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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15249-8.txt b/15249-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4054af1 --- /dev/null +++ b/15249-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10140 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Outspoken Essays, by William Ralph Inge + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Outspoken Essays + +Author: William Ralph Inge + +Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15249] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, and the +PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS + +BY + +WILLIAM RALPH INGE, C.V.O., D.D. + +DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S + +FIFTH IMPRESSION + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON +FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK +BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS + +1920 + + + + +PREFACE + + +All the Essays in this volume, except the first, have appeared in the +_Edinburgh Review_, the _Quarterly Review_, or the _Hibbert Journal_. I +have to thank the Publishers and Editors of those Reviews for their +courtesy in permitting me to reprint them. The articles on _The +Birth-Rate, The Future of the English Race, Bishop Gore and the Church +of England_, and _Cardinal Newman_ are from the _Edinburgh Review_; +those on _Patriotism, Catholic Modernism, St. Paul_, and _The Indictment +against Christianity_ are from the _Quarterly Review_; those on +_Institutionalism and Mysticism_ and _Survival and Immortality_ from the +_Hibbert Journal_. I have not attempted to remove all traces of +overlapping, which I hope may be pardoned in essays written +independently of each other; but a few repetitions have been excised. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I. OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS 1 + + II. PATRIOTISM 35 + + III. THE BIRTH-RATE 59 + + IV. THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH RACE 82 + + V. BISHOP GORE AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 106 + + VI. ROMAN CATHOLIC MODERNISM 137 + + VII. CARDINAL NEWMAN 172 + +VIII. ST. PAUL 205 + + IX. INSTITUTIONALISM AND MYSTICISM 230 + + X. THE INDICTMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY 243 + + XI. SURVIVAL AND IMMORTALITY 266 + + + + +Photera theleist soi malthaka pseydhê lhegô, hê sklhêr' alêthhê; +phrhaze, shê gar hê krhisist. + +_Euripides_. + + +The case of historical writers is hard; for if they tell the truth +they provoke man, and if they write what is false they offend +God.--_Matthew Paris_. + +Quattuor sunt maxime comprehendendae veritatis offendicula; videlicet, +fragilis et indignae auctoritatis exemplum, consuetudinis diuturnitas, +vulgi sensus imperiti, et propriae ignorantiae occultatio cum +ostentatione sapientiae superioris.--_Roger Bacon_. + + Iudicio perpende; et si tibi vera videntur, + Dede manus; aut si falsum est, accingere contra. + +_Lucretius_. + + +Eventu rerum stolidi didicere magistro. + +_Claudian_. + + +'All' hê toi men tahyta thehôn en gohynasi kehitai. + +_Homer_. + + + + +I + +OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS + +(AUGUST, 1919) + + +The Essays in this volume were written at various times before and +during the Great War. In reading them through for republication, I have +to ask myself whether my opinions on social science and on the state of +religion, the two subjects which are mainly dealt with in this +collection, have been modified by the greatest calamity which has ever +befallen the civilised world, or by the issue of the struggle. I find +very little that I should now wish to alter. The war has caused events +to move faster, but in the same direction as before. The social +revolution has been hurried on; the inevitable counter-revolution has +equally been brought nearer. For if there is one safe generalisation in +human affairs, it is that revolutions always destroy themselves. How +often have fanatics proclaimed 'the year one'! But no revolutionary era +has yet reached 'year twenty-five.' As regards the national character, +there is no sign, I fear, that much wisdom has been learnt. We are more +wasteful and reckless than ever. The doctrinaire democrat still vapours +about democracy, though representative government has obviously lost +both its power and its prestige. The labour party still hugs its +comprehensive assortment of economic heresies. Organised religion +remains as impotent as it was before the war. But one fact has emerged +with startling clearness. Human nature has not been changed by +civilisation. It has neither been levelled up nor levelled down to an +average mediocrity. Beneath the dingy uniformity of international +fashions in dress, man remains what he has always been--a splendid +fighting animal, a self-sacrificing hero, and a bloodthirsty savage. +Human nature is at once sublime and horrible, holy and satanic. Apart +from the accumulation of knowledge and experience, which are external +and precarious acquisitions, there is no proof that we have changed much +since the first stone age. + +The war itself, as we shall soon be compelled to recognise, had its +roots deep in the political and social structure of Europe. The growth +of wealth and population, and the law of diminishing returns, led to a +scramble for unappropriated lands producing the raw materials of +industry. It was, in a sense, a war of capital; but capitalism is no +accretion upon the body politic; it is the creator of the modern world +and an essential part of a living organism. The Germans unquestionably +made a deep-laid plot to capture all markets and cripple or ruin all +competitors. Their aims and methods were very like those of the Standard +Oil Trust on a still larger scale. The other nations had not followed +the logic of competition in the same ruthless manner; there were several +things which they were not willing to do. But war to the knife cannot be +confined to one of the combatants; the alternative, _Weltmacht oder +Niedergang_, was thrust by Germany upon the Allies when she chose that +motto for herself. If the modern man were as much dominated by economic +motives as is sometimes supposed, the suicidal results of such a +conflict would have been apparent to all; but the poetry and idealism of +human nature, no longer centred, as formerly, in religion, had gathered +round a romantic patriotism, for which the belligerents were willing to +sacrifice their all without counting the cost. Like other idealisms, +patriotism varies from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy. + +But there was another cause which led to the war. Germany was a curious +combination of seventeenth century theory and very modern practice. An +Emperor ruling by divine right was the head of the most scientific state +that the world has seen. In many ways Germany, with an intelligent, +economical, and uncorrupt Government, was a model to the rest of the +world. But the whole structure was menaced by that form of +individualistic materialism which calls itself social democracy, and +which in practice is at once the copy of organic materialism and the +reaction against it. The motives for drilling a whole nation in the +pursuit of purely national and purely materialistic aims are not strong +enough to prevent disintegration. The German _Kriegsstaat_ was falling +to pieces through internal fissures. A successful war might give the +empire a new lease of life; otherwise, the rising tide of revolution was +certain to sweep it away. As Sir Charles Walston has shown, it was for +some years doubtful whether the democratic movement would obtain control +before the bureaucracy and army chiefs succeeded in precipitating a war. +There was a kind of race between the two forces. This was the situation +which Lord Haldane found still existing in his famous visit to Germany. +In the event, the conservative powers were able to strike and to rush +public opinion. Perhaps the bureaucracy was carried along by its own +momentum. Two or three years before the war a German publicist, replying +to an eminent Englishman, who asked him who really directed the policy +of Germany, answered: 'It is a difficult question. Nominally, of course, +the Emperor is responsible; but he is a man of moods, not a strong man. +In reality, the machine runs itself. Whither it is carrying us we none +of us know; I fear towards some great disaster.' This seems to be the +truth of the matter. No doubt, a romantic imperialism, with dreams of +restoring the empire of Charlemagne, was a factor in the criminal +enterprise. No doubt the natural ambitions of officers, and the greed of +contractors and speculators, played their part in promoting it. But when +we consider that Germany held all the winning cards in a game of +peaceful penetration and economic competition, we should attribute to +the Imperial Government a strange recklessness if we did not conclude +that the political condition of Germany itself, and the automatic +working of the machine, were the main causes why the attack was made. +There is, in fact, abundant evidence that it was so. The scheme failed +only because Germany was foolish enough to threaten England before +settling accounts with Russia. But this, again, was the result of +internal pressure. Hamburg, and all the interests which the name stands +for, cared less for expansion in the East than for the capture of +markets overseas. For this important section of conservative Germany, +England was the enemy. So the gauntlet was thrown down to the whole +civilised world at once, and the odds against Germany were too great. + +For the time being, the world has no example of a strong monarchy. The +three great European empires are, at the time of writing, in a state of +septic dissolution. The victors have sprung to the welcome conclusion +that democracy is everywhere triumphant, and that before long no other +type of civilised state will exist. The amazing provincialism of +American political thought accepts this conclusion without demur; and +our public men, some of whom doubtless know better, have served the +needs of the moment by effusions of political nonsense which almost +surpass the orations delivered every year on the Fourth of July. But no +historian can suppose that one of the most widespread and successful +forms of human association has been permanently extinguished because the +Central Empires were not quite strong enough to conquer Europe, an +attempt which has always failed, and probably will always fail. The +issue is not fully decided, even for our own generation. The ascendancy +will belong to that nation which is the best organised, the most +strenuous, the most intelligent, the most united. Before the war none +would have hesitated to name Germany as holding this position; and until +the downfall of the Empire the nation seemed to possess those qualities +unimpaired. The three Empires collapsed in hideous chaos as soon as they +deposed their monarchs. In the case of Russia, it is difficult to +imagine any recovery until the monarchy is restored; and Germany would +probably be well-advised to choose some member of the imperial family as +a constitutional sovereign. A monarch frequently represents his +subjects better than an elected assembly; and if he is a good judge of +character he is likely to have more capable and loyal advisers. +President Wilson's declaration that 'a steadfast concert for peace can +never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations; for +no autocratic government could ever be trusted to keep faith within it,' +is one of the most childish exhibitions of doctrinaire _naïveté_ which +ever proceeded from the mouth of a public man. History gives no +countenance to the theory that popular governments are either more moral +or more pacific than strong monarchies. The late Lord Salisbury, in one +of his articles in the _Quarterly Review_, spoke the truth on this +subject. 'Moderation, especially in the matter of territory, has never +been a characteristic of democracy. Wherever it has had free play, in +the ancient world or the modern, in the old hemisphere or the new, a +thirst for empire and a readiness for aggressive war has always marked +it. Though governments may have an appearance and even a reality of +pacific intent, their action is always liable to be superseded by the +violent and vehement operations of mere ignorance.' The United States +are no exception to this rule. They have extended their dominion by much +the same means as the empire of the Tsars or our own. Texas and Upper +California, the Philippines and Porto Rico, were annexed forcibly; New +Mexico, Alaska, and Louisiana were bought; Florida was acquired by +treaty; Maine filched from Canada. In no case were the wishes of the +inhabitants consulted. Our own experience of republicanism is the same. +It was during the short period when Great Britain had no king that +Cromwell's court-poet, Andrew Marvell, urged him to complete his +glorious career by demolishing our present allies: + + A Cæsar he, ere long, to Gaul, + To Italy an Hannibal. + +On the other hand, none of the 'autocrats' wanted this war. The Kaiser +was certainly pushed into it. + +Democracy is a form of government which may be rationally defended, not +as being good, but as being less bad than any other. Its strongest +merits seem to be: first, that the citizens of a democracy have a sense +of proprietorship and responsibility in public affairs, which in times +of crisis may add to their tenacity and endurance. The determination of +the Federals in the American Civil War, and of the French and British in +the four years' struggle against Germany, may be legitimately adduced as +arguments for democracy. When De Tocqueville says that 'it is hard for a +democracy to begin or to end a war,' the second is truer than the first. +And, secondly, the educational value of democracy is so great that it +may be held to counterbalance many defects. Mill decides in favour of +democracy mainly on the ground that 'it promotes a better and higher +form of national character than any other polity,' since government by +authority stunts the intellect, narrows the sympathies, and destroys the +power of initiative. 'The perfect commonwealth,' says Mr. Zimmern,' is a +society of free men and women, each at once ruling and being ruled,' It +is also fair to argue that monarchies do not escape the worst evils of +democracies. An autocracy is often obliged to oppress the educated +classes and to propitiate the mob. Domitian massacred senators with +impunity, and only fell '_postquam cerdonibus esse timendus coeperat_.' +If an autocracy does not rest on the army, which leads to the chaos of +praetorianism, it must rely on '_panem et circenses_.' Hence it has some +of the worst faults of democracy, without its advantages. As Mr. Graham +Wallas says: 'When a Tsar or a bureaucracy finds itself forced to govern +in opposition to a vague national feeling which may at any moment create +an overwhelming national purpose, the autocrat becomes the most +unscrupulous of demagogues, and stirs up racial or religious or social +hatred, or the lust for foreign war, with less scruple than a newspaper +proprietor under a democracy,' The autocrat, in fact, is often a slave, +as the demagogue is often a tyrant. Lastly, the democrat may urge that +one of the commonest accusations against democracy--that the populace +chooses its rulers badly--is not true in times of great national danger. +On the contrary, it often shows a sound instinct in finding the +strongest man to carry it through a crisis. At such times the parrots +and monkeys are discarded, and a Napoleon or a Kitchener is given a +free hand, though he may have despised all the demagogic arts. In other +words, a democracy sometimes knows when to abdicate. The excesses of +revolutionists are not an argument against democracy, since revolutions +are anything rather than democratic. + +Nevertheless, the indictment against democracy is a very heavy one, and +it is worth while to state the main items in the charge. + +1. Whatever may be truly said about the good sense of a democracy during +a great crisis, at ordinary times it does not bring the best men to the +top. Professor Hearnshaw, in his admirable 'Democracy at the +Crossroads,' collects a number of weighty opinions confirming this +judgment. Carlyle, who proclaimed the merits of silence in some thirty +volumes, blames democracy for ignoring the 'noble, silent men' who could +serve it best, and placing power in the hands of windbags. Ruskin, +Matthew Arnold, Sir James Stephen, Sir Henry Maine, and Lecky, all agree +that 'the people have for the most part neither the will nor the power +to find out the best men to lead them.' In France the denunciations of +democratic politicians are so general that it would be tedious to +enumerate the writers who have uttered them. One example will suffice; +the words are the words of Anatole Beaulieu in 1885: + + The wider the circle from which politicians and + state-functionaries are recruited, the lower seems their + intellectual level to have sunk. This deterioration in the + personnel of government has been yet more striking from the + moral point of view. Politics have tended to become more + corrupt, more debased, and to soil the hands of those who + take part in them and the men who get their living by them. + Political battles have become too bitter and too vulgar not + to have inspired aversion in the noblest and most upright + natures by their violence and their intrigues. The élite of + the nation in more than one country are showing a tendency + to have nothing to do with them. Politics is an industry in + which a man, to prosper, requires less intelligence and + knowledge than boldness and capacity for intrigue. It has + already become in some states the most ignominious of + careers. Parties are syndicates for exploitation, and its + forms become ever more shameless. + +A later account of French politics, drawn from inside knowledge and +experience, is the remarkable novel, 'Les Morts qui parlent,' by the +Vicomte Le Vogué. Readers of this book will not forget the description +of the _bain de haine_ in which a new deputy at once finds himself +plunged, and the canker of corruption which eats into the whole system. +It is no wonder that the majority of Frenchmen do not care to record +their votes. In 1906, 5,209,606 votes were given, 6,383,852 electors did +not go to the poll. The record of democracy in the new countries is no +better. We must regretfully admit that Louis Simond was right when he +said, 'Few people take the trouble to persuade the people, except those +who see their interest in deceiving them.' + +2. The democracy is a ready victim to shibboleths and catchwords, as all +demagogues know too well. 'The abstract idea,' as Schérer says, 'is the +national aliment of popular rhetoric, the fatal form of thought which, +for want of solid knowledge, operates in a vacuum.' The politician has +only to find a fascinating formula; facts and arguments are powerless +against it. The art of the demagogue is the art of the parrot; he must +utter some senseless catchword again and again, working on the +suggestibility of the crowd. Archbishop Trench, 'On the Study of Words,' +notices this fact of psychology and the use which is commonly made of +it. + + If I wanted any further evidence of the moral atmosphere + which words diffuse, I would ask you to observe how the + first thing men do, when engaged in controversy with others, + is ever to assume some honourable name to themselves, such + as, if possible, shall beg the whole subject in dispute, and + at the same time to affix on their adversaries a name which + shall place them in a ridiculous or contemptible or odious + light. A deep instinct, deeper perhaps than men give any + account of to themselves, tells them how far this will go; + that multitudes, utterly unable to weigh the arguments on + one side or the other, will yet be receptive of the + influences which these words are evermore, however + imperceptibly, diffusing. By argument they might hope to + gain over the reason of a few, but by help of these + nicknames the prejudices and passions of the many. + +The chief instrument of this base art is no longer the public speech +but the newspaper. + +The psychology of the crowd has been much studied lately, by Le Bon and +other writers in France, by Mr. Graham Wallas in England. I think that +Le Bon is in danger of making The Crowd a mystical, superhuman entity. +Of course, a crowd is made up of individuals, who remain individuals +still. We must not accept the stuffed idol of Rousseau and the +socialists, 'The General Will,' and turn it into an evil spirit. There +is no General Will. All we have a right to say is that individuals are +occasionally guided by reason, crowds never. + +3. Several critics of democracy have accused it not only of rash +iconoclasm, but of obstinate conservatism and obstructiveness. It seems +unreasonable to charge the same persons with two opposite faults; but it +is true that where the popular emotions are not touched, the masses will +cling to old abuses from mere force of habit. As Maine says, universal +suffrage would have prohibited the spinning-jenny and the power-loom, +the threshing-machine and the Gregorian calendar; and it would have +restored the Stuarts. The theory of democracy--_vox populi vox dei_--is +a pure superstition, a belief in a divine or natural sanction which does +not exist. And superstition is usually obstructive. 'We erect the +temporary watchwords of evanescent politics into eternal truths; and +having accepted as platitudes the paradoxes of our fathers, we +perpetuate them as obstacles to the progress of our children.'[1] + +4. A more serious danger is that of vexatious and inquisitive tyranny. +This is exercised partly through public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, +anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who +is not content to be the average man. But partly it is seen in constant +interference with the legislature and the executive. No one can govern +who cannot afford to be unpopular, and no democratic official can afford +to be unpopular. Sometimes he has to wink at flagrant injustice and +oppression; at other times a fanatical agitation compels him to pass +laws which forbid the citizen to indulge perfectly harmless tastes, or +tax him to contribute to the pleasures of the majority. In many ways a +Russian under the Tsars was far less interfered with than an Englishman +or American or Australian. + +5. But the two diseases which are likely to be fatal to democracy are +anarchy and corruption. A democratic government is almost necessarily +weak and timid. A democracy cannot tolerate a strong executive for fear +of seeing the control pass out of the hands of the mob. The executive +must be unarmed and defenceless. The result is that it is at the mercy +of any violent and anti-social faction. No civilised government has ever +given a more ludicrous and humiliating object-lesson than the Cabinet +and House of Commons in the years before the war, in face of the +outrages committed by a small gang of female anarchists. The +legalisation of terrorism by the trade-unions was too tragic a surrender +to be ludicrous, but it was even more disgraceful. None could be +surprised when, during the war, the Government shrank from dealing with +treasonable conspiracy in the same quarter. + + The _Times_ for May 24, 1917, contained a noteworthy example + of justice influenced by pressure, and therefore applied + with flagrant inequality. In parallel columns appeared + reports of 'sugar-sellers fined' and 'strike leaders + released.' The former paid the full penalty of their + misdeeds because no body of outside opinion maintained them. + The latter, who were stated to have committed offences for + which the maximum penalty was penal servitude for life, got + off scot-free because they were members of a powerful + organisation which was able to bring immense weight to bear + on the Government.[2] + +The 'immense weight' was, of course, the threat of virtually betraying +the country to the Germans. The country is at this moment at the mercy +of any lawless faction which may choose either to hold the community to +ransom by paralysing our trade and channels of supply, or by organised +violence against life and property. Democracy is powerless against +sectional anarchism; and when such movements break out there is no +remedy except by substituting for democracy a government of a very +different type. + +Democracy is, in fact, a disintegrating force. It is strong in +destruction, and tends to fall to pieces when the work of demolition +(which may of course be a necessary task) is over. Democracy dissolves +communities into individuals and collects them again into mobs. It pulls +up by the roots the social order which civilisation has gradually +evolved, and leaves men _déracinés_, as Bourget says in one of his best +novels, homeless and friendless, with no place ready for them to fill. +It is the opposite extreme to the caste system of India, which, with all +its faults, does not seem to breed the European type of _enragé_, the +enemy of society as such. + +6. The corruption of democracies proceeds directly from the fact that +one class imposes the taxes and another class pays them. The +constitutional principle, 'No taxation without representation,' is +utterly set at nought under a system which leaves certain classes +without any effective representation at all. At the present time it is +said that one-tenth of the population pays five-sixths of the taxes. The +class which imposes the taxes has refused to touch the burden of the war +with one of its fingers; and every month new doles at the public expense +are distributed under the camouflage of 'social reform.' At every +election the worldly goods of the minority are put up to auction. This +is far more immoral than the old-fashioned election bribery, which was a +comparatively honest deal between two persons; and in its effects it is +far more ruinous. Democracy is likely to perish, like the monarchy of +Louis XVI, through national bankruptcy. + +Besides these defects, the democracy has ethical standards of its own, +which differ widely from those of the educated classes. Among the poor, +'generosity ranks far before justice, sympathy before truth, love before +chastity, a pliant and obliging disposition before a rigidly honest one. +In brief, the less admixture of intellect required for the practice of +any virtue, the higher it stands in popular estimation.[3] In this +country, at any rate, democracy means a victory of sentiment over +reason. Some may prefer the softer type of character, and may hope that +it will make civilisation more humane and compassionate than it has been +in the past. Unfortunately, experience shows that none is so cruel as +the disillusioned sentimentalist. He thinks that he can break or ignore +nature's laws with impunity; and then, when he finds that nature has no +sentiment, he rages like a mad dog, and combines with his theoretical +objection to capital punishment a lust to murder all who disagree with +him. This is the genesis of Jacobinism and Bolshevism. + +But whether we think that the bad in democracy predominates over the +good, or the good over the bad, a question which I shall not attempt to +decide, the popular balderdash about it corresponds to no real +conviction. The upper class has never believed in it; the middle class +has the strongest reasons to hate and fear it. But how about the lower +class, in whose interests the whole machine is supposed to have been set +going? The working man has no respect for either democracy or liberty. +His whole interest is in transferring the wealth of the minority to his +own pocket. There was a time when he thought that universal suffrage +would get for him what he desires; but he has lost all faith in +constitutional methods. To levy blackmail on the community, under +threats of civil war, seems to him a more expeditious way of gaining his +object. Monopolies are to be established by pitiless coercion of those +who wish to keep their freedom. The trade unions are large capitalists; +they are well able to start factories for themselves and work them for +their own exclusive profit. But they find it more profitable to hold the +nation to ransom by blockading the supply of the necessaries of life. +The new labourer despises productivity for the same reason that the old +robber barons did: it is less trouble to take money than to make it. The +most outspoken popular leaders no longer conceal their contempt for and +rejection of democracy. The socialists perceive the irreconcilable +contradiction between the two ideas,[4] and they are right. Democracy +postulates community of interest or loyal patriotism. When these are +absent it cannot long exist. Syndicalism, which seems to be growing, is +the antipodes of socialism, but, like socialism, it can make no terms +with democracy. 'If syndicalism triumphs,' says its chief prophet Sorel, +'the parliamentary régime, so dear to the intellectuals, will be at an +end.' 'The syndicalist has a contempt for the vulgar idea of democracy; +the vast unconscious mass is not to be taken into account when the +minority wishes to act so as to benefit it.'[5] 'The effect of political +majorities,' says Mr. Levine, 'is to hinder advance,' Accordingly, +political methods are rejected with contempt. The anarchists go one step +further. Bakunin proclaims that 'we reject all legislation, all +authority, and all influence, even when it has proceeded from universal +suffrage.' These powerful movements, opposed as they are to each other, +agree in spurning the very idea of democracy, which Lord Morley defines +as government by public opinion, and which may be defined with more +precision as direct government by the votes of the majority among the +adult members of a nation. Even a political philosopher like Mr. Lowes +Dickinson says, 'For my part, I am no democrat.' + +Who then are the friends of this _curieux fétiche_, as Quinet called +democracy? It appears to have none, though it has been the subject of +fatuous laudation ever since the time of Rousseau. The Americans burn +incense before it, but they are themselves ruled by the Boss and the +Trust. + +The attempt to justify the labour movement as a legitimate development +of the old democratic Liberalism is futile. Freedom to form +combinations is no doubt a logical application of _laisser faire_; and +the anarchic possibilities latent in _laisser faire_ have been made +plain in the anti-democratic movements of labour. But Liberalism rested +on a too favourable estimate of human nature and on a belief in the law +of progress. As there is no law of progress, and as civilised society is +being destroyed by the evil passions of men, Liberalism is, for the +time, quite discredited. It would also be true to say that there is a +fundamental contradiction between the two dogmas of Liberalism. These +were, that unlimited competition is stimulating to the competitors and +good for the country, and that every individual is an end, not a means. +Both are anarchical; but the first logically issues in individualistic +anarchy, the last in communistic anarchy. The economic and the ethical +theory of Liberalism cannot be harmonised. The result--cruel competition +tempered by an artificial process of counter-selection in favour of the +unfittest--was by no means satisfactory. But it was better than what we +are now threatened with. + +That the labour movement is economically rotten it is easy to prove. In +the words of Professor Hearnshaw, 'the government has ceased to govern +in the world of labour, and has been compelled, instead of governing, to +bribe, to cajole, to beg, to grovel. It has purchased brief truces at +the cost of increasing levies of Danegeld drawn from the diminishing +resources of the patient community. It has embarked on a course of +payment of blackmail which must end either in national bankruptcy or in +the social revolution which the anarchists seek.' The powerful +trade-unions are now plundering both the owners of their 'plant,' and +the general public. It is easy to show that their members already get +much more than their share of the national wealth. Professor Bowley[6] +has estimated that an equal division of the national income would give +about £160 a year to each family, free of taxes. But even this estimate, +discouraging as it is, seems not to allow sufficiently for the fact that +under the present system much of the income of the richer classes is +counted twice or three times over. Abolish large incomes, and jewels, +pictures, wines, furs, special and rare skill like that of the operating +surgeon and fashionable portrait painter, lose all or most of their +money value. All the large professional incomes, except those of the low +comedian and his like, are made out of the rich, and are counted at +least twice for income-tax. It is certain that a large part of the +national income could not be 'redistributed,' and that in the attempt to +do so credit would be destroyed and wealth would melt like a snow man. +The miners, therefore, are not seeking justice; they are blackmailing +rich and poor alike by their monopoly of one of the necessaries of life. +And now they strike against paying income-tax! + +It is not necessary or just to bring railing accusations against any +class as a body. Power is always abused, and in this case there is much +honest ignorance, stimulated by agitators who are seldom honest. In a +recent number of the _Edinburgh Review_ Sir Lynden Macassey speaks of +the widespread, almost universal, fallacies to which the hand-worker has +fallen a victim. They believe that all their aspirations can be +satisfied out of present-day profits and production. They believe that +in restricting output they are performing a moral duty to their class. +They do not believe that the prosperity of the country depends upon its +production, and are opposed to all labour-saving devices. They refuse +co-operation because they desire the continuance of the class-war. Such +perversity would seem hardly credible if it were not attested by +overwhelming evidence. The Government remedy is first to create +unemployment and then to endow it--the shortest and maddest road to ruin +since the downfall of the Roman Empire. + +We may have a faint hope that some of these fallacies will be abandoned +by the workmen when their destructive results can no longer be +concealed. But sentimentalism seems to be incurable. It erects +irrationality into an act of religious faith, gives free rein to the +emotion of pity, and thinks that it is imitating the Good Samaritan by +robbing the Priest and Levite for the benefit of the man by the +road-side. The sentimentalist shows a bitter hatred against those who +wish to cure an evil by removing its causes. A good example is the +language of writers like Mr. Chesterton about eugenics and population. +If social maladies were treated scientifically, the trade of the +emotional rhetorician would be gone. + +We have seen that democracy--the rule of majorities--has been +discredited and abandoned in action, though officially we all bow down +before it. Another popular delusion is that the chief change in the last +fifty years has been a conversion of the world from individualism to +socialism. In the language of the Christian socialists, who wish to +combine the militant spirit and organisation of medieval Catholicism +with a bid for the popular vote, we have 'rediscovered the Corporate +Idea.' But if we take socialism, not in the narrower sense of +collectivism, which would be an economic experiment, but in the wider +sense of a keen consciousness of the solidarity of the community as an +organic whole, there is very little truth in the commonly held notion +that we have become more socialistic. It is easy to see how the idea has +arisen. It became necessary to find some theoretical justification for +raising taxes, no longer for national needs, but for the benefit of the +class which imposed them; and this justification was found in the theory +that all wealth belongs to 'the State,' and may be justly divided up as +'the State'--that is to say, the majority of the voters--may determine. +Whenever the question arises of voting new doles to the dominant section +of the people at the expense of the minority, our new political +philosophers profess themselves fervent socialists. But true socialism, +which is almost synonymous with patriotism, is as conspicuously absent +in those who call themselves socialists as it is strong in those who +repudiate the title. This paradox can be easily proved. The most +socialistic enterprise in which a nation ever engages is a great war. A +nation at war is conscious of its corporate unity and its common +interests, as it is at no other time. The nation then calls upon every +citizen to surrender all his personal rights and to offer his life and +limbs in the service of the community. And what has been the record of +the 'socialists' in the struggle for national existence in which we have +been engaged? In the years preceding the war they ridiculed the idea +that the country was in danger of being attacked, and used all their +power to prevent us from preparing against attack. They steadily opposed +the teaching of patriotism in the schools. When the war began, they +prevented the Government from introducing compulsory service until our +French Allies, who were left to bear the brunt, were on the point of +collapse; they, in very many cases, refused to serve themselves, thereby +avowing that, as far as they were concerned, they were willing to see +their country conquered by a horde of cruel barbarians; and they nearly +handed over our armies to destruction by fomenting strikes at the most +critical periods of the war. This attitude cannot be accounted for by +any conscientious objection to violence, which is in fact their +favourite weapon, except against the enemies of their country. Their +socialism is, in truth, individualism run mad; it is the very antithesis +to the consciousness of organic unity in a nation, which is the +spiritual basis of socialism. In this sense, the nation as a whole has +shown a fine socialistic temper; but the disgraceful exception has been +the socialist party. The intense and perverted individualism of the +so-called socialist is shown in another way. Whatever liberties a State +may permit to its citizens, it is certain that no nation can be in a +healthy condition unless the government keeps in its own hands the keys +of birth and of death. The State has the right of the farmer to decide +how many cows should be allowed to graze upon ten acres of grass; the +right of the forester to decide how many square feet are required for +each tree in a wood. It has also the right and the duty of the gardener +to pull up noxious weeds in his flower-beds. But the socialist +vehemently repudiates both these rights. Being an ultra-individualist, +he is in favour of _laisser faire_, where _laisser faire_ is most +indefensible and most disastrous. + +It would be easy to maintain that the organic idea was more potent, both +under medieval feudalism and under nineteenth-century industrialism, +than it is now. In former days, economic and social equality were not +even aimed at, because it was thought inevitable that in a social +organism there must be subordination and a hierarchy of functions. +Essentially, and in the sight of God, all are equal, or, rather, the +essential differences between man and man are absolutely independent of +social status. In a few years Lazarus may be in heaven and Dives in +hell. Beside this equality of moral opportunity and tremendous +inequality in self-chosen destiny, the status of master and servant +seemed of small importance; it was a temporary and trivial accident. +Accordingly, in feudal times, as to-day in really Catholic communities, +feelings of injustice and social bitterness were seldom aroused and +class differences take on a more genial colour. In spite of the +lawlessness and brutality of the Middle Ages it is probable that men +were happier then than they are now. + +The French Revolution, which was a disintegrating solvent, pulverised +society, and was impotent to reconstruct it. Yet under the industrial +régime which followed it in this country, the nation was conscious of +its unity. The system was the best that could have been devised for +increasing the population and aggregate wealth of the country; and even +those who suffered most under it were not without pride in its results. +The ill-paid workman of the last century would have thought it a poor +thing to do a deliberately bad day's work. + +I am not praising either the age of feudalism or the 'hungry forties' of +the nineteenth century. In the latter case especially the sacrifice +exacted from the poor was too great for the rather vulgar success of +which it was the condition. But to call that age the period of +individualism, and our own generation the period of socialism, is in my +opinion a profound mistake. In Germany, too, the real socialists are not +the 'Spartacist' scoundrels who have betrayed and ruined their country, +but the bureaucracy with their _Deutschland über Alles_. If I were a +little more of a socialist, I could almost admire them, in spite of all +their crimes. + +The landed gentry (and in honesty I must add the endowed clergy) are a +survival of feudalism, as the capitalist is a survival of industrialism. +Both have to a large extent survived their functions. The mailclad +baron, round whose fortified castle the peasants and others gathered for +protection, has become the country gentleman, against whom the +indictment is not so much that his only pursuit is pleasure, as that his +only pleasure is pursuit. 'The rich man in his castle, the poor man at +his gate' were intelligible while the rich man protected the poor man +from being plundered and killed by marauders; but in our times nobody +wants a castle or to live under the shadow of a castle. The clerical +profession was a necessity when most people could neither read nor +write. But to-day our best prophets and preachers are laymen. As at +ancient Athens, in the time of Aristophanes, 'the young learn from the +schoolmaster, the mature from the poets.' Similarly, the captain of +industry cannot hold the same autocratic position as formerly, in view +of the growing intelligence and capacity of the workmen; and the +capitalist who is not a captain of industry is a debtor to the community +to an extent which he does not always realise. This class is becoming +painfully conscious of its vulnerability. + +There are, therefore, irrational survivals in our social order; and +though it may be proved that they are not a severe burden on the +community, it is natural that popular bitterness and discontent should +fasten upon them and exaggerate their evil results. It cannot be +disputed that this bitterness and discontent were becoming very acute in +the years before the war. An increasing number of persons saw no meaning +and no value in our civilisation. This feeling was common in all +classes, including the so-called leisured class; and was so strong that +many welcomed with joy the clear call to a plain duty, though it was the +duty of facing all the horrors of war. What is the cause of this +discontent? There are few more important questions for us to answer. + +Those who find the cause in the existence of the survivals which we have +mentioned are certainly mistaken. It is no new thing that there should +be a small class more or less parasitic on the community. The whole +number of persons who pay income-tax on £5000 a year and upwards is +only 13,000 out of 46 millions, and their wealth, if it could be divided +up, would make no appreciable difference to the working man. The +wage-earners are better off than they have ever been before in our +history, and the danger of revolution comes not from the poor, but from +the privileged artisans who already have incomes above the family +average. We must look elsewhere for an explanation of social unrest. If +we consider what are the chief centres of discontent throughout the +civilised world, we shall find that they are the great aggregations of +population in wealthy industrial countries. Social unrest is a disease +of town-life. Wherever the conditions which create the great modern city +exist, we find revolutionary agitation. It has spread to Barcelona, to +Buenos Ayres, and to Osaka, in the wake of the factory. The inhabitants +of the large town do not envy the countryman and would not change with +him. But, unknown to themselves, they are leading an unnatural life, cut +off from the kindly and wholesome influences of nature, surrounded by +vulgarity and ugliness, with no traditions, no loyalties, no culture, +and no religion. We seldom reflect on the strangeness of the fact that +the modern working-man has few or no superstitions. At other times the +masses have evolved for themselves some picturesque nature-religion, +some pious ancestor-worship, some cult of saints or heroes, some stories +of fairies, ghosts, or demons, and a mass of quaint superstitions, +genial or frightening. The modern town-dweller has no God and no Devil; +he lives without awe, without admiration, without fear. Whatever we may +think about these beliefs, it is not natural for men and women to be +without them. The life of the town artisan who works in a factory is a +life to which the human organism has not adapted itself; it is an +unwholesome and unnatural condition. Hence, probably, comes the +_malaise_ which makes him think that any radical change must be for the +better. + +Whatever the cause of the disease may be (and I do not pretend that the +conditions of urban life are an adequate explanation) the malady is +there, and will probably prove fatal to our civilisation. I have given +my views on this subject in the essay called _The Future of the English +Race._ And yet there is a remedy within the reach of all if we would +only try it. + +The essence of the Christian revelation is the proclamation of a +standard of absolute values, which contradicts at every point the +estimates of good and evil current in 'the world.' It is not necessary, +in such an essay as this, to write out the Beatitudes, or the very +numerous passages in the Gospels and Epistles in which the same lessons +are enforced. It is not necessary to remind the reader that in +Christianity all the paraphernalia of life are valued very lightly; that +all the good and all the evil which exalt or defile a man have their +seat within him, in his own character; that we are sent into the world +to suffer and to conquer suffering; that it is more blessed to give than +to receive; that love is the great revealer of the mysteries of life; +that we have here no continuing city, and must therefore set our +affections and lay up our treasures in heaven; that the things that are +seen are temporal, and the things that are not seen are eternal. This is +the Christian religion. It is a form of idealism; and idealism means a +belief in absolute or spiritual values. + +When applied to human life, it introduces, as it were, a new currency, +which demonetises the old; or gives us a new scale of prices, in which +the cheapest things are the dearest, and the dearest the cheapest. The +world's standards are quantitative; those of Christianity are +qualitative. And being qualitative, spiritual goods are unlimited in +amount; they are increased by being shared; and we rob nobody by taking +them. + +Secularists ask impatiently what Christianity has done or proposes to do +to make mankind happier, by which they mean more comfortable. The answer +is (to put it in a form intelligible to the questioner) that +Christianity increases the wealth of the world by creating new values. +Wealth depends on human valuation. For example, if women were +sufficiently well educated not to care about diamonds, the Kimberley +mines would pay no dividends, and the rents in Park Lane would go down. +The prices of paintings by old masters would decline if millionaires +preferred to collect another kind of scalps to decorate their wigwams. +Bookmakers and company-promoters live on the widespread passion for +acquiring money without working for it. It is hardly possible to +estimate the increase of real wealth, and the stoppage of waste, which +would result from the adoption of a rational, still more of a Christian, +valuation of the good things of life. I have dealt with this subject in +the essay on _The Indictment against Christianity_, and have emphasised +the importance of taking into consideration, in all economic questions, +the _human costs_ of production, the factors which make work pleasant or +irksome, and especially the moral condition of the worker. Good-will +diminishes the toll which labour takes of the labourer; envy and hatred +vastly increase it while they diminish its product. It is, of course, +impossible that the worker should not resent having to devote his life +to making what is useless or mischievous, and to ministering to the +irrational wastefulness of luxury. Christianity, in condemning the +selfish and irresponsible use of money, seeks to remove one of the chief +causes of social bitterness. Senseless extravagance is the best friend +of revolution. + +The abuse poured upon 'the old political economy,' as it is called, is +only half deserved. As compared with the insane doctrines now in favour +with the working-man, the old political economy was sound and sensible. +Hard work, thrift, and economy in production are, in truth, as we used +to be told, the only ways to increase the national wealth, and the +contrary practices can only lead to economic ruin. There is not much +fault to find with the old economists so long as they recognised that +their science was an abstract science, which for its own purposes dealt +with an unreal abstraction--the 'economic man.' Every science is obliged +to isolate one aspect of reality in this way. But when political economy +was treated as a philosophy of life it began to be mischievous. A book +on 'the science of the stomach,' without knowledge of physiology or the +working of other organs, would not be of much use. Man has never been a +merely acquisitive being; for example, he is also a fighting and a +praying being. If our dominant motives were changed, the whole +conditions dealt with by political economy would change with them. There +have been civilisations in which the passion for accumulation was +comparatively weak; and notoriously there are many persons in whom it is +wholly absent. Devotion to art, to scientific investigation, and to +religion is strong enough, where it exists, to kill 'the economic man' +in human nature. A civilised nation honours its idealists, and +recognises the immense benefit which they confer on the community by +creating or revealing new and inexhaustible values; in an uncivilised +country they can hardly live. Ruskin and William Morris saw, and +doubtless exaggerated, the danger to which spiritual values were exposed +at the hands of the dominant economism. Our danger now is that neglect +of the simplest economic laws may plunge the nation into such misery +that the people will no longer be willing to support art, science, +learning, and philosophy. A large section of the labour party has the +same standard of values as the hated 'capitalist,' and detests those +whom it calls intellectuals and sky-pilots because they depreciate the +currency which their class, no less than the capitalist, believes to be +the only sound money. + +It may be asked whether there is any reason to think that there is now +less regard for the higher, the qualitative values of life, than at +other periods. My opinion is that ever since the time of Rousseau and +his contemporaries, we have been led astray by a will-of-the-wisp akin +to the apocalyptic dreams of the Jews in the last two centuries before +Christ, dreams which also filled the minds of the first generation of +Christians. The Greeks never made the mistake of throwing their ideals +into the future, a practice which, as Dr. Bosanquet has said, 'is the +death of all sane idealism.' The belief in 'a good time coming' is a +Jewish delusion. It nourished the Jews in their amazing obstinacy, and +led to the annihilation of their State which, to the very end, they saw +in their dreams bruising all other nations with a rod of iron, and +breaking them in pieces like a potter's vessel. But, as any idealism is +better than none, the Hebrew race has won remarkable triumphs, though of +a kind which it never desired. + +The myth of progress is our form of apocalyptism. In France it began +with sentimentalism, developing normally into homicidal mania. In +England it took the form of a kind of Deuteronomic religion. As a reward +for our national virtues, our population expanded, our exports and +imports went up by leaps and bounds, and our empire received additions +every decade. It was plain that when Christ said 'Blessed are the meek, +for they shall inherit the earth,' He was thinking of the British +Empire. The whole structure of our social order encouraged the +measurement of everything by quantitative standards. Everyone could +understand that a generation which travels sixty miles an hour must be +five times as civilised as one which only travelled twelve. Thus the +beneficent 'law of progress' was exemplified in that nation which had +best deserved to be its exponent. The myth in question is that there is +a natural law of improvement, manifested by greater complexity of +structure, by increase of wants and the means to satisfy them. A nation +advances in civilisation by increasing in wealth and population, and by +multiplying the accessories and paraphernalia of life. + +Belief in this alleged law has vitiated our natural science, our +political science, our history, our philosophy, and even our religion. +Science declared that 'the survival of the fittest' was a law of nature, +though nature has condemned to extinction the majestic animals of the +saurian era, and has carefully preserved the bug, the louse, and the +spirochaeta pallida. + + We dined as a rule on each other; + What matter? the toughest survived, + +is a fair parody of this doctrine. In political science, by a portentous +snobbery, the actual evolution of European government was assumed to be +in the line of upward progress. Our histories contrasted the benighted +condition of past ages with the high morality and general enlightenment +of the present. In philosophy, the problem of evil was met by the +theory that though the Deity is not omnipotent yet, He is on His way to +become so. He means well, and if we give Him time, He will make a real +success of His creation. Human beings, too, commonly make a very poor +thing of their lives here. But continue their training after they are +dead and they will all come to perfection. We have been living on this +secularised idealism for a hundred and fifty years. It has driven out +the true idealism, of which it is a caricature, and has made the deeper +and higher kind of religious faith abnormally difficult. Even the hope +of immortality has degenerated into a belief in apparitions and voices +from the dead. + +Nature knows nothing of this precious law. Her figure is not the +vertical line, nor even the spiral, but the circle--the vicious circle, +according to Samuel Butler. 