its
absurdity. If Secular principles tend to make parents hate their own
children, why should their evil influence be confined to artisans? And
if Secular principles do not produce parental hatred in the wealthier
classes, why does Dr. Jayne hurl this disgraceful accusation at the
poorer class of unbelievers? It cannot be simply because they are
poorer, for he was delighted to know that "poverty by no means
necessarily meant cruelty." What, then, is the explanation? It seems to
us very obvious. Dr. Jayne was bent on libelling sceptics, and, deeming
it _safer_ to libel the _poorer_ ones, he tempered his valor with a
convenient amount of discretion. He is not even a brave fanatic. His
bigotry is crawling, cowardly, abject, and contemptible.

Dr. Jayne relied upon the authority of Mr. Waugh, who happened to be
present at the meeting. This gentleman jumped up in the middle of the
Bishop's speech, and said "it was the case, that the class most guilty
of cruelty to children were those who took materialistic, atheistic,
selfish and wicked views of their own existence." Surely this is a "fine
derangement of epitaphs." It suggests that Mr. Waugh is less malignant
than foolish. What connection does he discover between Secularism and
selfishness? Is it in our principles, in our objects, or in our policy?
Does he really imagine that the true character of any body of men and
women is likely to be written out by a hostile partisan? Such a person
might be a judge of our _public_ actions, and we are far from denying
his right to criticise them; but when he speaks of our _private_ lives,
before men of his own faith, and without being under the necessity of
adducing a single scrap of evidence, it is plain to the most obtuse
intelligence that his utterances are perfectly worthless.

We have as much right as Mr. Waugh to ask the world to accept our view
of the private life of Secularists. That is, we have no right at all.
Nevertheless we have a right to state our experience and leave the
reader to form his own opinion. Having entered the homes of many
Secularists, we have been struck with their fondness for children The
danger lies, if it lies anywhere, in their tendency to "spoil" them. It
is a curious fact--and we commend it to the attention of Dr. Jayne and
Mr. Waugh--that the most sceptical country in Europe is the one where
children are the best treated, and where there is no need for a Society
to save them from the clutches of crue