1. The improvement of this life by _material_ means. 2. That science is the available** Providence of man. 3. That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good. * M. Aurelius Antoninus said, "I seek the truth by which no man was ever injured." It would be true had he said mankind. Men are continually injured by the truth, or how do martyrs come, or why do we honor them? **This phrase was a suggestion of my friend the Rev. Dr. H. T. Crosskey about 1854. I afterwards used the word "available" which does not deny, nor challenge, nor affirm the belief in a theological Providence by others, who, therefore, are not incited to assail the effectual proposition that material resources are an available Providence where a spiritual Providence is inactive. Individual good attained by methods conducive to the good of others, is the highest aim of man, whether regard be had to human welfare in this life or personal fitness for another. Precedence is therefore given to the duties of this life. Being asked to send to the International Congress of Liberal Thinkers, (1886), an account of the tenets of the English party known as Secularists, I gave the following explanation to them. "The Secular is that, the issues of which can be tested by the experience of this life. "The ground common to all self-determined thinkers is that of independency of opinion, known as free thought, which though but an impulse of intellectual courage in the search for truth, or an impulse of aggression against hurtful or irritating error, or the caprice of a restless mind, is to be encouraged. It is necessary to promote independent thought--whatever its manner of manifestation--since there can be no progress without it. A Secularist is intended to be a reasoner, that is as Coleridge defined him, one who inquires what a thing is, and not only what it is, but _why_ it is what it is. "One of two great forces of opinion created in this age, is what is known as atheism,* which deprives superstition of its standing-ground and compels theism to reason for its existence. The other force is materialism which shows the physical consequences of error, supplying, as it were, beacon lights to morality. * Huxley's term agnosticism implies a different thing-- unknowingness without denial.