The intellectual, no less than the heroic characteristics of Freethought have presented features of obvious unity. Tindal, Shaftesbury, Voltaire, Paine, aad Bentham, all vindicated principles of Natural Morality. Shelley struggled that a pure and lofty ideal of life should prevail, and Byron had passionate words of reverence for the human character of Christ.* * Thus we read, Canto xv. stanza xviii., of Don Juan:-- Was it not so, great Locke? and greater Bacon? Great Socrates? And thou Diviner still Whose lot it is by man to be mistaken, And thy pure creed made sanctions of all ill? Redeeming world to be by bigots shaken, How was thy toil rewarded? To this stanza Lord Byron adds this note:-- "As it is necessary in these times to avoid ambiguity, I say that I mean by "Diviner still" Christ. If ever God was man--or man God--he was both. I never arraigned his creed, but the use--or abuse--made of it." The distrust of Prayer for temporal help was accompanied by trust in Science, and all saw in material effort an available deliverance from countless ills which the Church can merely deplore. Those who held that a future life was "unproven," taught that attention to this life was of primary importance, at least highly serviceable to humanity, even if a future sphere be certain. All strove for Free Inquiry--Rationalism owed its existence to it; all required Free Speech--Rationalism was diffused by it; all vindicated Free Criticism--Rationalism established itself with it; all demanded to act out their opinions--Rationalism was denuded of conscience without this right. In all its mutations, and aberrations, and conquests, Freethought has uniformly sought the truth, and shown the courage to trust the truth. Freethought uses no persecution, for it fears no opposition, for opposition is its opportunity. It is the cause of Enterprise and Progress, of Reason and Duty--and now seeking the definite and the practical, it selects for its guidance the principle that "human affairs should be regulated by considerations purely human."** These--the characteristics which the term Secularism was designed to express--are therefore not inventions, not assumptions, but the general agreements of the Freethought party, inherent, traditional, and historic. That which is new, and of the nature of a development, is the perception that the positivism of Freethought principles should be extended, should be clearly distinguished and made the subject of energetic assertion--that the Freethought party which has so loudly demanded toleration for itself, should be able to exercise it towards all earnest thinkers, and especially towards all coworkers--that those who have protested against the isolation of human effort by sectarian exclusiveness, should themselves set the example of offering, in good faith, practical conditions of unity, not for the glory of sects, or