SECULAR TEACHINGS.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 6, 1 March 1884, Page 15

SECULAR TEACHINGS.

Secularism teaches that this life and this world in which we live demand and will reward our utmost cultivation ; that the instruments of this cultivation are reason and social effort ; that the harvest to be reaped from it is happiness, general and individual. Secularism offers for man’s guidance in the duties of life the plain, straight, spacious pathway of reason and experience. It has no science, no history, no books, no opinions, that it wants to hide or shield from free human criticism. It has no theories which it is not ready and eager to abandon, directly facts shall have declared against them ; no rule of conduct which it will not at once modify, if change seems necessary in the interest of the general happiness. Mysteries it acknowledges, and confesses that they are truly mysterious, without proceeding to exhibit them in dogmas as if it had turned them inside out. It is not weighted with the impossible tasks of reconciling the existence of evil with that of an Omnipotent and All-good Creator ; and of proving and worshipping the infallibility of a book crowded with evident errors. It does not threaten the vast majority with never-ending torments, and promise an elect few never-ending bliss, both alike preposterously disproportioned to any possible merits or demerits of human life ; it simply seeks by the best approved means to make this life as happy as possible for all, assured that if there should be another, it could in no better way be prepared for.

Looking at the world, we are convinced by what human reason has already discovered in it, and by the experience which has verified the discoveries, that it is psrect order, in the sense that its operations follow unvarying laws, that the like antecedents have always the like consequents. This immutable constancy of what are termed the Laws of Nature gives us a stable foundation on which to build up physical science and all the arts which are the applications of such science. The laws themselves w r e know we cannot change ; but the more we learn of them the better we can adapt ourselves and the conditions of our life to them, the better we can avoid such of their workings as would be harmful to us, the better we can avail ourselves of all in their workings which is profitable to us. We are also convinced, in the same manner, that human nature, no less than nature in general, is the subject of unvarying laws, that in it also the like antecedents have always the like consequents ; and the stability of law in this domain gives us firm ground on which to build physiological, psychological, and sociological science, and the political and social constitutions which are the applications of such science. These laws also we know we cannot change ; but in their case also the more we learn of them the better we can adapt ourselves and the conditions of our lives to them, the better we can avoid the injurious, and avail ourselves of their beneficial, workings. Thus Secularism regards Science as the true Providence ; and affirms that by the study of Man, and the application of the results of that study, this Providence can be wrought to confer ever richer and richer boons on our race.

And _ since Man’s supreme desire is happiness, and he is so essentially a social being that the real happiness of any one is impossible without the happiness of all around him, Secularism adopts the Utilitarian theory of morals, which uplifts as the standard of praiseworthy conduct that which tends to the greatest good of the greatest number. The happiness that Secularism seeks to realise, is not in any supposed Heaven, but on Earth ; not in Eternity, but in time ; not for elect individuals here and there, but for all Mankind. _ This happiness implies, firstly, material well-being* sufficiency of food, clothing, and houseroom, with good air, good water, and good sanitary conditions ; for these things arc necessary to

bodily health, and this is essential to the health of the mind, and only in health is real happiness possible. Again, it inplies mental well-being, sufficiency of instruction and education for every one, so that his intellect may be nourished and developed to the full extent of its capabilities. Given the sound mind in the sound body, it further implies free exercise of these, absolutely free in every respect so long as the exercise does not trench on the equal rights of others or impede the common good. In this full development of mind as well as body, it need scarcely be said that, true happiness brings into its service all the noblest and most beautiful arts of life. Some persons seem to fancy that Utilitarians have nothing to do with music, painting, sculpture; care nothing for the glories and grandeurs of the world, have no part in the treasures of the imagination; as if there were no utility in any of these. But we recognise in them the very high utility of touching to rapture some of the finest chords in our nature ; we know and feel just as well as others, and perhaps better than most—since we give ourselves more to scientific study of man—that there are different kinds and degrees’of enjoyment, and that some kinds are far superior to others, and we know how to value the superior as compared with the inferior.

But yet more, this social happiness implies all the great virtues in those who can attain and keep it. Wisdom, for without this, transitory and selfish pleasures will be continually mistaken for happiness, and even with a desire for the common good, this good will be misconceived, and the wrong means taken to secure it. Fortitude, to bear when necessary—and the necessity in the present state of the world is as frequent as it is stern—deprivation of personal comfort rather than stifle our aspirations and relax our efforts for the general interest. Temperance, for with excess no permanent happiness is possible. Magnanimity, for only by aid of this virtue can we keep steadily in view, as the sole aim of all our striving, the sole aim worthy of true men and women, the greatest good of the greatest number; all little-mindedness ever turns to selfishness. Justice, and above all else Justice, for it is the profound and unchangeable conviction of the equal rights of all which alone can inspire and impel us to seek the freedom and happiness of all; oppressions since the world began having been based on injustice, the oppressors exaggerating their own rights at the expense of those of the oppressed. And to these great virtues of the mind, we must add, as essential to his true happiness, those which are commonly called the virtues of the heart, the fervour of Zeal or Enthusiasm, and the finer fervour of Benevolence, Sympathy, or, to use the best name, Love. For if Wisdom gives the requisite light, Love alone can give the requisite vital heat : Wisdom climbing the arduous mountain solitudes must often let the lamp slip from her benumbed fingers, must often be. near perishing in fatal lethargy amidst ice and snow-drifts, if Love be not there to cheer and revive her with the glow and the flames of the heart's quenchless fires. Charles Watts.

The receipts at Matthew Arnold’s three lectures in Boston amounted to 2000 dollars. ' Of Mi. Beecher and his visit to San Francisco, the Aigonaut says : “ His Biblical vagaries have ceased to amuse the irreveient, and his irreverences have ceased to shock the religious. Nothing can save his next ledture season-but a new doubt.” The following conversation is reported to have lately taken place between a minister and a —both of Aberdeen. _ The widow, who called upon the minister, seemed desirous of relieving her mind of something which oppressed her, at which the Rev. gentleman, wishing to hurry matters, exclaimed, “My good woman, you see can be of no service to you till you tell me what it is that troubles you.” “ Well, Sir, I’m flunkin' of getting married again.” Oh ! that is it. Let me see ; that is pretty frequent —surely. How many husbands have you had?” “Well, feii, she replied, in a tone less of sorrow than of bitterness, “ the fourth—l’m sure there’s nae woman been sac tormented wi’ a set o’ deem’ men!”