'Men eat birds, birds eat worms, worms eat +men again.' Some stars are getting hotter, others cooler. Life appears +at a certain temperature and is extinguished at another temperature. +Evolution and involution balance each other and go on concurrently. The +normal condition of every species on this planet is not progress but +stationariness. 'Progress,' so-called, is an incident of adaptation to +new conditions. Bees and ants must have spent millennia in perfecting +their organisation; now that they have reached a stable equilibrium, no +more changes are perceptible. The 'progress' of humanity has consisted +almost entirely in the transformation of the wild man of the woods, not +into _homo sapiens_ but into _homo faber_, man the tool-maker, a process +of which nature expresses her partial disapproval by plaguing us with +diverse diseases and taking away our teeth and claws. It is not certain +that there has been much change in our intellectual and moral endowments +since pithecanthropus dropped the first half of his name. I should be +sorry to have to maintain that the Germans of to-day are morally +superior to the army which defeated Quintilius Varus, or that the modern +Turks are more humane than the hordes of Timour the Tartar. If there is +to be any improvement in human nature itself we must look to the infant +science of eugenics to help us. + +It is not easy to say how this myth of progress came to take hold of +the imagination, in the teeth of science and experience. Quinet speaks +of the 'fatalistic optimism' of historians, of which there have +certainly been some strange examples. We can only say that secularism, +like other religions, needs an eschatology, and has produced one. A more +energetic generation than ours looked forward to a gradual extension of +busy industrialism over the whole planet; the present ideal of the +masses seems to be the greatest idleness of the greatest number, or a +Fabian farm-yard of tame fowls, or (in America) an ice-water-drinking +gynæcocracy. But the superstition cannot flourish much longer. The +period of expansion is over, and we must adjust our view of earthly +providence to a state of decline. For no nation can flourish when it is +the ambition of the large majority to put in fourpence and take out +ninepence. The middle-class will be the first victims; then the +privileged aristocracy of labour will exploit the poor. But trade will +take wings and migrate to some other country where labour is good and +comparatively cheap. + +The dethronement of a fetish may give a sounder faith its chance. In the +time of decay and disintegration which lies before us, more persons will +seek consolation where it can be found. 'Happiness and unhappiness,' +says Spinoza, 'depend on the nature of the object which we love. When a +thing is not loved, no quarrels will arise concerning it, no sadness +will be felt if it perishes, no envy if it is possessed by another; no +fear, no hatred, no disturbance of the mind. All these things arise from +the love of the perishable. But love for a thing eternal and infinite +feeds the mind wholly with joy, and is itself untainted with any +sadness; wherefore it is greatly to be desired and sought for with our +whole strength.' It is well known that these noble words were not only +sincere, but the expression of the working faith of the philosopher; and +we may hope that many who are doomed to suffer hardship and spoliation +in the evil days that are coming will find the same path to a happiness +which cannot be taken from them. Spinoza's words, of course, do not +point only to religious exercises and meditation. The spiritual world +includes art and science in all their branches, when these are studied +with a genuine devotion to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful for +their own sakes. We shall need 'a remnant' to save Europe from relapsing +into barbarism; for the new forces are almost wholly cut off from the +precious traditions which link our civilisation with the great eras of +the past. The possibility of another dark age is not remote; but there +must be enough who value our best traditions to preserve them till the +next spring-time of civilisation. We must take long views, and think of +our great-grandchildren. + +It is tempting to dream of a new Renaissance, under which the life of +reason will at last be the life of mankind. Though there is little sign +of improvement in human nature, a favourable conjunction of +circumstances may bring about a civilisation very much better than ours +to-day. For a time, at any rate, war may be practically abolished, and +the military qualities may find another and a less pernicious outlet. +'Sport,' as Santayana says, 'is a liberal form of war stripped of its +compulsions and malignity; a rational art and the expression of a +civilised instinct.' The art of living may be taken in hand seriously. +Some of the ingenuity which has lately been lavished on engines of +destruction may be devoted to improvements in our houses, which should +be easily and cheaply put together and able to be carried about in +sections; on labour-saving devices which would make servants +unnecessary; and on international campaigns against diseases, some of +the worst of which could be extinguished for ever by twenty years of +concerted effort. A scientific civilisation is not impossible, though we +are not likely to live to see it. And, if science and humanism can work +together, it will be a great age for mankind. Such hopes as these must +be allowed to float before our minds: they are not unreasonable, and +they will help us to get through the twentieth century, which is not +likely to be a pleasant time to live in. + +Some writers, like Mr. H.G. Wells, recognising the danger which +threatens civilisation, have suggested the formation of a society for +mutual encouragement in the higher life. Mr. Wells developed this idea +in his 'Modern Utopia.' He contemplated a brotherhood, like the +Japanese Samurai, living by a Rule, a kind of lay monastic order, who +should endeavour to live in a perfectly rational and wholesome manner, +so as to be the nucleus of whatever was best in the society of the time. +The scheme is interesting to a Platonist, because of its resemblance to +the Order of Guardians in the 'Republic.' A very good case may be made +out for having an ascetic Order of moral and physical aristocrats, and +entrusting them with the government of the country. Plato forbade his +guardians to own wealth, and thus secured an uncorrupt administration, +one of the rarest and best of virtues in a government. But political +events are not moving in this direction at present; and the question for +us is whether those who believe in science and humanism should attempt +to form a society, not to rule the country, but to protect themselves +and the ideas which they wish to preserve. But I agree with Mr. Wells' +second thoughts, that the time is not ripe for such a scheme.[7] +Christianity, 'the greatest new beginning in the world's history,' +appeared, as he says, in an age of disintegration, and 'we are in a +synthetic rather than a disintegrating phase.... _Only a very vast and +terrible war-explosion can, I think, change this state of affairs.'_ The +vast explosion has occurred, and the stage of disintegration, which Mr. +Wells ought perhaps to have seen approaching even eleven years ago, has +clearly begun. But it will have to go further before the need of such a +society is felt. The time may come when the educated classes, and those +who desire freedom to live as they think right, will find themselves +oppressed, not only in their home-life by the tyranny of the +trade-unions, but in their souls by the pulpy and mawkish emotionalism +of herd-morality. Then a league for mutual protection may be formed. If +such a society ever comes into being, the following principles are, I +think, necessary for its success. First, it must be on a religious +basis, since religion has a cohesive force greater than any other bond. +The religious basis will be a blend of Christian Platonism and Christian +Stoicism, since it must be founded on that faith in absolute spiritual +values which is common to Christianity and Platonism, with that sturdy +defiance of tyranny and popular folly which was the strength of +Stoicism. Next, it must not be affiliated to any religious organisation; +otherwise it will certainly be exploited in denominational interests. +Thirdly, it must include some purely disciplinary asceticism, such as +abstinence from alcohol and tobacco for men, and from costly dresses and +jewellery for women. This is necessary, because it is more important to +keep out the half-hearted than to increase the number of members. +Fourthly, it must prescribe a simple life of duty and discipline, since +frugality will be a condition of enjoying self-respect and freedom. +Fifthly, it will enjoin the choice of an open-air life in the country, +where possible. A whole group of French writers, such as Proudhon, +Delacroix, Leconte de Lisle, Flaubert, Leblond, and Faguet agree in +attributing our social _malaise_ to life in great towns. The lower +death-rates of country districts are a hint from nature that they are +right. Sixthly, every member must pledge himself to give his best work. +As Dr. Jacks says, 'Producers of good articles respect each other; +producers of bad despise each other and hate their work.' It may be +necessary for those who recognise the right of the labourer to preserve +his self-respect, to combine in order to satisfy each other's needs in +resistance to the trade-unions. Seventhly, there must be provision for +community-life, like that of the old monasteries, for both sexes. The +members of the society should be encouraged to spend some part of their +lives in these institutions, without retiring from the world altogether. +Temporary 'retreats' might be of great value. Intellectual work, +including scientific research, could be carried on under very favourable +conditions in these lay monasteries and convents, which should contain +good libraries and laboratories. Lastly, a distinctive dress, not merely +a badge, would probably be essential for members of both sexes. + +This last provision tempts me to add that the Government would do well +to appoint at once a Royal Commission, or, rather, two Commissions, to +decide on a compulsory national uniform for both sexes. Experts should +recommend the most comfortable, becoming, and economical dress that +could be devised, with considerable variety for the different trades and +professions. Such a law would do more for social equality than any +readjustment of taxation. It has been often noticed that every man looks +a gentleman in khaki; and it is to be feared that many war brides have +suffered a painful surprise on seeing their husbands for the first time +in civilian garb. There need be no suggestion of militarism about the +new costume; but a man's calling might be recorded, like the name of his +regiment, on his shoulder-straps, and the absence of such a badge would +be regarded as a disgrace, whether the subject was a tramp or one of the +idle rich. This suggestion may seem trivial, or even ludicrous; and I +may be reminded of my dislike of meddling legislation; but the +importance of the philosophy of clothes has not diminished since 'Sartor +Resartus.' Clerical dignitaries might be trusted to vote for this +mitigation of their lot. + +Some may wonder why I have not expressed a hope that the guardianship of +our intellectual and spiritual birthright may pass into the hands of the +National Church. I heartily wish that I could cherish this hope. But +organised religion has been a failure ever since the first concordat +between Church and State under Constantine the Great. The Church of +England in its corporate capacity has never seemed to respect anything +but organised force. In the sixteenth century it proclaimed Henry VIII +the Supreme Head of the Church; in the seventeenth century it +passionately upheld the 'right divine of kings to govern wrong'; in the +eighteenth and nineteenth it was the obsequious supporter of the +squirearchy and plutocracy; and now it grovels before the working-man, +and supports every scheme of plundering the minority. In fact, we must +distinguish sharply between ecclesiasticism, theology, and religion. The +future of ecclesiasticism is a political question. In the opinion of +some good judges, the acute nationalism now dominant in Europe will +quickly pass away, and a duel will supervene between the 'Black +International' and the 'Red.' Catholicism, it is supposed, will shelter +all who dread revolution and all who value traditional civilisation; its +unrivalled organisation will make it the one possible centre of +resistance to anarchy and barbarism, and the conflict will go on till +one side or the other is overthrown. This prediction, which opens a +truly appalling prospect for civilisation, might be less terrible if the +Church were to open its arms to a new Renaissance, and become once more, +as in the beginning of the modern period, the home of learning and the +patroness of the arts. But we must not overlook the new and growing +power of science; and science can no more make terms with Catholic +ecclesiasticism than with the Revolution. The Jacobins guillotined +Lavoisier, 'having no need of chemists'; but the Church burnt Bruno and +imprisoned Galileo. Science, too strong to be victimised again, may come +between the two enemies of civilisation, the Bolshevik and the +Ultramontane; it is, I think, our best hope. + +I am conscious that I have spoken with too little sympathy in one or two +of these essays about the Ritualist party. I was more afraid of it a few +years ago than I am now. The Oxford movement began as a late wave of the +Romantic movement, with wistful eyes bent upon the past. But +Romanticism, which dotes on ruins, shrinks from real restoration. +Medievalism is attractive only when seen from a short distance. So the +movement is ceasing to be either medieval or Catholic or Anglican; it is +becoming definitely Latin. But a Latin Church in England which disowns +the Pope is an absurdity. Many of the shrewder High Churchmen are, as I +have said in this volume, throwing themselves into political agitation +and intrigue, for which Catholics always have a great aptitude; but this +involves them in another inconsistency. For Catholicism is essentially +hierarchical and undemocratic, though it keeps a 'career open to the +talents.' The spirit of Catholicism breathes in the Third Canto of the +'Paradiso,' where Dante asks the soul of a friend whom he finds in the +lowest circle of Paradise, whether he does not desire to go higher. The +friend replies: 'Brother, the force of charity quiets our will, making +us wish only for what we have and thirst for nothing more. If we +desired to be in a sublimer sphere, our desires would be discordant with +the will of Him who here allots us our diverse stations.... The manner +in which we are ranged from step to step in this kingdom pleases the +whole kingdom, as it does the King who gives us the power to will as He +wills.' Accordingly, these ecclesiastical votaries of democracy cut a +strange figure when they seek to legislate for the Church. The High +Church scheme (defeated the other day by a small majority) for drawing +up a constitution for the Church, consisted in disfranchising the large +majority of the electorate and reserving the initiative and veto for the +House of Lords (the Bishops). In fact, the constitution which our +Catholic democrats would like best for the Church closely resembles that +of Great Britain before the first Reform Bill. In the same way the +ritualistic clergy, while professing a superstitious reverence for the +episcopal office, make a point of flouting the authority of their own +bishop. The movement, in my opinion, is beginning to break up, and Rome +will be the chief gainer. But many of its leaders have been among the +glories of the Church of England, and I could never speak of them with +disrespect. + +Catholicism, whether Roman or Anglican, stands to lose heavily by the +decay of institutionalism as an article of faith. It is becoming +impossible for those who mix at all with their fellow-men to believe +that the grace of God is distributed denominationally. The Christian +virtues, so far as we can see, flower impartially in the souls of +Catholic and Protestant, of Churchman and Schismatic, of Orthodox and +Heretic. And the test, 'by their fruits ye shall know them,' cannot be +openly rejected by any Christian. But fanatical institutionalism has +been the driving force of Catholicism as a power in the world, from the +very first. The Church has lived by its monopolies and conquered by its +intolerance. The war has given a further impetus to the fall of this +belief, which, with its dogma, _Extra ecclesiam nulla salus_, was +tottering before the crisis came. + +The prospects of Christian theology are very difficult to estimate; and +I am so convinced myself of the superiority of the Catholic theology +based on Neoplatonism, that I cannot view the matter with impartial +detachment. We all tend to predict the triumph of our own opinions. But +miracles must, I am convinced, be relegated to the sphere of pious +opinion. It is not likely, perhaps, that the progress of science will +increase the difficulty of believing them; but it can never again be +possible to make the truths of religion depend on physical portents +having taken place as recorded. The Christian revelation can stand +without them, and the rulers of the Church will soon have to recognise +that in very many minds it does stand without them. + +I have already indicated what I believe to be the essential parts of +that revelation. Whether it will be believed by a larger number of +persons a hundred years hence than to-day depends, I suppose, on whether +the nation will be in a more healthy condition than it is now. The chief +rival to Christianity is secularism; and this creed has some bitter +disappointments in store for its worshippers. I cannot help hoping that +the human race, having taken in succession every path except the right +one, may pay more attention to the narrow way that leadeth unto life. In +morals, the Church will undoubtedly have a hard battle to fight. The +younger generation has discarded all _tabus_, and in matters of sex we +must be prepared for a period of unbridled license. But such lawlessness +brings about its own cure by arousing disgust and shame; and the +institution of marriage is far too deeply rooted to be in any danger +from the revolution. + +I have, I suppose, made it clear that I do not consider myself specially +fortunate in having been born in 1860, and that I look forward with +great anxiety to the journey through life which my children will have to +make. But, after all, we judge our generation mainly by its surface +currents. There may be in progress a storage of beneficent forces which +we cannot see. There are ages of sowing and ages of reaping: the +brilliant epochs may be those in which spiritual wealth is squandered, +the epochs of apparent decline may be those in which the race is +recuperating after an exhausting effort. To all appearance, man has +still a great part of his long lease before him, and there is no reason +to suppose that the future will be less productive of moral and +spiritual triumphs than the past. The source of all good is like an +inexhaustible river; the Creator pours forth new treasures of goodness, +truth, and beauty for all who will love them and take them. 'Nothing +that truly _is_ can ever perish,' as Plotinus says; whatever has value +in God's sight is safe for evermore. Our half-real world is the factory +of souls, in which we are tried, as in a furnace. We are not to set our +hopes upon it, but to learn such wisdom as it can teach us while we pass +through it. I will therefore end these thoughts on our present +discontents with two messages of courage and confidence, one from +Chaucer, the other from Blake. + + That thee is sent, receyve in buxomnesse, + The wrastling for this worlde axeth a fall. + Her is non hoom, her nis but wildernesse: + Forth, pilgrim, forth! Forth, beste, out of thy stall! + Know thy contree, look up, thank God of all: + Weyve thy lust, and let thy gost thee lede; + And trouthe shall delivere, it is no drede. + +And this:-- + + Joy and woe are woven fine, + A clothing for the soul divine; + Under every grief and pine + Runs a joy with silken twine. + It is right it should be so; + Man was made for joy and woe; + And when this we rightly know + Safely through the world we go. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] _Times Literary Supplement_, July 18, 1918. + + [2] Hearnshaw, _Democracy at the Crossroads_, p. 63. + + [3] Miss M. Loane. Mr. Stephen Reynolds has said the same. + + [4] Professor Hearnshaw quotes: 'Il y a opposition évidente + et irréductible entre les principes socialistes et les + principes démocratiques. Il n'y a pas de conceptions + politiques qui soient séparées par des abîmes plus profonds + que la démocratie et le socialisme' (Le Bon). 'Socialism + must be built on ideas and institutions totally different + from the ideas and institutions of democracy' (Levine). 'La + democratic tend à la conciliation des classes, tandis que le + socialisme organise la lutte de classe' (Lagardelle). + + [5] A.D. Lewis, _Syndicalism and the General Strike_. + + [6] _The Division of the Product of Industry_. + + [7] _First and Last Things_ (pp. 148-9. Published in 1908). + + + + +PATRIOTISM + +(1915) + + +The sentiment of patriotism has seemed to many to mark an arrest of +development in the psychical expansion of the individual, a half-way +house between mere self-centredness and full human sympathy. Some +moralists have condemned it as pure egoism, magnified and disguised. +'Patriotism,' says Ruskin, 'is an absurd prejudice founded on an +extended selfishness.' Mr. Grant Allen calls it 'a vulgar vice--the +national or collective form of the monopolist instinct.' Mr. Havelock +Ellis allows it to be 'a virtue--among barbarians.' For Herbert Spencer +it is 'reflex egoism--extended selfishness.' These critics have made the +very common mistake of judging human emotions and sentiments by their +roots instead of by their fruits. They have forgotten the Aristotelian +canon that the 'nature' of anything is its completed development (hê +phusis telos estin). The human self, as we know it, is a transitional +form. It had a humble origin, and is capable of indefinite enhancement. +Ultimately, we are what we love and care for, and no limit has been set +to what we may become without ceasing to be ourselves. The case is the +same with our love of country. No limit has been set to what our country +may come to mean for us, without ceasing to be our country. Marcus +Aurelius exhorted himself--'The poet says, Dear city of Cecrops; shall +not I pay, Dear city of God?' But the city of God in which he wished to +be was a city in which he would still live as 'a Roman and an Antonine.' +The citizen of heaven knew that it was his duty to 'hunt Sarmatians' on +earth, though he was not obliged to imbrue his hands with 'Cæsarism.' + +Patriotism has two roots, the love of clan and the love of home. In +migratory tribes the former alone counts; in settled communities +diversities of origin are often forgotten. But the love of home, as we +know it, is a gentler and more spiritual bond than clanship. The word +home is associated with all that makes life beautiful and sacred, with +tender memories of joy and sorrow, and especially with the first eager +outlook of the young mind upon a wonderful world. A man does not as a +rule feel much sentiment about his London house, still less about his +office or factory. It is for the home of his childhood, or of his +ancestors, that a man will fight most readily, because he is bound to it +by a spiritual and poetic tie. Expanding from this centre, the sentiment +of patriotism embraces one's country as a whole. + +Both forms of patriotism--the local and the racial, are frequently +alloyed with absurd, unworthy or barbarous motives. The local patriot +thinks that Peebles, and not Paris, is the place for pleasure, or asks +whether any good thing can come out of Nazareth. To the Chinaman all +aliens are 'outer barbarians' or 'foreign devils.' Admiration for +ourselves and our institutions is too often measured by our contempt and +dislike for foreigners. Our own nation has a peculiarly bad record in +this respect. In the reign of James I the Spanish ambassador was +frequently insulted by the London crowd, as was the Russian ambassador +in 1662; not, apparently, because we had a burning grievance against +either of those nations, but because Spaniards and Russians are very +unlike Englishmen. That at least is the opinion of the sagacious Pepys +on the later of these incidents. 'Lord! to see the absurd nature of +Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at anything that +looks strange.' Defoe says that the English are 'the most churlish +people alive' to foreigners, with the result that 'all men think an +Englishman the devil.' In the 17th and 18th centuries Scotland seems to +have ranked as a foreign country, and the presence of Scots in London +was much resented. Cleveland thought it witty to write:-- + + Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom; + Not forced him wander, but confined him home. + +And we all remember Dr. Johnson's gibes. + +British patriotic arrogance culminated in the 18th and in the first half +of the 19th century; in Lord Palmerston it found a champion at the head +of the government. Goldsmith describes the bearing of the Englishman of +his day:-- + + Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, + I see the lords of human kind pass by. + +Michelet found in England 'human pride personified in a people,' at a +time when the characteristic of Germany was 'a profound impersonality.' +It may be doubted whether even the arrogant brutality of the modern +Prussian is more offensive to foreigners than was the calm and haughty +assumption of superiority by our countrymen at this time. Our +grandfathers and great-grandfathers were quite of Milton's opinion, +that, when the Almighty wishes something unusually great and difficult +to be done, He entrusts it to His Englishmen. This unamiable +characteristic was probably much more the result of insular ignorance +than of a deep-seated pride. 'A generation or two ago,' said Mr. Asquith +lately, 'patriotism was largely fed and fostered upon reciprocal +ignorance and contempt.' The Englishman seriously believed that the +French subsisted mainly upon frogs, while the Frenchman was equally +convinced that the sale of wives at Smithfield was one of our national +institutions. This fruitful source of international misunderstanding has +become less dangerous since the facilities of foreign travel have been +increased. But in the relations of Europe with alien and independent +civilisations, such as that of China, we still see brutal arrogance and +vulgar ignorance producing their natural results. + +Another cause of perverted patriotism is the inborn pugnacity of the +_bête humaine_. Our species is the most cruel and destructive of all +that inhabit this planet. If the lower animals, as we call them, were +able to formulate a religion, they might differ greatly as to the shape +of the beneficent Creator, but they would nearly all agree that the +devil must be very like a big white man. Mr. McDougall[8] has lately +raised the question whether civilised man is less pugnacious than the +savage; and he answers it in the negative. The Europeans, he thinks, are +among the most combative of the human race. We are not allowed to knock +each other on the head during peace; but our civilisation is based on +cut-throat competition; our favourite games are mimic battles, which I +suppose effect for us a 'purgation of the emotions' similar to that +which Aristotle attributed to witnessing the performance of a tragedy: +and, when the fit seizes us, we are ready to engage in wars which cannot +fail to be disastrous to both combatants. Mr. McDougall does not regret +this disposition, irrational though it is. He thinks that it tends to +the survival of the fittest, and that, if we substitute emulation for +pugnacity, which on other grounds might seem an unmixed advantage, we +shall have to call in the science of eugenics to save us from becoming +as sheeplike as the Chinese. There is, however, another side to this +question, as we shall see presently. + +Another instinct which has supplied fuel to patriotism of the baser sort +is that of acquisitiveness. This tendency, without which even the most +rudimentary civilisation would be impossible, began when the female of +the species, instead of carrying her baby on her back and following the +male to his hunting-grounds, made some sort of a lair for herself and +her family, where primitive implements and stores of food could be kept. +There are still tribes in Brazil which have not reached this first step +towards humanisation. But the instinct of hoarding, like all other +instincts, tends to become hypertrophied and perverted; and with the +institution of private property comes another institution--that of +plunder and brigandage. In private life, no motive of action is at +present so powerful and so persistent as acquisitiveness, which, unlike +most other desires, knows no satiety. The average man is rich enough +when he has a little more than he has got, and not till then. The +acquisition and possession of land satisfies this desire in a high +degree, since land is a visible and indestructible form of property. +Consequently, as soon as the instincts of the individual are transferred +to the group, territorial aggrandisement becomes a main preoccupation of +the state. This desire was the chief cause of wars, while kings and +nobles regarded the territories over which they ruled as their private +estates. Wherever despotic or feudal conditions survive, such ideas are +likely still to be found, and to cause dangers to other states. The +greatest ambition of a modern emperor is still to be commemorated as a +'Mehrer des Reichs.' + +Capitalism, by separating the idea of property from any necessary +connection with landed estate, and democracy, by denying the whole +theory on which dynastic wars of conquest are based, have both +contributed to check this, perhaps the worst kind of war. It would, +however, be a great error to suppose that the instinct of +acquisitiveness, in its old and barbarous form, has lost its hold upon +even the most civilised nations. When an old-fashioned brigand appears, +and puts himself at the head of his nation, he becomes at once a popular +hero. By any rational standard of morality, few greater scoundrels have +lived than Frederick the Great and Napoleon I. But they are still names +to conjure with. Both were men of singularly lucid intellect and +entirely medieval ambitions. Their great achievement was to show how +under modern conditions aggressive war may be carried on without much +loss (except in human life) to the aggressor. They tore up all the +conventions which regulated the conduct of warfare, and reduced it to +sheer brigandage and terrorism. And now, after a hundred years, we see +these methods deliberately revived by the greatest military power in the +world, and applied with the same ruthlessness and with an added pedantry +which makes them more inhuman. The perpetrators of the crime calculated +quite correctly that they need fear no reluctance on the part of the +nation, no qualms of conscience, no compassionate shrinking, no remorse. +It must, indeed, be a bad cause that cannot count on the support of the +large majority of the people at the _beginning_ of a war. Pugnacity, +greed, mere excitement, the contagion of a crowd, will fill the streets +of almost any capital with a shouting and jubilant mob on the day after +a war has been declared. + +And yet the motives which we have enumerated are plainly atavistic and +pathological. They belong to a mental condition which would conduct an +individual to the prison or the gallows. We do not argue seriously +whether the career of the highwayman or burglar is legitimate and +desirable; and it is impossible to maintain that what is disgraceful for +the individual is creditable for the state. And apart from the +consideration that predatory patriotism deforms its own idol and makes +it hateful in the eyes of the world, subsequent history has fully +confirmed the moral instinct of the ancient Greeks, that national +insolence or injustice (hybrist) brings its own severe punishment. The +imaginary dialogue which Thucydides puts into the mouth of the Athenian +and Melian envoys, and the debate in the Athenian Assembly about the +punishment of revolted Mitylene, are intended to prepare the reader for +the tragic fate of the Sicilian expedition. The same writer describes +the break-up of all social morality during the civil war in words which +seem to herald the destruction not only of Athens but of Greek freedom. +Machiavelli's 'Prince' shows how history can repeat itself, reiterating +its lesson that a nation which gives itself to immoral aggrandisement is +far on the road to disintegration. Seneca's rebuke to his slave-holding +countrymen, 'Can you complain that you have been robbed of the liberty +which you have yourselves abolished in your own homes?' applies equally +to nations which have enslaved or exploited the inhabitants of subject +lands. If the Roman Empire had a long and glorious life, it was because +its methods were liberal, by the standard of ancient times. In so far as +Rome abused her power, she suffered the doom of all tyrants. + +The illusions of imperialism have been made clearer than ever by the +course of modern history. Attempts to destroy a nationality by +overthrowing its government, proscribing its language, and maltreating +its citizens, are never successful. The experiment has been tried with +great thoroughness in Poland; and the Poles are now more of a nation +than they were under the oppressive feudal system which existed before +the partitions. Our own empire would be a ludicrous failure if it were +any part of our ambition to Anglicise other races. The only English +parts of the empire were waste lands which we have peopled with our own +emigrants. We hauled down the French flag in Canada, with the result +that Eastern Canada is now the only flourishing French colony, and the +only part of the world where the French race increases rapidly. We have +helped the Dutch to multiply with almost equal rapidity in South Africa. +We have added several millions to the native population of Egypt, and +over a hundred millions to the population of India. Similarly, the +Americans have made Cuba for the first time a really Spanish island, by +driving out its incompetent Spanish governors and so attracting +immigrants from Spain. On the whole, in imperialism nothing fails like +success. If the conqueror oppresses his subjects, they will become +fanatical patriots, and sooner or later have their revenge; if he treats +them well, and 'governs them for their good,' they will multiply faster +than their rulers, till they claim their independence. The Englishman +now says, 'I am quite content to have it so'; but that is not the old +imperialism. + +The notion that frequent war is a healthy tonic for a nation is scarcely +tenable. Its dysgenic effect, by eliminating the strongest and +healthiest of the population, while leaving the weaklings at home to be +the fathers of the next generation, is no new discovery. It has been +supported by a succession of men, such as Tenon, Dufau, Foissac, de +Lapouge, and Richet in France; Tiedemann and Seeck in Germany; Guerrini +in Italy; Kellogg and Starr Jordan in America. The case is indeed +overwhelming. The lives destroyed in war are nearly all males, thus +disturbing the sex equilibrium of the population; they are in the prime +of life, at the age of greatest fecundity; and they are picked from a +list out of which from 20 to 30 per cent. have been rejected for +physical unfitness. It seems to be proved that the children born in +France during the Napoleonic wars were poor and undersized--30 +millimetres below the normal height. War combined with religious +celibacy to ruin Spain. 'Castile makes men and wastes them,' said a +Spanish writer. 'This sublime and terrible phrase sums up the whole of +Spanish history.' Schiller was right; 'Immer der Krieg verschlingt die +besten.' We in England have suffered from this drain in the past; we +shall suffer much more in the next generation. + + We have fed our sea for a thousand years, + And she calls us, still unfed, + Though there's never a wave of all her waves + But marks our English dead. + + We have strawed our best to the weed's unrest, + To the shark and the sheering gull, + If blood be the price of admiralty, + Lord God, we ha' paid in full. + +Aggressive patriotism is thus condemned by common sense and the verdict +of history no less than by morality. We are entitled to say to the +militarists what Socrates said to Polus: + + This doctrine of yours has now been examined and found + wanting. And this doctrine alone has stood the test--that we + ought to be more afraid of doing than of suffering wrong; + and that the prime business of every man [and nation] is not + to seem good, but to be good, in all private and public + dealings. + +If the nations would render something more than lip-service to this +principle, the abolition of war would be within sight; for, as Ruskin +says, echoing the judgment of the Epistle of St. James, 'The first +reason for all wars, and for the necessity of national defences, is that +the majority of persons, high and low, in all European countries, are +thieves.' But it must be remembered that, in spite of the proverb, it +takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep +to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains +of a different opinion. + +Our own conversion to pacificism, though sincere, is somewhat recent. +Our literature does not reflect it. Bacon is frankly militarist: + + Above all, for empire and greatness, it importeth most, that + a nation do profess arms, as their principal honour, study, + and occupation. For the things which we formerly have spoken + of are but habilitations towards arms; and what is + habitation without intention and act?... It is so plain that + a man profiteth in that he most intendeth, that it needeth + not to be stood upon. It is enough to point at it; that no + nation, which doth not directly profess arms, may look to + have greatness fall into their mouths. + +A state, therefore, 'ought to have those laws or customs, which may +reach forth unto them just occasions of war.' Shakespeare's 'Henry V' +has been not unreasonably recommended by the Germans as 'good +war-reading.' It would be easy to compile a _catena_ of bellicose maxims +from our literature, reaching down to the end of the 19th century. The +change is perhaps due less to progress in morality than to that +political good sense which has again and again steered our ship through +dangerous rocks. But there has been some real advance, in all civilised +countries. We do not find that men talked about the 'bankruptcy of +Christianity' during the Napoleonic campaigns. Even the Germans think it +necessary to tell each other that it was Belgium who began this war. + +But, though pugnacity and acquisitiveness have been the real foundation +of much miscalled patriotism, better motives are generally mingled with +these primitive instincts. It is the subtle blend of noble and ignoble +sentiment which makes patriotism such a difficult problem for the +moralist. The patriot nearly always believes, or thinks he believes, +that he desires the greatness of his country because his country stands +for something intrinsically great and valuable. Where this conviction is +absent we cannot speak of patriotism, but only of the cohesion of a +wolf-pack. The Greeks, who at last perished because they could not +combine, had nevertheless a consciousness that they were the trustees +of civilisation against barbarism; and in their day of triumph over the +Persians they were filled, for a time, with an almost Jewish awe in +presence of the righteous judgment of God. The 'Persæ' of Æschylus is +one of the noblest of patriotic poems. The Romans, a harder and coarser +race, had their ideal of _virtus_ and _gravitas_, which included +simplicity of life, dignity and self-restraint, honesty and industry, +and devotion to the state. They rightly felt that these qualities +constituted a vocation to empire. There was much harshness and injustice +in Roman imperialism; but what nobler epitaph could even the British +empire desire than the tribute of Claudian, when the weary Titan was at +last stricken and dying: + + Hæc est, in gremium victos quæ sola recepit, + humanumque genus communi nomine fovit + matris non dominæ ritu, civesque vocavit + quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit? + +Jewish patriotism was of a different kind. A federation of fierce +Bedouin tribes, encamped amid hostile populations, and set in the +cockpit of rival empires against which it was impossible to stand, the +Israelites were hammered by misfortune into the most indestructible of +all organisms, a theocracy. Their religion was to them what, in a minor +degree, Roman Catholicism has been to Ireland and Poland, a consecration +of patriotic faith and hope. Westphal says the Jews failed because they +hated foreigners more than they loved God. They have had good reason to +hate foreigners. But undoubtedly the effect of their hatred has been +that the great gifts which their nation had to give to humanity have +come through other hands, and so have evoked no gratitude. In the first +century of our era they were called to an almost superhuman abnegation +of their inveterate nationalism, and they could not rise to it. As +almost every other nation would have done, they chose the lower +patriotism instead of the higher; and it was against their will that the +religion of civilised humanity grew out of Hebrew soil. But they gained +this by their choice, tragic though it was, that they have stood by the +graves of all the empires that oppressed them, and have preserved their +racial integrity and traditions in the most adverse circumstances. The +history of the Jews also shows that oppression and persecution are far +more efficacious in binding a nation together than community of interest +and national prosperity. Increase of wealth divides rather than unites a +people; but suffering shared in common binds it together with hoops of +steel. + +The Jews were the only race whose spiritual independence was not crushed +by the Roman steam-roller. It would be unfair to say that Rome destroyed +nations; for her subjects in the West were barbarous tribes, and in the +East she displaced monarchies no less alien to their subjects than her +own rule. But she prevented the growth of nationalities, as it is to be +feared we have done in India; and the absence of sturdy independence in +the countries round the Mediterranean, especially in the Greek-speaking +provinces, made the final downfall inevitable. The lesson has its +warning for modern theorists who wish to obliterate the sentiment of +nationality, the revival of which, after a long eclipse, has been one of +the achievements of modern civilisation. For it was not till long after +the destruction of the Western Roman Empire that nationality began to +assume its present importance in Europe. + +The transition from medieval to modern history is most strongly marked +by the emergence of this principle, with all that it involves. At the +end of the Middle Ages Europe was at last compelled to admit that the +grand idea of an universal state and an universal church had definitely +broken down. Hitherto it had been assumed that behind all national +disputes lay a _ius gentium_ by which all were bound, and that behind +all religious questions lay the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, +from which there was no appeal. The modern period which certainly does +not represent the last word of civilisation, has witnessed the +abandonment of these ideas. The change took place gradually. France +became a nation when the English raids ceased in the middle of the 15th +century. Spain achieved unity a generation later by the union of Castile +and Aragon and the expulsion of the Moors from the peninsula. Holland +found herself in the heroic struggle against Spain in the 16th century. +But the practice of conducting wars by hiring foreign mercenaries, a +sure sign that the nationalist spirit is weak, continued till much +later. And the dynastic principle, which is the very negation of +nationalism, actually culminated in the 18th century; and this is the +true explanation of the feeble resistance which Europe offered to the +French revolutionary armies, until Napoleon stirred up the dormant +spirit of nationalism in the peoples whom he plundered. 