,,theological ,,essays ,,and ,,other ,,papers4 ,,by ,,thomas ,,de ,,quincey ,,author ,,of ',,confessions ,,of ,,an ,,english ,,opium-,,eater1' ,,etc4 ,,etc4 ,,in ,,two ,,volumes4 ,,vol4 ,i4 ,,contents ,,of ,,volume ,i4 ,,on ,,christianity ,,as ,,an ,,organ ,,of ,,political ,,movement ,,protestantism ,,on ,,the ,,supposed ,,scriptural ,,expression ,,for ,,eternity ,,judas ,,iscariot ,,on ,,hume',s ,,argument ,,against ,,miracles ,,casuistry ,,greece ,,under ,,the ,,romans ,,on ,,christianity1 ,,as ,,an ,,organ ,,of ,,political ,,movement4 #ahdf4 ,,forces1 which are illimitable in their compass of effect1 are often1 for the same reason1 obscure and untraceable in the steps of their movement4 ,growth1 for instance1 animal or vegetable1 what eye can arrest its eternal increments8 ,the hour-hand of a watch1 who can detect the separate fluxions of its advance8 ,judging by the past1 and the change which is registered between that and the present1 we know that it must be awake2 judging by the immediate appearances1 we should say that it was always asleep4 ,gravitation1 again1 that works without holiday for ever1 and searches every corner of the universe1 what intellect can follow it to its fountains8 ,and yet1 shyer than gravitation1 less to be counted than the fluxions of sun-dials1 stealthier than the growth of a forest1 are the footsteps of ,christianity amongst the political workings of man4 ,nothing1 that the heart of man values1 is so secret2 nothing is so potent4 ,it is because ,christianity works so secretly1 that it works so potently2 it is because ,christianity burrows and hides itself1 that it towers above the clouds2 and hence partly it is that its working comes to be misapprehended1 or even lost out of sight4 ,it is dark to eyes touched with the films of human frailty3 but it is 'dark with excessive bright4',footnote3 ',dark with excessive bright4' ,paradise ,lost4 ,book ,,iii4 ,hence it has happened sometimes that minds of the highest order have entered into enmity with the ,christian faith1 have arraigned it as a curse to man1 and have fought against it even upon ,christian impulses1 7impulses of benignity that could not have had a birth except in ,christianity47 ,all comes from the labyrinthine intricacy in which the social action of ,christianity involves itself to the eye of a contemporary4 ,simplicity the most absolute is reconcilable with intricacy the most elaborate4 ,the weather--how simple would appear the laws of its oscillations1 if we stood at their centre6 and yet1 because we do not1 to this hour the weather is a mystery4 ,human health--how transparent is its economy under ordinary circumstances6 abstinence and cleanliness1 labor and rest1 these simple laws1 observed in just proportions1 laws that may be engrossed upon a finger nail1 are sufficient1 on the whole1 to maintain the equilibrium of pleasurable existence4 ,yet1 if once that equilibrium is disturbed1 where is the science oftentimes deep enough to rectify the unfathomable watch-work8 ,even the simplicities of planetary motions do not escape distortion3 nor is it easy to be convinced that the distortion is in the eye which beholds1 not in the object beheld4 ,let a planet be wheeling with heavenly science1 upon arches of divine geometry3 suddenly1 to us1 it shall appear unaccountably retrograde2 flying when none pursues2 and unweaving its own work4 ,let this planet in its utmost elongations travel out of sight1 and for us its course will become incoherent3 because our sight is feeble1 the beautiful curve of the planet shall be dislocated into segments1 by a parenthesis of darkness2 because our earth is in no true centre1 the disorder of parallax shall trouble the laws of light2 and1 because we ourselves are wandering1 the heavens shall seem fickle4 ,exactly in the predicament of such a planet is ,christianity3 its motions are intermingled with other motions2 crossed and thwarted1 eclipsed and disguised1 by counter-motions in man himself1 and by disturbances that man cannot overrule4 ,upon lines that are direct1 upon curves that are circuitous1 ,christianity is advancing for ever2 but from our imperfect vision1 or from our imperfect opportunities for applying even such a vision1 we cannot trace it continuously4 ,we lose it1 we regain it2 we see it doubtfully1 we see it interruptedly2 we see it in collision1 we see it in combination2 in collision with darkness that confounds1 in combination with cross lights that perplex4 ,and this in part is irremediable2 so that no finite intellect will ever retrace the total curve upon which ,christianity has moved1 any more than eyes that are incarnate will ever see ,god4 ,but part of this difficulty in unweaving the maze1 has its source in a misconception of the original machinery by which ,christianity moved1 and of the initial principle which constituted its differential power4 ,in books1 at least1 ,i have observed one capital blunder upon the relations which ,christianity bears to ,paganism3 and out of that one mistake1 grows a liability to others1 upon the possible relations of ,christianity to the total drama of this world4 ,i will endeavor to explain my views4 ,and the reader1 who takes any interest in the subject1 will not need to fear that the explanation should prove tedious2 for the mere want of space1 will put me under a coercion to move rapidly over the ground2 ,i cannot be diffuse2 and1 as regards quality1 he will find in this paper little of what is scattered over the surface of books4 ,i begin with this question3--,what do people mean in a ,christian land by the word 'religion8' ,my purpose is not to propound any metaphysical problem2 ,i wish only1 in the plainest possible sense1 to ask1 and to have an answer1 upon this one point--how much is understood by that obscure term199 'religion1' when used by a ,christian8 ,only ,i am punctilious upon one demand1 viz41 that the answer shall be comprehensive4 ,we are apt in such cases to answer elliptically1 omitting1 because silently presuming as understood between us1 whatever seems obvious4 ,to prevent that1 we will suppose the question to be proposed by an emissary from some remote planet1--who1 knowing as yet absolutely nothing of us and our intellectual differences1 must insist 7as ,i insist7 upon absolute precision1 so that nothing essential shall be wanting1 and nothing shall be redundant4 99,footnote3 ',that obscure term2'--i4 e4 not obscure as regards the use of the term1 or its present value1 but as regards its original genesis1 or what in civil law is called the deductio4 ,under what angle1 under what aspect1 or relation1 to the field which it concerns did the term religion originally come forward8 ,the general field1 overlooked by religion1 is the ground which lies between the spirit of man and the supernatural world4 ,at present1 under the humblest conception of religion1 the human spirit is supposed to be interested in such a field by the conscience and the nobler affections1 ,but ,i suspect that originally these great faculties were absolutely excluded from the point of view4 ,probably the relation between spiritual terrors and man's power of propitiation1 was the problem to which the word religion formed the answer4 ,religion meant apparently1 in the infancies of the various idolatries1 that latreia1 or service of sycophantic fear1 by which1 as the most approved method of approach1 man was able to conciliate the favor1 or to buy off the malice of supernatural powers4 ,in all ,pagan nations1 it is probable that religion would1 an the whole1 be a degrading influence2 although ,i see1 even for such nations1 two cases1 at the least1 where the uses of a religion would be indispensable2 viz4 for the sanction of oaths1 and as a channel for gratitude not pointing to a human object4 ,if so1 the answer is easy3 religion was degrading3 but heavier degradations would have arisen from irreligion4 ,the noblest of all idolatrous peoples1 viz4 the ,romans1 have left deeply scored in their very use of their word religlo1 their testimony to the degradation wrought by any religion that ,paganism could yield4 ,rarely indeed is this word employed1 by a ,latin author1 in speaking of an individual1 without more or less of sneer4 ,reading that word1 in a ,latin book1 we all try it and ring it1 as a petty shopkeeper rings a half-crown1 before we venture to receive it as offered in good faith and loyalty4 ,even the ,greeks are nearly in the same 1 when they wish to speak of religiosity in a spirit of serious praise4 ,some circuitous form1 commending the correctness of a man1 1 in respect of divine things1 becomes requisite2 for all the direct terms1 expressing the religious temper1 are preoccupied by a taint of scorn4 ,the word 1 means pious1--not as regards the gods1 but as regards the dead2 and even 1 though not used sneeringly1 is a world short of our word 'religious4' ,this condition of language we need not wonder at3 the language of life must naturally receive1 as in a mirror1 the realities of life4 ,difficult it is to maintain a just equipoise in any moral habits1 but in none so much as in habits of religious demeanor under a ,pagan that is1 a degrading religion4 ,to be a coward1 is base3 to be a sycophant1 is base3 but to be a sycophant in the service of cowardice1 is the perfection of baseness3 and yet this was the brief analysis of a devotee amongst the ancient ,romans4 ,now1 considering that the word religion is originally ,roman1 probably from the ,etruscan1 it seems probable that it presented the idea of religion under some one of its bad aspects4 ,coleridge must quite have forgotten this ,paganism of the word1 when he suggested as a plausible idea1 that originally it had presented religion under the aspect of a coercion or restraint4 ,morality having been viewed as the prime restraint or obligation resting upon man1 then ,coleridge thought that religion might have been viewed as a religatio1 a reiterated restraint1 or secondary obligation4 ,this is ingenious1 but it will not do4 ,it is cracked in the ring4 ,perhaps as many as three objections might be mustered to such a derivation3 but the last of the three is conclusive4 ,the ancients never did view morality as a mode of obligation3 ,i affirm this peremptorily2 and with the more emphasis1 because there are great consequences suspended upon that question4 ,what1 then1 is religion8 ,decomposed into its elements1 as they are found in ,christianity1 how many powers for acting on the heart of man1 does1 by possibility1 this great agency include8 ,according to my own view1 four4,footnote3 there are six1 in one sense1 of religion3 viz4 #ethly1 corresponding moral affections2 #fthly1 a suitable life4 ,but this applies to religion as subjectively possessed by a man1 not to religion as objectively contemplated4 ,i will state them1 and number them4 #ast4 ,a form of worship1 a cultus4 #b;dly4 ,an idea of ,god2 and 7pointing the analysis to ,christianity in particular7 an idea not purified merely from ancient pollutions1 but recast and absolutely born again4 #c;dly4 ,an idea of the relation which man occupies to ,god3 and of this idea also1 when ,christianity is the religion concerned1 it must be said1 that it is so entirely remodelled1 as in no respect to resemble any element in any other religion4 ,thus far we are reminded of the poet's expression1 ',pure religion breathing household laws2' that is1 not teaching such laws1 not formally prescribing a new economy of life1 so much as inspiring it indirectly through a new atmosphere surrounding all objects with new attributes4 ,but there is also in ,christianity1 #dthly4 ,a doctrinal part1 a part directly and explicitly occupied with teaching2 and this divides into two great sections1 1 ,a system of ethics so absolutely new as to be untranslatable,footnote3 ,this is not generally perceived4 ,on the contrary1 people are ready to say1 ',why1 so far from it1 the very earliest language in which the ,gospels appeared1 excepting only ,st4 ,matthew's1 was the ,greek4' ,yes1 reader2 but what ,greek8 ,had not the ,greeks been1 for a long time1 colonizing ,syria under princes of ,grecian blood1--had not the ,greek language 7as a lingua ,hellenistica7 become steeped in ,hebrew ideas1--no door of communication could have been opened between the new world of ,christian feeling1 and the old world so deaf to its music4 ,here1 therefore1 we may observe two preparations made secretly by ,providence for receiving ,christianity and clearing the road before it2 first1 the diffusion of the ,greek language through the whole civilized world 7 7 some time before ,christ1 by which means the ,evangelists found wings1 as it were1 for flying abroad through the kingdoms of the earth2 secondly1 the ,hebraizing of this language1 by which means the ,evangelists found a new material made plastic and obedient to these new ideas1 which they had to build with1 and which they had to build upon4 into either of the classical languages2 and1 1 ,a system of mysteries2 as1 for instance1 the mystery of the ,trinity1 of the ,divine ,incarnation1 of the ,atonement1 of the ,resurrection1 and others4 ,here are great elements2 and now let me ask1 how many of these are found in the ,heathen religion of ,greece and ,rome8 ,this is an important question2 it being my object to show that no religion but the ,christian1 and precisely through some one or two of its differential elements1 could have been an organ of political movement4 ,most divines who anywhere glance at this question1 are here found in1 what seems to me1 the deepest of errors4 ,great theologians are they1 and eminent philosophers1 who have presumed that 7as a matter of course7 all religions1 however false1 are introductory to some scheme of morality1 however imperfect4 ,they grant you that the morality is oftentimes unsound2 but still1 they think that some morality there must have been1 or else for what purpose was the religion8 ,this ,i pronounce error4 ,all the moral theories of antiquity were utterly disjoined from religion4 ,but this fallacy of a dogmatic or doctrinal part in ,paganism is born out of ,anachronism4 ,it is the anachronism of unconsciously reflecting back upon the ancient religions of darkness1 and as if essential to all religions1 features that never were suspected as possible1 until they had been revealed in ,christianity4,footnote3 ,once for all1 to save the trouble of continual repetitions1 understand ,judaism to be commemorated jointly with ,christianity2 the dark root together with the golden fruitage2 whenever the nature of the case does not presume a contradistinction of the one to the other4 ,religion1 in the eye of a ,pagan1 had no more relation to morals1 than it had to ship-building or trigonometry4 ,but1 then1 why was religion honored amongst ,pagans8 ,how did it ever arise8 ,what was its object8 ,object6 it had no object2 if by this you mean ulterior object4 ,pagan religion arose in no motive1 but in an impulse4 ,pagan religion aimed at no distant prize ahead3 it fled from a danger immediately behind4 ,the gods of the ,pagans were wicked natures2 but they were natures to be feared1 and to be propitiated2 for they were fierce1 and they were moody1 and 7as regarded man who had no wings7 they were powerful4 ,once accredited as facts1 the ,pagan gods could not be regarded as other than terrific facts2 and thus it was1 that in terror1 blind terror1 as against power in the hands of divine wickedness1 arose the ancient religions of ,paganism4 ,because the gods were wicked1 man was religious2 because ,olympus was cruel1 earth trembled2 because the divine beings were the most lawless of ,thugs1 the human being became the most abject of sycophants4 ,had the religions of ,paganism arisen teleologically2 that is1 with a view to certain purposes1 to certain final causes ahead2 had they grown out of forward-looking views1 contemplating1 for instance1 the furthering of civilization1 or contemplating some interests in a world beyond the present1 there would probably have arisen1 concurrently1 a section in all such religions1 dedicated to positive instruction4 ,there would have been a doctrinal part4 ,there might have been interwoven with the ritual or worship1 a system of economics1 or a code of civil prudence1 or a code of health1 or a theory of morals1 or even a secret revelation of mysterious relations between man and the ,deity3 all which existed in ,judaism4 ,but1 as the case stood1 this was impossible4 ,the gods were mere odious facts1 like scorpions or rattlesnakes1 having no moral aspects whatever2 public nuisances2 and bearing no relation to man but that of capricious tyrants4 ,first arising upon a basis of terror1 these gods never subsequently enlarged that basis2 nor sought to enlarge it4 ,all antiquity contains no hint of a possibility that love could arise1 as by any ray mingling with the sentiments in a human creature towards a ,divine one2 not even sycophants ever pretended to love the gods4 ,under this original peculiarity of ,paganism1 there arose two consequences1 which ,i will mark by the ,greek letters and 4 ,the latter ,i will notice in its order1 first calling the reader's attention to the consequence marked 1 which is this3--,in the full and profoundest sense of the word believe1 the pagans could not be said to believe in any gods3 but1 in the ordinary sense1 they did1 and do1 and must believe1 in all gods4 ,as this proposition will startle some readers1 and is yet closely involved in the main truth which ,i am now pressing1 viz4 the meaning and effect of a simple cultus1 as distinguished from a high doctrinal religion1 let us seek an illustration from our ,indian empire4 ,the ,christian missionaries from home1 when first opening their views to ,hindoos1 describe themselves as laboring to prove that ,christianity is a true religion1 and as either asserting1 or leaving it to be inferred1 that1 on that assumption1 the ,hindoo religion is a false one4 ,but the poor ,hindoo never dreamed of doubting that the ,christian was a true religion2 nor will he at all infer1 from your religion being true1 that his own must be false4 ,both are true1 he thinks3 all religions are true2 all gods are true gods2 and all are equally true4 ,neither can he understand what you mean by a false religion1 or how a religion could be false2 and he is perfectly right4 ,wherever religions consist only of a worship1 as the ,hindoo religion does1 there can be no competition amongst them as to truth4 ,that would be an absurdity1 not less nor other than it would be for a ,prussian to denounce the ,austrian emperor1 or an ,austrian to denounce the ,prussian king1 as a false sovereign4 ,false6 ,how false8 ,in what sense false8 ,surely not as non-existing4 ,but at least1 7the reader will reply17 if the religions contradict each other1 one of them must be false4 ,yes2 but that is impossible4 ,two religions cannot contradict each other1 where both contain only a cultus3 they could come into collision only by means of a doctrinal1 or directly affirmative part1 like those of ,christianity and ,mahometanism4 ,but this part is what no idolatrous religion ever had1 or will have4 ,the reader must not understand me to mean that1 merely as a compromise of courtesy1 two professors of different idolatries would agree to recognise each other4 ,not at all4 ,the truth of one does not imply the falsehood of the other4 ,both are true as facts3 neither can be false1 in any higher sense1 because neither makes any pretence to truth doctrinal4 ,this distinction between a religion having merely a worship1 and a religion having also a body of doctrinal truth1 is familiar to the ,mahometans2 and they convey the distinction by a very appropriate expression4 ,those majestic religions1 7as they esteem them17 which rise above the mere pomps and tympanies of ceremonial worship1 they denominate 'religions of the book4' ,there are1 of such religions1 three1 viz41 ,judaism1 ,christianity1 and ,islamism4 ,the first builds upon the ,law and the ,prophets2 or1 perhaps1 sufficiently upon the ,pentateuch2 the second upon the ,gospel2 the last upon the ,koran4 ,no other religion can be said to rest upon a book2 or to need a book2 or even to admit of a book4 ,for we must not be duped by the case where a lawgiver attempts to connect his own human institutes with the venerable sanctions of a national religion1 or the case where a learned antiquary unfolds historically the record of a vast mythology4 ,heaps of such cases1 7both law and mythological records17 survive in the ,sanscrit1 and in other pagan languages4 ,but these are books which build upon the religion1 not books upon which the religion is built4 ,if a religion consists only of a ceremonial worship1 in that case there can be no opening for a book2 because the forms and details publish themselves daily1 in the celebration of the worship1 and are traditionally preserved1 from age to age1 without dependence on a book4 ,but1 if a religion has a doctrine1 this implies a revelation or message from ,heaven1 which cannot1 in any other way1 secure the transmission of this message to future generations1 than by causing it to be registered in a book4 ,a book1 therefore1 will be convertible with a doctrinal religion3--no book1 no doctrine2 and1 again1 no doctrine1 no book4 ,upon these principles1 we may understand that second consequence 7marked 7 which has perplexed many men1 viz41 why it is that the ,hindoos1 in our own times2 but1 equally1 why it is that the ,greek and ,roman idolaters of antiquity1 never proselytized2 no1 nor could have viewed such an attempt as rational4 ,naturally1 if a religion is doctrinal1 any truth which it possesses1 as a secret deposit consigned to its keeping by a revelation1 must be equally valid for one man as for another1 without regard to race or nation4 ,for a doctrinal religion1 therefore1 to proselytize1 is no more than a duty of consistent humanity4 ,you1 the professors of that religion1 possess the medicinal fountains4 ,you will not diminish your own share by imparting to others4 ,what churlishness1 if you should grudge to others a health which does not interfere with your own6 ,christians1 therefore1 ,mahometans1 and ,jews originally1 in proportion as they were sincere and conscientious1 have always invited1 or even forced1 the unbelieving to their own faith3 nothing but accidents of situation1 local or political1 have disturbed'this effort4 ,but1 on the other hand1 for a mere 'cultus' to attempt conversions1 is nonsense4 ,an ancient ,roman could have had no motive for bringing you over to the worship of ,jupiter ,capitolinus2 nor you any motive for going4 ',surely1 poor man1' he would have said1 'you have1 some god of your own1 who will be quite as good for your countrymen as ,jupiter for mine4 ,but1 if you have not1 really ,i am sorry for your case2 and a very odd case it is3 but ,i don't see how it could be improved by talking nonsense4 ,you cannot beneficially1 you cannot rationally1 worship a tutelary ,roman deity1 unless in the character of a ,roman2 and a ,roman you may become1 legally and politically4 ,being such1 you will participate in all advantages1 if any there are1 or our national religion2 and1 without needing a process of conversion1 either in substance or in form4 ,ipso facto1 and without any separate choice of your own1 on becoming a ,roman citizen1 you become a party to the ,roman worship4' ,for an idolatrous religion to proselytize1 would1 therefore1 be not only useless but unintelligible4 ,now1 having explained that point1 which is a great step towards the final object of my paper1 viz41 the investigation of the reason why ,christianity is1 which no pagan religion ever has been1 an organ of political movement1 ,i will go on to review rapidly those four constituents of a religion1 as they are realized in ,christianity1 for the purpose of contrasting them with the false shadows1 or even blank negations1 of these constituents in pagan idolatries4 ,first1 then1 as to the ,,cultus1 or form of the national worship3--,in our ,christian ritual ,i recognise these separate acts2 viz4 ,a1 an act of ,praise2 ,b1 an act of ,thanksgiving2 ,c1 an act of ,confession2 ,d1 an act of ,prayer4 ,in ,a1 we commemorate with adoration the general perfections of the ,deity4 ,there1 all of us have an equal interest4 ,in ,b1 we commemorate with thankfulness those special qualities of the ,deity1 or those special manifestations of them1 by which we1 the individual worshippers1 have recently benefited4 ,in ,c1 by upright confession1 we deprecate4 ,in ,d1 we pray1 or ask for the things which we need4 ,now1 in the cultus of the ancient pagans1 ,b and ,c 7the second act and the third7 were wanting altogether4 ,no thanksgiving ever ascended1 on his own account1 from the lips of an individual2 and the state thanksgiving for a triumph of the national armies1 was but a mode of ostentatiously publishing the news4 ,as to ,c1 it is scarcely necessary to say that this was wanting1 when ,i mention that penitential feelings were unknown amongst the ancients1 and had no name2 for pnitentia,footnote3 ,in ,greek1 there is a word for repentance1 but not until it had been rebaptized into a ,christian use4 ,metanoia1 however1 is not that word3 it is grossly to defeat the profound meaning of the ,new ,testament1 if ,john the ,baptist is translated as though summoning the world to repentance2 it was not that to which he summoned them4 means regret1 not penitence2 and me pnitet hujus facti1 means1 ',i rue this act in its consequences1' not ',i repent of this act for its moral nature4' ,a and ,d1 the first act and the last1 appear to be present2 but are so most imperfectly4 ,when ',god is praised aright1' praised by means of such deeds or such attributes as express a divine nature1 we recognise one great function of a national worship1--not otherwise4 ,this1 however1 we must overlook and pardon1 as being a fault essential to the religion3 the poor creatures did the best they could to praise their god1 lying under the curse of gods so thoroughly depraved4 ,but in ,d1 the case is different4 ,strictly speaking1 the ancients never prayed2 and it may be doubted whether ,d approaches so near to what we mean by prayer1 as even by a mockery4 ,you read of preces1 of 1 c4 and you are desirous to believe that pagan supplications were not always corrupt4 ,it is too shocking to suppose1 in thinking of nations idolatrous yet noble1 that never any pure act of approach to the heavens took place on the part of man2 that always the intercourse was corrupt2 always doubly corrupt2 that eternally the god was bought1 and the votary was sold4 ,oh1 weariness of man's spirit before that unresting mercenariness in high places1 which neither1 when his race clamored for justice1 nor when it languished for pity1 would listen without hire6 ,how gladly would man turn away from his false rapacious divinities to the godlike human heart1 that so often would yield pardon before it was asked1 and for the thousandth time that would give without a bribe6 ,in strict propriety1 as my reader knows1 the classical ,latin word for a prayer is votum2 it was a case of contract2 of mercantile contract2 of that contract which the ,roman law expressed by the formula--,do ut des4 ,vainly you came before the altars with empty hands4 ,but my hands are pure4 ,pure1 indeed6 would reply the scoffing god1 let me see what they contain4 ,it was exactly what you daily read in morning papers1 viz43--that1 in order to appear effectually before that ,olympus in ,london1 which rains rarities upon us poor abject creatures in the provinces1 you must enclose 'an order on the ,post-,office or a reference4' ,it is true that a man did not always register his votum1 7the particular offering which he vowed on the condition of receiving what he asked17 at the moment of asking4 ,ajax1 for instance1 prays for light in the ',iliad1' and he does not then and there give either an order or a reference4 ,but you are much mistaken1 if you fancy that even light was to be had gratis4 ,it would be 'carried to account4' ,ajax would be 'debited' with that 'advance4' ,yet1 when it occurs to a man that1 in this ,do ut des1 the general ,do was either a temple or a sacrifice1 naturally it occurs to ask what was a sacrifice8 ,i am afraid that the dark murderous nature of the pagan gods is here made apparent4 ,modern readers1 who have had no particular reason for reflecting on the nature and management of a sacrifice1 totally misconceive it4 ,they have a vague notion that the slaughtered animal was roasted1 served up on the altars as a banquet to the gods2 that these gods by some representative ceremony 'made believe' to eat it2 and that finally1 7as dishes that had now become hallowed to divine use17 the several joints were disposed of in some mysterious manner3 burned1 suppose1 or buried under the altars1 or committed to the secret keeping of rivers4 ,nothing of the sort3 when a man made a sacrifice1 the meaning was1 that he gave a dinner4 ,and not only was every sacrifice a dinner party1 but every dinner party was a sacrifice4 ,this was strictly so in the good old ferocious times of paganism1 as may be seen in the ,iliad3 it was not said1 ',agamemnon has a dinner party to-day1' but ',agamemnon sacrifices to ,apollo4' ,even in ,rome1 to the last days of paganism1 it is probable that some slight memorial continued to connect the dinner party cna with a divine sacrifice2 and thence partly arose the sanctity of the hospitable board2 but to the east of the ,mediterranean the full ritual of a sacrifice must have been preserved in all banquets1 long after it had faded to a form in the less superstitious ,west4 ,this we may learn from that point of casuistry treated by ,st4 ,paul1--whether a ,christian might lawfully eat of things offered to idols4 ,the question was most urgent2 because a ,christian could not accept an invitation to dine with a ,grecian fellow-citizen who still adhered to paganism1 without eating things offered to idols2--the whole banquet was dedicated to an idol4 ,if he would not take that1 he must continue impransus4 ,consequently1 the question virtually amounted to this3 ,were the ,christians to separate themselves altogether from those whose interests were in so many ways entangled with their own1 on the single consideration that these persons were heathens8 ,to refuse their hospitalities1 was to separate1 and with a hostile expression of feeling4 ,that would be to throw hindrances in the way of ,christianity3 the religion could not spread rapidly under such repulsive prejudices2 and dangers1 that it became un-,christian to provoke1 would thus multiply against the infant faith4 ,this being so1 and as the gods were really the only parties invited who got nothing at all of the banquet1 it becomes a question of some interest1--what did they get8 ,they were merely mocked1 if they had no compensatory interest in the dinner6 ,for surely it was an inconceivable mode of honoring ,jupiter1 that you and ,i should eat a piece of roast beef1 leaving to the god's share only the mockery of a ,barmecide invitation1 assigning him a chair which every body knew that he would never fill1 and a plate which might as well have been filled with warm water8 ,jupiter got something1 be assured2 and what was it8 ,this it was1--the luxury of inhaling the groans1 the fleeting breath1 the palpitations1 the agonies1 of the dying victim4 ,this was the dark interest which the wretches of ,olympus had in human invitations to dinner3 and it is too certain1 upon comparing facts and dates1 that1 when left to their own choice1 the gods had a preference for man as the victim4 ,all things concur to show1 that precisely as you ascend above civilization1 which continually increased the limitations upon the gods of ,olympus1 precisely as you go back to that gloomy state in which their true propensities had power to reveal themselves1 was man the genuine victim for them1 and the dying anguish of man the best 'nidor' that ascended from earthly banquets to their nostrils4 ,their stern eyes smiled darkly upon the throbbings of tortured flesh1 as in ,moloch's ears dwelt like music the sound of infants' wailings4 ,secondly1 as to the birth of a new idea respecting the nature of ,god3--,it may not have occurred to every reader1 but none will perhaps object to it1 when once suggested to his consideration1 that--as is the god of any nation1 such will be that nation4 ,god1 however falsely conceived of by man1 even though splintered into fragments by ,polytheism1 or disfigured by the darkest mythologies1 is still the greatest of all objects offered to human contemplation4 ,man1 when thrown upon his own delusions1 may have raised himself1 or may have adopted from others1 the very falsest of ideals1 as the true image and reflection of what he calls god4 ,in his lowest condition of darkness1 terror may be the moulding principle for spiritual conceptions2 power1 the engrossing attribute which he ascribes to his deity2 and this power may be hideously capricious1 or associated with vindictive cruelty4 ,it may even happen1 that his standard of what is highest in the divinity should be capable of falling greatly below what an enlightened mind would figure to itself as lowest in man4 ,a more shocking monument1 indeed1 there cannot be than this1 of the infinity by which man may descend below his own capacities of grandeur3 the gods1 in some systems of religion1 have been such and so monstrous by excesses of wickedness1 as to insure1 if annually one hour of periodical eclipse should have left them at the mercy of man1 a general rush from their own worshippers for strangling them as mad dogs4 ,hypocrisy1 the cringing of sycophants1 and the credulities of fear1 united to conceal this misotheism2 but we may be sure that it was widely diffused through the sincerities of the human heart4 ,an intense desire for kicking ,jupiter1 or for hanging him1 if found convenient1 must have lurked in the honorable ,koman heart1 before the sincerity of human nature could have extorted upon the ,roman stage a public declaration1--that their supreme gods were capable of enormities which a poor1 unpretending human creature homuncio would have disdained4 ,many times the ideal of the divine nature1 as adopted by pagan races1 fell under the contempt1 not only of men superior to the national superstition1 but of men partaking in that superstition4 ,yet1 with all those drawbacks1 an ideal was an ideal4 ,the being set up for adoration as god1 was such upon the whole to the worshipper2 since1 if there had been any higher mode of excellence conceivable for him1 that higher mode would have virtually become his deity4 ,it cannot be doubted1 therefore1 that the nature of the national divinities indicated the qualities which ranked highest in the national estimation2 and that being contemplated continually in the spirit of veneration1 these qualities must have worked an extensive conformity to their own standard4 ,the mythology sanctioned by the ritual of public worship1 the features of moral nature in the gods distributed through that mythology1 and sometimes commemorated by gleams in that ritual1 domineered over the popular heart1 even in those cases where the religion had been a derivative religion1 and not originally moulded by impulses breathing from the native disposition4 ,so that1 upon the whole1 such as were the gods of a nation1 such was the nation3 given the particular idolatry1 it became possible to decipher the character of the idolaters4 ,where ,moloch was worshipped1 the people would naturally be found cruel2 where the ,paphian ,venus1 it could not be expected that they should escape the taint of a voluptuous effeminacy4 ,against this principle1 there could have been no room for demur1 were it not through that inveterate prejudice besieging the modern mind1--as though all religion1 however false1 implied some scheme of morals connected with it4 ,however imperfectly discharged1 one function even of the pagan priest 7it is supposed7 must have been--to guide1 to counsel1 to exhort1 as a teacher of morals4 ,and1 had that been so1 the practical precepts1 and the moral commentary coming after even the grossest forms of worship1 or the most revolting mythological legends1 might have operated to neutralize their horrors1 or even to allegorize them into better meanings4 ,lord ,bacon1 as a trial of skill1 has attempted something of that sort in his ',wisdom of the ,ancients4' ,but all this is modern refinement1 either in the spirit of playful ingenuity or of ignorance4 ,i have said sufficiently that there was no doctrinal part in the religion of the pagans4 ,there was a cultus1 or ceremonial worship3 that constituted the sum total of religion1 in the idea of a pagan4 ,there was a necessity1 for the sake of guarding its traditional usages1 and upholding and supporting its pomp1 that official persons should preside in this cultus3 that constituted the duty of the priest4 ,beyond this ritual of public worship1 there was nothing at all2 nothing to believe1 nothing to understand4 ,a set of legendary tales undoubtedly there was1 connected with the mythologic history of each separate deity4 ,but in what sense you understood these1 or whether you were at all acquainted with them1 was a matter of indifference to the priests2 since many of these legends were variously related1 and some had apparently been propagated in ridicule of the gods1 rather than in their honor4 ,with ,christianity a new scene was opened4 ,in this religion the cultus1 or form of worship1 was not even the primary business1 far less was it the exclusive business4 ,the worship flowed as a direct consequence from the new idea exposed of the divine nature1 and from the new idea of man's relations to this nature4 ,here were suddenly unmasked great doctrines1 truths positive and directly avowed3 whereas1 in ,pagan forms of religion1 any notices which then were1 or seemed to be1 of circumstances surrounding the gods1 related only to matters of fact or accident1 such as that a particular god was the son or the nephew of some other god2 a truth1 if it were a truth1 wholly impertinent to any interest of man4 ,as there are some important truths1 dimly perceived or not at all1 lurking in the idea of ,god1--an idea too vast to be navigable as yet by the human understanding1 yet here and there to be coasted1--,i wish at this point to direct the reader's attention upon a passage which he may happen to remember in ,sir ,isaac ,newton3 the passage occurs at the end of the ',optics2' and the exact expressions ,i do not remember2 but the sense is what ,i am going to state3 ,sir ,isaac is speaking of ,god2 and he takes occasion to say1 that ,god is not good1 but goodness2 is not holy1 but holiness2 is not infinite1 but infinity4 ,this1 ,i apprehend1 will have struck many readers as merely a rhetorical bravura2 sublime1 perhaps1 and fitted to exalt the feeling of awe connected with so unapproachable a mystery1 but otherwise not throwing any new light upon the darkness of the idea as a problem before the intellect4 ,yet indirectly perhaps it does1 when brought out into its latent sense by placing it in juxtaposition with paganism4 ,if a philosophic theist1 who is also a ,christian1 or who 7not being a ,christian17 has yet by his birth and breeding become saturated with ,christian ideas and feelings1,footnote3 this case is far from uncommon2 and undoubtedly1 from having too much escaped observation1 it has been the cause of much error4 ,poets ,i could mention1 if it were not invidious to do so1 who1 whilst composing in a spirit of burning enmity to the ,christian faith1 yet rested for the very sting of their pathos upon ideas that but for ,christianity could never have existed4 ,translators there have been1 ,english1 ,french1 ,german1 of ,mahometan books1 who have so colored the whole vein of thinking with sentiments peculiar to ,christianity1 as to draw from a reflecting reader the exclamation1 ',if this can be indeed the product of ,islamism1 wherefore should ,christianity exist8' ,if thoughts so divine can1 indeed1 belong to a false religion1 what more could we gain from a true one8 attempts to realize the idea of supreme ,deity1 he becomes aware of a double and contradictory movement in his own mind whilst striving towards that result4 ,he demands1 in the first place1 something in the highest degree generic2 and yet again in the opposite direction1 something in the highest degree individual2 he demands on the one path1 a vast ideality1 and yet on the other1 in union with a determinate personality4 ,he must not surrender himself to the first impulse1 else he is betrayed into a mere anima mundi2 he must not surrender himself to the second1 else he is betrayed into something merely human4 ,this difficult antagonism1 of what is most and what is least generic1 must be maintained1 otherwise the idea1 the possible idea1 of that august unveiling which takes place in the ,judaico-,christian ,god1 is absolutely in clouds4 ,now1 this antagonism utterly collapses in paganism4 ,and to a philosophic apprehension1 this peculiarity of the heathen gods is more shocking and fearful than what at first sight had seemed most so4 ,when a man pauses for the purpose of attentively reviewing the ,pantheon of ,greece and ,rome1 what strikes him at the first with most depth of impression and with most horror is1 the wickedness of this ,pantheon4 ,and he observes with surprise1 that this wickedness1 which is at a furnace-heat in the superior gods1 becomes fainter and paler as you descend4 ,amongst the semi-deities1 such as the ,oreads or ,dryads1 the ,nereids or ,naiads1 he feels not at all offended4 ,the odor of corruption1 the saeva mephitis1 has by this time exhaled4 ,the uproar of eternal outrage has ceased4 ,and these gentle divinities1 if too human and too beset with infirmities1 are not impure1 and not vexed with ugly appetites1 nor instinct of quarrel3 they are tranquil as are the hills and the forests2 passionless as are the seas and the fountains which they tenant4 ,but1 when he ascends to the dii majorum gentium1 to those twelve gods of the supreme house1 who may be called in respect of rank1 the ,paladins of the classical ,pantheon1 secret horror comes over him at the thought that demons1 reflecting the worst aspects of brutal races1 ever could have levied worship from his own4 ,it is true they do so no longer as regards our planet4 ,but what has been apparently may be4 ,god made the ,greeks and ,romans of one blood with himself2 he cannot deny that intellectually the ,greeks--he cannot deny that morally the ,romans--were amongst the foremost of human races2 and he trembles in thinking that abominations1 whose smoke ascended through so many ages to the supreme heavens1 may1 or might1 so far as human resistance is concerned1 again become the law for the noblest of his species4 ,a deep feeling1 it is true1 exists latently in human beings of something perishable in evil4 ,whatsoever is founded in wickedness1 according to a deep misgiving dispersed amongst men1 must be tainted with corruption4 ,there might seem consolation2 but a man who reflects is not quite so sure of that4 ,as a commonplace resounding in schools1 it may be justly current amongst us1 that what is evil by nature or by origin must be transient4 ,but that may be because evil in all human things is partial1 is heterogeneous2 evil mixed with good2 and the two natures1 by their mutual enmity1 must enter into a collision1 which may possibly guarantee the final destruction of the whole compound4 ,such a result may not threaten a nature that is purely and totally evil1 that is homogeneously evil4 ,dark natures there may be1 whose essence is evil1 that may have an abiding root in the system of the universe not less awfully exempt from change than the mysterious foundations of ,god4 ,this is dreadful4 ,wickedness that is immeasurable1 in connection with power that is superhuman1 appals the imagination4 ,yet this is a combination that might easily have been conceived2 and a wicked god still commands a mode of reverence4 ,but that feature of the pagan pantheon1 which ,i am contrasting with this1 viz41 that no pagan deity is an abstraction but a vile concrete1 impresses myself with a subtler sense of horror2 because it blends the hateful with a mode of the ludicrous4 ,for the sake of explaining myself to the non-philosophic reader1 ,i beg him to consider what is the sort of feeling with which he regards an ancient river-god1 or the presiding nymph of a fountain4 ,the impression which he receives is pretty much like that from the monumental figure of some allegoric being1 such as ,faith or ,hope1 ,fame or ,truth4 ,he hardly believes that the most superstitious ,grecian seriously believed in such a being as a distinct personality4 ,he feels convinced that the sort of personal existence ascribed to such an abstraction1 as well as the human shape1 are merely modes of representing and drawing into unity a variety of phenomena and agencies that seem one1 by means of their unintermitting continuity1 and because they tend to one common purpose4 ,now1 from such a symbolic god as this1 let him pass to ,jupiter or ,mercury1 and instantly he becomes aware of a revolting individuality4 ,he sees before him the opposite pole of deity4 ,the river-god had too little of a concrete character4 ,jupiter has nothing else4 ,in ,jupiter you read no incarnation of any abstract quality whatever3 he represents nothing whatever in the metaphysics of the universe4 ,except for the accident of his power1 he is merely a man4 ,he has a character1 that is1 a tendency or determination to this quality or that1 in excess2 whereas a nature truly divine must be in equilibrio as to all qualities1 and comprehend them all1 in the way that a genus comprehends the subordinate species4 ,he has even a personal history3 he has passed through certain adventures1 faced certain dangers1 and survived hostilities that1 at one time1 were doubtful in their issue4 ,no trace1 in short1 appears1 in any ,grecian god1 of the generic4 ,whereas we1 in our ,christian ideas of ,god1 unconsciously1 and without thinking of ,sir ,isaac ,newton1 realize ,sir ,isaac's conceptions4 ,we think of him as having a sort of allegoric generality1 liberated from the bonds of the individual2 and yet1 also1 as the most awful among natures1 having a conscious personality4 ,he is diffused through all things1 present everywhere1 and yet not the less present locally4 ,he is at a distance unapproachable by finite creatures2 and yet1 without any contradiction1 7as the profound ,st4 ,paul observes17 'not very far' from every one of us4 ,and ,i will venture to say1 that many a poor old woman has1 by virtue of her ,christian inoculation1 ,sir ,isaac's great idea lurking in her mind2 as for instance1 in relation to any of ,god's attributes2 suppose holiness or happiness1 she feels1 7though analytically she could not explain17 that ,god is not holy or is not happy by way of participation1 after the manner of other beings3 that is1 he does not draw happiness from a fountain separate and external to himself1 and common to other creatures1 he drawing more and they drawing less2 but that he1 himself is the fountain2 that no other being can have the least proportion of either one or the other but by drawing from that fountain2 that as to all other good gifts1 that as to life itself1 they are1 in man1 not on any separate tenure1 not primarily1 but derivatively1 and only in so far as ,god enters into the nature of man2 that 'we live and move' only so far and so long as the incomprehensible union takes place between the human spirit and the fontal abyss of the divine4 ,in short1 here1 and here only1 is found the outermost expansion1 the centrifugal1 of the ,,to catholic1 united with the innermost centripetal of the personal consciousness4 ,had1 therefore1 the pagan gods been less detestable1 neither impure nor malignant1 they could not have won a salutary veneration--being so merely concrete individuals4 ,next1 it must have degraded the gods1 7and have made them instruments of degradation for man17 that they were1 one and all1 incarnations2 not1 as even the ,christian ,god is1 for a transitory moment and for an eternal purpose2 but essentially and by overruling necessity4 ,the ,greeks could not conceive of spirituality4 ,neither can we1 metaphysically1 assign the conditions of the spiritual2 but1 practically1 we all feel and represent to our own minds the agencies of ,god1 as liberated from bonds of space and time1 of flesh and of resistance4 ,this the ,greeks could not feel1 could not represent4 ,and the only advantage which the gods enjoyed over the worm and the grub was1 that they1 7or at least the ,paladins amongst them--the twelve supreme gods17 could pass1 fluently1 from one incarnation to another4 ,thirdly4 ,out of that essential bondage to flesh arose a dreadful suspicion of something worse3 in what relation did the pagan gods stand to the abominable phenomenon of death8 ,it is not by uttering pompous flatteries of ever-living and ambrotos aei1 c41 that a poet could intercept the searching jealousies of human penetration4 ,these are merely oriental forms of compliment4 ,and here1 by the way1 as elsewhere1 we find ,plato vehemently confuted3 for it was the undue exaltation of the gods1 and not their degradation1 which must be ascribed to the frauds of poets4 ,tradition1 and no poetic tradition1 absolutely pointed to the grave of more gods than one4 ,but waiving all that as liable to dispute1 one thing we know1 from the ancients themselves1 as open to no question1 that all the gods were born2 were born infants2 passed through the stages of helplessness and growth2 from all which the inference was but too fatally obvious4 ,besides1 there were grandfathers1 and even great-grandfathers in the ,pantheon3 some of these were confessedly superannuated2 nay1 some had disappeared4 ,even men1 who knew but little of ,olympian records1 knew this1 at least1 for certain1 that more than one dynasty of gods had passed over the golden stage of ,olympus1 had made their exit1 and were hurrying onward to oblivion4 ,it was matter of notoriety1 also1 that all these gods were and had been liable to the taint of sorrow for the death of their earthly children1 7as the ,homeric ,jupiter for ,sarpedon1 ,thetis for ,achilles1 ,calliope1 in ,euripides1 for her blooming ,rhesus27 all were liable to fear2 all to physical pain2 all to anxiety2 all to the indefinite menaces of a danger not measurable4,footnote3 it must not be forgotten that all the superior gods passed through an infancy 7as ,jove1 c47 or even an adolescence1 7as ,bacchus17 or even a maturity1 7as the majority of ,olympus during the insurrection of the ,titans17 surrounded by perils that required not strength only1 but artifice1 and even abject self-concealment to evade4 ,looking backwards or looking forwards1 the gods beheld enemies that attacked their existence1 or modes of decay1 7known and unknown17 which gnawed at their roots4 ,all this ,i take the trouble to insist upon3 not as though it could be worth any man's trouble1 at this day1 to expose 7on its own account7 the frailty of the ,pantheon1 but with a view to the closer estimate of the ,divine idea amongst men2 and by way of contrast to the power of that idea under ,christianity3 since ,i contend that1 such as is the ,god of every people1 such1 in the corresponding features of character1 will be that people4 ,if the god 7like ,moloch7 is fierce1 the people will be cruel2 if 7like ,typhon7 a destroying energy1 the people will be gloomy2 if 7like the ,paphian ,venus7 libidinous1 the people will be voluptuously effeminate4 ,when the gods are perishable1 man cannot have the grandeurs of his nature developed3 when the shadow of death sits upon the highest of what man represents to himself as celestial1 essential blight will sit for ever upon human aspirations4 ,one thing only remains to be added on this subject3 ,why were not the ancients more profoundly afflicted by the treacherous gleams of mortality in their gods8 ,how was it that they could forget1 for a moment1 a revelation so full of misery8 ,since not only the character of man partly depended upon the quality of his god1 but also and a fortiori1 his destiny upon the destiny of his god4 ,but the reason of his indifference to the divine mortality was--because1 at any rate1 the pagan man's connection with the gods terminated at his own death4 ,even selfish men would reconcile themselves to an earthquake1 which should swallow up all the world2 and the most unreasonable man has professed his readiness1 at all times1 to die with a dying universe--mundo secum pereunte1 mori4 ,but1 thirdly1 the gods being such1 in what relation to them did man stand8 ,it is a fact hidden from the mass of the ancients themselves1 but sufficiently attested1 that there was an ancient and secret enmity between the whole family of the gods and the human race4 ,this is confessed by ,herodotus as a persuasion spread through some of the nations amongst which he travelled3 there was a sort of truce1 indeed1 between the parties2 temples1 with their religious services1 and their votive offerings1 recorded this truce4 ,but below all these appearances lay deadly enmity1 to be explained only by one who should know the mysterious history of both parties from the eldest times4 ,it is extraordinary1 however1 that ,herodotus should rely1 for this account1 upon the belief of distant nations1 when the same belief was so deeply recorded amongst his own countrymen in the sublime story of ,prometheus4 ,much,footnote3 not all3 for part was due to the obstinate concealment from ,jupiter1 by ,prometheus1 of the danger which threatened his throne in a coming generation4 of the sufferings endured by ,prometheus was on account of man1 whom he had befriended2 and1 by befriending1 had defeated the malignity of ,jove4 ,according to some1 man was even created by ,prometheus3 but no accounts1 until lying ,platonic philophers arose1 in far later times1 represented man as created by ,jupiter4 ,now let us turn to ,christianity2 pursuing it through the functions which it exercises in common with ,paganism1 and also through those which it exercises separately and incommunicably4 ,i4 ,as to the ,idea of ,god1--how great was the chasm dividing the ,hebrew ,god from all gods of idolatrous birth1 and with what starry grandeur this revelation of ,supreme deity must have wheeled upwards into the field of human contemplation1 when first surmounting the steams of earth-born heathenism1 ,i need not impress upon any ,christian audience4 ,to their knowledge little could be added4 ,yet to know is not always to feel3 and without a correspondent depth of feeling1 there is in moral cases no effectual knowledge4 ,not the understanding is sufficient upon such ground1 but that which the ,scriptures in their profound philosophy entitle the 'understanding heart4' ,and perhaps few readers will have adequately appreciated the prodigious change effected in the theatre of the human spirit1 by the transition1 sudden as the explosion of light1 in the ,hebrew cosmogony1 when1 from the caprice of a fleshly god1 in one hour man mounted to a justice that knew no shadow of change2 from cruelty1 mounted to a love which was inexhaustible2 from gleams of essential evil1 to a holiness that could not be fathomed2 from a power and a knowledge1 under limitations so merely and obviously human1,footnote3 ,it is a natural thought1 to any person who has not explored these recesses of human degradation1 that surely the ,pagans must have had it in their power to invest their gods with all conceivable perfections1 quite as much as we that are not ,pagans4 ,the thing wanting to the ,pagans1 he will think1 was the right3 otherwise as regarded the power4 to the same agencies lying underneath creation1 as a root below a plant4 ,not less awful in power was the transition from the limitations of space and time to ubiquity and eternity1 from the familiar to the mysterious1 from the incarnate to the spiritual4 ,these enormous transitions were fitted to work changes of answering magnitude in the human spirit4 ,the reader can hardly make any mistake as to this4 ,he must concede the changes4 ,what he will be likely to misconceive1 unless he has reflected1 is--the immensity of these changes4 ,and another mistake1 which he is even more likely to make1 is this3 he will imagine that a new idea1 even though the idea of an object so vast as ,god1 cannot become the ground of any revolution more than intellectual--cannot revolutionize the moral and active principles in man1 consequently cannot lay the ground of any political movement4 ,we shall see4 ,but next1 that is1-- ,,ii4 ,secondly1 as to the idea of man's relation to ,god1 this1 were it capable of disjunction1 would be even more of a revolutionary idea than the idea of ,god4 ,but the one idea is enlinked with the other4 ,in ,paganism1 as ,i have said1 the higher you ascend towards the original fountains of the religion1 the more you leave behind the frauds1 forgeries1 and treacheries of philosophy2 so much the more clearly you descry the odious truth--that man stood in the relation of a superior to his gods1 as respected all moral qualities of any value1 but in the relation of an inferior as respected physical power4 ,this was a position of the two parties fatal1 by itself1 to all grandeur of moral aspirations4 ,whatever was good or corrigibly bad1 man saw associated with weakness2 and power was sealed and guaranteed to absolute wickedness4 ,the evil disposition in man to worship success1 was strengthened by this mode of superiority in the gods4 ,merit was disjoined from prosperity4 ,even merit of a lower class1 merit in things morally indifferent1 was not so decidedly on the side of the gods as to reconcile man to the reasonableness of their yoke4 ,they were compelled to acquiesce in a government which they did not regard as just4 ,the gods were stronger1 but not much2 they had the unfair advantage of standing over the heads of men1 and of wings for flight or for manoeuvring4 ,yet even so1 it was clearly the opinion of ,homer's age1 that1 in a fair fight1 the gods might have been found liable to defeat4 ,the gods again were generally beautiful3 but not more so than the elite of mankind2 else why did these gods1 both male and female1 continually persecute our race with their odious love8 which love1 be it observed1 uniformly brought ruin upon its objects4 ,intellectually the gods were undoubtedly below men4 ,they pretended to no great works in philosophy1 in legislation1 or in the fine arts1 except only that1 as to one of these arts1 viz4 poetry1 a single god vaunted himself greatly in simple ages4 ,but he attempted neither a tragedy nor an epic poem4 ,even in what he did attempt1 it is worth while to follow his career4 ,his literary fate was what might have been expected4 ,after the ,persian war1 the reputation of his verses rapidly decayed4 ,wits arose in ,athens1 who laughed so furiously at his style and his metre1 in the ,delphic oracles1 that at length some echoes of their scoffing began to reach ,delphi2 upon which the god and his inspired ministers became sulky1 and finally took refuge in prose1 as the only shelter they could think of from the caustic venom of ,athenian malice4 ,these were the miserable relations of man to the ,pagan gods4 ,every thing1 which it is worth doing at all1 man could do better4 ,now it is some feature of alleviation in a servile condition1 if the lord appears by natural endowments superior to his slave2 or at least it embitters the degradation of slavery1 if he does not4 ,greatly1 therefore1 must human interests have suffered1 had this jealous approximation of the two parties been the sole feature noticeable in the relations between them4 ,but there was a worse4 ,there was an original enmity between man and the ,pantheon2 not the sort of enmity which we ,christians ascribe to our ,god2 that is but a figure of speech3 and even there is a derivative enmity2 an enmity founded on something in man subsequent to his creation1 and having a ransom annexed to it4 ,but the enmity of the heathen gods was original--that is1 to the very nature of man1 and as though man had in some stage of his career been their rival2 which indeed he was1 if we adopt ,milton's hypothesis of the gods as ruined angels1 and of man as created to supply the vacancy thus arising in heaven4 ,now1 from this dreadful scheme of relations1 between the human and divine1 under ,paganism1 turn to the relations under ,christianity4 ,it is remarkable that even here1 according to a doctrine current amongst many of the elder divines1 man was naturally superior to the race of beings immediately ranking above him4 ,jeremy ,taylor notices the obscure tradition1 that the angelic order was1 by original constitution1 inferior to man2 but this original precedency had been reversed for the present1 by the fact that man1 in his higher nature1 was morally ruined1 whereas the angelic race had not forfeited the perfection of their nature1 though otherwise an inferior nature4 ,waiving a question so inscrutable as this1 we know1 at least1 that no allegiance or homage is required from man towards this doubtfully superior race4 ,and when man first finds himself called upon to pay tributes of this nature as to a being inimitably his superior1 he is at the same moment taught by a revelation that this awful superior is the same who created him1 and that in a sense more than figurative1 he himself is the child of ,god4 ,there stand the two relations1 as declared in ,paganism and in ,christianity1--both probably true4 ,in the former1 man is the essential enemy of the gods1 though sheltered by some conventional arrangement2 in the latter1 he is the son of ,god4 ,in his own image ,god made him2 and the very central principle of his religion is1 that ,god for a great purpose assumed his own human nature2 a mode of incarnation which could not be conceivable1 unless through some divine principle common to the two natures1 and forming the nexus between them4 ,with these materials it is1 and others resembling these1 that ,christianity has carried forward the work of human progression4 ,the ethics of ,christianity it was1--new ethics and unintelligible1 in a degree as yet but little understood1 to the old pagan nations1--which furnished the rudder1 or guidance1 for a human revolution2 but the mysteries of ,christianity it was1--new ,eleusinian shows1 presenting ,god under a new form and aspect1 presenting man under a new relation to ,god1--which furnished the oars and sails1 the moving forces1 for the advance of this revolution4 ,it was my intention to have shown how this great idea of man's relation to ,god1 connected with the previous idea of ,god1 had first caused the state of slavery to be regarded as an evil4 ,next1 ,i proposed to show how charitable institutions1 not one of which existed in pagan ages1 hospitals1 and asylums of all classes1 had arisen under the same idea brooding over man from age to age4 ,thirdly1 ,i should have attempted to show1 that from the same mighty influence had grown up a social influence of woman1 which did not exist in pagan ages1 and will hereafter be applied to greater purposes4 ,but1 for want of room1 ,i confine myself to saying a few words on war1 and the mode in which it will be extinguished by ,christianity4 ,,war4--,this is amongst the foremost of questions that concern human progress1 and it is one which1 of all great questions1 7the question of slavery not excepted1 nor even the question of the slave-trade17 has travelled forward the most rapidly into public favor4 ,thirty years ago1 there was hardly a breath stirring against war1 as the sole natural resource of national anger or national competition4 ,hardly did a wish rise1 at intervals1 in that direction1 or even a protesting sigh1 over the calamities of war4 ,and if here and there a contemplative