A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume...

201 Art. “The Faith of Richard Jefferies,” by H. S. Salt, in Westminster Review, August, 1905, rep. as pamphlet by the R. P. A., 1906. ↑

202 The writer of these scurrilities is Mr. Bramwell Booth, War Cry, May 27, 1905. ↑

203 Cp. Mrs. Sutherland Orr’s article on “The Religious Opinions of Robert Browning” in the Contemporary Review, December, 1891, p. 878; and the present writer’s Tennyson and Browning as Teachers, 1903. ↑

204 Apropos of his Theatrocrat, which he pronounced “the most profound and original of English books.” Mr. Davidson in a newspaper article proclaimed himself on socio-political grounds an anti-Christian. “I take the first resolute step out of Christendom,” was his claim (Daily Chronicle, December 20, 1905). ↑

205 See Talks with Emerson, by C. J. Woodbury, 1890, pp. 93–94. ↑

206 It was in his old age that Whitman tended most to “theize” Nature. In conversation with Dr. Moncure Conway, he once used the expression that “the spectacle of a mouse is enough to stagger a sextillion of infidels.” Dr. Conway replied: “And the sight of the cat playing with the mouse is enough to set them on their feet again”; whereat Whitman tolerantly smiled. ↑

207 Kahnis, Internal Hist. of Ger. Protestantism, Eng. tr. 1856, p. 78. ↑

208Geständnisse, end (Werke, ed. 1876, iv, 59). ↑

209Zur Gesch. der Relig. und Philos. in Werke, ed. cited, iii, 80. ↑

210 See Ernest Newman’s Study of Wagner, 1899, p. 390, note, as to the vagueness of Wagnerians on the subject. ↑

211 Tikhomirov, La Russie, 2e édit. p. 343. ↑

212 See Comte de Voguë’s Le roman russe, p. 218, as to his propaganda of atheism. ↑

213 Arnaudo, Le Nihilisme et les Nihilistes, French tr. 50. ↑

214 Tikhomirov, p. 344. ↑

215 “Il [Tourguénief] était libre-penseur, et détestât l’apparat religieux d’une manière toute particulière.” I. Pavlovsky, Souvenirs sur Tourguénief, 1887, p. 242. ↑

216 See the article “Un Précurseur d’Henrik Ibsen, Soeren Kierkegaard,” in the Revue de Paris, July 1, 1901. ↑

217 Prof. A. D. White, Hist. of the Warfare of Science with Theology, 1896, i, 17, 22. ↑

218 The phrase is used by a French Protestant pastor. La vérité chrétienne et la doute moderne (Conférences), 1879, pp. 24–25. ↑

219Antiquities of the Jews, by William Brown, D.D., Edinburgh, 1826, i, 121–22. Brown quotes “from a friend” a demonstration of the monstrous consequences of a stoppage of the earth’s rotation. ↑

220Theopneustia: The Plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, Eng. trans. Edinburgh, 1850, pp. 246–49. Gaussen elaborately argues that if eighteen minutes were allowed for the stoppage of the earth’s rotation, no shock would occur. Finally, however, he argues that there may have been a mere refraction of the sun’s rays—an old theory, already set forth by Brown. ↑

221 Dr. C. R. Edmonds, Introd. to rep. of Leland’s View of the Deistical Writers, Tegg’s ed. 1837, p. xxiii. ↑

222 The work consists of twelve “Mémoires” or treatises, six of which were read in 1796–1797 at the Institute. They appeared in book form in 1802. ↑

223Rapports, Ier Mémoire, § ii, near end. (Éd. 1843, p. 73.) Cp. Préf. (pp. 46–47). ↑

224 Ed. cited, p. 54. Cp. p. 207, note. ↑

225 Not published till 1824. ↑

226 Ueberweg, ii, 339. ↑

227 Cp. Luchaire, as cited, p. 36. ↑

228 Lange, Gesch. des Materialismus, ii, 134. ↑

229 “Since Cabanis, the referring back of mental functions to the nervous system has remained dominant in physiology, whatever individual physiologists may have thought about final causes” (Lange, ii, 70). Compare the tribute of Cabanis’s orthodox editor Cerise (ed. 1843, Introd. pp. xlii-iii). ↑

230Rapports, IIe Mémoire, near end. (Ed. cited, p. 122.) ↑

231 See the already cited introduction of Cerise, who solved the problem religiously by positing “a force which executes the plans of God without our knowledge or intervention” (p. xix). He goes on to lament the pantheism of Dr. Dubois (whose Examen des doctrines de Cabanis, Gall, et Broussais (1842) was put forward as a vindication of the “spiritual” principle), and of the German school of physiology represented by Oken and Burdach. ↑

232 Lawrence’s Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, 8th ed. 1840, pp. 1–3. The aspersion of Abernethy is typical of the orthodox malignity of the time. Cabanis in his preface had expressly contended for the all-importance of morals. The orthodox Dr. Cerise, who edited his book in 1843, while acknowledging the high character of Cabanis, thought fit to speak of “the materialists” as “interested in abasing man” (introd. p. xxi). On the score of fear of demoralization, the champions of “spirit” themselves exhibited the maximum of baseness. ↑

233 Lawrence’s Lectures, p. 9, note. ↑

234Id. pp. 168–69. ↑

235 Yet Lawrence was created a baronet two months before his death. So much progress had been made in half a century. ↑

236 Work cited, pp. 355 sq., 375 sq. The tone is at times expressive of a similar attitude towards historical religion—e.g.: “Human testimony is of so little value ... that it cannot be received with sufficient caution. To doubt is the beginning of wisdom.” Id. p. 269. ↑

237 Cp. Whewell, Hist. of the Inductive Sciences, 3rd ed. iii, 505. ↑

238 White, as cited, i, 222–23, gives a selection of the language in general use among theologians on the subject. ↑

239 The early policy of the Geological Society of London (1807), which professed to seek for facts and to disclaim theories as premature (cp. Whewell, iii, 428; Buckle, iii, 392), was at least as much socially as scientifically prudential. ↑

240 See the excellent monograph of W. M. Mackenzie, Hugh Miller: A Critical Study, 1905, ch. vi; and cp. Spencer’s essay on Illogical Geology—Essays, vol. i; and Baden Powell’s Christianity without Judaism, 1857, p. 254 sq. Miller’s friend Dick, the Thurso naturalist, being a freethinker, escaped such error. (Mackenzie, pp. 161–64.) ↑