'In the old +European system,' says Lord Acton, 'the rights of nationalities were +neither recognised by governments nor asserted by the people. The +interests of the reigning families, not those of the nations, regulated +the frontiers; and the administration was conducted generally without +any reference to popular desires.' Marriage or conquest might unite the +most diverse nations under one sovereign, such as Charles V. + +While such ideas prevailed, the suppression of a nation did not seem +hateful; the partition of Poland evoked few protests at the time, though +perhaps few acts of injustice have recoiled with greater force on the +heads of their perpetrators than this is likely to do. Poles have been +and are among the bitterest enemies of autocracy, and the strongest +advocates of republicanism and racialism, in all parts of the world. The +French Revolution opened a new era for nationalism, both directly and +indirectly. The deposition of the Bourbons was a national act which +might be a precedent for other oppressed peoples. And when the +Revolution itself began to trample on the rights of other nations, an +uprising took place, first in Spain and then in Prussia, which proved +too strong for the tyrant. The apostasy of France from her own ideals of +liberty proved the futility of mere doctrines, like those of Rousseau, +and compelled the peoples to arm themselves and win their freedom by the +sword. The national militarism of Prussia was the direct consequence of +her humiliation at Jena and Auerstädt, and of the harsh terms imposed +upon her at Tilsit. It is true that the Congress of Vienna attempted to +revive the old dynastic system. But for the steady opposition of +England, the clique of despots might have reimposed the old yoke upon +their subjects. The settlement of 1815 also left the entire centre of +Europe in a state of chaos; and it was only by slow degrees that Italy +and Germany attained national unity. Poland, the Austrian Empire, and +the Balkan States still remain in a condition to trouble the peace of +the world. In Austria-Hungary the clash of the dynastic and the +nationalist ideas is strident; and every citizen of that empire has to +choose between a wider and a narrower allegiance. + +Europeans are, in fact, far from having made up their minds as to what +is the organic whole towards which patriotic sentiment ought to be +directed. Socialism agrees with despotism in saying, 'It is the +political aggregate, the state,' however much they may differ as to how +the state should be administered. For this reason militarism and +state-socialism might at any time come to terms. They are at one in +exaggerating the 'organic' unity of a political or geographical +_enclave_; and they are at one in depreciating the value of individual +liberty. Loyalty to 'the state' instead of to 'king and country' is not +an easy or a natural emotion. The state is a bloodless abstraction, +which as a rule only materialises as a drill-sergeant or a +tax-collector. Enthusiasm for it, and not only for what can be got out +of it, does not extend much beyond the Fabian Society. Cæsarism has the +great advantage of a visible head, as well as of its appeal to very old +and strong thought-habits; and accordingly, in any national crisis, +loyalty to the War-lord is likely to show unexpected strength, and +doctrinaire socialism unexpected weakness. + +But devotion to the head of the state in his representative capacity is +a different thing from the old feudal loyalty. It is far more +impersonal; the ruler, whether an individual or a council, is reverenced +as a non-human and non-moral embodiment of the national power, a sort of +Platonic idea of coercive authority. This kind of loyalty may very +easily be carried too far. In reality, we are members of a great many +'social organisms,' each of which has indefeasible claims upon us. Our +family, our circle of acquaintance, our business or profession, our +church, our country, the comity of civilised nations, humanity at large, +are all social organisms; and some of the chief problems of ethics are +concerned with the adjustment of their conflicting claims. To make any +one of these absolute is destructive of morality. But militarism and +socialism deliberately make the state absolute. In internal affairs this +may lead to the ruthless oppression of individuals or whole classes; in +external relations it produces wars waged with 'methods of barbarism.' +The whole idea of the state as an organism, which has been emphasised by +social reformers as a theoretical refutation of selfish individualism, +rests on the abuse of a metaphor. The bond between the dwellers in the +same political area is far less close than that between the organs of a +living body. Every man has a life of his own, and some purely personal +rights; he has, moreover, moral links with other human associations, +outside his own country, and important moral duties towards them. No one +who reflects on the solidarity of interests among capitalists, among +hand-workers, or, in a different way, among scholars and artists, all +over the world, can fail to see that the apotheosis of the state, +whether in the interest of war or of revolution, is an anachronism and +an absurdity. + +A very different basis for patriotic sentiment is furnished by the +scientific or pseudo-scientific theories about race, which have become +very popular in our time. When the history of ideas in the 20th century +comes to be written, it is certain that among the causes of this great +war will be named the belief of the Germans in the superiority of their +own race, based on certain historical and ethnological theories which +have acted like a heady wine in stimulating the spirit of aggression +among them. The theory, stated briefly, is that the shores of the Baltic +are the home of the finest human type that has yet existed, a type +distinguished by blond hair, great physical strength, unequalled mental +vigour and ability, superior morality, and an innate aptitude for +governing and improving inferior races. Unfortunately for the world, +this noble stock cannot flourish for very long in climates unlike its +own; but from the earliest historical times it has 'swarmed' +periodically, subjugating the feebler peoples of the south, and +elevating them for a time above the level which they were naturally +fitted to reach. Wherever we find marked energy and nobleness of +character, we may suspect Aryan blood; and history will usually support +our surmise. Among the great men who were certainly or probably Germans +were Agamemnon, Julius Cæsar, the Founder of Christianity, Dante, and +Shakespeare. The blond Nordic giant is fulfilling his mission by +conquering and imposing his culture upon other races. They ought to be +grateful to him for the service, especially as it has a sacrificial +aspect, the lower types having, at least in their own climates, greater +power of survival. + +This fantastic theory has been defended in a large number of German +books, of which the 'Foundations of the Nineteenth Century,' by the +renegade Englishman Houston Chamberlain, is the most widely known. The +objections to it are numerous. It is notorious that until the invention +of gunpowder the settled and civilised peoples of Europe were in +frequent danger from bands of hardier mountaineers, forest-dwellers, or +pastoral nomads, who generally came from the north. But the formidable +fighting powers of these marauders were no proof of intrinsic +superiority. In fact, the most successful of these conquerors, if +success is measured by the amount of territory overrun and subdued, were +not the 'great blond beasts' of Nietzsche, but yellow monsters with +black hair, the Huns and Tartars.[9] The causes of Tartar ascendancy had +not the remotest connection with any moral or intellectual qualities +which we can be expected to admire. Nor can the Nordic race, well +endowed by nature as it undoubtedly is, prove such a superiority as this +theory claims for it. Some of the largest brains yet measured have been +those of Japanese; and the Jews have probably a higher average of +ability than the Teutons. Again, the Germans are not descended from a +pure Nordic stock. The Northern type can be best studied in Scandinavia, +where the people share with the Irish the distinction of being the +handsomest race in the world. The German is a mixture of various +anatomical types, including, in some parts, distinct traces of Mongolian +blood, which indicate that the raiding Huns meddled, according to their +custom, with the German women, and bequeathed to a section of the nation +the Turanian cheek-bones, as well as certain moral characteristics. +Lastly, the German race has never shown much aptitude for governing and +assimilating other peoples. The French, by virtue of their greater +sympathy, are far more successful. + +The French have their own form of this pseudo-science in their doctrine +of the persistence of national characteristics. Each nation may be +summed up in a formula: England, for example, is 'the country of will.' +A few instances may, no doubt, be quoted in support of this theory. +Julius Cæsar said: 'Duas res plerasque Gallia industriosissime +prosequitur, rem militarem et argute loqui'; and these are still the +characteristics of our gallant allies. And Madame de Staël may be +thought to have hit off the German character very cleverly about the +time when Bismarck first saw the light. 'The Germans are vigorously +submissive. They employ philosophical reasonings to explain what is the +least philosophic thing in the world, respect for force and the fear +which transforms that respect into admiration.' But the fact remains +that the characters of nations frequently change, or rather that what we +call national character is usually only the policy of the governing +class, forced upon it by circumstances, or the manner of living which +climate, geographical position, and other external causes have made +necessary for the inhabitants of a country. + +To found patriotism on homogeneity of race is no wiser than to bound it +by frontier lines. As the Abbé Noël has lately written about his own +country, Belgium, + + the race is not the nation. The nation is not a + physiological fact; it is a moral fact. What constitutes a + nation is the community of sentiments and ideals which + results from a common history and education. The variations + of the cephalic index are here of no great importance. The + essential factor of the national consciousness resides in a + certain common mode of conceiving the conditions of the + social life. + +Belgium, the Abbé maintains, has found this national consciousness amid +her sufferings; there are no longer any distinctions between +French-speaking Belgians and Walloons or Flemings. This is in truth the +real base of patriotism. It is the basis of our own love for our +country. What Britain stands for is what Britain is. We have long known +in our hearts what Britain stands for; but we have now been driven to +search our thoughts and make our ideals explicit to ourselves and +others. The Englishman has become a philosopher _malgré lui_, 'Whatever +the world thinks,' writes Bishop Berkeley. 'he who hath not much +meditated upon God, the human soul, and the _summum bonum_, may possibly +make a thriving earthworm, but will most indubitably make a sorry +patriot and a sorry statesman.' These words, which were quoted by Mr. +Arthur Balfour a few years ago, may seem to make a large demand on the +average citizen; but in our quiet way we have all been meditating on +these things since last August, and we know pretty well what our _summum +bonum_ is for our country. We believe in chivalry and fair play and +kindliness--these things first and foremost; and we believe, if not +exactly in democracy, yet in a government under which a man may think +and speak the thing he wills. We do not believe in war, and we do not +believe in bullying. We do not flatter ourselves that we are the +supermen; but we are convinced that the ideas which we stand for, and +which we have on the whole tried to carry out, are essential to the +peaceful progress and happiness of humanity; and for these ideas we have +drawn the sword. The great words of Abraham Lincoln have been on the +lips of many and in the hearts of all since the beginning of the great +contest: 'With malice towards none; with charity for all: with firmness +in the right as God gives us to see the right--let us strive on to +finish the work we are in.' + +Patriotism thus spiritualised and moralised is the true patriotism. +When the emotion is once set in its right relations to the whole of +human life and to all that makes human life worth living, it cannot +become an immoral obsession. It is certain to become an immoral +obsession if it is isolated and made absolute. We have seen the +appalling perversion--the methodical diabolism--which this obsession has +produced in Germany. It has startled us because we thought that the +civilised world had got beyond such insanity; but it is of course no new +thing. Machiavelli said, 'I prefer my country to the salvation of my +soul'--a sentiment which sounds noble but is not; it has only a +superficial resemblance to St. Paul's willingness to be 'accursed' for +the sake of his countrymen. Devil-worship remains what it was, even when +the idol is draped in the national flag. This obsession may be in part a +survival from savage conditions, when all was at stake in every feud; +but chiefly it is an example of the idealising and universalising power +of the imagination, which turns every unchecked passion into a +monomania. The only remedy is, as Lowell's Hosea Biglow reminds us, to +bear in mind that + + our true country is that ideal realm which we represent to + ourselves under the names of religion, duty, and the like. + Our terrestrial organisations are but far-off approaches to + so fair a model; and all they are verily traitors who resist + not any attempt to divert them from this their original + intendment. Our true country is bounded on the north and the + south, on the east and west, by Justice, and when she + oversteps that invisible boundary-line by so much as a + hair's breadth, she ceases to be our mother, and chooses + rather to be looked upon _quasi noverca_. + +So Socrates said that the wise man will be a citizen of his true city, +of which the type is laid up in heaven, and only conditionally of his +earthly country. + +The obsession of patriotism is not the only evil which we have to +consider. We may err by defect as well as by excess. Herbert Spencer +speaks of an 'anti-patriotic bias'; and it can hardly be disputed that +many Englishmen who pride themselves on their lofty morality are +suffering from this mental twist. The malady seems to belong to the +Anglo-Saxon constitution, for it is rarely encountered in other +countries, while we had a noisy pro-Napoleonic faction a hundred years +ago, and the Americans had their 'Copperheads' in the Northern States +during the civil war. In our own day, every enemy of England, from the +mad Mullah to the mad Kaiser, has had his advocates at home; and the +champions of Boer and Boxer, of Afridi and Afrikander, of the Mahdi and +the Matabele, have been usually the same persons. The English, it would +appear, differ from other misguided rascals in never being right even by +accident. But the idiosyncrasy of a few persons is far less important +than the comparative insensibility of whole classes to the patriotic +appeal, except when war is actually raging. This is not specially +characteristic of our own country. The German Emperor has complained of +his Social Democrats as 'people without a fatherland'; and the cry 'À +bas la patrie' has been heard in France. + +It is usual to explain this attitude by the fact that the manual workers +'have no stake in the country,' and might not find their condition +altered for the worse by subjection to a foreign power. A few of our +working-men have given colour to this charge by exclaiming petulantly +that they could not be worse off under the Germans; but in this they +have done themselves and their class less than justice. The +anti-militarism and cosmopolitanism of the masses in every country is a +profoundly interesting fact, a problem which demands no superficial +investigation. It is one result of that emancipation from traditional +ideas, which makes the most important difference between the upper and +middle classes on the one side and the lower on the other. We lament +that the working-man takes but little interest in Christianity, and rack +our brains to discover what we have done to discredit our religion in +his eyes. The truth is that Christianity, as a dogmatic and +ecclesiastical system, is unintelligible without a very considerable +knowledge of the conditions under which it took shape. But what are the +ancient Hebrews, and the Greeks and Romans, to the working-man? He is +simply cut off from the means of reading intelligently any book of the +Bible, or of understanding how the institution called the Catholic +Church, and its offshoots, came to exist. As our staple education +becomes more 'modern' and less literary, the custodians of organised +religion will find their difficulties increasing. But the same is true +about patriotism. Love of country means pride in the past and ambition +for the future. Those who live only in the present are incapable of it. +But our working-man knows next to nothing about the past history of +England; he has scarcely heard of our great men, and has read few of our +great books. It is not surprising that the appeal to patriotism leaves +him cold. This is an evil that has its proper remedy. There is no reason +why a sane and elevated love of country should not be stimulated by +appropriate teaching in our schools. In America this is done--rather +hysterically; and in Germany--rather brutally. The Jews have always made +their national history a large part of their education, and even of +their religion. Nothing has helped them more to retain their +self-consciousness as a nation. Ignorance of the past and indifference +to the future usually go together. Those who most value our historical +heritage will be most desirous to transmit it unimpaired. + +But the absence of traditional ideas is by no means an unmixed evil. The +working-man sees more clearly than the majority of educated persons the +absurdity of international hatred and jealousy. He is conscious of +greater solidarity with his own class in other European countries than +with the wealthier class in his own; and as he approaches the whole +question without prejudice, he cannot fail to realise how large a part +of the product of labour is diverted from useful purposes by modern +militarism. International rivalry is in his eyes one of the most serious +obstacles to the abolition of want and misery. Tolstoy hardly +exaggerates when he says: 'Patriotism to the peoples represents only a +frightful future; the fraternity of nations seems an ideal more and more +accessible to humanity, and one which humanity desires.' Military glory +has very little attraction for the working-man. His humanitarian +instincts appear to be actually stronger than those of the sheltered +classes. To take life in any circumstances seems to him a shocking +thing; and the harsh procedure of martial law and military custom is +abhorrent to him. He sees no advantage and no credit in territorial +aggrandisement, which he suspects to be prompted mainly by the desire to +make money unjustly. He is therefore a convinced pacificist; though his +doctrine of human brotherhood breaks down ignominiously when he finds +his economic position threatened by the competition of cheap foreign +labour. If an armed struggle ever takes place between the nations of +Europe (or their colonists) and the yellow races, it will be a +working-man's war. But on the whole, the best hope of getting rid of +militarism may lie in the growing power of the working class. The poor, +being intensely gregarious and very susceptible to all collective +emotions, are still liable to fits of warlike excitement. But their real +minds are at present set against an aggressive foreign policy, without +being shut against the appeals of a higher patriotism. + +And yet the irritation which is felt against preachers of the +brotherhood of man is not without justification. Some persons who +condemn patriotism are simply lacking in public spirit, or their loyalty +is monopolised by some fad or 'cause,' which is a poor substitute for +love of country. The man who has no prejudices in favour of his own +family and his own country is generally an unamiable creature. So we +need not condemn Molière for saying, 'L'ami du genre humain n'est pas du +tout mon fait,' nor Brunetière for declaring that 'Ni la nature ni +l'histoire n'ont en effet voulu que les hommes fussent tous frères.' But +French Neo-catholicism, a bourgeois movement directed against all the +'ideas of 1789,' seems to have adopted the most ferocious kind of +chauvinism. M. Paul Bourget wrote the other day in the _Écho de Paris_, +'This war must be the first of many, since we cannot exterminate +sixty-five million Germans in a single campaign!' The women and children +too! This is not the way to revive the religion of Christ in France. + +The practical question for the future is whether there is any prospect +of returning, under more favourable auspices, to the unrealised ideal +of the Middle Ages--an agreement among the nations of Europe to live +amicably under one system of international law and right, binding upon +all, and with the consciousness of an intellectual and spiritual unity +deeper than political divisions. 'The nations are the citizens of +humanity,' said Mazzini; and so they ought to be. Some of the omens are +favourable. Militarism has dug its own grave. The great powers increased +their armaments till the burden became insupportable, and have now +rushed into bankruptcy in the hope of shaking it off. In prehistoric +times the lords of creation were certain gigantic lizards, protected by +massive armour-plates which could only be carried by a creature thirty +to sixty feet long. Then they died, when neither earth, air, nor water +could support them any longer. Such must be the end of the European +nations, unless they learn wisdom. The lesson will be brought home to +them by Transatlantic competition. The United States of America had +already, before this war, an initial advantage over the disunited states +of Europe, amounting to at least 10 per cent. on every contract; after +the war this advantage will be doubled. It remains to be seen whether +the next generation will honour the debts which we are piling up. +Disraeli used to complain of what he called 'Dutch finance,' which +consists in 'mortgaging the industry of the future to protect property +in the present.' Pitt paid for the great war of a hundred years ago in +this manner; after a century we are still groaning under the burden of +his loans. We may hear more of the iniquity of 'Dutch finance' when the +democracies of the next generation have a chance of repudiating +obligations which, as they will say, they did not contract. However that +may be, international rivalry is plainly very bad business; and there +are great possibilities in the Hague Tribunal, if, and only if, the +signatories to the conference bind themselves to use force against a +recalcitrant member. The conduct of Germany in this war has shown that +public opinion is powerless to restrain a nation which feels strong +enough to defy it. + +Another cause which may give patriots leisure to turn their thoughts +away from war's alarms is that the 'swarming' period of the European +races is coming to an end. The unparalleled increase of population in +the first three quarters of the 19th century has been followed by a +progressive decrease in the birth-rate, which will begin to tell upon +social conditions when the reduction in the death-rate, which has +hitherto kept pace with it, shall have reached its natural limit. Europe +with a stationary population will be in a much happier condition; and +problems of social reform can then be tackled with some hope of success. +Honourable emulation in the arts of life may then take the place of +desperate competition and antagonism. Human lives will begin to have a +positive value, and we may even think it fair to honour our saviours +more than our destroyers. The effects of past follies will then soon be +effaced; for nations recover much more quickly from wars than from +internal disorders. External injuries are rapidly cured; but 'those +wounds heal ill that men do give themselves.' The greatest obstacle to +progress is not man's inherited pugnacity, but his incorrigible tendency +to parasitism. The true patriot will keep his eye fixed on this, and +will dread as the state's worst enemies those citizens who at the top +and bottom of the social scale have no other ambition than to hang on +and suck the life-blood of the nation. Great things may be hoped from +the new science of eugenics, when it has passed out of its tentative and +experimental stage. + +In the distant future we may reasonably hope that patriotism will be a +sentiment like the loyalty which binds a man to his public school and +university, an affection purged of all rancour and jealousy, a stimulus +to all honourable conduct and noble effort, a part of the poetry of +life. It is so already to many of us, and has been so to the noblest +Englishmen since we have had a literature. If Henry V's speech at +Agincourt is the splendid gasconade of a royal freebooter, there is no +false ring in the scene where John of Gaunt takes leave of his banished +son; nor in Sir Walter Scott's 'Breathes there a man with soul so dead,' +etc. 'If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her +cunning.' We cannot quite manage to substitute London for Zion in +singing psalms, though there are some in England--Eton, Winchester, +Oxford, Cambridge--which do evoke these feelings. These emotions of +loyalty and devotion are by no means to be checked or despised. They +have an infinite potency for good. In spiritual things there is no +conflict between intensity and expansion. The deepest sympathy is, +potentially, also the widest. He who loves not his home and country +which he has seen, how shall he love humanity in general which he has +not seen? There are, after all, few emotions of which one has less +reason to be ashamed than the little lump in the throat which the +Englishman feels when he first catches sight of the white cliffs of +Dover. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [8] In his _Introduction to Social Psychology_. + + [9] The reasons of their irresistible strength have been + explained in a most brilliant manner by Dr. Peisker in the + first volume of the 'Cambridge Medieval History.' + + + + +THE BIRTH-RATE + +(1917) + + +The numbers of every species are determined, not by the procreative +power of its members, which always greatly exceeds the capacity of the +earth to support a progeny increasing in geometrical progression, but by +two factors, the activity of its enemies and the available supply of +food. Those species which survive owe their success in the struggle for +existence mainly to one of two qualities, enormous fertility or parental +care. The female cod spawns about 6,000,000 eggs at a time, of which at +most one-third--perhaps much less--are afterwards fertilised. An +infinitesimal proportion of these escapes being devoured by fish or +fowl. An insect-eating bird is said to require for its support about +250,000 insects a year, and the number of such birds must amount to +thousands of millions. As a rule there is a kind of equilibrium between +the forces of destruction and of reproduction. If a species is nearly +exterminated by its enemies, those enemies lose their food-supply and +perish themselves. In some sheltered spot the survivors of the victims +remain and increase till they begin to send out colonies again. In some +species, such as the mice in La Plata, and the beasts and birds which +devour them, there is an alternation of increase and decrease, to be +accounted for in this way. But permanent disturbances of equilibrium +sometimes occur. The rabbit in Australia, having found a virgin soil, +multiplied for some time almost up to the limit of its natural fertility +and is firmly established on that continent. The brown rat (some say) +has exterminated our black rat and the Maori rat in New Zealand. The +microbe of the terrible disease which the crews of Columbus brought back +to Europe, after causing a devastating epidemic at the end of the +fifteenth century, established a kind of _modus vivendi_ with its hosts, +and has remained as a permanent scourge in Europe. Other microbes, like +those of cholera and plague, emigrate from the lands where they are +endemic, like a horde of Tartars, and after slaying all who are +susceptible disappear from inanition. The draining of the fens has +driven the anopheles mosquito from England, and our countrymen no longer +suffer from 'ague.' Cleanlier habits are banishing the louse and its +accompaniment typhus fever. + +Fertility and care for offspring seem as a rule to vary inversely. The +latter is the path of biological progress, and is characteristic of all +viviparous animals. That any degree of parental attention is +incompatible with the immense fecundity of the lower organisms needs no +demonstration. Such fertility is not necessary to keep up the numbers of +the higher species, which find abundant food in the swarming progeny of +the lower types, and are not themselves exposed to wholesale slaughter. +Speaking of fishes, Sutherland says: + + Of species that exhibit no sort of parental care, the + average of forty-nine gives 1,040,000 eggs to a female each + year; while among those which make nests or any apology for + nests the number is only about 10,000. Among those which + have any protective tricks, such as carrying the eggs in + pouches or attached to the body, or in the mouth, the + average number is under 1000; while among those whose care + takes the form of uterine or quasi-uterine gestation which + brings the young into the world alive, an average of 56 eggs + is quite sufficient. + +Man is no exception to these laws. His evolution has been steadily in +the direction of diminishing fertility and increasing parental care. +This does not necessarily imply that the modern European loves his +children better than the savage loves his. It is grim necessity, not +want of affection, which determines the treatment of children by their +parents over a great part of the world, and through the greater part of +human history. The homeless hunters, who represent the lowest stage of +savagery, are now almost extinct. In these tribes the woman has to +follow the man carrying her baby. Under such conditions the chances of +rearing a large family are small indeed. Very different is the life of +the grassland nomads, who roam over the Arabian plateau and the steppes +of Central Asia. These tribes, who really live as the parasites of their +flocks and herds, depending on them entirely for subsistence, often +multiply rapidly. Their typical unit is the great patriarchal family, in +which the _sheikh_ may have scores of children by different mothers. +These children soon begin to earn their keep, and are taken care of. If, +however, the patriarch so chooses, Hagar with her child is cast adrift, +to find her way back to her own people, if she can. The grasslands are +usually almost as full as they can hold. A period of drought, or +pressure by rivals, in former times sent a horde of these hardy +shepherds on a raid into the nearest settled province; and if, like the +Tartars, they were mounted, they usually killed, plundered, and +conquered wherever they went, until the discovery of gunpowder saved +civilisation from the recurrent peril of barbarian inroads. Barbarians +of another type, hunters with fixed homes, seldom increase rapidly, +partly because the dangers of forest-life for young children are much +greater than on the steppe. + +In the primitive river-valley civilisations, such as Egypt and +Babylonia, the conditions of increase were so favourable that a dense +population soon began to press upon the means of subsistence. In Egypt +the remedy was a centralised government which could undertake great +irrigation works and intensive cultivation. In Babylonia, for the first +time in history, foreign trade was made to support a larger population +than the land itself could maintain. There was little or no infanticide +in Babylonia, but the death-rate in these steaming alluvial plains has +always been very high. + +When we turn to poor and mountainous countries like Greece, the +conditions are very different. It was an old belief among the Hellenes +that in the days before the Trojan War 'the world was too full of +people.' The increase was doubtless made possible by the trade which +developed in the Minoan period, but the sources of food-supply were +liable to be interfered with. Hence came the necessity for active +colonisation, which lasted from the eighth to the sixth century B.C. +This period of expansion came to an end when all the available sites +were occupied. In the sixth century the Greeks found themselves headed +off, in the west by Phoenicians and Etruscans, in the east by the +Persian Empire. The problem of over-population was again pressing upon +them. Incessant civil wars between Hellenes kept the numbers down to +some extent; but Greek battles were not as a rule very bloody, and every +healthy nation has a surprising capacity of making good the losses +caused by war. The first effect of the check to emigration was that the +old ideal of the 'self-sufficient life,' which meant the practice of +mixed farming, had to be partially abandoned. The most flourishing +States, and especially Athens, had to take to manufactures, which they +exchanged for the food-products of the Balkan States and South Russia. +The result was an increasing urbanisation, and a new population of free +'resident aliens.' Conservatives hated this change and wished to revive +the old ideal of a small self-supporting State, with a maximum of 20,000 +or 30,000 citizens. Plato, in his latest work, the 'Laws,' wishes his +model city to be not too near the sea, the proximity of which 'fills the +streets with merchants and shopkeepers, and begets dishonesty in the +souls of men.' On the other side Isocrates, the most far-seeing of +Athenian politicians, realised that the day of small city-states was +over, and that the limited, 'self-sufficient' community would not long +maintain its independence. He urged his countrymen to pursue a policy of +peaceful penetration in Western Asia, as the Greeks were soon to do +under the successors of Alexander. But the prejudice against +industrialism was very strong. Greece in the fifth century remained a +poor country; her exports were not more than enough to pay for the food +of her existing population; and that population had to be artificially +restricted. The Greeks were an exceptionally healthy and long-lived +race; their great men for the most part lived to ages which have no +parallel until the nineteenth century. The infant death-rate from +natural causes may have been rather high, as it is in modern Greece, but +it was augmented by systematic infanticide. The Greek father had an +absolute right to decide whether a new-comer was to be admitted to the +family. In Ephesus alone of Greek cities a parent was compelled to prove +that he was too poor to rear a child before he was allowed to get rid of +it.[10] Even Hesiod, centuries earlier, advises a father not to bring up +more than one son, and daughters were sacrificed more frequently than +sons. The usual practice was to expose the infant in a jar; anyone who +thought it worth while might rescue the baby and bring it up as a slave. +But this was not often done. At Gela, in Sicily, there are 233 'potted' +burials in an excavated graveyard, out of a total of 570.[11] The +proportion of female infants exposed must have been very large. The +evidence of literature is supported by such letters as this from a +husband at Oxyrhynchus: 'When--good luck to you--your child is born, if +it is a male, let it live; if a female, expose it.'[12] Besides +infanticide, abortion was freely practised, and without blame.[13] The +Greek citizen married rather late; but as his bride was usually in her +'teens this would not affect the birth-rate. Nor need we attach much +importance, as a factor in checking population, to the characteristic +Greek vice, nor to prostitution, which throughout antiquity was +incredibly cheap and visited by no physical penalty. As for slaves, +Xenophon recommends that they should be allowed to have children as a +reward for good conduct.[14] + +A rapid decline in population set in under the successors of Alexander. +Polybius ascribes it to selfishness and a high standard of comfort, +which is doubtless true of the upper and middle classes;[15] but the +depopulation of rural Greece can hardly be so accounted for. Perhaps +the forests were cut down, and the rainfall diminished. It was the +general impression that the soil was far less productive than formerly. +The decay of the Hellenic race was accelerated after the Roman conquest, +until the old stock became almost extinct. This disappearance of the +most gifted race that ever inhabited our planet is one of the strangest +catastrophes of history, and is full of warnings for the modern +sociologist. Industrial slavery, indifference to parenthood, and +addiction to club-life were certainly three of the main causes, unless +we prefer to regard the two last as symptoms of hopelessness about the +future. + +The same disease fell upon Italy, and was coincident not with the +murderous war against Hannibal and the subsequent campaigns, costly +though they were, in Spain, Syria, and Macedonia, but with the +Hellenisation of social life. Lucan, under Nero, complains that the +towns have lost more than half their inhabitants, and that the +country-side lies waste. Under Titus it was estimated that, whereas +Italy under the Republic could raise nearly 800,000 soldiers, that +number was now reduced by one-half. Marcus Aurelius planted a large +tribe of Marcomanni on unoccupied land in Italy. In the fourth century +Bologna, Modena, Piacenza, and many other towns in North Italy were in +ruins. The land of the Volscians and Aequians, once densely populated, +was a desert even in Livy's time. Samnium remained the wilderness that +Sulla had left it; and Apulia was a lonely sheep-walk. + +The causes of this depopulation have been often discussed, both in +antiquity and in our own day. Slavery, infanticide, celibacy, wars and +massacres, large estates, and pestilence have all been named as causes; +but I am inclined to think that all these influences together are +insufficient to account for so rapid a decline. The toll of war was +lighter by far than in periods when the population was rising; +infectious disease (unless we suppose, as some have suggested, that +malaria became for the first time endemic under the Roman domination) +invaded the empire in occasional and destructive epidemics, but a +healthy population recovers from pestilence, as from war, with great +rapidity. The large grazing ranches displaced farms because corn-growing +in Italy was unprofitable, but there was a large supply of grain from +Sicily, Africa, and other districts. Slavery undoubtedly accounts for a +great deal. This institution is excessively wasteful of human life; it +is never possible to keep up the numbers of slaves without slave-hunting +in the countries from which they come. And we must remember that ancient +civilisation was almost entirely urban. The barbarians found ample waste +lands between the towns, which they did not as a rule care to visit, +probably because those who did so soon fell victims to microbic +diseases. The sanitary condition of ancient cities was better than in +the Middle Ages; but the death-rate was probably too high to permit of +any increase in the population. But after admitting that all these +causes were operative, it may be that we shall be obliged to acknowledge +also a psychological factor. If a nation has no hopes for the future, if +it is even doubtful whether life is worth living, if it is disposed to +withdraw from the struggle for existence and to meet the problems of +life in a temper of passive resignation, it will not regard children as +a heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord, but rather as an +encumbrance. That such was the temper of the later Roman Empire may be +gathered not only from the literature, which is singularly devoid of +hopefulness and enterprise, but from the rapid spread of monasticism and +eremitism in this period. The prevalence of this world-weariness of +course needs explanation, and the cause is rather obscure. It does not +seem to be connected with unfavourable external conditions, but rather +with a racial exhaustion akin to senile decay in the individual. But +there is no real analogy between the life of an individual and that of a +nation, and it would be very rash to insist on the hypothesis of racial +decay, which perhaps has no biological basis. + +The influence of Christianity on population is very difficult to +estimate. Nothing is more unscientific than to collect the ethical +precepts and practices of nations which profess the Christian religion, +and to label them as 'the results of Christianity.' The historian of +religion would indeed be faced by a strange task if he were compelled to +trace the moral ideals of Simeon Stylites and of Howard the +philanthropist, of Francis of Assisi and Oliver Cromwell, of Thomas +Aquinas and Thomas à Becket, to a common source. The only ethical and +social principles which can properly be called Christian are those which +can be proved to have their root in the teaching and example of the +Founder of Christianity. But the Gospel of Christ was a product of +Jewish soil. It is historically connected with the Jewish prophetic +tradition, which it carried to its fullest development and presented in +an universalised and spiritualised form. Its social teaching consists +chiefly of general principles which have to be applied to conditions +unlike those contemplated by its first disciples, who were under the +influence of the apocalyptic expectations prevalent at the time. Jewish +morality was in its origin the morality of a tribe of nomad Bedouins; +and we have seen that infant life is held sacred by these peoples. +Marriage is regarded as a duty, and childlessness as a misfortune or a +disgrace. The forward look, characteristic of the Hebrews from the +first, made every Jew desirous to leave descendants who might witness +happier times, and one of whom might even be the promised Deliverer of +his people. No Hebrew of either sex was allowed to be a servant of vice; +abnormal practices, though screened by Canaanite religion, were far less +common than in Greece or Italy. To this wholesome morality Christianity +added the doctrines of the value, in the sight of God, of every human +life, and of the sanctity of the body as the 'temple of God.' To the +Pagans, the continence of the Christians was, next to their affection +for each other, their most remarkable characteristic. From the first, +the new religion set itself firmly against infanticide and abortion, and +won one of its most signal moral triumphs in driving underground and +greatly diminishing homosexual vice. Its encouragement of celibacy, +especially for those who followed the 'religious' vocation, was an +offset to its healthy influence on family life, and ultimately, as +Galton has shown, worked great mischief by sterilising for centuries +many of the gentlest and noblest in each generation; but this tendency +was adventitious to Christianity, and would never have taken root on +Palestinian soil. The cult of virginity has lasted on, with much else +that belongs to the later Hellenistic age, in Catholicism. + +In the Middle Ages the population question slumbered. The miserable +chaos into which the old civilisation sank after the barbarian +invasions, the orgies of massacre and plunder, the almost total oblivion +of medical science, and the pestiferous condition of the medieval walled +town, which could be smelt miles away, averted any risk of +over-population. Families were very large, but the majority of the +children died. Millions were swept away by the Black Death; millions +more by the Crusades. Such books as that of Luchaire, on France in the +reign of Philip Augustus, bring vividly before us the horrible condition +of society in feudal times, and explain amply the sparsity of the +population. + +The early modern period contains another notable example of a sudden and +unaccountable decline in population. The scene is Spain, which, after +playing an active and very prominent part in the world's history, sank +quickly into the lethargy from which it has never recovered. It may be +noted that here, as in the case of Rome, the decay of population and +energy followed a great influx of plundered wealth. On the other hand, +the increase of population in our newly-planted North American colonies +must have been extremely rapid for two or three generations. + +The enormous multiplication of the European races since the middle of +the eighteenth century is a phenomenon quite unique in history, and +never likely to be repeated.[16] It was rendered possible by the new +labour-saving inventions which immensely increased the exports which +could be exchanged for food, and by the opening up of vast new +food-producing areas. The chief method by which the increase was +effected, especially in the later period, has been the lengthening of +human life by improved sanitation and medical science.[17] Since 1865 +the average duration of life in England and Wales has been raised by a +little more than one-third. Other European countries show the same ratio +of improvement. This astonishing result, so little known and so seldom +referred to, was bound to have a great effect on the birth-rate. So long +as the swarming period continued at its height, a net annual increase of +15 or even 20 per thousand could be sustained; but the expansion of the +European peoples has now passed its zenith, and a tendency to revert to +more normal conditions is almost everywhere observable. One of the most +advanced nations, France, has already reached the equilibrium towards +which other civilised nations are moving. The old-established families +in the United States are believed to be actually dwindling. + +The student of international vital statistics will be struck first by +the very wide differences in the birth-rate of different countries. He +will then notice that the more backward countries have on the whole a +considerably higher birth-rate than the more advanced. Thirdly, he will +observe the parallelism between the birth-rate and death-rate, which +makes the net increase in countries with a high birth-rate very little +larger than that of countries with a low birth-rate. The following +figures will illustrate these points; they are taken from the +Registrar-General's Blue Book for 1912. + + + Birth-rate Death-rate Net rate of + increase +United Kingdom 23.9 13.8 10.1 +Australia 28.7 11.2 17.5 +Austria 31.3 20.5 10.8 +Belgium 22.9 16.4 6.5 +France 19.0 17.5 1.5 +Germany 28.6 17.3 11.3 +Italy 32.4 18.2 14.2 +New Zealand 26.5 8.9 17.6 +Norway 25.4 13.4 12.0 +Roumania 43.4 22.9 20.5 +Russia 44.0 28.9 15.1 + +It will be seen that Australia and New Zealand, with low birth-rates and +the lowest death-rates in the world increase more rapidly than Russia +with an enormous birth-rate and proportionately high death-rate. No one +can doubt that our colonies achieve their increase with far less +friction and misery than the prolific but short-lived Slavs. +Civilisation in a high form is incompatible with such conditions as +these figures disclose in Russia. The figures for Egypt and India are +similar to the Russian, but in India, which is overfull, the mortality +is greater than even in Russia, and the same is true of China, in which +we are told that seven out of ten children die in infancy. It has been +suggested that the fairest measure of a country's well-being, as regards +its actual vitality, is the square of the death-rate divided by the +birth-rate. + +It is well known that a decline in the birth-rate set in about forty +years ago in this country, and has gone on steadily ever since, till the +fall now amounts to about one-third of the total births. It thus +corresponds very nearly to the fall in the death-rate during the same +period. It is also well known that this decline is not evenly +distributed among different classes of the people. Until the decline +began, large families were the rule in all classes, and the slightly +larger families of the poor were compensated by their somewhat higher +mortality. But since 1877 large families have become increasingly rare +in the upper and middle classes, and among the skilled artisans. They +are frequent in the thriftless ranks of unskilled labour, and in one +section of well-paid workmen--the miners. The highest birth-rates at +present are in the mining districts and in the slums. The lowest are in +some of the learned professions. In the Rhondda Valley the birth-rate is +still about forty, which is double the rate in the prosperous +residential suburbs of London. In the seats of the textile industry the +decline has been very severe, although wages are fairly good; among the +agricultural labourers the rate is also low. It will be found that in +all trades where the women work for wages the birth-rate has fallen +sharply; the miner's wife does not earn money, and has therefore less +inducement to restrict her family. In agricultural districts the housing +difficulty is mainly responsible; in the upper and middle classes the +heavy expense of education and the burden of rates and taxes are +probably the main reasons why larger families are not desired. We may +add that in almost all the professions old men are overpaid and young +men under-paid. Mr. and Mrs. Whetham[18] have found that, before 1870, +143 marriages of men whose names appear in 'Who's Who' resulted in 743 +children, an average of 5.2 each; after 1870 the average is only 3.08. +Celibacy also is commoner among the educated. 