{"product_id":"2940013168626","title":"THE PRINCIPLES OF SECULARISM","description":"CHAPTER II. THE TERM SECULARISM.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \"The adoption of the term Secularism is justified by its\u003cbr\u003e     including a large number of persons who are not Atheists,\u003cbr\u003e     and uniting them for action which has Secularism for its\u003cbr\u003e     object, and not Atheism. On this ground, and because, by the\u003cbr\u003e     adoption of a new term, a vast amount of impediment from\u003cbr\u003e     prejudice is got rid of, the use of the name Secularism is\u003cbr\u003e     found advantageous.\"--Harriet Martineau. _Boston\u003cbr\u003e     Liberator_.--Letter to Lloyd Garrison, November, 1853.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEVERY one observant of public controversy in England, is aware of its\u003cbr\u003eimproved tone of late years. This improved tone is part of a wider\u003cbr\u003eprogress, 'Increase of wealth has led to improvement of taste, and the\u003cbr\u003ediffusion of knowledge to refinement of sentiment. The mass are better\u003cbr\u003edressed, better mannered, better spoken than formerly. A coffee-room\u003cbr\u003ediscussion, conducted by mechanics, is now a more decorous exhibition\u003cbr\u003ethan a debate in Parliament was in the days of Canning.* Boisterousness\u003cbr\u003eat the tables of the rich, and insolence in the language of the poor,\u003cbr\u003eare fast disappearing. \"Good society\" is now that society in which\u003cbr\u003epeople practise the art of being genial, without being familiar, and in\u003cbr\u003ewhich an evincible courtesey of speech is no longer regarded as timidity\u003cbr\u003eor effeminacy, but rather as proof of a disciplined spirit, which\u003cbr\u003echooses to avoid all offence, the better to maintain the right\u003cbr\u003eperemptorily punishing wanton insult. Theologians, more inveterate\u003cbr\u003ein speech than politicians, now observe a respectfulness to opponents\u003cbr\u003ebefore unknown. That diversity of opinion once ascribed to \"badness of\u003cbr\u003eheart\" is now, with more discrimination, referred to defect or diversity\u003cbr\u003eof understanding--a change which, discarding invective, recognizes\u003cbr\u003einstruction as the agent of uniformity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     * From whose lips the House of Commons cheered a   reference\u003cbr\u003e     to a political adversary as \"the revered and ruptured\u003cbr\u003e     Ogden.\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147501781232,"sku":"2940013168626","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013168626_p0.jpg?v=1763577784","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013168626","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}