mean by intellectual freedom conventional Free-thought, which is,
perhaps, as far as any superstition from true freedom of the mind. The
point may not be admitted but its consideration will clear the air, and
help to dispose of some objections hindering that spiritual freedom,
fundamental to all liberty.


II


I have no intention here of in any way criticising the doctrine of
Free-thought, but one so named cannot be ignored when we consider
Intellectual Freedom. This, then, has to be borne in mind when speaking
of Free-thought, that while it allows you latitude of opinion in many
things, it will not allow you freedom in all things, in, for example,
Revealed Religion. I only mention this to show that on both sides of
such burning questions you have disputants dogmatic. A dogmatic "yes"
meets an equally dogmatic "no." The dogmas differ and it is not part of
our business here to discuss them: but to come to a clear conception of
the matter in hand, it must be kept in mind, that if you,
notwithstanding, freely of your own accord, accept belief in certain
doctrines, the freethinkers will for that deny you freedom. And the
freethinkers are right in that they are dogmatic. (But this they
themselves appear to overlook.) Freedom is absolutely dogmatic. It is
fundamentally false that freedom implies no attachment to any belief, no
being bound by any law, "As free as the wind," as the saying goes, for
the wind is not free. Simple indeterminism is not liberty.


III