In opposing religion in the Irish Constitution, Yeats said, "Once you attempt legislation on religious grounds, you open the way for every kind of intolerance and religious persecution."

Howells cast off his Swedenborgian creed in his youth and became a social liberal and a sentimental Theist. We can see this in his poem "Lost Beliefs."

"My personal position is simple. I have no living sense of commerce with a God," said James. "Religion, in short, is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism."