreme test of Secularism is revealed in the 

 question : What will it do with religion ? — that is, with all 

 the emotions, habits and ideals which are grouped to- 

 gether under that name in the Churches. . . . Orthodoxy 

 has been defeated in controversy, but it remains in 

 possession of the soul of the million." 



(II) 



