the best advantage possible in the present
life.[77] Hence the name of the system. _Secularism_ teaches its
disciples to have nothing to do with religion in any shape, that they
may confine themselves strictly to the present life. It is an attempt of
which the express object is to realize life without God.

These doctrines formed the subject of public discussions, in London in
1853, and at Glasgow in 1854. The meeting at Glasgow numbered, it is
said, more than three thousand persons.[78] The sect employs as its
means of action open-air speeches, the publication of books and
journals,[79] and assemblies for giving information and holding debates
in lecture-rooms. There are five of these lecture-rooms in London. I
have seen the programme, for 1864, of the meetings held at No. 12,
Cleveland Street, under the direction of Messrs. Holyoake and J. Clark.
There are, every Sunday,--a discourse at eleven o'clock, a discussion at
three o'clock, a lecture at seven o'clock. The programme invites all
free-thinkers to attend these meetings. Some of the assemblies are
public; for others a small entrance fee is demanded. London is the
principal centre of the association; but it has branches all over the
country, and it numbers in Great Britain twenty-one lecture-rooms,
particularly at Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, and
Edinburgh.[80] Secularism naturally seeks to magnify, as much as may be,
its own importance; and it is not to the declarations of its apostles
that we must refer in order to estimate the extent and influence of its
action. At the same time the existence of a society, the avowed object
of which is the diffusion of practical atheism, cannot be regarded with
indifference. At the present moment the affairs of the sect would not
appear to be flourishing. A year ago a secularist orator had delivered a
vehement speech in favor of virtue. Just as he had resumed his seat, a
policeman entered the room and took him into custody. A few days
afterwards the _Times_ informed its readers that the orator of virtue
had just been condemned for theft to twelve months' hard labor.[81] In
the _Secular World_ of the 1st January, 1864, Mr. Holyoake complains
that a great many _mauvais sujets_ seem to seek in secularism a kind of
cheap religion. He declares that he is going to use energetic efforts to
purify the sect, and seems to intimate that he shall retire if his
efforts fail. Let us leave him to wrestle against the invasion of