'From the reports issued +by two Women's Colleges, it appears that, excluding those who have left +college within three years or less, out of 3000 women only 22 per cent. +have married, and the number of children born to each marriage is +undoubtedly very small.' The writers consider that this state of things +is extremely dangerous for the country, inasmuch as we are now breeding +mainly from our worst stocks (the feeble-minded are very prolific), +while our best families are stationary or dwindling. Without denying the +general truth of this pessimistic conclusion,[19] it may be pointed out +that the miners are, physically at least, above the average of the whole +population, and that the very low birth-rate of residential districts is +partly due to the presence in large numbers of unmarried domestic +servants. The death-rate of the slums is also very high. + +The fears of the eugenist about the quality of the population are far +more reasonable than the invectives of the fanatic about its defective +quantity. Of the latter class we may say with Havelock Ellis that 'those +who seek to restore the birth-rate of half a century ago are engaged in +a task which would be criminal if it were not based on ignorance, and +which is in any case fatuous.' And yet I hope to show before the close +of this article that for two or three generations the British Empire +could absorb a considerable increase, and that the Government might with +advantage stimulate this by schemes of colonisation. The lament of the +eugenist resounds in all countries alike. The German complains that the +Poles, whom he considers an inferior race, breed like rabbits, while the +gifted exponents of _Kultur_ only breed like hares. The American is +nervous about the numbers of the negro; he has more reason to be nervous +about the fecundity of the Slav and South Italian immigrant. Everywhere +the tendency is for the superior stock to dwindle till it becomes a +small aristocracy. The Americans of British descent are threatened with +this fate. Pride and a high standard of living are not biological +virtues. The man who needs and spends little is the ultimate inheritor +of the earth. I know of no instance in history in which a ruling race +has not ultimately been ousted or absorbed by its subjects. Complete +extermination or expropriation is the only successful method of +conquest. The Anglo-Saxon race has thus established itself in the +greater part of Britain, and in Australasia. In North America it has +destroyed the Indian hunter, who could not be used for industrial +purposes; but the temptation to exploit the negro and the cheaper +European races was too strong to be resisted, and Nature's heaviest +penalty is now being exacted against the descendants of our sturdy +colonists. We did not lose America in the eighteenth century; we are +losing it now. As for South Africa, the Kaffir can live like a gentleman +(according to his own ideas) on six months' ill-paid work every year; +the Englishman finds an income of £200 too small. There is only one end +to this kind of colonisation. The danger at home is that the larger part +of the population is now beginning to insist upon a scale of +remuneration and a standard of comfort which are incompatible with any +survival-value. We all wish to be privileged aristocrats, with no serfs +to work for us. Dame Nature cares nothing for the babble of politicians +and trade-union regulations. She says to us what Plotinus, in a +remarkable passage, makes her say: 'You should not ask questions; you +should try to understand. _I am not in the habit of talking._' In +Nature's school it is a word and a blow, and the blow first. Before the +close of this article I will return to the eugenic problem, and will +consider whether anything can be done to solve it. + +At the present time, when an apparently internecine conflict is raging +between the British Empire and Germany, a more detailed comparison of +the vital statistics of the two countries will be read with interest. In +England and Wales the birth-rate culminated in 1876 at a little over 36, +after slowly rising from 33 in 1850. From 1876 the line of decline is +almost straight, down to the ante-war figure of about 24. In Prussia, +owing partly to wars, the fluctuations have been violent. In 1850 the +figure (omitting decimals) was 39; in 1855, 34; in 1859, 40; in 1871, +34; in 1875, nearly 41. From this date, as in England, the steady +decline began. In 1907 the rate had fallen to 33; in 1913 (German +Empire) to 27.5. Here we may notice the abnormally high rate in the +years following the great war of 1870, a phenomenon which was marked +also throughout Europe after the Napoleonic wars. We may also notice +that the decline has been of late slightly more rapid in Germany, +falling from a high birth-rate, than in England, where the maximum was +never so high. Another fact which comes out when the German figures are +more carefully examined is that urbanisation in Germany has a +sterilising effect which is not operative in England. Prinzing gives the +comparative figures of _legitimate_ fertility for Prussia as follows: + + 1879-1882 1894-1897 + +Berlin 23.8 16.9[20] +Other great towns 26.7 23.5 +Towns of 20,000 to 100,000 26.8 25.7 +Small towns 27.8 25.9 +Country districts 28.8 29.0 + +Now urbanisation is going on even more rapidly in Germany than in +England. The death-rate in England and Wales rose from 21 in 1850 to +23.5 in 1854; after sharp fluctuations it reached 23.7 in 1864; since +then it has declined to its present figure (in normal times) of 14. In +Prussia after the war of 1870 and the small-pox epidemic of 1871, there +has been a steady fall from 26 to 17.3 (German Empire in 1911). The net +increase is only slightly larger (in proportion to the population) in +Germany than in England; and the increase in our great colonies, +especially in Australasia, is much higher than in Germany. There is +therefore no reason to suppose that a rapid alteration is going on to +our disadvantage. + +It is widely believed that the Roman Catholic Church, by sternly +forbidding the artificial limitation of families, is increasing its +numbers at the expense of the non-Catholic populations. To some extent +this is true. The Prussian figures for 1895-1900 give the number of +children per marriage as: + +Both parents Catholic 5 +Both parents Protestant 4 +Both parents Jews 3.7 + +An examination of the entries in 'Who's Who' gives about the same +proportion for well-to-do families in England. The Catholic birth-rate +of the Irish is nearly 40.[21] The French-Canadians are among the most +prolific races in the world. On the other hand, their infant mortality +is very high, and it is said that French-Canadian parents take these +losses philosophically. It is quite a different question whether it is +ultimately to the advantage of a nation which desires to increase its +numbers to profess the Roman Catholic religion. The high birth-rates are +all in unprogressive Catholic populations. When a Catholic people begins +to be educated, the priests apparently lose their influence upon the +habits of the laity, and a rapid decline in the births at once sets in. +The most advanced countries which did not accept the Reformation, France +and Belgium, are precisely those in which parental prudence has been +carried almost to excess. We must also remember that the Dutch Boers, +who are Protestants, but who live under simple conditions not unlike +those of the French-Canadians, are equally prolific, as were our own +colonists in the United States before that country was industrialised. +The advantages in numbers gained by Roman Catholicism are likely to be +confined to half-empty countries, where there is really room for more +citizens, and where social ambition and the love of comfort are the +chief motives for restricting the family. + +The population of a settled country cannot be increased at will; it +depends on the supply of food. The choice is between a high birth-rate +combined with a high death-rate, and a low birth-rate with a low +death-rate. The great saving of life which has been effected during the +last fifty years carries with it the necessity of restricting the +births. The next question to be considered is how this restriction is to +be brought about. The oldest methods are deliberate neglect and +infanticide. In China, where authorities differ as to the extent to +which female infants are exposed, the practice certainly prevails of +feeding infants whom their mothers are unable to suckle on rice and +water, which soon terminates their existence. Such methods would happily +find no advocates in Europe. The very ancient art of procuring +miscarriage is a criminal act in most civilised countries, but it is +practised to an appalling extent. Hirsch, who quotes his authorities, +estimates that 2,000,000 births are so prevented annually in the United +States, 400,000 in Germany, 50,000 in Paris, and 19,000 in Lyons. In our +own country it is exceedingly common in the northern towns, and attempts +are now being made to prohibit the sale of certain preparations of lead +which are used for this purpose. Alike on grounds of public health and +of morality, it is most desirable that this mischievous practice should +be checked. Its great prevalence in the United States is to be +attributed mainly to the drastic legislation in that country against the +sale and use of preventives, to which many persons take objection on +moral or æsthetic grounds, but which is surely on an entirely different +level from the destruction of life that has already begun. The +'Comstock' legislation in America has done unmixed harm. It is worse +than useless to try to put down by law a practice which a very large +number of people believes to be innocent, and which must be left to the +taste and conscience of the individual. To the present writer it seems a +_pis aller_ which high-minded married persons should avoid if they can +practise self-restraint. Whatever injures the feeling of +'sanctification and honour' with which St. Paul bids us to regard these +intimacies of life, whatever tends to profane or degrade the sacraments +of wedded love, is so far an evil. But this is emphatically a matter in +which every man and woman must judge for themselves, and must refrain +from judging others. + +In every modern civilised country population is restricted partly by the +deliberate postponement of marriage. In many cases this does no harm +whatever; but in many others it gravely diminishes the happiness of +young people, and may even cause minor disturbances of health. Moreover, +it would not be so widely adopted but for the tolerance, on the part of +society, of the 'great social evil,' the opprobrium of our civilisation. +In spite of the failure hitherto of priests, moralists, and legislators +to root it out, and in spite of the acceptance of it as inevitable by +the majority of Continental opinion, I believe that this abomination +will not long be tolerated by the conscience of the free and progressive +nations. It is notorious that the whole body of women deeply resents the +wrong and contumely done by it to their sex, and that, if democracy is +to be a reality, the immolation of a considerable section of women drawn +from the poorer classes cannot be suffered to continue. It is also plain +to all who have examined the subject that the campaign against certain +diseases, the malignity and wide diffusion of which are being more fully +realised every year, cannot be successful through medical methods alone. +If the institution in question were abolished, medical science would +soon reduce these scourges to manageable limits, and might at last +exterminate them altogether; but while it continues there is no hope of +doing this. I believe then that the time will come when the trade in +vice will cease; and if I am right, early marriages will become the rule +in all classes. This will render the population question more acute, +especially as the diseases which we hope to extirpate are the commonest +cause both of sterility and of infant mortality. Under this pressure, we +must expect to see preventive methods widely accepted as the least of +unavoidable evils. + +When we reflect on the whole problem in its widest aspects, we see that +civilised humanity is confronted by a Choice of Hercules. On the one +side, biological law seems to urge us forward to the struggle for +existence and expansion. The nation in that case will have to be +organised on the lines of greatest efficiency. A strong centralised +government will occupy itself largely in preventing waste. All the +resources of the nation must be used to the uttermost. Parks must be cut +up into allotments; the unproductive labours of the scholar and thinker +must be jealously controlled and limited. Inefficient citizens must be +weeded out; wages must be low and hours of work long. Moreover, the +State must be organised for war; for its neighbours, we must suppose, +are following the same policy. Then the fierce extra-group competition +must come to its logical arbitrament in a life and death struggle. And +war between two over-peopled countries, for both of which more +elbow-room is a vital necessity, must be a war of complete expropriation +or extermination. It must be so, for no other kind of war can achieve +its object. The horrors of the present conflict will be as nothing +compared with a struggle between two highly-organised State socialisms, +each of which knows that it must either colonise the territory of the +other or starve. It is idle to pretend that such a necessity will never +arise. Another century of increase in Europe like that of the nineteenth +century would bring it very near. If this policy is adopted, we shall +see all the principal States organising themselves with a perfection far +greater than that of Germany to-day, but taking German methods as their +model; and the end will be the extermination of the smaller or looser +organisations. Such a prospect may well fill us with horror; and it is +terrible to find some of the ablest thinkers of Germany, such as Ernst +Troeltsch, writing calm elegies over 'the death of Liberalism' and +predicting the advent of an era of cut-throat international competition. +Juvenal speaks of the folly of _propter vitam vivendi perdere causas_; +and who would care to live in such a world? But does Nature care whether +we enjoy our lives or not? + +The other choice is that which France has made for herself; it is on the +lines of Plato's ideal State. Each country is to be, as far as +possible, self-sufficing. If it cannot grow sufficient food for itself, +it must of course export its coal or its gold, or the products of its +industry and ingenuity. But it must know approximately what 'the number +of the State' (as Plato said) should be. It must limit its population to +that number, and the limit will be fixed, not at the maximum number who +can live there anyhow, but at the maximum number who can 'live well.' +The object aimed at will not be constant expansion, but well-being. The +energies liberated from the pitiless struggle for existence will be +devoted to making social life wiser, happier, more harmonious and more +beautiful. Have we any reason to hope that this policy is not contrary +to the hard laws which Nature imposes on every species in the world? + +In the first place, would such a State escape being devoured by some +brutal 'expanding' neighbour? What would have happened to France if she +had stood alone in this war? The danger is real; but we may answer that +France, as a matter of fact, did not stand alone, because other nations +thought her too precious to be sacrificed. And the completely organised +competitive State which I have imagined would be a far more unlovely +place than Germany, and more unpleasant to live in. The spectacle of a +saner and happier polity next door would break up the purely competitive +State from within; the strain would be too great for human nature. We +cannot argue confidently from the struggle for existence among the lower +animals to our own species. For a long time past, human evolution has +been directed, not to living anyhow, but to living in a certain way. We +are guided by ideals for the future, by purposes winch we clearly set +before ourselves, in a way which is impossible to the brutes. These +purposes are common to the large majority of men. No State can long +maintain a rigid and oppressive organisation, except under the threat of +danger; and a nation which aims only at perfecting its own culture is +not dangerous to its neighbours. It is probable that without the +supposed menace of another military Power on its eastern flank German +militarism would have begun to crumble. + +In the second place, would the absence of sharp competition within the +group lead to racial degeneration? This is a difficult question to +answer. Perhaps a diminution of pugnacity and of the means to gratify +this instinct would not be a misfortune. But it is certainly true that, +if the operation of natural selection is suspended, rational selection +must take its place. Failing this, reversion to a lower type is +inevitable. The infant science of eugenics will have much to say on this +subject hereafter; at present we are only discovering how complex and +obscure the laws of heredity are. The State of the future will have to +step in to prevent the propagation of undesirable variations, whether +physical or mental, and will doubtless find means to encourage the +increase of families that are well endowed by Nature. + +Assuming that a nation as a whole prefers a policy of this kind, and +aims at such an equilibrium of births and deaths as will set free the +energies of the people for the higher objects of civilised life, how +will it escape the cacogenic effects of family restriction in the better +classes combined with reckless multiplication among the refuse which +always exists in a large community? This is a problem which has not yet +been solved. Public opinion is not ready for legislation against the +multiplication of the unfit, and it is not easy to see what form such +legislation could take. Many of the very poor are not undesirable +parents; we must not confound economic prosperity with biological +fitness. The 'submerged tenth' should be raised, where it is possible, +into a condition of self-respect and responsibility; but they must not +be allowed to be a burden upon the efficient; and the upper and middle +classes should simplify their habits so far as to make marriage and +parenthood possible for the young professional man. Special care should +be taken that taxation is so adjusted as not to penalise parenthood in +the socially valuable middle class. + +For some time to come we are likely to see, in all the leading nations, +a restricted birth-rate, prompted by desire for social betterment, +combined, however, with concessions to the rival policy of commercial +expansion, growing numbers, and military preparation. The nations will +not cease to fear and suspect each other in the twentieth century, and +any one nation which chooses to be a nuisance to Europe will keep back +the progress and happiness of the rest. The prospect is not very bright; +a too generous confidence might betray some nation into irretrievable +disaster. But the bracing influence of national danger may perhaps be +beneficial. For we have to remember the pitiable decay of the ancient +classical civilisation, which was partly due, as we have found, to a +desire for comfortable and easy living. There have been signs that many +of our countrymen no longer think the strenuous life worth while; part +of our resentment against Germany resembles the annoyance of an +old-fashioned firm, disturbed in its comfortable security by the +competition of a young and more vigorous rival. It is even suggested +that after the war we should protect ourselves against German +competition by tariff walls. This abandonment of the free trade policy +on which our prosperity is built would soon bring our over-populated +island to ruin. + +In conclusion, if we leave the distant future to fend for itself when +the time comes, what should be our policy with regard to population for +the next fifty years? I am led to an opinion which may seem to run +counter to the general purport of this article. For though the British +Isles are even dangerously full, so that we are liable to be starved out +if we lose the command of the sea, the British Empire is very far from +being over-populated. In Canada and Australasia there is probably room +for nearly 200,000,000 people. These countries are remarkably healthy +for Northern Europeans; there is no reason why they should not be as +rich and powerful as the United States are now. We hope that we have +saved the Empire from German cupidity--for the time; but we cannot tell +how long we may be undisturbed. It would be criminal folly not to make +the most of the respite granted us, by peopling our Dominions with our +own stock, while yet there is time. This, however, cannot be done by +casual and undirected emigration of the old kind. We need an Imperial +Board of Emigration, the officials of which will work in co-operation +with the Governments of our Dominions. These Governments, it may be +presumed, will be anxious, after the war, to strengthen the colonies by +increasing their population and developing their resources. They, like +ourselves, have had a severe fright, and know that prompt action is +necessary. Systematic plans of colonisation should be worked out, and +emigrants drafted off to the Dominions as work can be found for them. +Young women should be sent out in sufficient numbers to keep the sexes +equal. We know now that our young people who emigrate are by no means +lost to the Empire. The Dominions have shown that in time of need they +are able and willing to defend the mother country with their full +strength. Indeed, a young couple who emigrate are likely to be of more +value to the Empire than if they had stayed at home; and their chances +of happiness are much increased if they find a home in a part of the +world where more human beings are wanted. But without official advice +and help emigration is difficult. Parents do not know where to send +their sons, nor what training to give them. Mistakes are made, money is +wasted, and bitter disappointment caused. All this may be obviated if +the Government will take the matter up seriously. The real issue of this +war is whether our great colonies are to continue British; and the +question will be decided not only on the field of battle, but by the +action of our Government and people after peace is declared. The next +fifty years will decide for all time whether those magnificent and still +empty countries are to be the home of great nations speaking our +language, carrying on our institutions, and valuing our traditions. When +the future of our Dominions is secure, the part of England as a +World-Power will have been played to a successful issue, and we may be +content with a position more consonant with the small area of these +islands. + +I believe, then, that if facilities for migration are given by +Government action, it will be not only possible but desirable for the +increase in the population of the Empire, taken as a whole, to be +maintained during the twentieth century. It is, of course, possible that +chemical discoveries and other scientific improvements may greatly +increase the yield of food from the soil, and that in this way the final +limit to the population of the earth may be further off than now seems +probable. But within a few centuries, at most, this limit must be +reached; and after that we may hope that the world will agree to +maintain an equilibrium between births and deaths, that being the most +stable and the happiest condition in which human beings can live +together.[22] + +FOOTNOTES: + + [10] Myres, _Eugenics Review_, April, 1915. + + [11] Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Kultur der Gegenwart_, 2, 4, 1. + + [12] Cimon, Pericles, and Socrates all had three sons, and + apparently no daughters.--Zimmern, _The Greek Commonwealth_, + p. 331. + + [13] _Cf. (e.g.)_ Plato, _Theaetetus_, 149. + + [14] We may suppose that the disproportion of the sexes, + caused by female infanticide, was about rectified by the + deaths of males in battle and civic strife. We do not hear + that the Greek had any difficulty in finding a wife. + + [15] Families, he says, were limited to one or two 'in order + to leave these rich.' + + [16] The population of England and Wales is said to have + been 4,800,000 in 1600, and 6,500,000 in 1750. It was + 8,890,000 in 1801, 32,530,000 in 1901, and approximately + 37,000,000 in 1914. + + [17] Statistics are wanting for the early part of the + industrial revolution, but my study of pedigrees leads me to + think that the average duration of life was considerably + increased in the eighteenth century. + + [18] _The Family and the Nation_, p. 143. + + [19] The births per 1000 married men under fifty-five in the + different classes are:--Upper and middle class, 119; + Intermediate, 132; Skilled workmen, 153; Intermediate, 158; + Unskilled workmen, 213. + + [20] It must be remembered that the illegitimate birth-rate + in Berlin is scandalously high. + + [21] The crude birth-rate of Ireland is wholly misleading, + because so many young couples emigrate before the birth of + their first child. + + [22] The possible effect of the labour movement in + diminishing the population is considered in the next Essay. + The last two years have, in my opinion, made the outlook + less favourable. + + + + +THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH RACE + +(THE GALTON LECTURE, 1919) + + +In the year 1890 Sir Charles Dilke ended his survey of 'Greater Britain' +and its problems with the prediction that 'the world's future belongs to +the Anglo-Saxon, the Russian, and the Chinese races.' This was in the +heyday of British imperialism, which was inaugurated by Seeley's +'Expansion of England' and Froude's 'Oceana,' and which inspired Mr. +Chamberlain to proclaim at Toronto in 1887 that the 'Anglo-Saxon stock +is infallibly destined to be the predominant force in the history and +civilisation of the world.' It was an arrogant, but not truculent, mood, +which reached its climax at the 1897 Jubilee, and rapidly declined +during and after the Boer war. These writers and statesmen were utterly +blind to the German peril, though the disciples of Treitschke were +already working out a theory about the future destinies of the world, in +which neither Great Britain nor Russia nor China counted for very much. +There were illusions on both sides of the North Sea, which had to be +paid for in blood. In both countries imperialism was a sentiment +curiously compounded of idealism and bombast, and supported by very +doubtful science. In the case of Germany the distortion of facts was +deliberate and monstrous. Not only was every schoolboy brought up on +cooked population statistics and falsified geography, but the thick-set, +brachycephalous Central European persuaded himself that he belonged to +the pure Nordic race, the great blond beasts of Nietzsche, which, as he +was taught, had already produced nearly all the great men in history, +and was now about to claim its proper place as master of the world. +Political anthropology is no genuine science. Race and nationality are +catchwords for which rulers find that their subjects are willing to +fight, as they fought for what they called religion four hundred years +ago. In reality, if we want to find a pure race, we must visit the +Esquimaux, or the Fuegians, or the Pygmies; we shall certainly not find +one in Europe. Our own imperialists had their illusions too, and we are +not rid of them yet, because we do not realise that the fate of races is +decided, not in the council-chamber or on the battle-field, but by the +same laws of nature which determine the distribution of the various +plants and animals of the world. It may be that by approaching our +subject from this side we shall arrive at a more scientific, if a more +chastened, anticipation of our national future than was acceptable to +the enthusiasts of expansion in the last twenty years of Queen +Victoria's reign. + +The history of the world shows us that there have been three great human +reservoirs which from time to time have burst their banks and flooded +neighbouring countries. These are the Arabian peninsula, the steppes of +Central Asia, and the lands round the Baltic, the original home of the +Germanic and Anglo-Saxon peoples. The invaders in each case were +pastoral folk, who were driven from their homes by over-population, or +drought and famine, or the pressure of enemies behind them. It is easy +for nomads to 'trek,' even for great distances; and till the discovery +of gunpowder they were the most formidable of foes. The Arabs and +Northern Europeans have founded great civilisations; the Mongol hordes +have been an unmitigated curse to humanity. The invaders never kept +their blood pure. The famous Jewish nose is probably Hittite, and +certainly not Bedouin. There are no pure Turks in Europe, and the +Hungarians have lost all resemblance to Mongols. The modern Germans seem +to belong mainly to the round-headed Alpine race, which migrated into +Europe in early times from the Asiatic highlands. In England there is a +larger proportion of Nordic blood, because the Anglo-Saxons partially +exterminated the natives; but the old Mediterranean race, which had +made its way up the warm western coasts, still holds its own in +Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, and the Western Highlands; and within the last +hundred years, owing to frequent migrations, has mixed so thoroughly +with the Anglo-Saxon stock that the English are becoming darker in each +generation. This is not the result of a racial decay of the blonds, as +the American, Dr. Charles Woodruff, supposes, but is to be accounted for +by the fact that dark eyes seem to be a Mendelian dominant, and dark +hair a more potent character than light. The inhabitants of these +islands are nearly all long-headed, this being a characteristic of both +the Nordic and Mediterranean races. The round-headed invaders, who +perhaps brought with them the so-called Celtic languages at a remote +period, and imposed them upon the inhabitants, seem to have left no +other mark upon the population, though their type of head is prevalent +over a great part of France. + +The ability of races to flourish in climates other than their own is a +question of supreme importance to historians and statesmen, and, it need +not be said, to emigrants. But it is only lately that it has been +studied scientifically, and the results are still tentative. German +ethnologists, of what we may call the _ædicephalous_ school, already +referred to, regard it as one of the tragedies of nature that the noble +Nordic race, to which they think they belong, dies out when it +penetrates southwards. In accordance with this law, the yellow-haired +Achæans decayed in Greece, the Lombards in North Italy, the Vandals in +Spain and Africa. After a few generations of life in a warm climate the +Aryan stock invariably disappears. We shall show reasons for thinking +that this theory is much exaggerated; but there is undoubtedly some +truth in it. It has been found to be impossible for white men to +colonise India, Burma, tropical America, and West Africa. It has been +said that 'there is in India no third generation of pure English blood.' +It is notoriously difficult to bring up even one generation of white +children in India. The French cannot maintain themselves without race +admixture in Martinique and Guadaloupe, nor the Dutch in Java, though +it is said that the expectation of life for a European in Java is as +good as in his own country. It seems to be also true that the blond race +suffers most in a hot climate. In the Philippines it was observed that +the fair-haired soldiers in the American army succumbed most readily to +disease. In Queensland the Italian colonists are said to stand the heat +better than the English, and Mr. Roosevelt, among other items of good +advice which he bestowed so liberally on the European nations, advised +us to populate the torrid parts of Australia with immigrants from the +Latin races. In Natal the English families who are settled in the +country are said to be enervated by the climate; and on the high +plateaux of the interior our countrymen find it necessary to pay +periodical visits to the coast, to be unbraced. The early deaths and not +infrequent suicides of Rand magnates may indicate that the air of the +Transvaal is too stimulating for a life of high tension and excitement. +There are even signs that the same may be true in a minor degree of the +United States of America. Both the capitalist and the working man, if +they come of English stock, seem to wear out more quickly than at home; +and the sterility of marriages among the long settled American families +is so pronounced that it can hardly be due entirely to voluntary +restriction of parentage. The effects of an unsuitable climate are +especially shown in nervous disorders, and are therefore likely to tell +most heavily on those who engage in intellectual pursuits, and perhaps +on women rather more than on men. The sterilising effects of women's +higher education in America are incontrovertible, though this inference +is hotly denied in England. At Holyoake College it was found that only +half the lady graduates afterwards married, and the average family of +those who did marry was less than two children. At Bryn Mawr only 43 per +cent, married, and had 0.84 children each; the average family per +graduate was therefore 0.37. If it be objected that new immigrants and +their children are healthy and vigorous in America, it may be truly +answered that the effects of an unfavourable climate are manifested +fully only in the third and later generations. The argument may be +further supported by the fate of black men who try to settle in Europe. +Their strongly pigmented skin, which seems to protect them from the +actinic rays of the tropical sun, so noxious to Europeans, and their +broad nostrils, which inhale a larger number of tubercle bacilli than +the narrow nose-slits of the Northerner, are disadvantages in a +temperate climate. In any case, of the many thousands of negro servants +who lived in England in the eighteenth century, it would be difficult to +find a single descendant. + +But there are other factors in the problem which should make us beware +of hasty generalisations. It is obvious that since the American Republic +contains many climates in its vast area, there may be parts of it which +are perfectly healthy for Anglo-Saxons, and other parts where they +cannot live without degenerating. Very few athletes, we are told, come +from south of the fortieth parallel of latitude. But the decline in the +birth-rate is most marked in the older colonies, the New England States, +where for a long period the English colonists, living mainly on the +land, not only throve and developed a singularly virile type of +humanity, but multiplied with almost unexampled rapidity. The same is +true not only of the French Canadian farmers, but of the South African +Boers, who rear enormous families in a climate very different from that +of Holland. The inference is that Europeans living on the land may +flourish in any tolerably healthy climate which is not tropical. + +There are, in fact, two other causes besides climate which may prevent +immigrants from multiplying in a new country. The first of these is the +presence of microbic diseases to which the old inhabitants are wholly or +partially immune, but which find a virgin soil in the bodies of the +newcomers. The strongest example is the West Coast of Africa, of which +Miss Mary Kingsley writes: 'Yet remember, before you elect to cast your +lot with the West Coasters, that 85 per cent, of them die of fever, or +return home with their health permanently wrecked. Also remember that +there is no getting acclimatised to the Coast. There are, it is true, a +few men out there who, although they have been resident in West Africa +for years, have never had fever, but you can count them on the fingers +of one hand.' There can be no acclimatisation where the weeding out is +as drastic as this. Either the anopheles mosquito or the European must +quit. There are parts of tropical America where the natives have +actually been protected by the malaria, which keeps the white man at +arm's length. But more often the microbe is on the side of the civilised +race, killing off the natives who have not run the gauntlet of +town-life. The extreme reluctance of the barbarians who overran the +Roman Empire to settle in the towns is easily accounted for if, as is +probable, the towns killed them off whenever they attempted to live in +them. The difference is remarkable between the fate of a conquered race +which has become accustomed to town-life, and that of one which has not. +There are no 'native quarters' in the towns of any country where the +aborigines were nomads or tillers of the soil. To the North American +Indian, residence in a town is a sentence of death. The American Indians +were accustomed to none of our zymotic diseases except malaria. In the +north they were destroyed wholesale by tuberculosis; in Mexico and Peru, +where large towns existed before the conquest, they fared better. Fiji +was devastated by measles; other barbarians by small-pox. Negroes have +acquired, through severe natural selection, a certain degree of +immunisation in America; but even now it is said that 'every other negro +dies of consumption.' There are, however, two races, both long +accustomed to town-life under horribly insanitary conditions, which have +shown that they can live in almost any climate. These are the Jews and +the Chinese. The medieval Ghetto exterminated all who were not naturally +resistant to every form of microbic disease; the modern Jew, though +often of poor physique, is hard to kill. The same may be said of the +Chinaman, who, when at home, lives under conditions which would kill +most Europeans. + +The other factor, which is really promoting the gradual disappearance of +the Anglo-Saxons from the United States, is of a very different +character. The descendants of the old immigrants are on the whole the +aristocracy of the country. Now it is a law which hardly admits of +exceptions, that aristocracies do not maintain their numbers. The ruling +race rules itself out; nothing fails like success. Gibbon has called +attention to the extreme respect paid to long descent in the Roman +Empire, and to the strange fact that, in the fourth century, no +ingenuity of pedigree makers could deny that all the great families of +the Republic were extinct, so that the second-rate plebeian family of +the Anicii, whose name did appear in the Fasti, enjoyed a prestige far +greater than that of the Howards and Stanleys in this country. Our own +peerage consists chiefly of parvenus. Only six of our noble families, it +is said, can trace their descent in the male line without a break to the +fifteenth century. The peerage of Sweden tells the same tale. According +to Gallon, the custom or law of primogeniture, combined with the habit +of marrying heiresses who, as the last representatives of dwindling +families, tend to be barren, is mainly responsible for this. Additional +causes may be the greater danger which the officer-class incurs in war, +and, in former times, the executioner's axe. In our own day the +reluctance of rich and self-indulgent women to bear children is +undoubtedly a factor in the infertility of the leisured class. + +This brings us naturally to the second part of our discussion--the +consideration of the causes which lead to the increase or decrease of +population. It is the most important part of our inquiry; for it is +usually assumed that the British Isles will continue to send out +colonists in large numbers, as it did in the last century, and the hopes +of the imperialist that a large part of the world will speak English for +all time depend on the untested assurance that the swarming-time of our +race is not yet over. Our starting-point must be that the pressure of +population upon the means of subsistence is a constant fact in the human +race, as in every other species of animals and plants. There is no +species in which the numbers are not kept down, far below the natural +capacity for increase, by the limitation of available food. It may not +always be easy to trace the connection between the appearance of new +lives and the passing away of old, nor to say whether it is the +birth-rate which determines the death-rate, or the death-rate the +birth-rate. But it is well known that, wherever statistics are kept, the +numbers of births and of deaths rise and fall in nearly parallel lines, +so that the net rate of increase hardly alters at all, unless some +change, which can easily be traced, occurs in the habits of the people +or in the amount of the food supply. In civilised countries the greater +care taken of human life, and its consequent prolongation, has reduced +the birth-rate, just as in the higher mammals we find a greatly +diminished fertility as compared with the lower, and a much higher +survival-rate among the offspring born. The average duration of life in +this country has increased by about one-third in the last sixty years, +and the birth-rate has fallen in almost exactly the same proportion. The +position of a nation in the scale of civilisation may almost be gauged +by its births and deaths. The order in Europe, beginning with the lowest +birth-rate, is France, Belgium, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, +Norway, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Spain, Austria, Italy, Hungary, the +Balkan States, Russia. The order of death-rates, again beginning at the +bottom, is Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United +Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Serbia, Spain, +Bulgaria, Hungary, Roumania, Russia. These two lists, as will be seen, +correspond very nearly with the scale of descending civilisation, the +only notable exception being the low position of France in the second +list. This anomaly is explained by the fact that France having a +stationary population, the death-rate in that country corresponds nearly +with the mean expectation of life, whereas in countries where the +population is increasing rapidly, either by excess of births over deaths +or by immigration, the preponderance of young lives brings the +death-rate down. We must, therefore, be on our guard against supposing +that countries with the lowest death-rates are necessarily the most +healthy. In New Zealand, for example, the death-rate is under 10 per +1000, the lowest in the world; and though that country is undoubtedly +healthy, no one supposes that the average duration of life in New +Zealand is a hundred years. To ascertain whether a nation is long-lived, +we must correct the crude death-rate by taking into account the average +age of the population. When this correction has been made, a low +death-rate, and the low birth-rate which necessarily accompanies it, is +a sign that the doctors are doing their duty by keeping their patients +alive. If our physicians desire more maternity cases, they must make +more work for the undertaker. Large families almost always mean a high +infant mortality; and it is significant that a twelfth child has a very +much poorer chance of survival than a first or second. The agitation for +the endowment of motherhood and the reduction of infant mortality is +therefore futile, because, while other conditions remain the same, every +baby 'saved' sends another baby out of the world or prevents him from +coming into it. The number of the people is not determined by +philanthropists or even by parents. Children will come somehow whenever +there is room for them, and go when there is none. But other conditions +do not remain the same, and it is in these other conditions that we must +seek the causes of expansion or contraction in the numbers of a +community. + +At the end of the sixteenth century the population of England and Wales +amounted to about five millions, and a hundred years later to about six. +There is no reason to think that under the conditions then existing the +country could have supported a larger number. The birth-rate was kept +high by the pestilential state of the towns, and thus the pressure of +numbers was less felt than it is now, since it was possible to have, +though not to rear, unlimited families. Occasionally, from accidental +circumstances, England was for a short time under-populated, and these +were the periods when, according to Professor Thorold Rogers, Archdeacon +Cunningham, and other authorities, the labourer was well off. The most +striking example was in the half-century after the Black Death, which +carried off nearly half the population. Wages increased threefold, and +the Government tried in vain to protect employers by enforcing +pre-plague rates. Not only were wages high, but food was so abundant +that farmers often gave their men a square meal which was not in the +contract. The other period of prosperity for the working man, according +to our authorities, was the second quarter of the eighteenth century. It +has not, we think, been noticed that this also followed a temporary +set-back in the population. In 1688 the population of England and Wales +was 5,500,520; in 1710 it was more than a quarter of a million less. The +cause of this decline is obscure, but its effects soon showed themselves +in easier conditions of life, especially for the poor. Such periods of +under-saturation, which some new countries are still enjoying, are +necessarily short. Population flows in as naturally as water finds its +level. + +It was not till the accession of George III that the increase in our +numbers became rapid. No one until then would have thought of singling +out the Englishman as the embodiment of the good apprentice. Meteren, in +the sixteenth century, found our countrymen 'as lazy as Spaniards'; most +foreigners were struck by our fondness for solid food and strong drink. +The industrial revolution came upon us suddenly; it changed the whole +face of the country and the apparent character of the people. In the far +future our descendants may look back upon the period in which we are +living as a strange episode which disturbed the natural habits of our +race. The first impetus was given by the plunder of Bengal, which, after +the victories of Clive, flowed into the country in a broad stream for +about thirty years. This ill-gotten wealth played the same part in +stimulating English industries as the 'five milliards,' extorted from +France, did for Germany after 1870. The half-century which followed was +marked by a series of inventions, which made England the workshop of the +world. But the basis of our industrial supremacy was, and is, our coal. +Those who are in the habit of comparing the progressiveness of the +North-Western European with the stagnation or decadence of the Latin +races, forget the fact, which is obvious when it has once been pointed +out, that the progressive nations are those which happen to have +valuable coal fields. Countries which have no coal are obliged to +import it paying the freight, or to smelt their iron with charcoal This +process makes excellent steel--the superiority of Swedish razors is due +to wood-smelting--but it is so wasteful of wood that the Mediterranean +peoples very early in history injured their climate by cutting down +their scanty forests, thereby diminishing their rainfall, and allowing +the soil to be washed off the hillsides. The coasts of the Mediterranean +are, in consequence, far less productive than they were two thousand +years ago. But in England, when the start was once made, all +circumstances conspired to turn our once beautiful island into a chaos +of factories and mean streets, reeking of smoke, millionaires, and +paupers. We were no longer able to grow our own food; but we made masses +of goods which the manufacturers ware eager to exchange for it; and the +population grew like crops on a newly-irrigated desert. During the +nineteenth century the numbers were nearly quadrupled. Let those who +think that the population of a country can be increased at will, reflect +whether it is likely that any physical, moral, or psychological change +came over the nation coincidently with the inventions of the +spinning-jenny and the steam-engine. It is too obvious for dispute that +it was the possession of capital wanting employment, and of natural +advantages for using it, that called these multitudes of human beings +into existence, to eat the food which they paid for by their labour. And +it should be equally obvious that the existence of forty-six millions of +people upon 121,000 square miles of territory depends entirely upon our +finding a market for our manufactures abroad, for so only are we able to +pay for the food of the people. It is most unfortunate that these +exports must, with our present population, include coal, which, if we +had any thought for posterity, we should guard jealously and use +sparingly; for in five hundred years at the outside our stock will be +gone, and we shall sink to a third-rate Power at once. We are +sacrificing the future in order to provide for an excessive and +discontented population in the present. During the present century we +have begun to be conscious that our foreign trade is threatened; and so +sensitive is the birth-rate to economic conditions that it has begun to +curve very slightly downward in relation to the death-rate, instead of +descending with it in parallel lines.