ple the old man and the new."[71]
The strange contrasts which are presented by the political action of
this double-people are found also in the productions of its thought, in
which, while the spirit of piety is displayed full of life, the spirit
of irreligion is also manifested with terrible energy. A book is
instanced, of materialistic tendency,[72] published in 1828, of which a
popular edition was printed with a view to extend the opinions which it
advocated. There was sold of this edition, in a short time, more than
eighty thousand copies. A thoughtful writer, Mr. Pearson, mentions a
statistical statement, according to which English publications, openly
atheistical, reached, in the year 1851, a total of six hundred and forty
thousand copies.[73]

If we pass from the current literature to scientific publications, we
shall meet with facts of the same order. The Hegelianism and the
scepticism of the critical school are creeping into the works of some
theologians. The theories of positivism, reduced to shape in France,
have passed the channel, and have obtained in England more attention
perhaps than in the country of their origin. They have been adopted by
a distinguished author, Mr. Stuart Mill; and a female writer, Miss
Martineau, has set them forth, in her mother-tongue, for the use of her
fellow-countrymen.[74] Positivism is even in vogue, and has become
"_fashionable_" amongst certain literary and intellectual circles in
Great Britain.[75]

In less elevated regions of the intellectual world of England, an
organized sect commends itself to our attention. This sect has given to
its system of doctrine the name of _Secularism_. It has a social
object--the destruction of the Established Church and the existing
political order. It has a philosophy, the purport and bearing of which
we will inquire of Mr. Holyoake. The following is the answer of the
chief of the secularists:--"All that concerns the origin and end of
things, God and the immortal soul, is absolutely impenetrable for the
human mind. The existence of God, in particular, must be referred to
the number of abstract questions, with the ticket _not determined_. It
is probable, however, that the nature which we know, must be the God
whom we inquire after. What is called atheism is found _in suspension_
in our theory."[76] The practical consequence of these views is, that
all day-dreams relating to another world must be put aside, and we must
manage so as to live to