English Secularism; A Confession of Belief
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General Books (Publisher)
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2014
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The publisher of this book utilises modern printing technologies as well as photocopying processes for reprinting and preserving rare works of literature that are out-of-print or on the verge of becoming lost. This book is one such reprint.
General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1896 Original Publisher: The Open court publishing company Subjects: Secularism Christianity Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER IV. THE SECOND STAGE OF FREE THOUGHT : ENTERPRISE. "Better wild ideas than no ideas at all." -- Professor Nichol at Horsham. r I AHE emancipation of the understanding from in- J- timidation and penal restraint soon incited thinkers of enterprise to put their new powers to use. Theology being especially a forbidden subject and the greatest repressive force, inquiry into its pretensions first attracted critical attention. In every century forlorn hopes of truth had set out to storm one or other of the ramparts of theology. Forces had been marshalled by great leaders and battle often given in the open field; and unforeseen victories are recorded, in the annals of the wars of infantine rationalism, against the full-grown powers of superstition and darkness. In every age valiant thinkers, scholars, philosophers, and critics, even priests in defiance of power, ecclesiastical and civil, have, at their own peril, explored the regions of forbidden truth. In Great Britain it was the courage of insurgent thinkers among the working class -- whom no imprison ment could intimidate -- who caused the right of free speech and free publicity to be finally conceded. Thus rulers came round to the conclusion of Caballero, that "tolerance is as necessary in ideas as in social relations." As soon as opinion was known to be emancipated, men began to think who never thought before. The thinker no longer had to obtain a "Ticket of Leave " from the Churches before he could inquire ; he was free to investigate where he would ...
