SECULARISM is the term applied to a system of ethical principles begun to be advo cated about 1846 by G. J. Holyoake. As the system has a considerttble number of adherents, and comes not seldom into public notice, a brief account of its leading doc trines is here given. As in similar cases, we allow a believer in the doctrines to speak for himself.
The secular is aefiued as that which pertains to this life, and is treated as a thing apart; as independent of, rather than as necessarily opposed to, any other mode of thought and duty. Secularism, as regards opponents, claims that to ignore is not to deny. As the geometrician ignores chemistry or metaphysics, without, a thought of denying them, so secularism, which concerns itself with this world, refuses to• be held as conflicting with that " other-worldliness," which, if demonstrable, must be based on an experience to which secularism makes no pretension, and toward which it considers itself to incur no responsibility. Secularism commences by laying down the proposition that intelligent sincerity is sinless. It does not maintain that even intelligent sincerity is errorless, but that it is without conscious guilt, even when it is, as it may he danger ously mistaken. The conscience thus educated, thought may be intrusted to inquiry, and the search for truth may be begun.
Secularism takes the term free thought as expressing the central idea which it incul cates. It defines free thought as the unrestricted application of the powers of the intel lect to any subject—the absence of any threat or penalty, legal, spiritual, or social, for the exercise of thought. The free thought it inculcates is not lawless thought; it is guided by methods of logic, limited by evidence checked at every step by experience, which is omnipresent, and corrected by the results of science. Free thought is not the rebellion but the judicial action of the understanding. Reason—the faculty of follow ing the pathway of facts—does not despise intuition, nor instinct, nor the voice of nature, nor authority; it uses, but revises them; it does not pretend to be infallible, but to be the hest arbiter we have. To the conception of free thought is also necessary the free publication of opinion, for no one could profit by the thought of other minds un less it was freely communicated. Hence the diffusion of thought becomes an obliga tion on each thinker, and silence or supineness a social crime. Again, free thought that would command respect must be submitted to free criticism. Thought is often foolish, often mischievous, and sometimes wicked, and he alone who submits it to free criticism gives guaranties to society that he means well, since by criticism comes the exposure of false or foolish opinions; and the right of criticism is the sole protection of the public from error. Free thought must end in the free action of opinion, since he thinks to no purpose whose thought is inapplicable to conduct, and he withholds the sign of his own sincerity who does not unite his thought with action. Such is that education in free thought which secularism attempts.
It holds that skepticism is the pathway to affirmative truth. So far from being a crime, skepticism is scrutiny. So far from being the end, it is time beginning of inquiry—the first condition for the recognition of unknown truth. He who would be master of his own mind, and know what is in it, and who would have no principles there but those which are pure, true, and reliable, must refuse' to believe anything until he is compelled to believe it; it being no more safe to keep one's mind open' to all notions, than to keep one's door open to all comers. It is clear that the use of free thought may be a nui
sance, a terror, or an outrage, unless courtesy takes care of it. Therefore secularism provides that advocacy shall be directed to the exposure of error and the elucidation of truth, without moral imputation upon those whose opinions,are controverted; and con tends that all advocacy, wanting in consideration toward others, shall be regarded as a crime against free thought. The quality of the thought, and not the motive of it, is the proper and sufficient subject of discussion Secularism further imposes upon the action of free thought the limit that every one shall concede to others the liberty he claims for himself, and shall permit to others, and shall recognize in each individual, " liberty of action in all things by which others are neither injured nor damaged." Secularism, regarding the one object of all free thought as the attainment of truth, finds in the study of nature its immediate sphere of exer cise. Free thought is prompted by a desire to fathom the knowable; and nature and human life arc the immediate sources of truth and duty, which it most concerns man to master. Therefore, respect for this life, respect for pure physical conditions. respect For the moral capacity of human nature, are conditions of secular belief. Secularism is not committed to denying that there is other good—it does not meddle question; it says whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good. It holds that the secular is sacred, and seeks "to find that material condition in which it shall be impossible for man to be depraved or poor." It does not say that ajl things are material, or that there are no spiritual agencies; it does not enter upon these propositions, but confines itself to showing that there are material agencies in this life, whatever else there may be. and that these, as far as they can he discovered, are the calculable forces of the world, which cannot lie neglected without folly or hurt, and that it is wisdom, mercy, and duty to attend to them. Without enter ing upon the question of the interference of Providence, secularism contends that sci ence is practically the providence of life; that conscience is higher than consequence; that deliverance from calamity is more merciful than any system of consolation which only calamity has occurred; and that it is not the pursuit of happiness, but the performance of duty, which is the end of life. Secularism proceeds in the path of positive philosophy, not seeking for errors but for truth: not busying itself with nega tions but with affirmations. In sacred writ it seeks for guiding truth and thought which commends itself to reason and experience, accepting the intrinsically true, without entering upon the vexed questions of inspiration or authenticity. principles secularism inculcates they are affirmative in their nature, relate to the welfare of human ity, and arc determined by considerations purely human.