"All science," says M. Comte, "has prevision for its end, an axiom which separates science from erudition, which relates to events of the past without any regard to the future. No accumulation of facts can effect prevision until the facts are made the basis of reasonings. A knowledge of phenomena leads to prevision, and prevision to action;" or, in other words, when we can foresee what will happen under given circumstances, we can provide against it. It by no means follows that every Secularist will be scientific, but to discern the value of science, to appreciate and promote it, may be possible to most. Science requires high qualities of accurate observation, close attention, careful experiment, caution, patience, labour. Its value to mankind is inestimable. One physician will do more to alleviate human suffering than ten priests. One physical discovery will do more to advance civilization than a generation of prayer-makers. "To get acquaintance with the usual course of Nature (which Science alone can teach us), is a kind of knowledge which pays very good interest."* * Athenæum, No. 1,637, March 12, 1850. The value of this knowledge becomes more apparent the longer we live. There may be a general superintending Providence--there may be a Special Providence, but the first does not interfere in human affairs, and the interpositions of the second are no longer to be counted upon. The age of Prayer for temporal deliverance has confessedly passed away. But without disputing these points, it is clear that the only help _available_ to man, the sole dependence upon which he can _calculate_, is that of Science. Nothing can be more impotent than the fate of that man who seeks social elevation by mere Faith. All human affairs are a process, and he alone who acts upon this knowledge can hope to control results. Loyola foresaw the necessity of men acting for human purposes, as though there were no God. "Let us pray," said he, "as if we had no help in ourselves; _let us labour as if there was no help for us in heaven_." Society is a blunder, not a science, until it ensures good sense and competence for the many. Why this process is tardy, is that creedists get credit for hoping and meaning well. Creedists of good intent, who make no improvement and attempt none, are very much in the way of human betterance. The spiritualist regards the world theoretically as a gross element, which he is rather to struggle against than to work with. This makes human service a mortification instead of pure passion. We would not deify the world, that is, set up the sensualism of the body, as spiritualism is set up as the sensualism of the soul. Secularism seeks the material purity of the present life, which is at once the _means_ and _end_ of Secular endeavour. The most reliable means of progress is the _improvement of material condition_, and "purity" implies "improvement," for there can be no improvement without it. The aim of all improvement is higher purity.