author uttered such a sigh1 it was in the spirit of mere hopeless sorrow1 that mourned over an evil apparently as inalienable from man as hunger1 as death1 as the frailty of human expectations4 ,cowper1 about sixty years ago1 had said1 ',war is a game which1 were their subjects wise1 ,kings would not play at4' ,but ,cowper would not have said this1 had he not been nearly related to the ,whig house of ,panshanger4 ,every ,whig thought it a duty occasionally to look fiercely at kings1 saying--',d--1 who's afraid8' pretty much as a regular ,john ,bull1 in the lower classes1 expresses his independence by defying the peerage1--',a lord6 do you say8 what care ,i for a lord8 ,i value a lord no more than a button top2' whilst1 in fact1 he secretly reveres a lord as being usually amongst the most ancient of landed proprietors1 and1 secondly1 amongst the richest4 ,the scourge of kingship was what ,cowper glanced at1 rather than the scourge of war2 and in any case the condition which he annexed to his suggestion of relief1 is too remote to furnish much consolation for cynics like myself1 or the reader4 ,if war is to cease only when subjects become wise1 we need not contract the scale of our cannon-founderies until the millennium4 ,sixty years ago1 therefore1 the abolition of war looked as unprosperous a speculation as ,dr4 ,darwin's scheme for improving our ,british climate by hauling out all the icebergs from the polar basin in seasons when the wind sate fair for the tropics2 by which means these wretched annoyers of our peace would soon find themselves in quarters too hot to hold them1 and would disappear as rapidly as sugar-candy in children's mouths4 ,others1 however1 inclined rather to the ,ancient ,mariner's scheme1 by shooting an albatross3-- ',twas right1 said they1 such birds to shoot1 ,that bring the frost and snow4' ,scarcely more hopeless than these crusades against frost1 were any of the serious plans which had then been proposed for the extirpation of war4 ,st4 ,pierre contributed 'son petite possible' to this desirable end1 in the shape of an essay towards the idea of a perpetual peace2 ,kant1 the great professor of ,koenigsberg1 subscribed to the same benevolent scheme his little essay under the same title2 and others in ,england subscribed a guinea each to the fund for the suppression of war4 ,these efforts1 one and all1 spent their fire as vainly as ,darwin spent his wrath against the icebergs3 the icebergs are as big and as cold as ever2 and war is still1 like a basking snake1 ready to rear his horrid crest on the least rustling in the forests4 ,but in quarters more powerful than either purses of gold or scholastic reveries1 there has1 since the days of ,kant and ,cowper1 begun to gather a menacing thundercloud against war4 ,the nations1 or at least the great leading nations1 are beginning to set their faces against it4 ,war1 it is felt1 comes under the denunciation of ,christianity1 by the havoc which it causes amongst those who bear ,god's image2 of political economy1 by its destruction of property and human labor2 of rational logic1 by the frequent absurdity of its pretexts4 ,the wrong1 which is put forth as the ostensible ground of the particular war1 is oftentimes not of a nature to be redressed by war1 or is even forgotten in the course of the war2 and1 secondly1 the war prevents another course which might have redressed the wrong3 viz41 temperate negotiation1 or neutral arbitration4 ,these things were always true1 and1 indeed1 heretofore more flagrantly true3 but the difference1 in favor of our own times1 is1 that they are now felt to be true4 ,formerly1 the truths were seen1 but not felt3 they were inoperative truths1 lifeless1 and unvalued4 ,now1 on the other hand1 in ,england1 ,america1 ,france1 societies are rising for making war upon war2 and it is a striking proof of the progress made by such societies1 that1 some two years ago1 a deputation from one of them being presented to ,king ,louis ,philippe1 received from him--not the sort of vague answer which might have been expected1 but a sincere one1 expressed in very encouraging words4,footnote3 and rather presumptuous words1 if the newspapers reported them correctly3 for they went the length of promising1 that he separately1 as ,king of the ,french1 would coerce ,europe into peace4 ,but1 from the known good sense of the king1 it is more probable that he promised his negative aid1--the aid of not personally concurring to any war which might otherwise be attractive to the ,french government4 ,ominous to himself this might have been thought by the superstitious1 who should happen to recollect the sequel to a ,french king1 of the very earliest movement in this direction3 the great 7but to this hour mysterious7 design of ,henry ,,iv4 in #afaj1 was supposed by many to be a plan of this very nature1 for enforcing a general and permanent peace on ,christendom1 by means of an armed intervention2 and no sooner had it partially transpired through traitorous evidence1 or through angry suspicion1 than his own assassination followed4 ,shall ,i offend the reader by doubting1 after all1 whether war is not an evil still destined to survive through several centuries8 ,great progress has already been made4 ,in the two leading nations of the earth1 war can no longer be made with the levity which provoked ,cowper's words two generations back4 ,france is too ready to fight for mere bubbles of what she calls glory4 ,but neither in ,france nor ,england could a war now be undertaken without a warrant from the popular voice4 ,this is a great step in advance2 but the final step for its extinction will be taken by a new and ,christian code of international law4 ,this cannot be consummated until ,christian philosophy shall have traversed the earth1 and reorganized the structure of society4 ,but1 finally1 and 7as regards extent1 though not as regards intensity of effect7 far beyond all other political powers of ,christianity1 is the power1 the demiurgic power of this religion over the kingdoms of human opinion4 ,did it ever strike the reader1 that the ,greeks and ,romans1 although so frantically republican1 and1 in some of their institutions1 so democratic1 yet1 on the other hand1 never developed the idea of representative government1 either as applied to legislation or to administration8 ,the elective principle was widely used amongst them4 ,nay1 the nicer casuistries of this principle had been latterly discussed4 ,the separate advantages of open or of secret voting1 had been the subject of keen dispute in the political circles of ,rome2 and the art was well understood of disturbing the natural course of the public suffrage1 by varying the modes of combining the voters under the different forms of the ,comitia4 ,public authority and jurisdiction were created and modified by the elective principle2 but never was this principle applied to the creation or direction of public opinion4 ,the senate of ,rome1 for instance1 like our own sovereign1 represented the national majesty1 and1 to a certain degree1 continued to do so for centuries after this majesty had received a more immediate representative in the person of the reigning ,caesar4 ,the senate1 like our own sovereign1 represented the grandeur of the nation1 the hospitality of the nation to illustrious strangers1 and the gratitude of the nation in the distribution of honors4 ,for the senate continued to be the fountain of honors1 even to ,caesar himself3 the titles of ,germanicus1 ,britannicus1 ,dalmaticus1 c4 7which may be viewed as peerages17 the privilege of precedency1 the privilege of wearing a laurel diadem1 c4 7which may be viewed as the ,garter1 ,bath1 ,thistle17 all were honors conferred by the senate4 ,but the senate1 no more than our own sovereign ever represented1 by any one act or function1 the public opinion4 ,how was this8 ,strange1 indeed1 that so mighty a secret as that of delegating public opinions to the custody of elect representatives1 a secret which has changed the face of the world1 should have been missed by nations applying so vast an energy to the whole theory of public administration4 ,but the truth1 however paradoxical1 is1 that in ,greece and ,rome no body of public opinions existed that could have furnished a standing ground for adverse parties1 or that consequently could have required to be represented4 ,in all the dissensions of ,rome1 from the secessions of the ,plebs to the factions of the ,gracchi1 of ,marius and ,sylla1 of ,caesar and ,pompey2 in all the of the ,grecian republics1--the contest could no more be described as a contest of opinion1 than could the feuds of our buccaneers in the seventeenth century1 when parting company1 or fighting for opposite principles of dividing the general booty4 ,one faction has1 another sought to have1 a preponderant share of power3 but these struggles never took the shape1 even in pretence1 of differences that moved through the conflict of principles4 ,the case was always the simple one of power matched against power1 faction against faction1 usage against innovation4 ,it was not that the patricians deluded themselves by any speculative views into the refusal of intermarriages with the plebeians3 it was not as upon any opinion that they maintained the contest1 7such as at this day divides ourselves from the ,french upon the question of opinion with regard to the social rank of literary men7 but simply as upon a fact3 they appealed to evidences not to speculations2 to usage1 not to argument4 ,they were in possession1 and fought against change1 not as inconsistent with a theory1 but as hostility to an interest4 ,in the contest of ,caesar with the oligarchic knavery of ,cicero1 ,cato1 and ,pompey1 no possible exercise of representative functions 7had the people possessed them7 could have been applied beneficially to the settlement of the question at issue4 ,law1 and the abuses of law1 good statutes and evil customs1 had equally thrown the public power into a settlement fatal to the public welfare4 ,not any decay of public virtue1 but increase of poverty amongst the inferior citizens1 had thrown the suffrages1 and consequently the honors and powers of the state1 into the hands of some forty or fifty houses1 rich enough to bribe1 and bribing systematically4 ,caesar1 undertaking to correct a state of disease which would else have convulsed the republic every third year by civil war1 knew that no arguments could be available against a competition of mere interests4 ,the remedy lay1 not through opposition speeches in the senate1 or from the rostra1--not through pamphlets or journals1--but through a course of intense cudgelling4 ,this he happily accomplished2 and by that means restored ,rome for centuries1--not to the aspiring condition which she once held1 but to an immunity from annual carnage1 and in other respects to a condition of prosperity which1 if less than during her popular state1 was greater than any else attainable after that popular state had become impossible1 from changes in the composition of society4 ,here1 and in all other critical periods of ancient republics1 we shall find that opinions did not exist as the grounds of feud1 nor could by any dexterity have been applied to the settlement of feuds4 ,whereas1 on the other hand1 with ourselves for centuries1 and latterly with the ,french1 no public contest has arisen1 or does now exist1 without fighting its way through every stage of advance by appeals to public opinion4 ,if1 for instance1 an improved tone of public feeling calls for a gradual mitigation of army punishments1 the quarrel becomes instantly an intellectual one3 and much information is brought forward1 which throws light upon human nature generally4 ,but in ,rome1 such a discussion would have been stopped summarily1 as interfering with the discretional power of the ,praetorium4 ,to take the vitis1 or cane1 from the hands of the centurion1 was a perilous change2 but1 perilous or not1 must be committed to the judgment of the particular imperator1 or of his legatus4 ,the executive business of the ,roman exchequer1 again1 could not have been made the subject of public discussion2 not only because no sufficient material for judgment could1 under the want of a public press1 have been gathered1 except from the parties interested in all its abuses1 but also because these parties 7a faction amongst the equestrian order7 could have effectually overthrown any counter-faction formed amongst parties not personally affected by the question4 ,the ,roman institution of clientela--which had outlived its early uses--does any body imagine that this was open to investigation8 ,the influence of murderous riots would easily have been brought to bear upon it1 but not the light of public opinion4 ,even if public opinion could have been evoked in those days1 or trained to combined action1 insuperable difficulties would have arisen in adjusting its force to the necessities of the ,roman provinces and allies4 ,any arrangement that was practicable1 would have obtained an influence for these parties1 either dangerous to the supreme section of the empire1 or else nugatory for each of themselves4 ,it is a separate consideration1 that through total defect of cheap instruments for communication1 whether personally or in the way of thought1 public opinion must always have moved in the dark3 what ,i chiefly assert is1 that the feuds bearing at all upon public interests1 never did turn1 or could have turned1 upon any collution of opinions4 ,and two things must strengthen the reader's conviction upon this point1 viz4 first1 that no public meetings 7such as with us carry on the weight of public business throughout the empire7 were ever called in ,rome2 secondly1 that in the regular and 'official' meetings of the people1 no social interest was ever discussed1 but only some political interest4 ,now1 on the other hand1 amongst ourselves1 every question1 that is large enough to engage public interest1 though it should begin as a mere comparison of strength with strength1 almost immediately travels forward into a comparison of right with rights1 or of duty with duty4 ,a mere fiscal question of restraint upon importation from this or that particular quarter1 passes into a question of colonial rights4 ,arrangements of convenience for the management of the pauper1 or the debtor1 or the criminal1 or the war-captive1 become the occasions of profound investigations into the rights of persons occupying those relations4 ,sanatory ordinances for the protection of public health2 such as quarantine1 fever hospitals1 draining1 vaccination1 c41 connect themselves1 in the earliest stages of their discussion1 with the general consideration of the duties which the state owes to its subjects4 ,if education is to be promoted by public counsels1 every step of the inquiry applies itself to the consideration of the knowledge to be communicated1 and of the limits within which any section of religious partisanship can be safely authorized to interfere4 ,if coercion1 beyond the warrant of the ordinary law1 is to be applied as a remedy for local outrages1 a tumult of opinions arises instantly1 as to the original causes of the evil1 as to the sufficiency of the subsisting laws to meet its pressure1 and as to the modes of connecting enlarged powers in the magistrate with the minimum of offence to the general rights of the subject4 ,everywhere1 in short1 some question of duty and responsibility arises to face us in any the smallest public interest that can become the subject of public opinion4 ,questions1 in fact1 that fall short of this dignity2 questions that concern public convenience only1 and do not wear any moral aspect1 such as the bullion question1 never do become subjects of public opinion4 ,it cannot be said in which direction lies the bias of public opinion4 ,in the very possibility of interesting the public judgment1 is involved the certainty of wearing some relation to moral principles4 ,hence the ardor of our public disputes2 for no man views1 without concern1 a great moral principle darkened by party motives1 or placed in risk by accident3 hence the dignity and benefit of our public disputes2 hence1 also1 their ultimate relation to the ,christian faith4 ,we do not1 indeed1 in these days1 as did our homely ancestors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries1 cite texts of ,scripture as themes for senatorial commentary or exegesis2 but the virtual reference to scriptural principles is now a thousand times more frequent4 ,the great principles of ,christian morality are now so interwoven with our habits of thinking1 that we appeal to them no longer as scriptural authorities1 but as the natural suggestions of a sound judgment4 ,for instance1 in the case of any wrong offered to the ,hindoo races1 now so entirely dependent upon our wisdom and justice1 we ,british ,footnote3 ,it may be thought that1 in the prosecution of ,verres1 the people of ,rome acknowledged something of the same high responsibility4 ,not at all4 ,the case came before ,rome1 not as a case of injury to a colonial child1 whom the general mother was bound to protect and avenge2 but as an appeal1 by way of special petition1 from ,sicilian clients4 ,it was no grand political movement1 but simply judicial4 ,verres was an ill-used man and the victim of private intrigues4 ,or1 whatever he might be1 ,rome certainly sate upon the cause1 not in any character of maternal protectress1 taking up voluntarily the support of the weak1 but as a sheriff assessing damages in a case forced upon his court by the plaintiff4 immediately1 by our solemnity of investigation1 testify our sense of the deep responsibility to ,india with which our ,indian supremacy has invested us4 ,we make no mention of the ,christian oracles4 ,yet where1 then1 have we learned this doctrine of far-stretching responsibility8 ,in all pagan systems of morality1 there is the vaguest and slightest appreciation of such relations as connect us with our colonies4 ,but1 from the profound philosophy of ,scripture1 we have learned that no relations whatever1 not even those of property1 can connect us with even a brute animal1 but that we contract concurrent obligations of justice and mercy4 ,in this age1 then1 public interests move and prosper through conflicts of opinion4 ,secondly1 as ,i have endeavored to show1 public opinion cannot settle1 powerfully1 upon any question that is not essentially a moral question4 ,and1 thirdly1 in all moral questions1 we1 of ,christian nations1 are compelled1 by habit and training1 as well as other causes1 to derive our first principles1 consciously or not1 from the ,scriptures4 ,it is1 therefore1 through the doctrinality of our religion that we derive arms for all moral questions2 and it is as moral questions that any political disputes much affect us1 ,the daily conduct1 therefore1 of all great political interests1 throws us unconsciously upon the first principles which we all derive from ,christianity4 ,and1 in this respect1 we are more advantageously placed1 by a very noticeable distinction1 than the professors of the two other doctrinal religions4 ,the ,koran having pirated many sentiments from the ,jewish and the ,christian systems1 could not but offer some rudiments of moral judgment2 yet1 because so much of these rudiments is stolen1 the whole is incoherent1 and does not form a system of ethics4 ,in ,judaism1 again1 the special and insulated situation of the ,jews has unavoidably impressed an exclusive bias upon its principles4 ,in both codes the rules are often of restricted and narrow application4 ,but1 in the ,christian ,scriptures1 the rules are so comprehensive and large as uniformly to furnish the major proposition of a syllogism2 whilst the particular act under discussion1 wearing1 perhaps1 some modern name1 naturally is not directly mentioned3 and to bring this1 in the minor proposition1 under the principle contained in the major1 is a task left to the judgment of the inquirer in each particular case4 ,something is here intrusted to individual understanding2 whereas in the ,koran1 from the circumstantiality of the rule1 you are obliged mechanically to rest in the letter of the precept4 ,the ,christian ,scriptures1 therefore1 not only teach1 but train the mind to habits of self-teaching in all moral questions1 by enforcing more or less of activity in applying the rule2 that is1 in subsuming the given case proposed under the scriptural principle4 ,hence it is certain1 and has been repeatedly illustrated1 that whilst the ,christian faith1 in collision with others1 would inevitably rouse to the most active fermentation of minds1 the ,mahometan 7as also doctrinal but unsystematical7 would have the same effect1 in kind1 but far feebler in degree2 and an idolatrous religion would have no such effect at all4 ,agreeably to this scale1 some years ago1 a sect of reforming or fanatical ,mahometans1 in ,bengal1,footnote3 ,at ,baraset1 if ,i remember rightly4 commenced a persecution of the surrounding ,hindoos4 ,at length1 a reaction took place on the part of the idolaters1 but in what temper8 ,bitter enough1 and so far alarming as to call down a government interference with troops and artillery1 but yet with no signs of religious retaliation4 ,that was a principle of movement which the ,hindoos could not understand3 their retaliation was simply to the personal violence they had suffered4 ,such is the inertia of a mere cultus4 ,and1 in the other extreme1 if we ,christians1 in our intercourse with both ,hindoos and ,mahometans1 were not sternly reined up by the vigilance of the local governments1 no long time would pass before all ,india would be incurably convulsed by disorganizing feuds4 ,,protestantism4 ,footnote3 ,a ,vindication of ,protestant ,principles4 ,by ,phileleutheros ,anglicanus4 ,london3 ,parker4 #ahdg4 #ahdg4 ,the work whose substance and theme are thus briefly abstracted is1 at this moment1 making a noise in the world4 ,it is ascribed by report to two bishops--not jointly1 but alternatively--in the sense that1 if one did not write the book1 the other did4 ,the ,bishops of ,oxford and ,st4 ,david's1 ,wilberforce and ,thirlwall1 are the two pointed at by the popular finger2 and1 in some quarters1 a third is suggested1 viz41 ,stanley1 ,bishop of ,norwich4 ,the betting1 however1 is altogether in favor of ,oxford4 ,so runs the current of public gossip4 ,but the public is a bad guesser1 'stiff in opinion' it is1 and almost 'always in the wrong4' ,now let me guess4 ,when ,i had read for ten minutes1 ,i offered a bet of seven to one 7no takers7 that the author's name began with ,h4 ,not out of any love for that amphibious letter2 on the contrary1 being myself what ,professor ,wilson calls a hedonist1 or philosophical voluptuary1 and murmuring1 with good reason1 if a rose leaf lies doubled below me1 naturally ,i murmur at a letter that puts one to the expense of an aspiration1 forcing into the lungs an extra charge of raw air on frosty mornings4 ,but truth is truth1 in spite of frosty air4 ,and yet1 upon further reading1 doubts gathered upon my mind4 ,the ,h4 that ,i mean is an ,englishman2 now it happens that here and there a word1 or some peculiarity in using a word1 indicates1 in this author1 a ,scotchman2 for instance1 the expletive 'just1' which so much infests ,scotch phraseology1 written or spoken1 at page #a2 elsewhere the word 'short-comings1' which1 being horridly tabernacular1 and such that no gentleman could allow himself to touch it without gloves1 it is to be wished that our ,scottish brethren would resign1 together with 'backslidings1' to the use of field preachers4 ,but worse1 by a great deal1 and not even intelligible in ,england1 is the word thereafter1 used as an adverb of time1 i4e41 as the correlative of hereafter4 ,thereafter1 in pure vernacular ,english1 bears a totally different sense4 ,in ',paradise ,lost1' for instance1 having heard the character of a particular angel1 you are told that he spoke thereafter1 i4e41 spoke agreeably to that character4 ',how a score of sheep1 ,master ,shallow8' ,the answer is1 ',thereafter as they be4' ,again1 ',thereafter as a man sows shall he reap4' ,the objections are overwhelming to the ,scottish use of the word2 first1 because already in ,scotland it is a barbarism transplanted from the filthy vocabulary of attorneys1 locally called writers2 secondly1 because in ,england it is not even intelligible1 and1 what is worse still1 sure to be mis-intelligible4 ,and yet1 after all1 these exotic forms may be a mere blind4 ,the writer is1 perhaps1 purposely leading us astray with his 'thereafters1' and his horrid 'short-comings4' ,or1 because ,london newspapers1 and ,acts of ,parliament1 are beginning to be more and more polluted with these barbarisms1 he may even have caught them unconsciously4 ,and1 on looking again at one case of 'thereafter1' viz4 at page #gi1 it seems impossible to determine whether he uses it in the classical ,english sense1 or in the sense of leguleian barbarism4 ,this question of authorship1 meantime1 may seem to the reader of little moment4 ,far from it6 ,the weightier part of the interest depends upon that very point4 ,if the author really is a bishop1 or supposing the public rumor so far correct as that he is a man of distinction in the ,english church1 then1 and by that simple fact1 this book1 or this pamphlet1 interesting at any rate for itself1 becomes separately interesting through its authorship1 so as to be the most remarkable phenomenon of the day2 and why8 ,because the most remarkable expression of a movement1 accomplished and proceeding in a quarter that1 if any on this earth1 might be thought sacred from change4 ,oh1 fearful are the motions of time1 when suddenly lighted up to a retrospect of thirty years6 ,pathetic are the ruins of time in its slowest advance6 ,solemn are the prospects1 so new and so incredible1 which time unfolds at every turn of its wheeling flight6 ,is it come to this8 ,could any man1 one generation back1 have anticipated that an ,english dignitary1 and speaking on a very delicate religious question1 should deliberately appeal to a writer confessedly infidel1 and proud of being an infidel1 as a 'triumphant' settler of ,christian scruples8 ,but if the infidel is right1 a point which ,i do not here discuss--but if the infidel is a man of genius1 a point which ,i do not deny--was it not open to cite him1 even though the citer were a bishop8 ,why1 yes--uneasily one answers1 yes2 but still the case records a strange alteration1 and still one could have wished to hear such a doctrine1 which ascribes human infirmity 7nay1 human criminality7 to every book of the ,bible1 uttered by anybody rather than by a father of the ,church1 and guaranteed by anybody rather than by an infidel1 in triumph4 ,a boy may fire his pistol unnoticed2 but a sentinel1 mounting guard in the dark1 must remember the trepidation that will follow any shot from him1 and the certainty that it will cause all the stations within hearing to get under arms immediately4 ,yet why1 if this bold opinion does come from a prelate1 he being but one man1 should it carry so alarming a sound8 ,is the whole bench of bishops bound and compromised by the audacity of any one amongst its members8 ,certainly not4 ,but yet such an act1 though it should be that of a rash precursor1 marks the universal change of position2 there is ever some sympathy between the van and the rear of the same body at the same time2 and the boldest could not have dared to go ahead so rashly1 if the rearmost was not known to be pressing forward to his support1 far more closely than thirty years ago he could have done4 ,there have been1 it is true1 heterodox professors of divinity and free-thinking bishops before now4 ,england can show a considerable list of such people--even ,rome has a smaller list4 ,rome1 that weeds all libraries1 and is continually burning books1 in effigy1 by means of her vast ,index ,expurgatorius1,footnote3 ,a question of some interest arises upon the casuistical construction of this ,index4 ,we1 that are not by name included1 may we consider ourselves indirectly licensed8 ,silence1 ,i should think1 gives consent4 ,and if it wasn't that the present ,pope1 being a horrid ,radical1 would be sure to blackball me as an honest ,tory1 ,i would send him a copy of my ,opera ,omnia1 requesting his ,holiness to say1 by return of post1 whether ,i ranked amongst the chaff winnowed by ,st4 ,peter's flail1 or had his gracious permission to hold myself amongst the pure wheat gathered into the ,vatican garner4 which index1 continually1 she is enlarging by successive supplements1 needs also an ,index ,expurgatorius for the catalogue of her prelates4 ,weeds there are in the very flower-garden and conservatory of the church4 ,fathers of the church are no more to be relied on1 as safe authorities1 than we rascally lay authors1 that notoriously will say anything4 ,and it is a striking proof of this amongst our ,english bishops1 that the very man who1 in the last generation1 most of all won the public esteem as the champion of the ,bible against ,tom ,paine1 was privately known amongst us connoisseurs in heresy 7that are always prying into ugly secrets7 to be the least orthodox thinker1 one or other1 amongst the whole brigade of fifteen thousand contemporary clerks who had subscribed the ,thirty-nine ,articles4 ,saving your presence1 reader1 his lordship was no better than a bigoted ,socinian1 which1 in a petty diocese that he never visited1 and amongst ,south ,welshmen1 that are all incorrigible ,methodists1 mattered little1 but would have been awkward had he come to be ,archbishop of ,york2 and that he did not1 turned upon the accident of a few weeks too soon1 by which the ,fates cut short the thread of the ,whig ministry in #ahjg4 ,certainly1 for a ,romish or an ,english bishop to be a ,socinian is un peu fort4 ,but ,i contend that it is quite possible to be far less heretical1 and yet dangerously bold2 yes1 upon the free and spacious latitudes1 purposely left open by the ,english ,thirty-nine ,articles 7ay1 or by any ,protestant ,confession71 to plant novelties not less startling to religious ears than ,socinianism itself4 ,besides 7which adds to the shock71 the dignitary now before us1 whether bishop or no bishop1 does not write in the tone of a conscious heretic2 or1 like ,archdeacon ,blackburne,footnote3 ,he was the author of ,the ,confessional1 which at one time made a memorable ferment amongst all those who loved as sons1 or who hated as nonconformists1 the ,english ,establishment4 ,this was his most popular work1 but he wrote many others in the same temper1 that fill six or seven octavos4 of old1 in a spirit of hostility to his own fellow-churchmen2 but1 on the contrary1 in the tone of one relying upon support from his clerical brethren1 he stands forward as expositor and champion of views now prevailing amongst the elite of the ,english ,church4 ,so construed1 the book is1 indeed1 a most extraordinary one1 and exposes a history that almost shocks one of the strides made in religious speculation4 ,opinions change slowly and stealthily4 ,the steps of the changes are generally continuous2 but sometimes it happens that the notice of such steps1 the publication of such changes1 is not continuous1 that it comes upon us per saltum1 and1 consequently1 with the stunning effect of an apparent treachery4 ,every thoughtful man raises his hands with an involuntary gesture of awe at the revolutions of so revolutionary an age1 when thus summoned to the spectacle of an ,english prelate serving a piece of artillery against what once were fancied to be main outworks of religion1 and at a station sometimes considerably in advance of any occupied by ,voltaire4,footnote3 ,let not the reader misunderstand me2 ,i do not mean that the clerical writer now before us 7bishop or not bishop7 is more hostile to religion than ,voltaire1 or is hostile at all4 ,on the contrary1 he is1 perhaps1 profoundly religious1 and he writes with neither levity nor insincerity4 ,but this conscientious spirit1 and this piety1 do but the more call into relief the audacity of his free-thinking--do but the more forcibly illustrate the prodigious changes wrought by time1 and by the contagion from secular revolutions1 in the spirit of religious philosophy4 ,it is this audacity of speculation1 ,i apprehend1 this etalage of bold results1 rather than any success in their development1 which has fixed the public attention4 ,development1 indeed1 applied to philosophic problems1 or research applied to questions of erudition1 was hardly possible within so small a compass as one hundred and seventeen pages1 for that is the extent of the work1 except as regards the notes1 which amount to seventy-four pages more4 ,such brevity1 on such a subject1 is unseasonable1 and almost culpable4 ,on such a subject as the ,philosophy of ,protestantism--'satius erat silere1 quam parcius1 dicere4' ,better were absolute silence1 more respectful as regards the theme1 less tantalizing as regards the reader1 than a style of discussion so fragmentary and so rapid4 ,but1 before we go farther1 what are we to call this bold man8 ,one must have some name for a man that one is reviewing2 and1 as he comes abroad incognito1 it is difficult to see what name could have any propriety4 ,let me consider3 there are three bishops in the field1 ,mr4 ,h41 and the ,scotchman--that makes five4 ,but every one of these1 you say1 is represented equally by the name in the title--,phileleutheros ,anglicanus4 ,true1 but that's as long as a team of horses4 ,if it had but ,esquire at the end1 it would measure against a ,latin ,hendecasyllable verse4 ,i'm afraid that we must come at last to ,phil4 ,i've been seeking to avoid it1 for it's painful to say ',jack' or ',dick' either to or of an ecclesiastical great gun4 ,but if such big wigs will come abroad in disguise1 and with names as long as ,fielding's ,hononchrononthononthologus1 they must submit to be hustled by pickpockets and critics1 and to have their names docked as well as profane authors4 ,phil1 then1 be it--that's settled4 ,now1 let us inquire what it is that ,phil4 has been saying1 to cause such a sensation amongst the ,gnostics4 ,and1 to begin at the beginning1 what is ,phil4's capital object8 ,phil4 shall state it himself--these are his opening words3-- ',in the following pages we propose to vindicate the fundamental and inherent principles of ,protestantism4' ,good2 but what are the fundamental principles of ,protestantism8 ',they are1' says ,phil41 'the sole sufficiency of ,scripture1',footnote3 ,this is much too elliptical a way of expressing the ,protestant meaning4 ,sufficiency for what8 ',sufficiency for salvation' is the phrase of many1 and ,i think elsewhere of ,phil4 ,but that is objectionable on more grounds than one2 it is redundant1 and it is aberrant from the true point contemplated4 ,sufficiency for itself1 without alien helps1 is the thing contemplated4 ,the ,greek autarkeia1 self-sufficiency1 or1 because that phrase1 in ,english1 has received a deflexion towards a bad meaning1 the word self- ufficingness might answer2 sufficiency for the exposition of its own most secret meaning1 out of fountains within itself2 needing1 therefore1 neither the supplementary aids of tradition1 on the one hand1 nor the complementary aids on the other1 7in the event of unprovided cases1 or of dilemmas arising17 from the infallibility of a living expounder4 the right of private judgment in its interpretation1 and the authority of individual conscience in matters of religion4' ,errors of logic show themselves more often in a man's terminology1 and his antithesis1 and his subdivisions1 than anywhere else4 ,phil4 goes on to make this distinction1 which brings out his imperfect conception4 ',we1' says he 7and1 by the way1 if ,phil4 is we1 then it must he my duty to call him they71 'we do not propose to defend the varieties of doctrine held by the different communities of ,protestants4' ,why1 no2 that would be a sad task for the most skilful of funambulists or theological tumblers1 seeing that many of these varieties stand related to each other as categorical affirmative and categorical negative3 it's heavy work to make yes and no pull together in the same proposition4 ,but this1 fortunately for himself1 ,phil4 declines4 ,you are to understand that he will not undertake the defence of ,protestantism in its doctrines1 but only in its principles4 ,that won't do2 that antithesis is as hollow as a drum2 and1 if the objection were verbal only1 ,i would not make it4 ,but the contradistinction fails to convey the real meaning4 ,it is not that he has falsely expressed his meaning1 but that he has falsely developed that meaning to his own consciousness4 ,not the word only is wrong2 but the wrong word is put forward for the sake of hiding the imperfect idea4 ,what he calls principles might almost as well be called doctrines2 and what he calls doctrines as well be called principles4 ,out of these terms1 apart from the rectifications suggested by the context1 no man could collect his drift1 which is simply this4 ,protestantism1 we must recollect1 is not an absolute and self-dependent idea2 it stands in relation to something antecedent1 against which it protests1 viz41 ,papal ,rome4 ,and under what phasis does it protest against ,rome8 ,not against the ,christianity of ,rome1 because every ,protestant ,church1 though disapproving a great deal of that1 disaproves also a great deal in its own sister churches of the protesting household2 and because every ,protestant ,church holds a great deal of ,christian truth1 in common with ,rome4 ,but what furnishes the matter of protest is--the deduction of the title upon which ,rome plants the right to be church at all4 ,this deduction is so managed by ,rome as to make herself1 not merely a true church 7which many ,protestants grant71 but the exclusive church4 ,now1 what ,phil4 in effect undertakes to defend is not principles by preference to doctrines 7for they are pretty nearly the same thing71 but the question of title to teach at all1 in preference to the question of what is the thing taught4 ,there is the distinction1 as ,i apprehend it4 ,all these terms--'principle1' 'doctrine1' 'system1' 'theory1' 'hypothesis'--are used nearly always most licentiously1 and as arbitrarily as a ,newmarket jockey selects the colors for his riding-dress4 ,it is true that one shadow of justification offers itself for ,phil4's distinction4 ,all principles are doctrines1 but all doctrines are not principles2 which1 then1 in particular8 ,why1 those properly are principles which contain the principia1 the beginnings1 or starting-points of evolution1 out of which any system of truth is evolved4 ,now1 it may seem that the very starting-point of our ,protestant pretensions is1 first of all1 to argue our title or right to be a church sui juris2 apparently we must begin by making good our locus standi1 before we can be heard upon our doctrines4 ,and upon this mode of approach1 the pleadings about the title1 or right to teach at all1 taking precedency of the pleadings about the particular things taught1 would be the principia1 or beginning of the whole process1 and so far would be entitled by preference to the name of principles4 ,but such a mode of approach is merely an accident1 and contingent upon our being engaged in a polemical discussion of ,protestantism in relation to ,popery4 ,that1 however1 is a pure matter of choice2 ,protestantism may be discussed1 'as though ,rome were not1 in relation to its own absolute merits2 and this treatment is the logical treatment1 applying itself to what is permanent in the nature of the object2 whereas the other treatment applies itself to what is casual and vanishing in the history 7or the origin7 of ,protestantism4 ,for1 after all1 it would be no great triumph to ,protestantism that she should prove her birthright to revolve as a primary planet in the solar system2 that she had the same original right as ,rome to wheel about the great central orb1 undegraded to the rank of satellite or secondary projection--if1 in the meantime1 telescopes should reveal the fact that she was pretty nearly a sandy desert4 ,what a church teaches is true or not true1 without reference to her independent right of teaching2 and eventually1 when the irritations of earthly feuds and political schisms shall be soothed by time1 the philosophy of this whole question will take an inverse order4 ,the credentials of a church will not be put in first1 and the quality of her doctrine discussed as a secondary question4 ,on the contrary1 her credentials will be sought in her doctrine4 ,the ,protesting ,church will say1 ,i have the right to stand separate1 because ,i stand2 and from my holy teaching ,i deduce my title to teach4 ,jus est ibi summum docendi1 ubi est fons purissimus doctrinae4 ,that inversion of the ,protestant plea with ,rome is even now valid with many2 and1 when it becomes universally current1 then the principles1 or great beginnings of the controversy1 will be transplanted from the locus1 or centre1 where ,phil4 places them1 to the very locus which he neglects4 ,there is another expression of ,phil4's 7,i am afraid ,phil4 is getting angry by this time7 to which ,i object4 ,he describes the doctrines held by all the separate ,protestant churches as doctrines of ,protestantism4 ,i would not delay either ,phil4 or myself for the sake of a trifle2 but an impossibility is not a trifle4 ,if from orthodox ,turkey you pass to heretic ,persia1 if from the rigor of the ,sonnees to the laxity of the ,sheeahs1 you could not1 in explaining those schisms1 go on to say1 ',and these are the doctrines of ,islamism2' for they destroy each other4 ,both are supported by earthly powers2 but one only could be supported by central ,islamism4 ,so of ,calvinism and ,arminianism2 you cannot call them doctrines of ,protestantism1 as if growing out of some reconciling ,protestant principles2 one of the two1 though not manifested to human eyes in its falsehood1 must secretly be false2 and a falsehood cannot be a doctrine of ,protestantism4 ,it is more accurate to say that the separate creeds of ,turkey and ,persia are within ,mahommedanism2 such1 viz41 as that neither excludes a man from the name of ,mussulman2 and1 again1 that ,calvinism and ,arminianism are doctrines within the ,protestant ,church--as a church of general toleration for all religious doctrines not de-monstrably hostile to any cardinal truth of ,christianity4 ,phil41 then1 we all understand1 is not going to traverse the vast field of ,protestant opinions as they are distributed through our many sects2 that would be endless2 and he illustrates the mazy character of the wilderness over which these sects are wandering1 --'ubi passim ,palantes error recto de tramite pellit1' by the four cases of--#a1 the ,calvinist2 #b1 the ,newmanite2 #c1 the ,romanist2,footnote3 ,what1 amongst ,protestant sects8 ,ay1 even so4 ,it's ,phil4's mistake1 not mine4 ,he will endeavor to doctor the case1 by pleading that he was speaking universally of ,christian error2 but the position of the clause forbids this plea4 ,not only in relation to what immediately precedes1 the passage must be supposed to contemplate ,protestant error2 but the immediate inference from it1 viz41 that 'the world may well be excused for doubting whether there is1 after all1 so much to be gained by that liberty of private judgment1 which is the essential characteristic of ,protestantism2 whether it be not1 after all1 merely a liberty to fall into error1' nails ,phil4 to that construction--argues too strongly that it is an oversight of indolence4 ,phil4 was sleeping for the moment1 which is excusable enough towards the end of a book1 but hardly in section ,i4 ,p4,s4--,i have since observed 7which not to have observed is excused1 perhaps1 by the too complex machinery of hooks and eyes between the text and the notes involving a double reference--first1 to the section2 second1 to the particular clause of the section7 that ,phil4 has not here committed an inadvertency2 or1 if he has1 is determined to fight himself through his inadvertency1 rather than break up his quaternion of cases4 ',in speaking of ,romanism as arising from a misapplication of ,protestant principles2 we refer1 not to those who were born1 but to those who have become members of the ,church of ,rome4' ,what is the name of those people8 ,and where do they live8 ,i have heard of many who think 7and there are cases in which most of us1 that meddle with philosophy1 are apt to think7 occasional principles of ,protestantism available for the defence of certain ,roman ,catholic mysteries too indiscriminately assaulted by the ,protestant zealot2 but1 with this exception1 ,i am not aware of any parties professing to derive their ,popish learnings from ,protestantism2 it is in spite of ,protestantism1 as seeming to them not strong enough1 or through principles omitted by ,protestantism1 which therefore seems to them not careful enough or not impartial enough1 that ,protestants have lapsed to ,popery4 ,protestants have certainly been known to become ,papists1 not through ,popish arguments1 but simply through their own ,protestant books2 yet never1 that ,i heard of1 through an affirmative process1 as though any ,protestant argument involved the rudiments of ,popery1 but by a negative process1 as fancying the ,protestant reasons1 though lying in the right direction1 not going far enough2 or1 again1 though right partially1 yet defective as a whole4 ,phil4 therefore1 seems to me absolutely caught in a sort of ,furcae ,caudinae1 unless he has a dodge in reserve to puzzle us all4 ,in a different point1 ,i1 that hold myself a doctor seraphicus1 and also inexpugnabilis upon quillets of logic1 justify ,phil41 whilst also ,i blame him4 ,he defends himself rightly for distinguishing between the ,romanist and ,newmanite on the one hand1 between the ,calvinist and the ,evangelican man on the other1 though perhaps a young gentleman1 commencing his studies on the ,organon1 will fancy that here he has ,phil4 in a trap1 for these distinctions1 he will say1 do not entirely exclude to each other as they ought to do4 ,the class calling itself ,evangelical1 for instance1 may also be ,calvinistic2 the ,newmanite is not1 therefore1 anti-,romanish4 ,true1 says ,phil42 ,i am quite aware of it4 ,but to be aware of an objection is not to answer it4 ,the fact seems to be1 that the actual combinations of life1 not conforming to the truth of abstractions1 compel us to seeming breaches of logic4 ,it would be right practically to distinguish the ,radical from the ,whig2 and yet it might shock ,duns or ,lombardus1 the magister sententiarum1 when he came to understand that partially the principles of ,radicals and ,whigs coincide4 ,but1 for all that1 the logic which distinguishes them is right2 and the apparent error must be sought in the fact1 that all cases 7political or religious7 being cases of life1 are concretes1 which never conform to the exquisite truth of abstractions4 ,practically1 the ,radical is opposed to the ,whig1 though casually the two are in conjunction continually2 for1 as acting partisans1 they work from different centres1 and finally1 for different results4 #d1 the ,evangelical enthusiast--as holding systems of doctrine1 'no one of which is capable of recommending itself to the favorable opinion of an impartial judge4' ,impartial6 but what ,christian can be impartial8 ,to be free from all bias1 and to begin his review of sects in that temper1 he must begin by being an infidel4 ,vainly a man endeavors to reserve in a state of neutrality any preconceptions that he may have formed for himself1 or prepossessions that he may have inherited from 'mamma2' he cannot do it any more than he can dismiss his own shadow4 ,and it is strange to contemplate the weakness of strong minds in fancying that they can4 ,calvin1 whilst amiably engaged in hunting ,servetus to death1 and writing daily letters to his friends1 in which he expresses his hope that the executive power would not think of burning the poor man1 since really justice would be quite satisfied by cutting his head off1 meets with some correspondents who conceive 7idiots that they were67 even that little amputation not indispensable4 ,but ,calvin soon settles their scruples4 ,you don't perceive1 he tells them1 what this man has been about4 ,when a writer attacks ,popery1 it's very wrong in the ,papists to cut his head off2 and why8 ,because he has only been attacking error4 ,but here lies the difference in this case2 ,servetus had been attacking the ,,truth4 ,do you see the distinction1 my friends8 ,consider it1 and ,i am sure you will be sensible that this quite alters the case4 ,it is shocking1 it is perfectly ridiculous1 that the ,bishop of ,rome should touch a hair of any man's head for contradicting him2 and why8 ,because1 do you see8 he is wrong4 ,on the other hand1 it is evidently agreeable to philosophy1 that ,i1 ,john ,calvin1 should shave off the hair1 and1 indeed1 the head itself 7as ,i heartily hope,footnote3 ,the reader may imagine that1 in thus abstracting ,calvin's epistolary sentiments1 ,i am a little improving them4 ,certainly they would bear improvement1 but that is not my business4 ,what the reader sees here is but the result of bringing scattered passages into closer juxtaposition2 whilst1 as to the strongest 7viz41 the most sanguinary7 sentiments here ascribed to him1 it will be a sufficient evidence of my fidelity to the literal truth1 if ,i cite three separate sentences4 ,writing to ,farrel1 he says1 ',spero capitale saltern fore judicium4' ,sentence of the court1 he hopes1 will1 at any rate1 reach the life of ,servetus4 ,die he must1 and die he shall4 ,but why should he die a cruel death8 ,paenoe vero atrocitatem remitti cupio4 ,to the same purpose1 when writing to ,sultzer1 he expresses his satisfaction in being able to assure him that a principal civic officer of ,geneva was1 in this case1 entirely upright1 and animated by the most virtuous sentiments4 ,indeed6 what an interesting character6 and in what way now might this good man show thia beautiful tenderness of conscience8 ,why2 by a fixed resolve that ,servetus should not in any case escape the catastrophe which ,i1 ,john ,calvin1 am longing for1 7'ut saltem exitum1 quem optamus1 noa fugiat4'7 ,finally1 writing to the same ,sultzer1 he remarks that--when we see the ,papists such avenging champions of their own superstitious fables as not to falter in shedding innocent blood1 'pudeat ,christianos magistratus as if the ,roman ,catholic magistrates were not ,christians in tuenda certa veritate nihil prorsus habere animi'--',christian magistrates ought to be ashamed of themselves for manifesting no energy at all in the vindication of truth undeniable2' yet really since these magistrates had at that time the full design1 which design not many days after they executed1 of maintaining truth by fire and faggot1 one does not see the call upon them for blushes so very deep as ,calvin requires4 ,hands so crimson with blood might compensate the absence of crimson cheeks4 will be done in this present case7 of any man presumptuous enough to contradict me2 but then1 why8 ,for a reason that makes all the difference in the world1 and which1 one would think1 idiocy itself could not overlook1 viz41 that ,i1 ,john ,calvin1 am right--right1 through three degrees of comparison--right1 righter1 or more right1 rightest1 or most right4 ,calvin fancied that he could demonstrate his own impartiality4 ,the self-sufficingness of the ,bible1 and the right of private judgment--here1 then1 are the two great charters in which ,protestantism commences2 these are the bulwarks behind which it intrenches itself against ,rome4 ,and it is remarkable that these two great preliminary laws1 which soon diverge into fields so different1 at the first are virtually one and the same law4 ,the refusal of an oracle alien to the ,bible1 extrinsic to the ,bible1 and claiming the sole interpretation of the ,bible2 the refusal of an oracle that reduced the ,bible to a hollow masque1 underneath which fraudulently introducing itself any earthly voice could mimic a heavenly voice1 was in effect to refuse the coercion of this false oracle over each man's conscientious judgment2 to make the ,bible independent of the ,pope1 was to make man independent of all religious controllers4 ,the self-sufficingness of ,scripture1 its independency of any external interpreter1 passed in one moment into the other great ,protestant doctrine of ,toleration4 ,it was but the same triumphal monument under a new angle of sight1 the golden and silver faces of the same heraldic shield4 ,the very same act which denies the right of interpretation to a mysterious ,papal phoenix1 renewed from generation to generation1 having the antiquity and the incomprehensible omniscience of the ,simorg in ,southey1 transferred this right of mere necessity to the individuals of the whole human race4 ,for where else could it have been lodged8 ,any attempt in any other direction was but to restore the ,papal power in a new impersonation4 ,every man1 therefore1 suddenly obtained the right of interpreting the ,bible for himself4 ,but the word 'right' obtained a new sense4 ,every man has the right1 under the ,queen's ,bench1 of publishing an unlimited number of metaphysical systems2 and1 under favor of the same indulgent ,bench1 we all enjoy the unlimited right of laughing at him4 ,but not the whole race of man has a right to coerce1 in the exercise of his intellectual rights1 the humblest of individuals4 ,the rights of men are thus unspeakably elevated2 for1 being now freed from all anxiety1 being sacred as merely legal rights1 they suddenly rise into a new mode of responsibility as intellectual rights4 ,as a ,protestant1 every mature man has the same dignified right over his own opinions and profession of faith that he has over his own hearth4 ,but his hearth can rarely be abused2 whereas his religious system1 being a vast kingdom1 opening by immeasurable gates upon worlds of light and worlds of darkness1 now brings him within a new amenability--called upon to answer new impeachments1 and to seek for new assistances4 ,formerly another was answerable for his belief2 if that were wrong1 it was no fault of his4 ,now he has new rights1 but these have burthened him with new obligations4 ,now he is crowned with the glory and the palms of an intellectual creature1 but he is alarmed by the certainty of corresponding struggles4 ,protestantism it is that has created him into this child and heir of liberty2 ,protestantism it is that has invested him with these unbounded privileges of private judgment1 giving him in one moment the sublime powers of a ,pope within his own conscience2 but ,protestantism it is that has introduced him to the most dreadful of responsibilities4 ,i repeat that the twin maxims1 the columns of ,hercules through which ,protestantism entered the great sea of human activities1 were originally but two aspects of one law3 to deny the ,papal control over men's conscience being to affirm man's self-control1 was1 therefore1 to affirm man's universal right to toleration1 which again implied a corresponding duty of toleration4 ,under this bi-fronted law1 generated by ,protestantism1 but in its turn regulating ,protestantism1 ,phil4 undertakes to develope all the principles that belong to a ,protestant church4 ,the seasonableness of such an investigation--its critical application to an evil now spreading like a fever through ,europe--he perceives fully1 and in the following terms he expresses this perception3-- ',that we stand on the brink of a great theological crisis1 that the problem must soon be solved1 how far orthodox ,christianity is possible for those who are not behind their age in scholarship and science2 this is a solemn fact1 which may be ignored by the partisans of short-sighted bigotry1 but which is felt by all1 and confessed by most of those who are capable of appreciating its reality and importance4 ,the deep ,sibylline vaticinations of ,coleridge's philosophical mind1 the practical working of ,arnold's religious sentimentalism1 and the open acknowledgment of many divines who are living examples of the spirit of the age1 have all1 in different ways1 foretold the advent of a ,church of the ,future4' ,this is from the preface1 p4 ix41 where the phrase1 ,church of the ,future1 points to the ,prussian minister's 7,bunsen's7 ,kirche der ,zukunft2 but in the body of the work1 and not far from its close1 7p4 #aad17 he recurs to this crisis1 and more circumstantially4 ,phil4 embarrasses himself and his readers in this development of ,protestant principles4 ,his own view of the task before him requires that he should separate himself from the consideration of any particular church1 and lay aside all partisanship--plausible or not plausible4 ,it is his own overture that warrants us in expecting this4 ,and yet1 before we have travelled three measured inches1 he is found entangling himself with ,church of ,englandism4 ,let me not be misunderstood1 as though1 borrowing a ,bentham word1 ,i were therefore a ,jerry ,benthamite3 ,i1 that may describe myself generally as ,philo-,phil41 am not less a son of the ',reformed ,anglican ,church' than ,phil4 ,consequently1 it is not likely that1 in any vindication of that church1 simply as such1 and separately for itself1 ,i should be the man to find grounds of exception4 ,loving most of what ,phil4 loves1 loving ,phil4 himself1 and hating 7,i grieve to say71 with a theological hatred1 whatever ,phil4 hates1 why should ,i demur at this particular point to a course of argument that travels in the line of my own partialities8 ,and yet ,i do demur4 ,having been promised a philosophic defence of the principles concerned in the great ,european schism of the sixteenth century1 suddenly we find ourselves collapsing from that altitude of speculation into a defence of one individual church4 ,nobody would complain of ,phil4 if1 after having deduced philosophically the principles upon which all ,protestant separation from ,rome should revolve1 he had gone forward to show1 that in some one of the ,protestant churches1 more than in others1 these principles had been asserted with peculiar strength1 or carried through with special consistency1 or associated pre-eminently with the other graces of a ,christian church1 such as a ritual more impressive to the heart of man1 or a polity more symmetrical with the structure of ,english society4 ,once having unfolded from philosophic grounds the primary conditions of a pure scriptural church1 ,phil4 might then1 without blame1 have turned sharp round upon us1 saying1 such being the conditions under which the great idea of a true ,christian church must be constructed1 ,i now go on to show that the ,church of ,england has conformed to those conditions more faithfully than any other4 ,but to entangle the pure outlines of the idealizing mind with the practical forms of any militant church1 embarrassed 7as we know all churches to have been7 by preoccupations of judgment1 derived from feuds too local and interests too political1 moving too 7as we know all churches to have moved7 in a spirit of compromise1 occasionally from mere necessities of position2 this is in the result to injure the object of the writer doubly3 first1 as leaving an impression of partisanship the reader is mistrustful from the first1 as against a judge that1 in reality1 is an advocate2 second1 without reference to the effect upon the reader1 directly to ,phil4 it is injurious1 by fettering the freedom of his speculations1 or1 if leaving their freedom undisturbed1 by narrowing their compass4 ,and1 if ,phil41 as to the general movement of his ,protestant pleadings1 modulates too little in the transcendental key1 sometimes he does so too much4 ,for instance1 at p4 #fi1 sec4 #ce1 we find him half calling upon ,protestantism to account for her belief in ,god2 how then8 ,is this belief special to ,protestants8 ,are ,roman ,catholics1 are those of the ,greek1 the ,armenian1 and other ,christian churches1 atheistically given8 ,we used to be told that there is no royal road to geometry4 ,i don't know whether there is or not2 but ,i am sure there is no ,protestant by-road1 no ,reformation short-cut1 to the demonstration of ,deity4 ,it is true that ,phil4 exonerates his philosophic scholar1 when throwing himself in ,protestant freedom upon pure intellectual aids1 from the vain labor of such an effort4 ,he consigns him1 however philosophic1 to the evidence of 'inevitable assumptions1 upon axiomatic postulates1 which the reflecting mind is compelled to accept1 and which no more admit of doubt and cavil than of establishment by formal proof4' ,i am not sure whether ,i understand ,phil4 in this section4 ,apparently he is glancing at ,kant4 ,kant was the first person1 and perhaps the last1 that ever undertook formally to demonstrate the indemonstrability of ,god4 ,he showed that the three great arguments for the existence of the ,deity were virtually one1 inasmuch as the two weaker borrowed their value and vis apodeictica from the more rigorous metaphysical argument4 ,the physico-theological argument he forced to back1 as it were1 into the cosmological1 and that into the ontological4 ,after this reluctant regressus of the three into one1 shutting up like a spying-glass1 which 7with the iron hand of ,hercules forcing ,cerberus up to daylight7 the stern man of ,koenigsberg resolutely dragged to the front of the arena1 nothing remained1 now that he had this pet scholastic argument driven up into a corner1 than to break its neck--which he did4 ,kant took the conceit out of all the three arguments2 but1 if this is what ,phil4 alludes to1 he should have added1 that these three1 after all1 were only the arguments of speculating or theoretic reason4 ,to this faculty ,kant peremptorily denied the power of demonstrating the ,deity2 but then that same apodeixis1 which he had thus inexorably torn from reason under one manifestation1 ,kant himself restored to the reason in another 7the praktische vernunft47 ,god he asserts to be a postulate of the human reason1 as speaking through the conscience and will1 not proved ostensively1 but indirectly proved as being wanted indispensably1 and presupposed in other necessities of our human nature4 ,this1 probably1 is what ,phil4 means by his short-hand expression of 'axiomatic postulates4' ,but then it should not have been said that the case does not 'admit of formal proof1' since the proof is as 'formal' and rigorous by this new method of ,kant as by the old obsolete methods of ,sam4 ,clarke and the schoolmen4,footnote3 ,the method of ,des ,cartes was altogether separate and peculiar to himself2 it is a mere conjuror's juggle2 and yet1 what is strange1 like some other audacious sophisms1 it is capable of being so stated as most of all to baffle the subtle dialectician2 and ,kant himself1 though not cheated1 was never so much perplexed in his life as in the effort to make its hollowness apparent4 ,but it is not the too high or the too low--the two much or the too little--of what one might call by analogy the transcendental course1 which ,i charge upon ,phil4 ,it is1 that he is too desultory--too eclectic4 ,and the secret purpose1 which seems to me predominant throughout his work1 is1 not so much the defence of ,protestantism1 or even of the ,anglican ,church1 as a report of the latest novelties that have found a roosting-place in the ,english ,church1 amongst the most temperate of those churchmen who keep pace with modern philosophy2 in short1 it is a selection from the classical doctrines of religion1 exhibited under their newest revision2 or1 generally1 it is an attempt to show1 from what is going on amongst the most moving orders in the ,english ,church1 how far it is possible that strict orthodoxy should bend1 on the one side1 to new impulses1 