[23] This may be partly due to the +curtailment of facilities for emigration, owing to the filling up of the +new countries. For emigration does not diminish the population of the +country which the emigrants leave; it only increases its birth-rate. + +We are now in a position to enumerate the causes which actually lead to +an increase in the population of a country. The first is an increase in +the amount of food produced in the country itself. If the parks and +gardens of the gentry were ploughed up or turned into allotments, a few +hundred thousands would be added to the population of the United +Kingdom, at the cost of one of the few remaining beauties which make our +country attractive to the eye. The introduction of the potato into +Ireland added several millions of squalid inhabitants to that +ill-conditioned island, and when the crop failed, large numbers of them +inflicted themselves on the United States, to the detriment of that +country. The richest countries to-day are those which produce more food +than they require, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, +Roumania, and the Argentine. (We need hardly say that throughout this +survey we are using the statistics of the years immediately before the +war.) But this state of things cannot last long, for the net increase in +such countries is invariably high, either by reason of a very high +birth-rate, as in Roumania, or because newcomers flock in to enjoy a +land of plenty. Another condition which leads to abnormally rapid +increase is found when a civilised nation conquers and administers a +backward country, introducing better methods of agriculture, and +especially irrigation and the reclamation of waste lands. The alien +Government also gives greater security, without raising the standard of +living among the natives, since the dominant race usually monopolises +the lucrative careers. In this way we are directly responsible for +increasing the population of Egypt from seven millions in 1883 to nine +and three-quarter millions in 1899, an augmentation which, in the +absence of immigration, illustrates the great natural fertility of the +human race in the rare circumstances when unchecked increase is +possible. Still more remarkable is the rise in the population of Java +from five millions in 1825 to twenty-eight and a half millions in the +first decade of this century. The cause of this increase is the +augmented supply of food combined with a very low standard of living, a +combination which is specially characteristic of Asia, where extreme +supersaturation exists in India and China. A third cause is production +of goods which can be exchanged for food grown abroad. This exchange, as +we have seen, is stimulated by the presence of capital seeking +employment. Our large towns are the creation of the capitalist, much +more than if he had populated their depressing streets with his own +children. Fourthly, a reduction in the standard of living of course +makes a larger population possible. The misery of the working class in +the generation after the Napoleonic Wars was a condition of the +prosperity of our export trade at this period; and conversely, the +prosperity of our export trade was necessary to the existence of the new +inhabitants. Capitalism is the cause of our dense population; and the +proletariat would infallibly cut their own throats by destroying it. + +It is an important question whether a crowded population adds to the +security of a nation or not. Numbers are undoubtedly of great importance +in modern warfare. The French would have been less able to resist the +Germans without allies in 1914 than they were in 1870. But we must not +suppose that France could support a much larger population without +reducing her standard of living to the point of under-deeding; and an +under-fed nation is incapable of the endurance required of first-class +soldiers. A nation may be so much weakened in physique by under-feeding +as to be impotent from a military point of view, in spite of great +numbers; this is the case in India and China. Deficient nourishment also +diminishes the day's work. If European and American capital goes to +China, and provides proper food for the workmen, we may have an early +opportunity of discovering whether the supporters of the League of +Nations have any real conscientious objection to violence and bloodshed. +We may surmise that the European man, the fiercest of all beasts of +prey, is not likely to abandon the weapons which have made him the lord +and the bully of the planet. He has no other superiority to the races +which he arrogantly despises. Under a régime of peace the Asiatic would +probably be his master. To return from a short digression, we must note +further that a nation with a low standard has no reserve to fall back +upon; it lives on the margin of subsistence, which may easily fail in +war-time, especially if much food is imported when conditions are +normal. It can hardly be an accident that in this war the nations with a +high birth-rate broke up in the order of their fecundity, while France +stood like a rock. The sacrifice of comfort to numbers, which we have +seen to be possible by maintaining a low standard of living, not only +diminishes the happiness of a nation, and keeps it low in the scale of +civilisation; it may easily prove to be a source of weakness in war. + +The expedients often advocated to encourage denser population--which +those who urge them thoughtlessly assume to be a good thing--such as +endowment of parenthood, and better housing at the expense of the +taxpayer--have no effect except to penalise and sterilise those who pay +the doles, for the benefit of those who receive them. They are intensely +dysgenic in their operation, for they cripple and at last eliminate just +those stocks which have shown themselves to be above the average in +ability. The process has already advanced a long way, even without the +reckless legislation which is now advocated. The lowest birth-rates, +less than half that of the unskilled labourers, are those of the +doctors, the teaching profession, and ministers of religion. The +position of this class, intellectually and often physically the finest +in the kingdom, is rapidly becoming intolerable, and it is the wastrels +who mainly benefit by their spoliation. + +The causes of shrinkage in population are the opposites of those which +we have found to promote its increase. The production of food may be +diminished by the exhaustion of the soil, or by the progressive aridity +caused by cutting down woods. The manufacture of goods to be exchanged +for food may fall off owing to foreign competition, a result which is +likely to follow from a rise in the standard of living, for the labourer +then demands higher wages, and consumes more food per head, which of +itself must check fertility, since the same amount of food will now +support a smaller number. The delusion shared by the whole working class +that they can make work for each other, at wages fixed by themselves, is +ludicrous; a community cannot subsist 'by taking in each other's +washing.' Or the supply of importable food may fail by the peopling up +of the countries which grow it. Any conditions which make it no longer +worth while to invest capital in business, or which destroy credit, have +the same effect. One of the causes of the decay of the Roman Empire was +the drain of specie to the East in exchange for perishable commodities. +When trade is declining a general listlessness comes over the industrial +world, and the output falls still further. There have been alleged +instances of peoples which have dwindled and even disappeared from +_taedium vitae_. This is said to have been the cause of the extinction +of the Guanches of the Canary Islands; but the symptoms described rather +suggest an outbreak of sleeping-sickness. + +Paradoxical as it may seem, neither voluntary restriction of births, nor +famine, nor pestilence, nor war, has much effect in reducing numbers. +Birth-control instead of diminishing the population, may only lower the +death-rate. France in 1781, with a birth-rate of 39, had much the same +net increase as in the years before the war with a birth-rate of 20. The +parallel lines of the births and deaths in this country have already +been mentioned. Famine and pestilence are followed at once by an +increased number of births. India and China, though frequently ravaged +by both these scourges, remain super-saturated. Of course, if the famine +is chronic, the population must fall to the point where the food is +sufficient; and a zymotic disease which has become endemic may be too +strong for the natural fertility of the nation attacked, as has happened +to several barbarous races; but an invasion of plague, cholera, or +influenza has no permanent effect on the numbers of Europeans. War +resembles plague in its action upon population. When, as in the late +war, nearly the whole of the able-bodied men are on active service, the +loss of population caused by cessation of births is greater than all the +fatal casualties of the battle-field. A rough calculation gives the +result that twelve million lives have been lost to the belligerent +nations by the separation of husbands and wives during the war. And yet +it may be predicted that these losses, added to the eight millions or so +who have been killed, would be made good in a very few years but for the +destruction of capital and credit which the war has caused. If we study +the vital statistics of a country like Germany, which has engaged in +several severe wars since births and deaths began to be registered, we +shall find that the contour-line representing the fluctuations of the +birth-rate indicates a steep ravine in the year or years while the war +lasted, followed by a hump or high table-land for several years after. +In a short time, as far as numbers are concerned, the war is as if it +had never been. When we remember that the number of possible fathers is +much reduced by casualties, this rise in the birth-rate after a war +offers a strong confirmation of the thesis which we have been +maintaining, that the ebb and flow of population are not affected by +conscious intention, but by increased or diminished pressure of numbers +upon subsistence. If the German people, who before the war consumed more +food than was good for them, have been habituated by our blockade to a +reasonable abstemiousness, we shall have contributed to the eventual +increase of the German people, in spite of all their soldiers whom we +killed in France, and the civilians whom we starved in Germany. And if +our success leads to a greater consumption by our working class, our +population will show a corresponding decline. Emigration, as we have +seen, does not diminish the home population by a single unit; and so, +while there are empty lands available for colonisation, it is by far the +best method of adding to the numbers of our race. + +It should now be possible to form a judgment on the prospects of the +Anglo-Saxon race in various parts of the world. In India, Burma, New +Guinea, the West Indian Islands, and tropical Africa there is no +possibility of ever planting a healthy European population. These +dependencies may grow food for us, or send us articles which we can +exchange for food, but they are not, and never can be, colonies of +Anglo-Saxons. The prospects of South Africa are very dubious. The white +man is there an aristocrat, directing semi-servile labour. The white +population of the gold and diamond fields will stay there till the mines +give out, and no longer. Large tracts of the country may at last be +occupied only by Kaffirs. The United States of America are becoming less +Anglo-Saxon every year, and this process is likely to continue, since in +unskilled labour the Italian and the Pole seem to give better value for +their wages than the Englishman or born American, with his high standard +of comfort. In Canada, the temperate part of Australia, New Zealand, and +Tasmania the chances for a large and flourishing English-speaking +population seem to be very favourable, though in these dominions the +high standard of living is a check to population, and in the case of +Australasia the possibility of foreign conquest, while these priceless +lands are still half empty, cannot be altogether excluded. + +Even more interesting to most of us is the future of our race at home. +As regards quality, the outlook for the present is bad. We have seen +that the destruction of the upper and professional classes by taxation +directed expressly against them has already begun, and this +victimisation is certain to become more and more acute, till these +classes are practically extinguished. The old aristocracy showed a +tendency to decay even when they were unduly favoured by legislation, +and a little more pressure will drive them to voluntary sterility and +extermination. Even more to be regretted is the doom of the professional +aristocracy, a caste almost peculiar to our country. These families can +often show longer, and usually much better pedigrees than the peerage; +the persistence of marked ability in many of them, for several +generations, is the delight of the eugenist. They are perhaps the best +specimens of humanity to be found in any country of the world. Yet they +have no prospects except to be gradually harassed out of existence, like +the _curiales_ of the later Roman Empire. The power will apparently be +grasped by a new highly privileged class, the aristocracy of labour. +This class, being intelligent, energetic, and intensely selfish, may +retain its domination for a considerable time. It is a matter of course +that, having won its privilege of exploiting the community, it will use +all its efforts to preserve that privilege and to prevent others from +sharing it. In other words, it will become an exclusive and strongly +conservative class, on a broader basis than the territorial and +commercial aristocracies which preceded it. It will probably be strong +enough to discontinue the system of State doles which encourages the +wastrel to multiply, as he does multiply, much faster than the valuable +part of the population. We are at present breeding a large parasitic +class subsisting on the taxes and hampering the Government. The +comparative fertility of the lowest class as compared with the better +stocks has greatly increased, and is still increasing. The competent +working-class families, as well as the rich, are far less fertile than +the waste products of our civilisation. Dr. Tredgold found that 43 +couples of the parasitic class averaged 7.4 children per family, while +91 respectable couples from the working class averaged only 3.7 per +family. Mr. Sidney Webb examined the statistics of the Hearts of Oak +Benefit Society, which is patronised by the best type of mechanic, and +found that the birth-rate among its members has fallen 46 per cent, +between 1881 and 1901; or, taking the whole period between 1880 and +1904, the falling off is 52 per cent. This decline proves that the +period of industrial expansion in England is nearly over. It would be +far better if our birth-rate were as low as that of France, as it would +be but for the reckless propagation of the 'submerged tenth,' England +being now a paradise for human refuse, the offscourings of Europe +(170,000 in 1908) take the place of the better stocks, whose position is +made artificially unfavourable. These doles are at present paid by the +minority, and this method may be expected to continue until the looting +of the propertied classes comes to an enforced end. This will not take +long, for it is certain that the amount of wealth available for plunder +is very much smaller than is usually supposed. It is easy to destroy +capital values, but very difficult to distribute them. The time will +soon arrive when the patient sheep will be found to have lost not only +his fleece but his skin, and the privileged workman will then have to +choose between taxing himself and abandoning socialism. There is little +doubt which he will prefer. The result will be that the festering sore +of our slum-population will dry up, and the gradual disappearance of +this element will be some compensation, from the eugenic point of view, +for the destruction of the intellectual class. This process will +considerably, and beneficially, diminish the population: and there are +several other factors which will operate in the same direction. High +wage industry can only maintain itself against the competition of +cheaper labour abroad by introducing every kind of labour-saving device. +The number of hands employed in a factory must progressively diminish. +And as, in spite of all that ingenuity can do, the competition of the +cheaper races is certain to cripple our foreign trade, the trade unions +will be obliged to provide for a shrinkage in their numbers. We may +expect that every unionist will be allowed to place one son, and only +one, in the privileged corporation. A man will become a miner or a +railwayman 'by patrimony,' and it will be difficult to gain admission to +a union in any other way. The position of those who cannot find a place +within the privileged circle will be so unhappy that most unionists will +take care to have one son only. Another change which will tend to +discourage families will be the increased employment of women as +bread-winners. Nothing is more remarkable in the study of vital +statistics than the comparative birth-rates of those districts in which +women earn wages, and of those in which they do not. The rate of +increase among the miners is as great as that of the reckless casual +labourers, and the obvious reason is that the miner's wife loses nothing +by having children, since she does not earn wages. Contrast with these +high figures (running up to 40 per thousand) the very low birth-rates of +towns like Bradford, where the women are engaged in the textile industry +and earn regular wages in support of the family budget. If the time +comes when the majority of women are wage-earners, we may even see the +pressure of population entirely withdrawn. Thus in every class of the +nation influences are at work tending to a progressive decrease in our +national fertility. It must be remembered, however, that at present the +annual increase, in peace time, is 9 or 10 per thousand, so that it may +be some time before an equilibrium is reached. But if our predictions +are sound, a positive decrease, and probably a rapid one, is likely to +follow. For our ability to exchange our manufactures for food will grow +steadily less, as the self-indulgent and 'work-shy' labourer succeeds in +gaining his wishes. If the coal begins to give out, the retreat will +become a rout. + +We are witnessing the decline and fall of the social order which began +with the industrial revolution 160 years ago. The cancer of +industrialism has begun to mortify, and the end is in sight. Within 200 +years, it may be--for we must allow for backwashes and cross-currents +which will retard the flow of the stream--the hideous new towns which +disfigure our landscape may have disappeared, and their sites may have +been reclaimed for the plough. Humanitarian legislation, so far from +arresting this movement, is more likely to accelerate it, and the same +may be said of the insatiate greed of our new masters. It is indeed +instructive to observe how cupidity and sentiment, which (with +pugnacity) are the only passions which the practical politician needs to +consider, usually defeat their own ends. The working man is sawing at +the branch on which he is seated. He may benefit for a time a minority +of his own class, but only by sealing the doom of the rest. A densely +populated country, which is unable to feed itself, can never be a +working-man's paradise, a land of short hours and high wages. And the +sentimentalist, kind only to be cruel, unwittingly promotes precisely +the results which he most deprecates, though they are often much more +beneficial than his own aims. The evil that he would he does not; and +the good that he would not, that he sometimes does. + +For, much as we must regret the apparently inevitable ruin of the upper +and upper middle classes, to which England in the past has owed the +major part of her greatness, we cannot regard the trend of events as an +unmixed misfortune. The industrial revolution has no doubt had some +beneficial results. It has founded the British Empire, the most +interesting and perhaps the most successful experiment in government on +a large scale that the world has yet seen. It has foiled two formidable +attempts to place Europe under the heel of military monarchies. It has +brought order and material civilisation to many parts of the world which +before were barbarous. But these achievements have been counterbalanced +by many evils, and in any case they have done their work. The +aggregation of mankind in large towns is itself a misfortune; the life +of great cities is wholesome neither for body nor for mind. The +separation of classes has become more complete; the country may even be +divided into the picturesque counties where money is spent, and the ugly +counties where it is made. Except London and the sea-ports, the whole of +the South of England is more or less parasitic. We must add that in the +early days of the movement the workman and his children were exploited +ruthlessly. It is true that if they had not been exploited they would +not have existed; but a root of bitterness was planted which, according +to what seems to be the law in such cases, sprang up and bore its +poisonous fruit about two generations later. It is a sinister fact that +the worst trouble is now made by the youngest men. The large fortunes +which were made by the manufacturers were not, on the whole, well spent. +Their luxury was not of a refined type; literature and art were not +intelligently encouraged; and even science was most inadequately +supported. The great achievements of the nineteenth century in science +and letters, and to a less degree in art, were independent of the +industrial world, and were chiefly the work of that class which is now +sinking helplessly under the blows of predatory taxation. Capitalism +itself has degenerated; the typical millionaire is no longer the captain +of industry, but the international banker and company promoter. It is +more difficult than ever to find any rational justification for the +accumulations which are in the hands of a few persons. It is not to be +expected that the working class should be less greedy and unscrupulous +than the educated; indeed it is plain that, now that it realises its +power, it will be even more so. In some ways the national character has +stood the strain of these unnatural conditions very well. Those who +feared that the modern Englishman would make a poor soldier have had to +own that they were entirely wrong. But as long as industrialism +continues, we shall be in a state of thinly disguised civil war. There +can be no industrial peace while our urban population remains, because +the large towns are the creation of the system which their inhabitants +now want to destroy. They can and will destroy it, but only by +destroying themselves. When the suicidal war is over we shall have a +comparatively small population, living mainly in the country and +cultivating the fruits of the earth. It will be more like the England of +the eighteenth century than the England which we know. There will be no +very rich men; and if the birth-rate is regulated there should be no +paupers. It will be a far pleasanter age to live in than the present, +and more favourable to the production of great intellectual work, for +life will be more leisurely, and social conditions more stable. We may +hope that some of our best families will determine to survive, _coûte +que coûte_, until these better times arrive. We shall not attempt to +prophesy what the political constitution will be. Every existing form of +government is bad; and our democracy can hardly survive the two diseases +which generally kill democracies--reckless plunder of the national +wealth, and the impotence of the central government in face of +revolutionary and predatory sectionalism. + +Meanwhile, we must understand that although the consideration of mankind +in the mass, and the calculation of tendencies based on figures and +averages, must lead us to somewhat pessimistic and cynical views of +human nature, there is no reason why individuals, unless they wish to +make a career out of politics (since it is the sad fate of politicians +always to deal with human nature at its worst), should conform +themselves to the low standards of the world around them. It is only 'in +the loomp' that humanity, whether poor or rich, 'is bad.' There are +materials, though far less abundant than we could wish, for a spiritual +reformation, which would smooth the transition to a new social order, +and open to us unfailing sources of happiness and inspiration, which +would not only enable us to tide over the period of dissolution, but +might make the whole world our debtor. No nation is better endowed by +nature with a faculty for sane idealism than the English. We were never +intended to be a nation of shopkeepers, if a shopkeeper is doomed to be +merely a shopkeeper, which of course he is not. Our brutal commercialism +has been a temporary aberration; the quintessential Englishman is not +the hero of Smiles' 'Self-help'; he is Raleigh, Drake, Shakespeare, +Milton, Johnson, or Wordsworth, with a pleasant spice of Dickens. He is, +in a word, an idealist who has not quite forgotten that he is descended +from an independent race of sea-rovers, accustomed to think and act for +themselves. Mr. Havelock Ellis, one of the wisest and most fearless of +our prophets to-day, quotes from an anonymous journalist a prediction +which may come true: 'London may yet be the spiritual capital of the +world; while Asia--rich in all that gold can buy and guns can give, lord +of lands and bodies, builder of railways and promulgator of police +regulations, glorious in all material glories--postures, complacent and +obtuse, before a Europe content in the possession of all that matters.' +For, as the Greek poet says, 'the soul's wealth is the only real +wealth.' The spirit creates values, while the demagogue shrieks to +transfer the dead symbols of them. 'All that matters' is what the world +can neither give nor take away. The spiritual integration of society +which we desire and behold afar off must be illuminated by the dry light +of science, and warmed by the rays of idealism, a white light but not +cold. And idealism must be compacted as a religion, for it is the +function of religion to prevent the fruits of the flowering-times of the +spirit from being lost. Science has not yet come to its own in forming +the beliefs and practice of mankind, because it has been so much +excluded from higher education, and so much repressed by sentimentalism +under the wing of religion. The nation that first finds a practical +reconciliation between science and idealism is likely to take the front +place among the peoples of the world. In England we have to struggle not +only against ignorance, but against a deep-rooted intellectual +insincerity, which is our worst national fault. The Englishman hates an +idea which he has never met before, as he hates the disturber of his +privacy in a steam-ship cabin; and he takes opportunities of making +things unpleasant for those who utter indiscreet truths. As Samuel +Butler says: 'We hold it useful to have a certain number of melancholy +examples whose notorious failure shall serve as a warning to those who +do not cultivate a power of immoral self-control which shall prevent +them from saying, or even thinking, anything that shall not be to their +immediate and palpable advantage.' To do our countrymen justice, it is +often not self-interest, but a tendency to deal with the concrete +instance, in disregard of the general law, that blinds them to the +larger aspects of great problems. Those who are able to trace causes and +effects further than the majority must expect to be unpopular, but they +will not mind it, if they can do good by speaking. The logic of events +will justify them, and science has a new weapon in official statistics +which will register at once the disastrous effects upon wealth and trade +which the insane theories of the demagogue will bring about. No agitator +can explain away ascertained figures; if we go down hill, we shall do it +with our eyes open. It may be that reactions will be set up which will +render the anticipations in this article erroneous. Things never turn +out either so well or so badly as they logically ought to do. Prophecy +is only an amusement; what does concern us all deeply is that we should +see in what direction we are now moving. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [23] In the small islands round our coast increase has + ceased for some decades. The vital statistics of these + islands furnish an excellent illustration of automatic + adjustment to a state of supersaturation. + + + + +BISHOP GORE AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND + +(1908) + + +The strength and the weakness of the Anglican Church lie in the fact +that it is not the best representative of any well-defined type of +Christianity. It is not strictly a Protestant body; for Protestantism is +the democracy of religion, and the Church of England retains a +hierarchical organisation, with an order of priests who claim a divine +commission not conferred upon them by the congregation. It is not a +State Church as the Russian Empire has[24] a State Church. That is a +position which it has neither the will nor the power to regain. Still +less could it ever justify a claim to separate existence as a purely +Catholic Church, independent of the Church of Rome. A community of +Catholics whose claim to be a Catholic and not a Protestant Church is +denied by all other Catholics, by all Protestants, and by all who are +neither Catholics nor Protestants, could not long retain sufficient +prestige to keep its adherents together. The destiny of such a body is +written in the history of the 'Old Catholics,' who seceded from Rome +because they would not accept the dogma of Papal infallibility. The +seceders included many men of high character and intellect, but in +numbers and influence they are quite insignificant. The Church of +England has only one title to exist, and it is a strong one. It may +claim to represent the religion of the English people as no other body +can represent it. 'No Church,' Döllinger wrote in 1872, 'is so national, +so deeply rooted in popular affection, so bound up with the institutions +and manners of the country, or so powerful in its influence on national +character.' These words are still partly true, though it is not possible +to make the assertion with so much confidence as when Döllinger wrote. +The English Church represents, on the religious side, the convictions, +tastes, and prejudices of the English gentleman, that truly national +ideal of character, which has long since lost its adventitious connexion +with heraldry and property in land. A love of order, seemliness, and +good taste has led the Anglican Church along a middle path between what +a seventeenth-century divine called 'the meretricious gaudiness of the +Church of Rome and the squalid sluttery of fanatic conventicles.' A keen +sense of honour and respect for personal uprightness, a hatred of +cruelty and treachery, created and long maintained in the English Church +an intense repugnance against the priestcraft of the Roman hierarchy, +feelings which have only died down because the bitter memories of the +sixteenth century have at last become dim. A jealous love of liberty, +combined with contempt for theories of equality, produced a system of +graduated ranks in Church government which left a large measure of +freedom, both in speech and thought, even to the clergy, and encouraged +no respect for what Catholics mean by authority. The Anglican Church is +also characteristically English in its dislike for logic and +intellectual consistency and in its distrust of undisciplined +emotionalism, which in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was +known and dreaded under the name of 'enthusiasm.' This type is not +essentially aristocratic. It does not traverse the higher ideals of the +working class, which respects and admires the qualities of the +'gentleman,' though it resents the privileges long connected with the +name. But it has no attraction for what may be impolitely called the +vulgar class, whose religious feelings find a natural vent in an +unctuous emotionalism and sentimental humanitarianism. This class, which +forms the backbone of Dissent and Liberalism, is instinctively +antipathetic to Anglicanism. Nor does the Anglican type of Christianity +appeal at all to the 'Celtic fringe,' whose temperament is curiously +opposite to that of the English, not only in religion but in most other +matters. The Irish and the Welsh are no more likely to become Anglicans +than the lowland Scotch are to adopt Roman Catholicism. Whether Dissent +is a permanent necessity in England is a more difficult question, in +spite of the class differences of temperament above mentioned. If the +Anglican organisation were elastic enough to permit the order of +lay-readers to be developed on strongly Evangelical lines, the lower +middle class might find within the Church the mental food which it now +seeks in Nonconformist chapels, and might gain in breadth and dignity by +belonging once more to a great historic body. + +The Church of England, then, can justify its existence as English +Christianity, and in no other way. It began its separate career with a +series of (doubtless) illogical compromises, in the belief that there is +an underlying unity, though not uniformity, in the religion as well as +in the character of the English people, which would be strong enough to +hold a national Church together. The dissenters from the Reformation +settlement were numerically insignificant, and their existence was not +regarded as a peril to the Church, for it was recognised that in a free +country absolute agreement cannot be secured. The Roman Catholics, after +some futile persecution, were allowed to remain loyal to their old +allegiance in spiritual matters, while the Independents and similar +bodies were anarchical on principle, and upheld the 'dissidence of +Dissent' as a thing desirable in itself. But the defection of the +Wesleyan Methodists was another matter. This was a blow to the Church of +England as irreparable as the loss of Northern Europe to the Papacy. It +finally upset the balance of parties in the Church, by detaching from it +the larger number of the Evangelicals, particularly in the tradesman +class. It gave a great stimulus to Nonconformity, which now became for +the first time an important factor in the national life. Till the +Wesleyan secession, the Nonconformists in England had been a feeble +folk. From a return made to the Crown in 1700, it appeared that the +Dissenters numbered about one in twenty of the population. Now they are +as numerous as the Anglicans. Their prestige has also been largely +augmented by their dominating position in the United States, where the +Episcopal Church, long viewed with disfavour as tainted with British +sympathies, has never recovered its lost ground, and is a comparatively +small, though wealthy and influential sect. Within the Anglican +communion, the inevitable religious revival of the nineteenth century +began on Evangelical lines, but soon took a form determined by other +influences than those which covered England with the ostentatiously +hideous chapels of the Wesleyans. The extent of the revival has indeed +been much exaggerated by the numerous apologists of the Catholic +movement. The undoubted increase of professional zeal, activity, and +efficiency among the clergy has been taken as proof of a corresponding +access of enthusiasm among the laity, for which there is not much +evidence. In spite of slovenly services and an easy standard of clerical +duty, the observances of religion held a larger place in the average +English home before the Oxford Movement than is often supposed, larger, +indeed, than they do now, when family prayers and Bible reading have +been abandoned in most households. + +The Oxford Movement claimed to be, and was, a revival of the principles +of Anglo-Catholicism, which had not been left without witness for any +long period since the Reformation. The continuity is certain, as is the +continuity of the Ritualism of our day with the Tractarianism of seventy +years ago; but the development has been rapid, especially in the last +thirty years. Those who can remember the High Churchmen of Pusey's +generation, or their disciples who in many country parsonages preserved +the faith of their Tractarian teachers whole and undefiled, must be +struck by the divergence between the principles which they then heard +passionately maintained, and those which the younger generation, who use +their name and enjoy their credit, avow to be their own. + +In the Tractarians the Nonjurors seemed to have come to life again, and +one might easily find enthusiastic Jacobites among them. Unlike their +successors, they showed no sympathy with political Radicalism. Their +love for and loyalty to the English Church, which found melodious +expression in Keble's poetry, were intense. They were not hostile to +Evangelicalism within the Church, until the ultra-Protestant party +declared war against them; but they viewed Dissent with scorn and +abhorrence. They would gladly have excluded Nonconformists from any +status in the Universities, and opposed any measures intended to +conciliate their prejudices or remove their disabilities. Archdeacon +Denison, in his sturdy opposition to the 'conscience clause' in Church +schools, was a typical representative of the old High Church party. But +still more bitter was their animosity against religious Liberalism. Even +after the feud with the Evangelicals had developed into open war, Pusey +was ready to join with Lord Shaftesbury and his party in united +anathemas against the authors of 'Essays and Reviews.' The beginnings of +Old Testament criticism evoked an outburst of fury almost unparalleled. +When Bishop Gray, of Cape Town, solemnly 'excommunicated' Bishop +Colenso, of Natal, and enjoined the faithful to 'treat him as a heathen +man and a publican,' for exposing the unhistorical character of portions +of the Pentateuch, he became a hero with the whole High Church party, +and even the more liberal among the bishops were cowed by the tempest of +feeling which the case aroused. In the same period, many Oxford men can +remember Bishop Wilberforce's attack upon Darwinism, and, somewhat +later, Dean Burgon's University sermon which ended with the stirring +peroration: Leave me my ancestors in Paradise, and I leave you yours in +the Zoological Gardens!' From the same pulpit Liddon, a little before +his death, uttered a pathetic remonstrance against the course which his +younger disciples were taking about inspiration and tradition. + +Reverence for tradition was a very prominent feature in the theology of +the older generation. They spent an immense amount of time, learning, +and ingenuity in establishing a _catena_ of patristic and orthodox +authority for their principles, reaching back to the earliest times, and +handed down in this country by a series of Anglo-Catholic divines. This +unbroken tradition was conceived of as purely static, a 'mechanical +unpacking,' as Father Tyrrell puts it, of the doctrine once delivered to +the Apostles. The Church, according to their theory, was supernaturally +guided by the Holy Ghost, and its decisions were consequently +infallible, as long as the Church remained undivided. Thus the earlier +General Councils, before the schism between East and West, may not be +appealed against, and the Creeds drawn up by them can never be revised. +Since the great schism, the infallible inspiration of the Church has +been in abeyance, like an old English peerage when a peer leaves two or +more daughters and no sons. This fantastic theory condemns all later +developments, and leaves the Church under the weight of the dead hand. +On the question of the Establishment the party was divided, some of its +members attaching great value to the union of Church and State, while +others made claims for the Church, in the matter of self-government, +which were hardly compatible with Establishment. Their bond of union was +their conviction of 'the necessity of impressing on people that the +Church was more than a merely human institution; that it had privileges, +sacraments, a ministry, ordained by Christ Himself; that it was a matter +of highest obligation to remain united to the Church.'[25] + +As compared with their successors, the Tractarians were academic and +learned; they preached thoughtful and carefully prepared sermons; they +cared little for ecclesiastical millinery, and often acquiesced in very +simple and 'backward' ceremonial. Their theory of the Church, their +personal piety and self-discipline, were of a thoroughly medieval type, +as may be seen from certain chapters in the life of Pusey. They fought +the battle of Anglo-Catholicism, at Oxford and elsewhere, with a +whole-hearted conviction that knew no misgivings or scruples. Oxford has +not forgotten the election, as late as 1862, of an orthodox naval +officer to a chair of history for which Freeman was a candidate. + +A change of tone was already noticeable, according to Dean Church, soon +after Newman's secession. Many High Churchmen, in speaking of the +English Church, became apologetic or patronising or lukewarm. +Progressive members of the party professed a distaste for the name +Anglican, and wished to be styled Catholics pure and simple. The same +men began to speak of their opponents in the Church as Protestants; no +longer as ultra-Protestants. Other changes soon manifested themselves. +The archaeological side of the movement lost its interest; the appeal to +antiquity became only a convenient argument to defend practices adopted +on quite other grounds. The _epigoni_ of the Catholic revival are not +learned; they know even less of the Fathers than of their Bibles. Their +chief literature consists of a weekly penny newspaper, which reflects +only too well their prejudices and aspirations. On the other hand, they +are far busier than the older generation. The movement has become +democratic; it has passed from the quadrangles of Oxford to the streets +and lanes of our great cities, where hundreds of devoted clergymen are +working zealously, without care for remuneration or thought of +recognition, among the poorest of the populace. Of late years, the more +energetic section of the party has not only abandoned the 'Church and +King' Toryism of the old High Church party, but has plunged into +socialism. The Mirfield community is said to be strongly imbued with +collectivist ideas; and the Christian Social Union, which is chiefly +supported by High Churchmen, tends to become more and more a Union of +Christian Socialists, instead of being, as was intended by its founders, +a non-political association for the study of social duties and problems +in the light of the Sermon on the Mount. This attitude is partly the +result of a close acquaintance with the sufferings of the urban +proletariat, which moves the priests who minister among them to a +generous sympathy with their lot; and, partly, it may be, to an unavowed +calculation that an alliance with the most rapidly growing political +party may in time to come be useful to the Church. Their methods of +teaching are also more democratic, though many of them make the fatal +mistake of despising preaching. They rely partly on what they call +'definite Catholic teaching,' including frequent exhortations to the +practice of confession; and partly on appeals to the eye, by symbolic +ritual and elaborate ceremonial. Their more ornate services are often +admirably performed from a spectacular point of view, and are far +superior to most Roman Catholic functions in reverence, beauty, and good +taste. The extreme section of the party is contemptuously lawless, not +only repudiating the authority of the Judicial Committee of the Privy +Council, but flouting the bishops with studied insolence. A glaring +instance is to be found in the correspondence between Mr. Athelstan +Riley and the Bishop of Oxford, which followed the Report of the Royal +Commission on ritual practices. + +Doctrinally, the modern Ritualist is prepared to surrender the old +theory of inspiration. He takes, indeed, but little interest in the +Bible; his oracle is not the Book, but 'the Church.' What he means by +the Church it is not easy to say. The old Anglican theory of the +infallible undivided Church is not repudiated by him, but does not +appeal to minds which look forward much more than backward; he is not +yet, except in a few instances, disposed to accept the modern Roman +Church as the arbiter of doctrine; and the English Church has no living +voice to which he pays the slightest respect. The 'tradition of Western +Catholicism' is a phrase which has a meaning for him, and he probably +hopes for a reunion, at some distant date, of the Anglican Church with a +reformed Rome. It is therefore essential, in his opinion, that no +alteration shall take place in the formularies which we share with Rome; +the Bible may be thrown to the critics, but the Creeds are inviolable. +The Thirty-nine Articles he passes by with silent disdain. They are, he +thinks not unjustly, a document to which no one, High, Low, or Broad, +can now subscribe without mental reservations. + +The theory of development in doctrine, which, in its latest application +by 'Modernists' like Loisy and Tyrell, is now agitating the Roman +Church, is exciting interest in a few of the more thoughtful +Anglo-Catholics; but the majority are blind to the difficulties for +which the theory of two kinds of truth is a desperate remedy. Nor is it +likely, perhaps, that the plain Englishman will ever allow that an +ostensibly historical proposition may be false as a matter of fact, but +true for faith. + +This party in the Church has a lay Pope, who represents the opinions of +the more enterprising among the rank and file, and is president of their +society, the English Church Union. It has the ably conducted weekly +newspaper above referred to, and it has the general sympathy and support +of the strongest man in the English Church, Charles Gore, Bishop of +Birmingham. This prelate, partly by his personal qualities--his +eloquence, high-minded disinterestedness, and splendid generosity, and +partly by knowing exactly what he wants, and having full courage of his +opinions, has at present an influence in the Anglican Church which is +probably far greater than that of any other man. It is therefore a +matter of public interest to ascertain what his views and intentions +are, as an ecclesiastical statesman and reformer, and as a theologian. + +Bishop Gore exercised a strong influence over the younger men at Oxford +before the publication of 'Lux Mundi.' But it was his editorship of this +book, and his contribution to it, which first brought his name into +prominence as a leader of religious thought. The religious public, with +rather more penetration than usual, fastened on the pages about +inspiration, and the limitations of Christ's human knowledge, which are +from the editor's own pen, as the most significant part of the book. The +authors are believed to have been annoyed by the disproportionate +attention paid to this short section. But in truth these pages indicated +a new departure among the High Church party, a change more important +than the acceptance of the doctrine of evolution, which was being made +smoother for the religious public by the brilliant writings of Aubrey +Moore. The acceptance of the verdict of modern criticism as to the +authorship of the 110th Psalm, in the face of the recorded testimony of +Christ that it was written by David, was a concession to 'Modernism' +which staggered the old-fashioned High Churchman. Liddon did not conceal +his distress that such doctrine should have come out of the Pusey House. +But the manifesto was well timed; it enabled the younger men to go +forward more freely, and sacrificed nothing that was in any way +essential to the Anglo-Catholic position. Since the appearance of 'Lux +Mundi,' the High Church clergy have been able without fear to avow their +belief in the scientific theories associated with Darwin's name, and +their rejection of the rigid doctrine of verbal inspiration, while the +Evangelicals, who have not been emancipated by their leaders, labour +under the reproach of extreme obscurantism in their attitude towards +Biblical studies. + +As Canon of Westminster, and then as Bishop of Worcester, and of +Birmingham, Dr. Gore has written and spoken much, and has defined his +position more closely in relation to Anglo-Catholicism, to Church +Reform, and to the social question. It will be convenient to take these +three heads separately. + +This Bishop regards the excesses of the Ritualists as a deplorable but +probably inevitable incident in a great movement. He quotes Newman's +remonstrance against some hot-headed members of his adopted Church, who, +'having done their best to set the house on fire, leave to others the +task of extinguishing the flames.'[26] But he reminds us that there has +always been 'intemperate zeal' in the Church, from the time of St. +Paul's letters to the Church at Corinth to our own day. 'It must needs +be that offences come,' wherever persons of limited wisdom are very much +in earnest. The remedy for extravagance is to give fair scope for the +legitimate principle. In the case of the so-called Ritualist movement, +the inspiring principle or motive is easily found. It is the idea of a +visible Church, exercising lawful authority over its members. + +This is the key to Bishop Gore's whole position. It rests on the +conviction that Jesus Christ founded, and meant to found, a visible +Church, an organised society. It is reasonable, the Bishop says, to +suppose that He did intend this, for it is only by becoming embodied in +the convictions of a society, and informing its actions, that ideas have +reality and power. Christianity could never have lived if there had been +no Christian Church. And, from the first, Christians believed that this +society, the Catholic Church, was not left to organise itself on any +model which from time to time might seem to promise the best results, +but was instituted from above, as a Divine ordinance, by the authority +of Christ Himself.[27] The witness of the early Christian writers is +unanimous that the conception of a visible Church was a prominent +feature in the Christianity of the sub-apostolic age, and it is plain +that the civil power suspected the Christians just because they were so +well organised. The Roman Empire was accustomed to tolerate +superstitions, but it was part of her policy to repress _collegia +illicita_. The witness of the New Testament points in the same +direction. Jesus Christ committed His message, not to writing, but to a +'little flock' of devoted adherents. He instituted the two great +sacraments (Bishop Gore will admit no uncertainty on this point) to be a +token of membership and a bond of brotherhood. He instituted a _civitas +Dei_ which was to be wide enough to embrace all, but which makes for +itself an exclusive claim. The 'heaven' of the first century was a city, +a new Jerusalem; Christians are spoken of by St. Paul as citizens of a +heavenly commonwealth. The distinction between the universal invisible +Church and particular visible Churches is 'utterly unscriptural,' and +was overthrown long ago by William Law in his controversy with Hoadly. + +As for the 'Apostolical Succession,' Dr. Gore thinks that its principle +is more important than the form in which it is embodied. The succession +would not be broken if all the presbyters in the Church governed as a +college of bishops; and if something of this kind actually happened for +a time in the early Church no argument against the Apostolical +Succession can be based thereon.