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“ The rights of man, which that generation heatedly discussed, included the rights of reason; and the disintegration of political as well as of priestly authority stimulated criticism by enlarging its liberty. In the new free atmosphere of the United States, in the cultural revival which followed the long period of disturbance in England, in the lax and luxurious condition of French society and Church, and in the "storm and stress" phase which awoke the intellect of Germany, Rationalism spread rapidly and produced an abundant and very candid literature. ”

“ On the political side the Churches had linked their fortunes to the last with those of the restored and truculent monarchies; and the new democracy, finally triumphing over its feudal oppressors, was ready to hear that the divine rightof priests had no better foundation than the divine right of kings. Just at this moment science attained maturity and began to attract even popular notice to its marvellous new interpretation of the universe. Rationalism of the more advanced character now spread on every side. ”

“ Deism had regarded the Bible as the basis of the Churches and assailed it. Many now sought to concentrate reason upon the basis of Deism itself. Men began to describe themselves as Pantheists, Atheists, and Materialists. A new phase of philosophical development began with Kant in Germany, and, how ever much it wavered in its successive oracles between Theism, Pantheism, and Atheism, it in all cases shattered the foundation of philosophical reasoning on which the Deists had confidently reared their " natural religion." ”

“ It is clear that a man who does not admit personal immortality, a quite basic and inalienable element of Christian belief, is a Rationalist in the fullest sense; yet few of those hundreds of teachers of science are included here, since they make no public profession on the subject. Even death often fails to end the reticence. ”

“ In Germany the new spirit has been chiefly embodied in Monism, or the doctrine that one reality only exists, and that therefore there is no Supreme Being distinct from the universe and no soul distinct and detachable from the human body. In all countries the new Rationalism was also incorporated in societies for moral culture without regard to Christian or Theistic beliefs. ”

“ That final profession of faith, put upon the lips of a dead man, has in hundreds of cases hidden from the public the thoughts of a distinguished sceptic.
In these circumstances this list of university professors, writers, or eminent men and women of this or the last generation who were or are Rationalists must seem impressive. It indicates a general scepticism, at least in regard to the creeds of the Churches, in the class to which the names belong—the higher world of science, art, history, philosophy, sociology, and culture generally. ”

“ I am not concerned with what we may call the Nationalists of earlier civilizations, and do not propose to include a list of all the thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome, Persia and Arabia. For the same reason I omit entirely the long list of Chinese and Japanese scholars, all of whom are Rationalists, and nearly all of whom are Agnostics. ”

“ When the Reformers substituted the Bible for the Papal authority, the next phase of Rationalism was naturally an application of literary and historical criticism to this new foundation of popular belief. The Deists rejected the idea of revelation, miracle, mystery, and priestly authority, yet acknowledged the existence of a Supreme Being, and generally admitted the personal immortality of the human mind. ”

“ Theologians who reject the idea of miracle and revelation, and even the divinity of Christ, as so many eminent theologians do to-day, do not substantially differ from many of the Deists. Rationalists who maintain that the existence of some Power which they may call God survives all rational criticism, and who highly appreciate the moral teaching of Christ and the action of the Christian religion, are freely invited, or even entreated, to describe themselves as Christians. ”

“ Both from the pressure of environment, the nature of the human mind, and the comparative poverty of positive knowledge in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was natural that Rationalism should first take the form of a simple protest against the supernatural and sacerdotal elements of the prevailing faith. ”

“ Under shelter of their rebellion, or under the stimulation of their large use of reason against faith and authority, there soon appeared the isolated thinkers who herald that more advanced stage of development the Deistic movement. ”

“ In France and other Latin countries many sought to retain the constructive energy of the old faith, while discarding even its most fundamental beliefs, by founding a Religion of Humanity, or Positivism. ”

“ Rationalism is therefore primarily a mental attitude, not a creed or a definite body of negative conclusions. No uniformity of opinions must be sought in the thousands of men and women of cultural distinction who are here included in a common category. ”

“ It is hardly too much to say that a corresponding list of men and women of the same class who, in the same two generations, made or make a profession of explicit belief in Christian doctrines would not fill a quarter of this volume. It is hardly necessary to observe that a man or woman whose name is not included in this list must not therefore be regarded as a Christian. ”

“ But the revolt, intellectual and emotional, against the creeds is seen to be overwhelming in the world of higher culture; and in an extraordinary proportion of the more recent cases the revolt extends to every attempt to formulate a religious philosophy. ”

“ In the seventeenth century, and the early part of the eighteenth century, it was still dangerous to apply the corrosive acid of reason to the bases of the most fundamental of religious doctrines the belief in a Supreme Being. ”

“ He has simply surveyed, as far as one man may do so, a vast biographical and philosophical literature, and culled such expressions of opinion as have been voluntarily given to the world or recorded by biographers. ”

“ But, since induction is no less a process of reason than deduction, the distinction is not happily framed, and it does little more than designate the tendency to attach value to metaphysical speculation as distinct from the empirical or scientific study of nature. The modern Rationalist may choose either method or, in separate fields of investigation, both. ”

“ The Socinians open the modern development, but since they and their successors, the Unitarians, remain a branch of the Christian Church, and retain some measure of the sacerdotal and authoritative element, they do not properly fall into the category of Rationalists, and are not included in this work. ”

“ Yet this common link is overlaid in this series of little biographies with so much variety of opinion, and the title to be called Rationalist in this sense is now so frequently claimed by men who linger in some branch of the Christian Church, that a more precise statement is needed.
Rationalism has, like every other idea or institution, evolved ”

“ Although the list includes more than half the literary genius of Europe and America of the last one hundred years, as well as a surprising number of eminent artists, statesmen, men of science, philosophers, reformers, and men of affairs, the sentiments quoted under each name are unmistakable. The Dictionary represents a revolt of modern culture against the Churches. ”

“ Possibly some two hundred names then belong to the period between the French Revolution and the middle of the nineteenth century, and already a material change can be detected in the list. The Deists sink into a minority, while Pantheists and Non-Theists increase. The vast majority of the names in the work belong to this and the last generation, and they are predominantly the names of Agnostics, Positivists, Monists, and others who do not accept any fundamental religious beliefs. ”

“ In popular circles, in England, the same attitude was embodied in Secularism, or the determination to transact all the practical affairs of life without relation toreligious beliefs. A few accept the more emphatic title of Atheists or Materialists. ”