derived from an advancing philosophy1 and yet1 on the other side1 should reconcile itself1 both verbally and in spirit1 with ancient standards4 ,but if ,phil4 is eclectic1 then ,i will be eclectic2 if ,phil4 has a right to be desultory1 then ,i have a right4 ,phil4 is my leader4 ,i can't1 in reason1 be expected to be better than he is4 ,if ,i'm wrong1 ,phil4 ought to set me a better example4 ,and here1 before this honorable audience of the public1 ,i charge all my errors 7whatever they may be1 past or coming7 upon ,phil4's misconduct4 ,having thus established my patent of vagrancy1 and my license for picking and choosing1 ,i choose out these three articles to toy with3--first1 ,bibliolatry2 second1 ,development applied to the ,bible and ,christianity2 third1 ,philology1 as the particular resource against false philosophy1 relied on by ,phil4 ,bibliolatry4--,we ,protestants charge upon the ,ponteficii1 as the more learned of our fathers always called the ,roman ,catholics1 ,mariolatry2 they pay undue honors1 say we1 to the ,virgin4 ,they in return charge upon us1 ,bibliolatry1 or a superstitious allegiance--an idolatrous homage--to the words1 syllables1 and punctuation of the ,bible4 ,they1 according to us1 deify a woman2 and we1 according to them1 deify an arrangement of printer's types4 ,as to their error1 we need not mind that3 let us attend to our own4 ,and to this extent it is evident at a glance that ,bibliolatrists must be wrong1 viz41 because1 as a pun vanishes on being translated into another language1 even so would1 and must melt away1 like ice in a hot-house1 a large majority of those conceits which every ,christian nation is apt to ground upon the verbal text of the ,scriptures in its own separate vernacular version4 ,but once aware that much of their ,bibliolatry depends upon ignorance of ,hebrew and ,greek1 and often upon peculiarity of idiom or structures in their mother dialect1 cautious people begin to suspect the whole4 ,here arises a very interesting1 startling1 and perplexing situation for all who venerate the ,bible2 one which must always have existed for prying1 inquisitive people1 but which has been incalculably sharpened for the apprehension of these days by the extraordinary advances made and making in ,oriental and ,greek philology4 ,it is a situation of public scandal even to the deep reverencers of the ,bible2 but a situation of much more than scandal1 of real grief1 to the profound and sincere amongst religious people4 ,on the one hand1 viewing the ,bible as the word of ,god1 and not merely so in the sense of its containing most salutary counsels1 but1 in the highest sense1 of its containing a revelation of the most awful secrets1 they cannot for a moment listen to the pretence that the ,bible has benefited by ,god's inspiration only as other good books may be said to have done4 ,they are confident that1 in a much higher sense1 and in a sense incommunicable to other books1 it is inspired4 ,yet1 on the other hand1 as they will not tell lies1 or countenance lies1 even in what seems the service of religion1 they cannot hide from themselves that the materials of this imperishable book are perishable1 frail1 liable to crumble1 and actually have crumbled to some extent1 in various instances4 ,there is1 therefore1 lying broadly before us1 something like what ,kant called an antinomy--a case where two laws equally binding on the mind are1 or seem to be1 in collision4 ,such cases occur in morals--cases which are carried out of the general rule1 and the jurisdiction of that rule1 by peculiar deflexions2 and from the word case we derive the word casuistry1 as a general science dealing with such anomalous cases4 ,there is a casuistry1 also1 for the speculative understanding1 as well as for the moral 7which is the practical7 understanding4 ,and this question1 as to the inspiration of the ,bible1 with its apparent conflict of forces1 repelling it and yet affirming it1 is one of its most perplexing and most momentous problems4 ,my own solution of the problem would reconcile all that is urged against an inspiration with all that the internal necessity of the case would plead in behalf of an inspiration4 ,so would ,phil4's4 ,his distinction1 like mine1 would substantially come down to this--that the grandeur and extent of religious truth is not of a nature to be affected by verbal changes such as can be made by time1 or accident1 or without treacherous design4 ,it is like lightning1 which could not be mutilated1 or truncated1 or polluted4 ,but it may be well to rehearse a little more in detail1 both ,phil4's view and my own4 ,let my principal go first2 make way1 ,i desire1 for my leader3 let ,phil4 have precedency1 as1 in all reason1 it is my duty to see that he has4 ,whilst rejecting altogether any inspiration as attaching to the separate words and phrases of the ,scriptures1 ,phil4 insists 7sect4 #be1 p4 #di7 upon such an inspiration as attaching to the spiritual truths and doctrines delivered in these ,scriptures4 ,and he places this theory in a striking light1 equally for what it affirms and for what it denies1 by these two arguments--first 7in affirmation of the real spiritual inspiration71 that a series of more than thirty writers1 speaking in succession along a vast line of time1 and absolutely without means of concert1 yet all combine unconsciously to one end--lock like parts of a great machine into one system--conspire to the unity of a very elaborate scheme1 without being at all aware of what was to come after4 ,here1 for instance1 is one1 living nearly one thousand six hundred years before the last in the series1 who lays a foundation 7in reference to man's ruin1 to ,god's promises and plan for human restoration71 which is built upon and carried forward by all1 without exception1 that follow4 ,here come a multitude that prepare each for his successor--that unconsciously integrate each other--that1 finally1 when reviewed1 make up a total drama1 of which each writer's separate share would have been utterly imperfect without corresponding parts that he could not have foreseen4 ,at length all is finished4 ,a profound piece of music1 a vast oratorio1 perfect and of elaborate unity1 has resulted from a long succession of strains1 each for itself fragmentary4 ,on such a final creation resulting from such a distraction of parts1 it is indispensable to suppose an overruling inspiration1 in order at all to account for the final result of a most elaborate harmony4 ,besides1 which would argue some inconceivable magic1 if we did not assume a providential inspiration watching over the coherencies1 tendencies1 and intertessellations 7to use a learned word7 of the whole1--it happens that1 in many instances1 typical things are recorded--things ceremonial1 that could have no meaning to the person recording--prospective words1 that were reported and transmitted in a spirit of confiding faith1 but that could have little meaning to the reporting parties for many hundreds of years4 ,briefly1 a great mysterious word is spelt as it were by the whole sum of the scriptural books--every separate book forming a letter or syllable in that secret and that unfinished word1 as it was for so many ages4 ,this cooperation of ages1 not able to communicate or concert arrangements with each other1 is neither more nor less an argument of an overruling inspiration1 than if the separation of the contributing parties were by space1 and not by time4 ,as if1 for example1 every island at the same moment were to send its contribution1 without previous concert1 to a sentence or chapter of a book2 in which case the result1 if full of meaning1 much more if full of awful and profound meaning1 could not be explained rationally without the assumption of a supernatural overruling of these unconscious co-operators to a common result4 ,so far on behalf of inspiration4 ,yet1 on the other hand1 as an argument in denial of any blind mechanic inspiration cleaving to words and syllables1 ,phil4 notices this consequence as resulting from such an assumption1 viz41 that if you adopt any one gospel1 ,st4 ,john's suppose1 or any one narrative of a particular transaction1 as inspired in this minute and pedantic sense1 then for every other report1 which1 adhering to the spiritual value of the circumstances1 and virtually the same1 should differ in the least of the details1 there would instantly arise a solemn degradation4 ,all parts of ,scripture1 in fact1 would thus be made active and operative in degrading each other4 ,such is ,phil4's way of explaining ,footnote3 ,i must point out to ,phil4 an oversight of his as to this word at p4 #de2 he there describes the doctrine of theopneustia as being that of 'plenary and verbal inspiration1' ,but this he cannot mean1 for obviously this word theopneustia comprehends equally the verbal inspiration which he is denouncing1 and the inspiration of power or spiritual virtue which he is substituting4 ,neither ,phil41 nor any one of his school1 is to be understood as rejecting theopneustia1 but as rejecting that particular mode of theopneustia which appeals to the eye by mouldering symbols1 in favor of that other mode which appeals to the heart by incorruptible radiations of inner truth4 7theopneustia71 or divine prompting1 so as to reconcile the doctrine affirming a virtual inspiration1 an inspiration as to the truths revealed1 with a peremptory denial of any inspiration at all1 as to the mere verbal vehicle of those revelations4 ,he is evidently as sincere in regard to the inspiration which he upholds as in regard to that which he denies4 ,phil4 is honest1 and ,phil4 is able4 ,now comes my turn4 ,i rise to support my leader1 and shall attempt to wrench this notion of a verbal inspiration from the hands of its champions by a reductio ad absurdum1 viz41 by showing the monstrous consequences to which it leads--which form of logic ,phil4 also has employed briefly in the last paragraph of last month's paper2 but mine is different and more elaborate4 ,yet1 first of all1 let me frankly confess to the reader1 that some people allege a point-blank assertion by ,scripture itself of its own verbal inspiration2 which assertion1 if it really had any existence1 would summarily put down all cavils of human dialectics4 ,that makes it necessary to review this assertion4 ,this famous passage of ,scripture1 this locus classicus1 or prerogative text1 pleaded for the verbatim et literatim inspiration of the ,bible1 is the following2 and ,i will so exhibit its very words as that the reader1 even if no ,grecian1 may understand the point in litigation4 ,the passage is this3 1 c41 taken from ,st4 ,paul1 7#b ,tim4 iii4 #af47 ,let us construe it literally1 expressing the ,greek by ,latin characters3 ,pasa graphe1 all written lore 7or every writing7--theopneustos1 ,god-breathed1 or1 ,god-prompted--kai1 and 7or1 also7--ophelimos1 serviceable--pros1 towards1 didaskalian1 doctrinal truth4 ,now this sentence1 when thus rendered into ,english according to the rigor of the ,grecian letter1 wants something to complete its sense--it wants an is4 ,there is a subject1 as the logicians say1 and there is a predicate 7or1 something affirmed of that subject71 but there is no copula to connect them--we miss the is4 ,this omission is common in ,greek1 but cannot be allowed in ,english4 ,the is must be supplied2 but where must it be supplied8 ,that's the very question1 for there is a choice between two places2 and1 according to the choice1 will the word theopneustos become part of the subject1 or part of the predicate2 which will make a world of difference4 ,let us try it both ways3-- #a4 ,all writing inspired by ,god 7i4e4 being inspired by ,god1 supposing it inspired1 which makes theopneustos part of the subject7 is also profitable for teaching1 c4 #b4 ,all writing is inspired by ,god1 and profitable1 c4 7which makes theopneustos part of the predicate47 ,now1 in this last way of construing the text1 which is the way adopted by our authorized version1 one objection strikes everybody at a glance1 viz41 that ,st4 ,paul could not possibly mean to say of all writing1 indiscriminately1 that it was divinely inspired1 this being so revoltingly opposed to the truth4 ,it follows1 therefore1 that1 on this way of interpolating the is1 we must understand the ,apostle to use the word graphe1 writing1 in a restricted sense1 not for writing generally1 but for sacred writing1 or 7as our ,english phrase runs7 ',holy ,writ2' upon which will arise three separate demurs--first1 one already stated by ,phil41 viz41 that1 when graphe is used in this sense1 it is accompanied by the article2 the phrase is either 1 'the writing1' or else 7as in ,st4 ,luke7 1 'the writings1' just as in ,english it is said1 'the ,scripture1' or 'the ,scriptures4' ,secondly1 that1 according to the ,greek usage1 this would not be the natural place for introducing the is4 ,thirdly--which disarms the whole objection from this text1 howsoever construed--that1 after all1 it leaves the dispute with the bibliolaters wholly untouched4 ,we also1 the anti-bibliolaters1 say that all ,scripture is inspired1 though we may not therefore suppose the ,apostle to be here insisting on that doctrine4 ,but no matter whether he is or not1 in relation to this dispute4 ,both parties are contending for the inspiration--so far they are agreed2 the question between them arises upon quite another point1 viz41 as to the mode of that inspiration1 whether incarnating its golden light in the corruptibilities of perishing syllables1 or in the sanctities of indefeasible1 word-transcending ideas4 ,now1 upon that question1 the apostolic words1 torture them how you please1 say nothing at all4 ,there is1 then1 no such dogma 7or1 to speak ,germanice1 no such macht-spruch7 in behalf of verbal inspiration as has been ascribed to ,st4 ,paul1 and ,i pass to my own argument against it4 ,this argument turns upon the self-confounding tendency of the common form ascribed to 1 or divine inspiration4 ,when translated from its true and lofty sense of an inspiration--brooding1 with outstretched wings1 over the mighty abyss of secret truth--to the vulgar sense of an inspiration1 burrowing1 like a rabbit or a worm1 in grammatical quillets and syllables1 mark how it comes down to nothing at all2 mark how a stream1 pretending to derive itself from a heavenly fountain1 is finally lost and confounded in a morass of human perplexities4 ,first of all1 at starting1 we have the inspiration 7,no4 #a7 to the original composers of the sacred books4 ,that ,i grant1 though distinguishing as to its nature4 ,next1 we want another inspiration 7,no4 #b7 for the countless translators of the ,bible4 ,of what use is it to a ,german1 to a ,swiss1 or to a ,scotsman1 that1 three thousand years before the ,reformation1 the author of the ,pentateuch was kept from erring by a divine restraint over his words1 if the authors of this ,reformation--,luther1 suppose1 ,zwingle1 ,john ,knox--either making translations themselves1 or relying upon translations made by others under no such verbal restraint1 have been left free to bias his mind1 pretty nearly as much as if the original ,hebrew writer had been resigned to his own human discretion8 ,thirdly1 even if we adopt the inspiration ,no4 #b1 that will not avail us2 because many different translators exist4 ,does the very earliest translation of the ,law and the ,prophets1 viz41 the ,greek translation of the ,septuagint1 always agree verbally with the ,hebrew8 ,or the ,samaritan ,pentateuch always with the ,hebrew8 ,or do the earliest ,latin versions of the entire ,bible agree verbally with modern ,latin versions8 ,jerome's ,latin version1 for instance1 memorable as being that adopted by the ,romish ,church1 and known under the name of the ,vulgate1 does it agree verbally with the ,latin versions of the ,bible or parts of the ,bible made since the ,reformation8 ,in the ,english1 again1 if we begin with the translation still sleeping in ,,ms41 made five centuries ago1 and passing from that to the first printed translation 7which was1 ,i think1 ,coverdale's1 in #aece71 if we thence travel down to our own day1 so as to include all that have confined themselves to separate versions of some one book1 or even of some one cardinal text1 the versions that differ--and to the idolater of words all differences are important--may be described as countless4 ,here1 then1 on that doctrine of inspiration which ascribes so much to the power of verbal accuracy1 we shall want a fourth inspiration1 ,no4 #d1 for the guidance of each separate ,christian applying himself to the ,scriptures in his mother tongue2 he will have to select not one 7where is the one that has been uniformly correct87 but a multitude2 else the same error will again rush in by torrents through the license of interpretation assumed by these many adverse translators4 ,fourthly1 as these differences of version arise often tinder the same reading of the original text2 but as1 in the meantime1 there are many different readings1 here a fifth source of possible error calls for a fifth inspiration overruling us to the proper choice amongst various readings4 ,what may be called a 'textual' inspiration for selecting the right reading is requisite for the very same reason1 neither more nor less1 which supposes any verbal inspiration originally requisite for constituting a right reading4 ,it matters not in which stage of the ,bible's progress the error commences2 first stage and last stage are all alike in the sight of ,god4 ,there was1 reader1 as perhaps you know1 about six score years ago1 another ,phil41 not the same as this ,phil4 now before us 7who would be quite vexed if you fancied him as old as all that comes to--oh dear1 no6 he's not near as old7--well1 that earlier ,phil4 was ,bentley1 who wrote 7under the name of ,phileleutheros ,lipsiansis7 a pamphlet connected with this very subject1 partly against an ,english infidel of that day4 ,in that pamphlet1 ,phil4 the first pauses to consider and value this very objection from textual variation to the validity of ,scripture3 for the infidel 7as is usual with infidels7 being no great scholar1 had argued as though it were impossible to urge anything whatever for the word of ,god1 since so vast a variety in the readings rendered it impossible to know what was the word of ,god4 ,bentley1 though rather rough1 from having too often to deal with shallow coxcombs1 was really and unaffectedly a pious man4 ,he was shocked at this argument1 and set himself seriously to consider it4 ,now1 as all the various readings were ,greek1 and as ,bentley happened to be the first of ,grecians1 his deliberate review of this argument is entitled to great attention4 ,there were1 at that moment when ,bentley spoke1 something more 7as ,i recollect7 than ten thousand varieties of reading in the text of the ,new ,testament2 so many had been collected in the early part of ,queen ,anne's reign by ,wetstein1 the ,dutchman1 who was then at the head of the collators4 ,mill1 the ,englishman1 was at that very time making further collations4 ,how many he added1 ,i cannot tell without consulting books--a thing which ,i very seldom do4 ,but since that day1 and long after ,bentley and ,mill were in their graves1 ,griesbach1 the ,german1 has risen to the top of the tree1 by towering above them all in the accuracy of his collations4 ,yet1 as the harvest comes before the gleanings1 we may be sure that ,wetstein's barn housed the very wealth of all this variety4 ,of this it was1 then1 that ,bentley spoke4 ,and what was it that he spoke8 ,why1 he1 the great scholar1 pronounced1 as with the authority of a ,chancery decree1 that the vast majority of various readings made no difference at all in the sense4 ,in the sense1 observe2 but many things might make a difference in the sense which would still leave the doctrine undisturbed4 ,for instance1 in the passage about a camel going through the eye of a needle1 it will make a difference in the sense1 whether you read in the ,greek word for camel the oriental animal of that name1 or a ship's cable2 but no difference at all arises in the spiritual doctrine4 ,or1 illustrating the case out of ,shakspeare1 it makes no difference as to the result1 whether you read in ,hamlet 'to take arms against a sea of troubles1' or 7as has been suggested71 'against a siege of troubles2' but it makes a difference as to the integrity of the image4,footnote3 ',integrity of the metaphor4'--,one of the best notes ever written by ,warburton was in justification of the old reading1 sea4 ,it was true1 that against a sea it would be idle to take arms4 ,we1 that have lived since ,warburton's day1 have learned by the solemn example of ,mrs4 ,partington1 7which1 it is to be hoped1 none of us will ever forget17 how useless1 how vain it is to take up a mop against the ,atlantic ,ocean4 ,great is the mop1 great is ,mrs4 ,partington1 but greater is the ,atlantic4 ,yet1 though all arms must be idle against the sea considered literally1 and under that image1 ,warburton contended justly that all images1 much employed1 evanesce into the ideas which they represent4 ,a sea of troubles comes to mean only a multitude of troubles4 ,no image of the sea is suggested2 and arms1 incongruous in relation to the literal sea1 is not so in relation to a multitude2 besides1 that the image arms itself1 evanesces for the same reason into resistance4 ,for this one note1 which ,i cite from boyish remembrance1 ,i have always admired the subtlety of ,warburton4 ,what has a sea to do with arms8 ,what has a camel1,footnote3 ,meantime1 though using this case as an illustration1 ,i believe that camel is1 after all1 the true translation2 first1 on account of the undoubted proverb in the ,east about the elephant going through the needle's eye2 the relation is that of contrast as to magnitude2 and the same relation holds as to the camel and the needle's eye2 secondly1 because the proper word for a cable1 it has been alleged1 is not 'camelus1' but 'camilus4' the quadruped1 to do with a needle8 ,a prodigious minority1 therefore1 there is of such various readings as slightly affect the sense2 but this minority becomes next to nothing1 when we inquire for such as affect any doctrine4 ,this was ,bentley's opinion upon the possible disturbance offered to the ,christian by various readings in the ,new ,testament4 ,you thought that the carelessness1 or1 at times1 even the treachery of men1 through so many centuries1 must have ended in corrupting the original truth2 yet1 after all1 you see the light burns as brightly and steadily as ever4 ,we1 now1 that are not bibliolatrists1 no more believe that1 from the disturbance of a few words here or there1 any evangelical truth can have suffered a wound or mutilation1 than we believe that the burning of a wood1 or even of a forest1 which happens in our vast ,american possessions1 sometimes from natural causes 7lightning1 or spontaneous combustion71 sometimes from an ,indian's carelessness1 can seriously have injured botany4 ,but for him1 who conceives an inviolable sanctity to have settled upon each word and particle of the original record1 there should have been strictly required an inspiration 7,no4 #e7 to prevent the possibility of various readings arising4 ,it is too late1 however1 to pray for that2 the various readings have arisen2 here they are2 and what's to be done now8 ,the only resource for the bibliolatrist is--to invoke a new inspiration 7,no4#d7 for helping him out of his difficulty1 by guiding his choice4 ,we1 anti-bibliolaters1 are not so foolish as to believe that ,god having once sent a deep message of truth to man1 would suffer it to lie at the mercy of a careless or a wicked copyist4 ,treasures so vast would not be left at the mercy of accidents so vile4 ,very little more than two hundred years ago1 a ,london compositor1 not wicked at all1 but simply drunk1 in printing ,deuteronomy1 left out the most critical of words2 the seventh commandment he exhibited thus-',thou shalt commit adultery2' in which form the sheet was struck off4 ,and though in those days no practical mischief could arise from this singular erratum1 which ,english ,griesbachs will hardly enter upon the roll of various readings1 yet1 harmless as it was1 it met with punishment4 ',scandalous6' said ,laud1 'shocking6 to tell men in the seventeenth century1 as a biblical rule1 that they positively must commit adultery6' ,the brother compositors of this drunken biblical reviser1 being too honorable to betray the individual delinquent1 the ,star ,chamber fined the whole 'chapel4' ,now1 the copyists of ,,mss4 were as certain to be sometimes drunk as this compositor--famous by his act--utterly forgotten in his person--whose crime is remembered--the record of whose name has perished4 ,we therefore hold1 that it never was in the power1 or placed within the discretion1 of any copyist1 whether writer or printer1 to injure the sacred oracles4 ,but the bibliolatrist cannot say that2 because1 if he does1 then he is formally unsaying the very principle which is meant by bibliolatry4 ,he therefore must require another supplementary inspiration1 viz41 ,no4 #d1 to direct him in his choice of the true reading amongst so many as continually offer themselves4,footnote3 ,footnote3 ,i recollect no variation in the test of ,scripture which makes any startling change1 even to the amount of an eddy in its own circumjacent waters1 except that famous passage about the three witnesses--',there are three that bare record in heaven1' c4 ,this has been denounced with perfect fury as an interpolation2 and it is impossible to sum up the quart bottles of ink1 black and blue1 that have been shed in the dreadful skirmish4 ,person even1 the all-accomplished ,grecian1 in his letters to ,archdeacon ,travis1 took a conspicuous part in the controversy2 his wish was1 that men should think of him as a second ,bentley tilting against ,phalaris2 and he stung like a hornet4 ,to be a ,cambridge man in those days was to be a hater of all ,establishments in ,england2 things and persons were hated alike4 ,i hope the same thing may not be true at present4 ,it may chance that on this subject ,master ,porson will get stung through his coffin1 before he is many years deader4 ,however1 if this particular variation troubles the waters just around itself 7for it would desolate a ,popish village to withdraw its local saint71 yet carrying one's eye from this ,epistle to the whole domains of the ,new ,testament--yet1 looking away from that defrauded village to universal ,christendom1 we must exclaim--,what does one miss8 ,surely ,christendom is not disturbed because a village suffers wrong2 the sea is not roused because an eddy in a corner is boiling2 the doctrine of the ,trinity is not in danger because ,mr4 ,porson is in a passion4 ,fifthly1 as all words cover ideas1 and many a word covers a choice of ideas1 and very many ideas split into a variety of modifications1 we shall1 even after a fourth inspiration has qualified us for selecting the true reading1 still be at a loss how1 upon this right reading1 to fix the right acceptation4 ,so there1 at that fifth stage1 in rushes the total deluge of human theological controversies4 ,one church1 or one sect1 insists upon one sense2 another1 and another1 'to the end of time1' insists upon a different sense4 ,babel is upon us2 and1 to get rid of ,babel1 we shall need a fifth inspiration4 ,no4 #e is clamorously called for4,footnote3 ,one does not wish to be tedious2 or1 if one has a gift in that way1 naturally one does not wish to bestow it all upon a perfect stranger1 as 'the reader' usually is1 but to reserve a part for the fireside1 and the use of one's most beloved friends2 else ,i could torment the reader by a longer succession of numbers1 and perhaps drive him to despair4 ,but one more of the series1 viz41 ,no4 #f1 as a parting gage d' amitie1 he must positively permit me to drop into his pocket4 ,supposing1 then1 that ,no4 #e were surmounted1 and that1 supernaturally1 you knew the value to a hair's breadth1 of every separate word 7or1 perhaps1 composite phrase made up from a constellation of words7--ah1 poor traveller in trackless forests1 still you are lost again--for1 oftentimes1 and especially in ,st4 ,paul1 the words may be known1 their sense may be known1 but their logical relation is still doubtful4 ,the word ,x and the word ,y are separately clear2 but has ,y the dependency of a consequence upon ,x1 or no dependency at all8 ,is the clause which stands eleventh in the series a direct prolongation of that which stands tenth8 or is the tenth wholly independent and insulated8 or does it occupy the place of a parenthesis1 so as to modify the ninth clause8 ,people that have pracised composition as much1 and with as vigilant an eye as myself1 know also1 by thousands of cases1 how infinite is the disturbance caused in the logic of a thought by the mere position of a word as despicable as the word even4 ,a mote1 that is itself invisible1 shall darken the august faculty of sight in a human eye--the heavens shall be hidden by a wretched atom that dares not show itself--and the station of a syllable shall cloud the judgment of a council4 ,nay1 even an ambiguous emphasis falling to the right-hand word1 or the left-hand word1 shall confound a system4 ,but we all know1 each knows by his own experience1 that ,no4 #e is not forthcoming2 and1 in the absence of that1 what avail for us the others8 ',man overboard6' is the cry upon deck2 but what avails it for the poor drowning creature that a rope being thrown to him is thoroughly secured at one end to the ship1 if the other end floats wide of his grasp8 ,we are in prison3 we descend from our prison-roof1 that seems high as the clouds1 by knotting together all the prison bed-clothes1 and all the aids from friends outside4 ,but all is too short3 after swarming down the line1 in middle air1 we find ourselves hanging3 sixty feet of line are still wanting4 ,to reascend--that is impossible3 to drop boldly--alas6 that is to die4 ,meantime1 what need of this eternal machinery1 that eternally is breaking like ropes of sand8 ,or of this earth resting on an elephant1 that rests on a tortoise1 that1 when all is done1 must still consent to rest on the common atmosphere of ,god8 ,these chains of inspiration are needless4 ,the great ideas of the ,bible protect themselves4 ,the heavenly truths1 by their own imperishableness1 defeat the mortality of languages with which for a moment they are associated4 ,is the lightning enfeebled or dimmed1 because for thousands of years it has blended with the tarnish of earth and the steams of earthly graves8 ,or light1 which so long has travelled in the chambers of our sickly air1 and searched the haunts of impurity--is that less pure than it was in the first chapter of ,genesis8 ,or that more holy light of truth--the truth1 suppose1 written from his creation upon the tablets of man's heart--which truth never was imprisoned in any ,hebrew or ,greek1 but has ranged for ever through courts and camps1 deserts and cities1 the original lesson of justice to man and piety to ,god--has that become tainted by intercourse with flesh8 or has it become hard to decipher1 because the very heart1 that human heart where it is inscribed1 is so often blotted with falsehoods8 ,you are aware1 perhaps1 reader1 that in the ,mediterranean ,sea1 off the coast of ,asia ,minor 7and1 indeed1 elsewhere71 through the very middle of the salt-sea billows1 rise up1 in shining columns1 fountains of fresh water4,footnote3 ,see ,mr4 ,yates's ',annotations upon ,fellowes's ,researches in ,anatolia1' as one authority for this singular phenomenon4 ,in the desert of the sea are found ,arabian fountains of ,ishmael and ,isaac6 ,are these fountains poisoned for the poor victim of fever1 because they have to travel through a contagion of waters not potable8 ,oh1 no6 ,they bound upwards like arrows1 cleaving the seas above with as much projectile force as the glittering water-works of ,versailles cleave the air1 and rising as sweet to the lip as ever mountain torrent that comforted the hunted deer4 ,it is impossible to suppose that any truth1 launched by ,god upon the agitations of things so unsettled as languages1 can perish4 ,the very frailty of languages is the strongest proof of this2 because it is impossible to suppose that anything so great can have been committed to the fidelity of anything so treacherous4 ,there is laughter in heaven when it is told of man1 that he fancies his earthly jargons1 which1 to heavenly ears1 must sound like the chucklings of poultry1 equal to the task of hiding or distorting any light of revelation4 ,had words possessed any authority or restraint over scriptural truth1 a much worse danger would have threatened it than any malice in the human will1 suborning false copyists1 or surreptitiously favoring depraved copies4 ,even a general conspiracy of the human race for such a purpose would avail against the ,bible only as a general conspiracy to commit suicide might avail against the drama of ,god's providence4 ,either conspiracy would first become dangerous when first either became possible4 ,but a real danger seems to lie in the insensible corruption going on for ever within all languages1 by means of which they are eternally dying away from their own vital powers2 and that is a danger which is travelling fast after all the wisdom and the wit1 the eloquence and the poetry of this earth1 like a mountainous wave1 and will finally overtake them--their very vehicles being lost and confounded to human sensibilities4 ,but such a wave will break harmlessly against scriptural truth2 and not merely because that truth will for ever evade such a shock by its eternal transfer from language to language--from languages dying out to languages in vernal bloom--but also because1 if it could not evade the shock1 supreme truth would surmount it for a profounder reason4 ,a danger analogous to this once existed in a different form4 ,the languages into which the ,new ,testament was first translated offered an apparent obstacle to the translation that seemed insurmountable4 ,the ,latin1 for instance1 did not present the spiritual words which such a translation demanded2 and how should it1 when the corresponding ideas had no existence amongst the ,romans8 ,yet1 if not spiritual1 the language of ,rome was intellectual2 it was the language of a cultivated and noble race4 ,but what shall be done if the ,new ,testament wishes to drive a tunnel through a rude forest race1 having an undeveloped language1 and understanding nothing but war8 ,four centuries after ,christ1 the ,gothic ,bishop ,ulphilas set about translating the ,gospels for his countrymen4 ,he had no words for expressing spiritual relations or spiritual operations4 ,the new nomenclature of moral graces1 humility1 resignation1 the spirit of forgiveness1 c41 hitherto unrecognised for such amongst men1 having first of all been shown in blossom1 and distinguished from weeds1 by ,christian gardening1 had to be reproduced in the ,gothic language1 with apparently no means whatever of effecting it4 ,in this earliest of what we may call ancestral translations1 7for the ,goths were of our own blood17 and1 therefore1 by many degrees1 this most interesting of translations1 may be seen to this day1 after fourteen centuries and upwards have passed1 how the good bishop succeeded1 to what extent he succeeded1 and by what means4 ,i shall take a separate opportunity for investigating that problem2 but at present ,i will content myself with noticing a remarkable principle which applies to the case1 and illustrating it by a remarkable anecdote4 ,the principle is this--that in the grander parts of knowledge1 which do not deal much with petty details1 nearly all the building or constructive ideas 7those ideas which build up the system of that particular knowledge7 lie involved within each other2 so that any one of the series1 being awakened in the mind1 is sufficient 7given a multitude of minds7 to lead backwards or forwards1 analytically or synthetically1 into many of the rest4 ,that is the principle2,footnote3 ,i am afraid1 on reviewing this passage1 that the reader may still say1 ',what is the principle8' ,i will add1 therefore1 the shortest explanation of my meaning4 ,if into any ,pagan language you had occasion to translate the word love1 or purity1 or penitence1 c41 you could not do it4 ,the ,greek language itself1 perhaps the finest 7all things weighed and valued7 that man has employed1 could not do it4 ,the scale was not so pitched as to make the transfer possible4 ,it was to execute organ music on a guitar4 ,and1 hereafter1 ,i will endeavor to show how scandalous an error has been committed on this subject1 not by scholars only1 but by religious philosophers4 ,the relation of ,christian ethics 7which word ethics1 however1 is itself most insufficient7 to natural or universal ethics is a field yet uncultured by a rational thought4 ,the first word of sense has yet to be spoken4 ,there lies the difficulty2 and the principle which meets it is this1 that what any one idea could never effect for itself 7insulated1 it must remain an unknown quality for ever71 the total system of the ideas developed from its centre would effect for each separately4 ,to know the part1 you must first know the whole1 or know it1 at least1 by some outline4 ,the idea of purity1 for instance1 in its ,christian altitude1 would be utterly incomprehensible1 and1 besides1 could not sustain itself for a moment if by any glimpse it were approached4 ,but when a ruin was unfolded that had affected the human race1 and many things heretofore unobserved1 because uncombined1 were gathered into a unity of evidence to that ruin1 spread through innumerable channels1 the great altitude would begin dimly to reveal itself by means of the mighty depth in correspondence4 ,one deep calleth to another4 ,one after one the powers lodged in the awful succession of uncoverings would react upon each other2 and thus the feeblest language would be as capable of receiving and reflecting the system of truths 7because the system is an arch that supports itself7 as the richest and noblest2 and for the same reason that makes geometry careless of language4 ,the vilest jargon that ever was used by a shivering savage of ,terra del ,fuego is as capable of dealing with the sublime and eternal affections of space and quantity1 with up and down1 with more and less1 with circle and radius1 angle and tangent1 as is the golden language of ,athens4 and the story which illustrates it is this3--,a great work of ,apollonius1 the sublime geometer1 was supposed in part to have perished3 seven of the eight books remained in the original ,greek2 but the eighth was missing4 ,the ,greek1 after much search1 was not recovered2 but at length there was found 7in the ,bodleian1 ,i think17 an ,arabic translation of it4 ,an ,english mathematician1 ,halley1 knowing not one word of ,arabic1 determined 7without waiting for that ,arabic key7 to pick the lock of this ,,ms4 ,and he did so4 ,through strength of preconception1 derived equally from his knowledge of the general subject1 and from his knowledge of this particular work in its earlier sections1 using also to some extent the subtle art of the decipherer1 ,footnote3 ,an art which1 in the preceding century1 had been greatly improved by ,wallis1 ,savilian professor of geometry at ,oxford1 the improver of analytic mathematics1 and the great historian of algebra4 ,algebra it was that suggested to him his exquisite deciphering skill1 and the parliamentary war it was that furnished him with a sufficient field of practice4 ,the ,king's private cabinet of papers1 all written in cipher1 and captured in the royal coach on the decisive day of ,naseby 7,june1 #afde71 was 7,i believe7 deciphered by ,wallis1 proprio marte4 now become so powerful an instrument of analysis1 he translated the whole ,arabic ,,ms4 ,he printed it--he published it4 ,he tore--he extorted the truth from the darkness of an unknown language--he would not suffer the ,arabic to benefit by its own obscurity to the injury of mathematics4 ,and the book remains a monument to this day1 that a system of ideas1 having internal coherency and interdependency1 is vainly hidden under an unknown tongue2 that it may be illuminated and restored chiefly through their own reciprocal involutions4 ,the same principle applies1 and a fortiori applies1 to religious truth1 as one which lies far deeper than geometry in the spirit of man1 one to which the inner attestation is profounder1 and to which the key-notes of ,scripture 7once awakened on the great organ of the heart7 are sure to call up corresponding echoes4 ,it is not in the power of language to arrest or to defeat this mode of truth2 because1 when once the fundamental base is furnished by revelation1 the human heart itself is able to co-operate in developing the great harmonies of the system1 without aid from language1 and in defiance of language--without aid from human learning1 and in defiance of human learning4 ,finally1 there is another security against the suppression or distortion of any great biblical truth by false readings1 which ,i will state in the briefest terms4 ,the reader is aware of the boyish sport sometimes called 'drake-stone2' a flattish stone is thrown by a little dexterity so as to graze the surface of a river1 but so1 also1 as in grazing it to dip below the surface1 to rise again from this dip1 again to dip1 again to ascend1 and so on alternately1 a plusieurs reprises4 ,in the same way1 with the same effect of alternate resurrections1 all scriptural truths reverberate and diffuse themselves along the pages of the ,bible2 none is confined to one text1 or to one mode of enunciation2 all parts of the scheme are eternally chasing each other1 like the parts of a fugue2 they hide themselves in one chapter1 only to restore themselves in another2 they diverge1 only to recombine2 and under such a vast variety of expressions1 that even in that way1 supposing language to have powers over religious truth--which it never had1 or can have--any abuse of such a power would be thoroughly neutralized4 ,the case resembles the diffusion of vegetable seeds through the air and through the waters2 draw a cordon sanitaire against dandelion or thistledown1 and see if the armies of earth would suffice to interrupt this process of radiation1 which yet is but the distribution of weeds4 ,suppose1 for instance1 the text about the three heavenly witnesses to have been eliminated finally as an interpolation4 ,the first thought is--there goes to wreck a great doctrine6 ,not at all4 ,that text occupied but a corner of the garden4 ,the truth1 and the secret implications of the truth1 have escaped at a thousand points in vast arches above our heads1 rising high above the garden wall1 and have sown the earth with memorials of the mystery which they envelope4 ,the final inference is this--that scriptural truth is endowed with a self-conservative and a self-restorative virtue2 it needs no long successions of verbal protection by inspiration2 it is self-protected2 first1 internally1 by the complex power which belongs to the ,christian system of involving its own integrations1 in the same way as a musical chord involves its own successions of sound1 and its own resolutions2 secondly1 in an external and obvious way1 it is protected by its prodigious iteration1 and secret presupposed in all varieties of form4 ,consequently1 as the peril connected with language is thus effectually barred1 the call for any verbal inspiration 7which1 on separate grounds1 is shown to be self-confounding7 shows itself now1 in a second form1 to be a gratuitous delusion1 since1 in effect1 it is a call for protection against a danger which cannot have any existence4 ,there is another variety of bibliolatry arising in a different way--not upon errors of language incident to human infirmity1 but upon deliberate errors indispensable to divine purposes4 ,the case is one which has been considered with far too little attention1 else it could never have been thought strange that ,christ should comply in things indifferent with popular errors4 ,a few ,words will put the reader in possession of my view4 ,speaking of the ,bible1 ,phil4 says1 ',we admit that its separate parts are the work of frail and fallible human beings4 ,we do not seek to build upon it systems of cosmogony1 chronology1 astronomy1 and natural history4 ,we know no reason of internal or external probability which should induce us to believe that such matters could ever have been the subjects of direct revelation4' ,is that all8 ,there is no reason1 certainly1 for expectations so foolish2 but is there no adamantine reason against them8 ,it is no business of the ,bible1 we are told1 to teach science4 ,certainly not2 but that is far too little4 ,it is an obligation resting upon the ,bible1 if it is to be consistent with itself1 that it should refuse to teach science2 and1 if the ,bible ever had taught any one art1 science1 or process of life1 capital doubts would have clouded our confidence in the authority of the book4 ,by what caprice1 it would have been asked1 is a divine mission abandoned suddenly for a human mission8 ,by what caprice is this one science taught1 and others not8 ,or these two1 suppose1 and not all8 ,but an objection1 even deadlier1 would have followed4 ,it is clear as is the purpose of daylight1 that the whole body of the arts and sciences composes one vast machinery for the irritation and development of the human intellect4 ,for this end they exist4 ,to see ,god1 therefore1 descending into the arena of science1 and contending1 as it were1 for his own prizes1 by teaching science in the ,bible1 would be to see him intercepting from their self-evident destination1 7viz41 man's intellectual benefit17 his own problems by solving them himself4 ,no spectacle could more dishonor the divine idea4 ,the ,bible must not teach anything that man can teach himself4 ,does the doctrine require a revelation8--then nobody but ,god can teach it4 ,does it require none8--then in whatever case ,god has qualified man to do a thing for himself1 he has in that very qualification silently laid an injunction upon man to do it1 by giving the power4 ,but it is fancied that a divine teacher1 without descending to the unworthy office of teaching science1 might yet have kept his own language free from all collusion with human error4 ,hence1 for instance1 it was argued at one time1 that any language in the ,bible implying the earth to be stationary1 and central to our system1 could not not have been a compliance with the popular errors of the time1 but must be taken to express the absolute truth4 ,and so grew the anti-,galilean fanatics4 ,out of similar notions have risen the absurdities of a polemic ,bible chronology1 c4 ,footnote3 ,the ,bible cosmology stands upon another footing4 ,that is not gathered from a casual expression1 shaped to meet popular comprehension1 but is delivered directly1 formally1 and elaborately1 as a natural preface to the history of man and his habitation4 ,here1 accordingly1 there is no instance of accommodation to vulgar ignorance2 and the persuasion gains ground continually that the order of succession in the phenomena of creation will be eventually confirmed by scientific geology1 so far as this science may ever succeed in unlinking the steps of the process4 ,nothing1 in fact1 disturbs the grandeur and solemnity of the ,mosaical cosmogony1 except 7as usual7 the ruggedness of the bibliolater4 ,he1 finding the ,english word day employed in the measurement of the intervals1 takes it for granted that this must mean a nychthemeron of twenty-four hours2 imports1 therefore1 into the biblical text this conceit2 fights for his own opinion1 as for a revelation from heaven2 and thus disfigures the great inaugural chapter of human history with this single feature of a fairy-tale1 where everything else is told with the most majestic simplicity4 ,but this word1 which so ignorantly he presumes to be an ordinary human day1 bears that meaning only in common historical transactions between man and man2 but never once in the great prophetic writings1 where ,god comes forward as himself the principal agent4 ,it then means always a vast and mysterious duration--undetermined1 even to this hour1 in ,daniel4 ,the heptameron is not a week1 but a shadowy adumbration of a week4 ,meantime1 if a man sets himself steadily to contemplate the consequences which must inevitably have followed any deviation from the usual erroneous phraseology1 he will see the utter impossibility that a teacher 7pleading a heavenly mission7 could allow himself to deviate by one hair's breadth 7and why should he wish to deviate87 from the ordinary language of the times4 ,to have uttered one syllable for instance1 that implied motion in the earth1 would have issued into the following ruins3--,first1 it would have tainted the teacher with the suspicion of lunacy2 and1 secondly1 would have placed him in this inextricable dilemma4 ,on the one hand1 to answer the questions prompted by his own perplexing language1 would have opened upon him1 as a necessity1 one stage after another of scientific cross-examination1 until his spiritual mission would have been forcibly swallowed up in the mission of natural philosopher2 but1 on the other hand1 to pause resolutely at any one stage of this public examination1 and to refuse all further advance1 would be1 in the popular opinion1 to retreat as a baffled disputant from insane paradoxes which he had not been able to support4 ,one step taken in that direction was fatal1 whether the great envoy retreated from his own words to leave behind the impression that he was defeated as a rash speculator1 or stood to these words1 and thus fatally entangled himself in the inexhaustible succession of explanations and justifications4 ,in either event the spiritual mission was at an end3 it would have perished in shouts of derision1 from which there could have been no retreat1 and no retrieval of character4 ,the greatest of astronomers1 rather than seem ostentatious or unseasonably learned1 will stoop to the popular phrase of the sun's rising1 or the sun's motion in the ecliptic4 ,but ,god1 for a purpose commensurate with man's eternal welfare1 is by these critics supposed incapable of the same petty abstinence4 ,the same line of argument applies to all the compliances of ,christ with the ,jewish prejudices 7partly imported from the ,euphrates7 as to demonology1 witchcraft1 c4 ,by the way1 in this last word1 'witchcraft1' and the too memorable histories connected with it1 lies a perfect mine of bibliolatrous madness4 ,as it illustrates the folly and the wickedness of the biliolaters1 let us pause upon it4 ,the word witch1 these bibliolaters take it for granted1 must mean exactly what the original ,hebrew means1 or the ,greek word chosen by the ,,lxx42 so much1 and neither more nor less4 ,that is1 from total ignorance of the machinery by which language moves1 they fancy that every idea and word which exists1 or has existed1 for any nation1 ancient or modern1 must have a direct interchangeable equivalent in all other languages2 and that1 if the dictionaries do not show it1 that must be because the dictionaries are bad4 ,will these worthy people have the goodness1 then1 to translate coquette into ,hebrew1 and post-office into ,greek8 ,the fact is1 that all languages1 and in the ratio of their development1 offer ideas absolutely separate and exclusive to themselves4 ,in the highly cultured languages of ,england1 ,france1 and ,germany1 are words1 by thousands1 which are strictly untranslatable4 ,they may be approached1 but cannot be reflected as from a mirror4 ,to take an image from the language of eclipses1 the correspondence between the disk of the original word and its translated representative is1 in thousands of instances1 not annular2 the centres do not coincide2 the words overlap2 and this arises from the varying modes in which different nations combine ideas4 ,the ,french word shall combine the elements1 l1 m1 n1 o--the nearest ,english word1 perhaps1 m1 n1 o1 p4 ,for instance1 in all words applied to the nuances of manners1 and generally to social differences1 how prodigious is the wealth of the ,french language6 ,how merely untranslatable for all ,europe6 ,i suppose1 my bibliolater1 you have not yet finished your ,hebrew or ,samaritan translation of coquette4 ,well1 you shall be excused from that1 if you will only translate it into ,english4 ,you cannot3 you are obliged to keep the ,french word2 and yet you take for granted1 without inquiry1 that in the word 'witchcraft1' and in the word 'witch1' applied to the sorceress of ,endor1 our authorized ,english ,bible of ,king ,james's day must be correct4 ,and your wicked bibliolatrous ancestors proceeded on that idea throughout ,christendom to murder harmless1 friendless1 and oftentimes crazy old women4 ,meantime the witch of ,endor in no respect resembled our modern domestic witch4,footnote3 ',the domestic witch4'--,it is the common notion that the superstition of the evil eye1 so widely diffused in the ,southern lands1 and in some1 not a slumbering1 but a fiercely operative superstition1 is unknown in ,england and other ,northern latitudes4 ,on the contrary1 to my thinking1 the regular old vulgar witch of ,england and ,scotland was but an impersonatrix of the very same superstition4 ,virgil expresses this mode of sorcery to the letter1 when his shepherd says-- ',nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos8' ,precisely in that way it was that the ,british witch operated4 ,she1 by her eye1 blighted the natural powers of growth and fertility4 ,by the way1 ,i ought to mention1 as a case parallel to that of the ,bible's recognising witchcraft1 and of enlightened nations continuing to punish it1 that ,st4 ,paul himself1 in an equal degree1 recognises the evil eye2 that is1 he uses the idea1 7though certainly not meaning to accredit such an idea17 as one that briefly and energetically conveyed his meaning to those whom he was addressing4 ',oh1 foolish ,galatians1 who hath bewitched you8' ,that is1 literally1 who has fascinated your senses by the evil eye8 ,for the ,greek is1 tis umas ebaskanen8 ,now the word ebaskanen is a past tense of the verb baskaino1 which was the technical term for the action of the evil eye4 ,without having written a treatise on the olic digamma1 probably the reader is aware that ,f is ,v1 and that1 in many languages1 ,b and ,v are interchangeable letters through thousands of words1 as the ,italian tavola1 from the ,latin tabula4 ,under that little process it was that the ,greek baskaino transmigrated into the ,latin fascino2 so that ,st4 ,paul's word1 in speaking to the ,galatians1 is the very game word as ,virgil's1 in speaking of the shepherd's flock as charmed by the evil eye4 ,there was as much difference as between a ,roman ,proconsul1 surrounded with eagle-bearers1 and a commercial ,consul's clerk with a pen behind his ear4 ,apparently she was not so much a ,medea as an ,erichtho4 7,see the ,pharsalia47 ,she was an ,evocatrix1 or female necromancer1 evoking phantoms that stood in some unknown relation to dead men2 and then by some artifice 7it has been supposed7 of ventriloquism1,footnote3 ,i am not referring to ,german infidels4 ,very pious commentators have connected her with the engastrimuthoi 77 or ventriloquists4 causing these phantoms to deliver oracular answers upon great political questions4 ,oh1 that one had lived in the times of those ,new-,england wretches that desolated whole districts and terrified vast provinces by their judicial murders of witches1 under plea of a bibliolatrous warrant2 until at last the fiery furnace1 which they had heated for women and children1 shot forth flames that1 like those of ,nebuchadnezzar's furnace1 seizing upon his very agents1 began to reach some of the murderous judges and denouncers6 ,yet1 after all1 are there not express directions in ,scripture to exterminate witches from the land8 ,certainly2 but that does not argue any scriptural recognition of witchcraft as a possible offence4 ,an imaginary crime may imply a criminal intention that is not imaginary2 but also1 which much more directly concerns the interests of a state1 a criminal purpose1 that rests upon a pure delusion1 may work by means that are felonious for ends that are fatal4 ,at this moment1 we ,english and the ,spaniards have laws1 and severe ones1 against witchcraft1 viz41 in the ,west ,indies1 and indispensable it is that we should4 ,the ,obeah man from ,africa can do no mischief to one of us4 ,the proud and enlightened white man despises his arts2 and for him1 therefore1 these arts have no existence1 for they work only through strong preconceptions of their reality1 and through trembling faith in their efficacy4 ,but by that very agency they are all-sufficient for the ruin of the poor credulous negro2 he is mastered by original faith1 and has perished thousands of times under the knowledge that ,obi had been set for him4 ,justly1 therefore1 do our colonial courts punish the ,obeah sorcerer1 who 7though an impostor7 is not the less a murderer4 ,now the ,hebrew witchcraft was probably even worse2 equally resting on delusions1 nevertheless1 equally it worked for unlawful ends1 and 7which chiefly made it an object of divine wrath7 it worked through idolatrous agencies4 ,it must1 therefore1 have kept up that connection with idolatry which it was the unceasing effort of the ,hebrew polity to exterminate from the land4 ,consequently1 the ,hebrew commonwealth might1 as consistently as our own1 denounce and punish witchcraft without liability to the inference that it therefore recognised the pretensions of witches as real1 in the sense of working their bad ends by the means which they alleged4 ,their magic was causatively of no virtue at all1 but1 being believed in1 through this belief it became the occasional means of exciting the imagination of its victims2 after which the consequences were the same as if the magic had acted physically according to its pretences4 ,footnote3 ,does that argument not cover 'the ,new ,england wretches' so unreservedly denounced in a preceding paragraph8--,,ed4 ,,ii4 ,development1 as applicable to ,christianity1 is a doctrine of the very days that are passing over our heads1 and due to ,mr4 ,newman1 originally the ablest son of ,puseyism1 but now a powerful architect of religious philosophy on his own account4 ,i should have described him more briefly as a 'master-builder1' had my ear been able to endure a sentence ending with two consecutive trochees1 and each of those trochees ending with the same syllable er4 ,ah1 reader6 ,i would the gods had made thee rhythmical1 that thou mightest comprehend the thousandth part of my labors in the evasion of cacophon4 ,phil4 has a general dislike to the ,puseyites1 though he is too learned to be ignorant1 7as are often the ,low-,church1 or ,evangelical1 party in ,england17 that1 in many of their supposed innovations1 the ,puseyites were really only restoring what the torpor of the eighteenth century had suffered to go into disuse4 ,they were reforming the ,church in the sense sometimes belonging to the particle re1 viz41 retroforming it1 moulding it back into compliance with its original form and model4 ,it is true that this effort for quickening the ,church1 and for adorning her exterior service1 moved under the impulse of too undisguised a sympathy with ,papal ,rome4 ,but there is no great reason to mind that in our age and our country4 ,protestant zealotry may be safely relied on in this island as a match for ,popish bigotry4 ,there will be no love lost between them--be assured of that--and justice will be done to both1 though neither should do it to her rival2 for philosophy1 which has so long sought only amusement in either1 is in these latter days of growing profundity applying herself steadily to the profound truths which dimly are descried lurking in both4 ,it is these which ,mr4 ,newman is likely to illuminate1 and not the faded forms of an obsolete ceremonial that cannot now be restored effectually1 were it even important that they should4 ,strange it is1 however1 that he should open his career by offering to ,rome1 as a mode of homage1 this doctrine of development1 which is the direct inversion of her own4 ,rome founds herself upon the idea1 that to her1 by tradition and exclusive privilege1 was communicated1 once for all1 the whole truth from the beginning4 ,mr4 ,newman lays his corner-stone in the very opposite idea of a gradual development given to ,christianity by the motion of time1 by experience1 by expanding occasions1 and by the progress of civilization4 ,is ,newmanism likely to prosper8 ,let me tell a little anecdote4 ,twenty years ago1 roaming one day 7as ,i had so often the honor to do7 with our immortal ,wordsworth1 #a took the liberty of telling him1 at a point of our walk1 where nobody could possibly overhear me1 unless it were old ,father ,helvellyn1 that ,i feared his theological principles were not quite so sound as his friends would wish4 ,they wanted repairing a little4 ,but1 what was worse1 ,i did not see how they could be repaired in the particular case which prompted my remark1 for in that place1 to repair1 or in any respect to alter1 was to destroy4 ,it was a passage in the ',excursion1' where the ,solitary had described the baptismal rite as washing away the taint of original sin1 and1 in fact1 working the effect which is called technically regeneration4 ,in the ',excursion' this view was advanced1 not as the poet's separate opinion1 but as the avowed doctrine of the ,english ,church1 to which ,church ,wordsworth and myself yielded gladly a filial reverence4 ,but was this the doctrine of the ,english ,church8 ,that ,i doubted--not that ,i pretended to any sufficient means of valuing the preponderant opinion between two opinions in the ,church2 a process far more difficult than is imagined by historians1 always so ready to tell us fluently what 'the nation' or 'the people' thought upon a particular question1 7whilst1 in fact1 a whole life might be often spent vainly in collecting the popular opinion72 but1 judging by my own casual experience1 ,i fancied that a considerable majority in the ,church gave an interpretation to this ,sacrament differing by much from that in the ',excursion4' ,wordsworth was startled and disturbed at hearing it whispered even before ,helvellyn1 who is old enough to keep a secret1 that his divinity might possibly limp a little4 ,i1 on my part1 was not sure that it did1 but ,i feared so2 and1 as there was no chance that ,i should be murdered for speaking freely1 7though the place was lonely1 and the evening getting dusky17 ,i stood to my disagreeable communication with the courage of a martyr4 ,the question between us being one of mere fact1 7not what ought to be the doctrine1 but what was the doctrine of our ,church at that time17 there was no opening for any discussion2 and1 on ,wordsworth's suggestion1 it was agreed to refer the point to his learned brother1 ,dr4 ,christopher ,wordsworth1 just then meditating a visit to his native lakes4 ,that visit in a short time 'came off1' and then1 without delay1 our dispute 'came on' for judgment4 ,i had no bets upon the issue--one can't bet with ,wordsworth--and ,i don't know that ,i should have ventured to back myself in a case of that nature4 ,however1 ,i felt a slight anxiety on the subject1 which was very soon and kindly removed by ,dr4 ,wordsworth's deciding1 'sans phrase1' that ,i1 the original mover of the strife1 was wrong1 wrong as wrong could be4 ,to this decision ,i bowed at once1 on a principle of courtesy4 ,one ought always to presume a man right within his own profession even if privately one should think him wrong4 ,but ,i could not think that of ,dr4 ,wordsworth4 ,he was a ,d4,d42 he was head of ,trinity ,college1 which has my entire permission