[28] The principle is that no ministry +is valid which is assumed, which a man takes upon himself, or which is +delegated to him from below. That this theory is Sacerdotalism in a +sense may be admitted. But it does not imply a _vicarious_ priesthood, +only a representative one. It does not deny the priesthood which belongs +to the Church as a whole. The true sacerdotalism means that Christianity +is the life of an organised society, in which a graduated body of +ordained ministers is made the instrument of unity. It is no doubt true +that in such a Church unspiritual men are made to mediate spiritual +gifts, but happily we may distinguish character and office. Nor must we +be deterred from asserting our convictions by the indignant protests +which we are sure to hear, that we are 'unchurching' the non-episcopal +bodies,[29] We do not assert that God is tied to His covenant, but only +that we are so. + +Dr. Gore has no difficulty in proving that the sacerdotal theory of the +Christian ministry took shape at an early date, and has been +consistently maintained in the Catholic Church from ancient times to our +own day. It is much more difficult to trace it back to the Apostolic +age, even if, with Dr. Gore, we accept as certain the Pauline authorship +of the Pastoral Epistles, which is still _sub judice_. The 'Didache' is +a stumbling-block to those who wish to find Catholic practice in the +century after our Lord's death; but that document is dismissed as +composed by a Jewish Christian for a Jewish Christian community. After +the second century, the apologists for the priesthood are in smooth +waters. + +The conclusion is that 'the various presbyterian and congregationalist +organisations, in dispensing with the episcopal succession, violated a +fundamental law of the Church's life.'[30] 'A ministry not episcopally +received is invalid, that is to say, it falls outside the conditions of +covenanted security, and cannot justify its existence in terms of the +covenant.'[31] The Anglican Church is not asking for the cause to be +decided all her own way; for she has much to do to recall herself to her +true principles. 'God's promise to Judah was that she should remember +her ways and should be ashamed, when she should receive her sisters +Samaria and Sodom, and that He would give them to her for daughters, but +not by her covenant.'[32] The 'covenant' which the Church is to be +content to forgo in order to recover Samaria and _Sodom_ (the 'Free +Churches' can hardly be expected to relish this method of opening +negotiations) is apparently the covenant between Church and State. 'In +the future the Anglican Church must be content to act as, first of all, +part and parcel of the Catholic Church, ruled by her laws, empowered by +her spirit.' The bishops are to be ready to maintain, at all cost, the +inherent spiritual independence which belongs to their office. + +Such a theory of the essentials of a true Church necessarily requires, +as a corollary, a refutation of the Roman Catholic theory of orders, +which reduces the Anglican clergy to the same level as the ministers of +schismatical sects. Bishop Gore answers the objection that the Roman +Church is the logical expression of his theory of the ministry, by +saying that Roman Catholicism is not the development of the whole of the +Church, but only of a part of it; and moreover, that spiritually it does +not represent the whole of Christianity as it finds expression in the +first Christian age or in the New Testament.[33] The Roman Church is a +one-sided outgrowth of the religion of Christ--a development of those +qualities in Christianity with which the Latin genius has special +affinity. It has committed itself to unhistorical doctrines, involving a +deficient appreciation of the intellectual and moral claim of truth to +be valued for its own sake no less than for its results. Much of its +teaching can only be explained as the result of an 'over-reckless +accommodation to the unregenerate natural instincts in religion.'[34] +The fact that the largest section of Christendom has become what Rome +now is, is no proof that theirs is the line of true development. We can +see this clearly enough if we consider the case of Buddhism. The main +existing developments of Buddhism are a mere travesty of the spirit of +Sakya Muni.[35] In this way Dr. Gore anticipates and rejects the +argument since then put forward by Loisy, and other Liberal Catholic +apologists, that history has proved Roman Catholicism to be the proper +development of Christ's religion. In short, the Anglican Church, which +indisputably possesses the Apostolic Succession, has no reason to go +humbly to Borne to obtain recognition of her Orders. + +So far, in reviewing Bishop Gore's published opinions, we are on +familiar High Anglican ground. But what is the Bishop's seat of +authority in doctrine? He has shown himself willing, within limits, to +apply critical methods to Holy Scripture. He has very little respect for +the infallible Pope. And he would be the last to trust to private +judgment--the _testimonium Spiritus Sancti_ as understood by some +Protestants. Where, then, is the ultimate Court of Appeal? Bishop Gore +finds it in the two earliest of the three Creeds, 'in which Catholic +consent is especially expressed;' and in a half apologetic manner he +adds that this Catholic basis has been 'generally understood' to imply +'an unrealisable but not therefore unreal appeal to a General +Council.'[36] No revision, therefore, of the Church's doctrinal +formularies can be made except by the authority of a court which can +never, by any possibility, be summoned! The unique sanctity and +obligation which Bishop Gore considers to attach to the Creeds have been +asserted by him again and again with a vehemence which proves that he +regards the matter as of vital importance. 'There must be no compromise +as regards the Creeds.... If those who live in an atmosphere of +intellectual criticism become incapable of such sincere public +profession of belief as the Creed contains, the Church must look to +recruit her ministry from classes still capable of a more simple and +unhesitating faith.'[37] And, again, in his most recent book: 'I have +taken occasion before now to make it evident that, as far as I can +secure it, I will admit no one into this diocese, or into Holy Orders, +to minister for the congregation, who does not _ex animo_ believe the +Creeds.'[38] Dr. Gore has not spared to stigmatise as morally dishonest +those who desire to serve the Church as its ministers while harbouring +doubts about the physical miracle known as the Virgin Birth, and one of +his clergy was a few years ago induced to resign his living by an +aspersion of this kind, to which the Bishop gave publicity in the daily +press. + +Now it has been generally supposed that the Anglican clergy are bound to +declare their adhesion not only to the Creeds, but to the Thirty-nine +Articles, and to the infallible truth of Holy Scripture. Bishop Gore, +however, holds that when a new deacon, on the day of his ordination, +solemnly declares that he 'assents to the Thirty-nine Articles,' and +that he 'believes the doctrine therein set forth to be agreeable to the +word of God,' he 'can no longer fairly be regarded as bound to +particular phrases or expressions in the Articles.'[39] And further, +when the same new deacon expresses his 'unfeigned belief in all the +canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments,' 'that expression of +belief can be fairly and justly made by anyone who believes heartily +that the Bible, as a whole, records and contains the message of God to +man in all its stages of delivery and that each one of the books +contains some element or aspect of this revelation.'[40] + +The Bishop himself has affirmed his personal belief that some narratives +in the Old Testament are probably not historical. It may fairly be asked +on what principle he is prepared to evade the plain sense and intention +of a doctrinal test in two cases while stigmatising as morally +flagitious any attempts to do the same in a third. For it is +unquestionable that a general assent to the Articles does not mean that +the man who gives that assent is free to repudiate any 'particular +phrases or expressions' which do not please him. A witness who admitted +having signed an affidavit with this intention would cut a poor figure +in a law court. And it is difficult to see how adhesion to the +antiquated theory of inspiration could be demanded more stringently than +by the form of words which was drawn up, as none can doubt, to secure +it. These things being so, either the accusation of bad faith applies to +the treatment which the Bishop justifies in the case of the Articles and +the Bible, or it should not be brought against those who apply to one +clause in their vows the principle which is admitted and used in two +others. + +There are some honourable men who have abstained from entering the +service of the Church on account of these requirements. But there are +many others who recognise that knowledge grows and opinions change, +while formularies for the most part remain unaltered; and who consider +that, so long as their general position is understood by those among +whom they work, it would be overscrupulous to refuse an inward call to +the ministry because they know that they will be asked to give a formal +assent to unsuitably worded tests drawn up three centuries ago. Dr. Gore +himself would probably have been refused ordination fifty years ago on +the ground of his lax views on inspiration; and the Bishops who approved +of the condemnation of Colenso, who condemned 'Essays and Reviews,' and +who would have condemned 'Lux Mundi,' were more 'honest' to the tests +than their successors. But an obstinate persistence in that kind of +honesty would have excluded from the ministry all except fools, liars, +and bigots. Again, it might have been supposed that the laity also, who +at their baptism and confirmation made the same declaration of belief in +'all the articles' of the Apostles' Creed, and who are bidden by the +Church to repeat the same Creed every week, are in the same position as +the clergy. But the Bishop again attempts to draw a distinction. 'The +responsibility of joining in the Creed is left to the conscience of the +layman,' but not to the conscience of the clergyman, nor, we suppose, of +the choir.[41] This plea seems to us a very lame one. The Church of +England has never thought of imposing severer doctrinal tests on the +clergy than on the laity, and assent to the Creeds is as integral a part +of the baptismal as of the ordination vows. + +No loyal Christian wishes to impugn a doctrine which touches so closely +the life of the Redeemer as the account of His miraculous conception, +which appears, in our texts, in two books of the New Testament. If the +tradition is as old as the Church, which is very doubtful, it must, from +the nature of the case, rest on the unsupported assertion of Mary, the +mother of Jesus; for Joseph could only testify that the child was not +his. It is therefore useless to reinforce the Gospel narrative by +appealing to 'Catholic tradition,'[42] as if it could add anything to +the evidence. It is significant, however, of the Bishop's own feelings +about tradition, that he quietly sets aside the plain statement of the +Synoptic Gospels that Joseph and Mary had a large family of four sons +and more than one daughter by their marriage. This statement, which is +doubtless historical, became intolerable to the conscience of the Church +during the long frenzy of asceticism, when marital relations were +regarded as impure and degrading; and in consequence the perpetual +virginity of Mary, though contradicted in the New Testament, became as +much an article of faith as her conception of Jesus by the Holy Ghost. +We have no wish to criticise the arguments for the Virgin Birth which +Dr. Gore has collected in his 'Dissertations.' But when a strenuous +effort is made to exclude from the ministry of the Church all who cannot +declare _ex animo_ that they believe it to be a certain historical fact, +it becomes a duty to point out that, on ordinary principles of evidence, +the story must share the uncertainty which hangs over other strange and +unsupported narratives. The Bishop expresses his doubt whether those who +regard this miracle as unproven can be convinced of the Divinity of +Christ. This only shows how difficult it is for an ecclesiastic in his +high position to induce either clergy or laity to talk frankly to him. +To most educated men there would be no difficulty in believing that the +Son of God became incarnate through the agency of two earthly parents. +The analogy of hybrids in the animal world is not felt to apply to the +union of the human and divine natures, except by persons of very low +intelligence. We should have preferred to be silent on this delicate +subject, but for the fact that some men whom the Church can ill spare +have been advised officially not to apply for ordination, on account of +their views about this miracle. Fortunately, the practice of demanding +more specific declarations than the law requires has not been adopted +in most dioceses. + +The question of the miraculous element in religious truth has indeed +reached an acute stage. The Catholic doctrine is and always has been +that there are two 'orders'--the natural and the supernatural--on the +same plane, and distinguishable from each other. The Catholic theologian +is prepared to define what occurrences in the lives of the Saints are +natural, and what supernatural. Miracles are of frequent occurrence, and +are established by ordinary evidence. Three miracles have to be placed +to the credit of each candidate for canonisation before he or she is +entitled to bear the title of saint, and the evidence for these miracles +is sifted by a commission. This theory has been practically abandoned in +the English Church. There are few among our ecclesiastics and +theologians who would spend five minutes in investigating any alleged +supernatural occurrence in our own time. It would be assumed that, if +true, it must be ascribed to some obscure natural cause. The result is +that the miracles in the Creeds, or in the New Testament, are isolated +as they have never been before. They seem to form an order by +themselves, a class of fact belonging neither to the world of phenomena +as we know it, nor to the world of spirit as we know it. From this +situation has arisen the tendency, increasingly prevalent both in the +Roman Church and in Protestant Germany, to distinguish 'truths of faith' +from 'truths of fact,' The former, it is said, have a representative, +symbolic character, and are only degraded by being placed in the same +category as physical phenomena. This contention is open to very serious +objections, but it at least indicates the actual state of the problem, +viz. that to most educated men the miraculous element in Christianity +seems to float between earth and heaven, no longer essentially connected +with either, while on the other hand the majority of religious people, +including a few men of high intelligence, find it difficult to realise +their faith without the help of the miraculous. Supernaturalism, which +from the scientific point of view is the most unsatisfactory of all +theories, traversing as it does the first article in the creed of +science--the uniformity of nature--gives, after all, a kind of crude +synthesis of the natural and the spiritual, by which it is possible to +live; it is, for many persons, an indispensable bridge between the world +of phenomena and the world of spirit. But when the heavy-handed +dogmatist requires a categorical assent to the literal truth of the +miraculous, in exactly the same sense in which physical facts are true, +a tension between faith and reason cannot be avoided. And it is in this +literal sense that Bishop Gore requires all his clergy to assent to the +miracles in the Creeds. + +The fact is that the Catholic party in the Church are in a hopeless +_impasse_ with regard to dogma. They cannot take any step which would +divide them from 'the whole Church,' and the whole Church no longer +exists except as an ideal--it has long ago been shivered into fragments. +The Roman Church is in a much better position. The Pope may at any time +'interpret' tradition in such a manner as to change it completely--there +is no appeal from his authoritative pronouncements; but for the High +Anglican there is no living authority, only the dead hand, and a Council +which can never meet. It is much as if no important legislation could be +passed in this country without a joint session of our Parliament and the +American Congress. It is difficult to see any way of escape, except by +accepting the principle of development in a sense which would repudiate +the time-honoured 'appeal to antiquity.' + +We have next to consider Bishop Gore as a Church Reformer. We have seen +that he desires an autonomous Church, which can legislate for itself. +The dead hand, which weighs so lightly upon him when it forbids any +attempt to revise the formularies of the faith, seems to him intolerably +heavy when it obliges the Church to conform to 'the laws, canons, and +rubrics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which it cannot +alter or add to.'[43] The only remedy, he thinks, is a really +representative assembly, of bishops, presbyters, and laymen. In the +early Church, as he points out, the laity were always recognised as +constituent members of the government of the Church. In a democratic +age, the laity as a body should exercise the powers which in the Middle +Ages were delegated to, or usurped by, 'emperors, kings, chiefs and +lords.' The parish ought to have the real control of the Church +buildings, except the chancel; the Church servants ought to be appointed +and removed by the parish meeting. It would be a step forward if these +parish councils could be organised under diocesan regulation, and +invested with the control of the parish finances, except the vicar's +stipend; the right to object to the appointment of an unfit pastor; and +some power of determining the ceremonial at the Church services. The +diocesan synod should become a reality; there should also be provincial +synods, which could become national by fusion. But in the last resort +the declaration of the mind of the Church on matters of doctrine and +morals ought to belong to the bishops.[44] + +But who are the laity? 'By a layman,' he says, 'I mean one who fulfils +the duties of Church membership--one who is baptised into the Church, +who has been confirmed if he has reached years of discretion, and who is +a communicant.' A roll of Church members, he suggests, should be kept in +each parish, on which should be entered the name of each confirmed +person, male or female. The names of those who had passed (say) two +years without communicating should be struck off the roll. Further, +names should be removable for any scandalous offences.[45] + +It is easy to see that the 'communicant franchise' would work entirely +in favour of that party in the Church which attaches the greatest +importance to that Sacrament. It would exclude a large number of +Protestant laymen who subscribe to Church funds, and who on any other +franchise would have a share in its government. But we need not suspect +Dr. Gore of any _arrière pensée_ of this kind. His ideal of parochial +life is one which must appeal to all who wish well to the Church. We +will quote a few characteristic sentences: + + 'Are we to set to work to revive St. Paul's ideal of the + life of a Church? If so, what we need is not more + Christians, but better Christians. We want to make the moral + meaning of Church membership understood and its conditions + appreciated. We want to make men understand that it costs + something to be a Christian; that to be a Christian, that + is, a Churchman, is to be an intelligent participator in a + corporate life consecrated to God, and to concern oneself, + therefore, as a matter of course, in all that touches the + corporate life, its external as well as its spiritual + conditions.... We Christians are fellow-citizens together in + the commonwealth that is consecrated to God, a commonwealth + of mortal men with bodies as well as souls.'[46] + +With regard to ritual, he will not allow that the disputes are +unimportant. The vital question of self-government is at stake. From +this point of view, a 'mere ceremony' may mean a great deal. St. Paul, +who said 'Circumcision is nothing,' also said, 'If ye be circumcised +Christ shall profit you nothing,'[47] This is quite consistent with his +hearty disapproval of the introduction of purely Roman ceremonial. + +Does this ideal of a free Church in a free State involve +disestablishment? Not necessarily, Dr. Gore thinks. Why should not legal +authority be entrusted to diocesan courts, with a right of appeal to a +court of bishops, abolishing the jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee +in spiritual cases? It is the paralysis of spiritual authority, in his +opinion, which pushes into prominence all extravagances, and conceals +the vast amount of agreement which exists in essentials. 'We are weary +of debating societies; we want the healthy discipline of co-operative +government.'[48] The policy of this self-governing Church is to be +'Liberal-Catholic,' a type which 'responds to the moral needs of our +great race.' + +Such is the scheme of Church reform towards which the Bishop is working; +and he has told us, in the sentence last quoted, what kind of Church he +looks forward to see. But what kind of Church would it actually be, if +his designs were carried out? It would not be a national Church; for +his belief that Catholicism 'responds to the moral needs of our race' is +contradicted by the whole history of modern England. The laity of +England may not be quite 'as Protestant as ever they were, though we +often hear that they are so; but they show no disposition to become +Catholics. Catholicism as we know it is Latin Christianity, and even in +the Latin countries it is now a hothouse plant, dependent on a special +education in Catholic schools and seminaries, with an _index librorum +prohibitorum_. Such a system is impossible in England. Seminaries for +the early training of future clergymen may indeed be established; but +beds of exotics cannot be raised by keeping the gardeners in greenhouses +while the young plants are in the open air. The 'Liberal Catholic' +Church, accordingly, would shed, by degrees, the very large number of +Churchmen who still call themselves Protestant. Nor would the adjective +'Liberal' secure the adhesion of the 'intellectuals.' Bishop Gore's +Liberalism would exclude most of them as effectually as the most rigid +Conservatism. It would also be a disestablished and disendowed Church; +for surely it is building castles in the air to think of episcopal +courts recognised by law. The prospect of disestablishment does not +alarm the Bishop. Some of his utterances suggest that he would almost +welcome it. Indeed, disestablishment is viewed with complacency by an +increasing number of High Church clergy. They feel that they can never +carry out their plans for de-Protestantising the Church while the Crown +has the appointment of the bishops. For even if, as has lately been the +case, their party gets more than its due share of preferment, there will +always, under the existing system, be a sufficient number of Liberal and +Evangelical bishops on the bench to make a consistent policy of +Catholicising impossible. And the Catholic party are so admirably +organised that they are confident in their power to carry their schemes +under any form of self-government, even though the mass of the laity are +untouched by their views. Moreover, the town clergy, among whom are to +be found advocates of disestablishment, find in many places that the +parochial idea has completely broken down. The unit is the congregation, +no longer the parish, and the clergy are supported by pew-rents and +voluntary offerings, not by endowments. In such parishes, +disestablishment might, they think, give them greater liberty, and would +make little difference to them in other ways. But in the country +districts the case is very different. Thirty years after +disestablishment, the quiet country rectory, nestling in its bower of +trees and shrubs, with all that it has meant for centuries in English +rural life, would in most villages be a thing of the past. + +For these reasons, the Bishop's policy of reconstructing the Church of +England as a self-governing body, professing definitely Catholic +principles and enjoining Catholic practices, seems to us an impossible +one. The chief gainer by it would be the Church of Rome, which would +gather in the most consistent and energetic of the Anglo-Catholics, who +would be dissatisfied at the contrast between the pretensions of their +own Church and its isolated position. The non-episcopal bodies would +also gain numerous recruits from among the ruins of the Evangelical and +Liberal parties in the Church. + +But, it may be said, this dismal forecast may be falsified if the +Anglican Church can win the masses. The English populace are at present +neither Protestant nor Catholic; they are, if we count heads, mainly +heathen. May not the working man, who has no leaning to dissent, unless +it be the 'corybantic Christianity' of the Salvation Army, be brought +into the Church? + +Bishop Gore has always shown an earnest sympathy with the aspirations of +the working class to improve their material condition. He is also +profoundly impressed by the apparent discrepancy between the teachings +of Christ about wealth and the principles which His professed disciples +wholly follow and in part avow. These anxious questionings form the +subject of a fine sermon which he preached at the Church Congress of +1906, on the text about the camel and the needle's eye. Jesus Christ +chose to be born of poor and humble parents, in a land remote from the +centre of political or intellectual influence, and in the circle of +labouring men. He chose to belong to the class of the respectable +artisan, and most of the twelve Apostles came from the same social +level. In His teaching He plainly associated blessedness with the lot of +poverty, and extreme danger with the lot of wealth. All through the New +Testament the assumption is that God is on the side of the poor against +the rich. As Jowett once said, there is more in the New Testament +against being rich, and in favour of being poor, than we like to +recognise. And is not this the cause of our failure to win the masses? +Is it not because we are the Church of capital rather than of labour? +The Church ought to be a community in which religion works upward from +below. The Church of England expresses that point of view which is +precisely not that which Christ chose for His Church. The incomes of the +bishops range them with the wealthier classes; the clergy associate with +the gentry and not with the artisans. We must acknowledge with deep +penitence that we are on wrong lines. For himself, the Bishop admits +that he has 'a permanently troubled conscience' in the matter. Then, +with that admirable courage and practicality which is the secret of much +of his influence, he proceeds to indicate four 'lines of hopeful +recovery.' First, the Church must get rid of the administration of poor +relief. Where the charity of the Church is understood to mean the +patronage of the rich, it can do nothing without disaster. All will be +in vain till it has ceased to be a plausible taunt that a man or woman +goes to church for what can be got. Secondly, we must give the artisans +their true place in Church management, and must consult their tastes in +all non-essentials. Thirdly, the clergy should 'concentrate themselves +upon bringing out the social meaning of the sacraments,' and giving +voice to the spirit of Christian brotherhood. Lastly, we ought to free +the clerical profession entirely from any association of class. + +The Bishop is not a Collectivist, but he has great sympathy with some of +the aims of Socialism. In a 'Pan-Anglican Paper' just issued, he +discusses the attitude of the Church towards Socialism. Christianity, he +says, must remain independent of State-Socialism, as of other +organisations of society. Socialism would make a far deeper demand on +character than most of its adherents realise. 'An experiment in +State-Socialism, based on the average level of human character as it +exists at present, would be doomed to disastrous failure.' (Bishop +Creighton said the same thing more epigrammatically. 'Socialism will +only be possible when we are all perfect, and then it will not be +needed.') But what we have is no Socialistic State, but a great body of +aspiration, based on a great demand for justice in human life. The +indictment of our present social organisation is indeed overwhelming, +and with this indictment Christianity ought to have the profoundest +sympathy, for it is substantially the indictment of the Old Testament +prophets. The prophets were on the side of the poor; and so was our +Lord. Where is the prophetic spirit in the Church to-day? We need 'a +tremendous act of penitence.' Our charities have been mere +ambulance-work; but 'the Christian Church was not created to be an +ambulance-corps.' We have followed the old school of political economy +instead of the prophets and Christ. Broadly, we may contrast two ideals +of society: individualism, which means in the long run the right of the +strong; and socialism, which means that the society is supreme over the +individual. 'On the whole, Christianity is with Socialism.' + +This 'Pan-Anglican Paper' is a fair representation of the views which +are spreading rapidly among the High Church clergy. The party is in fact +making a determined effort to enlist the sympathies of the working man +with the Church, by offering him in return its sympathy and countenance +in his struggle against capitalism. This is a phase of the movement +which it is very difficult to judge fairly. Dr. Gore's sermon was +calculated to give any Christian who heard it, whether Conservative or +Liberal, 'a troubled conscience;' and his practical suggestions are as +convincing as any suggestions that are not platitudes are likely to be. +But in weaker hands this sympathy with the cause of Labour is in great +danger of becoming one of the most insidious temptations that can attack +a religious body. The Church of England has been freely accused of too +great complaisance to the powers that be, when those powers were +oligarchic. Some of the clergy are now trying to repeat, rather than +redress, this error, by an obsequious attitude to King Working-man. But +the Church ought to be equally proof against the _vultus instantis +tyranni_ and the _civium ardor prava iubentium_. The position of a +Church which should sell itself to the Labour party would be truly +ignominious. It would be used so long as the politicians of the party +needed moral support and eloquent advocacy, and spurned as soon as its +services were no longer necessary. The taunt of Helen to Aphrodite in +the third book of the 'Iliad' sounds very apposite when we read the +speeches of some clerical 'Christian Socialists,' who find it more +exciting to organise processions of the unemployed than to attend to +their professional duties. + + hêso par' ahython hiohysa, thehôn d' haphoeike kelehythoy, + mêd' heti sohisi phodessin hypostrhepseiast 'Holympon, + hall' ahiehi perhi kehinon hohizye kahi he phylasse, + ehist ho khe s' hê halochon poihêsetai, hê ho ge dohylên.[49] + +It is as a slave, not as an honoured help-mate, that the Social +Democrats would treat any Christian body that helped them to overthrow +our present civilisation. And rightly; for Christ's only injunction in +the sphere of economics was, 'Take heed and beware of all covetousness,' +He refused pointedly to have anything to do with disputes about the +distribution of property; and in the parable of the Prodigal Son the +demand, 'Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me,' is the +prelude to a journey in that 'far country' which is forgetfulness of God +(_terra longinqua est oblivio Dei_). Christ unquestionably meant His +followers to think but little of the accessories of life. He believed +that if men could be induced to adopt the true standard of values, +economic relations would adjust themselves. He promised His disciples +that they should not want the necessaries of subsistence, and for the +rest, He held that the freedom from anxiety, covetousness, and envy, +which He enjoined as a duty, would also make their life happy. This is +a very different spirit from that which makes Socialism a force in +politics. + +Bishop Gore, we may be sure, will not willingly allow the High Church +party to be entangled in corrupt alliances. When he handles what may be +called applied Christianity, he does so in a manner which makes us +rejoice at the popularity of his books. The little commentaries on the +Sermon on the Mount, and on the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians, +are admirable. They are simple, practical, and profound. We subjoin a +short analysis of the notes on the first part of the Sermon on the +Mount, as an illustration of the teaching which runs all through the +three commentaries. + + The Sermon on the Mount is not the whole of Christianity. It + is the climax of law, of the letter that killeth. The Divine + requirement is pressed home with unequalled force upon the + conscience; yet not in the form of mere laws of conduct, but + as a type of character. It is promulgated not by an + inaccessible God, but by the Divine Love manifested in + manhood. The hard demand of the letter is closely connected + with the promise of the Spirit. We are told that many of the + precepts in the sermon were anticipated by Pagan and Jewish + writers. But this we might have expected, since all men are + rational and moral through fellowship with the Word, who is + also the Reason of God. Christ is the light which in + conscience and reason lightens every man throughout the + history of the race. But the Sermon is comprehensive where + other summaries are fragmentary, it is pure where they are + mixed. It is teaching for grown men, who require principles, + not rules. And it is authoritative, reinforced by the + mysterious Person of the speaker. The Beatitudes are a + description of character. Christ requires us, not to do such + and such things, but to be such and such people. ... True + blessedness consists in membership of the kingdom of heaven, + which is a life of perfect relationship with man and nature + based on perfect fellowship with God.... The Beatitudes + describe the Christian character in detail; in particular, + they describe it as contrasted with the character of the + world, which, in the religious sense, may be defined as + human society as it organises itself apart from God. The + first Beatitude enjoins detachment, such as His who emptied + Himself, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. We + are all to be detached; there are some whom our Lord + counsels to be literally poor. 'Blessed are they that + mourn' means that we are not to screen ourselves from the + common lot of pain. We must distinguish 'godly sorrow' from + the peevish discontent and slothfulness which St. Paul calls + the sorrow of the world, and which in medieval casuistry is + named acedia. 'Blessed are the meek' means that we are not + to assert ourselves unless it is our duty to do so. The true + Christian is a man who in his private capacity cannot be + provoked. On a general view of life, though not always in + particular cases, we must allow that we are not treated + worse than we deserve. The fourth Beatitude tells us that if + we want righteousness seriously, we can have it. The fifth + proclaims the reward of mercy, that is, compassion in + action. Pity which does nothing is only hypocrisy or + emotional self-indulgence. On the whole, we can determine + men's attitude to us by our attitude to them; the merciful + do obtain mercy. 'Purity of heart' means singleness of + purpose; but in the narrower sense of purity it is worth + while to say that those who profess to find it 'impossible' + to lead a pure life might overcome their fault if they would + try to be Christlike altogether, instead of struggling with + that one fault separately. 'Sincerum est nisi vas, + quodcunque infundis acescit.' On the seventh--there are many + kinds of false peace, which Christ came to break up; but + fierce, relentless competition is an offence in a Christian + nation. The last shows what our reward is likely to be in + this world, if we follow these counsels. Where the + Christ-character is not welcomed, it is hated. + +From the later sections a few characteristic comments may be given in an +abridged form. + + We are apt to have rather free and easy notions of the + Divine fatherhood. To call God our Father, we must ourselves + be sons; and it is only those who are led by the Spirit of + God who are the sons of God.... Ask for great things, and + small things will be given to you. This is exactly the + spirit of the Lord's Prayer.... Act for God. Direct your + thoughts and intentions Godward, and your intelligence and + affections will gradually follow along the line of your + action.... You must put God first, or nowhere.... It is a + perilous error to say that we have only to follow our + conscience; we have to enlighten our conscience and keep it + enlightened.... There is no greater plague of our generation + than the nervous anxiety which characterises all its + efforts. We ought to be reasonably careful, and then go + boldly forward in the peace of God.... Our Lord did not + mean to make of His disciples a new kind of Pharisee. + ....'Judge not,' means, Do not be critical. The condemnation + of one who is always finding fault carries no moral weight. + It is those who have the lowest and vaguest standards of + what is right who are often the most critical in judgment of + other people.... We ought so to limit our desires that what + we want for ourselves we can reasonably expect also for + others.... A man who wants to do his duty must always be + prepared to stand alone.... Christianity is not so much a + statement of the true end or ideal of human life, as a great + spiritual instrument for realising the end. + +These extracts will be sufficient to show what are the characteristics +of these little commentaries. They exhibit extreme honesty of purpose, +fearless acceptance of Christ's teaching honestly interpreted, scorn of +unreality and empty words, and a determination never to allow preaching +to be divorced from practice. No more stimulating Christian teaching has +been given in our generation. + +The valuable treatise on the Holy Communion, called 'The Body of +Christ,' is too theological for detailed discussion in these pages. The +points in which the Roman Church has perverted and degraded the really +Catholic sacramental doctrine are forcibly exposed, and the true nature +of the sacrament is unfolded in a masterly and beautiful manner. + +A study of the whole body of theological writings from the pen of this +remarkable man leaves us with the conviction that he is one of the most +powerful spiritual forces in our generation. It is the more to be +regretted that in certain points he seems to be hampered by false +presuppositions and misled by unattainable ideals. His loyalty to +'Catholic truth,' as understood by the party in the Church to which he +consents to belong, prevents him from understanding where the shoe +really pinches among those of the younger generation who are both +thoughtful and devout. He makes a fetish of the Creeds, documents which +only represent the opinions of a majority at a meeting; and what manner +of meetings Church Councils sometimes were, is known to history. He is +still impressed with the grandeur of the Catholic idea, as embodied in +the Roman Church, and will do nothing to preclude reunion, should a +more enlightened policy ever prevail at the Vatican. But this country +has done with the Roman Empire, in its spiritual as well as its temporal +form. The dimensions of that proud dominion have shrunk with the +expansion of knowledge; new worlds have been opened out, geographical +and mental, which never owned its sway; the _caput orbis_ has become +provincial, and her authority is spurned even within her own borders. +There is no likelihood of the English people ever again accepting +'Catholicism,' if Catholicism is the thing which history calls by that +name. The movement which the Bishop hopes to lead to victory will +remain, as it has been hitherto, a theory of the ministry rather than of +the Church, and its strength will be confined, as it is now, mainly to +clerical circles. + +Catholicism and Protestantism (in so far as they are more than names for +institutionalism and mysticism, which are permanent types) are both +obsolescent phases in the evolution of the Christian religion. 'The time +cometh when neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem shall men +worship the Father.' + +A profound reconstruction is demanded, and for those who have eyes to +see has been already for some time in progress. The new type of +Christianity will be more Christian than the old, because it will be +more moral. A number of unworthy beliefs about God are being tacitly +dropped, and they are so treated because they are unworthy of Him. The +realm of nature is being claimed for Him once more; the distinction +between natural and supernatural is repudiated; we hear less frequent +complaints that God 'does nothing' because He does not assert Himself by +breaking one of His own laws. The divinity of Christ implies--one might +almost say it means--the eternal supremacy of those moral qualities +which He exhibited in their perfection. 'Conversio fit ad Dominum ut +Spiritum,' as Bengel said. The visible or Catholic Church is not the +name of an institution which has the privilege of being governed by +bishops. It is 'dispersed throughout the whole world,' under many +banners and many disguises. Its political reunion is (Plato would say) +an hen mhythô ehychê, and is at present neither to be expected nor +desired. Among those who are by right citizens of the spiritual kingdom, +those only are in danger of exclusion from it who entrench themselves in +a little fort of their own and erect barriers, which may make them their +own prisoners, but which will not hinder the great commonwealth of +seekers after truth from working out modern problems by modern lights, +until the whole of our new and rich inheritance, intellectual, moral, +and æsthetic, shall be brought again under the obedience of Christ. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [24] In 1908. + + [25] Palmer's _Narrative_, p 20. + + [26] _Contemporary Review_, April 1899. + + [27] _The Church and the Ministry_, pp. 9, 10. + + [28] _Ibid_., p. 74. + + [29] _The Church and the Ministry_, p. 110. + + [30] _Ibid_., p. 344. + + [31] _Ibid_., p. 345. + + [32] _Ibid_., p. 348. + + [33] _The Mission of the Church_, p. 32. + + [34] _Church Congress Report_, 1896, p. 143. + + [35] _Ibid_., p. 142. + + [36] _Church Congress Report_, 1903, p. 15. + + [37] _Ibid_., p. 17. + + [38] _The New Theology and the Old Religion_, p. 162. + + [39] _Church Congress Report_, 1903, p. 16. + + [40] _Ibid_. + + [41] _The New Theology and the Old Religion_, p. 163. + + [42] _Dissertations_, pp. 41-49. + + [43] _Church Congress Report_, 1899, p. 63. + + [44] _Church Congress Report_, 1899, pp. 65-67. + + [45] _Ibid_., 1896, pp. 342-346. + + [46] _Epistle to the Ephesians_, pp. 113, 114. + + [47] _Contemporary Review_, April 1899. + + [48] _Ibid_. + + [49] 'Go and sit thou by his side, and depart from the way + of the gods; neither let thy feet ever bear thee back to + Olympus; but still be vexed for his sake and guard him, till + he make thee his wife--or rather his slave.' + + + + +ROMAN CATHOLIC MODERNISM + +(1909) + + +The Liberal movement in the Roman Church is viewed by most Protestants +with much the same mixture of sympathy and misgiving with which +Englishmen regard the ambition of Russian reformers to establish a +constitutional government in their country. Freedom of thought and +freedom of speech are almost always desirable; but how, without a +violent revolution, can they be established in a State which exists only +as a centralised autocracy, held together by authority and obedience? +This sympathy, and these fears, are likely to be strongest in those who +have studied the history of Western Catholicism with most intelligence. +From the Edict of Milan to the Encyclical of Pius X, the evolution which +ended in papal absolutism has proceeded in accordance with what looks +like an inner necessity of growth and decay. The task of predicting the +policy of the Vatican is surely not so difficult as M. Renan suggested, +when he remarked to a friend of the present writer, 'The Church is a +woman; it is impossible to say what she will do next.' For where is the +evidence of caprice in the history of the Roman Church? If any State has +been guided by a fixed policy, which has imposed itself inexorably on +its successive rulers, in spite of the utmost divergences in their +personal characters and aims, that State is the Papacy. + +Beneath all the eddies which have broken the surface, the great stream +has flowed on, and has flowed in one direction. The same logic of events +which transformed the constitutional principate of Augustus into the +sultanate of Diocletian and Valentinian, has brought about a parallel +development in the Church which inherited the traditions, the policy, +and the territorial sphere of the dead Empire. The second World-State +which had its seat on the Seven Hills has followed closely in the +footsteps of the first. It is not too fanciful to trace, as Harnack has +done, the resemblance in detail--Peter and Paul in the place of Romulus +and Remus; the bishops and arch-bishops instead of the proconsuls; the +troops of priests and monks as the legionaries; while the Jesuits are +the Imperial bodyguard, the protectors and sometimes the masters of the +sovereign. One might carry the parallel further by comparing the schism +between the Eastern and Western Churches, and the later defection of +northern Europe, with the disruption of the Roman Empire in the fourth +century; and in the sphere of thought, by comparing the scholastic +philosophy and casuistry with the _Summa_ of Roman law in the +Digest.[50] + +The fundamental principles of such a government are imposed upon it by +necessity. In the first place, progressive centralisation, and the +substitution of a graduated hierarchy for popular government, came about +as inevitably in the Catholic Church as in the Mediterranean Empire of +the Caesars. The primitive colleges of presbyters soon fell under the +rule of the bishops, the bishops under the patriarchs; and then Rome +suffered her first great defeat in losing the Eastern patriarchates, +which she could not subjugate. The truncated Church, no longer +'universal,' found itself obliged to continue the same policy of +centralisation, and with such success that, under Innocent III, the +triumph of the theocracy seemed complete. The Papacy dominated Europe +_de facto_, and claimed to rule the world _de jure_. Boniface VIII, when +the clouds were already gathering, issued the famous Bull 'Unam +sanctam,' in which he said: 'Subesse Romano pontifici omnes humanas +creaturas declaramus, definimus, et pronuntiamus omnino esse de +necessitate salutis.' The claim is logical. A theocracy (when religion +is truly monotheistic)[51] must claim to be universal _de jure_; and its +ruler must be the infallibly inspired and autocratic vicegerent of the +Almighty. He is the rightful lord of the world, whether he gives a +continent to the King of Spain by a stroke of the pen, or whether his +secular jurisdiction is limited by the walls of his palace. In the +fourteenth century the Pope is already called 'dominus deus +noster'--precisely the style in which Martial adulates Domitian. In the +Bull of Pius V (1570) the claim of universal dominion is reiterated; it +is asserted that the Almighty, + + 'cui data est omnis in caelo et in terra potestas, unam + sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam, extra quam + nulla est salus, uni soli in terris, videlicet apostolorum + principi Petro Petrique successori Romano pontifici in + potestatis plenitudine tradidit gubernandam.' + +But the final victory of infallibilism was the achievement of the +nineteenth-century Jesuits, who completed the dogmatic apotheosis of the +Pope at the moment when the last vestiges of his temporal power were +being snatched from him. + +Now a government of this type is always in want of money. The spiritual +Roman Empire was as costly an institution as the court and the +bureaucracy of Diocletian and his successors. The same necessity which +suppressed democracy in the Church drove it to elaborate an oppressive +system of taxation, in which every weakness of human nature was +systematically exploited for gain, and every morsel of divine grace +placed on a tariff. But this method of raising revenue is only possible +while the priests can persuade the people that they really control a +treasury of grace, from which they can make or withhold grants at their +pleasure. It stands or falls with a non-ethical and magical view of the +divine economy which is hardly compatible with a high level of culture +or morality. The Catholic Church has thus been obliged, for purely +fiscal reasons, to discourage secular education, particularly of a +scientific kind, and to keep the people, so far as possible, in the +mental and moral condition most favourable to such transactions as the +purchase of indulgences and the payment of various insurances against +hell and purgatory. + +Another necessity of absolute government is the repression of free +criticism directed against itself. Heresy and schism in an autocratic +Church take the place of treason against the sovereign. Cyprian, in the +third century, had already laid down the principles by which alone the +central authority could be maintained. + + 'Ab arbore frange ramum; fractus germinare non poterit. A + fonte praecide rivum; praecisus arescit.... Quisquis ab + ecclesia separatus adulterae iungitur, a promissis ecclesiae + separatur. Alienus est, hostis est. Habere non potest Deum + patrem, qui ecclesiam non habet matrem.' + +Schismatics are therefore rebels, whose lives are forfeit under the laws +of treason. Heretics are in no better case; for the Church is the only +infallible interpreter both of Scripture and of tradition; and to differ +from her teaching is as disloyal as to secede from her jurisdiction. +Even Augustine could say, 'I should not believe the Gospel, if the +authority of the Church did not determine me to do so'; a statement +which a modern ultra-montane has capped by saying, 'Without the +authority of the Pope, I should not place the Bible higher than the +Koran.' Bellarmine claims an absolute monopoly of inspiration for the +Roman Church on the ground that Rome alone has preserved the apostolic +succession beyond dispute.