Freethinkers of the Nineteenth Century

A book which includes subjects so diverse needs some sort of explanation — perhaps even some sort of apology. It was conceived in the autumn of 1918, when the great Crusade of the twentieth century was in sight of its triumphant close. The question could not but obtrude itself: Whence came that passion for liberty which had sustained us and our kinsfolk through the long war that was henceforth to make the world safe for democracy? No doubt this passion was deep-rooted in our common history. It could be traced back to John’s Barons and to Magna Carta, to the Protestant Reformers of Elizabeth’s days, to Pym and Hampden, to Cromwell and his Ironsides, to those who won American Independence, or Representation and Reform at home in the eighteen thirties. But to all these history had long since paid their meed of praise. If we of the twentieth century were to call to mind famous men, were we not chiefly “bound to recall” the great liberators of our own time, the young men who left home and wife and child to free the world once for all from the terror of German militarism?