'RAMSAY MACDONALD'S RELIGION
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In connexion with the discussion on this subject in your columns, the first statement that " professedly he belonged to no orthodox religious community " is supported by his own statement that his " intellectual anchorage " was Scientific Meliorism (Jane Hume Clapperton, 1885). This statement was made in his Kilmarnock speech while still Prime Minister. The following extract from Scientific Meliorism will illus- trate its attitude towards religious enquiry : " It frankly deliberately relinquished supernaturalism, and in the sphere of the real set to work to reconstruct a religious cultus. It discarded all theological ideals and dogmas, all selfish rewards and terrors." This new cultus was said to have as inspiration the scientific doctrine of universal love and kindness, and 2n evolution vista of universal happiness.—Yours faithfully,
W. P. DREAPER.
Hampstead Heath, N.W. 3.
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