their rejection. Of the few who have obtained a glimpse of higher things, a large proportion cannot endure a conflict to which old associations and, above all, the old doctrine of the guilt of error, lend such a peculiar bitterness; they stifle the voice of reason, they turn away from the path of knowledge, they purchase peace at the expense of truth. This is, indeed, in our day, the most fatal of all the obstacles to enquiry. It was not till the old world had been reduced to chaos that the divine voice said, 'Let there be light;' and in the order of knowledge, as in the order of nature, dissolution must commonly precede formation. There is a period in the history of the enquirer when old opinions have been shaken or destroyed, and new opinions have not yet been formed, a period of doubt, of terror, and of darkness, when the voice of the dogmatist has not lost its power, and the phantoms of the past still hover over the mind, a period when every landmark is lost to sight, and every star is veiled, and the soul seems drifting helpless and rudderless before the destroying blast. It is in this season of transition that the temptations to stifle reason possess a fearful power. It is when contrasting the tranquillity of past assurance with the feverish paroxysms that accompany enquiry, that the mind is most likely to abandon the path of truth. It is so much easier to assume than to prove; it is so much less painful to believe than to doubt; there is such a charm in the repose of prejudice, when no discordant voice jars upon the harmony of belief; there is such a thrilling pang

when cherished dreams are scattered, and old creeds
abandoned, that it is not surprising that men should
close their eyes to the unwelcome light. Hence the
tenacity exhibited by systems that have long since
been disproved. Hence the oscillation and timidity
that characterise the research of most, and the in-
difference to truth and the worship of expediency
that cloud the fair promise of not a few.

In our age these struggles are diffused over a very
wide circle, and are felt by men of many grades of
intellect. This fact, however, while it accounts for
the perturbation and instability that characterise a
large portion of contemporary literature, should ma-
terially lighten the burden of each individual enquirer.
The great majority of the ablest intellects of the cen-
tury have preceded him, and their genius irradiates
the path. The hands of many sympathisers are ex-
tended to assist him. The disintegration around him
will facilitate his course. He who, believing that the
search for truth can never be offensive to the God of

truth, pursues his way with an unswerving energy,
may not unreasonably hope that he may assist others
in their struggle towards the light, and may in some
small degree contribute to that consummation when
the professed belief shall have been adjusted to the
requirements of the age, when the old tyranny shall
have been broken, and the anarchy of transition shall
have passed away.

Therefore if

of gravitation

man refuse treceive the doctrice and in honest error encourages tt

thede of

your children to play near the ede

Cliff

his honest; error must be res
must be respectul.

&is would be persecutur &

access & be plus ground

CHAPTER V.

THE SECULARISATION OF POLITICS.

THE evidence I have collected in the preceding chapters will be sufficient to exhibit the nature of the rationalistic movement, and also the process by which it has been developed. To establish the first, I have reviewed a long series of theological conceptions which the movement has weakened or transformed. To establish the second, I have shown that the most important changes were much less the results of direct controversy than of the attraction of the prevailing modes of thought, which themselves represented the convergence of a great variety of theological influences. In the remainder of this work, I propose to trace more fully than I have yet had occasion to do, the relations of the rationalistic movement to the political and economical history of Europe, or, in other words, to show on the one hand how the theological developement has modified political and economical theories; and, on the other hand, how the tendencies produced by these have reacted upon theology.

But, before entering upon this field, it will perhaps not be altogether unnecessary to remind the reader once more of the main principle upon which the

relevance of this species of narrative depends. It is
that the speculative opinions which are embraced by
any large body of men are accepted not on account
of the arguments upon which they rest, but on
account of a predisposition to receive them. This
predisposition depends with many persons entirely
upon the circumstances of their position, that is to
say, upon the associations of childhood, friendship,
or interest, and is of such a nature as altogether to
dispense with arguments. With others, it depends
chiefly upon the character of their minds, which in-
duces them to embrace one class of arguments rather
than another. This intellectual character, again, re-
sults partly from natural and innate peculiarities,
and partly from the totality of influences that act
upon the mind. For the mind of man is no inert re-
ceptacle of knowledge, but absorbs and incorporates
into its own constitution the ideas which it receives.
In a healthy condition, increased knowledge implies
an increased mental capacity, and each peculiar de-
partment of study not merely comprises a peculiar
kind of information, but also produces a peculiar ply
and tendency of judgment. All minds are more or
less governed by what chemists term the laws of
elective affinity. Like naturally tends to like. The
predominating passion of every man colours the whole
train of his reasoning, and in every subject he exa-
mines, he instinctively turns to that aspect which is
most congruous to his favourite pursuit.

If this be so, we should naturally expect that
politics, which occupy so large a place in the minds

So that when Mammon became the peoples.

love

of

money created a predisposition to rec.we. on the subpes of resury other

# arguments- and

Sheculative opinions
money questions, regardles
to overcome the authority of a church & bible &
denging both.

а

of men, should at all times have exercised a considerable influence on the tone of thought from which theological opinions arise, and that a general tendency to restrict the province of theology should have resulted in a secularisation of politics. In the present chapter, I shall examine the stages of that secularisation and the minor changes that are connected with it. The subject will naturally divide itself into two Theological in parts. We shall first see how theological interests in trust," the gradually ceased to be a main object of political combinations; and afterwards, how, by the repudiation of in Contradise the divine right of kings and the assertion of the linction tho in social contract, the basis of authority was secudividual s- larised.

terest, mocen

Love of God"

If we take a broad view of the course of history, and examine the relations of great bodies of men, we find that religion and patriotism are the chief moral influences to which they have been subject, and that the separate modifications and mutual interaction of these two agents may almost be said to constitute the moral history of mankind. For some centuries before the introduction of Christianity, patriotism was in most countries the presiding moral principle, and religion occupied an entirely subordinate position. Almost all those examples of heroic self-sacrifice, of passionate devotion to an unselfish aim, which antiquity affords, were produced by the spirit of patriotism. Decius and Regulus, Leonidas and Harmodius, are the pagan parallels to Christian martyrs. Nor was

It is worthy of notice, that the first developement of sculpture, which in almost all other nations was religious, in Rome appears to