nations, excepting only the Roman Catholic
Church. It is said, indeed, that a good Catholic of the Roman
Communion cannot also be any sort of Socialist. Even this very general
persuasion may not be correct. I believe the papal prohibition was
originally aimed entirely at a specific form of Socialism, the
Socialism of Marx, Engels and Bebel, which is, I must admit,
unfortunately strongly anti-Christian in tone, as is the Socialism of
the British Social Democratic Federation to this day. It is true that
many leaders of the Socialist party have also been Secularists, and
that they have mingled their theological prejudices with their
political work. This is the case not only in Germany and America, but
in Great Britain, where Mr. Robert Blatchford of the _Clarion_, for
example, has also carried on a campaign against doctrinal
Christianity. But this association of Secularism and Socialism is only
the inevitable throwing together of two sets of ideas because they
have this in common, that they run counter to generally received
opinions; there is no other connection. Many prominent Secularists,
like Charles Bradlaugh and Mr. J. M. Robertson, are as emphatically
anti-Socialist as the Pope. Secularists and Socialists get thrown
together and classed together just as early Christians and criminals
and rebels against the Emperor were no doubt thrown together in the
Roman gaols. They had this much in common, that they were in conflict
with what most people considered to be right. It is a confusion that
needs constant explaining away. It is to me a most lamentable
association of two entirely separate thought processes, one
constructive socially and the other destructive intellectually, and I
have already, in Chapter VI., Sec. 4, done my best to disavow it.

_Socialism is pure Materialism, it seeks only physical
well-being_,--just as much as nursing lepers for pity and the love of
God is pure materialism that seeks only physical well-being.

_Socialism advocates Free Love._ This objection I have also disposed
of in Chapter VI., Secs. 2 and 4.

_Socialism renders love impossible, and reduces humanity to the
condition of a stud farm._ This, too, has been already dealt with; see
Chapter III., Secs. 2 and 5, and Chapter VI., Secs. 2, 3, and 4. These two
objections generally occur together in the same anti-Socialist speech
or tract.

_Socialism would destroy parental responsibility._ This absurd
perversion is altogether disposed of in