CHAPTER I 



THE OLD SECULARISM OF THE "SEVENTIES" 



Some thirty years ago we heard a good deal of Secular- 

 ism, when Mr. Bradlaugh was a prominent figure before 

 the world and was promulgating his atheistic views.^ 



Mr. G. W. Foote defined Secularism as " Naturalism 

 in Morals as distinguished from Supernaturalism "."- 



Speaking of Mr. Bradlaugh, Mr. Foote said : " Filled 

 with Republican and Atheistic Faith he stands upon the 

 cardinal assumptions of human greatness and power, and 

 the impossibility of supernatural knowledge ; and he 

 trusts in them as eternal and unassailable verities ". 



" Mr. G. J. Holyoake, although an Atheist, puts for- 

 ward a philosophic theory of human life and duties, 

 which he terms ' Secularism '.^ From this, three pro- 

 positions are deducible — Science is the only Provi- 

 dence, Reason the sole guide. Happiness the sole end." 

 " The invariability of Nature's methods of operation, 

 the inviolability of the law of universal causation — be- 

 longs peculiarly to Secularism." ..." In the realm of mind, 

 as in the realm of matter, everything works in accordance 

 with definite laws. The science of psychology is win- 

 ning a definite place for itself." [Haeckel now merges 



1 Such as A Plea for Atheism and Is there a God ? 



^ Secularism Restated, 1 874. 



^i.e., as concerning this world only. 



(3) 