to hold its head up amongst twenty and more colleges1 as the leading one in ,cambridge1 7provided it can obtain ,st4 ,john's permission71 'and which1' says ,phil41 'has done more than any other foundation in ,europe for the enlightenment of the world1 and for the overthrow of literary1 philosophical1 and religious superstitions1' ,i quarrel not with this bold assertion1 remembering reverentially that ,isaac ,barrow1 that ,isaac ,newton1 that ,richard ,bentley belonged to ,trinity1 but ,i wish to understand it4 ,the total pretensions of the ,college can be known only to its members2 and therefore1 ,phil4 should have explained himself more fully4 ,he can do so1 for ,phil4 is certainly a ,trinity man4 ,if the police are in search of him1 they'll certainly hear of him at ,trinity4 ,suddenly it strikes me as a dream1 that ,lord ,bacon belonged to this ,college4 ,don't laugh at me1 ,phil41 if ,i'm wrong1 and still less 7because then you'll laugh even more ferociously7 if ,i happen to be right4 ,can one remember everything8 ,ah6 the worlds of distracted facts that one ought to remember4 ,would to heaven that ,i remembered nothing at all1 and had nothing to remember6 ,this thing1 however1 ,i certainly do remember1 that ,milton was not of ,trinity1 nor ,jeremy ,taylor2 so don't think to hoax me there1 my parent6 ,dr4 ,wordsworth was1 or had been1 an examining chaplain to the ,archbishop of ,canterbury4 ,if ,lambeth could be at fault on such a question1 then it's of no use going to ,newcastle for coals4 ,delphi1 we all know1 and ,jupiter ,ammon had vanished4 ,what other court of appeal was known to man8 ,so ,i submitted as cheerfully as if the learned ,doctor1 instead of kicking me out of court1 had been handing me in4 ,yet1 for all that1 as ,i returned musing past ,rydal ,water1 ,i could not help muttering to myself--,ay1 now1 what rebellious thought was it that ,i muttered8 ,you fancy1 reader1 that perhaps ,i said1 ',but yet1 ,doctor1 in spite of your wig1 ,i am in the right4' ,no2 you're quite wrong2 ,i said nothing of the sort4 ,what ,i did mutter was this--',the prevailing doctrine of the ,church must be what ,dr4 ,wordsworth says1 viz41 that baptism is regeneration--he cannot be mistaken as to that--and ,i have been misled by the unfair proportion of ,evangelical people1 bishops1 and others1 whom accident has thrown in my way at ,barley ,wood 7,hannah ,more's74 ,these1 doubtless1 form a minority in the ,church2 and yet1 from the strength of their opinions1 from their being a moving party1 as also from their being a growing party1 ,i prophesy this issue1 that many years will not pass before this very question1 now slumbering1 will rouse a feud within the ,english ,church4 ,there is a quarrel brewing4 ,such feuds1 long after they are ripe for explosion1 sometimes slumber on1 until accident kindles them into flame4' ,that accident was furnished by the tracts of the ,puseyites1 and since then1 according to the word which ,i spoke on ,rydal ,water1 there has been open war raging upon this very point4 ,at present1 with even more certainty1 ,i prophesy that mere necessity1 a necessity arising out of continual collisions with sceptical philosophy1 will1 in a few years1 carry all churches enjoying a learned priesthood into the disputes connected with this doctrine of development4 ,phil41 meantime1 is no friend to that ,newmanian doctrine2 and in sect4#ca1 p4#ff1 he thus describes it3--',according to these writers' 7viz41 the writers 'who advocate the theory of development'71 'the progressive and gradual development of religious truth1 which appears to us' 7us1 meaning1 ,i suppose1 the ,old-mannians17 'to have been terminated by the final revelation of the ,gospel1 has been going on ever since the foundation of the ,church1 is going on still1 and must continue to advance4 ,this theory presumes that the ,bible does not contain a full and final exposition of a complete system of religion2 that the ,church has developed from the ,scriptures true doctrines not explicitly contained therein1' c4 c4 ,but1 without meaning to undertake a defence of ,mr4 ,newman 7whose book ,i am as yet too slenderly acquainted with71 may ,i be allowed1 at this point1 to intercept a fallacious view of that doctrine1 as though essentially it proclaimed some imperfection in ,christianity4 ,the imperfection is in us1 the ,christians1 not in ,christianity4 ,the impression given by ,phil4 to the hasty reader is1 that1 according to ,newmanism1 the ,scriptures make a good beginning to which we ourselves are continually adding--a solid foundation1 on which we ourselves build the superstructure4 ,not so4 ,in the course of a day or a year1 the sun passes through a vast variety of positions1 aspects1 and corresponding powers1 in relation to ourselves4 ,daily and annually he is developed to us--he runs a cycle of development4 ,yet1 after all1 this practical result does not argue any change or imperfection1 growth or decay1 in the sun4 ,this great orb is stationary as regards his place1 and unchanging as regards his power4 ,it is the subjective change in ourselves that projects itself into this endless succession of phantom changes in the object4 ,not otherwise on the scheme of development2 the ,christian theory and system are perfect from the beginning4 ,in itself1 ,christianity changes not1 neither waxing nor waning2 but the motions of time and the evolutions of experience continually uncover new parts of its stationary disk4 ,the orb grows1 so far as practically we are speaking of our own benefit2 but absolutely1 as regards itself1 the orb1 eternally the same1 has simply more or fewer of its digits exposed4 ,christianity1 perfect from the beginning1 had a curtain over much of its disk1 which ,time and ,social ,progress are continually withdrawing4 ,this ,i say not as any deliberate judgment on development1 but merely as a suspending1 or ad interim idea1 by way of barring too summary an interdict against the doctrine at this premature stage4 ,phil41 however1 hardens his face against ,newman and all his works4 ,him and them he defies2 and would consign1 perhaps secretly1 to the care of a well-known 7not new1 but7 old gentleman1 if only he had any faith in that old gentleman's existence4 ,on that point1 he is a fixed infidel1 and quotes with applause the answer of ,robinson1 the once celebrated ,baptist clergyman1 who being asked if he believed in the devil1 replied1 ',oh1 no2 ,i1 for my part1 believe in ,god--don't you8' ,phil41 therefore1 as we have seen1 in effect1 condemns development4 ,but1 at p4 #cc1 when as yet he is not thinking of ,mr4 ,newman1 he says1' ,if knowledge is progressive1 the development of ,christian doctrine must be progressive likewise4' ,i do not see the must2 but ,i see the ,newmanian cloven foot4 ,as to the must1 knowledge is certainly progressive2 but the development of the multiplication table is not therefore progressive1 nor of anything else that is finished from the beginning4 ,my reason1 however1 for quoting the sentence is1 because here we suddenly detect ,phil4 in laying down the doctrine which in ,mr4 ,newman he had regarded as heterodox4 ,phil4 is taken red-hand1 as the ,english law expresses it1 crimson with1 the blood of his offence2 assuming1 in fact1 an original imperfection quoad the scire1 though not quoad the esse2 as to the 'exposition of the system1' though not as to the 'system' of ,christianity4 ,mr4 ,newman1 after all1 asserts 7,i believe7 only one mode of development as applicable to ,christianity4 ,phil4 having broke the ice1 may now be willing to allow of two developments2 whilst ,i1 that am always for going to extremes1 should be disposed to assert three1 viz3-- ,first4 ,the ,philological development4 ,and this is a point on which ,i1 ,philo-,phil4 7or1 as for brevity you may call me1 ,phil-,phil47 shall1 without wishing to do so1 vex ,phil4 ,it's shocking that one should vex the author of one's existence1 which ,phil4 certainly is in relation to me1 when considered as ,phil-,phil4 ,still it is past all denial1 that1 to a certain extent1 the ,scriptures must benefit1 like any other book1 by an increasing accuracy and compass of learning in the exegesis applied to them4 ,but if all the world denied this1 ,phil41 my parent1 is the man that cannot2 since he it is that relies upon philological knowledge as the one resource of ,christian philosophy in all circumstances of difficulty for any of its interests1 positive or negative4 ,philology1 according to ,phil1 is the sheet-anchor of ,christianity4 ,already it is the author of a ,christianity more in harmony with philosophy2 and1 as regards the future1 ,phil41 it is that charges ,philology with the whole service of divinity4 ,wherever anything1 being right1 needs to be defended--wherever anything1 being amiss1 needs to be improved--oh6 what a life he will lead this poor ,philology6 ,philology1 with ,phil41 is the great benefactress for the past1 and the sole trustee for the future4 ,here1 therefore1 ,phil41 is caught in a fix1 habemus confitentem4 ,he denounces development when dealing with the ,newmanites2 he relies on it when vaunting the functions of ,philology2 and the only evasion for him would be to distinguish about the modes of development1 were it not that1 by insinuation1 he has apparently denied all modes4 ,secondly4 ,there is the ,philosophic development1 from the reaction upon the ,bible of advancing knowledge4 ,this is a mode of development continually going on1 and reversing the steps of past human follies4 ,in every age1 man has imported his own crazes into the ,bible1 fancied that he saw them there1 and then drawn sanctions to his wickedness or absurdity from what were nothing else than fictions of his own4 ,thus did the ,papists draw a plenary justification of intolerance1 or even of atrocious persecution1 from the evangelical ',compel them to come in6' ,the right of unlimited coercion was read in those words4 ,people1 again1 that were democratically given1 or had a fancy for treason1 heard a trumpet of insurrection in the words ',to your tents1 oh ,israel6' ,but far beyond these in multitude were those that drew from the ,bible the most extravagant claims for kings and rulers4 ',rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft4' ,this was a jewel of a text2 it killed two birds with one stone4 ,broomsticks were proved out of it most clearly1 and also the atrocity of representative government4 ,what a little text to contain so much6 ,look into ,algernon ,sidney1 or into ,locke's controversy with ,sir ,eobert ,filmer's ',patriarcha1',footnote3 ,i mention the book as the antagonist1 and not the man1 because 7according to my impression7 ,sir ,robert was dead when ,locke was answering him4 or into any books of those days on political principles1 and it will be found that ,scripture was so used as to form an absolute bar against human progress4 ,all public benefits were1 in the strictest sense of the word1 precarious1 as depending upon prayers and entreaties to those who had an interest in refusing them4 ,all improvements were elcemosynary2 for the initial step in all cases belonged to the ,crown4 ',the right divine of kings to govern wrong' was in those days what many a man would have died for--what many a man did die for2 and all in pure simplicity of heart--faithful to the ,bible1 but to the ,bible of misinterpretation4 ,they obeyed 7often to their own ruin7 an order which they had misread4 ,their sincerity1 the disinterestedness of their folly1 is evident2 and in that degree is evident the opening for ,scripture development4 ,nobody could better obey ,scripture as they had understood it4 ,change in the obedience1 there could be none for the better2 it demanded only that there should be a change in the interpretation1 and that change would be what is meant by a development of ,scripture4 ,two centuries of enormous progress in the relations between subjects and rulers have altered the whole reading4 ',how readest thou8' was the question of ,christ himself2 that is1 in what meaning dost thou read the particular ,scripture that applies to this case8 ,all the texts and all the cases remain at this hour just as they were for our ancestors2 and our reverence for these texts is as absolute as theirs2 but we1 applying lights of experience which they had not1 construe these texts by a different logic4 ,there now is development applied to the ,bible in one of its many strata--that stratum which connects itself most with civil polity4 ,again1 what a development have we made of ,christian truth2 how differently do we now read our ,bibles in relation to the poor tenants of dungeons that once were thought1 even by ,christian nations1 to have no rights at all6--in relation to 'all prisoners and captives2' and in relation to slaves6 ,the ,new ,testament had said nothing directly upon the question of slavery2 nay1 by the misreader it was rather supposed indirectly to countenance that institution4 ,but mark--it is ,mohammedanism1 having little faith in its own laws1 that dares not confide in its children for developing anything1 but must tie them up for every contingency by the letter of a rule4 ,christianity--how differently does she proceed6 ,she throws herself broadly upon the pervading spirit which burns within her morals4 ',let them alone1' she says of nations2 'leave them to themselves4 ,i have put a new law into their hearts2 and if it is really there1 and really cherished1 that law will tell them--will develop for them--what it is that they ought to do in every case as it arises1 when once its consequences are comprehended4' ,no need1 therefore1 for the ,new ,testament explicitly to forbid slavery2 silently and implicitly it is forbidden in many passages of the ,new ,testament1 and it is at war with the spirit of all4 ,besides1 the religion which trusts to formal and literal rules breaks down the very moment that a new case arises not described in the rules4 ,such a case is virtually unprovided for1 if it does not answer to a circumstantial textual description2 whereas every case is provided for1 as soon as its tendencies and its moral relations are made known1 by a religion that speaks through a spiritual organ to a spiritual apprehension in man4 ,accordingly1 we find that1 whenever a new mode of intoxication is introduced1 not depending upon grapes1 the most devout ,mussulmans hold themselves absolved from the restraints of the ,koran4 ,and so it would have been with ,christians1 if the ,new ,testament had laid down literal prohibitions of slavery1 or of the slave traffic4 ,thousands of variations would have been developed by time which no letter of ,scripture could have been comprehensive enough to reach4 ,were the domestic servants of ,greece1 the 7thetes71 within the description8 ,were the serfs and the ascripti glebae of feudal ,europe to be accounted slaves8 ,or those amongst our own brothers and sisters1 that within so short a period were born subterraneously1,footnote3 ,see1 for some very interesting sketches of this ,pariah population1 the work 7title ,i forget7 of ,mr4 ,bald1 a ,scottish engineer1 well known and esteemed in ,edinburgh and ,glasgow4 ,he may be relied on4 ,what he tells against ,scotland is violently against his own will1 for he is intensely national1 of which ,i will give the reader one instance that may make him smile4 ,much of the rich1 unctuous coal1 from ,northumberland and ,durham1 gives a deep ruddy light1 verging to a blood-red1 and certainly is rather sullen1 on a winter evening1 to the eye4 ,on the other hand1 the ,scottish coal or most of it1 being far poorer as to heat1 throws out a very beautiful and animated scarlet blaze2 upon which hint1 ,mr4 ,bald1 when patriotically distressed at not being able to deny the double power of the eastern ,english coal1 suddenly revivifies his ,scottish heart that had been chilled1 perhaps1 by the ,scottish coals in his fire-grate1 upon recurring to this picturesque difference in the two blazes--',ah6' he says gratefully1 'that ,newcastle blaze is well enough for a gloomy ,englishman1 but it wouldn't do at all for cheerful ,scotland4' in ,scottish mines1 or in the ,english collieries of ,cumberland1 and were supposed to be ascripti metallo1 sold by nature to the mine1 and indorsed upon its machinery for the whole term of their lives2 in whom1 therefore1 it was a treason to see the light of upper day--would they1 would these poor ,scotch and ,english ,pariahs1 have stood within any scriptural privilege if the ,new ,testament had legislated by name and letter for this class of douloi 7slaves78 ,no attorney would have found them entitled to plead the benefit of the ,bible statute4 ,endless are the variations of the conditions that new combinations of society would bring forward2 endless would be the virtual restorations of slavery that would take place under a ,mahometan literality2 endless would be the defeats that such restorations must sustain under a ,christianity relying on no letter1 but on the spirit of ,god's commandments1 and that will understand no equivocations with the secret admonitions of the heart4 ,meantime1 this sort of development1 it may be objected1 is not a light that ,scripture throws out upon human life so much as a light that human life and its development throw back upon ,scripture4 ,true2 but then how was it possible that life and the human intellect should be carried forward to such developments8 ,solely through the training which both had received under the discipline of ,christian truth4 ,christianity utters some truth widely applicable to society4 ,this truth is caught up by some influential organ of social life--is expanded prodigiously by human experience1 and1 when travelling back as an illustrated or improved text to the ,bible1 is found to be made up1 in all its details1 of many human developments4 ,does that argue anything disparaging to ,christianity1 as though she contributed little and man contributed much8 ,on the contrary1 man would have contributed nothing at all but for that nucleus by which ,christianity started and moulded the principle4 ,to give one instance--,public charity1 when did it commence8--who first thought of it8 ,who first noticed hunger and cold as awful realities afflicting poor women and innocent children8 ,who first made a public provision to meet these evils8--,constantine it was1 the first ,christian that sat upon a throne4 ,had1 then1 rich ,pagans before his time no charity--no pity8--no money available for hopeless poverty8 ,not much--very little1 ,i conceive2 about so much as ,shakspeare insinuates that there is of milk in a male tiger4 ,think1 for instance1 of that black-hearted reprobate1 ,cicero1 the moralist4 ,this moral knave1 who wrote such beautiful ,ethics1 and was so wicked--who spoke so charmingly and acted so horribly--mentions1 with a petrifying coolness1 that he knew of desolate old women in ,rome who passed three days in succession without tasting food4 ,did not the wretch1 when thinking of this1 leap up1 and tumble down stairs in his anxiety to rush abroad and call a public meeting for considering so dreadful a case8 ,not he2 the man continued to strut about his library1 in a huge toga as big as the ,times newspaper1 singing out1 ',oh6 fortunatam natam me ,consule ,romam6' and he mentioned the fact at all only for the sake of ,natural ,philosophers or of the curious in old women4 ,charity1 even in that sense1 had little existence--nay1 as a duty1 it had no place or rubric in human conceptions before ,christianity1 ,thence came the first rudiments of all public relief to starving men and women2 but the idea1 the principle1 was all that the ,bible furnished1 needed to furnish1 or could furnish4 ,the practical arrangements1 the endless details for carrying out this ,christian idea--these were furnished by man2 and why not8 ,this case illustrates only one amongst innumerable modes of development applicable to the ,bible2 and this power of development1 in general1 proves also one other thing of the last importance to prove1 viz4 the power of ,christianity to work in co-operation with time and social progress2 to work variably according to the endless variations of time and place2 and that is the exact shibboleth of a true and spiritual religion--for1 on reviewing the history of false religions1 and inquiring what it was that ruined them1 rarely is it found that any of them perished by external violence4 ,even the dreadful fury of the early ,mahometan ,sultans in ,india1 before the house of ,timour1 failed to crush the monstrous idolatries of the ,hindoos4 ,all false religions have perished by their own hollowness1 under that searching trial applied by social life and its changes1 which awaits every mode of religion4 ,one after another they have sunk away1 as by palsy1 from new aspects of society and new necessities of man which they were not able to face4 ,commencing in one condition of society1 in one set of feelings1 and in one system of ideas1 they sank uniformly under any great change in these elements1 to which they had no natural power of accommodation4 ,a false religion furnished a key to one subordinate lock2 but a religion that is true will prove a master-key for all locks alike4 ,this transcendental principle1 by which ,christianity transfers herself so readily from climate to climate1,footnote3 ,sagacious ,mahometans have been often scandalized and troubled by the secret misgiving that1 after all1 their ,prophet must have been an ignorant fellow4 ,it is clear that the case of a cold climate had never occurred to him2 and even a hot one had been conceived most narrowly4 ,many of the ,bedouin ,arabs complain of ablutions not adapted to their waterless condition4 ,these evidences of oversight would have been fatal to ,islamism1 had ,islamism produced a high civilization4 from century to century1 from the simplicity of shepherds to the utmost refinement of philosophers1 carries with it a necessity1 corresponding to such infinite flexibility of endless development4 ,,on ,,the ,,supposed ,,scriptural ,,expression ,,for ,,eternity4 #aheb4 ,forty years ago 7or1 in all probability1 a good deal more1 for we have already completed thirty-seven years from ,waterloo1 and my remembrances upon this subject go back to a period lying much behind that great era71 ,i used to be annoyed and irritated by the false interpretation given to the ,greek word aion1 and given necessarily1 therefore1 to the adjective aionios as its immediate derivative4 ,it was not so much the falsehood of this interpretation1 as the narrowness of that falsehood1 which disturbed me4 ,there was a glimmer of truth in it2 and precisely that glimmer it was which led the way to a general and obstinate misconception of the meaning4 ,the word is remarkably situated4 ,it is a scriptural word1 and it is also a ,greek word2 from which the inevitable inference is1 that we must look for it only in the ,new ,testament4 ,upon any question arising of deep1 aboriginal1 doctrinal truth1 we have nothing to do with translations4 ,those are but secondary questions1 archaeological and critical1 upon which we have a right to consult the ,greek translation of the ,hebrew ,scriptures known by the name of the ,septuagint4 ,suffer me to pause at this point for the sake of premising an explanation needful to the unlearned reader4 ,as the reading public and the thinking public is every year outgrowing more and more notoriously the mere learned public1 it becomes every year more and more the right of the former public to give the law preferably to the latter public1 upon all points which concern its own separate interests4 ,in past generations1 no pains were taken to make explanations that were not called for by the learned public4 ,all other readers were ignored4 ,they formed a mob1 for whom no provision was made4 ,and that many difficulties should be left entirely unexplained for them1 was superciliously assumed to be no fault at all4 ,and yet any sensible man1 let him be as supercilious as he may1 must on consideration allow that amongst the crowd of unlearned or half-learned readers1 who have had neither time nor opportunities for what is called 'erudition' or learned studies1 there must always lurk a proportion of men that1 by constitution of mind1 and by the bounty of nature1 are much better fitted for thinking1 originally more philosophic1 and are more capaciously endowed1 than those who are1 by accident of position1 more learned4 ,such a natural superiority certainly takes precedency of a merely artificial superiority2 and1 therefore1 it entitles those who possess it to a special consideration4 ,let there be an audience gathered about any book of ten thousand one hundred readers3 it might be fair in these days to assume that ten thousand would be in a partial sense illiterate1 and the remaining one hundred what would be rigorously classed as 'learned4' ,now1 on such a distribution of the readers1 it would be a matter of certainty that the most powerful intellects would lie amongst the illiterate ten thousand1 counting1 probably1 to fifteen to one as against those in the learned minority4 ,the inference1 therefore1 would be1 that1 in all equity1 the interest of the unlearned section claimed a priority of attention1 not merely as the more numerous section1 but also as1 by a high probability1 the more philosophic4 ,and in proportion as this unlearned section widens and expands1 which every year it does1 in that proportion the obligation and cogency of this equity strengthens4 ,an attention to the unlearned part of an audience1 which fifteen years ago might have rested upon pure courtesy1 now rests upon a basis of absolute justice4 ,i make this preliminary explanation1 in order to take away the appearance of caprice from such occasional pauses as ,i may make for the purpose of clearing up obscurities or difficulties4 ,formerly1 in a case of that nature1 the learned reader would have told me that ,i was not entitled to delay him by elucidations that in his case must be supposed to be superfluous3 and in such a remonstrance there would once have been some equity4 ,the illiterate section of the readers might then be fairly assumed as present only by accident2 as no abiding part of the audience2 but1 like the general public in the gallery of the ,house of ,commons1 as present only by sufferance2 and officially in any records of the house whatever1 utterly ignored as existences4 ,at present1 half way on our pilgrimage through the nineteenth century1 ,i reply to such a learned remonstrant--that it gives me pain to annoy him by superfluous explanations1 but that1 unhappily1 this infliction of tedium upon him is inseparable from what has now become a duty to others4 ,this being said1 ,i now go on to inform the illiterate reader1 that the earliest translation of the ,hebrew ,scriptures ever made was into ,greek4 ,it was undertaken on the encouragement of a learned prince1 ,ptolemy ,philadelphus1 by an association of ,jewish emigrants in ,alexandria4 ,it was1 as the event has shown in very many instances1 an advantage of a rank rising to providential1 that such a cosmopolitan version of the ,hebrew sacred writings should have been made at a moment when a rare concurrence of circumstances happened to make it possible2 such as1 for example1 a king both learned in his tastes and liberal in his principles of religious toleration2 a language1 viz41 the ,greek1 which had already become1 what for many centuries it continued to be1 a common language of communication for the learned of the whole 7i4e41 in effect of the civilized world1 viz41 ,greece1 the shores of the ,euxine1 the whole of ,asia ,minor1 ,syria1 ,egypt1 ,carthage1 and all the dependencies of ,carthage1 finally1 and above all1 ,rome1 then beginning to loom upon the western horizon71 together with all the dependencies of ,rome1 and1 briefly1 every state and city that adorned the imperial islands of the ,mediterranean1 or that glittered like gems in that vast belt of land1 roundly speaking1 one thousand miles in average breadth1 and in circuit running up to five thousand miles4 ,one thousand multiplied into five times one thousand1 or1 otherwise expressed1 a thousand thousand five times repeated1 or otherwise a million five times repeated1 briefly a territory measuring five millions of square miles1 or forty-five times the surface of our two ,british islands--such was the boundless domain which this extraordinary act of ,ptolemy suddenly threw open to the literature and spiritual revelation of a little obscure race1 nestling in a little angle of ,asia1 scarcely visible as a fraction of ,syria1 buried in the broad shadows thrown out on one side by the great and ancient settlements on the ,nile1 and on the other by the vast empire that for thousands of years occupied the ,tigris and the ,euphrates4 ,in the twinkling of an eye1 at a sudden summons1 as it were from the sounding of a trumpet1 or the oriental call by a clapping of hands1 gates are thrown open1 which have an effect corresponding in grandeur to the effect that would arise from the opening of a ship canal across the ,isthmus of ,darien1 viz41 the introduction to each other--face to face--of two separate infinities4 ,such a canal would suddenly lay open to each other the two great oceans of our planet1 the ,atlantic and the ,pacific2 whilst the act of translating into ,greek and from ,hebrew1 that is1 transferring out of a mysterious cipher as little accessible as ,sanscrit1 and which never would be more accessible through any worldly attractions of alliance with power and civic grandeur or commerce1 out of this darkness into the golden light of a language the most beautiful1 the most honored amongst men1 and the most widely diffused through a thousand years to come1 had the immeasurable effect of throwing into the great crucible of human speculation1 even then beginning to ferment1 to boil1 to overthrow--that mightiest of all elements for exalting the chemistry of philosophy--grand and1 for the first time1 adequate conceptions of the ,deity4 ,for1 although it is true that1 until ,elias should come--that is1 until ,christianity should have applied its final revelation to the completion of this great idea-we could not possess it in its total effulgence1 it is1 however1 certain that an immense advance was made1 a prodigious usurpation across the realms of chaos1 by the grand illuminations of the ,hebrew discoveries4 ,too terrifically austere we must presume the ,hebrew idea to have been3 too undeniably it had not withdrawn the veil entirely which still rested upon the ,divine countenance2 so much is involved in the subsequent revelations of ,christianity4 ,but still the advance made in reading aright the divine lineaments had been enormous4 ,god was now a holy spirit that could not tolerate impurity4 ,he was the fountain of justice1 and no longer disfigured by any mode of sympathy with human caprice or infirmity4 ,and1 if a frown too awful still rested upon his face1 making the approach to him too fearful for harmonizing with that perfect freedom and that childlike love which ,god seeks in his worshippers1 it was yet made evident that no step for conciliating his favor did or could lie through any but moral graces4 ,three centuries after this great epoch of the publication 7for such it was7 secured so providentially to the ,hebrew theology1 two learned ,jews--viz41 ,josephus and ,philo ,judaeus--had occasion to seek a cosmopolitan utterance for that burden of truth 7or what they regarded as truth7 which oppressed the spirit within them4 ,once again they found a deliverance from the very same freezing imprisonment in an unknown language1 through the very same magical key1 viz41 the all-pervading language of ,greece1 which carried their communications to the four winds of heaven1 and carried them precisely amongst the class of men1 viz4--the enlightened and educated class--which pre-eminently1 if not exclusively1 their wish was to reach4 ,about one generation after ,christ it was1 when the utter prostration1 and1 politically speaking1 the destruction of ,jerusalem and the ,jewish nation1 threw these two learned ,jews upon this recourse to the ,greek language as their final resource1 in a condition otherwise of absolute hopelessness4 ,pretty nearly three centuries before ,christ it was 7two hundred and eighty-four years1 according to the common reckoning71 when the first act of communication took place between the sealed-up literature of ,palestine and the ,greek catholic interpretation4 ,altogether1 we may say that three hundred and twenty years1 or somewhere about ten generations of men1 divided these two memorable acts of intercommunication4 ,such a space of time allows a large range of influence and of silent1 unconscious operation to the vast and potent ideas that brooded over this awful ,hebrew literature4 ,too little weight has been allowed to the probable contagiousness1 and to the preternatural shock1 of such a new and strange philosophy1 acting upon the jaded and exhausted intellect of the ,grecian race4 ,we must remember1 that precisely this particular range of time was that in which the ,greek systems of philosophy1 having thoroughly completed their evolution1 had suffered something of a collapse2 and1 having exhausted their creative energies1 began to gratify the cravings for novelty by re modellings of old forms4 ,it is remarkable1 indeed1 that this very city of ,alexandria founded and matured this new principle of remodelling applied to poetry not less than to philosophy and criticism4 ,and1 considering the activity of this great commercial city and port1 which was meant to act1 and did act1 as a centre of communication between the ,east and the ,west1 it is probable that a far greater effect was produced by the ,greek translation of the ,jewish ,scriptures1 in the way of preparing the mind of nations for the apprehension of ,christianity1 than has ever been distinctly recognised4 ,the silent destruction of books in those centuries has robbed us of all means for tracing innumerable revolutions1 that nevertheless1 by the evidence of results1 must have existed4 ,taken1 however1 with or without this additional result1 the translation of the ,hebrew ,scriptures in their most important portions must be ranked amongst what are called providential' events4 ,such a king--a king whose father had been a personal friend of ,alexander1 the mighty civilizing conqueror1 and had shared in the liberalization connected with his vast revolutionary projects for extending a higher civilization over the globe1 such a king1 conversing with such a language1 having advantages so absolutely unrivalled1 and again this king and this language concurring with a treasure so supernatural of spiritual wisdom as the subject of their ministrations1 and all three concurring with political events so auspicious--the founding of a new and mighty metropolis in ,egypt1 and the silent advance to supreme power amongst men of a new empire1 martial beyond all precedent as regarded means1 but not as regarded ends--working in all things towards the unity of civilization and the unity of law1 so that any new impulse1 as1 for instance1 impulse of a new religion1 was destined to find new facilities for its own propagation1 resembling electric conductors1 under the unity of government and of law--concurrences like these1 so many and so strange1 justly impress upon this translation1 the most memorable1 because the most influential of all that have ever been accomplished1 a character of grandeur that place it on the same level of interest as the building of the first or second temple at ,jerusalem4 ,there is a ,greek legend which openly ascribes to this translation all the characters of a miracle4 ,but1 as usually happens1 this vulgarizing form of the miraculous is far less impressive than the plain history itself1 unfolding its stages with the most unpretending historical fidelity4 ,even the ,greek language1 on which1 as the natural language of the new ,greek dynasty in ,egypt1 the duty of the translation devolved1 enjoyed a double advantage3 #ast1 as being the only language then spoken upon earth that could diffuse a book over every part of the civilized earth2 #b;dly1 as being a language of unparalleled power and compass for expressing and reproducing effectually all ideas1 however alien and novel4 ,even the city1 again1 in which this translation was accomplished1 had a double dowery of advantages towards such a labor1 not only as enjoying a large literary society1 and1 in particular1 a large ,jewish society1 together with unusual provision in the shape of libraries1 on a scale probably at that time unprecedented1 but also as having the most extensive machinery then known to human experience for publishing1 that is1 for transmitting to foreign capitals all books in the readiest and the cheapest fashion1 by means of its prodigious shipping4 ,having thus indicated to the unlearned reader the particular nature of that interest which invests this earliest translation of the ,hebrew ,scriptures1 viz41 that in fact this translation was the earliest publication to the human race of a revelation which had previously been locked up in a language destined1 as surely as the ,welsh language or the ,gaelic1 to eternal obscurity amongst men1 ,i go on to mention that the learned ,jews selected for this weighty labor happened to be in number seventy-two2 but1 as the ,jews systematically reject fractions in such cases 7whence it is that always1 in order to express the period of six weeks1 they say forty days1 and not1 as strictly they should1 forty-two days71 popularly1 the translators were called 'the seventy1' for which the ,latin word is septuaginta4 ,and thus in after ages the translators were usually indicated as ',the ,,lxx1' or1 if the work and not the workmen should be noticed1 it was cited as ,the ,septuagint4 ,in fact1 this earliest of ,scriptural versions1 viz41 into ,greek1 is by much the most famous2 or1 if any other approaches it in notoriety1 it is the ,latin translation by ,st4 ,jerome1 which1 in this one point1 enjoys even a superior importance1 that in the ,church of ,rome it is the authorized translation4 ,evidently1 in every church1 it must be a matter of primary importance to assign the particular version to which that church appeals1 and by which1 in any controversy arising1 that church consents to be governed4 ,now1 the ,jerome version fulfils this function for the ,romish ,church2 and accordingly1 in the sense of being published 7vulgata71 or publicly authorized by that church1 it is commonly called ,the ,vulgate4 ,but1 in a large polemic question1 unless1 like the ,romish church1 we uphold a secondary inspiration as having secured a special privileged translation from the possibility of error1 we cannot refuse an appeal to the ,hebrew text for the ,old ,testament1 or to the ,greek text for the ,new4 ,the word aeonios 771 as purely ,grecian1 could not connect itself with the ,old ,testament1 unless it were through the ,septuagint translation into ,greek4 ,now1 with that version1 in any case of controversy1 none of us1 ,protestants alike or ,roman ,catholics1 have anything whatever to do4 ,controversially1 we can be concerned only with the original language of the ,scriptures1 with its actual verbal expressions textually produced4 ,to be liable1 therefore1 to such a textual citation1 any ,greek word must belong to the ,new ,testament4 ,because1 though the word might happen to occur in the ,septuagint1 yet1 since that is merely a translation1 for any of us who occupy a controversial place1 that is1 who are bound by the responsibilities1 or who claim the strict privileges of controversy1 the ,septuagint has no virtual existence4 ,we should not be at liberty to allege the ,septuagint as any authority1 if it happened to countenance our own views2 and1 consequently1 we could not be called on to recognise the ,septuagint in any case where it should happen to be against us4 ,i make this preliminary caveat1 as not caring whether the word aeonios does or does not occur in the ,septuagint4 ,either way1 the reader understands that ,i disown the authority of that version as in any degree affecting myself4 ,the word which1 forty years ago1 moved my disgust by its servile misinterpretation1 was a word proper to the ,new ,testament2 and any sense which it may have received from an ,alexandrian ,jew in the third century before ,christ1 is no more relevant to any criticism that ,i am now going to suggest1 than is the classical use of the word aeon 77 familiar to the learned in ,sophocles or ,euripides4 ,the reason which gives to this word aeonian what ,i do not scruple to call a dreadful importance1 is the same reason1 and no other1 which prompted the dishonesty concerned in the ordinary interpretation of this word4 ,the word happened to connect itself--but that was no practical concern of mine2 me it had not biassed in the one direction1 nor should it have biassed any just critic in the counter1 direction--happened1 ,i say1 to connect itself with the ancient dispute upon the duration of future punishments4 ,what was meant by the aeonian punishments in the next world8 ,was the proper sense of the word eternal1 or was it not8 ,i1 for my part1 meddled not1 nor upon any consideration could have been tempted to meddle1 with a speculation repellent alike by the horror and by the hopeless mystery which invest it4 ,secrets of the prison-house1 so afflicting to contemplate steadily1 and so hopeless of solution1 there could be no proper motive for investigating1 unless the investigation promised a great deal more than it could ever accomplish2 and my own feeling as to all such problems is1 that they vulgarize what1 left to itself1 would take its natural station amongst the freezing horrors that ,shakspeare dismisses with so potent an expression of awe1 in a well-known scene of ',measure for ,measure4' ,i reiterate my protest against being in any way decoyed into the controversy4 ,perhaps ,i may have a strong opinion upon the subject4 ,but1 anticipating the coarse discussions into which the slightest entertainment of such a question would be every moment approaching1 once for all1 out of reverential regard for the dignity of human nature1 ,i beg permission to decline the controversy altogether4 ,but does this declinature involve any countenance to a certain argument which ,i began by rejecting as abominable8 ,most certainly not4 ,that argument runs thus--that the ordinary construction of the term aeonian1 as equivalent to everlasting1 could not possibly be given up when associated with penal misery1 because in that case1 and by the very same act1 the idea of eternity must be abandoned as applicable to the counter-bliss of ,paradise4 ,torment and blessedness1 it was argued1 punishment and beatification1 stood upon the same level2 the same word it was1 the word aeonian1 which qualified the duration of either2 and1 if eternity in the most rigorous acceptation fell away from the one idea1 it must equally fall away from the other4 ,well2 be it so4 ,but that would not settle the question4 ,it might be very painful to renounce a long-cherished anticipation2 but the necessity of doing so could not be received as a sufficient reason for adhering to the old unconditional use of the word aeonian4 ,the argument is--that we must retain the old sense of eternal1 because else we lose upon one scale what we had gained upon the other4 ,but what then8 would be the reasonable man's retort4 ,we are not to accept or to reject a new construction 7if otherwise the more colorable7 of the word aeonian1 simply because the consequences might seem such as upon the whole to displease us4 ,we may gain nothing2 for by the new interpretation our loss may balance our gain2 and we may prefer the old arrangement4 ,but how monstrous is all this6 ,we are not summoned as to a choice of two different arrangements that may suit different tastes1 but to a grave question as to what is the sense and operation of the word aeonian4 ,let the limitation of the word disturb our previous estimate of ,paradise1 grant that it so disturbs that estimate1 not the less all such consequences leave the dispute exactly where it was2 and if a balance of reason can be found for limiting the extent of the word aeonian1 it will not be the less true because it may happen to disturb a crotchet of our own4 ,meantime1 all this speculation1 first and last1 is pure nonsense4 ,aeonian does not mean eternal2 neither does it mean of limited duration2 nor would the unsettling of aeonian in its old use1 as applied to punishment1 to torment1 to misery1 c41 carry with it any necessary unsettling of the idea in its application to the beatitudes of ,paradise4 ,pause1 reader2 and thou1 my favored and privileged reader1 that boastest thyself to be unlearned1 pause doubly whilst ,i communicate my views as to this remarkable word4 ,what is an aeon8 ,in the use and acceptation of the ,apocalypse1 it is evidently this1 viz41 the duration or cycle of existence which belongs to any object1 not individually for itself1 but universally in right of its genus4 ,kant1 for instance1 in a little paper which ,i once translated1 proposed and debated the question as to the age of our planet the ,earth4 ,what did he mean8 ,was he to be understood as asking whether the ,earth were half a million1 two millions1 or three millions of years old8 ,not at all4 ,the probabilities certainly lean1 one and all1 to the assignment of an antiquity greater by many thousands of times than that which we have most idly supposed ourselves to extract from ,scripture1 which assuredly never meant to approach a question so profoundly irrelevant to the great purposes of ,scripture as any geological speculation whatsoever4 ,but this was not within the field of ,kant's inquiry4 ,what he wished to know was simply the exact stage in the whole course of her development which the ,earth at present occupies4 ,is she still in her infancy1 for example1 or in a stage corresponding to middle age1 or in a stage approaching to superannuation8 ,the idea of ,kant presupposed a certain average duration as belonging to a planet of our particular system2 and supposing this known1 or discoverable1 and that a certain assignable development belonged to a planet so circumstanced as ours1 then in what particular stage of that development may we1 the tenants of this respectable little planet ,tellus1 reasonably be conceived to stand8 ,man1 again1 has a certain aeonian life2 possibly ranging somewhere about the period of seventy years assigned in the ,psalms4 ,that is1 in a state as highly improved as human infirmity and the errors of the earth herself1 together with the diseases incident to our atmosphere1 c41 could be supposed to allow1 possibly the human race might average seventy years for each individual4 ,this period would in that case represent the 'aeon' of the individual ,tellurian2 but the 'aeon' of the ,tellurian ,,race would probably amount to many millions of our earthly years2 and it would remain an unfathomable mystery1 deriving no light at all from the septuagenarian 'aeon' of the individual2 though between the two aeons ,i have no doubt that some secret link of connection does and must subsist1 however undiscoverable by human sagacity4 ,the crow1 the deer1 the eagle1 c41 are all supposed to be long-lived4 ,some people have fancied that in their normal state they tended to a period of two,footnote3 ,i have heard the same normal duration ascribed to the tortoise1 and one case became imperfectly known to myself personally4 ,somewhere ,i may have mentioned the case in print4 ,these1 at any rate1 are the facts of the case3 ,a lady 7by birth a ,cowper1 of the whig family1 and cousin to the poet ,cowper2 and1 equally with him1 related to ,dr4 ,madan1 bishop of ,peterborough71 in the early part of this century1 mentioned to me that1 in the palace at ,peterborough1 she had for years known as a pet of the household a venerable tortoise1 who bore some inscription on his shell indicating that1 from #afch to #afdc1 he had belonged to ,archbishop ,laud1 who 7if ,i am not mistaken7 held the bishopric of ,peterborough before he was translated to ,london1 and finally to ,canterbury4 centuries4 ,i myself know nothing certain for or against this belief2 but1 supposing the case to be as it is represented1 then this would be the aeonian period of these animals1 considered as individuals4 ,among trees1 in like manner1 the oak1 the cedar1 the yew1 are notoriously of very slow growth1 and their aeonian period is unusually long as regards the individual4 ,what may be the aeon of the whole species is utterly unknown4 ,amongst birds1 one species at least has become extinct in our own generation3 its aeon was accomplished4 ,so of all the fossil species in zoology1 which ,palaeontology has revealed4 ,nothing1 in short1 throughout universal nature1 can for a moment be conceived to have been resigned to accident for its normal aeon4 ,all periods and dates of this order belong to the certainties of nature1 but also1 at the same time1 to the mysteries of ,providence4 ,throughout the ,prophets1 we are uniformly taught that nothing is more below the grandeur of ,heaven than to assign earthly dates in fixing either the revolutions or the duration of great events such as prophecy would condescend to notice4 ,a day has a prophetic meaning1 but what sort of day8 ,a mysterious expression for a time which has no resemblance to a natural day--sometimes comprehending long successions of centuries1 and altering its meaning according to the object concerned4 ',a time1' and 'times1' or 'half a time'--'aeon1' or 'aeons of aeons'--and other variations of this prophetic language 7so full of dreadful meaning1 but also of doubt and perplexity71 are all significant4 ,the peculiar grandeur of such expressions lies partly in the dimness of the approximation to any attempt at settling their limits1 and still more in this1 that the conventional character1 and consequent meanness of ordinary human dates1 are abandoned in the celestial chronologies4 ,hours and days1 or lunations and months1 have no true or philosophic relation to the origin1 or duration1 or periods of return belonging to great events1 or revolutionary agencies1 or vast national crimes2 but the normal period and duration of all acts whatever1 the time of their emergence1 of their agency1 or their reagency1 fall into harmony with the secret proportions of a heavenly scale1 when they belong by mere necessity of their own internal constitution to the vital though hidden motions that are at work in their own life and manifestation4 ,under the old and ordinary view of the apocalyptic aeon1 which supposed it always to mean the same period of time--mysterious1 indeed1 and uncertain1 as regards our knowledge1 but fixed and rigorously certain in the secret counsels of ,god--it was presumed that this period1 if it lost its character of infinity when applied to evil1 to criminality1 or to punishment1 must lose it by a corresponding necessity equally when applied to happiness and the golden aspects of hope4 ,but1 on the contrary1 every object whatsoever1 every mode of existence1 has its own separate and independent aeon4 ,the most thoughtless person must be satisfied1 on reflection1 even apart from the express commentary upon this idea furnished by the ,apocalypse1 that every life and mode of being must have hidden within itself the secret why of its duration4 ,it is impossible to believe of any duration whatever that it is determined capriciously4 ,always it rests upon some ground1 ancient as light and darkness1 though undiscoverable by man4 ,this only is discoverable1 as a general tendency1 that the aeon1 or generic period of evil1 is constantly towards a fugitive duration4 ,the aeon1 it is alleged1 must always express the same idea1 whatever that may be2 if it is less than eternity for the evil cases1 then it must be less for the good ones4 ,doubtless the idea of an aeon is in one sense always uniform1 always the same1 viz41 as a tenth or a twelfth is always the same4 ,arithmetic could not exist if any caprice or variation affected these ideas--a tenth is always hiore than an eleventh1 always less than a ninth4 ,but this uniformity of ratio and proportion does not hinder but that a tenth may now represent a guinea1 and next moment represent a thousand guineas4 ,the exact amount of the duration expressed by an aeon depends altogether upon the particular subject which yields the aeon4 ,it is1 as ,i have said1 a radix2 and1 like an algebraic square-root or cube-root1 though governed by the most rigorous laws of limitation1 it must vary in obedience to the nature of the particular subject whose radix it forms4 ,reader1 ,i take my leave4 ,i have been too loitering4 ,i know it1 and will make such efforts in future to cultivate the sternest brevity as nervous distress will allow4 ,meantime1 as the upshot of my speculation1 accept these three propositions3-- ,a4 ,that man 7which is in effect every man hitherto17 who allows himself to infer the eternity of evil from the counter eternity of good1 builds upon the mistake of assigning a stationary and mechanic value to the idea of an aeon2 whereas the very purpose of ,scripture in using this word was to evade such a value4 ,the word is always varying1 for the very purpose of keeping it faithful to a spiritual identity4 ,the period or duration of every object would be an essentially variable quantity1 were it not mysteriously commensurate to the inner nature of that object as laid open to the eyes of ,god4 ,and thus it happens1 that everything in this world1 possibly without a solitary exception has its own separate aeon3 how many entities1 so many aeons4 ,b4 ,but if it be an excess of blindness which can overlook the aeonian differences amongst even neutral entities1 much deeper is that blindness which overlooks the separate tendencies of things evil and things good4 ,naturally1 all evil is fugitive and allied to death4 ,c4 ,i separately1 speaking for myself only1 profoundly believe that the ,scriptures ascribe absolute and metaphysical eternity to one sole ,being1 viz41 to ,god2 and derivatively to all others according to the interest which they can plead in ,god's favor4 ,having anchorage in ,god1 innumerable entities may possibly be admitted to a participation in divine aeon4 ,but what interest in the favor of ,god can belong to falsehood1 to malignity1 to impurity8 ,to invest them with aeonian privileges1 is in effect1 and by its results1 to distrust and to insult the ,deity4 ,evil would not be evil1 if it had that power of self-subsistence which is imputed to it in supposing its aeonian life to be co-eternal with that which crowns and glorifies the good4 ,,judas ,,iscariot4 #aheb4 ,everything connected with our ordinary conceptions of this man1 of his real purposes1 and of his ultimate fate1 apparently is erroneous4 ,that neither any motive of his1 nor any ruling impulse1 was tainted with the vulgar treachery imputed to him1 appears probable from the strength of his remorse4 ,and this view of his case comes recommended by so much of internal plausibility1 that in ,germany it has long since shaped itself into the following well-known hypothesis3--,judas ,iscariot1 it is alleged1 participated in the common delusion of the apostles as to that earthly kingdom which1 under the sanction and auspices of ,christ1 they supposed to be waiting and ripening for the ,jewish people4 ,so far there was nothing in ,judas to warrant any special wonder or any special blame4 ,if he erred1 so did the other apostles4 ,but in one point ,judas went further than his brethren1 viz41 in speculating upon the reasons of ,christ for delaying the inauguration of this kingdom4 ,all things were apparently ripe for it2 all things pointed to it2 the expectation and languishing desires of many ,hebrew saints2 the warning from signs2 the prophetic alarms and kindling signals raised aloft by heralds like the ,baptist2 the fermentation of revolutionary doctrines all over ,judea2 the passionate impatience of the ,roman yoke2 the continual openings of new convulsions and new opportunities at the great centre of ,rome2 the insurrectionary temper of ,jewish society1 as indicated by the continual rise of robber leaders1 that drew off multitudes into the neighboring deserts2 and1 universally1 the unsettled mind of the ,jewish nation4 ,these explosive materials had long been accumulated2 they needed only a kindling spark4 ,heavenly citations to war had long been felt in the insults and aggressions of paganism2 there wanted only a leader4 ,and such a leader1 if he would but consent to assume that office1 stood ready in the founder of ,christianity4 ,the supreme qualifications for leadership1 as revealed in the person of ,jesus ,christ1 were evident to all parties in the ,jewish community1 and not merely to the religious body of his own immediate followers4 ,these qualifications were published and expounded to the world in the facility with which everywhere he drew crowds about himself1,footnote3 ,as connected with these crowds1 ,i have elsewhere noticed1 many years ago1 the secret reason which probably governed our ,saviour in cultivating the character and functions of a hakim1 or physician4 ,throughout the whole world of civilization at that era 1 whatever might be otherwise the varieties of the government1 there was amongst the ruling authorities a great jealousy of mobs and popular gatherings4 ,to a grand revolutionary teacher1 no obstacle so fatal as this initial prejudice could have offered itself4 ,already1 in the first place1 a new and mysterious body of truth1 having vast and illimitable relations to human duties and prospects1 presented a field of indefinite alarm4 ,that this truth should in the second place publish itself1 not through books and written discourses1 but orally1 by word of mouth1 and by personal communication between vast mobs and the divine teacher--already that1 as furnishing a handle of influence to a mob-leader1 justified a preliminary alarm4 ,but then1 thirdly1 as furnishing a plea for bringing crowds together1 such a mode of teaching must have crowned the suspicious presumptions against itself4 ,one peril there was at any rate to begin with--the peril of a mob3 that was certain4 ,and1 secondly1 there was the doctrine taught3 which doctrine was mysterious and uncertain2 and in that uncertainty lay another peril4 ,so that1 equally through what was fixed and what was doubtful1 there arose that 'fear of change' which by authentic warrant 'perplexes monarchs4' in the extraordinary depth of impression which attended his teaching1 and in the fear as well as hatred which possessed the ,jewish rulers against him4 ,indeed1 had it not been for the predominance of the ,roman element in the government of ,judea1 it is pretty certain that ,christ would have been crushed in an earlier stage in his career4 ,believing1 therefore1 as ,judas did1 that ,christ contemplated the establishment of a temporal kingdom--the restoration1 in fact1 of ,david's throne2 believing1 also1 that all the conditions towards the realization of such a scheme met and centred in the person of ,christ1 when viewed in relation to the circumstances of the times2 what was it that1 upon any solution intelligible to ,judas1 neutralized so grand a scene of promise8 ,simply and obviously1 to a man with the views of ,judas1 it was the character of ,christ himself1 sublimely over-gifted for purposes of speculation1 but1 like ,shakspeare's great creation of ,prince ,hamlet1 not commensurately endowed for the business of action and the sudden emergencies of life4 ,indecision and doubt 7such was the interpretation of ,judas7 crept over the faculties of the ,divine ,man as often as he was summoned away from his own natural ,sabbath of heavenly contemplation to the gross necessities of action4 ,it became important1 therefore1 according to the views adopted by ,judas1 that his master should be precipitated into action by a force from without1 and thrown into the centre of some popular movement1 such as1 once beginning to revolve1 could not afterwards be suspended or checked4 ,it is by no means improbable that this may have been the theory of ,judas4 ,nor is it at all necessary to seek for the justification of such a theory1 considered as a matter of prudential policy1 in ,jewish fanaticism4 ,the ,jews of thai day were distracted by internal schisms4 ,else1 and with any benefit from national unity1 the headlong rapture of ,jewish zeal1 when combined in vindication of their insulted temple and temple-worship1 would have been equal to the effort of dislodging the ,roman legionary force for the moment from the military possession of ,palestine4 ,after which1 although the restoration of the ,roman supremacy could not ultimately have been evaded1 it is not at all certain that a compromise might not have been welcome at ,rome1 such as had1 in fact1 existed under ,herod the ,great and his father4,footnote3 ,it was a tradition which circulated at ,rome down to the days of the ,flavian family1 that the indulgence conceded to ,judea by the imperial policy from ,augustus downwards1 arose out of the following little diplomatic secret3--,on the rise of the ,parthian power1 ambassadors had been sent to ,antipater1 the father of ,herod1 offering the ,parthian alliance and support4 ,at the same moment there happened to be at ,jerusalem a ,roman agent1 having a mission from the ,roman ,government with exactly the same objects4 ,the question was most solemnly debated1 for it was obvious1 that ultimately this question touched the salvation of the kindgom1 since to accept an alliance with either empire1 would be to insure the bitter hostility of the other4 ,with that knowledge fully before his mind1 ,antipater made his definitive election for ,rome4 ,the case transpired at ,rome--the debate1 and the issue of the debate--and eventually proved worth a throne to the ,herodian family2 for the honor of ,rome seemed to be concerned in supporting the man who1 in this sort of judgment of ,paris1 had solemnly awarded the prize of superiority to the remoter potentate4 ,the radical power1 in fact1 would have been lodged in ,rome2 but with such external concessions to ,jewish nationality as might have consulted the real interests of both parties4 ,administered under ,jewish names1 the land might have yielded a larger revenue than1 as a refractory nest of insurgents1 it ever did yield to the ,roman exchequer2 and1 on the other hand1 a ferocious bigotry1 which was really sublime in its indomitable obstinacy1 might have been humored without prejudice to the grandeur of the imperial claims4 ,even little ,palmyra in later times was indulged to a greater extent without serious injury in any quarter1 had it not been for the feminine arrogance that misinterpreted and abused that indulgence4 ,the miscalculation1 in fact1 of ,judas ,iscariot--supposing him really to have entertained the views ascribed to him--did not hinge at all upon political oversights1 but upon a total spiritual blindness2 in which blindness1 however1 he went no farther than at the time did probably most of his brethren4 ,upon them1 quite as little as upon him1 had as yet dawned the true grandeur of the ,christian scheme4 ,in this only he outran his brethren--that1 sharing in their blindness1 he greatly exceeded them in presumption4 ,all alike had imputed to their ,master views utterly irreconcilable with the grandeur of his new and heavenly religion4 ,it was no religion at all which they as yet supposed to be the object of ,christ's teaching1 but a simple preparation for a pitiably vulgar scheme of earthly aggrandizement4 ,but1 whilst the other apostles had simply failed to comprehend their master1 ,judas had presumptuously assumed that he comprehended the purposes of ,christ more fully than ,christ himself4 ,his object was audacious in a high degree1 but 7according to the theory which ,i am explaining7 for that very reason not treacherous at all4 ,the more that he was liable to the reproach of audacity1 the less can he be suspected of perfidy4 ,he supposed himself executing the very innermost purposes of ,christ1 but with an energy which it was the characteristic infirmity of ,christ to want4 ,his hope was1 that1 when at length actually arrested by the ,jewish authorities1 ,christ would no longer vacillate2 he would be forced into giving the signal to the populace of ,jerusalem1 who would then have risen unanimously1 for the double purpose of placing ,christ at the head of an insurrectionary movement1 and of throwing off the ,roman yoke4 ,as regards the worldly prospects of this scheme1 it is by no means improbable that ,iscariot was right4 ,it seems1 indeed1 altogether impossible that he1 who 7as the treasurer of the apostolic fraternity7 had in all likelihood the most of worldly wisdom1 and was best acquainted with the temper of the times1 could have made any gross blunder as to the wishes and secret designs of the populace in ,jerusalem4,footnote3 ,judas1 not less than the other apostles1 had doubtless been originally chosen1 upon the apparent ground of superior simplicity and unworldliness1 or else of superior zeal in testifying his obedience to the wishes of his ,master4 ,but the other eleven were probably exposed to no special temptation3 ,judas1 as the purse-bearer1 was4 ,his official duty must have brought him every day into minute and circumstantial communication with an important order of men1 viz41 petty shop-keepers4 ,in all countries alike1 these men fulfil a great political function4 ,beyond all others1 they are brought into the most extensive connection with the largest stratum by far in the composition of society4 ,they receive1 and with dreadful fidelity they give back1 all jacobinical impulses4 ,they know thoroughly in what channels1 under any call arising for action1 these impulses are at any time moving4 ,they are always kept up au courant of the interior councils and ultimate objects of the most national1 and1 in one sense1 the most powerful body in the whole community4 ,consciousness1 which such men always have1 of deep incorruptible fidelity to their mother-land1 and to her interests1 however ill understood1 ennobles their politics1 even when otherwise base4 ,they are corrupters in a service that never can be utterly corrupt4 ,they have therefore a power to win attention from virtuous men2 and1 being known to speak a representative language1 they would easily1 in a land so agitated and unreconciled1 so wild1 stormy1 and ignorant as ,judea1 kindle in stirring minds the most worldly contagions as to principle and purpose3 on the one hand1 kept through these men in vital sympathy with the restless politics of the insurrectionist populace--on the other1 hearing a sublime philosophy that rested for its key-note upon the advent of vast revolutions among men--what wonder that ,judas should connect his daily experience by an imaginary synthesis8 ,this populace1 however1 not being backed by any strong section of the aristocracy1 having no confidence again in any of the learned bodies connected with the great service of their national temple1 and having no leaders1 were apparently dejected1 and without unity4 ,the probability1 meantime1 is1 that some popular demonstration would have been made on behalf of ,christ1 had he himself offered it any encouragement4 ,but we1 who know the incompatibility of any such encouragement with the primary purpose of ,christ's mission upon earth1 know of necessity that ,judas1 and the populace on which he relied1 must equally and simultaneously have found themselves undeceived for ever4 ,in an instant of time one grand decisive word and gesture of ,christ must have put an end peremptorily to all hopes of that kind4 ,in that brief instant1 enough was made known to ,judas for final despair4 ,whether he had ever drunk profoundly enough from the cup of spiritual religion to understand the full meaning of ,christ's refusal2 whether he still adhered to his worldly interpretation of ,christ's mission1 and simply translated the refusal into a confession that all was lost1 whilst in very fact all was on the brink of absolute and triumphant consummation1 it is impossible for us1 without documents or hints1 to conjecture4 ,enough is apparent to show that1 in reference to any hopes that could be consolatory for him1 all was indeed lost4 ,the kingdom of this world had melted away in a moment like a cloud2 and it mattered little to him that a spiritual kingdom survived1 and that intellectually he might suddenly become aware of it1 if in his heart there were no spiritual organ by which he could appropriate the new and stunning revelation4 ,equally he might be swallowed up by despair in the case of retaining his old worldly delusions1 and finding the ground of his old anticipations suddenly giving way below his feet1 or again in the opposite case of suddenly correcting his own false constructions of ,christ's mission1 and apprehending a far higher purpose2 but which purpose1 in the very moment of becoming intelligible1 rose into a region far beyond his own frail fleshly sympathies4 ,he might read more truly--far more truly2 but what of that1 if the new truth were nothing to him8 ,the despondency of ,judas might be of two different qualities1 more or less selfish2 indeed1 ,i would go so far as to say1 selfish or altogether unselfish4 ,and it is with a view to this question1 and under a persuasion of a wrong done to ,judas by gross mistranslation disturbing the ,greek text1 that ,i entered at all upon this little memorandum4 ,else what ,i have hitherto been attempting to explain 7excepting only the part relating to the hakim1 which is entirely my own suggestion7 belongs to ,german writers4 ,the whole construction of ,iscariot's conduct1 as arising1 not out of perfidy1 but out of his sincere belief that some quickening impulse was called for by a morbid feature in ,christ's temperament--all this ,i believe was originally due to the ,germans2 and it is an important correction1 for it must always be important to recall within the fold of ,christian forgiveness any one who has long been sequestered from human charity1 and has tenanted a ,pariah grave4 ,in the greatest and most memorable of earthly tragedies1 ,judas is a prominent figure4 ,so long as the earth revolves1 he cannot be forgotten4 ,if1 therefore1 there is a doubt affecting his case1 he is entitled to the benefit of that doubt2 and if he has suffered to any extent--if simply to the extent of losing a palliation1 or the shadow of a palliation--by means of a false translation from the ,greek1 we ought not to revise or mitigate his sentence merely1 but to dismiss him from the bar4 ,the ,germans make it a question--in what spirit ,iscariot lived8 ,my question is--how he died8 ,if he were a traitor at last1 in that case he was virtually a traitor always4 ,if he perpetrated treason in the last hours of his connection1 with ,christ1 and even a mercenary treason1 then he must have been dallying with the purpose of treason during all the hours of his apostleship4 ,if1 in reality1 when selling his master for money1 he meant to betray him1 and regarded the money as the commensurate motive for betraying him1 then his case will assume a very different aspect from that impressed upon it by the ,german construction of the circumstances4 ,the life of ,judas1 and the death of ,judas1 taken apart1 or taken jointly1 each separately upon independent grounds1 or both together upon common grounds1 are open to doubts and perplexities4 ,and possibly the double perplexities1 if fully before us1 might turn out to be self-neutralized4 ,taking them jointly1 we might ask--,were they1 this life and this death1 to be regarded as a common movement on behalf of a deep and heart-fretting ,hebrew patriotism1 which was not the less sincere1 because it ran headlong into the unamiable form of rancorous rationality and inhuman bigotry8 ,were they a wild degeneration from a principle originally noble8 ,or1 on the contrary1 this life and this death1 were they alike the expression of a base mercenary selfishness1 caught and baffled in the meshes of its own chicanery8 ,the life1 if it could be appreciated in its secret principles1 might go far to illustrate the probable character of the death4 ,the death1 if its circumstances were recoverable1 and could be liberated from the self-contradictory details in the received report1 might do something to indicate retrospectively the character and tenor of that life4 ,the life of ,judas1 under a ,german construction of it1 as a spasmodic effort of vindictive patriotism and of rebellious ambition1 noble by possibility1 though erring and worldly-minded1 when measured by a standard so exalted as that of ,christianity1 would infer 7as its natural sequel7 a death of fierce despair4 ,read under the ordinary construction as a life exposed to temptations that were petty1 and frauds that were always mercenary1 it could not reasonably be supposed to furnish any occasion for passions upon so great a scale as those which seem to have been concerned in the tragical end of ,judas1 whether the passions were those of remorse and penitential anguish1 or of personal disappointment4 ,leaving1 however1 to the ,germans1 the task of conjecturally restering its faded lineaments to this mysterious record of a crime that never came before any human tribunal1 my own purpose is narrower4 ,i seek to recall and to recombine the elements1 not of the ,iscariot's life1 nor of his particular offence1 but simply of his death4 ,the reader is probably aware1 that there has always been an obscurity1 or even a perplexity1 connected with the death of ,iscariot4 ,two only out of the entire five documents1 which record the rise and early history of ,christianity1 have circumstantially noticed this event4 ,mark1 ,luke1 and ,john1 leave it undescribed4 ,st4 ,matthew and the ,acts of the ,apostles have bequeathed to us a picturesque account of it1 which1 to my own belief1 has been thoroughly misunderstood2 and1 once being misunderstood1 naturally enough has been interpreted as something fearfully preternatural4 ,the crime1 though great1 of ,iscariot has probably been much exaggerated4 ,it was the crime of signal and earthly presumption1 seeking not to thwart the purposes of ,christ1 or to betray them1 but to promote them by means utterly at war with their central spirit4 ,as far as can be judged1 it was an attempt to forward the counsels of ,god by weapons borrowed from the armory of darkness4 ,the crime being once misapprehended as a crime1 without a name or a precedent1 it was inevitable that the punishment1 so far as it was expounded by the death of the criminal1 should1 in obedience to this first erroneous preconception1 be translated into something preternatural4 ,to a mode of guilt which seemed to have no parallel1 it was reasonable enough that there should be apportioned a death which allowed of no medical explanation4,footnote3 ,in neutral points1 having no relation to morals or religious philosophy1 it is not concealed by the scriptural records themselves1 that even inspired persons made grave mistakes4 ,all the apostles1 it is probable1 or with the single exception of ,st4 ,john1 shared in the mistake about the second coming of ,christ1 as an event immediately to be looked for4 ,with respect to diseases1 again1 it is evident that the apostles1 in common with all ,jews1 were habitually disposed to read in them distinct manifestations of heavenly wrath4 ,in blindness1 for instance1 or1 again1 in death from the fall of a tower1 they read1 as a matter of course1 a plain expression of the divine displeasure pointed at an individual4 ,that they should even pause so far as to make a doubt whether the individual or his parents were the object of this displeasure1 arose only from the absolute coercion to so much reserve as this which was continually obtruding itself in the cases where innocent infants were the sufferers4 ,this1 in fact1 was a prejudice inalienable from their ,jewish training2 and as it would unavoidably lead oftentimes to judgments not only false but also uncharitable1 it received1 on more occasions than one1 a stern rebuke from ,christ himself4 ,in the same spirit1 it is probable that the symptoms attending death were sometimes erroneously reported as preternatural1 when1 in fact1 such as every hospital could match4 ,the death of the first ,herod was regarded by the early ,christians universally as a judicial expression of ,god's wrath to the author of the massacre at ,bethlehem1 though in reality the symptoms were such as often occur in obstinate derangements of the nervous system4 ,indeed1 as to many features1 the malady of the ,french king1 ,charles ,,ix41 whose nervous system had been shattered by the horrors of the ,st4 ,bartholomew massacre1 very nearly resembled it2 with such differences as might be looked for between an old1 ruined constitution1 such as ,herod's1 and one so youthful as that of ,charles4 ,in the ,acts of the ,apostles1 again1 the grandson of ,herod 7,herod ,agrippa7 is evidently supposed to have died by a judicial and preternatural death1 whereas apparently one part of his malady was the morbus pedicularis--cases of which ,i have myself circumstantially known in persons of all ranks2 one1 for instance1 being that of a countess enormously rich1 and the latest a female servant4 ,this demur1 moreover1 of obscurity was not the only one raised against the death of ,judas3 there was a separate objection--that it was inconsistent with itself4 ,he was represented1 in the ordinary modern versions1 as dying by a double death--viz41 #ast1 by a suicidal death3 'he went and hanged himself'--this is the brief account of his death given by ,st4 ,matthew2 but1 #b;d1 by a death not suicidal3 in the ,acts of the ,apostles1 we have a very different account of his death1 not suggesting suicide at all1 and otherwise describing it as mysteriously complex2 that is1 presenting us with various circumstances of the case1 none of which1 in the common vernacular versions 7,english and ,continental71 is at all intelligible4 ,the elements in the case are three3 that he 'fell down headlong2' that he 'burst asunder in the middle2' and that 'his bowels gushed out'--the first of these elements being unintelligible in the ,english expression of it1 and the two others being purely and blankly impossible4 ,these objections to the particular mode of that catastrophe which closed the career of ,judas1 had been felt pretty generally in the ,christian church1 and probably from the earliest times2 and the more so on account of that deep obscurity which rested upon the nature of his offence4 ,that a man1 who had been solemnly elected into the small band of the apostles1 should so far wander from his duty as to incur forfeiture of his great office--this was in itself sufficiently dreadful1 and a shocking revival to the human imagination of that eldest amongst all traditions--a tradition descending to us from what date we know not1 nor through what channel of original communication--the possibility that even into the heaven of heavens1 and amongst the angelic hosts1 rebellion against ,god1 long before man and human frailty existed1 should have crept by some way metaphysically inconceivable4 ,what search could be sufficient1 where even the eye of ,christ had failed to detect any germ of evil8 ,still1 though the crime of ,judas had doubtless been profound1,footnote3 ,in measuring which1 however1 the reader must not allow himself to be too much biassed by the ,english phrase1 'son of perdition4' ,this1 and the phrase which we translate 'damnation1' have been alike colored unavoidably by the particular intensity of the feeling associated with our ,english use of the words4 ,now1 one great difficulty in translating is to find words that even as to mere logical elements correspond to the original text4 ,even that is often a trying problem4 ,but to find also such words as shall graduate and adjust their depth of feeling to the scale of another language1 and that language a dead language1 is many times beyind all reach of human skill4 and evidently to me it had been the intention of the early church to throw a deep pall of mystery over its extent--charity1 that unique charity which belongs to ,christianity1 as being the sole charity ever preached to men1 which 'hopeth all things1' inclined through every age the hearts of musing readers to suspend their verdict where the ,scriptures had themselves practised some reserve1 and 7were it only by the extreme perplexity of its final and revised expressions7 had left an opening1 if not almost an invitation1 to doubt4 ,the doubt was left by the primitive church where ,scripture had left it4 ,there was not any absolute necessity that this should ever be cleared up to man4 ,but it was felt from the very first that some call was made upon the church to explain and to harmonize the apparently contradictory expressions used in what may be viewed as the official report of the one memorable domestic tragedy in the infant stage of the ,christian history4 ,official ,i call it1 as being in a manner countersigned by the whole confederate church1 when proceeding to their first common act in filling up the vacancy consequent upon the transgression of ,judas1 whereas the account of ,st4 ,matthew pleaded no authority but his own4 ,and domestic ,i call the tragedy1 in prosecution of that beautiful image under which a father of our ,english church has called the twelve apostles1 when celebrating the paschal feast1 'the family of ,christ4',footnote3 for the reader must not forget that the original meaning of the ,latin word familia was the sum total of the famuli4 ,hence1 whenever it is said in an ancient classic that such or such a man had a large family1 or that he was kind to his family1 or was loved by his family1 always we are to understand not at all his wife and children1 but the train and retinue of his domestic slaves4 ,now1 the relation of the ,apostles to their ,master1 and the awfulness of their dependency upon him1 which represented a golden chain suspending the whole race of man to the heavens above1 justified1 in the first place1 that form of expression which should indicate the humility and loyalty that is owned by servants to a lord2 whilst1 on the other hand1 the tenderness involved in the relations expressed by the ,english word family1 redressed what would else have been too austere in the idea1 and recomposed the equilibrium between the two forces of reverential awe and of childlike love which are equally indispensable to the orbicular perfection of ,christian duty4 ,this early essay of the church to harmonize the difficult expressions employed in the ,acts of the ,apostles--an essay which1 therefore1 recognises at once the fact that these expressions really were likely to perplex the simple-hearted1 and not merely such readers as systematically raised cavils--was brought forward in the earliest era of the church1 and under the sanction of the very highest authority1 viz41 by one who sat at the feet of the beloved apostle2 by one1 therefore1 who1 if he had not seen ,christ1 had seen familiarly him in whom ,christ most confided4 ,but ,i will report the case in the words of that golden-mouthed rhetorician1 that ,chrysostom of the ,english ,church1 from whose lips all truth came mended1 and who1 in spite of ,shakespeare himself1 found it possible ',to gild refined gold1 to paint the lily4 ,and add another perfume to the violet4' ,the following is the account given by ,jeremy ,taylor of the whole history1 in so far as it affects the ,scripture report of what ,judas did1 and what finally he suffered3--',two days before the passover1 the ,scribes and ,pharisees called a council to contrive crafty ways ,footnote3 ,otherwise1 it must naturally occur to every reader--,what powers could ,judas furnish towards the arrest of ,jesus beyond what the authorities in ,jerusalem already possessed8 ,but the bishop suggests that the dilemma was this3--,by day it was unsafe to seize him1 such was the veneration of the populace for his person4 ,if done at all1 it must be done during the darkness4 ,but1 precisely during those hours1 ,christ withdrew into solitudes known only to his disciples4 ,so that to corrupt one of these was the preliminary step to the discovery of that secret4 of destroying ,jesus1 they not daring to do it by open violence4 ,of which meeting1 when ,judas ,iscariot had notice 7for those assemblies were public and notorious7 he ran from ,bethany1 and offered himself to betray his ,master to them1 if they would give him a considerable reward4 ,they agreed for thirty pieces of silver4' ,in a case so memorable as this1 nothing is or can be trivial2 and even that curiosity is not unhallowed which has descended to inquire what sum1 at that era of ,jewish history1 this expression might indicate4 ,the bishop replies thus3--',of what value each piece was1 is uncertain2 but their own nation hath given a rule1 that1 when a piece of silver is named in the ,pentateuch1 it signifies a sicle2 if it be named in the ,prophets1 it signifies a pound2 if in the other writings of the ,old ,testament1 it signifies a talent4' ,for this1 besides other less familiar authority1 there is cited the well-known ,arius ,montanus1 in the ,syro-,chaldaic dictionary4 ,it is1 however1 self-evident that any service open to ,judas would have been preposterously overpaid by thirty talents1 a sum which exceeded five thousand pounds sterling4 ,and since this particular sum had originally rested on the authority of a prophet1 cited by one of the evangelists1,footnote3 ,viz41 ,st4 ,matthew4 ,upon which the bishop notices the error which had crept into the prevailing text of ,jeremias instead of ,zecharias4 ,but in the fourth century1 some copies had already corrected this reading2 which1 besides1 had a traditional excuse in the proverbial saying that the spirit of ,jeremiah had settled and found a resting-place in ,zecharias4 'it is probable1' proceeds the bishop1 'that the price at which ,judas sold his lord was thirty pounds weight of silver that is1 about ninety guineas sterling in ,english money--a goodly price for the ,saviour of the world to be prized at by his undiscerning and unworthy countrymen4' ,where1 however1 the learned writer makes a slight oversight in logic1 since it was not precisely ,christ that was so valued--this prisoner as against the certain loss of this prisoner--but simply this particular mode of contending with the difficulty attached to his apprehension1 so that1 in the worst case1 this opportunity lost might be replaced by other opportunities2 and the price1 therefore1 was not calculated as it would have been under one solitary chance4 ,the bishop then proceeds with the rehearsal of all the circumstances connected with the pretended trial of ,christ2 and coming in the process of his narrative to the conduct of ,judas on learning the dreadful turn which things were taking 7conduct which surely argues that he had anticipated a most opposite catastrophe71 he winds up the case of the ,iscariot in the following passage--',when ,judas heard that they had passed the final and decretory sentence of death upon his ,lord1 he1 who thought not it would have gone so far1 repented him to have been an instrument of so damnable a machination1 and came and brought the silver which they gave him for hire1 threw it in amongst them1 and said1 ',i have sinned in betraying the innocent blood4' ,but they1 incurious of those hell-torments ,judas felt within him1 because their own fires burned not yet1 dismissed him4' ,i pause for a moment to observe that1 in the expression1 'repented him to have been an instrument1' the context shows the bishop intending to represent ,judas as recoiling from the issue of his own acts1 and from so damnable a machination1 not because his better feelings were evoked1 as the prospect of ruin to his ,master drew near1 and that he shrank from that same thing when taking a definite shape of fulfilment1 which he had faced cheerfully when at a distance--not at all3 the bishop's meaning is--that ,judas recoiled from his own acts at the very instant when he began to understand their real consequences now solemnly opening upon his horror-stricken understanding4 ,he had hoped1 probably1 much from the ,roman interference2 and the history itself shows that in this he had not been at all too sanguine4 ,justice has never yet been done to the conduct of ,pilate4 ,that man has little comprehended the style and manner of the ,new ,testament who does not perceive the demoniac earnestness of ,pilate to effect the liberation of ,christ1 or who fails to read the anxiety of the several evangelists to put on record his profound sympathy with the prisoner4 ,the falsest word that ever yet was uttered upon any part of the ,new ,testament1 is that sneer of ,lord ,bacon's at 'jesting ,pilate4' ,pilate was in deadly earnest from first to last1 and retired from his frantic effort on behalf of ,christ1 only when his own safety began to be seriously compromised4 ,do the thoughtless accusers of ,pilate fancy that he was a ,christian8 ,if not1 why1 or on what principle1 was he to ruin himself at ,rome1 in order to favor one he could not save at ,jerusalem8 ,how reasonably ,judas had relied upon the ,roman interference1 is evident from what actually took place4 ,judas relied1 secondly1 upon the populace1 and that this reliance also was well warranted1 appears from repeated instances of the fear with which the ,jewish rulers contemplated ,christ4 ,why did they fear him at all8 ,simply1 as he was backed by the people3 had it not been for their support1 ,christ was no more an object of terror to them than his herald1 the ,baptist4 ,but what ,i here insist on is 7which else from some expressions the reader might fail to understand71 that ,jeremy ,taylor nowhere makes the mistake of supposing ,judas to have originally designed the ruin of his ,master1 and nowhere understands by his 'repentance' that he felt remorse on coming near to consequences which from a distance he had welcomed4 ,he admits clearly that ,judas was a traitor only in the sense of seeking his ,master's aggrandizement by methods which placed him in revolt against that ,master1 methods which not only involved express and formal disobedience to that ,master1 but which ran into headlong hostility against the spirit of all that he came on earth to effect4 ,it was the revolt1 not of perfidious malignity1 but of arrogant and carnal blindness4 ,in respect to the gloomy termination of the ,iscariot's career1 and to the perplexing account of it given in the ,acts of the ,apostles1 the bishop closes his account thus3--',and ,judas went and hanged himself2 and the judgment was made more notorious and eminent by an unusual accident at such deaths2 for he so swelled1 that he burst1 and his bowels gushed out4 ,but the ,greek scholiast and some others report out of ,papias1 ,st4 ,john's scholar1 that ,judas fell from the fig-tree1 on which he hanged1 before he was quite dead1 and survived his attempt somewhile2 being so sad a spectacle of deformity and pain1 and a prodigious tumor1 that his plague was deplorable and highly miserable2 till at last he burst in the very substance of his trunk1 as being extended beyond the possibilities ,footnote3 ,quaere1 whether the true reading is not more probably 'passibilities1' i4e41 liabilities to suffering4 and capacities of nature4' ,in this corrected version of ,papias1 we certainly gain an intelligible account of what otherwise is far from intelligible1 viz41 the falling headlong4 ,but all the rest is a dismal heap of irrationalities2 and the single ray of light which is obtained1 viz41 the suggestion of the fig-tree as an elevation1 which explains the possibility of a headlong fall1 is of itself an argument that some great disturbance must have happened to the text at this point1 else how could so material a circumstance have silently dropped out of the narrative8 ,there are passages in every separate book of the canon1 into which accident1 or the somnolence of copyists1 has introduced errors seriously disturbing the sense and the coherence4 ,many of these have been rectified in the happiest manner by ingenious suggestions2 and a considerable proportion of these suggestions has been since verified and approved by the discovery of new manuscripts1 or the more accurate collation of old ones4 ,in the present case1 a much slighter change than might be supposed will suffice to elicit a new and perfect sense from the general outline of that text which still survives4 ,first1 as to the phrase 'fell headlong1' ,i do not understand it of any fall from a fig-tree1 or from any tree whatever4 ,this fig-tree ,i regard as a purely fanciful resource2 and evidently an innovation to this extent ranks amongst those conjectural audacities which shock the discreet reader1 as most unsatisfactory and licentious1 because purely gratuitous1 when they rest upon no traces that can be indicated as still lurking in the present text4 ,fell headlong may stand as at present3 it needs no change1 for it discloses a very good and sufficient sense1 if we understand it figuratively as meaning that he came to utter and unmitigated ruin1 that his wreck was total1 for that1 instead of dedicating himself to a life of penitential sorrow1 such as would assuredly have conciliated the divine forgiveness1 the unhappy criminal had rushed out of life by suicide4 ,so far1 at least1 all is sound and coherent1 and under no further obligations to change small or great1 beyond the reading that1 in a metaphorical sense1 which1 if read 7as hitherto7 in a literal sense1 would require the very serious interpolation of an imaginary fig-tree4 ,what remains is equally simple3 the change required involves as little violence1 and the result from this change will appear equally natural4 ,but a brief preliminary explanation is requisite1 in order to place ,it advantageously before the reader4 ,the ancients use the term bowels with a latitude unknown generally to modern literature1 but especially to ,english literature4 ,in the midst of the far profounder passion which distinguishes the ,english from all literatures on the modern ,european continent1 it is singular that a fastidious decorum never sleeps for a moment4 ,it might be imagined that this fastidiousness would be in the inverse ratio of the passion3 but it is not so4 ,in particular the ,french1 certainly the literature which ranges at the lowest elevation upon the scale of passion1 nevertheless is often homely1 and even gross1 in its recurrences to frank elementary nature4 ,for a lady to describe herself as laughing a gorge deployee1 a grossness which with us1 equally on the stage or in real life1 would be regarded with horror1 amongst the ,french attracts no particular attention4 ,again1 amidst the supposed refinements of ,french tragedy1 and not observe the coarser tragedy of ,corneille1 but amidst the more feminine and polished tragedy of ,racine1 there is no recoil at all from saying of such or such a sentiment1 ',il me perce les entrailles'--it penetrates my bowels4 ,the ,greeks and ,romans still more extensively use the several varieties of expression for the intestines1 as a symbolic phraseology for the domestic and social affections4 ,we ,english even1 fastidious as we are1 employ the term bowels as a natural symbolization for the affections of pity1 mercy1 or parental and brotherly affection4 ,at least we do so in recurring to the simplicities of the scriptural style4 ,but1 amongst the ,romans1 the word viscera is so naturally representative of the household affections1 that at length it becomes necessary to recall an ,english reader to the true meaning of this word4 ,through some physiological prejudice1 it is true that the bowels have always been regarded as the seat of the more tender and sorrowing sympathies4 ,but the viscera comprehended all the intestines1 or 7as the ,french term them7 les entrailles4 ,the heart even is a viscus2 perhaps in a very large acceptation the brain might be regarded as a co-viscus with the heart4 ,there is very slight ground for holding the brain to be the organ of thinking1 or the heart of moral sensibilities1 more than the stomach1 or the bowels1 or the intestines generally4 ,but waive all this3 the ,romans designated the seat of the larger and nobler 7i4e41 the moral7 sensibilities indifferently by these three terms3 the pectus1 the prcordia1 and the viscera2 as to the cor1 it seems to me that it denoted the heart in its grosser and more animal capacities3 ',molle meum levibus cor est violabile relis2' it was the seat of sexual passion2 but nobler and more reflective sensibilities inhabited the pectus or prcordia2 and naturally out of these physiologic preconceptions arose corresponding expressions for wounded or ruined sensibilities4 ,we ,english1 for instance1 insist on the disease of broken heart1 which ,sterne1 in a well-known passage1 postulates as a malady not at all less definite than phthisis1 or podagra1 though 7as he says7 not formally recognised in the bills of mortality4 ,but it is evident that a theory which should represent the viscera as occupied by those functions of the moral sensibilities which we place in the central viscus of the heart1 must1 in following out that hypothesis1 figure the case of these sensibilities when utterly ruined under corresponding images4 ,our 'broken heart' will therefore to them become ruptured viscera1 or prcordia that have burst4 ,to burst in the middle1 is simply to be shattered and ruined in the central organ of our sensibilities1 which is the heart2 and in saying that the viscera of ,iscariot1 or his middle1 had burst and gushed out1 the original reporter meant simply that his heart had broke4 ,that was precisely his case4 ,out of pure anguish that the scheme which he meant for the sudden glorification of his ,master1 had recoiled 7according to all worldly interpretation7 in his utter ruin2 that the sudden revolution1 through a democratic movement1 which was to raise himself and his brother apostles into ,hebrew princes1 had scattered them like sheep without a shepherd2 and that superadded to this common burden of ruin he personally had to bear a separate load of conscious disobedience to ,god and insupportable responsibility2 naturally enough out of all this he fell into fierce despair2 his heart broke2 and under that storm of affliction he hanged himself4 ,here1 again1 all clears itself up by the simple substitution of a figurative interpretation for one grossly physical4 ,all contradiction disappears2 not three deaths assault him1 viz41 suicide1 and also a rupture of the intestines1 and also an unintelligible effusion of the viscera2 but simply suicide1 and suicide as the result of that despondency which was figured under the natural idea of a broken heart4 ,the incoherences are gone2 the contradictions have vanished2 and the gross physical absurdities1 which under mistranslation had perplexed the reverential student1 no longer disfigure the ,scriptures4 ,looking back to the foot-note on the oriental idea of the hakim1 as a mask politically assumed by ,christ and the evangelists1 under the conviction of its indispensableness to the free propagation of ,christian philosophy1 ,i am induced1 for the sake of detaining the reader's eye a little longer upon a matter so important in the history of ,christianity1 if only it may be regarded as true1 to subjoin an extract from a little paper written by myself heretofore1 but not published4 ,i may add these two remarks1 viz41 first1 that the attribution to ,st4 ,luke of this medical character1 probably had its origin in the simple fact1 that an assumption made by all the evangelists1 and perhaps by all the apostles1 had happened to attract more attention in him from merely local causes4 ,one or two of the other apostles having pursued their labors of ,propagandism under the avowed character of hakims1 many others in the same region would escape special notice in that character1 simply because1 as men notoriously ready to plead it1 they had not been challenged to do so by the authorities2 whilst others1 in regions where the government had not become familiar with the readiness to plead such a privilege as part of the apostolic policy1 would be driven into the necessity of actually advancing the plea1 and would thus 7like ,st4 ,luke7 obtain a traditionary claim to the medical title which in a latent sense had belonged to all1 though all had not been reduced to the necessity of pleading it4 ,secondly1 ,i would venture to suggest1 that the ,therapeutae1 or healers1 technically so called1 who came forward in ,egypt during the generation immediately succeeding to that of ,christ1 were neither more nor less than disguised apostles to ,christianity1 preaching the same doctrines essentially as ,christ1 and under the very same protecting character of hakims1 but putting forward this character perhaps more prominently1 or even retreating into it altogether1 according to the increasing danger which everywhere awaited them from the hostile bigotry of expatriated ,jews1 as they gradually came to understand the true and anti-national views of those who called themselves ,christians1 or ,nazarenes1 or ,galileans4 ,in short1 abstracting altogether from the hatred to ,christ1 founded on eternal principles of the enmity between the worldly and the spiritual1 and looking only to the political uneasiness amongst magistrates which accompanied the early footsteps of ,christianity1 one may illustrate it by the parallel feelings which in our own generation1 amongst the ,portuguese1 for instance1 have dogged the movements of free-masonry4 ,we in ,england view this panic as irrational3 and amongst ourselves it would be so2 for ,british free-masonry conceals nothing worse than it professes4 ,but1 on the ,continent1 it became a mask for shrouding any or every system of anti-social doctrine1 or1 again1 for playing into the hands of treason and conspiracy4 ,there was always in the first place a reasonable fear of secret and perilous doctrines--,communism1 for instance1 under some modification1 or rancorous ,jacobinism4 ,and secondly1 suppose that for the present1 or in the existing stage of the secret society1 there really were no esoteric and mischievous doctrine propagated1 there was at any rate the custom established of meeting together in secret1 of corresponding by an alphabet of conventional signals1 and of acting by an impenetrable organization1 always applicable to evil purposes1 even where it might not originally have been so applied4 ,the machinery which binds together any secret society1 as being always available for evil ends1 must inevitably justify some uneasiness in all political authorities4 ,and1 under those circumstances1 the public jealousy must have operated against the free movement of early ,christianity3 nothing could have disarmed it1 except some counter-principle so managed1 as to insure that freedom of public meetings which opened the sine qua non channel for the free propagation of religious truth4 ,such a counter-force was brought into play by ,christ on that day when first he offered himself to ,judea as a hakim1 or popular physician4 ,under the shelter of that benign character1 at one blow he overthrew an obstacle that would else infallibly have frozen the very element in which only any system of novel teaching could attempt to move4 ,most diseases were by the ,jews invested with more or less of a supernatural character2 and in no department of knowledge was the immediate illumination from above more signally presumed than in the treatment of diseases4 ,a physician who was thus divinely guided in the practice of his art was a debtor to ,god and to his fellow-men for the adequate application of so heavenly a gift4 ,and1 if he could not honorably withdraw from the mission with which ,god had charged him1 far less could politicians and magistrates under any allegation of public inconveniences presume to obstruct or to make of none effect the sublime mysteries of art and sagacity with which the providence of ,god had endowed an individual for the relief of suffering humanity2 the hakim was a debtor to the whole body of his afflicted countrymen3 but for that very reason he was also a creditor2 a creditor entitled to draw upon the amplest funds of indulgence2 and privileged to congregate his countrymen wherever he moved4 ,here opened suddenly a broad avenue to social intercourse1 without which all communication for purposes of religious teaching would have been sealed against ,christ4 ,as a hakim1 ,christ obtained that unlimited freedom of intercourse with the populace1 which1 as a religious proselytizer1 he never could have obtained4 ,here1 therefore1 and perhaps by the very earliest exemplification of the serpent's wisdom and foresight engrafting itself upon the holy purposes of dovelike benignity1 ,christ kept open for himself 7and for his disciples in times to come7 the freedom of public communication1 and the license of public meetings4 ,once announcing himself1 and attesting his own mission as a hakim1 he could not be rejected or thwarted as a public oracle of truth and practical counsel to human weakness4 ,this explains1 what else would have been very obscure1 the undue emphasis which ,christ allowed men to place upon his sanatory miracles4 ,his very name in ,greek1 viz41 1 presented him to men under the idea of the healer2 but then1 to all who comprehended his secret and ultimate functions1 as a healer of unutterable and spiritual wounds4 ,that usurpation1 by which a very trivial function of ,christ's public ministrations was allowed to disturb and sometimes to eclipse far grander pretensions1 carried with it so far an erroneous impression4 ,but then1 on the other hand1 seventy-fold it redeemed that error1 by securing 7which nothing else could have secured7 the benefit of a perpetual passport to the religious missionary3 since1 once admitted as a medical counsellor1 the missionary1 the hakim1 obtained an unlimited right of intercourse4 ,if medical advice1 why not religious advice8 ,and subsequently1 by the continuance of the same medical gifts to the apostles and their successors1 all exercised the same powers1 and benefited by the same privileges as hakims4 ,,on ,,hume',s ,,argument ,,against ,,miracles4 #ahci4 ,hume's argument against miracles is simply this3--,every possible event1 however various in its degree of credibility1 must1 of necessity1 be more credible when it rests upon a sufficient cause lying within the field of what is called nature1 than when it does not3 more credible when it obeys some mechanical cause1 than when it transcends such a cause1 and is miraculous4 ,therefore1 assume the resistance to credibility1 in any preternatural occurrence1 as equal to x1 and the very ideal or possible value of human testimony as no more than x1 in that case1 under the most favorable circumstances conceivable1 the argument for and against a miracle will be equal2 or1 expressing the human testimony by x1 affected with the affirmative sign x2 and expressing the resistance to credibility on the other side of the equation1 by x1 affected with the negative sign -x1 the two values will1 in algebraical language1 destroy each other1 and the result will be #j4 ,but1 inasmuch as this expresses the value of human testimony in its highest or ideal form1 a form which is never realized in experience1 the true result will be different1--there will always be a negative result -y2 much or little according to the circumstances1 but always enough to turn the balance against believing a miracle4 ',or in other words1' said ,hume1 popularizing his argument1 'it will always be more credible that the reporter of a miracle should tell a falsehood1 or should himself have been the dupe of appearances1 than that a miracle should have actually occurred--that is1 an infraction of those natural laws 7any or all7 which compose what we call experience4 ,for1 assume the utmost disinterestedness1 veracity1 and sound judgment in the witness1 with the utmost advantage in the circumstances for giving full play to those qualities2 even in such a case the value of affirmative testimony could1 at the very utmost1 be equal to the negative value on the other side the equation3 and the result would be1 to keep my faith suspended in equilibrio4 ,but in any real case1 ever likely to come before us1 the result will be worse2 for the affirmative testimony will be sure to fall in many ways below its ideal maximum2 leaving1 therefore1 for the final result a considerable excess to the negative side of the equation4 ,,section ,,ii4 ,,of ,,the ,,argument ,,as ,,affected ,,by ,,the ,,covert ,,limitations ,,under ,,which ,,it ,,is ,,presented4 ,such is the ,argument3 and1 as the first step towards investigating its sanity and its degree--its kind of force1 and its quantity of force1 we must direct our attention to the following fact1 viz41 that amongst three separate conditions under which a miracle 7or any event whatever7 might become known to us1 ,hume's argument is applied only to one4 ,assuming a miracle to happen 7for the possibility of a miracle is of course left open throughout the discussion1 since any argument against that would at once foreclose every question about its communicability71--then it might happen under three several sets of circumstances1 in relation to our consciousness4 #ast1 ,it might happen in the presence of a single witness--that witness not being ourselves4 ,this case let us call ,alpha4 #b;dly1 ,it might happen in the presence of many witnesses1--witnesses to a vast amount1 but still 7as before7 ourselves not being amongst that multitude4 ,this case let us call ,beta4 ,and #c;dly1 ,it might happen in our own presence1 and fall within the direct light of our own consciousness4 ,this case let us call ,gamma4 ,now these distinctions are important to the whole extent of the question4 ,for the #b;d case1 which is the actual case of many miracles recorded in the ,new ,testament1 at once cuts away a large body of sources in which either error or deceit could lurk4 ,hume's argument supposes the reporter of the miracle to be a dupe1 or the maker of dupes--himself deluded1 or wishing to delude others4 ,but1 in the case of the thousands fed from a few loaves and small fishes1 the chances of error1 wilful or not wilful1 are diminished in proportion to the number of observers2 ,footnote3 ',in proportion to the number of observers4'--,perhaps1 however1 on the part of ,hume1 some critical apologist will say--',doubtless he was aware of that2 but still the reporters of the miracle were few4 ,no matter how many were present1 the witnesses for us are but the ,evangelists4' ,yes1 certainly1 the ,evangelists2 and let us add1 all those contemporaries to whom the ,evangelists silently appealed4 ,these make up the 'multitude' contemplated in the second case4 and ,hume's inference as to the declension of the affirmative x1 in relation to the negative x1 no longer applies1 or1 if at all1 with vastly diminished force4 ,with respect to the #c;d case1 it cuts away the whole argument at once in its very radix4 ,for ,hume's argument applies to the communication of a miracle1 and therefore to a case of testimony4 ,but1 wherever the miracle falls within direct personal cognizance1 there it follows that no question can arise about the value of human testimony4 ,the affirmative x1 expressing the value of testimony1 disappears altogether2 and that side of the equation is possessed by a new quantity 7viz41 ourselves--our own consciousness7 not at all concerned in ,hume's argument4 ,hence it results1 that of three possible conditions under which a miracle may be supposed to offer itself to our knowledge1 two are excluded from the view of ,hume's argument4 ,,section ,,iii4 ,,whether ,,the ,,second ,,of ,,these ,,conditions ,,is ,,not ,,expressly ,,noticed ,,by ,,hume4 ,it may seem so4 ,but in fact it is not4 ,and 7what is more to the purpose7 we are not at liberty to consider it any accident that it is not4 ,hume had his reasons4 ,let us take all in proper order3 #ast1 that it seems so2 #b;dly1 that in fact it is not so2 and #c;dly1 that is no accident1 but intentional4 #ast4 ,hume seems to contemplate such a case1 the case of a miracle witnessed and attested by a multitude of persons1 in the following imaginary miracle which he proposes as a basis for reasoning4 ,queen ,elizabeth1 as every body will remember who has happened to read ,lord ,monmouth's ,memoirs1 died on the night between the last day of #afjb and the first day of #afjc3 this could not be forgotten by the reader1 because1 in fact1 ,lord ,m41 who was one of ,her ,majesty's nearest relatives 7being a younger son of her first cousin ,lord ,hunsdon71 obtained his title and subsequent preferment as a reward for the furious ride he performed to ,edinburgh 7at that time at least #ddj miles distant from ,london71 without taking off his boots1 in order to lay the earliest tidings of the great event at the feet of her successor4 ,in reality1 never did any death cause so much posting day and night over the high roads of ,europe4 ,and the same causes which made it so interesting has caused it to be the best dated event in modern history2 that one which could least be shaken by any discordant evidence yet discoverable4 ,now1 says ,hume1 imagine the case1 that1 in spite of all this chronological precision--this precision1 and this notoriety of precision--,her ,majesty's court physicians should have chosen to propagate a story of her resurrection4 ,imagine that these learned gentlemen should have issued a bulletin1 declaring that ,queen ,elizabeth had been met in ,greenwich ,park1 or at ,nonsuch1 on ,may-day of #afjc1 or in ,westminster1 two years after1 by the ,lord ,chamberlain when detecting ,guy ,faux--let them even swear it before twenty justices of the peace2 ,i for one1 says ,hume1 am free to confess that ,i would not believe them4 ,no1 nor1 to say the truth1 would we2 nor would we advise our readers to believe them4 #b;dly4 ,here1 therefore1 it would seem as if ,hume were boldly pressing his principles to the very uttermost--that is1 were challenging a miracle as untenable1 though attested by a multitude4 ,but1 in fact1 he is not4 ,he only seems to do so2 for1 if no number of witnesses could avail anything in proof of a miracle1 why does he timidly confine himself to the hypothesis of the queen's physicians only coming forward8 ,why not call in the whole ,privy ,council8--or the ,lord ,mayor and ,common ,council of ,london--the ,sheriffs of ,middlesex--and the ,twelve ,judges8 ,as to the court physicians1 though three or four nominally1 virtually they are but one man4 ,they have a common interest1 and in two separate ways they are liable to a suspicion of collusion3 first1 because the same motives which act upon one probably act upon the rest4 ,in this respect1 they are under a common influence2 secondly1 because1 if not the motives1 at any rate the physicians themselves1 act upon each other4 ,in this respect1 they are under a reciprocal influence4 ,they are to be reasoned about as one individual4 #c;dly4 ,as ,hume could not possibly fail to see all this1 we may be sure that his choice of witnesses was not accidental4 ,in fact1 his apparent carelessness is very discreet management4 ,his object was1 under the fiction of an independent multitude1 to smuggle in a virtual unity2 for his court physicians are no plural body in effect and virtue1 but a mere pleonasm and a tautology4 ,and in good earnest1 ,hume had reason enough for his caution4 ,how much or how little testimony would avail to establish a resurrection in any neutral ,footnote3 ,by a neutral case is meant1 #ast1 one in which there is no previous reason from a great doctrine requiring such an event for its support1 to expect a resurrection2 #b;dly1 a case belonging to a period of time in which it is fully believed that miraculous agency has ceased4 case few people would be willing to pronounce off-hand1 and1 above all1 on a fictitious case4 ,prudent men1 in such circumstances1 would act as the judges in our ,english courts1 who are always displeased if it is attempted to elicit their opinions upon a point of law by a proposed fiction4 ,and very reasonably2 for in these fictitious cases all the little circumstances of reality are wanting1 and the oblique relations to such circumstances1 out of which it is that any sound opinion can be formed4 ,we all know very well what ,hume is after in this problem of a resurrection4 ,and his case of ,queen ,elizabeth's resurrection being a perfectly fictitious case1 we are at liberty to do any one of three different things3--either simply to refuse an answer2 or1 #b;dly1 to give such an answer as he looks for1 viz41 to agree with him in his disbelief under the supposed contingency2 without1 therefore1 offering the slightest prejudice to any scriptural case of resurrection3 i4 e41 we might go along with him in his premises1 and yet balk him of his purpose2 or1 #c;dly1 we might even join issue with him1 and peremptorily challenge his verdict upon his own fiction4 ,for it is singular enough1 that a modern mathematician of eminence 7,mr4 ,babbage7 has expressly considered this very imaginary question of a resurrection1 and he pronounces the testimony of seven witnesses1 competent and veracious1 and presumed to have no bias1 as sufficient to establish such a miracle4 ,strip ,hume's case of the ambiguities already pointed out--suppose the physicians really separate and independent witnesses--not a corporation speaking by one organ--it will then become a mere question of degree between the philosopher and the mathematician--seven witnesses8 or fifty8 or a hundred8 ,for though none of us 7not ,mr4 ,babbage1 we may be sure7 seriously believes in the possibility of a resurrection occurring in these days1 as little can any of us believe in the possibility that seven witnesses1 of honor and sagacity 7but say seven hundred7 could be found to attest such an event when not occurring4 ,but the useful result from all this is1 that ,mr4 ,hume is evidently aware of the case ,beta1 7of last ,sect47 as a distinct case from ,alpha or from ,gamma1 though he affects blindness3 he is aware that a multitude of competent witnesses1 no matter whether seven or seven hundred1 is able to establish that which a single witness could not2 in fact1 that increasing the number of witnesses is able to compensate increasing incredibility in the subject of doubt2 that even supposing this subject a resurrection from the dead1 there may be assigned a quantity of evidence 7x7 greater than the resistance to the credibility4 ,and he betrays the fact1 that he has one eye open to his own ,jesuitism by palming upon us an apparent multitude for a real one1 thus drawing all the credit he can from the name of a multitude1 and yet evading the force which he strictly knew to be lodged in the thing2 seeking the reputation of the case ,beta1 but shrinking from its hostile force4 ,,section ,,iv4 ,,of ,,the ,,argument ,,as ,,affected ,,by ,a ,,classification ,,of ,,miracles4 ,let us now inquire whether ,hume's argument would be affected by the differences in miracles upon the most general distribution of their kinds4 ,miracles may be classed generally as inner or outer4 ,i4 ,the inner1 or those which may be called miracles for the individual1 are such as go on1 or may go on1 within the separate personal consciousness of each separate man4 ,and it shows how forgetful people are of the very doctrines which they themselves profess as ,christians1 when we consider1 on the one hand1 that miracles1 in this sense1 are essential to ,christianity1 and yet1 on the other hand1 consider how often it is said that the age of miracles is past4 ,doubtless1 in the sense of external miracles1 all such agencies are past4 ,but in the other sense1 there are distinct classes of the supernatural agency1 which we are now considering2 and these three are held by many ,christians2 two by most ,christians2 and the third by all4 ,they are a4--,special ,providences3 which class it is that many philosophic ,christians doubt or deny4 b4--,grace3 both predisposing by old theologians called prevenient and effectual4 c4--,prayer considered as efficacious4 ,of these three we repeat1 that the two last are held by most ,christians3 and yet it is evident that both presume a supernatural agency4 ,but this agency exists only where it is sought4 ,and even where it does exist1 from its very nature 7as an interior experience for each separate consciousness7 it is incommunicable4 ,but that does not defeat its purpose4 ,it is of its essence to be incommunicable4 ,and1 therefore1 with relation to ,hume's great argument1 which was designed to point out a vast hiatus or inconsistency in the divine economy--',here is a miraculous agency1 perhaps1 but it is incommunicable3 it may exist1 but it cannot manifest itself2 which defect neutralizes it1 and defeats the very purpose of its existence'--the answer is1 that as respects these interior miracles1 there is no such inconsistency4 ,they are meant for the private forum of each man's consciousness3 nor would it have met any human necessity to have made them communicable4 ,the language of ,scripture is1 that he who wishes experimentally to know the changes that may be accomplished by prayer1 must pray4 ,in that way only1 and not by communication of knowledge from another1 could he understand it as a practical effect4 ,and to understand it not practically1 but only in a speculative way1 could not meet any religious wish1 but merely an irreligious curiosity4 ,as respects one great division of miraculous agency1 it is clear1 therefore1 that ,hume's argument does not apply4 ,the arrow glances past3 not so much missing its aim as taking a false one4 ,the hiatus which it supposes1 the insulation and incommunicability which it charges upon the miraculous as a capital oversight1 was part of the design3 such mysterious agencies were meant to be incommunicable1 and for the same reason which shuts up each man's consciousness into a silent world of its own--separate and inaccessible to all other consciousnesses4 ,if a communication is thrown open by such agencies between the separate spirit of each man and the supreme ,spirit of the universe1 then the end is accomplished3 and it is part of that end to close this communication against all other cognizance4 ,so far ,hume is baffled4 ,the supernatural agency is incommunicable3 it ought to be so4 ,that is its perfection4 ,,ii4 ,but now1 as respects the other great order of miracles--viz41 the external1 first of all1 we may remark a very important subdivision3 miracles1 in this sense1 subdivide into two most different orders--#ast1 ,evidential miracles1 which simply prove ,christianity4 #b;d1 ,constituent miracles1 which1 in a partial sense1 are ,christianity4 ,and1 perhaps1 it may turn out that ,hume's objection1 if applicable at all1 is here applicable in a separate way and with a varying force4 ,the first class1 the evidential miracles1 are all those which were performed merely as evidences 7whether simply as indications1 or as absolute demonstrations7 of the divine power which upheld ,christianity4 ,the second class1 the constituent miracles1 are those which constitute a part of ,christianity4 ,two of these are absolutely indispensable to ,christianity1 and cannot be separated from it even in thought1 viz41 the miraculous birth of our ,saviour1 and his miraculous resurrection4 ,the first is essential upon this ground--that unless ,christ had united the two natures 7divine and human7 he could not have made the satisfaction required3 not being human1 then1 indeed1 he might have had power to go through the mysterious sufferings of the satisfaction3 but how would that have applied to man8 ,it would have been perfect1 but how would it have been relevant8 ,not being divine1 then indeed any satisfaction he could make would be relevant3 but how would it have been perfect8 ,the mysterious and supernatural birth1 therefore1 was essential1 as a capacitation for the work to be performed2 and1 on the other hand1 the mysterious death and consequences were essential1 as the very work itself4 ,now1 therefore1 having made this distinction1 we may observe1 that the first class of miracles was occasional and polemic3 it was meant to meet a special hostility incident to the birth-struggles of a new religion1 and a religion which1 for the very reason that it was true1 stood opposed to the spirit of the world2 of a religion which1 in its first stage1 had to fight against a civil power in absolute possession of the civilized earth1 and backed by seventy legions4 ,this being settled1 it follows1 that if ,hume's argument were applicable in its whole strength to the evidential miracles1 no result of any importance could follow4 ,it is clear that a ,christianized earth never can want polemic miracles again2 polemic miracles were wanted for a transitional state1 but such a state cannot return4 ,polemic miracles were wanted for a state of conflict with a dominant idolatry1 ,it was ,christianity militant1 and militant with childlike arms1 against ,paganism triumphant4 ,but ,christianity1 in league with civilization1 and resting on the powers of this earth allied with her own1 never again can speak to idolatrous man except from a station of infinite superiority4 ,if1 therefore1 these evidential miracles are incommunicable as respects their proofs to after generations1 neither are they wanted4 ,still it will be urged--,were not the miracles meant for purposes ulterior to the transitional state8 ,were they not meant equally for the polemic purpose of confuting hostility at the moment1 and of propping the faith of ,christians in all after ages8 ,the growing opinion amongst reflecting ,christians is1 that they were not3 that the evidential miracles accomplished their whole purpose in their own age4 ,something of supernatural agency1 visibly displayed1 was wanted for the first establishment of a new faith4 ,but1 once established1 it was a false faith only that could need this external support4 ,christianity could not unroot itself now1 though every trace of evidential miracle should have vanished4 ,being a true religion1 once rooted in man's knowledge and man's heart1 it is self-sustained2 it never could be eradicated4 ,but1 waiving that argument1 it is evident1 that whatever becomes of the evidential miracles1 ,christianity never can dispense with those transcendent miracles which we have called constituent1--those which do not so much demonstrate ,christianity as are ,christianity in a large integral section4 ,now as to the way in which ,hume's argument could apply to these1 we shall reserve what we have to say until a subsequent section4 ,meantime1 with respect to the other class1 the simply evidential miracles1 it is plain1 that if ever they should be called for again1 then1 as to them1 ,hume's argument will be evaded1 or not1 according to their purpose4 ,if their function regards an individual1 it will be no just objection to them that they are incommunicable4 ,if it regards a multitude or a nation1 then the same power which utters the miracle can avail for its manifestation before a multitude1 as happened in the days of the ,new ,testament1 and then is realized the case ,beta of ,sect4 ,,ii1 ,and if it is still objected1 that even in that case there could be no sufficient way of propagating the miracle1 with its evidence1 to other times or places1 the answer must be1-- #ast4 ,that supposing the purpose merely polemic1 that purpose is answered without such a propagation4 #b;dly4 ,that1 supposing the purpose1 by possibility1 an ulterior purpose1 stretching into distant ages1 even then our modern arts of civilization1 printing1 c41 give us advantages which place a remote age on a level with the present as to the force of evidence2 and that even the defect of autopsy may be compensated by sufficient testimony of a multitude1 it is evident that ,hume himself felt1 by his evasion in the case of the imaginary ,elizabethan miracle proposed by himself4 ,,recapitulation4 ,now let us recapitulate the steps we have made before going on to the rest4 ,we have drawn into notice ,sect4 ,,ii4 the case ,beta1--overlooked by ,hume in his argument1 but apparently not overlooked in his consciousness1--the case where a multitude of witnesses overrules the incommunicability attaching to a single witness4 #b;dly4 ,we have drawn into notice the class of internal miracles1--miracles going on in the inner economy of every ,christian's heart2 for it is essential to a ,christian to allow of prayer4 ,he cannot be a ,christian if he should condemn prayer2 and prayer cannot hope to produce its object without a miracle4 ,and to such miracles ,hume's argument1 the argument of incommunicability1 is inapplicable4 ,they do not seek to transplant themselves2 every man's personal experience in this respect is meant for himself alone4 #c;dly4 ,even amongst miracles not internal1 we have shown--that if one class 7the merely evidential and polemic7 are incommunicable1 i4e4 not capable of propagation to a remote age or place1 they have sufficiently fulfilled their immediate purpose by their immediate effect4 ,but such miracles are alien and accidental to ,christianity4 ,christ himself reproved severely those who sought such signs1 as a wicked1 unbelieving generation2 and afterwards he reproved1 with a most pathetic reproach1 that one of his own disciples who demanded such a sign4 ,but besides these evidential miracles1 we noticed also1 #dthly4 ,the constituent miracles of ,christianity2 upon which1 as regarded ,hume's argument1 we reserved ourselves to the latter section3 and to these we now address ourselves4 ,but first we premise this ,lemma3--,that an priori 7or1 as we shall show1 an a posteriori7 reason for believing a miracle1 or for expecting a miracle1 will greatly disturb the valuation of x 7that is1 the abstract resistance to credibility71 as assumed in ,hume's argument4 ,this is the centre in which we are satisfied1 lurks that which ,hume himself suspected3 and we add1 that as a vast number of witnesses 7according to a remark made in ,sect4 ,,ii47 will virtually operate as a reduction of the value allowed to x1 until x may be made to vanish altogether1--so in the reverse order1 any material reduction of value in x will virtually operate exactly as the multiplication of witnesses2 and the case ,alpha will be raised to the case ,beta4 ,this ,lemma being stated as a point of appeal in what follows1 we proceed to ,,section ,v4 ,,on ,,hume',s ,,argument1 ,,as ,,affected ,,by ,,the ,,purpose4 ,this topic is so impressive1 and indeed awful1 in its relation to ,christianity1 that we shall not violate its majesty by doing more than simply stating the case4 ,all the known or imagined miracles that ever were recorded as flowing from any ,pagan origin1 were miracles--#a1 of ostentation2 #b1 of ambition and rivalship2 #c1 expressions of power2 or1 #d1 were blind accidents4 ,not even in pretence were any of them more than that4 ,first and last came the ,christian miracles1 on behalf of a moral purpose4 ,the purpose was to change man's idea of his own nature2 and to change his idea of ,god's nature4 ,many other purposes might be stated2 but all were moral4 ,now to any other wielder of supernatural power1 real or imaginary1 it never had occurred by way of pretence even1 that in working miracles he had a moral object4 ,and here1 indeed1 comes in the argument of ,christ with tremendous effect--that1 whilst all other miracles might be liable to the suspicion of having been effected by alliance with darker agencies1 his only 7as sublime moral agencies for working the only revolution that ever was worked in man's nature7 could not be liable to such a suspicion2 since1 if an evil spirit would lend himself to the propagation of good in its most transcendent form1 in that case the kingdom of darkness would be 'divided against itself4' ,here1 then1 is an a posteriori reason1 derived from the whole subsequent life and death of the miracle-worker1 for diminishing the value of x according to the ,lemma4 ,,section ,,vi4 ,,on ,,the ,,argument ,,of ,,hume ,,as ,,affected ,,by ,,matters ,,of ,,fact4 ,it is a very important axiom of the schoolmen in this case--that1 a posse ad esse non valet consequentia1 you can draw no inference from the possibility of a thing to its reality1 but that1 in the reverse order1 ab esse ad posse1 the inference is inevitable3 if it is1 or if it ever has been--then of necessity it can be4 ,hume himself would have admitted1 that the proof of any one miracle1 beyond all possibility of doubt1 at once lowered the--x of his argument 7i4e4 the value of the resistance to our faith7 so as to affect the whole force of that argument1 as applying to all other miracles whatever having a rational and an adequate purpose4 ,now it happens that we have two cases of miracles which can be urged in this view3 one a posteriori1 derived from our historical experience1 and the other a priori4 ,we will take them separately4 #a4 ,the a priori miracle we call such--not 7as the unphilosophic may suppose7 because it occurred previously to our own period1 or from any consideration of time whatever1 but in the logical meaning1 as having been derived from our reason in opposition to our experience4 ,this order of miracle it is manifest that ,hume overlooked altogether1 because he says expressly that we have nothing to appeal to in this dispute except our human experience4 ,but it happens that we have2 and precisely where the possibilities of experience desert us4 ,we know nothing through experience 7whether physical or historical7 of what preceded or accompanied the first introduction of man upon this earth4 ,but in the absence of all experience1 our reason informs us--that he must have been introduced by a supernatural agency4 ,thus far we are sure4 ,for the sole alternative is one which would be equally mysterious1 and besides1 contradictory to the marks of change--of transition--and of perishableness in our planet itself1--viz4 the hypothesis of an eternal unoriginated race3 and that is more confounding to the human intellect than any miracle whatever3 so that1 even tried merely as one probability against another1 the miracle would have the advantage4 ,the miracle supposes a supersensual and transcendent cause4 ,the opposite hypothesis supposes effects without any cause4 ,in short1 upon any hypothesis1 we are driven to suppose--and compelled to suppose--a miraculous state as introductory to the earliest state of nature4 ,the planet1 indeed1 might form itself by mechanical laws of motion1 repulsion1 attraction1 and central forces4 ,but man could not4 ,life could not4 ,organization1 even animal organization1 might perhaps be explained out of mechanical causes4 ,but life could not4 ,life is itself a great miracle4 ,suppose the nostrils formed by mechanic agency2 still the breath of life could not enter them without a supernatural force4 ,and a fortiori1 man1 with his intellectual and moral capacities1 could not arise upon this planet without a higher agency than any lodged in that nature which is the object of our present experience4 ,this kind of miracle1 as deduced by our reason1 and not witnessed experimentally1 or drawn from any past records1 we call an a priori miracle4 #b4 ,but there is another kind of miracle1 which ,hume ought not to have overlooked1 but which he has1 however1 overlooked3 he himself observes1 very justly1 that ,,prophecy is a distinct species of the miraculous2 and1 no doubt1 he neglected the ,scriptural ,prophecies1 as supposing them all of doubtful interpretation1 or believing with ,porphyry1 that such as are not doubtful1 must have been posterior to the event which they point to4 ,it happens1 however1 that there are some prophecies which cannot be evaded or 'refused1' some to which neither objection will apply4 ,one1 we will here cite1 by way of example3--,the prophecy of ,isaiah1 describing the desolation of ,babylon1 was delivered about seven centuries before ,christ4 ,a century or so after ,christ1 comes ,porphyry1 and insinuates1 that all the prophecies alike might be comparatively recent forgeries6 ,well1 for a moment suppose it3 but1 at least1 they existed in the days of ,porphyry4 ,now1 it happens1 that more than two centuries after ,porphyry1 we have good evidence1 as to ,babylon1 that it had not yet reached the stage of utter desolation predicted by ,isaiah4 ,four centuries after ,christ1 we learn from a ,father of the ,christian ,church1 who had good personal information as to its condition1 that it was then become a solitude1 but a solitude in good preservation as a royal park4 ,the vast city had disppeared1 and the murmur of myriads3 but as yet there were no signs whatever of ruin or desolation4 ,not until our own nineteenth century was the picture of ,isaiah seen in full realization--then lay the lion basking at noonday--then crawled the serpents from their holes2 and at night the whole region echoed with the wild cries peculiar to arid wildernesses4 ,the transformations1 therefore1 of ,babylon1 have been going on slowly through a vast number of centuries until the perfect accomplishment of ,isaiah's picture4 ,perhaps they have travelled through a course of much more than two thousand years3 and from the glimpses we gain of ,babylon at intervals1 we know for certain that ,isaiah had been dead for many centuries before his vision could have even begun to realize itself4 ,but then1 says an objector1 the final ruins of great empires and cities may be safely assumed on general grounds of observation4 ,hardly1 however1 if they happen to be seated in a region so fertile as ,mesopotamia1 and on a great river like the ,euphrates4 ,but allow this possibility--allow the natural disappearance of ,babylon in a long course of centuries4 ,in other cases the disappearance is gradual1 and at length perfect4 ,no traces can now be found of ,carthage2 none of ,memphis2 or1 if you suppose something peculiar to ,mesopotamia1 no traces can be found of ,nineveh1 or on the other side of that region3 none of other great cities--,roman1 ,parthian1 ,persian1 ,median1 in that same region or adjacent regions4 ,babylon only is circumstantially described by ,jewish prophecy as long surviving itself in a state of visible and audible desolation3 and to ,babylon only such a description applies4 ,other prophecies might be cited with the same result4 ,but this is enough4 ,and here is an a posteriori miracle4 ,now1 observe3 these two orders of miracle1 by their very nature1 absolutely evade the argument of ,hume4 ,the incommunicability disappears altogether4 ,the value of--x absolutely vanishes and becomes #j4 ,the human reason being immutable1 suggests to every age1 renews and regenerates for ever1 the necessary inference of a miraculous state antecedent to the natural state4 ,and1 for the miracles of prophecy1 these require no evidence and depend upon none3 they carry their own evidence along with them2 they utter their own testimonies1 and they are continually reinforcing them2 for1 probably1 every successive period of time reproduces fresh cases of prophecy completed4 ,but even one1 like that of ,babylon1 realizes the case of ,beta 7,sect4 ,,ii47 in its most perfect form4 ,history1 which attests it1 is the voice of every generation1 checked and countersigned in effect by all the men who compose it4 ,,section ,,vii4 ,,of ,,the ,,argument ,,as ,,affected ,,by ,,the ,,particular ,,worker ,,of ,,the ,,miracles4 ,this is the last 'moment1' to use the language of ,mechanics1 which we shall notice in this discussion4 ,and here there is a remarkable petitio principii in ,hume's management of his argument4 ,he says1 roundly1 that it makes no difference at all if ,god were connected with the question as the author of the supposed miracles4 ,and why8 ,because1 says he1 we know ,god only by experience--meaning as involved in nature--and1 therefore1 that in so far as miracles transcend our experience of nature1 they transcend by implication our experience of ,god4 ,but the very question under discussion is--whether ,god did1 or did not1 manifest himself to human experience in the miracles of the ,new ,testament4 ,but at all events1 the idea of ,god in itself already includes the notion of a power to work miracles1 whether that power were over exercised or not2 and as ,sir ,isaac ,newton thought that space might be the sensorium of ,god1 so may we 7and with much more philosophical propriety7 affirm that the miraculous and the transcendent is the very nature of ,god4 ,god being assumed1 it is as easy to believe in a miracle issuing from him as in any operation according to the laws of nature 7which1 after all1 is possibly in many points only the nature of our planet73 it is as easy1 because either mode of action is indifferent to him4 ,doubtless this argument1 when addressed to an ,atheist1 loses its force2 because he refuses to assume a ,god4 ,but then1 on the other hand1 it must be remembered that ,hume's argument itself does not stand on the footing of ,atheism4 ,he supposes it binding on a ,theist4 ,now a ,theist1 in starting from the idea of ,god1 grants1 of necessity1 the plenary power of miracles as greater and more awful than man could even comprehend4 ,all he wants is a sufficient motive for such transcendent agencies2 but this is supplied in excess 7as regards what we have called the constituent miracles of ,christianity7 by the case of a religion that was to revolutionize the moral nature of man4 ,the moral nature--the kingdom of the will--is esentially opposed to the kingdom of nature even by the confession of irreligious philosophers2 and1 therefore1 being itself a supersensual field1 it seems more reasonably adapted to agencies supernatural than such as are natural4 ,,general ,,recapitulation4 ,in ,hume's argument1--x1 which expresses the resistance to credibility in a miracle1 is valued as of necessity equal to the veiy maximum or ideal of human testimony2 which1 under the very best circumstances1 might be equal to x1 in no case more1 and in all known cases less4 ,we1 on the other hand1 have endeavored to show-- #a4 ,that1 because ,hume contemplates only the case of a single witness1 it will happen that the case ,beta of ,sect4 ,,ii4 where a multitude of witnesses exist1 may greatly exceed x2 and with a sufficient multitude must exceed x4 #b4 ,that in the case of internal miracles--operations of divine agency within the mind and conscience of the individual--,hume's argument is necessarily set aside3 the evidence1 the x1 is perfect for the individual1 and the miraculous agency is meant for him only4 #c4 ,that1 in the case of one primary miracle1 viz4 the first organization of man on this planet1 the evidence greatly transcends x3 because here it is an evidence not derived from experience at all1 but from the reflecting reason3 and the miracle has the same advantage over facts of experience1 that a mathematical truth has over the truths which rest on induction4 ,it is the difference between must be and is--between the inevitable and the merely actual4 #d4 ,that1 in the case of another order of miracles1 viz4 prophecies1 ,hume's argument is again overruled2 because the x in this case1 the affirmative evidence1 is not derived froms human testimony4 ,some prophecies are obscure2 they may be fulfilled possibly without men's being aware of the fulfilment4 ,but others1 as that about the fate of ,babylon--about the fate of the ,arabs 7the children of ,ishmael7--about the fate of the ,jews--are not of a nature to be misunderstood2 and the evidence which attends them is not alien1 but is intrinsic1 and developed by themselves in successive stages from age to age4 #e4 ,that1 because the primary miracle in ,no4 #c1 argues at least a power competent to the working of a miracle1 for any after miracle we have only to seek a sufficient motive4 ,now1 the objects of the ,christian revelation were equal at the least to those of the original creation4 ,in fact1 ,christianity may be considered as a second creation2 and the justifying cause for the constituent miracles of ,christianity is even to us as apparent as any which could have operated at the primary creation4 ,the epigenesis was1 at least1 as grand an occasion as the genesis4 ,indeed1 it is evident1 for example1 that ,christianity itself could not have existed without the constituent miracle of the ,resurrection2 because without that there would have been no conquest over death4 ,and here1 as in ,no4 #c1 x is derived--not from any experience1 and therefore cannot be controlled by that sort of hostile experience which ,hume's argument relies on2 but is derived from the reason which transcends all experience4 ,,casuistry4 #ahci4 ,,part ,i4 ,it is remarkable1 in the sense of being noticeable and interesting1 but not in the sense of being surprising1 that ,casuistry has fallen into disrepute throughout all ,protestant lands4 ,this disrepute is a result partly due to the upright morality which usually follows in the train of the ,protestant faith4 ,so far it is honorable1 and an evidence of superior illumination4 ,but1 in the excess to which it has been pushed1 we may trace also a blind and somewhat bigoted reaction of the horror inspired by the abuses of the ,popish ,confessional4 ,unfortunately for the interests of scientific ethics1 the first cultivators of casuistry had been those who kept in view the professional service of auricular confession4 ,their purpose was--to assist the reverend confessor in appraising the quality of doubtful actions1 in order that he might properly adjust his scale of counsel1 of warning1 of reproof1 and of penance4 ,some1 therefore1 in pure simplicity and conscientious discharge of the duty they had assumed1 but others1 from lubricity of morals or the irritations of curiosity1 pushed their investigations into unhallowed paths of speculation4 ,they held aloft a torch for exploring guilty recesses-of human life1 which it is far better for us all to leave in their original darkness4 ,crimes that were often all but imaginary1 extravagances of erring passion that would never have been known as possibilities to the young and the innocent1 were thus published in their most odious details4 ,at first1 it is true1 the decent draperies of a dead language were suspended before these abominations3 but sooner or later some knave was found1 on mercenary motives1 to tear away this partial veil2 and thus the vernacular literature of most nations in ,southern ,europe1 was gradually polluted with revelations that had been originally made in the avowed service of religion4 ,indeed1 there was one aspect of such books which proved even more extensively disgusting4 ,speculations pointed to monstrous offences1 bore upon their very face and frontispiece the intimation that they related to cases rare and anomalous4 ,but sometimes casuistry pressed into the most hallowed recesses of common domestic life4 ,the delicacy of youthful wives1 for example1 was often not less grievously shocked than the manliness of husbands1 by refinements of monkish subtlety applied to cases never meant for religious cognisance--but far better left to the decision of good feeling1 of nature1 and of pure household morality4 ,even this revolting use of casuistry1 however1 did less to injure its name and pretensions than a persuasion1 pretty generally diffused1 that the main purpose and drift of this science was a sort of hair-splitting process1 by which doubts might be applied to the plainest duties of life1 or questions raised on the extent of their obligations1 for the single benefit of those who sought to evade them4 ,a casuist was viewed1 in short1 as a kind of lawyer or special pleader in morals1 such as those who1 in ,london1 are known as ,old ,bailey practitioners1 called in to manage desperate cases--to suggest all available advantages--to raise doubts or distinctions where simple morality saw no room for either--and generally to teach the art1 in nautical phrase1 of sailing as near the wind as possible1 without fear of absolutely foundering4 ,meantime it is certain that casuistry1 when soberly applied1 is not only a beneficial as well as a very interesting study2 but that1 by whatever title1 it is absolutely indispensable to the practical treatment of morals4 ,we may reject the name2 the thing we cannot reject4 ,and accordingly the custom has been1 in all ,english treatises on ethics1 to introduce a good deal of casuistry under the idea of special illustration1 but without any reference to casuistry as a formal branch of research4 ,indeed1 as society grows complex1 the uses of casuistry become more urgent4 ,even ,cicero could not pursue his theme through such barren generalizations as entirely to evade all notice of special cases3 and ,paley has given the chief interest to his very loose investigations of morality1 by scattering a selection of such cases over the whole field of his discussion4 ,the necessity of casuistry might1 in fact1 be deduced from the very origin1 and genesis of the word4 ,first came the general law or rule of action4 ,this was like the major proposition of a syllogism4 ,but next came a special instance or case1 so stated as to indicate whether it did or did not fall under the general rule4 ,this1 again1 was exactly the minor proposition in a syllogism4 ,for example1 in logic we say1 as the major proposition in a syllogism1 ,man is mortal4 ,this is the rule4 ,and then 'subsuming' 7such is the technical phrase--subsuming7 ,socrates under the rule by a minor proposition--viz4 ,socrates is a man--we are able mediately to connect him with the predicate of that rule1 viz1 ergo1 ,socrates is mortal4,footnote3 ,the ludicrous blunder of ,reid 7as first published by ,lord ,kames in his ,sketches71 and of countless others1 through the last seventy or eighty years1 in their critiques on the logic of ,aristotle1 has been to imagine that such illustrations of syllogism as these were meant for specimens of what syllogism could perform4 ,what an elaborate machinery1 it was said1 for bringing out the merest self-evident truisms6 ,but just as reasonably it might have been objected1 when a mathematician illustrated the process of addition by saying #cdg1 ,behold what pompous nothings6 ,these ,aristotelian illustrations were purposely drawn from cases not open to dispute1 and simply as exemplifications of the meaning3 they were intentionally self-evident4 ,precisely upon this model arose casuistry4 ,a general rule1 or major proposition1 was laid down--suppose that he who killed any human being1 except under the palliations ,x1 ,y1 ,z1 was a murderer4 ,then in a minor proposition1 the special case of the suicide was considered4 ,it was affirmed1 or it was denied1 that his case fell under some one of the palliations assigned4 ,and then1 finally1 accordingly to the negative or affirmative shape of this minor proposition1 it was argued1 in the conclusion1 that the suicide was or was not1 a murderer4 ,out of these cases1 i4e4 oblique deflexions from the universal rule 7which is also the grammarian's sense of the word case7 arose casuistry4 ,after morality has done its very utmost in clearing up the grounds upon which it rests its decisions--after it has multiplied its rules to any possible point of circumstantiality--there will always continue to arise cases without end1 in the shifting combinations of human action1 about which a question will remain whether they do or do not fall under any of these rules4 ,and the best way for seeing this truth illustrated on a broad scale1 the shortest way and the most decisive is--to point our attention to one striking fact1 viz4 that all law1 as it exists in every civilized land1 is nothing but casuistry4 ,simply because new cases are for ever arising to raise new doubts whether they do or do not fall under the rule of law1 therefore it is that law is so inexhaustible4 ,the law terminates a dispute for the present by a decision of a court1 7which constitutes our 'common law1'7 or by an express act of the legislature1 7which constitutes our 'statute law4'7 ,for a month or two matters flow on smoothly4 ,but then comes a new case1 not contemplated or not verbally provided for in the previous rule4 ,it is varied by some feature of difference4 ,the feature1 it is suspected1 makes no essential difference3 substantially it may be the old case4 ,ay--but that is the very point to be decided4 ,and so arises a fresh suit at law1 and a fresh decision4 ,for example1 after many a decision and many a statute1 7all arising out of cases supervening upon cases17 suppose that great subdivision of jurisprudence called the ,bankrupt ,laws to have been gradually matured4 ,it has been settled1 suppose1 that he who exercises a trade1 and no other whatsoever1 shall be entitled to the benefit of the bankrupt laws4 ,so far is fixed3 and people vainly imagine that at length a station of rest is reached1 and that in this direction at least1 the onward march of law is barred4 ,not at all4 ,suddenly a schoolmaster becomes insolvent1 and attempts to avail himself of privileges as a technical bankrupt4 ,but then arises a resistance on the part of those who are interested in resisting3 and the question is raised--,whether the calling of a schoolmaster can be legally considered a trade8 ,this also is settled3 it is solemnly determined that a schoolmaster is a tradesman4 ,but next arises a case1 in which1 from peculiar variation of the circumstances1 it is doubtful whether the teacher can technically be considered a schoolmaster4 ,suppose that case settled3 a schoolmaster1 sub-distinguished as an ,x ,y schoolmaster1 is adjudged to come within the meaning of the law4 ,but scarcely is this sub-variety disposed of1 than up rises some decomplex case1 which is a sub-variety of this sub-variety3 and so on for ever4 ,hence1 therefore1 we may see the shortsightedness of ,paley in quoting with approbation1 and as if it implied a reproach1 that the ,mussulman religious code contains 'not less than seventy-five thousand traditional precepts4' ,true3 but if this statement shows an excess of circumstantiality in the moral systems of ,mussulmans1 that result expresses a fact which ,paley overlooks--viz4 that their moral code is in reality their legal code4 ,it is by aggregation of cases1 by the everlasting depullulation of fresh sprouts and shoots from old boughs1 that this enormous accumulation takes place2 and1 therefore1 the apparent anomaly is exactly paralleled in our unmanageable superstructure of law1 and in the ,french supplements to their code1 which have already far overbuilt the code itself4 ,if names were disregarded1 we and the ,mahometans are in the very same circumstances4 ,casuistry1 therefore1 is the science of cases1 or of those special varieties which are forever changing the face of actions as contemplated in general rules4 ,the tendency of such variations is1 in all states of complex civilization1 to absolute infinity4,footnote3 ,we have noticed our own vast pile of law1 and that of the ,french4 ,but neither of us has yet reached the alarming amount of the ,roman law1 under which the very powers of social movement threatened to break down4 ,courts could not decide1 advocates could not counsel1 so interminable was becoming the task of investigation4 ,this led to the great digest of ,justinian4 ,but1 had ,roman society advanced in wealth1 extent1 and social development1 instead of retrograding1 the same result would have returned in a worse shape4 ,the same result now menaces ,england1 and will soon menace her much more4 ,it is our present purpose to state a few of such cases1 in order to fix attention upon the interest and the importance which surround them4 ,no modern book of ethics can be worth notice1 unless in so far as it selects and argues the more prominent of such cases1 as they offer themselves in the economy of daily life4 ,for we repeat--that the name1 the word casuistry1 may be evaded1 but the thing cannot2 nor is it evaded in our daily conversations4 ,i4 ,the ,case of the ,jaffa ,massacre1--,no case in the whole compass of casuistry has been so much argued to and fro--none has been argued with so little profit2 for1 in fact1 the main elements of the moral decision have been left out of view4 ,let us state the circumstances3--,on the #aath of ,february1 #agii1 ,napoleon1 then and for seven months before in military possession of ,egypt1 began his march towards ,syria4 ,his object was to break the force of any ,turkish invasion1 by taking it in fractions4 ,it had become notorious to every person in ,egypt1 that the ,porte rejected the ,french pretence of having come for the purpose of quelling ,mameluke rebellion--the absurdity of which1 apart from its ludicrous ,quixotism1 was evident in the most practical way1 viz4 by the fact1 that the whole revenues of ,egypt were more than swallowed up by the pay and maintenance of the ,french army4 ,what could the ,mamelukes have done worse8 ,hence it had become certain that the ,turks would send an expedition to ,egypt2 and ,napoleon viewing the garrisons in ,syria as the advanced guard of such an expedition1 saw the best chance for general victory in meeting these troops beforehand1 and destroying them in detail4 ,about nineteen days brought him within view of the ,syrian fields4 ,on the last day of ,february he slept at the ,arimathea of the ,gospel4 ,in a day or two after his army was before ,jaffa1 7the ,joppa of the ,crusaders17--a weak place1 but of some military interest1,footnote3 ,it is singular that some peculiar interest has always settled upon ,jaffa1 no matter who was the military leader of the time1 or what the object of the struggle4 ,from ,julius ,caesar1 ,joppa enjoyed some special privileges and immunities--about a century after1 in the latter years of ,nero1 a most tragical catastrophe happened at ,joppa to the ,syrian pirates1 by which the very same number perished as in the ,napoleon massacre1 viz4 something about #djjj4 ,in the #bjj years of the ,crusades1 ,joppa revived again into military verdure4 ,the fact is1 that the shore of ,syria is pre-eminently deficient in natural harbors1 or facilities for harbors--those which exist have been formed by art and severe contest with the opposition of nature4 ,hence their extreme paucity1 and hence their disproportionate importance in every possible war4 from the accident of being the very first fortified town to those entering ,palestine from the side of ,egypt4 ,on the #dth of ,march this place was invested2 on the #fth1 barely forty-eight hours after1 it was taken by storm4 ,this fact is in itself important2 because it puts an end to the pretence so often brought forward1 that the ,french army had been irritated by a long resistance4 ,yet1 supposing the fact to have been so1 how often in the history of war must every reader have met with cases where honorable terms were granted to an enemy merely on account of his obstinate resistance8 ,but then here1 it is said1 the resistance was wilfully pushed to the arbitration of a storm4 ,even that might be otherwise stated2 but1 suppose it true1 a storm in military law confers some rights upon the assailants which else they would not have had--rights1 however1 which cease with the day of storming4 ,nobody denies that the ,french army might have massacred all whom they me't in arms at the time and during the agony of storming4 ,but the question is1 ,whether a resistance of forty-eight hours could create the right1 or in the least degree palliate the atrocity1 of putting prisoners to death in cold blood8 ,four days after the storming1 when all things had settled back into the quiet routine of ordinary life1 men going about their affairs as usual1 confidence restored1 and1 above all things1 after the faith of a ,christian army had been pledged to these prisoners that not a hair of their heads should be touched1 the imagination is appalled by this wholesale butchery--even the apologists of ,napoleon are shocked by the amount of murder1 though justifying its principle4 ,they admit that there were two divisions of the prisoners--one of fifteen hundred1 the other of two thousand five hundred4 ,their combined amount is equal to a little army2 in fact1 just about that army with which we fought and won the battle of ,maida in ,calabria4 ,they composed a force equal to about six ,english regiments of infantry on the common establishment4 ,every man of these four thousand soldiers1 chiefly brave ,albanians--every man of this little army was basely1 brutally1 in the very spirit of abject poltroonery1 murdered--murdered as foully as the infants of ,bethlehem2 resistance being quite hopeless1 not only because they had surrendered their arms1 but also because1 in reliance on ,christian honor1 they had quietly submitted to have their hands confined with ropes behind their backs4 ,if this blood did not lie heavy on ,napoleon's heart in his dying hours1 it must have been because a conscience originally callous had been seared by the very number of his atrocities4 ,now1 having stated the case1 let us review the casuistical apologies put forward4 ,what was to be done with these prisoners8 ,there lay the difficulty4 ,could they be retained according to the common usage with regard to prisoners8 ,no2 for there was a scarcity of provisions1 barely sufficient for the ,french army itself4 ,could they be transported to ,egypt by sea8 ,no2 for two ,english line-of-battle ships1 the ,theseus and the ,tiger1 were cruising in the offing1 and watching the interjacent seas of ,egypt and ,syria4 ,could they be transported to ,egypt by land8 ,no2 for it was not possible to spare a sufficient escort2 besides1 this plan would have included the separate difficulty as to food4 ,finally1 then1 as the sole resource left1 could they be turned adrift8 ,no2 for this was but another mode of saying1 ',let us fight the matter over again2 reinstate yourselves as our enemies2 let us leave ,jaffa re infect1 and let all begin again de novo'--since1 assuredly1 say the ,french apologists1 in a fortnight from that date1 the prisoners would have been found swelling the ranks of those ,turkish forces whom ,napoleon had reason to expect in front4 ,before we take one step in replying to these arguments1 let us cite two parallel cases from history3 they are interesting for themselves1 and they show how other armies1 not ,christian1 have treated the self-same difficulty in practice4 ,the first shall be a leaf taken from the great book of ,pagan experience2 the second from ,mahometan3 and both were cases in which the parties called on to cut the knot had been irritated to madness by the parties lying at their disposal4 #a4 ,the ,pagan ,decision4--,in that ,jewish war of more than three years' duration1 which terminated in the destruction of ,jerusalem1 two cities on the lake of ,gennesaret were besieged by ,vespasian4 ,one of these was ,tiberias3 the other ,tarich4 ,both had been defended with desperation2 and from their peculiar situation upon water1 and amongst profound precipices1 the ,roman battering apparatus had not been found applicable to their walls4 ,consequently the resistance and the loss to the ,romans had been unexampled4 ,at the latter siege ,vespasian was present in person4 ,six thousand five hundred had perished of the enemy4 ,a number of prisoners remained1 amounting to about forty thousand4 ,what was to be done with them8 ,a great council was held1 at which the commander-in-chief presided1 assisted 7as ,napoleon7 by his whole staff4 ,many of the officers were strongly for having the whole put to death3 they used the very arguments of the ,french--'that1 being people now destitute of habitations1 they would infallibly urge any cities which received them into a war3' fighting1 in fact1 henceforward upon a double impulse--viz4 the original one of insurrection1 and a new one of revenge4 ,vespasian was sensible of all this2 and he himself remarked1 that1 if they had any indulgence of flight conceded1 they would assuredly use it against the authors of that indulgence4 ,but still1 as an answer to all objections1 he insisted on the solitary fact1 that he had pledged the ,roman faith for the security of their lives2 'and to offer violence1 after he had given them his right hand1 was what he could not bear to think of4' ,such are the simple words of ,josephus4 ,in the end1 overpowered by his council1 ,vespasian made a sort of compromise4 ,twelve hundred1 as persons who could not have faced the hardships of captivity and travel1 he gave up to the sword4 ,six thousand select young men were transported as laborers into ,greece1 with a view to ,nero's scheme1 then in agitation1 for cutting through the isthmus of ,corinth2 the main body1 amounting to thirty thousand1 were sold for slaves2 and all the rest1 who happened to be subjects of ,agrippa1 as a mark of courtesy to that prince1 were placed at his disposal4 ,now1 in this case1 it will be alleged that perhaps the main feature of ,napoleon's case was not realized1 viz4 the want of provisions4 ,every ,roman soldier carried on his shoulders a load of seventeen days' provisions1 expressly in preparation for such dilemmas2 and ,palestine was then rank with population gathered into towns4 ,this objection will be noticed immediately3 but1 meantime1 let it be remembered that the prisoners personally appeared before their conquerors in far worse circumstances than the garrison of ,jaffa1 except as to the one circumstance 7in which both parties stood on equal ground7 of having had their lives guaranteed4 ,for the prisoners of ,gennesaret were chiefly aliens and fugitives from justice1 who had no national or local interest in the cities which they had tempted or forced into insurrection2 they were clothed with no military character whatever2 in short1 they were pure vagrant incendiaries4 ,and the populous condition of ,palestine availed little towards the execution of ,vespasian's sentence3 nobody in that land would have bought such prisoners2 nor1 if they would1 were there any means available1 in the agitated state of the ,jewish people1 for maintaining their purchase4 ,it would1 therefore1 be necessary to escort them to ,caesarea1 as the nearest ,roman port for shipping them3 thence perhaps to ,alexandria1 in order to benefit by the corn vessels3 and from ,alexandria the voyage to remoter places would be pursued at great cost and labor--all so many objections exactly corresponding to those of ,napoleon1 and yet all overruled by the single consideration of a ,roman 7viz4 a ,pagan7 right hand pledged to the fulfilment of a promise4 ,as to the twelve hundred old and helpless people massacred in cold blood1 as regarded themselves it was a merciful doom1 and one which many of the ,jerusalem captives afterwards eagerly courted4 ,but still it was a shocking case4 ,it was felt to be so by many ,romans themselves3 ,vespasian was overruled in that instance3 and the horror which settled upon the mind of ,titus1 his eldest son1 from that very case amongst others1 made him tender of human life1 and anxiously merciful1 through the great tragedies which were now beginning to unrol themselves4 #b4 ,the ,mahometan ,decision4--,the ,emperor ,charles ,v41 at different periods1 twice invaded the piratical states in the north of ,africa4 ,the last of these invasions1 directed against ,algiers1 failed miserably1 covering the ,emperor with shame1 and strewing both land and sea with the wrecks of his great armament4 ,but six years before1 he had conducted a most splendid and successful expedition against ,tunis1 then occupied by ,heyradin ,barbarossa1 a valiant corsair and a prosperous usurper4 ,barbarossa had an irregular force of fifty thousand men2 the ,emperor had a veteran army1 but not acclimatized1 and not much above one half as numerous4 ,things tended1 therefore1 strongly to an equilibrium4 ,such were the circumstances--such was the position on each side3 ,barbarossa1 with his usual adventurous courage1 was drawing out of ,tunis in order to fight the invader3 precisely at that moment occurred the question of what should be done with the ,christian slaves4 ,a stronger case cannot be imagined3 they were ten thousand fighting men2 and the more horrible it seemed to murder so many defenceless people1 the more dreadfully did the danger strike upon the imagination4 ,it was their number which appalled the conscience of those who speculated on their murder2 but precisely that it was1 when pressed upon the recollection1 which appalled the prudence of their ,moorish masters4 ,barbarossa himself1 familiar with bloody actions1 never hesitated about the proper course3 'massacre without mercy' was his proposal4 ,but his officers thought otherwise3 they were brave men2 'and1' says ,robertson1 'they all approved warmly of his intention to fight4 ,but1 inured as they were to scenes of bloodshed1 the barbarity of his proposal filled them with horror2 and ,barbarossa1 from the dread of irritating them1 consented to spare the lives of the slaves4' ,now1 in this case1 the penalty attached to mercy1 in case it should turn out unhappily for those who so nobly determined to stand the risk1 cannot be more tragically expressed1 than by saying that it did turn out unhappily4 ,we need not doubt that the merciful officers were otherwise rewarded2 but for this world and the successes of this world the ruin was total4 ,barbarossa was defeated in the battle which ensued2 flying pell-mell to ,tunis with the wrecks of his army1 he found these very ten thousand ,christians in possession of the fort and town3 they turned his own artillery upon himself3 and his overthrow was sealed by that one act of mercy--so unwelcome from the very first to his own ,napoleonish temper4 ,thus we see how this very case of ,jaffa had been ,settled by ,pagan and ,mahometan casuists1 where courage and generosity happened to be habitually prevalent4 ,now1 turning back ta the pseudo-,christian army1 let us very briefly review the arguments for them4 ,first1 there were no provisions4 ,but how happened that8 or how is it proved8 ,feeding the prisoners from the #fth to the #ajth inclusively of ,march1 proves that there was no instant want4 ,and how was it1 then1 that ,napoleon had run his calculations so narrowly6 ,the prisoners were just #cc per cent1 on the total ,french army1 as originally detached from ,cairo4 ,some had already perished of that army3 and in a few weeks more1 one half of that army had perished1 or six thousand men1 whose rations were hourly becoming disposable for the prisoners4 ,secondly1 a most important point1 resources must have been found in ,jaffa4 ,but thirdly1 if not1 if ,jaffa were so ill-provisioned1 how had it ever dreamed of standing a siege8 ,and knowing its condition1 as ,napoleon must have done from deserters and otherwise1 how came he to adopt so needless a measure as that of storming the place8 ,three days must have compelled it to surrender upon any terms1 if it could be really true that1 after losing vast numbers of its population in the assault 7for it was the bloodshed of the assault which originally suggested the interference of the aides-de-camp17 ,jaffa was not able to allow half-rations even to a part of its garrison for a few weeks4 ,what was it meant that the whole should have done1 had ,napoleon simply blockaded it8 ,through all these contradictions we see the truth looming as from behind a mist3 it was not because provisions failed that ,napoleon butchered four thousand young men in cold blood2 it was because he wished to signalize his entrance into ,palestine by a sanguinary act1 such as might strike terror far and wide1 resound through ,syria as well as ,egypt1 and paralyze the nerves of his enemies4 ,fourthly1 it is urged that1 if he had turned the prisoners loose1 they would have faced him again in his next battle4 ,how so8 ,prisoners without arms8 ,but then1 perhaps1 they could have retreated upon ,acre1 where it is known that ,djezzar1 the ,turkish pacha1 had a great magazine of arms4 ,that might have been dangerous1 if any such retreat had been open4 ,but surely the ,french army1 itself under orders for ,acre1 could at least have intercepted the ,acre route from the prisoners4 ,no other remained but that through the defiles of ,naplous4 ,in this direction1 however1 there was no want of men4 ,beyond the mountains cavalry only were in use3 and the prisoners had no horses1 nor habits of acting as cavalry4 ,in the defiles it was riflemen who were wanted1 and the prisoners had no rifles2 besides that1 the line of the ,french operations never came near to that route4 ,then1 again1 if provisions were so scarce1 how were the unarmed prisoners to obtain them on the simple allegation that they had fought unsuccessfully against the ,french6 ,but1 finally1 one conclusive argument there is against this damnable atrocity of ,napoleon's1 which1 in all future ,lives of ,napoleon1 one may expect to see-noticed1 viz41 that if the circumstances of ,palestine were such as to forbid the ordinary usages of war1 if 7which we are far from believing7 want of provisions made it indispensable to murder prisoners in cold blood--in that case a ,syrian war became impossible to a man of honor2 and the guilt commences from a higher point than ,jaffa4 ,already at ,cairo1 and in the elder stages of the expedition1 planned in face of such afflicting necessities1 we read the counsels of a murderer2 of one rightly carrying such a style of warfare towards the ancient country of the assassins2 of one not an apostate merely from ,christian humanity1 but from the lowest standard of soldierly honor4 ,he and his friends abuse ,sir ,hudson ,lowe as a jailer4 ,but far better to be a jailer1 and faithful to one's trust1 than to be the cut-throat of unarmed men4 ,one consideration remains1 which we reserve to the end2 because it has been universally overlooked1 and because it is conclusive against ,napoleon1 even on his own hypothesis of an absolute necessity4 ,in ,vespasian's case it does not appear that he had gained anything for himself1 or for his army1 by his promise of safety to the enemy3 he had simply gratified his own feelings by holding out prospects of final escape4 ,but ,napoleon had absolutely seduced the four thousand men from a situation of power1 from vantage-ground1 by his treacherous promise4 ,and when the ,french apologists plead--',if we had dismissed the prisoners we should soon have had to fight the battle over again'--they totally forget the state of the facts3 they had not fought the battle at all3 they had evaded the battle as to these prisoners3 as many enemies as could have faced them de novo1 so many had they bought off from fighting4 ,forty centuries of armed men1 brave and despairing1 and firing from windows1 must have made prodigious havoc3 and this havoc the ,french evaded by a trick1 by a perfidy1 perhaps unexampled in the annals of military men4 ,,ii4 ,piracy4-,it is interesting to trace the revolutions of moral feeling4 ,in the early stages of history we find piracy in high esteem4 ,thucydides tells us that 1 or robbery1 when conducted at sea1 7i4 e4 robbery on non-,grecian people17 was held in the greatest honor by his countrymen in elder ages4 ,and this1 in fact1 is the true station1 this point of feeling for primitive man1 from which we ought to view the robberies and larcenies of savages4 ,captain ,cook1 though a good and often a wise man1 erred in this point4 ,he took a plain ,old ,bailey view of the case2 and very sincerely believed1 7as all sea-captains ever have done17 that a savage must be a bad man1 who would purloin anything that was not his4 ,yet it is evident that the poor child of uncultured nature1 who saw strangers descending1 as it were from the moon1 upon his aboriginal forests and lawns1 must have viewed them under the same angle as the ,greeks of old4 ,they were no part of any system to which he belonged2 and why should he not plunder them8 ,by force if he could3 but1 where that was out of the question1 why should he not take the same credit for an undetected theft that the ,spartan gloried in taking8 ,to be detected was both shame and loss2 but he was certainly entitled to any glory which might seem to settle upon success1 not at all less than the more pretending citizen of ,sparta4 ,besides all which1 amongst us civilized men the rule obtains universally--that the state and duties of peace are to be presumed until war is proclaimed4 ,whereas1 amongst rude nations1 war is understood to be the rule--war1 open or covert1 until suspended by express contract4 ,bellum inter omnes is the natural state of things for all1 except those who view themselves as brothers by natural affinity1 by local neighborhood1 by common descent1 or who make themselves brothers by artificial contracts4 ,captain ,cook1 who overlooked all this1 should have begun by arranging a solemn treaty with the savages amongst whom he meant to reside for any length of time4 ,this would have prevented many an angry broil then1 and since then3 it would also have prevented his own tragical fate4 ,meantime the savage is calumniated and misrepresented1 for want of being understood4 ,there is1 however1 amongst civilized nations a mode of piracy still tolerated1 or which was tolerated in the last war1 but is now ripe for extinction4 ,it is that war of private men upon private men1 which goes on under the name of privateering4 ,great changes have taken place in our modes of thinking within the last twenty-five years2 and the greatest change of all lies in the thoughtful spirit which we now bring to the investigation of all public questions4 ,we have no doubt at all that1 when next a war arises at sea1 the whole system of privateering will be condemned by the public voice4 ,and the next step after that will be1 to explode all war whatsoever1 public or private1 upon commerce4 ,war will be conducted by belligerents and upon belligerents exclusively4 ,to imagine the extinction of war itself1 in the present stage of human advance1 is1 we fear1 idle4 ,higher modes of civilization--an earth more universally colonized--the homo sapiens of ,linnaeus more humanized1 and other improvements must pave the way for that3 but amongst the earliest of those improvements1 will be the abolition of war carried into quarters where the spirit of war never ought to penetrate4 ,privateering will be abolished4 ,war1 on a national scale1 is often ennobling1 and one great instrument of pioneering for civilization2 but war of private citizen upon his fellow1 in another land1 is always demoralizing4 ,,iii4 ,usury4--,this ancient subject of casuistry we place next to piracy1 for a significant reason3 the two practices have both changed their public reputation as civilization has advanced1 but inversely--they have interchanged characters4 ,piracy1 beginning in honor1 has ended in infamy3 and at this moment it happens to be the sole offence against society in which all the accomplices1 without pity or intercession1 let them be ever so numerous1 are punished capitally4 ,elsewhere1 we decimate1 or even centesimate3 here1 we are all children of ,rhadamanthus4 ,usury1 on the other hand1 beginning in utter infamy1 has travelled upwards into considerable esteem2 and ,mr4 '#aj per shent' stands a very fair chance of being pricked for sheriff next year2 and1 in one generation more1 of passing for a great patriot4 ,charles ,lamb complained that1 by gradual changes1 not on his part1 but in the spirit of refinement1 he found himself growing insensibly into 'an indecent character4' ,the same changes which carry some downwards1 carry others up2 and ,shylock himself will soon be viewed as an eminent martyr or confessor for the truth as it is in the ,alley4 ,seriously1 however1 there is nothing more remarkable in the history of casuistical ethics1 than the utter revolution in human estimates of usury4 ,in this one point the ,hebrew legislator agreed with the ,roman--,deuteronomy with the ,twelve ,tables4 ,cicero mentions that the elder ,cato being questioned on various actions1 and how he ranked them in his esteem1 was at length asked1 ,quid fnerari8--how did he rank usury8 ,his indignant answer was1 by a retorted question--,quid hominem occidere8--what do ,i think of murder8 ,in this particular case1 as in some others1 we must allow that our worthy ancestors and forerunners upon this terraqueous planet were enormous blockheads4 ,and their 'exquisite reason' for this opinion on usury1 was quite worthy of ,sir ,andrew ,aguecheek3--'money1' they argued1 'could not breed money3 one guinea was neither father nor mother to another guinea3 and where could be the justice of making a man pay for the use of a thing which that thing could never produce8' ,but1 venerable blockheads1 that argument applies to the case of him who locks up his borrowed guinea4 ,suppose him not to lock it up1 but to buy a hen1 and the hen to lay a dozen eggs2 one of those eggs will be so much per cent42 and the thing borrowed has then produced its own foenus4 ,a still greater inconsistency was this3 ,our ancestors would have rejoined--that many people did not borrow in order to produce1 i4 e4 to use the money as capital1 but in order to spend1 i4 e4 to use it as income4 ,in that case1 at least1 the borrowers must derive the foenus from some other fund than the thing borrowed3 for1 by the supposition1 the thing borrowed has been spent4 ,true2 but on the same principle these ancestors ought to have forbidden every man to sell any article whatsoever to him who paid for it out of other funds than those produced by the article sold4 ,mere logical consistency required this3 it happens1 indeed1 to be impossible3 but that only argues their entire non-comprehension of their own doctrines4 ,the whole history of usury teems with instruction3 #ast1 comes the monstrous absurdity in which the proscription of usury anchored2 #b;d1 the absolute compulsion and pressure of realities in forcing men into a timid abandonment of their own doctrines2 #c;d1 the unconquerable power of sympathy1 which humbled all minds to one level1 and forced the strongest no less than the feeblest intellects into the same infatuation of stupidity4 ,the casuistry of ancient moralists on this question1 especially of the scholastic moralists1 such as ,suarrez1 c4--the oscillations by which they ultimately relaxed and tied up the law1 just as their erring conscience1 or the necessities of social life prevailed1 would compose one of the interesting chapters in this science4 ,but the ,jewish relaxation is the most amusing3 it coincides altogether with the theory of savages as to property1 which we have already noticed under the head of ,piracy4 ,all men on earth1 except ,jews1 were held to be fair subjects for usury2 not as though usury were a just or humane thing3 no--it was a belligerent act3 but then all foreigners in the ,jewish eye were enemies for the same reason that the elder ,romans had a common term for an enemy and a stranger4 ,and it is probable that many ,jews at this day1 in exercising usury1 conceive themselves to be seriously making war1 in a privateering fashion1 upon ,christendom1 and practising reprisals on the ,gentiles for ruined ,jerusalem4 ,,iv4 ,bishop ,gibson's ,chronicon ,preciosum4--,many people are aware that this book is a record of prices1 as far as they were recoverable1 pursued through six centuries of ,english ,history4 ,but they are not aware that this whole inquiry is simply the machinery for determining a casuistical question4 ,the question was this3--,an ,english ,college1 but we cannot say in which of our universities1 had been founded in the reign of ,henry ,,vi41 and between #addj and #adfj--probably it might be ,king's ,college1 ,cambridge4 ,now1 the statutes of this college make it imperative upon every candidate for a fellowship to swear that he does not possess an estate in land of inheritance1 nor a perpetual pension amounting to five pounds per annum1 ,it is certain1 however1 that the founder did not mean superstitiously so much gold or silver as made nominally the sum of five pounds1 but so much as virtually represented the five pounds of ,henry ,,vi4's time--so much as would buy the same quantity of ordinary comfort4 ,upon this1 therefore1 arose two questions for the casuist3 7#a47 ,what sum did substantially represent1 in #agjf1 7the year of publishing the ,chron4 ,preciosum17 that nominal #e of #addj8 7#b47 ,supposing this ascertained1 might a man with safe conscience retain his fellowship by swearing that he had not #e a-year1 when perhaps he had #bj1 provided that #bj were proved to be less in efficacy than the #e of the elder period8 ,verbally this was perjury3 was it such in reality and to the conscience8 ,the ,chronicle is not1 as by its title the reader might suppose1 a large folio3 on the contrary1 it is a small octavo of less than #bjj pages4 ,but it is exceedingly interesting1 very ably reasoned1 and as circumstantial in its illustrations as the good bishop's opportunities allowed him to make it4 ,in one thing he was more liberal than ,sir ,william ,petty1 ,dr4 ,davenant1 c41 or any elder economists of the preceding century2 he would have statistics treated as a classical or scholar-like study2 and he shows a most laudable curiosity in all the questions arising out of his main one4 ,his answer to that is as follows3 #ast1 that #e in ,henry ,,vi4's time contained forty ounces of silver1 whereas in ,queen ,anne's it contained only nineteen ounces and one-third2 so that1 in reality1 the #e of #addj1 was1 even as to weight of silver1 rather more than #aj of #agjf4 #b;d1 as to the efficacy of #aj in ,henry ,,vi4's reign3 upon reviewing the main items of common household 7and therefore of common academic7 expenditure1 and pursuing this review through bad years and good years1 the bishop decides that it is about equal to #be or #cj of ,queen ,anne's reign4 ,sir ,george ,shuckburgh has since treated this casuistical problem more elaborately3 but ,bishop ,gibson it was1 who1 in his ,chronicon ,preciosum1 first broke the ice4 ,after this1 he adds an ingenious question upon the apparently parallel case of a freeholder swearing himself worth #djs4 per annum as a qualification for an electoral vote3 ought not he to hold himself perjured in voting upon an estate often so much below the original #djs4 contemplated by ,parliament1 for the very same reason that a collegian is not perjured in holding a fellowship1 whilst1 in fact1 he may have four or five times the nominal sum privileged by the founder8 ,the bishop says no2 and he distinguishes the case thus3 the college #e must always mean a virtual #e--;a #e in efficacy1 and not merely in name4 ,but the freeholder's #djs4 is not so restricted2 and for the following reason--that this sum is constantly coming under the review of ,parliament4 ,it is clear1 therefore1 from the fact of not having altered it1 that ,parliament is satisfied with a merely nominal #djs41 and sees no reason to alter it4 ,true1 it was a rule enacted by the ,parliament of #adcj2 at which time #djs4 was even in weight of silver equal to #hjs4 of #agjf2 and in virtue or power of purchasing equal to #ab at the least4 ,the qualification of a freeholder is1 therefore1 much lower in ,queen ,anne's days than in those of ,henry ,,vi4 ,but what of that8 ,parliament1 it must be presumed1 sees good reason why it should be lower4 ,and at all events1 till the law operates amiss1 there can be no reason to alter it4 ,a case of the same kind with those argued by ,bishop ,gibson arose often in trials for larceny--we mean as to that enactment which fixed the minimum for a capital offence4 ,this case is noticed by the bishop1 and juries of late years often took the casuistry into their own hands4 ,they were generally thought to act with no more than a proper humanity to the prisoner2 but still people thought such juries incorrect4 ,whereas1 if ,bishop ,gibson is right1 who allows a man to swear positively that he has not #e a-year1 when nominally he has much more1 such juries were even technically right4 ,however1 this point is now altered by ,sir ,robert ,peel's reforms4 ,but there are other cases1 and especially those which arise not between different times but between different places1 which will often require the same kind of casuistry as that which is so ably applied by the good and learned bishop4 ,v4 ,suicide4--,it seems passing strange that the main argument upon which ,pagan moralists relied in their unconditional condemnation of suicide1 viz4 the supposed analogy of our situation in life to that of a sentinel mounting guard1 who cannot1 without a capital offence1 quit his station until called off by his commanding officer1 is dismissed with contempt by a ,christian moralist1 viz4 ,paley4 ,but a stranger thing still is--that the only man who ever wrote a book in palliation of suicide1 should have been not only a ,christian--not only an official minister and dignitary of a metropolitan ,christian church--but also a scrupulously pious man4 ,we allude1 as the reader will suppose1 to ,dr4 ,donne1 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,his opinion is worthy of consideration4 ,not that we would willingly diminish1 by one hair's weight1 the reasons against suicide2 but it is never well to rely upon ignorance or inconsideration for the defence of any principle whatever4 ,donne's notion was1 7a notion1 however1 adopted in his earlier years17 that as we do not instantly pronounce a man a murderer upon hearing that he has killed a fellow-creature1 but1 according to the circumstances of the case1 pronounce his act either murder1 or manslaughter1 or justifiable homicide2 so by parity of reason1 suicide is open to distinctions of the same or corresponding kinds2 that there may be such a thing as self-homicide not less than self-murder--culpable self-homicide --justifiable self-homicide4 ,donne called his ,essay by the ,greek name ,biathanatos1,footnote3 ,this word1 however1 which occurs nowhere that we remember1 except in ,lampridius1 one of the ,augustan historians1 is here applied to ,heliogabalus2 and means1 not the act of suicide1 but a suicidal person4 ,and possibly ,donne1 who was a good scholar1 may so mean it to be understood in his title-page4 ,heliogabalus1 says ,lampridius1 had been told by the ,syrian priests that he should be ,biathanatos1 i4 e4 should commit suicide4 ,he provided1 therefore1 ropes of purple and of gold intertwisted1 that he might hang himself imperatorially4 ,he provided golden swords1 that he might run himself through as became ,caesar4 ,he had poisons inclosed in jewels1 that he might drink his farewell heeltaps1 if drink he must1 in a princely style4 ,other modes of august death he had prepared4 ,unfortunately all were unavailing1 for he was murdered and dragged through the common sewers by ropes1 without either purple or gold in their base composition4 ,the poor fellow has been sadly abused in history2 but1 after all1 he was a mere boy1 and as mad as a ,march hare4 meaning violent death4 ,but a thing equally strange and a blasphemy almost unaccountable1 is the fancy of a ,prussian or ,saxon baron1 who wrote a book to prove that ,christ committed suicide1 for which he had no other argument than that1 in fact1 he had surrendered himself unresistingly into the hands of his enemies1 and had in a manner caused his own death4 ,this1 however1 describes the case of every martyr that ever was or can be4 ,it is the very merit and grandeur of the martyr1 that he proclaims the truth with his eyes open to the consequences of proclaiming it4 ,those consequences are connected with the truth1 but not by a natural link3 the connection is by means of false views1 