The Principles of Secularism

by George Jacob Holyoake

XI.

On the other hand, Rationalism (which is the logic of Nature) is in attitude and spirit quite the reverse. It observes that numbers are unconvinced of the fact of Revelation, and feel the insufficiency, for their guidance, of that offered to them. To them the pages of Nature seem clearer than those of the Apostles. Reason, which existed before all Religions and decides upon all—else the false can never be distinguished from the true—seems self-dependent and capable of furnishing personal direction. Hence Rationalism instructed by facts, winning secrets by experiments, establishing principles by reflection, is assured of a morality founded upon the laws of Nature. Without the advantage of inductive science to assist discoveries, or the printing press to record corroborations of them, the Pre-Christian world created ethics, and Socrates and Epictetus, and Zoroaster and Confucius, delivered precepts, to which this age accords a high place. Modern Rationalists therefore sought, with their new advantages, to augment and systematize these conquests. They tested the claims of the Church by the truths of Nature. That Freethought which had won these truths applied them to creeds, and criticism became its weapon of Propagandism. Its consciousness of new truth stimulated its aggression on old error. The pretensions of reason being denied as false, and rationalists themselves persecuted as dangerous, they had no alternative but to criticise in order to vindicate their own principles, and weaken the credit and power of their opponents. To attack the misleading dogmas of Theology was to the early Freethinkers well understood self-defence. In some hands and under the provocations of vindictive bigotry, this work, no doubt, became wholly antagonistic, but the main aspiration of the majority was the determination of teaching the people "to be a law unto themselves." They found prevailing a religion of unreasoning faith. They sought to create a religion of intelligent conviction, whose uniformity consisted in sincerity. Its believers did not all hold the same tenets, but they all sought the same truth and pursued it with the same earnestness. It was this inspiration which sustained Vanini, Hamont, Lewes, Kett, Legate, and Wightman at the stake, and which armed Servetus to prefer the fires of Calvin to the creed of Calvin, which supported Annet in the pillory, and Woolston and Carlile in their imprisonments. It was no capricious taste for negations which dictated these deliberate sacrifices, but a sentiment purer than interest and stronger than self-love—it was the generous passion for unfriended truth.

XII.

The intellectual, no less than the heroic characteristics of Freethought have presented features of obvious unity. Tindal, Shaftesbury, Voltaire, Paine, aad Bentham, all vindicated principles of Natural Morality. Shelley struggled that a pure and lofty ideal of life should prevail, and Byron had passionate words of reverence for the human character of Christ.*

* Thus we read, Canto xv. stanza xviii., of Don Juan:—
Was it not so, great Locke? and greater Bacon?
Great Socrates? And thou Diviner still
Whose lot it is by man to be mistaken,
And thy pure creed made sanctions of all ill?
Redeeming world to be by bigots shaken,
How was thy toil rewarded?
To this stanza Lord Byron adds this note:—
"As it is necessary in these times to avoid ambiguity,
I say that I mean by "Diviner still" Christ.
If ever God was man—or man God—he was both.
I never arraigned his creed, but the use—or abuse—made of it."

The distrust of Prayer for temporal help was accompanied by trust in Science, and all saw in material effort an available deliverance from countless ills which the Church can merely deplore. Those who held that a future life was "unproven," taught that attention to this life was of primary importance, at least highly serviceable to humanity, even if a future sphere be certain. All strove for Free Inquiry—Rationalism owed its existence to it; all required Free Speech—Rationalism was diffused by it; all vindicated Free Criticism—Rationalism established itself with it; all demanded to act out their opinions—Rationalism was denuded of conscience without this right. In all its mutations, and aberrations, and conquests, Freethought has uniformly sought the truth, and shown the courage to trust the truth. Freethought uses no persecution, for it fears no opposition, for opposition is its opportunity. It is the cause of Enterprise and Progress, of Reason and Duty—and now seeking the definite and the practical, it selects for its guidance the principle that "human affairs should be regulated by considerations purely human."** These—the characteristics which the term Secularism was designed to express—are therefore not inventions, not assumptions, but the general agreements of the Freethought party, inherent, traditional, and historic. That which is new, and of the nature of a development, is the perception that the positivism of Freethought principles should be extended, should be clearly distinguished and made the subject of energetic assertion—that the Freethought party which has so loudly demanded toleration for itself, should be able to exercise it towards all earnest thinkers, and especially towards all coworkers—that those who have protested against the isolation of human effort by sectarian exclusiveness, should themselves set the example of offering, in good faith, practical conditions of unity, not for the glory of sects, or coteries, or schools, but for the immediate service of humanity.

** L. H. Holdreth.

XIII.

The Relation of Secularism to the future demands a few words. To seek after the purity and perfection of the Present Life neither disproves another Life beyond this, nor disqualifies man for it. "Nor is Secularism opposed to the Future so far as that Future belongs to the present world—to determine which we have definite science susceptible of trial and verification. The conditions of a future life being unknown, and there being no imaginable means of benefiting ourselves and others in it except by aiming after present goodness, we shall confessedly gain less towards the happiness of a future life by speculation than by simply devoting ourselves to the energetic improvement of this life."* 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. Secular knowledge relates to this life. Religious knowledge to another life. Secular instruction teaches the duties to man. Religious instruction the duties to God apart from man. Religious knowledge relates to celestial creeds. Secular knowr-ledge relates to human duties to be performed. The religious teacher instructs us how to please God by creeds. The Secular teacher how to serve man by sympathy and science.

* F. W. Newman