Being The Cunningham Lectures For 1880. Cairns (1818-1892) Was A Scottish Presbyterian Clergyman With A Very Extensive Knowledge Of Unbelief And The Short Title Doesn't Do Justice To The Scope And Breadth Of This Scholarly Little Tome, Which Is Well Footnoted But Unfortunately Lacks An Index. It Covers English Deism, The Encyclopedists In France, Rationalism In Germany And Strauss, Renan And J. S. Mill In The 19th Century And Reads As One Rather Sympathetic With Unbelief And Freethought. This Is Not A Religious Polemic And Was Certainly Noticed By Gordon Stein In His God Pro And Con Bibliography Of Atheism.