which it is the very business of the martyr to destroy4 ,and1 if a man founds my death upon an act which my conscience enjoys1 even though ,i am aware and fully warned that he will found my death upon it1 ,i am not1 therefore1 guilty of suicide4 ,for1 by the supposition1 ,i was obliged to the act in question by the highest of all obligations1 viz4 moral obligation1 which far transcends all physical obligation2 so that1 whatever excuse attaches to a physical necessity1 attaches1 a fortiori1 to the moral necessity4 ,the case is1 therefore1 precisely the same as if he had said1--',i will put you to death if the frost benumbs your feet4' ,the answer is--',i cannot help this effect of frost4' ,far less can ,i help revealing a celestial truth4 ,i have no power1 no liberty1 to forbear4 ,and1 in killing me1 he punishes me for a mere necessity of my situation and my knowledge4 ,it is urged that brutes never commit suicide--except1 indeed1 the salamander1 who has been suspected of loose principles in this point2 and we ourselves know a man who constantly affirmed that a horse of his had committed suicide1 by violently throwing himself from the summit of a precipice4 ',but why1'--as we still asked him--'why should the horse have committed felony on himself8 ,were oats rising in the market8--or was he in love8--or vexed by politics8--or could a horse1 and a young one rising four1 be supposed to suffer from taedium vitae8' ,meantime1 as respects the general question of brute suicides1 two points must be regarded1--#ast1 ,that brutes are cut off from the vast world of moral and imaginative sufferings entailed upon man2 #b;dly1 ,that this very immunity presupposes another immunity-- ',a cool suspense from pleasure and from pain1' in the far coarser and less irritable animal organization which must be the basis of an insulated physical sensibility4 ,brutes can neither suffer from intellectual passions1 nor1 probably1 from very complex derangements of the animal system2 so that in them the motives to suicide1 the temptations to suicide1 are prodigiously diminished4 ,nor are they ever alive to 'the sublime attractions of the grave4' ,it is1 however1 a humiliating reflection1 that1 if any brutes can feel such aspirations1 it must be those which are under the care of man4 ,doubtless the happiness of brutes is sometimes extended by man2 but also1 too palpably1 their misery4 ,why suicide is not noticed in the ,new ,testament is a problem yet open to the profound investigator4 ,,vi4 ,duelling4--,no one case1 in the vast volume of casuistry1 is so difficult to treat with justice and reasonable adaptation to the spirit of modern times1 as this of duelling4 ,for1 as to those who reason all upon one side1 and never hearken in good faith to objections or difficulties1 such people convince nobody but those who were already convinced before they began4 ,at present1 7#ahci17 society has for some years been taking a lurch to one side against duelling3 but inevitably a reaction will succeed2 for1 after all1 be it as much opposed as it may to ,christianity1 duelling performs such important functions in society as now constituted--we mean by the sense of instant personal accountability which it diffuses universally amongst gentlemen1 and all who have much sensibility to the point of honor--that1 for one life which it takes away as an occasional sacrifice1 it saves myriads from outrage and affronts--millions from the anxiety attached to inferior bodily strength4 ,however1 it is no part of our present purpose to plead the cause of duelling1 though pleaded it must be1 more fairly than it ever has been1 before any progress will be made in suppressing it4 ,but the point which we wish to notice at present1 is the universal blunder about the ,romans and ,greeks4 ,they1 it is alleged1 fought no duels2 and occasion is thence taken to make very disadvantageous reflections upon us1 the men of this ,christian era1 who1 in defiance of our greater light1 do fight duels4 ,lord ,bacon himself is duped by this enormous blunder1 and founds upon it a long speech in the ,star-,chamber4 ,now1 in the first place1 who does not see that1 if the ,pagans really were enabled by their religion to master their movements of personal anger and hatred1 the inevitable inference will be to the disadvantage of ,christianity4 ,it would be a clear case4 ,christianity and ,paganism have been separately tried as means of self-control2 ,christianity has flagrantly failed2 ,paganism succeeded universally2 not having been found unequal to the task in any one known instance4 ,but this is not so4 ,a profounder error never existed4 ,no religious influence whatever restrained the ,greek or the ,roman from fighting a duel4 ,it was purely a civic influence1 and it was sustained by this remarkable usage--in itself a standing opprobrium to both ,greek and ,roman--viz4 the unlimited license of tongue allowed to anger in the ancient assemblies and senates4 ,this liberty of foul language operated in two ways3 #ast1 ,being universal1 it took away all ground for feeling the words of an antagonist as any personal insult2 so he had rarely a motive for a duel4 #b;dly1 the anger was thus less acute2 yet1 if it were acute1 then this ,billingsgate resource furnished an instantaneous vehicle for expectorating the wrath4 ,look1 for example1 at ,cicero's orations against ,mark ,antony1 or ,catiline1 or against ,piso4 ,this last person was a senator of the very highest rank1 family1 connections2 yet1 in the course of a few pages1 does ,cicero1 a man of letters1 polished to the extreme standard of ,rome1 address him by the elegant appellations of 'filth1' 'mud1' 'carrion1' 7projectum cadaver47 ,how could ,piso have complained8 ,it would have been said-',oh1 there's an end of republican simplicity1 if plain speaking is to be put down4' ,and then it would have been added invidiously--',better men than ever stood in your shoes have borne worse language4 ,will you complain of what was tolerated by ,africanus1 by ,paulus ,aemilius1 by ,marius1 by ,sylla8' ,who could reply to that8 ,and why should ,piso have even wished to call out his foul-mouthed antagonist8 ,on the contrary1 a far more genial revenge awaited him than any sword could have furnished4 ,pass but an hour1 and you will hear ,piso speaking--it will then be his turn--every dog has his day2 and1 though not quite so eloquent as his brilliant enemy1 he is yet eloquent enough for the purposes of revenge--he is eloquent enough to call ,cicero 'filth1' 'mud1' carrion4' ,no3 the reason of our modern duelling lies deeper than is supposed3 it lies in the principle of honor--a direct product of chivalry--as that was in part a product of ,christianity4 ,the sense of honor did not exist in ,pagan times4 ,natural equity1 and the equity of civil laws--those were the two moral forces under which men acted4 ,honor applies to cases where both those forces are silent4 ,and precisely because they had no such sense1 and because their revenge emptied itself by the basest of all channels1 viz4 foul speaking and license of tongue1 was it that the ,greeks and ,romans had no duelling4 ,it was no glory to them that they had not1 but the foulest blot on their moral grandeur4 ,how it was that ,christianity was able1 mediately1 to generate the principle of honor1 is a separate problem4 ,but this is the true solution of that common casuistical question about duelling4 ,,part ,,ii4 --',celebrare domestlca facta4'--,,hor4 ,in a former notice of ,casuistry1 we touched on such cases only as were of public bearings1 or such as 7if private7 were of rare occurrence and of a tragical standard4 ,but ordinary life1 in its most domestic paths1 teems with cases of difficult decision2 or if not always difficult in the decision of the abstract question at issue1 difficult in the accommodation of that decision to immediate practice4 ,a few of these more homely cases1 intermixed with more public ones1 we shall here select and review2 for1 according to a remark in our first paper1 as social economy grows more elaborate1 the demand grows more intense for such circumstantial morality4 ,as man advances1 casuistry advances4 ,principles are the same3 but the abstraction of principles from accidents and circumstances becomes a work of more effort4 ,aristotle1 in his ,nicomachean ,ethics1 has not one case2 ,cicero1 three hundred years after1 has a few2 ,paley1 eighteen hundred years after ,cicero1 has many4 ,there is also something in place as well as in time--in the people as well as the century--which determines the amount of interest in casuistry4 ,we once heard an eminent person delivering it as an opinion1 derived from a good deal of personal experience--that of all ,european nations1 the ,british was that which suffered most from remorse2 and that1 if internal struggles during temptation1 or sufferings of mind after yielding to temptation1 were of a nature to be measured upon a scale1 or could express themselves sensibly to human knowledge1 the annual report from ,great ,britain1 its annual balance-sheet1 by comparison with those from continental ,europe1 would show a large excess4 ,at the time of hearing this remarkable opinion1 we1 the hearers1 were young2 and we had little other ground for assent or dissent1 than such general impressions of national differences as we might happen to have gathered from the several literatures of ,christian nations4 ,these were of a nature to confirm the stranger's verdict2 and it will not be denied that much of national character comes forward in literature3 but these were not sufficient4 ,since then1 we have had occasion to think closely on that question4 ,we have had occasion to review the public records of ,christendom2 and beyond all doubt the public conscience1 the international conscience1 of a people1 is the reverberation of its private conscience4 ,history is but the converging into a focus of what is moving in the domestic life below2 a set of great circles expressing and summing up1 on the dial-plate1 the motions of many little circles in the machinery within4 ,now ,history1 what may be called the ,comparative ,history of ,modern ,europe1 countersigns the traveller's opinion4 ',so1 then1' says a foreigner1 or an ,englishman with foreign sympathies1 'the upshot and amount of this doctrine is1 that ,england is more moral than other nations4' ',well1' we answer1 'and what of that8' ,observe1 however1 that the doctrine went no farther than as to conscientiousness2 the principle out of which comes sorrow for all violation of duty2 out of which comes a high standard of duty4 ,meantime both the 'sorrow' and the 'high standard' are very compatible with a lax performance4 ,but suppose we had gone as far as the objector supposes1 and had ascribed a moral superiority every way to ,england1 what is there in that to shock probability8 ,whether the general probability from analogy1 or the special probability from the circumstances of this particular case8 ,we all know that there is no general improbability in supposing one nation1 or one race1 to outrun another4 ,the modern ,italians have excelled all nations in musical sensibility1 and in genius for painting4 ,they have produced far better music than all the rest of the world put together4 ,and four of their great painters have not been approached hitherto by the painters of any nation4 ,that facial structure1 again1 which is called the ,caucasian1 and which1 through the ancient ,greeks1 has travelled westward to the nations of ,christendom1 and from them 7chiefly ourselves7 has become the ,transatlantic face1 is1 past all disputing1 the finest type of the human countenance divine on this planet4 ,and most other nations1 ,asiatic or ,african1 have hitherto put up with this insult2 except1 indeed1 the ,kalmuck ,tartars1 who are highly indignant at our ,european vanity in this matter2 and some of them1 says ,bergmann1 the ,german traveller1 absolutely howl with rage1 whilst others only laugh hysterically1 at any man's having the insanity to prefer the ,grecian features to the ,kalmuck4 ,again1 amongst the old pagan nations1 the ,romans seem to have had 'the call' for going ahead2 and they fulfilled their destiny in spite of all that the rest of the world could do to prevent them4 ,so that1 far from it being an improbable or unreasonable assumption1 superiority 7of one kind or other7 has been the indefeasible inheritance of this and that nation1 at all periods of history4 ,still less is the notion tenable of any special improbability applying to this particular pretension4 ,for centuries has ,england enjoyed--#ast1 civil liberty2 #b;d1 the ,protestant faith4 ,now in those two advantages are laid the grounds1 the very necessities1 a priori1 of a superior morality4 ,but watch the inconsistency of men3 ask one of these men who dispute this ,english pretension mordicus2 ask him1 or bid an ,austrian serf ask him1 what are the benefits of ,protestantism1 and what the benefits of liberty1 that he should risk anything to obtain either4 ,hear how eloquently he insists upon their beneficial results1 severally and jointly2 and notice that he places foremost among those results a pure morality4 ,is he wrong8 ,no3 the man speaks bare truth4 ,but what brute oblivion he manifests of his own doctrine1 in taxing with arrogance any people for claiming one of those results in esse1 which he himself could see so clearly in posse6 ,talk no more of freedom1 or of a pure religion1 as fountains of a moral pre-eminence1 if those who have possessed them in combination for the longest space of time may not1 without arrogance1 claim the vanward place amongst the nations of ,europe4 ,so far as to the presumptions1 general or special2 so far as to the probabilities1 analogous or direct1 in countenance of this ,british claim4 ,finally1 when we come to the proofs1 from fact and historical experience1 we might appeal to a singular case in the records of our ,exchequer2 viz41 that for much more than a century back1 our ,gazette and other public advertisers1 have acknowledged a series of anonymous remittances from those who1 at some time or other1 had appropriated public money4 ,we understand that no corresponding fact can be cited from foreign records4 ,now1 this is a direct instance of that compunction which our travelled friend insisted on4 ,but we choose rather to throw ourselves upon the general history of ,great ,britain1 upon the spirit of her policy1 domestic or foreign1 and upon the universal principles of her public morality4 ,take the case of public debts1 and the fulfilment of contracts to those who could not have compelled the fulfilment2 we first set this precedent4 ,all nations have now learned that honesty in such cases is eventually the best policy2 but this they learned from our experience1 and not till nearly all of them had tried the other policy4 ,we it was1 who1 under the most trying circumstances of war1 maintained the sanctity from taxation of all foreign investments in our funds4 ,our conduct with regard to slaves1 whether in the case of slavery or of the slave-trade--how prudent it may always have been1 we need not inquire2 as to its moral principles1 they went so far ahead of ,european standards1 that we were neither comprehended nor believed4 ,the perfection of romance was ascribed to us by all who did not reproach us with the perfection of ,jesuitical knavery2 by many our motto was supposed to be no longer the old one of 'divide et impera1' but 'annihila et appropria4' ,finally1 looking back to our dreadful conflicts with the three conquering despots of modern history1 ,philip ,,ii4 of ,spain1 ,louis ,,xiv41 and ,napoleon1 we may incontestably boast of having been single in maintaining the general equities of ,europe by war upon a colossal scale1 and by our councils in the general congresses of ,christendom4 ,such a review would amply justify the traveller's remarkable dictum upon the principle of remorse1 and therefore of conscientiousness1 as existing in greater strength amongst the people of ,great ,britain4 ,in the same proportion we may assume1 in such a people1 a keener sensibility to moral distinctions2 more attention to shades of difference in the modes of action2 more anxiety as to the grounds of action4 ,in the same proportion we may assume a growing and more direct regard to casuistry2 which is precisely the part of ethics that will be continually expanding1 and continually throwing up fresh doubts4 ,not as though a moral principle could ever be doubtful4 ,but that the growing complexity of the circumstances will make it more and more difficult in judgment to detach the principle from the case2 or1 in practice1 to determine the application of the principle to the facts4 ,it will happen1 therefore1 as ,mr4 ,coleridge used to say happened in all cases of importance1 that extremes meet3 for casuistical ethics will be most consulted by two classes the most opposite to each other--by those who seek excuses for evading their duties1 and by those who seek a special fulness of light for fulfilling them4 ,,case ,i4 ,,health4 ,strange it is1 that moral treatises1 when professing to lay open the great edifice of human duties1 and to expose its very foundations1 should not have begun with1 nay1 should not have noticed at all1 those duties which a man owes to himself1 and1 foremost amongst them1 the duty of cultivating his own health4 ,for it is evident1 that1 from mere neglect of that one personal duty1 with the very best intentions possible1 all other duties whatever may become impossible2 for good intentions exist in all stages of efficiency1 from the fugitive impulse to the realizing self-determination4 ,in this life1 the elementary blessing is health4 ,what6 do we presume to place it before peace of mind8 ,far from it2 but we speak of the genesis2 of the succession in which all blessings descend2 not as to time1 but the order of dependency4 ,all morality implies free agency3 it presumes beyond all other conditions an agent who is in perfect possession of his own volitions4 ,now1 it is certain that a man without health is not uniformly master of his own purposes4 ,often he cannot be said either to be in the path of duty or out of it2 so incoherent are the actions of a man forced back continually from the objects of his intellect and choice upon some alien objects dictated by internal wretchedness4 ,it is true that1 by possibility1 some derangements of the human system are not incompatible with happiness3 and a celebrated ,german author of the last century1 ,von ,hardenberg--better known by his assumed name of ,novalis--maintained1 that certain modes of ill health1 or valetudinarianism1 were pre-requisites towards certain modes of intellectual development4 ,but the ill health to which he pointed could not have gone beyond a luxurious indisposition2 nor the corresponding intellectual purposes have been other than narrow1 fleeting1 and anomalous4 ,inflammatory action1 in its earlier stages1 is sometimes connected with voluptuous sensations3 so is the preternatural stimulation of the liver4 ,but these states1 as pleasurable states1 are transitory4 ,all fixed derangements of the health are doubly hostile to the moral energies3 first1 through the intellect1 which they debilitate unconsciously in many ways2 and next1 both consciously and semi-consciously1 through the will4 ,the judgment is1 perhaps1 too clouded to fix upon a right purpose3 the will too enfeebled to pursue it4 ,two general remarks may be applied to all1 interferences of the physical with the moral sanity2 #ast1 ,that it is not so much by absolute deductions of time that ill health operates upon the serviceableness of a man1 as by its lingering effects upon his temper and his animal spirits4 ,many a man has not lost one hour of his life from illness1 whose faculties of usefulness have been most seriously impaired through gloom1 or untuned feelings2 #c;d1 ,that it is not the direct and known risks to our health which act with the most fatal effects1 but the semi-conscious condition1 the atmosphere of circumstances1 with which artificial life surrounds us4 ,the great cities of ,europe1 perhaps ,london beyond all others1 under the modern modes of life and business1 create a vortex of preternatural tumult1 a rush and frenzy of excitement1 which is fatal to far more than are heard of as express victims to that system4 ,the late ,lord ,londonderry's nervous seizure was no solitary or rare case4 ,so much we happen to know4 ,we are well assured by medical men of great ,london practice1 that the case is one of growing frequency4 ,in ,lord ,londonderry it attracted notice for reasons of obvious personal interest1 as well as its tragical catastrophe4 ,but the complaint1 though one of modern growth1 is well known1 and comes forward under a most determinate type as to symptoms1 among the mercantile class4 ,the original predisposition to it1 lies permanently in the condition of ,london life1 especially as it exists for public men4 ,but the immediate existing cause1 which fires the train always ready for explosion1 is invariably some combination of perplexities1 such as are continually gathering into dark clouds over the heads of great merchants2 sometimes only teasing and molesting1 sometimes menacing and alarming4 ,these perplexities are generally moving in counteracting paths3 some progressive1 some retrograde4 ,there lies a man's safety4 ,but at times it will happen that all comes at once2 and then comes a shock such as no brain already predisposed by a ,london life1 is strong enough 7but more truly let us say--coarse enough7 to support4 ,lord ,londonderry's case was precisely of that order3 he had been worried by a long session of ,parliament1 which adds the crowning irritation in the interruption of sleep4 ,the nervous system1 ploughed up by intense wear and tear1 is denied the last resource of natural relief4 ,in this crisis1 already perilous1 a new tempest was called in--of all the most terrific--the tempest of anxiety3 and from what source8 ,anxiety from fear1 is bad3 from hope delayed1 is bad3 but worst of all is anxiety from responsibility1 in cases where disease or weakness makes a man feel that he is unequal to the burden4 ,the diplomatic interests of the country had been repeatedly confided to ,lord ,londonderry3 he had justified that confidence3 he had received affecting testimonies of the honor which belonged to such a situation4 ,but a short time before his fatal seizure1 in passing through ,birmingham at a moment when all the gentlemen of the place were assembled1 he had witnessed the whole assembly--no mob1 but the collective good sense of the place--by one impulse standing bareheaded in his presence1--a tribute of disinterested homage which affected him powerfully1 and which was well understood as offered to his foreign diplomacy4 ,under these circumstances could he bear to transfer or delegate the business of future negotiation8 ,could he suffer to lapse into other hands1 as a derelict1 the consummation of that task which thus far he had so prosperously conducted8 ,was it in human nature to do so8 ,he felt the same hectic of human passion which ,lord ,nelson felt in the very gates of death1 when some act of command was thoughtlessly suggested as belonging to his successor--',not whilst ,i live1 ,hardy2 not whilst ,i live4' ,yet1 in ,lord ,londonderry's case1 it was necessary1 if he would not transfer the trust1 that he should rally his enegies instantly3 for a new ,congress was even then assembling4 ,there was no delay open to him by the nature of the case3 the call was --now1 now1 just as you are1 my lord1 with those shattered nerves and that agitated brain1 take charge of interests the most complex in ,christendom3 to say the truth1 of interests which are those of ,christendom4 ,this struggle1 between a nervous systm too grievously shaken1 and the instant demand for energy seven times intensified1 was too much for any generous nature4 ,a ceremonial embassy might have been fulfilled by shattered nerves2 but not this embassy4 ,anxiety supervening upon nervous derangement was bad2 anxiety through responsibility was worse2 but through a responsibility created by grateful confidence1 it was an appeal through the very pangs of martyrdom4 ,no brain could stand such a siege4 ,lord ,londonderry's gave way2 and he fell with the tears of the generous1 even where they might happen to differ from him in politics4 ,meantime1 this case1 belonging to a class generated by a ,london life1 was in some quarters well understood even then2 now1 it is well known that1 had different remedies been applied1 or had the sufferer been able to stand up under his torture until the cycle of the symptoms had begun to come round1 he might have been saved4 ,the treatment is now well understood2 but even then it was understood by some physicians2 amongst others by that ,dr4 ,willis who had attended ,george ,,iii4 ,in several similar cases overpowering doses had been given of opium1 or of brandy2 and usually a day or two had carried off the oppression of the brain by a tremendous reaction4 ,in ,birmingham and other towns1 where the body of people called ,quakers are accumulated1 different forms of nervous derangement are developed2 the secret principle of which turns not1 as in these ,london cases1 upon feelings too much called out by preternatural stimulation1 but upon feelings too much repelled and driven in4 ,morbid suppression of deep sensibilities must lead to states of disease equally terrific and perhaps even less tractable2 not so sudden and critical perhaps1 but more settled and gloomy4 ,we speak not of any physical sensibilities1 but of those which are purely moral--sensibilities to poetic emotions1 to ambition1 to social gaiety4 ,accordingly it is amongst the young men and women of this body that the most afflicting cases under this type occur4 ,even for children1 however1 the systematic repression of all ebullient feeling1 under the ,quaker discipline1 must be sometimes perilous2 and would be more so1 were it not for that marvellous flexibility with which nature adapts herself to all changes--whether imposed by climate or by situation--by inflictions of ,providence or by human spirit of system4 ,these cases we point to as formidable mementos1 monumenta sacra1 of those sudden catastrophes which either ignorance of what concerns the health1 or neglect in midst of knowledge1 may produce4 ,any mode of life in ,london1 or not in ,london1 which trains the nerves to a state of permanent irritation1 prepares a nidus for disease2 and unhappily not for chronic disease only1 but for disease of that kind which finishes the struggle almost before it is begun4 ,in such a state of habitual training for morbid action1 it may happen--and often has happened--that one and the same week sees the victim apparently well and in his grave4 ,these1 indeed1 are extreme cases3 though still such as threaten many more than they actually strike2 for1 though uncommon1 they grow out of very common habits4 ,but even the ordinary cases of unhealthy action in the system1 are sufficient to account for perhaps three-fourths of all the disquiet and bad temper which disfigure daily life4 ,not one man in every ten is perfectly clear of some disorder1 more or less1 in the digestive system--not one man in fifty enjoys the absolutely normal state of that organ2 and upon that depends the daily cheerfulness1 in the first place1 and through that 7as well as by more direct actions7 the sanity of the judgment4 ,to speak strictly1 not one man in a hundred is perfectly sane even as to his mind4 ,for1 though the greater disturbances of the mind do not take place in more than one man of each thousand1,footnote3 in several nations that has been found to be the average proportion of the insane4 ,but this calculation has never been made to include all the slighter cases4 ,it is not impossible that at some periods the whole human race may have been partially insane4 the slighter shades that settle on the judgment1 which daily bring up thoughts such as a man would gladly banish1 which force him into moods of feeling irritating at the moment1 and wearing to the animal spirits1--these derangements are universal4 ,from the greater alike and the lesser1 no man can free himself but in the proportion of his available knowledge applied to his own animal system1 and of the surrounding circumstances1 as constantly acting on that system4 ,would we1 then1 desire that every man should interrupt his proper studies or pursuits for the sake of studying medicine8 ,not at all3 nor is that requisite4 ,the laws of health are as simple as the elements of arithmetic or geometry4 ,it is required only that a man should open his eyes to perceive the three great forces which support health4 ,they are these3 #a4 ,the blood requires exercise3 #b4 ,the great central organ of the stomach requires adaptation of diet3 #c4 ,the nervous system requires regularity of sleep4 ,in those three functions of sleep1 diet1 exercise1 is contained the whole economy of health4 ,all three of course act and react upon each other3 and all three are wofully deranged by a ,london life--above all1 by a parliamentary life4 ,as to the first point1 it is probable that any torpor1 or even lentor in the blood1 such as scarcely expresses itself sensibly through the pulse1 renders that fluid less able to resist the first actions of disease4 ,as to the second1 a more complex subject1 luckily we benefit not by our own brief experience exclusively2 every man benefits practically by the traditional experience of ages1 which constitutes the culinary experience in every land and every household4 ,the inheritance of knowledge1 which every generation receives1 as to the salubrity of this or that article of diet1 operates continually in preventing dishes from being brought to table4 ,each man's separate experience does something to arm him against the temptation when it is offered2 and again1 the traditional experience far oftener intercepts the temptation4 ,as to the third head1 sleep1 this of all is the most immediately fitted by nature to the relief of the brain and its exquisite machinery of nerves3--it is the function of health most attended to in our navy2 and of all it is the one most painfully ravaged by a ,london life4 ,thus it would appear1 that the three great laws of health1 viz41 motion1 rest1 and temperance1 7by a more adequate expression1 adaptation to the organ17 are1 in a certain gross way1 taught to every man by his personal experience4 ,the difficulty is--as in so many other cases--not for the understanding1 but for the will--not to know1 but to execute4 ,now here steps in ,casuistry with two tremendous suggestions1 sufficient to alarm any thoughtful man1 and rouse him more effectually to the performance of his duty4 ,first1 that under the same law 7whatever that law may be7 which makes suicide a crime1 must the neglect of health be a crime8 ,for thus stand the two accounts3--,by suicide you have cut off a portion unknown from your life3 years it may be1 but possibly only days4 ,by neglect of health you have cut off a portion unknown from your life3 days it may be1 but also by possibility years4 ,so the practical result may be the same in either case2 or1 possibly1 the least is suicide4 ',yes1' you reply1 'the practical results--but not the purpose--not the intention--ergo1 not the crime4' ,certainly not3 in the one case the result arises from absolute predetermination1 with the whole energies of the will2 in the other it arises in spite of your will1 7meaning your choice7--it arises out of human infirmity4 ,but still the difference is as between choosing a crime for its own sake1 and falling into it from strong temptation4 ,secondly1 that in every case of duty unfulfilled1 or duty imperfectly fulfilled1 in consequence of illness1 languor1 decaying spirits1 c41 there is a high probability 7under the age of sixty-five almost a certainty7 that a part of the obstacle is due to self-neglect4 ,no man that lives but loses some of his time from ill health1 or at least from the incipient forms of ill health--bad spirits1 or indisposition to exertion4 ,now1 taking men even as they are1 statistical societies have ascertained that1 from the ages of twenty to sixty-five1 ill health1 such as to interrupt daily labor1 averages from seven days to about fourteen per annum4 ,in the best circumstances of climate1 occupation1 c41 one fifty-second part of the time perishes to the species--in the least favorable1 two such parts4 ,consequently1 in the forty-five years from twenty to sixty-five1 not very far from a year perishes on an average to every man--to some as much more4 ,a considerable part even of this loss is due to neglect or mismanagement of health4 ,but this estimate records only the loss of time in a pecuniary sense2 which loss1 being powerfully restrained by self-interest1 will be the least possible under the circumstances4 ,the loss of energy1 as applied to duties not connected with any self-interest1 will be far more4 ,in so far as that loss emanates from defect of spirits1 or other modes of vital torpor1 such as neglect of health has either caused or promoted1 and care might have prevented1 in so far the omission is charged to our own responsibility4 ,many men fancy that the slight injuries done by each single act of intemperance1 are like the glomeration of moonbeams upon moonbeams--myriads will not amount to a positive value4 ,perhaps they are wrong2 possibly every act--nay1 every separate pulse or throb of intemperate sensation--is numbered in our own after actions2 reproduces itself in some future perplexity2 comes back in some reversionary shape that injures the freedom of action for all men1 and makes good men afflicted4 ,at all events1 it is an undeniable fact1 that many a case of difficulty1 which in apology for ourselves we very truly plead to be insurmountable by our existing energies1 has borrowed its sting from previous acts or omissions of our own2 it might not have been insurmountable1 had we better cherished our physical resources4 ,for instance1 of such a man it is said--he did not assist in repelling an injury from his friend or his native land4 ',true1' says his apologist1 'but you would not require him to do so when he labors under paralysis8' ',no1 certainly2 but1 perhaps1 he might not have labored under paralysis had he uniformly taken care of his health4',footnote3 ,with respect to the management of health1 although it is undoubtedly true that like the 'primal charities1' in the language of ,wordsworth1 in proportion to its importance it shines alike for all1 and is diffused universally--yet not the less1 in every age1 some very obstinate prejudices have prevailed to darken the truth4 ,thus ,dryden authorizes the conceit1 that medicine can never be useful or requisite1 because-- ',god never made his work for man to mend4' ,to mend6 ,no1 glorious ,john1 neither physician nor patient has any such presumptuous fancy2 we take medicine to mend the injuries produced by our own folly4 ,what the medicine mends is not ,god's work1 but our own4 ,the medicine is a plus certainly2 but it is a plus applied to a minus of our own introducing4 ,even in these days of practical knowledge1 errors prevail on the subject of health which are neither trivial nor of narrow operation4 ,universally1 the true theory of digestion1 as partially unfolded in ,dr4 ,wilson ,philip's experiments on rabbits1 is so far mistaken1 and even inverted--that ,lord ,byron1 when seeking a diet of easy digestion1 instead of resorting to animal food broiled and underdone1 which all medical men know to be the most digestible food1 took to a vegetable diet1 which requires a stomach of extra power4 ,the same error is seen in the common notion about the breakfast of ladies in ,elizabeth's days1 as if fit only for ploughmen2 whereas it is our breakfasts of slops which require the powerful organs of digestion4 ,the same error1 again1 is current in the notion that a weak watery diet is fit for a weak person4 ,such a person peculiarly requires solid food4 ,it is also a common mistake to suppose that1 because no absolute illness is caused by daily errors of diet1 these errors are practically cancelled4 ,cowper the poet delivers the very just opinion--that all disorders of a function 7as1 suppose1 the secretion of bile17 sooner or later1 if not corrected1 cease to be functional disorders1 and become organic4 ,let not the reader suspect us of the ,popish doctrine1 that men are to enter hereafter into a separate reckoning for each separate act1 or to stand at all upon their own merits4 ,that reckoning1 we ,protestants believe1 no man could stand2 and that some other resource must be had than any personal merits of the individual4 ,but still we should recollect that this doctrine1 though providing a refuge for past offences1 provides none for such offences as are committed deliberately1 with a prospective view to the benefits of such a refuge4 ,offend we may1 and we must3 but then our offences must come out of mere infirmity--not because we calculate upon a large allowance being made to us1 and say to ourselves1 ',let us take out our allowance4' ,casuistry1 therefore1 justly1 and without infringing any truth of ,christianity1 urges the care of health as the basis of all moral action1 because1 in fact1 of all perfectly voluntary action4 ,every impulse of bad health jars or untunes some string in the fine harp of human volition2 and because a man cannot be a moral being but in the proportion of his free action1 therefore it is clear that no man can be in a high sense moral1 except in so far as through health he commands his bodily powers1 and is not commanded by them4 ,,case ,,ii4 ,,laws ,,of ,,hospitality ,,in ,,collision ,,with ,,civic ,,duties4 ,suppose the case1 that taking shelter from a shower of rain in a stranger's house1 you discover proofs of a connection with smugglers4 ,take this for one pole of such case1 the trivial extreme2 then for the other pole1 the greater extreme1 suppose the case1 that1 being hospitably entertained1 and happening to pass the night in a stranger's house1 you are so unfortunate as to detect unquestionable proofs of some dreadful crime1 say murder1 perpetrated in past times by one of the family4 ,the principle at issue is the same in both cases3 viz41 the command resting upon the conscience to forget private consideration and personal feelings in the presence of any solemn duty2 yet merely the difference of degree1 and not any at all in the kind of duty1 would lead pretty generally to a separate practical decision for the several cases4 ,in the last of the two1 whatever might be the pain to a person's feelings1 he would feel himself to have no discretion or choice left4 ,reveal he must2 not only1 if otherwise revealed1 he must come forward as a witness1 but1 if not revealed1 he must denounce--he must lodge an information1 and that instantly1 else even in law1 without question of morality1 he makes himself a party to the crime--an accomplice after the act4 ,that single consideration would with most men at once cut short all deliberation4 ,and yet even in such a situation1 there is a possible variety of the case that might alter its complexion4 ,if the crime had been committed many years before1 and under circumstances which precluded all fear that the same temptation or the same provocation should arise again1 most reflecting people would think it the better course to leave the criminal to his conscience4 ,often in such denunciations it is certain that human impertinence1 and the spirit which sustains the habit of gossip1 and mere incontinence of secrets1 and vulgar craving for being the author of a sensation1 have far more often led to the publication of the offence1 than any concern for the interests of morality4 ,on the other hand1 with respect to the slighter extreme--viz4 in a case where the offence is entirely created by the law1 with no natural turpitude about it and besides 7which is a strong argument in the case7 enjoying no special facilities of escaping justice--no man in the circumstances supposed would have a reason for hesitating4 ,the laws of hospitality are of everlasting obligation2 they are equally binding on the host and on the guest4 ,coming under a man's roof for one moment1 in the clear character of guest1 creates an absolute sanctity in the consequent relations which connect the parties4 ,that is the popular feeling4 ,the king in the old ballads is always represented as feeling that it would be damnable to make a legal offence out of his own venison which he had eaten as a guest4 ,there is a cleaving pollution1 like that of the ,syrian leprosy1 in the act of abusing your privileges as a guest1 or in any way profiting by your opportunities as a guest to the injury of your confiding host4 ,henry ,,vii4 though a prince1 was no gentleman2 and in the famous case of his dining with ,lord ,oxford1 and saying at his departure1 with reference to an infraction of his recent statute1 ',my ,lord1 ,i thank you for my good cheer1 but my attorney must speak with you2' ,lord ,oxford might have justly retorted1 ',if he does1 then posterity will speak pretty plainly with your ,majesty2' for it was in the character of ,lord ,oxford's guest that he had learned the infraction of his law4 ,meantime1 the general rule1 and the rationale of the rule1 in such cases1 appears to be this3 ,whenever there is1 or can be imagined1 a sanctity in the obligations on one side1 and only a benefit of expediency in the obligations upon the other1 the latter must give way4 ,for the detection of smuggling1 7the particular offence supposed in the case stated17 society has an express and separate machinery maintained4 ,if their activity droops1 that is the business of government4 ,in such a case1 government is entitled to no aid from private citizens2 on the express understanding that no aid must be expected1 has so expensive an establishment been submitted to4 ,each individual refuses to participate in exposure of such offences1 for the same reason that he refuses to keep the street clean even before his own door--he has already paid for having such work discharged by proxy4 ,,case ,,iii4 ,,giving ,,characters ,,to ,,servants ,,who ,,have ,,misconducted ,,themselves4 ,no case so constantly arises to perplex the conscience in private life as this--which1 in principle1 is almost beyond solution4 ,sometimes1 indeed1 the coarse realities of law step in to cut that ,gordian knot which no man can untie2 for it is an actionable offence to give a character wilfully false4 ,that little fact at once exorcises all aerial phantoms of the conscience4 ,true3 but this coarse machinery applies only to those cases in which the servant has been guilty in a way amenable to law4 ,in any case short of that1 no plaintiff would choose to face the risks of an action2 nor could he sustain it2 the defendant would always have a sufficient resource in the vagueness and large latitude allowed to opinion when estimating the qualities of a servant4 ,almost universally1 therefore1 the case comes back to the forum of conscience4 ,now in that forum how stands the pleading8 ,too certainly1 we will suppose1 that the servant has not satisfied your reasonable expectations4 ,this truth you would have no difficulty in declaring2 here1 as much as anywhere else1 you would feel it unworthy of your own integrity to equivocate--you open your writing-desk1 and sit down to tell the mere truth in as few words as possible4 ,but then steps in the consideration1 that to do this without disguise or mitigation1 is oftentimes to sign a warrant for the ruin of a fellow-creature--and that fellow-creature possibly penitent1 in any case thrown upon your mercy4 ,who can stand this8 ,in lower walks of life1 it is true that mistresses often take servants without any certificate of character2 but in higher grades this is notoriously uncommon1 and in great cities dangerous4 ,besides1 the candidate may happen to be a delicate girl1 incapable of the hard labor incident to such a lower establishment4 ,here1 then1 is a case where conscience says into your left ear--,fiat justitia1 ruat caelum--',do your duty without looking to consequences4' ,meantime1 into the right ear conscience says1 ',but mark1 in that case possibly you consign this poor girl to prostitution4' ,lord ,nelson1 as is well known1 was once placed in a dilemma equally trying2,footnote3 ,on the first expedition against ,copenhagen1 7in #ahja47 ,he was unfortunately second in command2 his principal1 a brave man in person1 wanted moral courage--he could not face responsibility in a trying shape4 ,and had he not been blessed with a disobedient second in command1 he must have returned home re infecta4 on one side1 an iron tongue sang out from the commander-in-chief--retreat2 on the other1 his own oracular heart sang to him--advance4 ,how he decided is well known2 and the words in which he proclaimed his decision ought to be emblazoned for ever as the noblest of all recorded repartees4 ,waiving his hand towards the ,admiral's ship1 he said to his own officers1 who reported the signal of recall--',you may see it2 ,i cannot2 you know ,i am blind on that side4' ,oh1 venerable blindness6 immortal blindness6 ,none so deaf as those who will not hear2 none so gloriously blind as those who will not see any danger or difficulty--who have a dark eye on that side1 whilst they reserve another blazing like a meteor for honor and their country's interest4 ,most of us1 we presume1 in the case stated about the servant1 hear but the whispering voice of conscience as regards the truth1 and her thundering voice as regards the poor girl's interest4 ,in doing this1 however1 we 7and doubtless others7 usually attempt to compromise the opposite suggestions of conscience by some such jesuitical device as this4 ,we dwell pointedly upon those good qualities which the servant really possesses1 and evade speaking of any others4 ,but how1 if minute1 searching and circumstantial inquiries are made by way of letter8 ,in that case1 we affect to have noticed only such as we can answer with success1 passing the dangerous ones as so many rocks1 sub silentio4 ,all this is not quite right1 you think1 reader4 ,why1 no2 so think we2 but what alternative is allowed8 ',say1 ye severest1 what would ye have done8' ,in very truth1 this is a dilemma for which ,casuistry is not a match2 unless1 indeed1 ,casuistry as armed and equipped in the school of ,ignatius ,loyola4 ,but that is with us reputed a piratical ,casuistry4 ,the whole estate of a servant lies in his capacity of serving2 and often if you tell the truth1 by one word you ruin this estate for ever4 ,meantime1 a case very much of the same quality1 and of even greater difficulty1 is ,,case ,,iv4 ,,criminal ,,prosecution ,,of ,,fraudulent ,,servants4 ,any reader1 who is not deeply read in the economy of ,english life1 will have a most inadequate notion of the vast extent to which this case occurs4 ,we are well assured1 7for our information comes from quarters judicially conversant with the question17 that in no other channel of human life does there flow one-hundredth part of the forbearance and the lenity which are called into action by the relation between injured masters and their servants4 ,we are informed that1 were every third charge pursued effectually1 half the courts in ,europe would not suffice for the cases of criminality which emerge in ,london alone under this head4 ,all ,england would1 in the course of five revolving years1 have passed under the torture of subpoena1 as witnesses for the prosecution or the defence4 ,this multiplication of cases arises from the coincidence of hourly opportunity with hourly temptation1 both carried to the extreme verge of possibility1 and generally falling in with youth in the offenders4 ,these aggravations of the danger are three several palliations of the crime1 and they have weight allowed to them by the indulgent feelings of masters in a corresponding degree2 not one case out of six score that are discovered 7while1 perhaps1 another six score go undiscovered7 being ever prosecuted with rigor and effect4 ,in this universal laxity of temper lies an injury too serious to public morals2 and the crime reproduces itself abundantly under an indulgence so ,christian in its motive1 but unfortunately operating with the full effect of genial culture4 ,masters1 who have made themselves notorious by indiscriminate forgiveness1 might be represented symbolically as gardeners watering and tending luxuriant crops of crime in hot-beds or forcing-houses4 ,in ,london1 many are the tradesmen1 who1 being reflective as well as benevolent1 perceive that something is amiss in the whole system4 ,in part the law has been to blame1 stimulating false mercy by punishment disproportioned to the offence4 ,but many a judicious master has seen cause to suspect his own lenity as more mischievously operative even than the law's hardness1 and as an effeminate surrender to luxurious sensibilities4 ,those have not been the severest masters whose names are attached to fatal prosecutions3 on the contrary1 three out of four have been persons who looked forward to general consequences--having1 therefore1 been more than usually thoughtful1 were1 for that reason1 likely to be more than usually humane4 ,they did not suffer the less acutely1 because their feelings ran counter to the course of what they believed to be their duty4 ,prosecutors often sleep with less tranquillity during the progress of a judicial proceeding than the objects of the prosecution4 ,an ,english judge of the last century1 celebrated for his uprightness1 used to balance against that pity so much vaunted for the criminal1 the duty of 'a pity to the country4' ,but private prosecutors of their own servants1 often feel both modes of pity at the same moment4 ,for this difficulty a book of ,casuistry might suggest a variety of resources1 not so much adapted to a case of that nature already existing1 as to the prevention of future cases4 ,every mode of trust or delegated duty would suggest its own separate improvements2 but all improvements must fall under two genuine heads--first1 the diminution of temptation1 either by abridging the amount of trust reposed2 or1 where that is difficult1 by shortening its duration1 and multiplying the counterchecks3 secondly1 by the moderation of the punishment in the event of detection1 as the sole means of reconciling the public conscience to the law1 and diminishing the chances of impunity4 ,there is a memorable proof of the rash extent to which the ,london tradesmen1 at one time1 carried their confidence in servants4 ,so many clerks1 or apprentices1 were allowed to hold large balances of money in their hands through the intervals of their periodical settlings1 that during the ,parliamentary war multitudes were tempted1 by that single cause1 into absconding4 ,they had always a refuge in the camps4 ,and the loss sustained in this way was so heavy1 when all payments were made in gold1 that to this one evil suddenly assuming a shape of excess1 is ascribed1 by some writers1 the first establishment of goldsmiths as bankers4,footnote3 ,goldsmiths certainly acted in that capacity from an earlier period4 ,but from this era1 until the formation of the ,bank of ,england in #afif1 they entered more fully upon the functions of bankers1 issuing notes which passed current in ,london4 ,two other weighty considerations attach to this head--#a4 ,the known fact that large breaches of trust1 and embezzlements1 are greatly on the increase1 and have been since the memorable case of ,mr4 ,fauntleroy4 ,america is1 and will be for ages1 a city of refuge for this form of guilt4 #b4 ,that the great training of the conscience in all which regards pecuniary justice and fidelity to engagements1 lies through the discipline and tyrocinium of the humbler ministerial offices--those of clerks1 book-keepers1 apprentices4 ,the law acts through these offices1 for the unconfirmed conscience1 as leading-strings to an infant in its earliest efforts at walking4 ,it forces to go right1 until the choice may be supposed trained and fully developed4 ,that is the great function of the law2 a function which it will perform with more or less success1 as it is more or less fitted to win the cordial support of masters4 ,,case ,v4 ,,veracity4 ,here is a special 'title1' 7to speak with the civil lawyers17 under that general claim put in for ,england with respect to a moral pre-eminence amongst the nations4 ,many are they who1 in regions widely apart1 have noticed with honor the ,english superiority in the article of veneration for truth4 ,not many years ago1 two ,englishmen1 on their road overland to ,india1 fell in with a royal cortege1 and soon after with the prime minister and the crown prince of ,persia4 ,the prince honored them with an interview2 both parties being on horseback1 and the conversation therefore reduced to the points of nearest interest4 ,amongst these was the ,english character4 ,upon this the prince's remark was--that what had most impressed him with respect for ,england and her institutions was1 the remarkable spirit of truth-speaking which distinguished her sons2 as supposing her institutions to grow out of her sons1 and her sons out of her institutions4 ,and indeed well he might have this feeling by comparison with his own countrymen3 ,persians have no principles apparently on this point--all is impulse and accident of feeling4 ,thus the journal of the two ,persian princes in ,london1 as lately reported in the newspapers1 is one tissue of falsehoods3 not1 most undoubtedly1 from any purpose of deceiving1 but from the overmastering habit 7cherished by their whole training and experience7 of repeating everything in a spirit of amplification1 with a view to the wonder only of the hearer4 ,the ,persians are notoriously the ,frenchmen of the ,east2 the same gaiety1 the same levity1 the same want of depth both as to feeling and principle4 ,the ,turks are much nearer to the ,english3 the same gravity of temperament1 the same meditativeness1 the same sternness of principle4 ,of all ,european nations1 the ,french is that which least regards truth4 ,the whole spirit of their private memoirs and their anecdotes illustrates this4 ,to point an anecdote or a repartee1 there is no extravagance of falsehood that the ,french will not endure4 ,what nation but the ,french would have tolerated that monstrous fiction about ,la ,fontaine1 by way of illustrating his supposed absence of mind--viz4 that1 on meeting his own son in a friend's house1 he expressed his admiration of the young man1 and begged to know his name4 ,the fact probably may have been that ,la ,fontaine was not liable to any absence at all3 apparently this 'distraction' was assumed as a means of making a poor sort of sport for his friends4 ,like many another man in such circumstances1 he saw and entered into the fun which his own imaginary forgetfulness produced4 ,but were it otherwise1 who can believe so outrageous a self-forgetfulness as that which would darken his eyes to the very pictures of his own hearth8 ,were such a thing possible1 were it even real1 it would still be liable to the just objection of the critics--that1 being marvelous in appearance1 even as a fact it ought not to be brought forward for any purpose of wit1 but only as a truth of physiology1 or as a fact in the records of a surgeon4 ,the 'incredulus odi' is too strong in such cases1 and it adheres to three out of every four ,french anecdotes4 ,the ,french taste is1 indeed1 anything but good in all that department of wit and humor4 ,and the ground lies in their national want of veracity4 ,to return to ,england--and having cited an ,oriental witness to the ,english character on this point1 let us now cite a most observing one in the ,west4 ,kant1 in ,konigsberg1 was surrounded by ,englishmen and by foreigners of all nations--foreign and ,english students1 foreign and ,english merchants2 and he pronounced the main characteristic feature of the ,english as a nation to lie in their severe reverence for truth4 ,this from him was no slight praise2 for such was the stress he laid upon veracity1 that upon this one quality he planted the whole edifice of moral excellence4 ,general integrity could not exist1 he held1 without veracity as its basis2 nor that basis exist without superinducing general integrity4 ,this opinion1 perhaps1 many beside ,kant will see cause to approve4 ,for ourselves we can truly say--never did we know a human being1 boy or girl1 who began life as an habitual undervaluer of truth1 that did not afterwards exhibit a character conformable to that beginning--such a character as1 however superficially correct under the steadying hand of self-interest1 was not in a lower key of moral feeling as well as of principle4 ,but out of this honorable regard to veracity in ,immanuel ,kant1 branched out a principle in ,casuistry which most people will pronounce monstrous4 ,it has occasioned much disputing backwards and forwards4 ,but as a practical principle of conduct1 7for which ,kant meant it17 inevitably it must be rejected--if for no other reason because it is at open war with the laws and jurisprudence of all ,christian ,europe4 ,kant's doctrine was this2 and the illustrative case in which it is involved1 let it be remembered1 is his own3--,so sacred a thing1 said he1 is truth--that if a murderer1 pursuing another with an avowed purpose of killing him1 were to ask of a third person by what road the fleeing party had fled1 that person is bound to give him true information4 ,and you are at liberty to suppose this third person a wife1 a daughter1 or under any conceivable obligations of love and duty to the fugitive4 ,now this is monstrous3 and ,kant himself1 with all his parental fondness for the doctrine1 would certainly have been recalled to sounder thoughts by these two considerations-- #ast4 ,that by all the codes of law received throughout ,europe1 he who acted upon ,kant's principle would be held a particeps criminis--an accomplice before the fact4 #b;d4 ,that1 in reality1 a just principle is lurking under ,kant's error2 but a principle translated from its proper ground4 ,not truth1 individual or personal--not truth of mere facts1 but truth doctrinal--the truth which teaches1 the truth which changes men and nations--this is the truth concerned in ,kant's meaning1 had he explained his own meaning to himself more distinctly4 ,with respect to that truth1 wheresoever it lies1 ,kant's doctrine applies--that all men have a right to it2 that perhaps you have no right to suppose of any race or nation that it is not prepared to receive it2 and1 at any rate1 that no circumstances of expedience can justify you in keeping it back4 ,,case ,,vi4 ,,the ,,case ,,of ,,charles ,i4 ,many cases arise from the life and political difficulties of ,charles ,i4 ,but there is one so peculiarly pertinent to an essay which entertains the general question of ,casuistry--its legitimacy1 its value--that with this1 although not properly a domestic case1 or only such in a mixed sense1 we shall conclude4 ,no person has been so much attacked for his scruples of conscience as this prince2 and what seems odd enough1 no person has been so much attacked for resorting to books of ,casuistry1 and for encouraging literary men to write books of ,casuistry4 ,under his suggestion and sanction1 ,saunderson wrote his book on the obligation of an oath1 7for which there was surely reason enough in days when the democratic tribunals were forcing men to swear to an et caetera27 and1 by an impulse originally derived from him1 ,jeremy ,taylor wrote afterwards his ,ductor ,dubitantium1 ,bishop ,barlow wrote his ,cases of ,conscience1 c4 c4 ,for this dedication of his studies1 ,charles has been plentifully blamed in after times4 ,he was seeking evasions for plain duties1 say his enemies4 ,he was arming himself for intrigue in the school of ,machiavel4 ,but now turn to his history1 and ask in what way any man could have extricated himself from that labyrinth which invested his path but by ,casuistry4 ,cases the most difficult are offered for his decision3 peace for a distracted nation in #afdg1 on terms which seemed fatal to the monarchy2 peace for the same nation under the prospect of war rising up again during the ,isle of ,wight treaty in #afdh1 but also under the certainty of destroying the ,church of ,england4 ,on the one side1 by refusing1 he seemed to disown his duties as the father of his people4 ,on the other side1 by yielding1 he seemed to forget his coronation oath1 and the ultimate interests of his people--to merge the future and the reversionary in the present and the fugitive4 ,it was not within the possibilities that he could so act as not to offend one half of the nation4 ,his dire calamity it was1 that he must be hated1 act how he would1 and must be condemned by posterity4 ,did his enemies allow for the misery of this internal conflict8 ,milton1 who never appears to more disadvantage than when he comes forward against his sovereign1 is indignant that ,charles should have a conscience1 or plead a conscience1 in a public matter4 ,henderson1 the celebrated ,scotch theologian1 came post from ,edinburgh to ,london 7whence he went to ,newcastle7 expressly to combat the king's scruples4 ,and he also 7in his private letters7 seems equally enraged as ,milton1 that ,charles should pretend to any private conscience in a state question4 ,now let us ask--what was it that originally drove ,charles to books of ,casuistry8 ,it was the deep shock which he received1 both in his affections and his conscience1 from the death of ,lord ,strafford4 ,every body had then told him1 even those who felt how much the law must be outraged to obtain a conviction of ,lord ,strafford1 how many principles of justice must be shaken1 and how sadly the royal word must suffer in its sanctity1--yet all had told him that it was expedient to sacrifice that nobleman4 ,one man ought not to stand between the king and his alienated people4 ,it was good for the common welfare that ,lord ,strafford should die4 ,charles was unconvinced4 ,he was sure of the injustice2 and perhaps he doubted even of the expedience4 ,but his very virtues were armed against his peace4 ,in all parts of his life self-distrust and diffidence had marked his character4 ,what was he1 a single person1 to resist so many wise counsellors1 and what in a representative sense was the nation ranged on the other side8 ,he yielded3 and it is not too much to say that he never had a happy day afterwards4 ,the stirring period of his life succeeded--the period of war1 camps1 treaties4 ,much time was not allowed him for meditation4 ,but there is abundant proof that such time as he had1 always pointed his thoughts backwards to the afflicting case of ,lord ,stratford4 ,this he often spoke of as the great blot--the ineffaceable transgression of his life4 ,for this he mourned in penitential words yet on record4 ,to this he traced back the calamity of his latter life4 ,lord ,stratford's memorable words--',put not your trust in princes1 nor in the sons of princes1'--rang for ever in his ear4 ,lord ,stafford's blood lay like a curse upon his throne4 ,now1 by what a pointed answer1 drawn from this one case1 might ,charles have replied to the enemies we have noticed--to those1 like so many historians since his day1 who taxed him with studying ,casuistry for the purposes of intrigue--to those1 like ,milton and ,henderson1 who taxed him with exercising his private conscience on public questions4 ',i had studied no books of ,casuistry1' he might have replied1 'when ,i made the sole capital blunder in a case of conscience1 which the review of my life can show4 ',i did not insist on my private conscience2 woe is me that ,i did not3 ,i yielded to what was called the public conscience in that one case which has proved the affliction of my life1 and which1 perhaps1 it was that wrecked