92 LITEEAEY ANNOUNCEMENTS 



A Short History of Freethought. 



BY THE ET. HON. J. M. KOBEKTSON, M.P. 



NEW AND GREATLY ENLARGED EDITION. 2 Vols.; 

 xxiv + 1019 pp.; cloth, 10s. net. 



(Inland postage, 7d.; foreign, about 3s.) 



rpHEKE is no more fascinating theme than that of the struggle for 

 -*- intellectual liberty, and perhaps EO other cause has suffered 

 under such a weight of undeserved opprobrium. The world is more 

 deeply indebted than is commonly realized to the brave thinkers 

 who, with many faults and errors, have made the right to liberty of 

 thought and utterance the mainspring of their appeal, and thereby 

 rendered priceless service to later generations. In this sense 

 Freethought may claim to preach a Gospel, a message of enlighten- 

 ment which the world cannot afford to disregard. 



For what is Freethought ? It does not and cannot mean freedom 

 from all limitations of human capacity. It means that belief should 

 follow evidence; that logic, common sense, the duty of gaining 

 knowledge, should be recognized, and the mind freed from artificial 

 restrictions. As Mr. Eobertson defines it, Freethought is "a con- 

 scious reaction against some phase or phases of conventional or 

 religious doctrine in religion on the one hand, a claim to think 

 freely in the sense not of disregard for logic, but of special loyalty to 

 it, on problems to which the past course of things has given a great 

 intellectual and practical importance ; on the other hand, the actual 

 practice of such thinking." 



This monumental History embraces an account of all the leading 

 progressive thinkers of the world, a critical analysis of their work, 

 and, what is of equal importance, an examination of the great 

 movements of thought by which humanity has passed from ancient 

 certainties to modern doubts. Of all books of the kind this is 

 beyond question the ablest, the most complete, the most accurate, 

 and the most interesting. Everyone who wishes to possess the 

 standard work on the subject should not miss the opportunity of 

 acquiring this phenomenally cheap edition. 



The "English Review" says: 



" Here we have a record of the labours of those who have refused to acquiesce 

 in the incredible, who have fought, and suffered, to make mankind appreciate 

 what? The value of evidence ; nothing more. That is the history of Freethought : 

 to trace the painful birth and the painful growth of the spirit of truthfulness. A 

 blood-drenched history 1 One would think that truth, fair truth, would be 

 welcomed and respected whenever encountered. Well, these pages will prove 

 how correct is old Bacon's saying that ' mankind is possessed of a natural but 

 corrupt love of the lie itself.' " 



LONDON: WATTS & CO., JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C. 



