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being attacked by many, its disciples would do well to give the general public, and for that matter some of the critics also, an able exposition of the elementary principles of their Religion. Whether Religion free from Supernaturalism is possible or not is a point which has been hotly debated. Positivism by its existence answers that it is. It has this immense advantage over the mere antiChristian movements which are started from time to time, that it regards man, not as a mere logic-chopping machine, but as a being having an emotional as well as a reasoning side to his nature. Furthermore, it does not fall into the grievous error of many other systems of supposing that, if the Social Machine can only be made to work properly, man will thereby be made happy and good. Positivism, not less than Christianity, appeals to the heart, and it warns man, in no uncertain fashion, that he must set to work to amend himself. Nevertheless, as a matter of plain fact, the disciples of Auguste Comte are characterized above most by their learning, their culture and their large-mindedness. Their Religion demands of them that they shall know and think; that they shall make just use of all their faculties. In this respect it is immeasurably superior to those forms of faith whose adherents are so faithless that they dare not allow the free play of their Reason and Judgment.

For all that, Positivism, as a whole, does not compel my consent. It is powerful and true against those who seek after God in the pages of an ancient literature, and who try to convince themselves of His existence by studying the evidences of design in Nature. But, when we give up such futile efforts, we do not thereby lose all trace of the Eternal. Man must look inward to find God, and will not see His presence either in Literature or in Nature until then. To any who have done so, this offer of "Humanity" as a substitute seems almost like giving a stone to him who asks for bread. Positivism is a great Religion, and one which, in this age of narrow materialism, ought to do a great work. But it is not final and will not, in the last resort, satisfy all the higher instincts of men. We do not want a God distinguished from man only by the greatness of his power, nor one whom we can define in numbers or attributes. Whether the Eternal is to be described as three or one is a question which may be left to the dogmatic schools-Trinitarian and Unitarian. Neither description at all represents the Reality. Better far than this hair-splitting Theology would be an adhesion to the noble principles of Positivism.

But the place of an acting and sustaining God, "in whom we live and move and have our being," is not supplied by that idealized sum-total of innumerable human beings-Humanity.

W. L.

SECULARISM AS A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE.

SECULARISM, THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, by G. W. FOOTE. London: Freethought Publishing Company.

But

MR. FOOTE is the editor of the Liberal, the able monthly advocate of Secularism, and in its pages the essay under notice first appeared. He claims for Secularism, not only that it is an efficient organization for social and political reforms, but that it is a "true Philosophy of Life," that is to say, a Religion. We are quite willing to admit that Religion without belief in a personal God is possible, and it may be quite true, as Mr. Foote says, that "the instincts of Love, Reverence and Service may be fully exercised and satisfied by devotion to a purely human ideal." social reforms alone are not sufficient, and will never, by themselves, satisfy the desires of the human heart. The great concern of Religion, or of a Philosophy of Life, is not with amendments of the social organism but with the growth of man himself. Secularism looks too exclusively to the objective, and vainly hopes to create a perfect man by arranging that "every individual of the human family" shall be "well placed and well instructed." Of self-discipline it says little, and of the supposed superiority of man to Circumstance it speaks only in derision. No Secularist that we have ever met seems to have grasped the essential truth that not in Circumstance but in man himself lie all the possibilities of good and evil;-that, however you amend the surroundings, the man, though he may have more will be no better; while if, on the other hand, the man amends himself, his surroundings will weigh but little in the balance of Happiness and Right.

We notice here, as elsewhere in Secularist literature, the curious statement that "Science is the only available providence of man." How can Science-the knowledge of facts of nature— be of any avail in the absence of Thought? By judiciously cramming himself with the knowledge-made-easy literature of the day a person may become thoroughly conversant with scientific facts of all sorts. Yet Mr. Foote would hardly affirm that thereby he was in any true sense a better man, or that, without the exercise of his thinking powers, all his knowledge would do him one iota of good.

Of this essay we may say that it is ably written, and that the claims of Secularism to be called a "Philosophy of Life," though they seem to us inadmissible, are stated in it, with clearness and force.

PAPERS FOR THE TIMES.

COMPLETION OF VOL. II.

135 BRIDGE STREET,

BIRKENHEAD, 22nd September, 1879.

At the conclusion of the second volume I find the pressure of other duties so heavy, that I am compelled to make a change in the mode of publishing these Papers. Rather than discontinue a work of whose usefulness I have ample testimony, and the conduct of which is a source of real pleasure to myself, I purpose, henceforth, to issue it in enlarged quarterly, instead of in the present monthly parts, and as a yearly instead of as a half-yearly volume. These parts will be published at a shilling each, with special terms to yearly subscribers, the particulars of which I shall be glad to send to any one who will write me on the subject. Present subscribers will be supplied in an equivalent of quarterly parts for their unexpired subscriptions.

I have much pleasure in announcing the following Essays for early publication:

"Walt Whitman," by Rev. Frank W. Walters.

"The Unity of Man and Nature," by J. Whiteley.
"Modern Unitarianism: its Strength and Weakness,"
by An Unitarian.

"Vanini," by James Hooper.

"Ouida's Novels: a Study."

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Margaret Fuller: her Life and Writings," by myself.

Literary Studies and Biography will form a special feature of the new volume. The usual Appendix of critical Notes on current topics and Notices of Books will be continued.

All who are interested in this work are invited to send me their names as Subscribers and to promote its circulation by making it known among their friends and others.

Part XV. on January 1, 1880.

Walter Lewin.

THE REAL GOD,

BY

O. B. FROTHINGHAM.

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