the national peace4' ,a more plenary answer there cannot be to those who suppose that ,casuistry is evaded by evading books of ,casuistry4 ,that dread forum of conscience will for ever exist as a tribunal of difficulty4 ,the discussion must proceed on some principle or other1 good or bad2 and the only way for obtaining light is by clearing up the grounds of action1 and applying the principles of moral judgment to such facts or circumstances as most frequently arise to perplex the understanding1 or the affections1 or the conscience4 ,,greece ,,under ,,the ,,romans4,footnote3 ,by ,george ,finlae #ahdd4 ,what is called ,philosophical ,history we believe to be yet in its infancy4 ,it is the profound remark of ,mr4 ,finlay--profound as we ourselves understand it1 i4 e41 in relation to this philosophical treatment1 ',that history will ever remain inexhaustible4' ,how inexhaustible8 ,are the facts of history inexhaustible8 ,in regard to the ancient division of history with which he is there dealing1 this would be in no sense true2 and in any case it would be a lifeless truth4 ,so entirely have the mere facts of ,pagan history been disinterred1 ransacked1 sifted1 that except by means of some chance medal that may be unearthed in the illiterate ,east 7as of late towards ,bokhara71 or by means of some mysterious inscription1 such as those which still mock the learned traveller in ,persia1 northwards near ,hamadan 7,ecbatana71 and southwards at ,persepolis1 or those which distract him amongst the shadowy ruins of ,yucatan 7,uxmal1 suppose1 and ,palenque71--once for all1 barring these pure godsends1 it is hardly 'in the dice' that any downright novelty of fact should remain in reversion for this nineteenth century4 ,the merest possibility exists1 that in ,armenia1 or in a ,graeco-,russian monastery on ,mount ,athos1 or in ,pompeii1 c41 some authors hitherto may yet be concealed2 and by a channel in that degree improbable1 it is possible that certain new facts of history may still reach us4 ,but else1 and failing these cryptical or subterraneous currents of communication1 for us the record is closed4 ,history in that sense has come to an end1 and sealed up as by the angel in the ,apocalypse4 ,what then8 ,the facts so understood are but the dry bones of the mighty past4 ,and the question arises here also1 not less than in that sublimest of prophetic visions1 ',can these dry bones live8'4 ,not only can they live1 but by an infinite variety of life4 ,the same historic facts1 viewed in different lights1 or brought into connection with other facts1 according to endless diversities of permutation and combination1 furnish grounds for such eternal successions of new speculations as make the facts themselves virtually new4 ,the same ,hebrew words are read by different sets of vowel points1 and the same hieroglyphics are deciphered by keys everlastingly varied4 ,to us we repeat that oftentimes it seems as though the science of history were yet scarcely founded4 ,there will be such a science1 if at present there is not2 and in one feature of its capacities it will resemble chemistry4 ,what is so familiar to the perceptions of man as the common chemical agents of water1 air1 and the soil on which we tread8 ,yet each one of these elements is a mystery to this day2 handled1 used1 tried1 searched experimentally1 in ten thousand ways--it is still unknown2 fathomed by recent science down to a certain depth1 it is still probably by its destiny unfathomable4 ,even to the end of days1 it is pretty certain that the minutest particle of earth--that a dew-drop scarcely distinguishable as a separate object--that the slenderest filament of a plant will include within itself secrets inaccessible to man4 ,and yet1 compared with the mystery of man himself1 these physical worlds of mystery are but as a radix of infinity4 ,chemistry is in this view mysterious and spinosistically sublime--that it is the science of the latent in all things1 of all things as lurking in all4 ,within the lifeless flint1 within the silent pyrites1 slumbers an agony of potential combustion4 ,iron is imprisoned in blood4 ,with cold water 7as every child is now-a-days aware7 you may lash a fluid into angry ebullitions of heat2 with hot water1 as with the rod of ,amram's son1 you may freeze a fluid down to the temperature of the ,sarsar wind1 provided only that you regulate the pressure of the air4 ,the sultry and dissolving fluid shall bake into a solid1 the petrific fluid shall melt into a liquid4 ,heat shall freeze1 frost shall thaw2 and wherefore8 ,simply because old things are brought together in new modes of combination4 ,and in endless instances beside we see the same ,panlike latency of forms and powers1 which gives to the external world a capacity of self-transformation1 and of polymorphosis absolutely inexhaustible4 ,but the same capacity belongs to the facts of history4 ,and we do not mean merely that1 from subjective differences in the minds reviewing them1 such facts assume endless varieties of interpretation and estimate1 but that objectively1 from lights still increasing in the science of government and of social philosophy1 all the primary facts of history become liable continually to new theories1 to new combinations1 and to new valuations of their moral relations4 ,we have seen some kinds of marble1 where the veinings happened to be unusually multiplied1 in which human faces1 figures1 processions1 or fragments of natural scenery seemed absolutely illimitable1 under the endless variations or inversions of the order1 according to which they might be combined and grouped4 ,something analogous takes effect in reviewing the remote parts of history4 ,rome1 for instance1 has been the object of historic pens for twenty centuries 7dating from ,polybius72 and yet hardly so much as twenty years have elapsed since ,niebuhr opened upon us almost a new revelation1 by re-combining the same eternal facts1 according to a different set of principles4 ,the same thing may be said1 though not with the same degree of emphasis1 upon the ,grecian researches of the late ,ottfried ,mueller4 ,egyptian history again1 even at this moment1 is seen stealing upon us through the dusky twilight in its first distinct lineaments4 ,before ,young1 ,champollion1 and the others who have followed on their traces in this field of history1 all was outer darkness2 and whatsoever we do know or shall know of ,egyptian ,thebes will now be recovered as if from the unswathing of a mummy4 ,not until a flight of three thousand years has left ,thebes the ,hekatompylos a dusky speck in the far distance1 have we even begun to read her annals1 or to understand her revolutions4 ,another instance we have now before us of this new historic faculty for resuscitating the buried1 and for calling back the breath to the frozen features of death1 in ,mr4 ,finlay's work upon the ,greeks as related to the ,roman empire4 ,he presents us with old facts1 but under the purpose of clothing them with a new life4 ,he rehearses ancient stories1 not with the humble ambition of better adorning them1 of more perspicuously narrating1 or even of more forcibly pointing their moral1 but of extracting from them some new meaning1 and thus forcing them to arrange themselves1 under some latent connection1 with other phenomena now first detected1 as illustrations of some great principle or agency now first revealing its importance4 ,mr4 ,finlay's style of intellect is appropriate to such a task2 for it is subtle and ,machiavellian4 ,but there is this difficulty in doing justice to the novelty1 and at times we may say with truth to the profundity of his views1 that they are by necessity thrown out in continued successions of details1 are insulated1 and1 in one word1 sporadic4 ,this follows from the very nature of his work2 for it is a perpetual commentary on the incidents of ,grecian history1 from the era of the ,roman conquest to the commencement of what ,mr4 ,finlay1 in a peculiar sense1 calls the ,byzantine empire4 ,these incidents have nowhere been systematically or continuously recorded2 they come forward by casual flashes in the annals1 perhaps1 of some church historian1 as they happen to connect themselves with his momentary theme2 or they betray themselves in the embarrassments of the central government1 whether at ,rome or at ,constantinople1 when arguing at one time a pestilence1 at another an insurrection1 or an inroad of barbarians4 ,it is not the fault of ,mr4 ,finlay1 but his great disadvantage1 that the affairs of ,greece have been thus discontinuously exhibited1 and that its internal changes of condition have been never treated except obliquely1 and by men aliud agentibus4 ,the ,grecian race had a primary importance on our planet2 but the ,grecian name1 represented by ,greece considered as a territory1 or as the original seat of the ,hellenic people1 ceased to have much importance1 in the eyes of historians1 from the time when it became a conquered province2 and it declined into absolute insignificance after the conquest of so many other provinces had degraded ,hellas into an arithmetical unit1 standing amongst a total amount of figures1 so vast and so much more dazzling to the ordinary mind4 ,hence it was that in ancient times no complete history of ,greece1 through all her phases and stages1 was ever attempted4 ,the greatness of her later revolutions1 simply as changes1 would have attracted the historian2 but1 as changes associated with calamity and loss of power1 they repelled his curiosity1 and alienated his interest4 ,it is the very necessity1 therefore1 of ,mr4 ,finlay's position1 when coming into such an inheritance1 that he must splinter his philosophy into separate individual notices2 for the records of history furnish no grounds for more4 ,spartam1 quam nactus est1 ornavit4 ,but this does not remedy the difficulty for ourselves1 in attempting to give a representative view of his philosophy4 ,general abstractions he had no opportunity for presenting2 consequently we have no opportunity for valuing2 and1 on the other hand1 single cases selected from a succession of hundreds would not justify any representative criticism1 more than the single brick1 in the anecdote of ,hierocles1 would serve representatively to describe or to appraise the house4 ,under this difficulty as to the possible for ourselves1 and the just for ,mr4 ,finlay1 we shall adopt the following course4 ,so far as the ,greek people collected themselves in any splendid manner with the ,roman empire1 they did so with the eastern horn of that empire1 and in point of time from the foundation of ,constantinople as an eastern ,rome1 in the fourth century1 to a period not fully agreed on2 but for the moment we will say with ,mr4 ,finlay1 up to the early part of the eighth century4 ,a reason given by ,mr4 ,finlay for this latter date is--that about that time the ,grecian blood1 so widely diffused in ,asia1 and even in ,africa1 became finally detached by the progress of ,mahometanism and ,mahometan systems of power from all further concurrence or coalition with the views of the ,byzantine ,caesar4 ,constantinople was from that date thrown back more upon its own peculiar heritage and jurisdiction1 of which the main resources for war and peace lay in ,europe and 7speaking by the narrowest terms7 in ,thrace4 ,henceforth1 therefore1 for the city and throne of ,constantine1 resuming its old ,grecian name of ,byzantium1 there succeeded a theatre less diffusive1 a population more concentrated1 a character of action more determinate and jealous1 a style of courtly ceremonial more elaborate as well as more haughtily repulsive1 and universally a system of interests1 as much more definite and selfish1 as might naturally be looked for in a nation now everywhere surrounded by new thrones gloomy with malice1 and swelling with the consciousness of youthful power4 ,this new and final state of the eastern ,rome ,mr4 ,finlay denominates the ,byzantine empire4 ,possibly this use of the term may be capable of justification3 but more questions would arise in the discussion than ,mr4 ,finlay has thought it of importance to notice4 ,and for the present we shall take the word ,byzantine in its most ordinary acceptation1 as denoting the local empire founded by ,constantine in ,byzantium early in the fourth century1 under the idea of a translation from the old western ,rome1 and overthrown by the ,ottoman ,turks in the year #adec4 ,in the fortunes and main stages of this empire1 what are the chief arresting phenomena1 aspects1 or relations1 to the greatest of modern interests8 ,we select by preference these3 ,i4 ,first1 this was the earliest among the kingdoms of our planet which connected itself with ,christianity4 ,in ,armenia1 there had been a previous state recognition of ,christianity4 ,but that was neither splendid nor distinct4 ,whereas the ,byzantine ,rome built avowedly upon ,christianity as its own basis1 and consecrated its own nativity by the sublime act of founding the first provision ever attempted for the poor1 considered simply as poor 7i4e4 as objects of pity1 not as instruments of ambition74 ,,ii4 ,secondly1 as the great aegis of western ,christendom1 nay1 the barrier which made it possible that any ,christendom should ever exist1 this ,byzantine empire is entitled to a very different station in the enlightened gratitude of us ,western ,europeans from any which it has yet held4 ,we do not scruple to say--that1 by comparison with the services of the ,byzantine people to ,europe1 no nation on record has ever stood in the same relation to any other single nation1 much less to a whole family of nations1 whether as regards the opportunity and means of conferring benefits1 or as regards the astonishing perseverance in supporting the succession of these benefits1 or as regards the ultimate event of these benefits4 ,a great wrong has been done for ages2 for we have all been accustomed to speak of the ,byzantine empire with scorn1 ,footnote3 ',with scorn4'--,this has arisen from two causes3 one is the habit of regarding the whole ,roman empire as in its 'decline' from so early a period as that of ,commodus2 agreeably to which conceit1 it would naturally follow that1 during its latter stages1 the ,eastern empire must have been absolutely in its dotage4 ,if already declining in the second century1 then1 from the tenth to the fifteenth1 it must have been paralytic and bed-ridden ,the other cause may be found in the accidental but reasonable hostility of the ,byzantine court to the first ,crusaders1 as also in the disadvantageous comparison with respect to manly virtues between the simplicity of these western children1 and the refined dissimulation of the ,byzantines4 as chiefly known by its effeminacy2 and the greater is the call for a fervent palinode4 ,,iii4 ,thirdly4 ,in a reflex way1 as the one great danger which overshadowed ,europe for generations1 and against which the ,byzantine empire proved the capital bulwark1 ,mahometanism may rank as one of the ,byzantine aspects or counterforces4 ,and if there is any popular error applying to the history of that great convulsion1 as a political effort for revolutionizing the world1 some notice of it will find a natural place in connection with these present trains of speculation4 ,let us1 therefore1 have permission to throw together a few remarks on these three subjects--#ast1 on the remarkable distinction by which the eldest of ,christian rulers proclaimed and inaugurated the ,christian basis of his empire2 #b;dly1 on the true but forgotten relation of this great empire to our modern ,christendom1 under which idea we comprehend ,europe and the whole continent of ,america2 #c;dly1 on the false pretensions of ,mahometanism1 whether advanced by itself or by inconsiderate ,christian speculators on its behalf4 ,we shall thus obtain this advantage1 that some sort of unity will be given to our own glances at ,mr4 ,finlay's theme2 and1 at the same time1 by gathering under these general heads any dispersed comments of ,mr4 ,finlay1 whether for confirmation of our own views1 or for any purpose of objection to his1 we shall give to those comments also that kind of unity1 by means of a reference to a common purpose1 which we could not have given them by citing each independently for itself4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 as to that memorable act by which ,constantinople 7i4 e4 the ,eastern empire7 connected herself for ever with ,christianity2 viz4 the recognition of pauperism as an element in the state entitled to the maternal guardianship of the state4 ,in this new principle1 introduced by ,christianity1 we behold a far-seeing or proleptic wisdom1 making provision for evils before they had arisen2 for it is certain that great expansions of pauperism did not exist in the ancient world4 ,a pauper population is a disease peculiar to the modern or ,christian world4 ,various causes latent in the social systems of the ancients prevented such developments of surplus people4 ,but does not this argue a superiority in the social arrangements of these ancients8 ,not at all2 they were atrociously worse4 ,they evaded this one morbid affection by means of others far more injurious to the moral advance of man4 ,the case was then everywhere as at this day it is in ,persia4 ,a ,persian ambassador to ,london or ,paris might boast that1 in his native ,iran1 no such spectacles existed of hunger-bitten myriads as may be seen everywhere during seasons of distress in the crowded cities of ,christian ,europe4 ',no1' would be the answer1 'most certainly not2 but why8 ,the reason is1 that your accursed form of society and government intercepts such surplus people1 does not suffer them to be born4 ,what is the result8 ,you ought1 in ,persia1 to have three hundred millions of people2 your vast territory is easily capacious of that number4 ,you have--how many have you8 ,something less than eight millions4' ,think of this1 startled reader4 ,but1 if that be a good state of things1 then any barbarous soldier who makes a wilderness1 is entitled to call himself a great philosopher and public benefactor4 ,this is to cure the headache by amputating the head4 ,now1 the same principle of limitation to population a parte ante1 though not in the same savage excess as in ,mahometan ,persia1 operated upon ,greece and ,rome4 ,the whole ,pagan world escaped the evils of redundant population by vicious repressions of it beforehand4 ,but under ,christianity a new state of things was destined to take effect4 ,many protections and excitements to population were laid in the framework of this new religion1 which1 by its new code of rules and impulses1 in so many ways extended the free-agency of human beings4 ,manufacturing industry was destined first to arise on any great scale under ,christianity4 ,except in ,tyre and ,alexandria 7see the ,emperor ,hadrian's account of this last71 there was no town or district in the ancient world where the populace could be said properly to work4 ,the rural laborers worked a little--not much2--and sailors worked a little2--nobody else worked at all4 ,even slaves had little more work distributed amongst each ten than now settles upon one4 ,and in many other ways1 by protecting the principle of life1 as a mysterious sanctity1 ,christianity has favored the development of an excessive population4 ,there it is that ,christianity1 being answerable for the mischief1 is answerable for its redress4 ,therefore it is that1 breeding the disease1 ,christianity breeds the cure4 ,extending the vast lines of poverty1 ,christianity it was that first laid down the principle of a relief for poverty4 ,constantine1 the first ,christian potentate1 laid the first stone of the mighty overshadowing institution since reared in ,christian lands to poverty1 disease1 orphanage1 and mutilation4 ,christian instincts1 moving and speaking through that ,caesar1 first carried out that great idea of ,christianity4 ,six years was ,christianity in building ,constantinople1 and in the seventh she rested from her labors1 saying1 ',henceforward let the poor man have a haven of rest for ever2 a rest from his work for one day in seven2 a rest from his anxieties by a legal and fixed relief4' ,being legal1 it could not be open to disturbances of caprice in the giver2 being fixed1 it was not open to disturbances of miscalculation in the receiver4 ,now1 first1 when first ,christianity was installed as a public organ of government 7and first owned a distinct political responsibility71 did it become the duty of a religion which assumed1 as it were1 the official tutelage of poverty1 to proclaim and consecrate that function by some great memorial precedent4 ,and1 accordingly1 in testimony of that obligation1 the first ,christian ,caesar1 on behalf of ,christianity1 founded the first system of relief for pauperism4 ,it is true1 that largesses from the public treasury1 gratuitous coin1 or corn sold at diminished rates1 not to mention the sportulae or stated doles of private ,roman nobles1 had been distributed amongst the indigent citizens of ,western ,rome for centuries before ,constantine2 but all these had been the selfish bounties of factious ambition or intrigue4 ,to ,christianity was reserved the inaugural act of public charity in the spirit of charity4 ,we must remember that no charitable or beneficent institutions of any kind1 grounded on disinterested kindness1 existed amongst the ,pagan ,romans1 and still less amongst the ,pagan ,greeks4 ,mr4 ,coleridge1 in one of his lay sermons1 advanced the novel doctrine--that in the ,scripture is contained all genuine and profound statesmanship4 ,of course he must be understood to mean--in its capital principles2 for1 as to subordinate and executive rules for applying such principles1 these1 doubtless1 are in part suggested by the local circumstances in each separate case4 ,now1 amongst the political theories of the ,bible is this--that pauperism is not an accident in the constitution of states1 but an indefeasible necessity2 or1 in the scriptural words1 that 'the poor shall never cease out of the land4' ,this theory or great canon of social philosophy1 during many centuries1 drew no especial attention from philosophers4 ,it passed for a truism1 bearing no particular emphasis or meaning beyond some general purpose of sanction to the impulses of charity4 ,but there is good reason to believe1 that it slumbered1 and was meant to slumber1 until ,christianity arising and moving forwards should call it into a new life1 as a principle suited to a new order of things4 ,accordingly1 we have seen of late that this scriptural dictum--',the poor shall never cease out of the land'--has terminated its career as a truism 7that is1 as a truth1 either obvious on one hand1 or inert on the other71 and has wakened into a polemic or controversial life4 ,people arose who took upon them utterly to deny this scriptural doctrine4 ,peremptorily they challenged the assertion that poverty must always exist4 ,the ,bible said that it was an affection of human society which could not be exterminated2 the economist of #ahjj said that it was a foul disease1 which must and should be exterminated4 ,the scriptural philosophy said1 that pauperism was inalienable from man's social condition in the same way that decay was inalienable from his flesh4 ',i shall soon see that1' said the economist of #ahjj1 'for as sure as my name is ,m----1 ,i will have this poverty put down by law within one generation1 if there's a law to be had in the courts of ,westminster4' ,the ,scriptures have left word--that1 if any man should come to the national banquet declaring himself unable to pay his contribution1 that man should be accounted the guest of ,christianity1 and should be privileged to sit at the table in thankful remembrance of what ,christianity had done for man4 ,but ,mr4 ,m---- left word with all the servants1 that1 if any man should present himself under those circumstances1 he was to be told1 'the table is full'--7his words1 not ours72 'go away1 good man4' ,go away6 ,mr1 ,m----8 ,where was he to go to8 ,whither8 ,in what direction8--',why1 if you come to that1' said the man of #ahjj1 'to any ditch that he prefers3 surely there's good choice of ditches for the most fastidious taste4' ,during twenty years1 viz4 from #ahjj to #ahbj1 this new philosophy1 which substituted a ditch for a dinner1 and a paving-stone for a loaf1 prevailed and prospered4 ,at one time it seemed likely enough to prove a snare to our own aristocracy--the noblest of all ages4 ,but that peril was averted1 and the further history of the case was this3 ,by the year #ahbj1 much discussion having passed to and fro1 serious doubts had arisen in many quarters2 scepticism had begun to arm itself against the sceptic2 the economist of #ahjj was no longer quite sure of his ground4 ,he was now suspected of being fallible2 and what seemed of worse augury1 he was beginning himself to suspect as much4 ,to one capital blunder he was obliged publicly to plead guilty4 ,what it was1 we shall have occasion to mention immediately4 ,meantime it was justly thought that1 in a dispute loaded with such prodigious practical consequences1 good sense and prudence demanded a more extended inquiry than had yet been instituted4 ,whether poverty would ever cease from the land1 might be doubted by those who balanced their faith in ,scripture against their faith in the man of #ahjj4 ,but this at least could not be doubted--that as yet poverty had not ceased1 nor indeed had made any sensible preparations for ceasing from any land in ,europe4 ,it was a clear case1 therefore1 that1 howsoever ,europe might please to dream upon the matter when pauperism should have reached that glorious euthanasy predicted by the alchemist of old and the economist of #ahjj1 for the present she must deal actively with her own pauperism on some avowed plan and principle1 good or evil--gentle or harsh4 ,accordingly1 in the train of years between #ahbj and #ahcj1 inquiries were made of every separate state in ,europe1 what were those plans and principles4 ,for it was justly said--',as one step towards judging rightly of our own system1 now that it has been so clamorously challenged for a bad system1 let us learn what it is that other nations think upon the subject1 but above all what it is that they do4' ,the answers to our many inquiries varied considerably2 and some amongst the most enlightened nations appear to have adopted the good old plan of laissez faire1 giving nothing from any public fund to the pauper1 but authorizing him to levy contributions on that gracious allegoric lady1 ,private ,charity1 wherever he could meet her taking the air with her babes4 ,this reference appeared to be the main one in reply to any application of the pauper2 and for all the rest they referred him generally to the 'ditch1' or to his own unlimited choice of ditches1 according to the approved method of public benevolence published in #dto and in #hvo by the man of #ahjj4 ,but there were other and humbler states in ,europe1 whose very pettiness has brought more fully within their vision the whole machinery and watchwork of pauperism1 as it acted and reacted on the industrious poverty of the land1 and on other interests1 by means of the system adopted in relieving it4 ,from these states came many interesting reports1 all tending to some good purpose4 ,but at last1 and before the year #ahcj1 amongst other results of more or less value1 three capital points were established1 not more decisive for the justification of the ,english system of administering national relief to paupers1 and of all systems that reverenced the authority of ,scripture1 than they were for the overthrow of ,mr4 ,m----1 the man of #ahjj4 ,these three points are worthy of being used as buoys in mapping out the true channels1 or indicating the breakers on this difficult line of navigation2 and we now rehearse them4 ,they may seem plain almost to obviousness2 but it is enough that they involve all the disputed questions of the case4 ,first4 ,that1 in spite of the assurances from economists1 no progress whatever had been made by ,england or by any state which lent any sanction to the hope of ever eradicating poverty from society4 ,secondly4 ,that1 in absolute contradiction of the whole hypothesis relied on by ,m--- and his brethren1 in its most fundamental doctrine1 a legal provision for poverty did not act as a bounty on marriage4 ,the experience of ,england1 where the trial had been made on the largest scale1 was decisive on this point2 and the opposite experience of ,ireland1 under the opposite circumstances1 was equally decisive4 ,and this result had made itself so clear by #ahbj1 that even ,m--- 7as we have already noticed by anticipation7 was compelled to publish a recantation as to this particular error1 which in effect was a recantation of his entire theory4 ,thirdly4 ,that1 according to the concurring experience of all the most enlightened states of ,christendom1 the public suffered least 7not merely in molestation but in money71 pauperism benefited most1 and the growth of pauperism was retarded most1 precisely as the provision for the poor had been legalized as to its obligation1 and fixed as to its amount4 ,left to individual discretion1 the burden was found to press most unequally2 and1 on the other hand1 the evil itself of pauperism1 whilst much less effectually relieved1 nevertheless through the irregular action of this relief was much more powerfully stimulated4 ,such is the abstract of our latest public warfare on this great question through a period of nearly fifty years4 ,and the issue is this--starting from the contemptuous defiance of the scriptural doctrine upon the necessity of making provision for poverty as an indispensable element in civil communities1 the economy of the age has lowered its tone by graduated descents1 in each one successively of the four last decennia4 ,the philosophy of the day as to this point at least is at length in coincidence with ,scripture4 ,and thus the very extensive researches of this nineteenth century1 as to pauperism1 have re-acted with the effect of a full justification upon ,constantine's attempt to connect the foundation of his empire with that new theory of ,christianity upon the imperishableness of poverty1 and upon the duties corresponding to it4 ,meantime1 ,mr4 ,finlay denies that ,christianity had been raised by ,constantine into the religion of the state2 and others have denied that1 in the extensive money privileges conceded to ,constantinople1 he contemplated any but political principles4 ,as to the first point1 we apprehend that ,constantine will be found not so much to have shrunk back from fear of installing ,christianity in the seat of supremacy1 as to have diverged in policy from our modern methods of such an installation4 ,our belief is1 that according to his notion of a state religion1 he supposed himself to have conferred that distinction upon ,christianity4 ,with respect to the endowments and privileges of ,constantinople1 they were various2 some lay in positive donations1 others in immunities and exemptions2 some again were designed to attract strangers1 others to attract nobles from old ,rome4 ,but1 with fuller opportunities for pursuing that discussion1 we think it would be easy to show1 that in more than one of his institutions and his decrees he had contemplated the special advantage of the poor as such2 and that1 next after the august distinction of having founded the first ,christian throne1 he had meant to challenge and fix the gaze of future ages upon this glorious pretension--that he first had executed the scriptural injunction to make a provision for the poor1 as an order of society that by laws immutable should 'never cease out of the land4' ,,ii4 ,let us advert to the value and functions of ,constantinople as the tutelary genius of western or dawning ,christianity4 ,the history of ,constantinople1 or more generally of the ,eastern ,roman empire1 wears a peculiar interest to the children of ,christendom2 and for two separate reasons--first1 as being the narrow isthmus or bridge which connects the two continents of ancient and modern history1 and that is a philosophic interest2 but secondly1 which in the very highest degree is a practical interest1 as the record of our earthly salvation from ,mahometanism4 ,on two horns was ,europe assaulted by the ,moslems2 first1 last1 and through the largest tract of time1 on the horn of ,constantinople2 there the contest raged for more than eight hundred years1 and by the time that the mighty bulwark fell 7#adec71 ,vienna and other cities upon or near the ,danube had found leisure for growing up2 so that1 if one range of ,alps had slowly been surmounted1 another had now slowly reared and embattled itself against the westward progress of the ,crescent4 ,on the western horn1 in ,france1 but by ,germans1 once for all ,charles ,martel had arrested the progress of the fanatical ,moslem almost in a single battle2 certainly a single generation saw the whole danger dispersed1 inasmuch as within that space the ,saracens were effectually forced back into their original ,spanish lair4 ,this demonstrates pretty forcibly the difference of the ,mahometan resources as applied to the western and the eastern struggle4 ,to throw the whole weight of that difference1 a difference in the result as between eight centuries and thirty years1 upon the mere difference of energy in ,german and ,byzantine forces1 as though the first did1 by a rapturous fervor1 in a few revolutions of summer what the other had protracted through nearly a millennium1 is a representation which defeats itself by its own extravagance4 ,to prove too much is more dangerous than to prove too little4 ,the fact is1 that vast armies and mighty nations were continually disposable for the war upon the city of ,constantine2 nations had time to arise in juvenile vigor1 to grow old and superannuated1 to melt away1 and totally to disappear1 in that long struggle on the ,hellespont and ,propontis4 ,it was a struggle which might often intermit and slumber2 armistices there might be1 truces1 or unproclaimed suspensions of war out of mutual exhaustion1 but peace there could not be1 because any resting from the duty of hatred towards those who reciprocally seemed to lay the foundations of their creed in a dishonoring of ,god1 was impossible to aspiring human nature4 ,malice and mutual hatred1 we repeat1 became a duty in those circumstances4 ,why had they begun to fight8 ,personal feuds there had been none between the parties4 ,for the early caliphs did not conquer ,syria and other vast provinces of the ,roman empire1 because they had a quarrel with the ,caesars who represented ,christendom2 but1 on the contrary1 they had a quarrel with the ,caesars because they had conquered ,syria1 or1 at the most1 the conquest and the feud 7if not always lying in that exact succession as cause and effect7 were joint effects from a common cause1 which cause was imperishable as death1 or the ocean1 and as deep as are the fountains of animal life4 ,could the ocean be altered by a sea-fight8 ,or the atmosphere be tainted for ever by an earthquake8 ,as little could any single reign or its events affect the feud of the ,moslem and the ,christian2 a feud which could not cease unless ,god could change1 or unless man 7becoming careless of spiritual things7 should sink to the level of a brute4 ,these are considerations of great importance in weighing the value of the ,eastern ,empire4 ,if the cause and interest of ,islamism1 as against ,christianity1 were undying--then we may be assured that the ,moorish infidels of ,spain did not reiterate their trans-,pyrenean expeditions after one generation--simply because they could not4 ,but we know that on the south-eastern horn of ,europe they could1 upon the plain argument that for many centuries they did4 ,over and above this1 we are of opinion that the ,saracens were unequal to the sort of hardships bred by cold climates2 and there lay another repulsion for ,saracens from ,france1 c41 and not merely the ,carlovingian sword4 ,we children of ,christendom show our innate superiority to the children of the ,orient upon this scale or tariff of acclimatizing powers4 ,we travel as wheat travels through all reasonable ranges of temperature2 they1 like rice1 can migrate only to warm latitudes4 ,they cannot support our cold1 but we can support the countervailing hardships of their heat4 ,this cause alone would have weatherbound the ,mussulmans for ever within the ,pyrenean cloisters4 ,mussulmans in cold latitudes look as blue and as absurd as sailors on horseback4 ,apart from which cause1 we see that the fine old ,visigothic races in ,spain found them full employment up to the reign of ,ferdinand and ,isabella1 which reign first created a kingdom of ,spain2 in that reign the whole fabric of their power thawed away1 and was confounded with forgotten things4 ,columbus1 according to a local tradition1 was personally present at some of the latter campaigns in ,grenada3 he saw the last of them4 ,so that the discovery of ,america may be used as a convertible date with that of extinction for the ,saracen power in western ,europe4 ,true that the overthrow of ,constantinople had forerun this event by nearly half a century4 ,but then we insist upon the different proportions of the struggle4 ,whilst in ,spain a province had fought against a province1 all ,asia militant had fought against the eastern ,roman empire4 ,amongst the many races whom dimly we decry in those shadowy hosts1 tilting for ages in the vast plains of ,angora1 are seen latterly pressing on to the van1 two mighty powers1 the children of ,persia and the ,ottoman family of the ,turks4 ,upon these nations1 both now rapidly decaying1 the faith of ,mahomet has ever leaned as upon her eldest sons2 and these powers the ,byzantine ,csars had to face in every phasis of their energy1 as it revolved from perfect barbarism1 through semi-barbarism1 to that crude form of civilization which ,mahometans can support4 ,and through all these transmigrations of their power we must remember that they were under a martial training and discipline1 never suffered to become effeminate4 ,one set of warriors after another did1 it is true1 become effeminate in ,persia3 but upon that advantage opening1 always another set stepped in from ,torkistan or from the ,imaus4 ,the nation1 the individuals melted away2 the ,moslem armies were immortal4 ,here1 therefore1 it is1 and standing at this point of our review1 that we complain of ,mr4 ,finlay's too facile compliance with historians far beneath himself4 ,he has a fine understanding3 oftentimes his commentaries on the past are ebullient with subtlety2 and his fault strikes us as lying even in the excess of his sagacity applying itself too often to a basis of facts1 quite insufficient for supporting the superincumbent weight of his speculations4 ,but in this instance he surrenders himself too readily to the ordinary current of history4 ,how would he like it1 if he happened to be a ,turk himself1 finding his nation thus implicitly undervalued8 ,for clearly1 in undervaluing the ,byzantine resistance1 he does undervalue the ,mahometan assault4 ,advantages of local situation cannot eternally make good the deficiencies of man4 ,if the ,byzantines 7being as weak as historians would represent them7 yet for ages resisted the whole impetus of ,mahometan ,asia1 then it follows1 either that the ,crescent was correspondingly weak1 or that1 not being weak1 she must have found the ,cross pretty strong4 ,the facit of history does not here correspond with the numerical items4 ,nothing has ever surprised us more1 we will frankly own1 than this coincidence of authors in treating the ,byzantine empire as feeble and crazy4 ,on the contrary1 to us it is clear that some secret and preternatural strength it must have had1 lurking where the eye of man did not in those days penetrate1 or by what miracle did it undertake our universal ,christian cause1 fight for us all1 keep the waters open from freezing us up1 and through nine centuries prevent the ice of ,mahometanism from closing over our heads for ever8 ,yet does ,mr4 ,finlay 7p4 #dbd7 describe this empire as laboring1 in ,a4 ,d4 #fbc1 equally with ,persia1 under 'internal weakness1' and as 'equally incapable of offering any popular or national resistance to an active or enterprising enemy4' ,in this ,mr4 ,finlay does but agree with other able writers2 but he and they should have recollected1 that hardly had that very year #fbc departed1 even yet the knell of its last hour was sounding upon the winds1 when this effeminate empire had occasion to show that she could clothe herself with consuming terrors1 as a belligerent both defensive and aggressive4 ,in the absence of her great emperor1 and of the main imperial forces1 the golden capital herself1 by her own resources1 routed and persecuted into wrecks a ,persian army that had come down upon her by stealth and a fraudulent circuit4 ,even at that same period1 she advanced into ,persia more than a thousand miles from her own metropolis in ,europe1 under the blazing ensigns of the cross1 kicked the crown of ,persia to and fro like a tennis-ball1 upset the throne of ,artaxerxes1 countersigned haughtily the elevation of a new ,basileus more friendly to herself1 and then recrossed the ,tigris homewards1 after having torn forcibly out of the heart and palpitating entrails of ,persia1 whatever trophies that idolatrous empire had formerly wrested from herself4 ,these were not the acts of an effeminate kingdom4 ,in the language of ,wordsworth we may say-- ',all power was giv'n her in the dreadful trance2 ,infidel kings she wither'd like a flame4' ,indeed1 no image that we remember can do justice to the first of these acts1 except that ,spanish legend of the ,cid1 which assures us that1 long after the death of the mighty cavalier1 when the children of those ,moors who had fled from his face whilst living1 were insulting the marble statue above his grave1 suddenly the statue raised its right arm1 stretched out its marble lance1 and drifted the heathen dogs like snow4 ,the mere sanctity of the ,christian champion's sepulchre was its own protection2 and so we must suppose1 that1 when the ,persian hosts came by surprise upon ,constantinople--her natural protector being absent by three months' march--simply the golden statues of the mighty ,caesars1 half rising on their thrones1 must have caused that sudden panic which dissipated the danger4 ,hardly fifty years later1 ,mr4 ,finlay well knows that ,constantinople again stood an assault--not from a ,persian hourrah1 or tempestuous surprise1 but from a vast expedition1 armaments by land and sea1 fitted out elaborately in the early noontide of ,mahometan vigor--and that assault1 also1 in the presence of the caliph and the crescent1 was gloriously discomfited4 ,now if1 in the moment of triumph1 some voice in the innumerable crowd had cried out1 ',how long shall this great ,christian breakwater1 against which are shattered into surge and foam all the mountainous billows of idolators and misbelievers1 stand up on behalf of infant ,christendom8' and if from the clouds some trumpet of prophecy had replied1 ',even yet for eight hundred years6' could any man have persuaded himself that such a fortress against such antogonists--such a monument against a millennium of fury--was to be classed amongst the weak things of this earth8 ,this oriental ,rome1 it is true1 equally with ,persia1 was liable to sudden inroads and incursions4 ,but the difference was this--,persia was strongly protected in all ages by the wilderness on her main western frontier2 if this were passed1 and a hand-to-hand conflict succeeded1 where light cavalry or fugitive archers could be of little value1 the essential weakness of the ,persian empire then betrayed itself4 ,her sovereign was assassinated1 and peace was obtained from the condescension of the invader4 ,but the enemies of ,constantinople1 ,goths1 ,avars1 ,bulgarians1 or even ,persians1 were strong only by their weakness4 ,being contemptible1 they were neglected2 being chased1 they made no stand2 and thus only they escaped4 ,they entered like thieves by means of darkness1 and escaped like sheep by means of dispersion4 ,but1 if caught1 they were annihilated4 ,no2 we resume our thesis2 we close this head by reiterating our correction of history2 we re-affirm our position--that in ,eastern ,rome lay the salvation of ,western and ,central ,europe2 in ,constantinople and the ,propontis lay the sine qua non condition of any future ,christendom4 ,emperor and people must have done their duty2 the result1 the vast extent of generations surmounted1 furnish the triumphant argument4 ,finally1 indeed1 they fell1 king and people1 shepherd and flock2 but by that time their mission was fulfilled4 ,and doubtless1 as the noble ,palaeologus lay on heaps of carnage1 with his noble people1 as life was ebbing away1 a voice from heaven sounded in his ears the great words of the ,hebrew prophet1 ',behold6 ,,your ,,work ,,is ,,done2 your warfare is accomplished4' ,,iii4 ,such1 then1 being the unmerited disparagement of the ,byzantine government1 and so great the ingratitude of later ,christendom to that sheltering power under which themselves enjoyed the leisure of a thousand years for knitting and expanding into strong nations2 on the other hand1 what is to be thought of the ,saracen revolutionists8 ,everywhere it has passed for a lawful postulate1 that the ,saracen conquests prevailed1 half by the feebleness of the ,roman government at ,constantinople1 and half by the preternatural energy infused into the ,arabs by their false prophet and legislator4 ,in either of its faces1 this theory is falsified by a steady review of facts4 ,with regard to the ,saracens1 ,mr4 ,finlay thinks as we do1 and argues that they prevailed through the local1 or sometimes the casual1 weakness of their immediate enemies1 and rarely through any strength of their own4 ,we must remember one fatal weakness of the ,imperial administration in those days1 not due to men or to principles1 but entirely to nature and the slow growth of scientific improvements--viz43 the difficulties of locomotion4 ,as respected ,syria1 ,egypt1 ,cyrenaica1 and so on to the most western provinces of ,africa1 the ,saracens had advantages for moving rapidly which the ,caesar had not4 ,but is not a water movement speedier than a land movement1 which for an army never has much exceeded fourteen miles a-day8 ,certainly it is2 but in this case there were two desperate defects in the imperial control over that water service4 ,to use a fleet1 you must have a fleet2 but their whole naval interest had been starved by the intolerable costs of the ,persian war4 ,immense had been the expenses of ,heraclius1 and annually decaying had been his ,asiatic revenues4 ,secondly1 the original position of the ,arabs had been better than that of the emperor1 in every stage of the warfare which so suddenly arose4 ,in ,arabia they stood nearest to ,syria1 in ,syria nearest to ,egypt1 in ,egypt nearest to ,cyrenaica4 ,what reason had there been for expecting a martial legislator at that moment in ,arabia1 who should fuse and sternly combine her distracted tribes8 ,what blame1 therefore1 to ,heraclius1 that ,syria--the first object of assault1 being also by much the weakest part of the empire1 and immediately after the close of a desolating war--should in four campaigns be found indefensible8 ,we must remember the unexampled abruptness of the ,arabian revolution4 ,the year sixteen hundred and twenty-two1 by its very name of ,hegira1 does not record a triumph but a humiliation4 ,in that year1 therefore1 and at the very moment when ,heraclius was entering upon his long ,persian struggle1 ,mahomet was yet prostrate1 and his destiny was doubtful4 ,eleven years after1 viz4 in six hundred and thirty-three1 the prophet was dead and gone2 but his first successor was already in ,syria as a conqueror4 ,such had been the velocity of events4 ,the ,persian war had then been finished by three years1 but the exhaustion of the empire had perhaps1 at that moment1 reached its maximum4 ,we are satisfied1 that ten years' repose from this extreme state of collapse would have shown us another result4 ,even as it was1 and caught at this enormous disadvantage1 ,heraclius taught the robbers to tremble1 and would have exterminated them1 if not baffled by two irremediable calamities1 neither of them due to any act or neglect of his own4 ,the first lay in the treason of his lieutenants4 ,the governors of ,damascus1 of ,aleppo1 of ,emesa1 of ,bostra1 of ,kinnisrin1 all proved traitors4 ,the root of this evil lay1 probably1 in the disorders following the ,persian invasion1 which had made it the perilous interest of the emperor to appoint great officers from amongst those who had a local influence4 ,such persons it might have been ruinous too suddenly to set aside1 as1 in the event1 it proved ruinous to employ them4 ,a dilemma of this kind1 offering but a choice of evils1 belonged to the nature of any ,persian war2 and that particular war was bequeathed to ,heraclius by the management of his predecesors4 ,but the second calamity was even more fatal2 it lay in the composition of the ,syrian population1 and its original want of vital cohesion4 ,for no purpose could this population be united3 they formed a rope of sand4 ,there was the distraction of religion 7,jacobites1 ,nestorians1 c472 there was the distraction of races--slaves and masters1 conquered and conquerors1 modern intruders mixed1 but not blended with1 aboriginal mountaineers4 ,property became the one principle of choice between the two governments4 ,where was protection to be had for that8 ,barbarous as were the ,arabs1 they saw their present advantage4 ,often it would happen from the position of the armies1 that they could1 whilst the emperor could not1 guarantee the instant security of land or of personal treasures2 the ,arabs could also promise1 sometimes1 a total immunity from taxes1 very often a diminished scale of taxation1 always a remission of arrears2 none of which demands could be listened to by the emperor1 partly on account of the public necessities1 partly from jealousy of establishing operative precedents4 ,for religion1 again1 protection was more easily obtained in that day from the ,arab1 who made war on ,christianity1 than from the ,byzantine emperor1 who was its champion4 ,what were the different sects and subdivisions of ,christianity to the barbarian8 ,monophysite1 ,monothelite1 ,eutychian1 or ,jacobite1 all were to him as the scholastic disputes of noble and intellectual ,europe to the camps of gypsies4 ,the ,arab felt himself to be the depository of one sublime truth1 the unity of ,god4 ,his mission1 therefore1 was principally against idolaters4 ,yet even to them his policy was to sell toleration for tribute4 ,clearly1 as ,mr4 ,finlay hints1 this was merely a provisional moderation1 meant to be laid aside when sufficient power was obtained2 and it was laid aside1 in after ages1 by many a wretch like ,timor or ,nadir ,shah4 ,religion1 therefore1 and property once secured1 what more had the ,syrians to seek8 ,and if to these advantages for the ,saracens we add the fact1 that a considerable ,arab population was dispersed through ,syria1 who became so many emissaries1 spies1 and decoys for their countrymen1 it does great honor to the emperor1 that through so many campaigns he should at all have maintained his ground1 which at last he resigned only under the despondency caused by almost universal treachery4 ,the ,saracens1 therefore1 had no great merit even in their earliest exploits2 and the impetus of their movement forwards1 that principle of proselytism which carried them so strongly 'ahead' through a few generations1 was very soon brought to a stop4 ,mr4 ,finlay1 in our mind1 does right to class these barbarians as 'socially and politically little better than the ,gothic1 ,hunnish1 and ,avar monarchies4' ,but1 on consideration1 the ,gothic monarchy embosomed the germs of a noble civilization2 whereas the ,saracens have never propagated great principles of any kind1 nor attained even a momentary grandeur in their institutions1 except where coalescing with a higher or more ancient civilization4 ,meantime1 ascending from the earliest ,mahometans to their prophet1 what are we to think of him8 ,was ,mahomet a great man8 ,we think not4 ,the case was thus3 the ,arabian tribes had long stood ready1 like dogs held in a leash1 for a start after distant game4 ,it was not ,mahomet who gave them that impulse4 ,but next1 what was it that had hindered the ,arab tribes from obeying the impulse8 ,simply this1 that they were always in feud with each other2 so that their expeditions1 beginning in4 harmony1 were sure to break up in anger on the road4 ,what they needed was1 some one grand compressing and unifying principle1 such as the ,roman found in the destinies of his city4 ,true2 but this1 you say1 they found in the sublime principle that ,god was one1 and had appointed them to be the scourges of all who denied it4 ,their mission was to cleanse the earth from ,polytheism2 and1 as ambassadors from ,god1 to tell the nations--',ye shall have no other ,gods but me4' ,that was grand2 and that surely they had from ,mahomet8 ,perhaps so2 but where did he get it8 ,he stole it from the ,jewish ,scriptures1 and from the ,scriptures no less than from the traditions of the ,christians4 ,assuredly1 then1 the first projecting impetus was not impressed upon ,islamism by ,mahomet4 ,this lay in a revealed truth2 and by ,mahomet it was furtively translated to his own use from those oracles which held it in keeping4 ,but possibly1 if not the principle of motion1 yet at least the steady conservation of this motion was secured to ,islamism by ,mahomet4 ,granting 7you will say7 that the launch of this religion might be due to an alien inspiration1 yet still the steady movement onwards of this religion through some centuries1 might be due exclusively to the code of laws bequeathed by ,mahomet in the ,koran4 ,and this has been the opinion of many ,european scholars4 ,they fancy that ,mahomet1 however worldly and sensual as the founder of a pretended revelation1 was wise in the wisdom of this world2 and that1 if ridiculous as a prophet1 he was worthy of veneration as a statesman4 ,he legislated well and presciently1 they imagine1 for the interests of a remote posterity4 ,now1 upon that question let us hear ,mr4 ,finlay4 ,he1 when commenting upon the steady resistance offered to the ,saracens by the ,african ,christians of the seventh and eighth centuries--a resistance which terminated disastrously for both sides--the poor ,christians being exterminated1 and the ,moslem invaders being robbed of an indigenous working population1 naturally inquires what it was that led to so tragical a result4 ,the ,christian natives of these provinces were1 in a political condition1 little favorable to belligerent efforts2 and there cannot be much doubt1 that1 with any wisdom or any forbearance on the part of the intruders1 both parties might soon have settled down into a pacific compromise of their feuds4 ,instead of this1 the cimeter was invoked and worshipped as the sole possible arbitrator2 and truce there was none until the silence of desolation brooded over those once fertile fields4 ,how savage was the fanaticism1 and how blind the worldly wisdom1 which could have co-operated to such a result6 ,the cause must have lain in the unaccommodating nature of the ,mahometan institutions1 in the bigotry of the ,mahometan leaders1 and in the defect of expansive views on the part of their legislator4 ,he had not provided even for other elimates than that of his own sweltering sty in the ,hedjas1 or for manners more polished1 or for institutions more philosophic1 than those of his own sunbaked ,ishmaelites4 ',the construction of the political government of the ,saracen empire'--says ,mr4 ,finlay 7p4 #dfb-c7--'was imperfect1 and shows that ,mahomet had neither contemplated extensive foreign conquests1 nor devoted the energies of his powerful mind to the consideration of the questions of administration which would arise out of the difficult task of ruling a numerous and wealthy population1 possessed of property1 but deprived of equal rights4' ,he then shows how the whole power of the state settled into the hands of a chief priest--systematically irresponsible4 ,when1 therefore1 that momentary state of responsibility had passed away1 which was created 7like the state of martial law7 'by national feelings1 military companionship1 and exalted enthusiasm1' the administration of the caliphs became 'far more oppressive than that of the ,roman empire4' ,it is in fact an insult to the majestic ,romans1 if we should place them seriously in the balance with savages like the ,saracens4 ,the ,romans were essentially the leaders of civilization1 according to the possibilities then existing2 for their earliest usages and social forms involved a high civilization1 whilst promising a higher3 whereas all ,moslem nations have described a petty arch of national civility--soon reaching its apex1 and rapidly barbarizing backwards4 ,this fatal gravitation towards decay and decomposition in ,mahometan institutions1 which1 at this day1 exhibits to the gaze of mankind one uniform spectacle of ,mahometan ruins1 all the great ,moslem nations being already in a ,strulbrug state1 and held erect only by the colossal support of ,christian powers1 could not1 as a reversionary evil1 have been healed by the ,arabian prophet4 ,his own religious principles would have prevented that1 for they offer a permanent bounty on sensuality2 so that every man who serves a ,mahometan state faithfully and brilliantly at twenty-five1 is incapacitated at thirty-five for any further service1 by the very nature of the rewards which he receives from the state4 ,within a very few years1 every public servant is usually emasculated by that unlimited voluptuousness which equally the ,moslem princes and the common ,prophet of all ,moslems countenance as the proper object of human pursuit4 ,here is the mortal ulcer of ,islamism1 which can never cleanse itself from death and the odor of death4 ,a political ulcer would or might have found restoration for itself2 but this ulcer is higher and deeper3--it lies in the religion1 which is incapable of reform3 it is an ulcer reaching as high as the paradise which ,islamism promises1 and deep as the hell which it creates4 ,we repeat1 that ,mahomet could not effectually have neutralized a poison which he himself had introduced into the circulation and life-blood of his ,moslem economy4 ,the false prophet was forced to reap as he had sown4 ,but an evil which is certain1 may be retarded2 and ravages which tend finally to confusion1 may be limited for many generations4 ,now1 in the case of the ,african provincials which we have noticed1 we see an original incapacity of ,islamism1 even in its palmy condition1 for amalgamating with any superior culture4 ,and the specific action of ,mahometan ism in the ,african case1 as contrasted with the ,roman economy which it supplanted1 is thus exhibited by ,mr4 ,finlay in a most instructive passage1 where every negation on the ,mahometan side is made to suggest the countervailing usage positively on the side of the ,romans4 ,o children of ,romulus6 how noble do you appear when thus fiercely contrasted with the wild boars who desolated your vineyards6 ',no local magistrates elected by the people1 and no parish priests connected by their feelings and interests both with their superiors and inferiors1 bound society together by common ties2 and no system of legal administration1 independent of the military and financial authorities1 preserved the property of the people from the rapacity of the government4' ,such1 we are to understand1 was not the ,mahometan system2 such had been the system of ,rome4 ',socially and politically1' proceeds the passage1 'the ,saracen empire was little better than the ,gothic1 ,hunnish1 and ,avar monarchies2 and that it proved more durable1 with almost equal oppression1 is to be attributed to the powerful enthusiasm of ,mahomet's religion1 which tempered for some time its avarice and tyranny4' ,the same sentiment is repeated still more emphatically at p4 #dfh--' ,the political policy of the ,saracens was of itself utterly barbarous2 and it only caught a passing gleam of justice from the religious feeling of their prophet's doctrines4' ,thus far1 therefore1 it appears that ,mahometanism is not much indebted to its too famous founder2 it owes to him a principle1 viz4 the unity of ,god1 which1 merely through a capital blunder1 it fancies peculiar to itself4 ,nothing but the grossest ignorance in ,mahomet1 nothing but the grossest non-acquaintance with ,greek authors on the part of the ,arabs1 could have created or sustained the delusion current amongst that illiterate people--that it was themselves only who rejected ,polytheism4 ,had but one amongst the personal enemies of ,mahomet been acquainted with ,greek1 there was an end of the new religion in the first moon of its existence4 ,once open the eyes of the ,arabs to the fact1 that ,christians had anticipated them in this great truth of the divine unity1 and ,mahometanism could only have ranked as a subdivision of ,christianity4 ,mahomet would have ranked only as a ,christian heresiarch or schismatic2 such as ,nestorius or ,marcian at one time1 such as ,arius or ,pelagius at another4 ,in his character of theologian1 therefore1 ,mahomet was simply the most memorable of blunderers1 supported in his blunders by the most unlettered of nations4 ,in his other character of legislator1 we have seen that already the earliest stages of ,mahometan experience exposed decisively his ruinous imbecility4 ,where a rude tribe offered no resistance to his system1 for the simple reason that their barbarism suggested no motive for resistance1 it could be no honor to prevail4 ,and where1 on the other hand1 a higher civilization had furnished strong points of repulsion to his system1 it appears plainly that this pretended apostle of social improvements had devised or hinted no readier mode of conciliation than by putting to the sword all dissentients4 ,he starts as a theological reformer1 with a fancied defiance to the world which was no defiance at all1 being exactly what ,christians had believed for six centuries1 and ,jews for six-and-twenty4 ,he starts as a political reformer1 with a fancied conciliation to the world1 which was no conciliation at all1 but was sure to provoke imperishable hostility wheresoever it had any effect at all4 ,we have thus reviewed some of the more splendid aspects connected with ,mr4 ,finlay's theme2 but that theme1 in its entire compass1 is worthy of a far more extended investigation than our own limits will allow1 or than the historical curiosity of the world 7misdirected here as in so many other cases7 has hitherto demanded4 ,the ,greek race1 suffering a long occultation under the blaze of the ,roman empire1 into which for a time it had been absorbed1 but again emerging from this blaze1 and reassuming a distinct ,greek agency and influence1 offers a subject great by its own inherent attractions1 and separately interesting by the unaccountable neglect which it has suffered4 ,to have overlooked this subject1 is one amongst the capital oversights of ,gibbon4 ,to have rescued it from utter oblivion1 and to have traced an outline for its better illumination1 is the peculiar merit of ,mr4 ,finlay4 ,his greatest fault is--to have been careless or slovenly in the niceties of classical and philological precision4 ,his greatest praise1 and a very great one indeed1 is--to have thrown the light of an original philosophic sagacity upon a neglected province of history1 indispensable to the arrondissement of ,pagan archaeology4