[52] As for the treatment which heretics +deserve, the same authority is very explicit. + + 'In the first place, heretics do more mischief than any + pirate or brigand, because they slay souls; nay more, they + subvert the foundations of all good and fill the + commonwealth with the disturbances which necessarily follow + religious differences. In the second place, capital + punishment inflicted on them has a good effect on very many + persons. Many whom impunity was making indifferent are + roused by these executions to consider what is the nature of + the heresy which attracts them, and to take care not to end + their earthly lives in misery and lose their future + happiness. Thirdly, it is a kindness to obstinate heretics + to remove them from this life. For the longer they live, the + more errors they devise, the more men they pervert, and the + greater damnation they acquire for themselves.'[53] + +In all matters which are not essential for the safety of the +autocracy, an absolutist Church will consult the average tastes of its +subjects. If the populace are at heart pagan, and hanker after +sensuous ritual, dramatic magic, and a rich mythology, these must be +provided. The 'intellectuals,' being few and weak, may be safely +rebuffed or disregarded until their discoveries are thoroughly +popularised. The pronouncements of the Roman Inquisition in the case +of Galileo are typical. + + 'The theory that the sun is in the centre of the world, and + stationary, is absurd, false in philosophy, and formally + heretical, because it is contrary to the express language of + Holy Scripture. The theory that the earth is not the centre + of the world, nor stationary, but that it moves with a daily + motion, is also absurd and false in philosophy, and, + theologically considered, it is, to say the least, erroneous + in faith.' + +The exigencies of despotic government thus supply the key to the whole +policy and history of the Papacy. 'The worst form of State' can only be +bolstered up by the worst form of government. There should therefore be +no difficulty in distinguishing between the official policy of the Roman +See--which has been almost uniformly odious--and the history of the +Christian religion in the Latin countries, which has added new lustre to +human nature. The Catholic saints did not fly through the air, nor were +their hearts pierced with supernatural darts, as the mendacious +hagiology of their Church would have us believe; but they have a better +title to be remembered by mankind, as the best examples of a beautiful +and precious kind of human excellence. + +The papal autocracy has now reached its Byzantine period of decadence. +During the Middle Ages Catholicism suited the Latin races very well on +the whole. Their ancestral paganism was allowed to remain substantially +unchanged--the _nomina_, but not the _numina_ were altered; their awe +and reverence for the _caput orbis_, ingrained in the populations of +Europe by the history of a thousand years, made submission to Rome +natural and easy; a host of myths 'abounding in points of attachment to +human experience and in genial interpretations of life, yet lifted +beyond visible nature and filling a reported world believed in on +faith,'[54] adorned religion with an artistic and poetical embroidery +very congenial to the nations of the South. But a monarchy essentially +Oriental in its constitution is unsuited to modern Europe. Its whole +scheme is based on keeping the laity in contented ignorance and +subservience; and the laity have emancipated themselves The Teutonic +nations broke the yoke as soon as they attained a national +self-consciousness. They escaped from a system which had educated, but +never suited them. Nor has the shrinkage been merely territorial. The +Pyrrhic victories over Gallicanism, Jansenism, Catholic democracy +(Lamennais), historical theology (Döllinger and the Old Catholics), each +alienated a section of thinking men in the Catholic countries. The Roman +Church can no longer be called Catholic, except in the sense in which +the kingdom of Francis II remained the Holy Roman Empire. It is an +exclusive sect, which preserves much more political power than its +numbers entitle it to exert, by means of its excellent discipline, and +by the sinister policy of fomenting political disaffection. Examples of +this last are furnished by the contemporary history of Ireland, of +France, and of Poland. + +These considerations are of primary importance when we try to answer the +questions: To what extent is the Roman Church fettered by her own past? +Is there any insuperable obstacle to a modification of policy which +might give her a new lease of life? We have seen how much importance is +attached to the Church's title-deeds. Is tradition a fatal obstacle to +reform? Theoretically, the tradition which she traces back to the +apostles gives her a fixed constitution. So the Catholic Church has +always maintained. 'Regula quidem fidei una omnino est, sola immobilis +et irreformabilis.'[55] The rule of faith may be better understood by a +later age than an earlier, but there can be no additions, only a sort of +unpacking of a treasure which was given whole and entire in the first +century. In reality, of course, there has been a steady evolution in +conformity to type, the type being not the 'little flock' of Christ or +the Church of the Apostles, but the absolute monarchy above described. +It has long been the _crux_ of Catholic apologetics to reconcile the +theoretical immobility of dogma with the actual facts. + +The older method was to rewrite history. It was convenient, for example, +to forget that Pope Honorius I had been anathematised by three +ecumenical councils. The forged Decretals gave a more positive sanction +to absolutist claims; and interpolations in the Greek Fathers deceived +St. Thomas Aquinas into giving his powerful authority to infallibilism. +This method cannot be called obsolete, for the present Pope recently +informed the faithful that 'the Hebrew patriarchs were familiar with the +doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and found consolation in the +thought of Mary in the solemn moments of their life.'[56] But such +simple devices are hardly practicable in an age when history is +scientifically studied. Moreover, other considerations, besides +controversial straits, have suggested a new theory of tradition. A Cæsar +who, like the kings of the Medes and Persians, is bound by the laws of +his predecessors, is not absolute. Acceptance of the theory of +development in dogma would relieve the Pope from the weight of the dead +hand. + +The new apologetic is generally said to have been inaugurated by +Cardinal Newman. His work 'The Development of Christian Doctrine,' is +no doubt an epoch-making book, though the idea of tradition as the +product of the living spirit of a religious society, preserving its +moral identity while expressing itself, from time to time, in new forms, +was already familiar to readers of Schleiermacher. Newman gives us +several 'tests' of true development. These are--preservation of type; +continuity of principles; power of assimilation; logical sequence; +anticipation of results; tendency to conserve the old; chronic vigour. +These tests, he considered, differentiate the Roman Church from all +other Christian bodies, and prove its superiority. The Church has its +own genius, which yes and works in it. This is indeed the Holy Spirit of +God, promised by Jesus Christ. Through the operation of this spirit, old +things become new, and fresh light is shed from the sacred pages of +Scripture. Catholic tradition is, in fact, the glorified but +ever-present Christ Himself, reincarnating Himself, generation after +generation, in the historical Church. It is unnecessary to enquire +whether there is apostolic authority for every new dogma, for the Church +is the mouthpiece of the living Christ. + +This theory marks, on one side, the complete and final apotheosis of the +Pope and the hierarchy, who are thereby made independent even of the +past history of the Church. Pius IX was not slow to realise that the +only court of appeal against his decisions was closed in 1870. 'La +tradizione sono io,' he said, in the manner of Louis XIV. The Pope is +henceforth not the interpreter of a closed cycle of tradition, but the +pilot who guides its course always in the direction of the truth. This +is to destroy the old doctrine of tradition. The Church becomes the +source of revelation instead of its custodian. On the other side, it is +a perilous concession to modern ideas. There is an obvious danger that, +as the result of this doctrine, the dogmas of the Church may seem to +have only a relative and provisional truth; for, if each pronouncement +were absolutely true, there would be no real development, and the +appearance of it in history would become inexplicable. + +This new and, in appearance, more liberal attitude towards modern ideas +of progress has raised the hopes of many in the Roman Church whose +minds and consciences are troubled by the ever-widening chasm which +separates traditional dogma from secular knowledge. While dogma was +stationary--_immobilis et irreformabilis_--there seemed to be no +prospect except that the progress of human knowledge would leave +theology further and further behind, till the rupture between +Catholicism and civilisation became absolute. The idea that the Church +would ever modify her teaching to bring it into harmony with modern +science seemed utterly chimerical. But if the static theory of +revelation is abandoned, and a dynamic theory substituted for it; if the +divine part of Christianity resides, not in the theoretical formulations +of revealed fact, but in the living and energising spirit of the Church; +why should not dogmatic theology become elastic, changing periodically +in correspondence with the development of human knowledge, and no longer +stand in irreconcilable contradiction with the ascertained laws of +nature? + +Thus the dethronement of tradition by the Pope contributed to make the +Modernist movement possible. The Modernists have even claimed Newman as +on their side. This appeal cannot be sustained. 'The Development of +Christian Doctrine' is mainly a polemic against the high Anglican +position, and an answer to attacks upon Roman Catholicism from this +side. Anglicanism at that time had committed itself to a thoroughly +stationary view of revelation. Its 'appeal to antiquity'--a period +which, in accordance with a convenient theory, it limited to the +councils of the 'undivided Church'--was intended to prove the +catholicity and orthodoxy of the English Church, as the faithful +guardian of apostolic tradition, and to condemn the medieval and modern +accretions sanctioned by the Church of Rome. The earlier theory of +tradition left the Roman Church open to damaging criticism on this side; +no ingenuity could prove that all her doctrines were 'primitive.' Even +in those early days of historical criticism, it must have been plain to +any candid student of Christian 'origins' that the Pauline Churches were +far more Protestant than Catholic in type. But Newman had set himself to +prove that 'the Christianity of history is not Protestantism; if ever +there were a safe truth, it is this,' Accordingly, he argues that +'Christianity came into the world as an idea rather than an institution, +and had to fit itself with armour of its own providing.' Such +expressions sound very like the arguments of the Modernists; but Newman +assuredly never contemplated that they would be turned against the +policy of his own Church, in the interests of the critical rationalism +which he abhorred. His attitude towards dogma is after all not very +different from that of the older school. 'Time was needed' (he says) +'for the elucidation of doctrines communicated once for all through +inspired persons'; his examples are purgatory and the papal supremacy. +He insists that his 'tests' of true development are only controversial, +'instruments rather than warrants of right decisions.' The only real +'warrant' is the authority of the infallible Church. It is highly +significant that one of the features in Roman Catholicism to which he +appeals as proving its unblemished descent from antiquity is its +exclusiveness and intolerance. + + 'The Fathers (he says complacently) anathematised doctrines, + not because they were old, but because they were new; for + the very characteristic of heresy is novelty and originality + of manifestation. Such was the exclusiveness of the + Christianity of old. I need not insist on the steadiness + with which that principle has been maintained ever since.' + +The Cardinal is right; it is quite unnecessary to insist upon it; but, +when the Modernists claim Newman as their prophet, it is fair to reply +that, if we may judge from his writings, he would gladly have sent some +of them to the stake. + +The Modernist movement, properly so called, belongs to the last twenty +years, and most of the literature dates from the present century. It +began in the region of ecclesiastical history, and soon passed to +biblical exegesis, where the new heresy was at first called +'concessionism,' The scope of the debate was enlarged with the stir +produced by Loisy's 'L'Évangile et l'Église' and 'Autour d'un Petit +Livre'; it spread over the field of Christian origins generally, and +problems connected with them, such as the growth of ecclesiastical power +and the evolution of dogma. For a few years the orthodox in France +generally spoke of the new tendency as _loisysme_. It was not till 1905 +that Edouard Le Roy published his 'Qu'est-ce qu'un dogme?' which carried +the discussion into the domain of pure philosophy, though the studies of +Blondel and Laberthonnière in the psychology of religion may be said to +involve a metaphysic closely resembling that of Le Roy. Mr. Tyrrell's +able works have a very similar philosophical basis, which is also +assumed by the group of Italian priests who have remonstrated with the +Pope.[57] M. Loisy protests against the classification made in the papal +Encyclical which connects biblical critics, metaphysicians, +psychologists, and Church reformers, as if they were all partners in the +same enterprise. But in reality the same presuppositions, the same +philosophical principles, are found in all the writers named; and the +differences which may easily be detected in their writings are +comparatively superficial. The movement appears to be strongest in +France, where the policy of the Vatican has been uniformly unfortunate +of recent years, and has brought many humiliations upon French +Catholics. Italy has also been moved, though from slightly different +causes. In the protests from that country we find a tone of disgust at +the constitution of the Roman hierarchy and the character of the papal +_entourage_, about which Italians are in a position to know more than +other Catholics. Catholic Germany has been almost silent; and Mr. +Tyrrell is the only Englishman whose name has come prominently forward. + +It will be convenient to consider the position of the Modernists under +three heads: their attitude towards New Testament criticism, especially +in relation to the life of Christ; their philosophy; and their position +in the Roman Catholic Church. + +The Modernists themselves desire, for the most part, that criticism +rather than philosophy should be regarded as the starting-point of the +movement. 'So far from our philosophy dictating our critical method, it +is the critical method that has of its own accord forced us to a very +tentative and uncertain formulation of various philosophical +conclusions.... This independence of our criticism is evident in many +ways.'[58] The writers of this manifesto, and M. Loisy himself, appear +not to perceive that their critical position rests on certain very +important philosophical presuppositions; nor indeed is any criticism of +religious origins possible without presuppositions which involve +metaphysics. The results of their critical studies, as bearing on the +life of Christ, we shall proceed to summarise, departing as little as +possible from the actual language of the writers, and giving references +in all cases. It must, however, be remembered that some of the group, +such as Mr. Tyrrell, have not committed themselves to the more extreme +critical views, while others, such as the Abbé Laberthonnière, the most +brilliant and attractive writer of them all, hold a moderate position on +the historical side. It is perhaps significant that those who are +specialists in biblical criticism are the most radical members of the +school. + +The Gospels, says M. Loisy, are for Christianity what the Pentateuch is +for Judaism. Like the Pentateuch, they are a patchwork and a compound of +history and legend. The differences between them amount in many cases to +unmistakable contradictions. In Mark the life of Jesus follows a +progressive development. The first to infer His Messiahship is Simon +Peter at Cæsarea Philippi; and Jesus Himself first declares it openly in +His trial before the Sanhedrin. In Matthew and Luke, on the contrary, +Jesus is presented to the public as the Son of God from the beginning of +His ministry; He comes forward at once as the supreme Lawgiver, the +Judge, the anointed of God. The Fourth Gospel goes much further still. +His heavenly origin, His priority to the world, His co-operation in the +work of creation and salvation, are ideas which are foreign to the other +Gospels, but which the author of the Fourth Gospel has set forth in his +prologue, and, in part, put into the mouth of John the Baptist.[59] The +difference between the Christ of the Synoptic Gospels and the Christ of +John may be summed up by saying that 'the Christ of the Synoptics is +historical, but is not God; the Johannine Christ is divine, but not +historical.'[60] But even Mark (according to M. Loisy) probably only +incorporates the document of an eye-witness; his Gospel betrays Pauline +influence.[61] The Gospel which bears his name is later than the +destruction of Jerusalem, and was issued, probably about A.D. 75, by an +unknown Christian, not a native of Palestine, who wished to write a book +of evangelical instruction in conformity with the ideas of the +Hellenic-Christian community to which he belonged.[62] The tradition +connecting it with Peter may indicate that it was composed at Rome, but +has no other historical value.[63] + +The Gospel of Matthew was probably written about the beginning of the +second century by a non-Palestinian Jew residing in Asia Minor or Syria. +He is before all things a Catholic ecclesiastic, and may well have been +one of the presbyters or bishops of the churches in which the +institution of a monarchical episcopate took root.[64] The narratives +peculiar to Matthew have the character rather of legendary developments +than of genuine reminiscences. The historical value of these additions +is _nil_. As a witness to fact, Matthew ranks below Mark, and even below +Luke.[65] In particular, the chapters about the birth of Christ seem not +to have the slightest historical foundation. The fictitious character of +the genealogy is proved by the fact that Jesus seems not to have known +of His descent [from David]. The story of the virgin birth turns on a +text from Isaiah. Of this part of the Gospel, Loisy says, 'rien n'est +plus arbitraire comme exégèse, ni plus faible comme narration +fictive.'[66] Luke has taken more pains to compose a literary treatise +than Mark or Matthew. The authorities which he follows seem to be--the +source of our Mark, the so-called Matthew _logia_, and some other source +or sources. But he treats his material more freely than Matthew. 'The +lament of Christ over the holy city, His words to the women of +Jerusalem, His prayer for His executioners, His promise to the penitent +thief, His last words, are very touching traits, which may be in +conformity with the spirit of Jesus, but which have no traditional +basis.'[67] 'The fictitious character of the narratives of the infancy +is less apparent in the Third Gospel than in the First, because the +stories are much better constructed as legend, and do not resemble a +_midrash_ upon Messianic prophecies. "Le merveilleux en est moins banal +et moins enfantin. II paraît cependant impossible de leur reconnaître +une plus grande valeur de fond."'[68] + +The Gospel of Luke was probably written (not by a disciple of St. Paul) +between 90 and 100 A.D.; but the earliest redaction, which traced the +descent of Jesus from David through Joseph, has been interpolated in the +interests of the later idea of a virgin birth. The first two chapters +are interesting for the history of Christian beliefs, not for the +history of Christ. As for the Fourth Gospel, it is enough to say that +the author had nothing to do with the son of Zebedee, and that he is in +no sense a biographer of Christ, but the first and greatest of the +Christian mystics.[69] + +The result of this drastic treatment of the sources may be realised by +perusing chapter vii of Loisy's 'Les Évangiles Synoptiques,' The +following is a brief analysis of this chapter, entitled 'La Carrière de +Jésus.' Jesus was born at Nazareth about four years before the Christian +era. His family were certainly pious, but none of His relatives seems to +have accepted the Gospel during His lifetime. Like many others, the +young Jesus was attracted by the terrifying preaching of John the +Baptist, from whom He received Baptism. When John was imprisoned He at +once attempted to take his place. He began to preach round the lake of +Galilee, and was compelled by the persistent demands of the crowd to +'work miracles.' This mission only lasted a few months; but it was long +enough for Jesus to enrol twelve auxiliaries, who prepared the villages +of Galilee for His coming, travelling two and two through the north of +Palestine. Jesus found His audience rather among the _déclassés_ of +Judaism than among the Puritans. The staple of His teaching was the +advent of the 'kingdom of God'--the sudden and speedy coming of the +promised Messiah. This teaching was acceptable neither to Herod Antipas +nor to the Pharisees; and their hostility obliged Jesus to fly for a +short time to the Phoenician territory north of Galilee. But a +conference between the Master and His disciples at Cæsarea Philippi +ended in a determination to visit the capital and there proclaim Jesus +as the promised Messiah. As they approached Jerusalem, even the ignorant +disciples were frightened at the risks they were running, but Jesus +calmed their fears by promising that they should soon be set on twelve +thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 'Jésus n'allait pas à +Jérusalem pour y mourir.'[70] + +The doomed prophet made his public entry into Jerusalem as Messiah, and, +as a first act of authority, cleared the temple courts by an act of +violence, in which He was doubtless assisted by His disciples. For some +days after this He preached daily about the coming of the kingdom, and +foiled with great dexterity the traps which His enemies laid for Him. +'But the situation could only end in a miracle or a catastrophe, and it +was the catastrophe which happened.'[71] Jesus was arrested, after a +brief scuffle between the satellites of the High Priest and the +disciples; and the latter, without waiting to see the end, fled +northwards towards their homes. When brought before Pilate, Jesus +probably answered 'Yes' to the question whether He claimed to be a king; +but 'la parole du Christ johannique, Mon royaume n'est pas de ce monde, +n'aurait jamais pu être dite par le Christ d'histoire.' This confession +led naturally to His immediate execution; after which + + 'on peut supposer que les soldats détachèrent le corps de la + croix avant le soir et le mirent dans quelque fosse commune, + où l'on jetait pêle-mêle les restes des suppliciés. Les + conditions de sépulture furent telles qu'au bout de quelques + jours il aurait été impossible de reconnaître la dépouille + du Sauveur, quand même on l'aurait cherchée.'[72] + +The disciples, however, had been too profoundly stirred by hope to +accept defeat. None of them had seen Jesus die; and though they knew +that He was dead, they hardly realised it. Besides, they were +fellow-countrymen of those who had asked whether Jesus was not Elijah, +or even John the Baptist, come to life again. What more natural than +that Peter should see the Master one day while fishing on the lake? 'The +impulse once given, this belief grew by the very need which it had to +strengthen itself.' Christ 'appeared also to the eleven,' So it was that +their faith brought them back to Jerusalem, and Christianity was born. + +'The supernatural life of Christ in the faithful and in the Church has +been clothed in an historical form, which has given birth to what we +might somewhat loosely call the Christ of legend.' So the Italian +manifesto sums up the result of this reconstruction or denudation of the +Gospel history.[73] 'Such a criticism,' say the authors not less frankly +than truly, 'does away with the possibility of finding in Christ's +teaching even the embryonic form of the Church's later theological +teaching.'[74] + +Readers unfamiliar with Modernist literature will probably have read the +foregoing extracts with utter amazement. It seems hardly credible that +such views should be propounded by Catholic priests, who claim to remain +in the Catholic Church, to repeat her creeds, minister at her altars, +and share her faith. What more, it may well be asked, have rationalist +opponents of Christianity ever said, in their efforts to tear up the +Christian religion by the roots, than we find here admitted by Catholic +apologists? What is left of the object of the Church's worship if the +Christ of history was but an enthusiastic Jewish peasant whose pathetic +ignorance of the forces opposed to Him led Him to the absurd enterprise +of attempting a _coup d'état_ at Jerusalem? Is not Jesus reduced by this +criticism to the same level as Theudas or Judas of Galilee? and, if this +is the true account, what sentiment can we feel, when we read His tragic +story, but compassion tinged with contempt? + +And on what principles are such liberties taken with our authorities? +What is the criterion by which it is decided that Christ said, 'I am a +king,' but not 'My kingdom is not of this world'? Why must the +resurrection have been only a subjective hallucination in the minds of +the disciples? To these questions there is a plain answer. The +non-intervention of God in history is an axiom with the Modernists. +'L'historien,' says M. Loisy, 'n'a pas à s'inspirer de l'agnosticisme +pour écarter Dieu de l'histoire; il ne l'y rencontre jamais.'[75] It +would be more accurate to say that, whenever the meeting takes place, +'the historian' gives the Other the cut direct. + +But now comes in the peculiar philosophy by which the Modernists claim +to rehabilitate themselves as loyal and orthodox Catholics, and to turn +the flank of the rationalist position, which they have seemed to occupy +themselves. The reaction against Absolutism in philosophy has long since +established itself in Germany and France. In England and Scotland the +battle still rages; in America the rebound has been so violent that an +extreme form of anti-intellectualism is now the dominant fashion in +philosophy. It would have been easy to predict--and in fact the +prediction was made--that the new world-construction in terms of will +and action, which disparages speculative or theoretical truth and gives +the primacy to what Kant called the practical reason, would be eagerly +welcomed by Christian apologists, hard-pressed by the discoveries of +science and biblical criticism. Protestants, in fact, had recourse to +this method of apologetic before the Modernist movement arose. The +Ritschlian theology in Germany (in spite of its 'static' view of +revelation), and the _Symbolo-fidéisme_ of Sabatier and Ménégoz, have +many affinities with the position of Tyrrell, Laberthonnière, and Le +Roy. + +It is exceedingly difficult to compress into a few pages a fair and +intelligible statement of a _Weltansicht_ which affects the whole +conception of reality, and which has many ramifications. There is an +additional difficulty in the fact that few of the Modernists are more +than amateurs in philosophy. They are quick to see the strategic +possibilities of a theory which separates faith and knowledge, and +declares that truths of faith can never come into collision with truths +of fact, because they 'belong to different orders.' It suits them to +follow the pragmatists in talking about 'freely chosen beliefs,' and +'voluntary certainty '; Mr. Tyrrell even maintains that 'the great mass +of our beliefs are reversible, and depend for their stability on the +action or permission of the will.' But philosophy is for them mainly a +controversial weapon. It gives them the means of justifying their +position as Catholics who wish to remain loyal to their Church and her +formularies, but no longer believe in the miracles which the Church has +always regarded as matters of fact. Nevertheless, an attempt must be +made to explain a point of view which, to the plain man, is very strange +and unfamiliar. + +Two words are constantly in the mouth of Modernist controversialists in +speaking of their opponents. The adherents of the traditional theology +are 'intellectualists,' and their conception of reality is 'static.' The +meaning of the latter charge may perhaps be best explained from +Laberthonnière's brilliantly written essay, 'Le Réalisme Chrétien et +l'Idéalisme Grec.' The Greeks, he says, were insatiable in their desire +to _see_, like children. Blessedness, for them, consisted in a complete +vision of reality; and, since thought is the highest kind of vision, +salvation was conceived of by them as the unbroken contemplation of the +perfectly true, good, and beautiful. Hence arose the philosophy of +'concepts'; they idealised nature by considering it _sub specie +æternitatis_. Reality resided in the unchanging ideas; the mutable, the +particular, the individual was for them an embarrassment, a 'scandal of +thought.' The sage always tries to escape from the moving world of +becoming into the static world of being. But an ideal world, so +conceived, can only be an abstraction, an impoverishment of reality. +Such an idealism gives us neither a science of origins nor a science of +ends. Greek wisdom sought eternity and forgot time; it sought that which +never dies, and found that which never lives. + + 'An abstract doctrine, like that of Greek philosophy or of + Spinoza, consists always in substituting for reality, by + simplification, ideas or concepts which they think + statically in their logical relations, regarding them at the + same time as adequate representations and as essences + immovably defined.'[76] + +Hellenised Christianity, proceeds our critic, regarded the incarnation +statically, as a fact in past history. But the real Christ is an object +of faith. 'He introduces into us the principles of that which we ought +to be. That which He reveals, He makes in revealing it.' In other words, +Christ, and the God whom He reveals, are a power or force rather than a +fact. 'A God who has nothing to become has nothing to do.' God is not +the idea of ideas, but the being of beings and the life of our life. He +is not a supreme notion, but a supreme life and an immanent action. He +is not the 'unmoved mover,' but He is in the movement itself as its +principle and end. While the Greeks conceived the world _sub specie +æternitatis_, God is conceived by modern thought _sub specie temporis_. +God's eternity is not a sort of arrested time in which there is no more +life; it is, on the contrary, the maximum of life. + +It is plain that we have here a one-sided emphasis on the dynamic aspect +of reality no less fatal to sound philosophy than the exclusively static +view which has been falsely attributed to the Greeks. A little clear +thinking ought to be enough to convince anyone that the two aspects of +reality which the Greeks called sthasist and khinêsist are correlative +and necessary to each other. A God who is merely the principle of +movement and change is an absurdity. Time is always hurling its own +products into nothingness. Unless there is a being who can say, 'I am +the Lord, I change not,' the 'sons of Jacob' cannot flatter themselves +that they are 'not consumed.'[77] But Laberthonnière and his friends are +not much concerned with the ultimate problems of metaphysics; what they +desire is to shake themselves free from 'brute facts' in the past, to be +at liberty to deny them as facts, while retaining them as representative +ideas of faith. If reality is defined to consist only in life and +action, it is a meaningless abstraction to snip off a moment in the +process, and ask, 'Did it ever really take place?' This awkward question +may therefore be ignored as meaningless and irrelevant, except from the +'abstract' standpoint of physical science. + +The crusade against 'intellectualism' serves the same end. M. Le Roy and +the other Christian pragmatists have returned to the Nominalism of Duns +Scotus. The following words of Frassen, one of Scotus' disciples, might +serve as a motto for the whole school: + + 'Theologia nostra non est scientia. Nullatenus speculativa + est, sed simpliciter practica. Theologiae obiectum non est + speculabile, sed operabile. Quidquid in Deo est practicum + est respectu nostri.' + +M. Le Roy also seems to know only these two categories. Whatever is not +'practical'--having an immediate and obvious bearing on conduct--is +stigmatised as 'theoretical' or 'speculative.' But the whole field of +scientific study lies outside this classification, which pretends to be +exhaustive. Science has no 'practical' aim, in the narrow sense of that +which may serve as a guide to moral action; nor does it deal with +'theoretical' or 'speculative' ideas, except provisionally, until they +can be verified. The aim of science is to determine the laws which +prevail in the physical universe; and its motive is that purely +disinterested curiosity which is such an embarrassing phenomenon to +pragmatists. And since the faith which lies behind natural science is at +least as strong as any other faith now active in the world, it is +useless to frame categories in such a way as to exclude the question, +'Did this or that occurrence, which is presented as an event in the +physical order, actually happen, or not?' The question has a very +definite meaning for the man of science, as it has for the man in the +street. To call it 'theoretical' is ridiculous. + +What M. Le Roy means by 'interpreting dogmas in the language of +practical action' may be gathered from his own illustrations. The dogma, +'God is our Father,' does not define a 'theoretical relation' between +Him and us. It signifies that we are to behave to Him as sons behave to +their father. 'God is personal' means that we are to behave to Him as if +He were a human person. 'Jesus is risen' means that we are to think of +Him as if He were our contemporary. The dogma of the Real Presence means +that we ought to have, in the presence of the consecrated Host, the same +feelings which we should have had in the presence of the visible Christ. +'Let the dogmas be interpreted in this way, and no one will dispute +them.'[78] + +The same treatment of dogma is advocated in Mr. Tyrrell's very able book +'Lex Orandi.' The test of truth for a dogma is not its correspondence +with phenomenal fact, but its 'prayer-value.' This writer, at any rate +before his suspension by the Society of Jesus, to which he belonged, is +less subversive in his treatment of history than the French critics whom +we have quoted. Although in apologetics the criterion for the acceptance +of dogmas must, he thinks, be a moral and practical one, he sometimes +speaks as if the 'prayer-value' of an ostensibly historical proposition +carried with it the necessity of its truth as matter of fact. + + 'Between the inward and the outward, the world of reality + and the world of appearances, the relation is not merely one + of symbolic correspondence. The distinction that is demanded + by the dualism of our mind implies and presupposes a causal + and dynamic unity of the two. We should look upon the + outward world as being an effectual symbol of the inward, in + consequence of its natural and causal connection + therewith.'[79] + +But Mr. Tyrrell does not seem to mean all that these sentences might +imply. He speaks repeatedly, in the 'Lex Orandi,' of the 'will-world' as +the only real world. + + 'The will (he says) cannot make that true which in itself is + not true. But it can make that a fact relatively to our mind + and action which is not a fact relative to our + understanding.... It rests with each of us by an act of will + to create the sort of world to which we shall accommodate + our thought and action. ....It does not follow that harmony + of faith with the truths of reason and facts of experience + is the best or essential condition of its credibility.... + Abstractions (he refers to the world as known to science) + are simple only because they are barren forms created by the + mind itself. Faith and doubt have a common element in the + deep sense of the insufficiency of the human mind to grasp + ultimate truths.... The world given to our outward senses is + shadowy and dreamy, except so far as we ascribe to it some + of the characteristics of will and spirit.... The world of + appearance is simply subordinate to the real world of our + will and affections.' + +Because the 'abstract' sciences cannot and do not attempt to reach +ultimate truth, it is assumed that they are altogether 'barren forms,' +This is the error of much Oriental mysticism, which denies all value to +what it regards as the lower categories. In his later writings Mr. +Tyrrell objects to being classed with the American and English +pragmatists--the school of Mr. William James. But the doctrine of these +passages is ultra-pragmatist. The will, which is illegitimately +stretched to include feeling,[80] is treated as the creator as well as +the discerner of reality. The 'world of appearance' is plastic in its +grasp. It is this metaphysical pragmatism which is really serviceable to +Modernism. If the categories of the understanding can be so disparaged +as to be allowed no independent truth, value, or importance, all +collisions between faith and fact may be avoided by discrediting in +advance any conclusions at which science may arrive. Assertions about +'brute fact' which are scientifically false may thus not be untrue when +taken out of the scientific plane, because outside that plane they are +harmless word-pictures, soap-bubbles blown off by the poetical +creativeness of faith Any assertion about fact which commends itself to +the will and affections and which is proved by experience to furnish +nutriment to the spiritual life, may be adhered to without scruple. It +is not only useful, but true, in the only sense in which truth can be +predicated of anything in the higher sphere. + +The obvious criticism on this notion of religious truth as purely moral +and practical is that it is itself abstract and one-sided. The universe +as it appears to discursive thought, with its vast system of seemingly +uniform laws, which operate without much consideration for our wishes or +feelings, must be at least an image of the real universe. We cannot +accept the irreconcilable dualism between the will-world and the world +of phenomena which the philosophical Modernists assume. The dualism, or +rather the contradiction, is not in the nature of things, nor in the +constitution of our minds, but in the consciousness of the unhappy men +who are trying to combine two wholly incompatible theories. On the +critical side they are pure rationalists, much as they dislike the name. +They claim, as we have seen, to have advanced to philosophy through +criticism. But the Modernist critics start with very well-defined +presuppositions. They ridicule the notion that 'God is a personage in +history'; they assume that for the historian 'He cannot be found +anywhere'; that He is as though He did not exist. On the strength of +this presupposition, and for no other reason, they proceed to rule out, +without further investigation, all alleged instances of divine +intervention in history. Unhampered by any of the misgivings which +predispose the ordinary believer to conservatism, they follow the +rationalist argument to its logical conclusions with startling +ruthlessness. And then, when the whole edifice of historical religion +seems to have been overthrown to the very foundations, they turn round +suddenly and say that all their critical labours mean nothing for faith, +and that we may go on repeating the old formulas as if nothing had +happened. The Modernists pour scorn on the scholastic +'faculty-psychology,' which resolves human personality into a syndicate +of partially independent agents; but, in truth, their attempt to blow +hot and cold with the same mouth seems to have involved them in a more +disastrous self-disruption than has been witnessed in the history of +thought since the fall of the Nominalists. In a sceptical and +disillusioned age their disparagement of 'intellectualism' or rather of +discursive thought in all its operations, might find a response. But in +the twentieth century the science which, as critics, they follow so +unswervingly will not submit to be bowed out of the room as soon as +matters of faith come into question. Our contemporaries believe that +matters of fact are important, and they insist, with ever-increasing +emphasis, that they shall not be called upon to believe, as part of +their religious faith, anything which as a matter of fact, is not true. +The Modernist critic, when pressed on this side, says that it is natural +for faith to represent its ideas in the form of historical facts, and +that it is this inevitable tendency which causes the difficulties +between religion and science. A sane criticism will allow that this is +very largely true, but will not, we are convinced, be constrained to +believe with M. Loisy that the historical original of the Christian +Redeemer was the poor deluded enthusiast whom he portrays in 'Les +Évangiles Synoptiques.' + +However this may be--and it must remain a matter of opinion--the very +serious question arises, whether it is really natural for faith to +represent its ideas in the form of historical facts when it knows that +these facts have no historical basis. The writers with whom we are +dealing evidently think it is natural and inevitable, and we must assume +that they speak from their own spiritual experience. But this state of +mind does not seem to be a very common one. Those who believe in the +divinity of Christ, but not in His supernatural birth and bodily +resurrection, do not, as a rule, make those miracles the subject of +their meditations, but find their spiritual sustenance in communion with +the 'Christ who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Those who +regard Jesus only as a prophet sent by God to reveal the Father, +generally pray only to the God whom He revealed, and cherish the memory +of Jesus with no other feelings than supreme gratitude and veneration. +Those, lastly, who worship in God only the Great Unknown who makes for +righteousness, find myths and anthropomorphic symbols merely disturbing +in such devotions as they are still able to practise. In dealing with +convinced Voluntarists it is perhaps not disrespectful to suggest that +the difficult position in which they find themselves has produced a +peculiar activity of the will, such as is seldom found under normal +conditions. + +We pass to the position of the Modernists in the Roman Catholic Church. +It is well known that the advisers of Pius X have committed the Papacy +to a wholesale condemnation of the new movement. The reasons for this +condemnation are thus summed up by a distinguished ecclesiastic of that +Church[81]: + + 'Why has the Pope condemned the Modernists? (1) Because the + Modernists have denied that the divine facts related in the + Gospel are historically true. (2) Because they have denied + that Christ for most of His life knew that He was God, and + that He ever knew that He was the Saviour of the world. (3) + Because they have denied the divine sanction and the + perpetuity of the great dogmas which enter into the + Christian creed. (4) Because they have denied that Christ + Himself personally ever founded the Church or instituted the + Sacraments. (5) Because they deny and subvert the divine + constitution of the Church, by teaching that the Pope and + the bishops derive their powers, not directly from Christ + and His Apostles, but from the Christian people.' + + +The official condemnation is contained in two documents--the decree of +the Holy Inquisition, 'Lamentabili sane exitu,' July 3, 1907, and the +Encyclical, 'Pascendi dominici gregis,' September 8, 1907. These +pronouncements are intended for Catholics; and their tone is that of +authoritative denunciation rather than of argument. In the main, the +summary which they give of Modernist doctrines is as fair as could be +expected from a judge who is passing sentence; but the papal theologians +have not always resisted the temptation to arouse prejudice by +misrepresenting the views which they condemn. We have not space to +analyse these documents, nor is it necessary to do so. It will be more +to the purpose to consider whether, in spite of their official +condemnation, the Modernists are likely in the future to make good their +footing in the Roman Church. + +Even before the Encyclical the Modernists had used very bold language +about the authority of the Church. + + 'The visible Church (writes Mr. Tyrrell in his "Much-abused + Letter") is but a means, a way, a creature, to be used where + it helps, to be left where it hinders.... Who have taught us + that the consensus of theologians cannot err, but the + theologians themselves? Mortal, fallible, ignorant men like + ourselves! ... Their present domination is but a passing + episode in the Church's history.... May not history repeat + itself? [as in the transition from Judaism to Christianity]. + Is God's arm shortened that He should not again out of the + very stones raise up seed to Abraham? May not Catholicism, + like Judaism, have to die in order that it may live again in + a greater and grander form? Has not every organism got its + limits of development, after which it must decay and be + content to survive in its progeny? Wine-skins stretch, but + only within measure; for there comes at last a + bursting-point when new ones must be provided.' + +In a note he explains: 'The Church of the Catacombs became the Church of +the Vatican; who can tell what the Church of the Vatican may not turn +into?' + +It is thus on a very elastic theory of development that the Modernists +rely. 