-out
word. Both the ancients and the moderns have understood by it _one
without God, and also without morality_. Thus the term connotes more
than any well-informed and earnest person accepting it ever included in
it; that is, the word carries with it associations of immorality, which
have been repudiated by the Atheist as seriously as by the Christian.
Non-theism is a term less open to the same misunderstanding, as it
implies the simple non-acceptance of the Theist's explanation of the
origin and government of the world."[252]

But "Non-theism" was afterwards exchanged for "Secularism," as a term
less liable to misconstruction, and more correctly descriptive of the
real import of the theory. "_Secularists_ was, perhaps, the proper
designation of all who dissented extremely from the religious opinions
of the day."--"Freethinking is the _Secular_ sphere; drawing its line of
demarcation between time and eternity, it works _for the welfare of man
in this world_"--"The _Secularist_ is the larger and more comprehensive
designation of the Atheist."[253] With all this coyness and
fastidiousness about names, there can be no doubt that the character of
the system is essentially atheistic: "We refuse to employ the term God,
not having any definite idea of it which we can explain to others,--not
knowing any theory of such an existence as will enable us to defend that
dogma to others. We therefore prefer the honest, though unusual
designation of Atheist; not using it in the sense in which it is
commonly employed, as signifying _one without morality_, but in its
stricter sense of describing those _without any determinate knowledge of
Deity_."[254] "That the Atheist does consider matter to be eternal is
perfectly correct; and for this reason, no Atheist could make use of
such a term as that matter _originally_ possessed, or _originally_ was;
whatever is eternal has no origin, beginning, or end.... Organized
plants and animals--man also with his noble intellect--are not _now_ at
least produced by supernatural causes; and the Atheist, without
positively asserting that there _must_ have been a beginning to life in
this earth, argues that if a plant, an animal, or a man, can be produced
at this time without supernatural interference, so also a first plant, a
first animal, or a first man, may have been naturally produced in this
earth under the right circumstances,--circumstances which probably
cannot occur in the present condition of our