'The differences between the larval and final stages of many an +insect are often far greater than those which separate kind from kind.' +And so this Proteus of a Church, which has changed its form so +completely since the Gospel was first preached in the subterranean +galleries of Rome, may undergo another equally startling metamorphosis +and come to believe in a God who never intervenes in history. We may +here remind our readers of Newman's tests of true development, and mark +the enormous difference. + +Mr. Tyrrell's 'Much-abused Letter' reaches, perhaps, the high-water mark +of Modernist claims. Not all the writers whom we have quoted would view +with complacency the prospect of the Catholic Church dying to live +again, or being content to live only in its progeny. The proverb about +the new wine-skins is one of sinister augury in such a connection. If +the Catholic Church is really in such an advanced stage of decay that it +must die before it can live, why do those who grasp the situation wish +to keep it alive? Are they not precisely pouring their new wine into old +bottles? Mr. Tyrrell himself draws the parallel with Judaism in the +first century. Paul, he says, 'did not feel that he had broken with +Judaism,' But the Synagogue did feel that he had done so, and history +proved that the Synagogue was right. + +Development, however great the changes which it exhibits, can only +follow certain laws; and the development of the Church of Rome has +steadily followed a direction opposite to that which the Modernists +demand that it shall take. Newman might plausibly claim that the +doctrines of purgatory and of the papal supremacy are logically involved +in the early claims of the Roman Church. The claim is true at least in +this sense, that, given a political Church organised as an autocracy, +these useful doctrines were sure, in the interests of the government, to +be promulgated sooner or later. But there is not the slightest reason +to suppose that the next development will be in the direction of that +peculiar kind of Liberalism favoured by the Modernists. It is difficult +to see how the Vatican could even meet the reformers half-way without +making ruinous concessions.' This supernatural mechanism,' M. Loisy says +in his last book, 'Modernism tends to ruin completely,' Just so; but the +Roman Church lives entirely on the faith in supernatural mechanism. Her +sacramental and sacerdotal system is based on supernatural mechanism--on +divine interventions in the physical world conditioned by human agency; +her theology and books of devotion are full of supernatural mechanism; +the lives of her saints, her relics and holy places, the whole +literature of Catholic mysticism, the living piety and devotion of the +faithful, wherever it is still to be found, are based entirely on that +very theory of supernaturalistic dualism which the Modernist, when he +acts as critic, begins by ruling out as devoid of any historical or +scientific actuality. The attractiveness of Catholicism as a cult +depends almost wholly on its frank admission of the miraculous as a +matter of daily occurrence. To rationalise even contemporary history as +M. Loisy has rationalised the Gospels would be suicide for Catholicism. + +It is tempting to give a concrete instance by way of illustrating the +impassable chasm which divides Catholicism as a working system from the +academic scheme of transformation which we have been considering. + + 'The French Catholics (writes the _Times_ correspondent in + Paris on June 25, 1908) are awaiting with concern the report + of a special commission on a mysterious affair known as the + Miraculous Hailstones of Remiremont. On Sunday, May 26, + 1907, during a violent storm that swept over that region of + the Vosges, among the great quantity of hailstones that fell + at the time a certain number were found split in two. On the + inner face of each of the halves, according to the local + papers that appeared the next day, was the image of the + Madonna venerated at Remiremont and known as Notre Dame du + Trésor. The local Catholics regarded it as a reply to the + municipal council's veto of the procession in honour of the + Virgin. So many people testified to having seen the + miraculous hailstones that the bishop of Saint-Dié + instituted an inquiry; 107 men, women, and children were + heard by the parish priest, and certain well-known men of + science [names given] were consulted. The report has just + been published in the _Semaine Religieuse_, and concludes in + favour of the absolute authenticity of the fact under + inquiry. ....The last word rests with the bishop, who will + decide according to the conclusions of the report of the + special commission.' + +This is Catholicism in practice. Those who think to reform it by their +contention that supernatural interventions can never be matters of fact, +are liable to the reproach which they most dislike--that of scholastic +intellectualism, and neglect of concrete experience. + +This denial of the supernatural as a factor in the physical world seems +to us alone sufficient to make the position of the Modernists in the +Roman Church untenable. That form of Christianity stands or falls with +belief in miracles. It has always sought to bring the divine into human +life by intercalating acts of God among facts of nature. Its whole +sacred literature, as we have said, is penetrated through and through by +the belief that God continually intervenes to change the course of +events. What would become of the cult of Mary and the saints if it were +recognised that God does not so interfere, and that the saints, if +criticism allows that they ever existed, can do nothing by their +intercessions to avert calamity or bring blessing? The Modernist priest, +it appears, can still say 'Ora pro nobis' to a Mary whose biography he +believes to be purely mythical. At any rate, he can tell his consultants +with a good conscience that if they pray to Mary for grace they will +receive it. But what is the good of this make-believe? And, if it is +part of a transaction in which the worshipper pays money for assistance +which he believes to be miraculous and only obtainable through the good +offices of the Church, is it even morally honest? The worshipper may be +helped by his subjective conviction that his cheque on the treasury of +merit has been honoured; but if, apart from the natural effects of +suggestion, nothing has been given him but a mere _placebo_, is the +sacerdotal office one which an honourable man would wish to fill? + +We have no wish whatever to make any imputation against the motives of +the brave men who have withstood the thunders of the Vatican, and who in +some cases have been professionally ruined by their courageous avowal of +their opinions. Perhaps none but a Catholic priest can understand how +great the sacrifice is when one in his position breaks away from the +authority of those who speak in the name of the Church, and deliberately +incurs the charge, still so terrible in Catholic ears, of being a +heretic and a teacher of heresy. Not one man in twenty would dare to +face the storm of obloquy, hatred, and calumny which is always ready to +fall on the head of a heretical priest. The Encyclical indicates the +measures which are to be taken officially against Modernists. Pius X +ordains that all the young professors suspected of Modernism are to be +driven from their chairs in the seminaries; that infected books are to +be condemned indiscriminately, even though they may have received an +_imprimatur_; that a committee of censors is to be established in every +diocese for the revision of books; that meetings of liberal priests or +laymen are to be forbidden; that every diocese is to have a vigilance +committee to discover and inform against Modernists; and that young +clerical Modernists are to be put 'in the lowest places,' and held up to +the contempt of their more orthodox or obsequious comrades. But this +persecution is as nothing compared with the crushing condemnation with +which the religious world, which is his only world, visits this kind of +contumacy; the loss of friendships, the grief and shame of loved +relatives, and the haunting dread that an authority so august as that +which has condemned him cannot have spoken in vain. Assuredly all lovers +of truth must do homage to the courage and self-sacrifice of these men. +The doubt which may be reasonably felt and expressed as to the +consistency of their attitude reflects no discredit on them personally. +Nevertheless, the alternative must be faced, that a 'modernised' +Catholicism must either descend to deliberate quackery, or proclaim that +the bank from which the main part of her revenues is derived has stopped +payment. + +What will be the end of the struggle, and in what condition will it +leave the greatest Church in Christendom? There are some who think that +the Church will grow tired of the attitude of Canute, and will retreat +to the chair which Modernism proffers, well above high-water mark. But +the policy of Rome has never been concession, but repression, even at +the cost of alienating large bodies of her supporters; and we believe +that in the present instance, as on former occasions, the Vatican will +continue to proscribe Modernism until the movement within her body is +crushed. She can hardly do otherwise, for the alternative offered is not +a gradual reform of her dogmas, but a sweeping revolution. This we have +made abundantly clear by quotations from the Modernists themselves. If +the Vatican once proclaimed that such views about supernaturalism as +those which we have quoted are permissible, a deadly wound would be +inflicted on the faith of simple Catholics all over the world. The Vicar +of Christ would seem to them to have apostatised. The whole machinery of +piety, as practised in Catholic countries, would be thrown out of gear. +Nor is there any strong body of educated laymen, such as exists in the +Protestant Churches, who could influence the Papacy in the direction of +Liberalism. Not only are the laity taught that their province is to +obey, and never to call in question the decisions of ecclesiastics, but +the large majority of thoughtful laymen have already severed their +connection with the Church, and take no interest in projects for its +reform. Everything points to a complete victory for the Jesuits and the +orthodox party; and, much as we may regret the stifling of free +discussion, and the expulsion of earnest and conscientious thinkers from +the Church which they love, it is difficult to see how any other policy +could be adopted. + +Of the Modernists, a few will secede, others will remain in the Church, +though in open revolt against the Vatican; but the majority will be +silenced, and will make a lip-submission to authority. The disastrous +results of the rebellion, and of the means taken to crush it, will be +apparent in the deterioration of the priesthood. Modern thought, it will +be said, has now been definitely condemned by the Church; war has been +openly declared against progress. Many who, before the crisis of the +last few years, believed it possible to enter the Roman Catholic +priesthood without any sacrifice of intellectual honesty, will in the +future find it impossible to do so. We may expect to see this result +most palpable in France, where men think logically, and are but little +influenced by custom and prejudice. Unless the Republican Government +blows the dying embers into a blaze by unjust persecution, it is to be +feared that Catholicism in that country may soon become 'une quantité +négligeable.' The prospects of the Church in Italy and Spain do not seem +very much better. In fact the only comfort which we can suggest to those +who regret the decline of an august institution, is that decadent +autocracies have often shown an astonishing toughness. But as head of +the universal Church, in any true sense of the word, Rome has finished +her life. + +A more vital question, for those at least who are Christians, but not +Roman Catholics, is in what shape the Christian religion will emerge +from the assaults upon traditional beliefs which science and historical +criticism are pressing home. We have given our reasons for rejecting the +Modernist attempt at reconstruction. In the first place, we do not feel +that we are required by sane criticism to surrender nearly all that M. +Loisy has surrendered. We believe that the kingdom of God which Christ +preached was something much more than a patriotic dream. We believe that +He did speak as never man spake, so that those who heard Him were +convinced that He was more than man. We believe, in short, that the +object of our worship was a historical figure. Nothing has yet come to +light, or is likely to come to light, which prevents us from identifying +the Christ of history with the Christ of faith, or the Christ of +experience. + +But, if too much is surrendered on one side, too much is taken back on +the other. The contention that the progress of knowledge has left the +traditional beliefs and cultus of Catholics untouched is untenable. It +is not too much to say that the whole edifice of supernaturalistic +dualism under which Catholic piety has sheltered itself for fifteen +hundred years has fallen in ruins to the ground. There is still enough +superstition left to win a certain vogue for miraculous cures at +Lourdes, and split hailstones at Remiremont. But that kind of religion +is doomed, and will not survive three generations of sound secular +education given equally to both sexes. The craving for signs and +wonders--that broad road which attracts so many converts and wins so +rapid a success--leads religion at last to its destruction, as Christ +seems to have warned His own disciples. Science has been the slowly +advancing Nemesis which has overtaken a barbarised and paganised +Christianity. She has come with a winnowing fan in her hand, and she +will not stop till she has thoroughly purged her floor. She has left us +the divine Christ, whatever may be the truth about certain mysterious +events in His human life. But assuredly she has not left us the right to +offer wheedling prayers to a mythical Queen of Heaven; she has not left +us the right to believe in such puerile stories as the Madonna-stamp on +hailstones, in order to induce a comfortably pious state of mind. + +The dualism alleged to exist between faith and knowledge will not serve. +Man is one, and reality is one; there can no more be two 'orders of +reality' not affecting each other than there can be two faculties in the +human mind working independently of each other. The universe which is +interpreted to us by our understanding is not unreal, nor are its laws +pliant to our wills, as the pragmatists do vainly talk. It is a divinely +ordered system, which includes man, the roof and crown of things, and +Christ, in whom is revealed to us its inner character and meaning. It is +not the province of faith either to flout scientific knowledge, or to +contaminate the material on which science works by intercalating what M. +Le Roy calls 'transhistorical symbols'--myths in fact--which do not +become true by being recognised as false, as the new apologetic seems to +suggest. Faith is not the born storyteller of Modernist theology. Faith +is, on the practical side, just the resolution to stand or fall by the +noblest hypothesis; and, on the intellectual side, it is a progressive +initiation, by experiment which ends in experience, into the unity of +the good, the true, and the beautiful, founded on the inner assurance +that these three attributes of the divine nature have one source and +conduct to one goal. + +The Modernists are right in finding the primary principle of faith in +the depths of our undivided personality. They are right in teaching that +faith develops and comes into its own only through the activity of the +whole man. They are right in denying the name of faith to correct +opinion, which may leave the character untouched. As Hartley Coleridge +says: + + 'Think not the faith by which the just shall live + Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven, + Far less a feeling fond and fugitive, + A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given. + It is an affirmation and an act + That bids eternal truth be present fact.' + +For all this we are grateful to them. But we maintain that the future of +Christianity is in the hands of those who insist that faith and +knowledge must be confronted with each other till they have made up +their quarrel. The crisis of faith cannot be dealt with by establishing +a _modus vivendi_ between scepticism and superstition. That is all that +Modernism offers us; and it will not do. Rather we will believe, with +Clement of Alexandria, that pistê hê gnhôsist, gnôsthê de hê phistist. + +If this confidence in the reality of things hoped for and the +hopefulness of things real be well-founded, we must wait in patience for +the coming of the wise master-builders who will construct a more truly +Catholic Church out of the fragments of the old, with the help of the +material now being collected by philosophers, psychologists, historians, +and scientists of all creeds and countries. When the time comes for this +building to rise, the contributions of the Modernists will not be +described as wood, hay, or stubble. They have done valuable service to +biblical criticism, and in other branches, which will be always +recognised. But the building will not (we venture to prophesy) be +erected on their plan, nor by their Church. History shows few examples +of the rejuvenescence of decayed autocracies. Nor is our generation +likely to see much of the reconstruction. The churches, as institutions, +will continue for some time to show apparent weakness; and other +moralising and civilising agencies will do much of their work. But, +since there never has been a time when the character of Christ and the +ethics which he taught have been held in higher honour than the present, +there is every reason to expect that the next 'Age of Faith,' when it +comes, will be of a more genuinely Christian type than the last. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [50] Bishop Creighton always emphasised this view of Roman + Catholicism. 'The Roman Church,' he wrote, 'is the most + complete expression of Erastianism, for it is not a Church + at all, but a state in its organisation; and the worst form + of state--an autocracy.' (_Life and Letters_, ii. 375.) + + [51] In contrast with 'henotheism' or 'monolatry,' such as + the worship of the early Hebrews. + + [52] 'Nunc defecit certa successio in omnibus ecclesiis + apostolicis, praeterquam in Romana, et ideo ex testimonio + huius solius ecclesiae sumi potest certum argumentum ad + probandas apostolicas traditiones.' Bellarmine, _De Verbo + Dei scripto et non scripto_, IV, ix, 10. + + [53] Bellarmine, _De Laicis_, III, xxi, 22. + + [54]: Santayana, _Return in Religion_, p. 108. + + [55] Tertullian, _De Virg. Vel_., 1. + + [56] Encyclical of October 27, 1901. + + [57] In _The Programme of Modernism_, and _Quello che + vogliamo_. + + [58] _The Programme of Modernism_, p. 16. + + [59] _The Programme of Modernism_, pp. 50-54. + + [60] Loisy, _Simples Réflexions_, p. 168. + + [61] _Ibid. L'Évangile et l'Église_, pp. 3-5. + + [62] _Ibid. Les Évangiles Synoptiques_, p. 119. + + [63] _Ibid_. + + [64] _Ibid_. p. 143. + + [65] _Ibid_. pp. 138, 139. + + [66] _Ibid_. p. 104. + + [67] Loisy, _Les Évangiles Synoptiques_, p. 166. + + [68] _Ibid_. p. 169. + + [69] _Ibid. Le Quatrième Évangile_, passim. + + [70] Loisy, _Les Évangiles Synoptiques_, p. 214. + + [71] _Ibid_. p. 218. + + [72] Loisy, _Les Évangiles Synoptiques_, p. 223. + + [73] _The Programme of Modernism_, pp. 82, 83. + + [74] _Ibid_. p. 90. + + [75] Loisy, _Simples Réflexions_, p. 211. + + [76] Laberthonnière, _Le Réalisme Chrétien et l'Idéalisme + Grec,_ pp. 44, 45. + + [77] _Malachi_, ii. 6. + + [78] Le Roy, _Dogme et Critique_, p. 26. + + [79] _Lex Orandi_, p. 165 (abridged). + + [80] This is not carelessness on the part of the writer. + Paulsen also says (_Introduction to Philosophy_, p. 112), 4 + It is impossible to separate feeling and willing from each + other.... Only in the highest stage of psychical life, in + man, does a partial separation of feeling from willing + occur.' But it is the highest stage of psychical life, the + human, with which we are alone concerned; and in this stage + it is both possible and necessary to distinguish between + feeling and willing. Some Voluntarists, hard pressed by + facts, try to make 'will' cover the whole of conscious and + subconscious life, with the exception of logical reasoning, + which is excluded as a sort of pariah! + + [81] Mgr. Moyes, in _The Nineteenth Century_, December, + 1907. + + + + +CARDINAL NEWMAN + +(1912) + + +The life of Newman was divided into two nearly equal portions by his +change of religion in October 1845. For the earlier half of his career +we have long had his own narrative; and Newman is a prince of +autobiographers. It was his wish that the 'Apologia' should be the final +and authoritative account of his life in the Church of England, and of +the steps by which he was led to transfer his allegiance to another +communion. The voluminous literature of the Tractarian movement, which +includes large collections of Newman's own letters, has confirmed the +accuracy of his narrative, and has made any further description of that +strange episode in English University life superfluous. With the +'Apologia' and Dean Church's 'Oxford Movement' before him, the reader +needs no more. Mr. Wilfrid Ward has therefore been well advised to +adhere loyally to the Cardinal's wishes, by confining himself to the +last half of Newman's life, after a brief summary of his childhood, +youth, and middle age till 1845. Nevertheless, it is misleading to give +the title 'The Life of Cardinal Newman' to a work which is only, as it +were, the second volume of a biography. There are very few men, however +long-lived, who have not done much of their best work before the age of +forty-five, and Newman was certainly not one of the exceptions. From +every point of view, except that of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical +historian, Newman's Anglican career was far more interesting and +important than his residence at Birmingham. He will live in history, not +as the recluse of Edgbaston, nor as the wearer of the Cardinal's hat +which fell to his lot, almost too late to save the credit of the +Vatican, when he had passed the normal limit of human life, but as the +real founder and leader of nineteenth century Anglo-Catholicism, the +movement which he created and then tried in vain to destroy. The +projects and failures and successes of his later life seem very pale and +almost petty when compared with the activities of the years while he was +making a chapter of English history. His greatest book, though it was +written many years after his secession, is the record of a drama which +ended in the interview with Father Dominic the Passionist. It is 'The +History of my Religious Opinions'; and after 1845 his religious opinions +had, as he says himself, no further history. The incomparable style +which will give him a permanent place among the masters of English prose +was the product of his life at Oxford, where he lived in a society of +highly cultivated men, whose writings show many of the same excellences +as his own. Newman's English is only the Oriel manner at its best. Such +an instrument could hardly have been forged at the Birmingham Oratory, +where his associates, who had followed him from Littlemore, were of such +an inferior type that Mark Pattison, who knew them, was surprised that +he could be satisfied with their company. His best sermons and his best +poetry belong to his Anglican period. 'The Dream of Gerontius,' with all +its tender grace, is far less virile than 'Lead, kindly Light,' and +other short poems of his youth. Moreover, his record as a Roman +ecclesiastic is one of almost unrelieved failure. If he had died +eighteen years after his secession, when he already looked upon himself +as an old man whose course was nearly run, he would have been regarded +as one who had sacrificed a great career in the Church of England for +neglect and obscurity. From the first he was distrusted by the 'Old +Catholics' (the old Roman Catholic families in England), and suspected +at the Vatican, where Talbot assiduously represented him as 'the most +dangerous man in England.' When Manning, Archdeacon of Chichester, +followed his example and joined the Roman Church, Newman was confronted +with a still more subtle and relentless opponent, whose hostility was +never relaxed till the accession of a Liberal Pope made it no longer +possible to resist the bestowal of tardy honours upon a feeble +octogenarian. The recognition came in time to soothe his decline, but +too late to enable him to leave his mark upon the administration of the +Roman Church. + +The main events in a very uneventful career are narrated at length in +Mr. Ward's volumes. After his 'conversion' Newman first resided in a +small community at Maryvale (Oscott) but soon left it on a journey to +Rome, where he spent some time at the Collegio di Propaganda, and had a +foretaste of the distrust with which Pius IX and his advisers always +regarded him. His plan at this time was to found a theological seminary +at Maryvale; and in this scheme he had the support of Wiseman, the +ablest Roman ecclesiastic in the United Kingdom. But the 'Essay on +Development,' with its unscholastic language and unfamiliar line of +apologetic, seriously alarmed the theologians at Rome; and Newman, +accepting the first of many rebuffs, abandoned this project in favour of +another. He resolved to join the Oratorians, an order founded by St. +Philip Neri, and obtained permission to modify, in his projected +establishment, the rules of the Order, which, among other things, +prescribed frequent floggings in public. He visited Naples, and came +back a believer in the liquefaction of the saint's blood. The amazing +letter to Henry Wilberforce, writter from Santa Croce, shows that he was +the most docile and credulous of converts. Even the Holy House at Loreto +caused him no difficulty. 'He who floated the ark on the surges of a +world-wide sea, and inclosed in it all living things, who has hidden the +terrestrial paradise, who said that faith might remove mountains ... +could do this wonder also.' It 'may have been'; 'everybody believes it +in Rome'; therefore Newman 'has no doubt'! + +The new Oratory was placed by Papal brief at Birmingham. The first +members of it were his friends who had left the English Church with him. +Recruits soon came in, and branch houses were talked of. But for many +years Newman had reason to complain of neglect and want of sympathy. He +even found empty churches when he preached in London. In conjunction +with Faber, he next started a series of 'Lives of the Saints,' in which +the most absurd 'miracles' were accepted without question as true. The +'Old Catholics,' who had no stomach for such food, protested; and +Newman, this time thoroughly irritated, had to admit another failure. +The Oratory, however, and its London offshoot under Faber were +prosperous, and the churches where Newman preached were not long empty. +In 1850 we find him in better spirits. He employed his energies in a +series of clever lectures on 'Anglican Difficulties,' in which he +ridiculed the Church of his earlier vows with all the refined cruelty of +which he was a master. But he was soon in trouble again. One Dr. +Giacinto Achilli, formerly a Dominican friar, gave lectures in London +upon the scandals of the Roman Inquisition, which had imprisoned him for +attacking the Catholic faith and fomenting sedition. The temper of the +British public at this time made it ready to believe anything to the +discredit of the Roman Church, and Achilli became a popular hero. +Wiseman published a libellous article upon him in the _Dublin Review_, +which passed unnoticed. But when Newman repeated the charges of +profligacy in a public lecture, Achilli brought an action for libel, +which in costs and expenses cost Newman £12,000. The money however was +paid, and much more than paid, by his co-religionists. This trial was +quickly followed by the inauguration of a scheme for founding a Catholic +University in Ireland, the avowed object of which was to withdraw young +Catholics from the liberalising influences of mixed education. This +scheme was sure to appeal strongly to Newman. Liberalism had come in +with a rush at Oxford, after the dissipation of the 'long nightmare' (as +Mark Pattison calls it) while the University was dominated by religious +medievalism. The Oxford of Newman had become the Oxford of Jowett. The +ablest of Newman's young friends and disciples, such as Mark Pattison +and J.A. Froude, were now in the opposite camp, full of anger and +disgust at the seductive influences from which they had just escaped. +Newman, as might be expected, was anxious to protect Catholic students +from similar dangers, and accepted the post of Rector of the proposed +Catholic University. He intended it to provide 'philosophical defences +of Catholicity and Revelation, and create a Catholic literature.' The +lectures in which he expounded his ideals at Dublin were a great +success, and he returned to England full of hope. With a curious +inability to read the character of one who was to be his worst enemy, he +offered Manning the post of Vice-Rector. Manning's refusal was followed +by his failure to obtain the support of Ward, Henry Wilberforce, and +others; and Catholic opinion in Ireland was much divided. For three or +four years Newman was engaged in ineffectual efforts to push his scheme +forward. At last, in 1855, he was installed as Rector, and began his +work at Dublin. A fine church was built at St. Stephen's Green with the +surplus of the Achilli subscriptions, and Newman produced some excellent +literary work in the form of University lectures and sermons. But the +whole movement was viewed with distrust by the Irish ecclesiastics, who, +as he said in a moment of impatience, 'regard any intellectual man as +being on the road to perdition.' There was a cloud over his work from +first to last. He had been promised a bishopric, without which he was +made to feel himself in an inferior position by the Irish prelates; but +the promise was not fulfilled. The Irish objected to one or two English +professors on his staff, because they were English. Dr. Cullen, the +ruling spirit in the Irish hierarchy, was a narrow conservative, who +wished to use Newman merely as an instrument against progressive +tendencies in Church and State. In 1857 he resigned an impossible task, +and returned to Birmingham. + +New undertakings followed, no more successful than the abortive +university scheme. There was to be a new translation of the Bible, and a +new Catholic magazine called the _Rambler_. The former enterprise was +already well advanced when the general indifference of the Catholic +public caused it to be abandoned. The _Rambler_, the contributors to +which used a freedom of discussion unpalatable to Roman ecclesiastics, +struggled on amid a storm of criticism till 1859, when Newman, who was +then himself editor, resigned, and one more humiliating failure was +registered. The management of the magazine passed into other hands. The +Oratory School at Birmingham, a much less contentious undertaking, was +successfully launched in the same year. + +In 1860 came the emancipation of the States of the Church by Cavour and +Victor Emmanuel. Newman referred to the Piedmontese as 'sacrilegious +robbers,' but his advocacy of the temporal power was not strong enough +to please the Vatican, while the strength of Manning's language left +nothing to be desired. Newman became more unpopular than ever. His +reputation suffered by his former connection with the _Rambler_ and his +supposed connection with the _Home and Foreign Review_, which Acton +intended to represent the views of progressive Catholics, till it also +was snuffed out by the hierarchy. The five years from 1859 to 1864 are +considered by Mr. Ward to have been the saddest in Newman's life. He +felt, truly enough, that the dominant party had no sympathy with his +aims, and that he was treated as 'some wild incomprehensible beast, a +spectacle for Dr. Wiseman to exhibit to strangers, as himself being the +hunter who captured it.' 'All through my life I have been plucked,' he +writes to an old Oxford friend. There was even in his mind at this time +a wistful yearning after the friends and the Church that he had left--a +feeling, doubtless transient, but significant, which his biographer has +allowed to show itself in a few pages of his book. After reminding +himself, in his diary, of the warning against those who, after putting +their hand to the plough, 'look back,' he proceeds to look back, because +he cannot help it. + + 'I live more and more in the past, and in hopes that the + past may revive in the future.... I think, as death comes + on, his cold breath is felt on soul as on body, and that, + viewed naturally, my soul is half dead now, whereas then [in + his Protestant days] it was in the freshness and fervour of + youth.... I say the same of my state of mind from 1834 to + 1845, when I became a Catholic. It is a time past and + gone--it relates to a work done and over. "Quis mihi + tribuat, ut sim iuxta menses pristinos, secundum dies, + quibus Deus custodiebat me? Quando splendebat lucerna eius + super caput meum, et ad lumen eius ambulabam in tenebris?" + ... I have no friend at Rome; I have laboured in England, to + be misrepresented, backbitten and scorned. I have laboured + in Ireland, with a door ever shut in my face.... + Contemporaneously with this neglect on the part of those for + whom I laboured, there has been a drawing towards me on the + part of Protestants. Those very books and labours which + Catholics did not understand, Protestants did. I am under + the temptation of looking out for, if not courting, + Protestant praise.... What I wrote as a Protestant has had + far greater power, force, meaning, success, than my Catholic + works.' + +Such reflections might seem to indicate a disposition to return to the +Anglican fold. But a man must have vanquished pride in its most +insidious form before he can leave the Church of Rome for any other. The +aristocratic _hauteur_ of the _civis Romanus_ among barbarians lives on +in the sentiment of the Roman Catholic towards Protestants. When Newman +was publicly charged with intending to return to Anglicanism, this +spirit broke out in a disagreeable and insulting manner. + +The bitterness of these five years of neglect, in which he had been +eating his heart in silence, must be remembered in connexion with the +famous Kingsley controversy, which in 1864 roused him to put on his +armour and fight for his reputation. There had always been an element of +combativeness in Newman's disposition. '_Nescio quo pacto_, my spirits +most happily rise at the prospect of danger,' he wrote early in life. +And when he could persuade himself that not only his honour but that of +the Church was at stake, he could feel and show the true Catholic +ferocity, the cruellest spirit on earth. 'A heresiarch,' he had written +even in his Anglican days, 'should meet with no mercy. He must be dealt +with by the competent authority as if he were embodied evil. To spare +him is a false and dangerous pity. It is to endanger the souls of +thousands, and it is uncharitable towards himself'! This was the temper, +soured by defeat and not mellowed by age, which Charles Kingsley in an +evil moment for himself chose wantonly to provoke. At Christmas 1863 +there appeared in _Macmillan's Magazine_ a review of Froude's 'History +of England,' in which Kingsley wrote 'Truth for its own sake has never +been a virtue with the Roman clergy. Father Newman informs us that it +need not be, and on the whole ought not to be--that cunning is the +weapon which Heaven has given to the saints wherewith to withstand the +brute male force of the wicked world.' This charge was in fact based on +a careless reading, or an imperfect recollection, of the twentieth +discourse in 'Sermons on Subjects of the Day.' The discourse in question +is a somewhat nauseous glorification of the servile temper, but it only +says that the meekness of the saints is (by Divine providence) so +successful that it is always mistaken for craft. The _imputation_ of +cunning is therefore a note of sanctity in its victim. Kingsley ought to +have read the sermon again, and withdrawn unreservedly from an untenable +position. But he thought that something less than a complete apology +would serve; and so gave Newman the opportunity of his life. When the +withdrawal which he offered was rejected, Kingsley made matters ten +times worse for himself by an ill-considered pamphlet called 'What then +does Dr. Newman mean?' In this effusion he vents all his scorn and +hatred for Catholicism--for its tortuous tactics, its monstrous +credulity and appetite for miracles, which must proceed, according to +him, either from infantile folly or from deliberate imposture. +Forgetting altogether that he has to defend himself against a specific +charge of slander, he offers his great opponent the choice between +writing himself down a knave or a fool--a knave if he pretends to +believe in the Holy Coat and the blood of St. Januarius, a fool if he +does believe in them. + +The coarseness of this attack upon an elderly man of saintly character +and acknowledged intellectual eminence, who had to all appearance +blighted a great career by honestly obeying his conscience, offended the +British public, which was now fully disposed to give a respectful and +favourable hearing to whatever Newman might care to say in reply. In a +Catholic country it would have been useless for a Protestant, however +falsely attacked, to appeal to Catholic public opinion for justice; but +Newman understood the English character, and saw his splendid chance. + +The famous defence was, from every point of view except the highest, a +complete triumph. And although Hort was strictly accurate in describing +the treatment of Kingsley as 'horribly unchristian,' it is demanding too +much of human nature to expect a master of fence, when wantonly attacked +with a bludgeon, to abstain from the pleasure of pricking his adversary +scientifically in the tender parts of his body. The bitterest passages +were excised in later editions; and the 'Apologia' remains a masterpiece +of autobiography, and a powerful defence of Catholicism. To Newman this +appeared to be the turning-point in his fortunes. He felt strong enough +to administer a severe snub to Monsignor Talbot, his old enemy, who, +hearing of the success the 'Apologia,' invited him to preach at Rome. +Then at once he threw himself into a great scheme for founding an +Oratory at Oxford. Eight and a half acres were bought between Worcester +College, the Clarendon Press, the Observatory, and Beaumont Street, a +magnificent site, which the Oratorians acquired for only £8400. But here +again he was thwarted. W.G. Ward opposed the scheme with all his might, +insisting on the necessity of 'preserving the purity of a Catholic +atmosphere throughout the whole course of education.' The whole tendency +of the Ultramontane movement was to secure, before all other things, a +body of militant young Catholics to fight the battles of the Church. +Newman was willing to support the English Church in its warfare against +unbelief; to the Ultramontane a Protestant is as certainly damned as an +atheist, and is more mischievous as being less amenable to Catholic +influence. Manning and Talbot seem to have given the project its _coup +de grâce_ at Rome, and Newman sold the land which he had bought. He was +bitterly disappointed; but the growth of public esteem had given him +self-confidence, and he did not again fall into despondency, though he +had a strange presentiment of approaching death, which prompted his last +famous poem, 'The Dream of Gerontius.' A second attempt to go to Oxford +was thwarted by enemies at Home and in England in 1866-7. The extreme +party, with Manning, now Archbishop, at their head, seemed to be +victorious all along the line. They were able to proceed to their +supreme triumph in the Vatican Council which issued the dogma of Papal +Infallibility. Newman, while others were intriguing and haranguing, was +quietly engaged in preparing his subtlest and (on one side) his most +characteristic work, 'The Grammar of Assent,' an attempt at a Catholic +apologetic on a 'personalist,' as opposed to an 'intellectualist' basis. +He declined to take an active part in the theological conferences about +infallibility, being by this time well aware how little weight such +arguments as he could bring were likely to have at Rome. He was +disgusted at the insolent aggressiveness of the Ultramontanes, but he +had no wish to combat it. The situation was hopeless, and he knew it. +The death of several friends increased the sense of isolation, and +during the years 1875 to 1879 his silence and depression were very +noticeable to those who lived with him. His dearest friend, Ambrose St. +John, was one of several who died about this time. But Trinity College, +Oxford, made him an honorary fellow in 1877, an honour which seemed to +prognosticate the far higher distinction which was soon to be conferred +upon him. + +The death of Pius IX in 1878 brought to an end the long reign of +obscurantism at the Vatican, and with the election of Leo XIII Newman +emerged from the cloud under which he had remained for more than a +generation. The new Pope lost no time in making him a Cardinal, though +even now the prize seemed to be on the point of slipping through his +fingers. He valued the honour immensely as setting the official seal of +approbation on his life's work, and the last ten years of his life were +quietly happy. He was able to mingle actively in affairs of public +interest, and to write long letters, till near the end. He died on +August 11, 1890, in his ninetieth year, and was buried, by his own +request, in the same grave with his friend Ambrose St. John. + +Why is it that this sad, isolated, broken life, in which the young man +renounces the creed of the boy, and the elder man pours scorn upon the +loyalties of his prime; which found its last haven in a society which +wished to make a tool of him but distrusted him too much for even this +pitiful service, has still an absorbing interest for our generation? For +it is not only in England that Newman's fame lives and grows. In France +there is a cult of Newman, which has produced biographies by Bremond and +Faure, as well as a history of the Catholic Revival in England by +Thureau-Dangin. In England, besides Dean Church's 'Oxford Movement,' we +have biographies by R.H. Hutton and W. Barry, and appreciations or +depreciations by E. Abbott, Leslie Stephen, Froude, Mark Pattison, and +several others. + +The interest is mainly personal and psychological. Newman's writings, +and his life, are a 'human document' in a very peculiar degree. Bremond +is right in calling attention to the _autocentrism_ of Newman. 'Although +(he says) the words "I" and "me" are relatively rare in Newman's +writings, whether as preacher, novelist, controversialist, philosopher, +or poet, he always reveals and always describes himself.' Even his +historical portraits are reconstructed from his inner consciousness; +hence their historical falsity--all ages are mixed in his histories--and +their philosophical truth. In a sense he was the most reserved of men. +We do not know whether he had any ordinary temptations; we do not know +whether he ever fell in love. But the texture of his mind and the growth +of his opinions have been laid bare to us with the candour of a saint +and the accuracy of a dissector or analyst. He reminds us of De Quincey, +who also could tell the story of his own life, but no other, and whose +style, like his own, was modelled on the literary traditions of the +eighteenth century. + +He has left us, in the 'Apologia,' a picture of his precocious and +dreamy boyhood, when he lived in a world of his own, peopled by angels +and spirits, a world in which the supernatural was the only nature. He +was lonely and reserved, then as always. It is not for nothing that in +his sermons he expatiates so often on the impenetrability of the human +soul. A nature so self-centred has always something hard and inhuman +about it; he was loved, but loved little in return. And yet he craved +for more affection than he could reciprocate. 'I cannot ever realise to +myself,' he wrote once, 'that anyone loves me.' It is a common feeling +in imaginative, withdrawn characters. Deepseated in his nature was a +reverence for the hidden springs of thought, action, and belief. When he +spoke of 'conscience,' as he did continually, he meant, not the faculty +which decides ethical problems, but the undivided soul-nature which +underlies the separate activities of thought, will, and feeling. In this +sense the epigrammatist was right who said that 'to Newman his own +nature was a revelation which he called conscience.' He 'followed the +gleam,' uncertain whither it would lead him. The poem 'Lead, kindly +Light' is the most intimate self-revelation that he ever made. This +mental attitude, which he took early in life, became the foundation of +his 'personalist' philosophy, and of the anti-intellectualism which was +the negative side of it. But this reliance on the inner light, which +nearly made a mystic of him, was clouded by a haunting fear of God's +wrath, which imparts a gloomy tinge to his Anglican sermons, and which, +while he was halting between the English Church and Rome, plied him with +the very unmystical question 'Where shall I be most _safe_?' an argument +which he had used repeatedly and without scruple in his parochial +sermons.[82] + +It is nevertheless true that this self-centred spirit was, at least in +early life, impressionable and open to the influence of others. His +friendship with Hurrell Froude and Keble affected his opinions +considerably: and still more potent was the pervading intangible +influence of Oxford--the academic atmosphere. It cannot indeed be said +that the University was at this time in a healthy condition. Mark +Pattison has described with caustic contempt the intellectual lethargy +of the place, and the miserable quality of the lectures. Oxford was +still _de facto_ a close clerical corporation, and in most colleges +'clubbable men' rather than scholars were chosen for the fellowships. +Oriel won its unique position by breaking through this tradition, and +also by making originality rather than success in the university +examinations the main qualification for election. But even at Oriel, and +among the ablest men, there was great ignorance of much that was being +thought and written elsewhere. Knowledge of German was rare. Even the +classics were not read in a humanistic spirit. 'Of the world of wisdom +and sentiment--of poetry and philosophy, of social and political +experience, contained in the Latin and Greek classics, and of the true +relation of the degenerate and semi-barbarous Christian writers of the +fourth century to that world--Oxford, in 1830, had never dreamt.[83] +Theological prejudice in fact distorted the whole outlook of the +resident fellows, and confounded all estimation of relative values. +Newman never, all through his life, took a step towards overcoming this +early prejudice. He imagined a golden age of the Church, or several +golden ages, and found them in 'the first three centuries,' in the time +of Alfred the Great or of Edward the Confessor, or in the seventeenth +century. He was only sure that the sixteenth century was made of much +baser metal. This unhistorical idealisation of the past, even of a +barbarous past, was very characteristic of Newman and his friends. They +bequeathed to the Anglican Church the strange legend of an age of pure +doctrine and heroic practice, to which it should be our aim to 'return.' +The real strength of this legend lies in the fact that it has no +historical foundation. The ideal which is presented as a return or a +revival is nothing of the kind, but a creation of our own time, +projected by the imagination into the past, from which it comes back +with a halo of authority. Newman had his full share of these illusions. +In his youth and prime he was more of an Englishman than an Anglican. He +despised foreigners, unless they were Catholic saints, could not bear +the sight of the _tricolor_, and hated all the 'ideas of the +Revolution.' His dictum, 'Luther is dead, but Hildebrand and Loyola are +alive,' throws a flood of light upon the contents of his mind, as does +the truly British prejudice which caused him to be horrified at the +sight of ships coaling at Malta 'on a holy day.' His range of ideas was +so much restricted that Bremond, a sincere admirer, says that his +imagination lived on 'une poignée de souvenirs d'enfant.' How tragic was +the fate which caught this loyal Englishman and more than loyal Oxonian +in the meshes of a cosmopolitan institution in which England counted for +little and Oxford for nothing at all! + +The Reform of 1832 seemed to threaten the English Church with +destruction. Arnold in this year wrote 'The Church, as it now stands, no +human power can save.' The bishops were stunned and bewildered by the +unexpected outbreak of popular hostility. Old methods of defence were +plainly useless; some new plan of campaign must be devised against the +double assault of political radicalism and theological liberalism. To +Newman both alike were of the devil; theological liberalism especially +was only specious infidelity. He never had the slightest inkling that a +deep religious earnestness and love of truth underlay the revolt against +orthodox tradition. His fighting instincts were aroused. When Keble +attributed the scheme for suppressing some Irish bishopries to 'national +apostasy,' he rushed to arms in defence of Church privileges and +property. In the first Tract (1833) he says: + + 'A notion has gone abroad that the people can take away your + power. They think they have given it and can take it away. + They have been deluded into a notion that present palpable + usefulness, produceable results, acceptableness to your + flocks--that these and such-like are the tests of your + Divine commission. Enlighten them in this matter. Exalt our + holy fathers the Bishops, as the representatives of the + Apostles, and the Angels of the Churches, and magnify your + office, as being ordained by them to take part in their + ministry.' + +That was the keynote of the whole Tractarian movement. A weapon was +needed to smite liberalism. Nothing but a compact and powerful +organisation could repel the foe. God must have provided such an +organisation: a Divine society, certain of ultimate victory, must exist +somewhere. Newman and his friends hoped to find it in the Anglican +Church; and such was the power of their contagious zeal and confident +enthusiasm, that the immediate danger was actually staved off, and the +Establishment was allowed a new lease of life. But the national Church +of England was not constituted to resist the national will, and the +attempt to reorganise it on Catholic lines was fore-doomed to failure. +And so, since the assumption that a great institutional fighting Church +_must_ exist was never even questioned, when Anglicanism failed him +there was no other refuge but Rome. + +He was certainly more logical than his friends who remained behind. +Anglo-Catholicism has its theoretical basis in a definition of +Catholicity which is repudiated by all other Catholics; its traditions +are largely legendary. But it is an eclectic system well suited to the +English character, and the distorted view of history which Newman +bequeathed to the party has enabled it to borrow much that is good from +different sides, without any sense of inconsistency. The idea of a +Divine society has been and is the inspiration of thousands of ardent +workers in the Anglican Church. It lifted the religion of many +Englishmen from the somewhat gross and bourgeois condition in which the +movement found it, to a pure and unworldly idealism. And, unlike most +other religious revivals, especially in this country, it has remained +remarkably free from unhealthy emotionalism and hysterics. The social +atmosphere of Oxford, always alien to mawkish sentiment, penetrated the +whole movement, and maintained in it for many years a certain sanity and +dignity which, while they doubtless prevented it from spreading widely +in the middle class, made the Tractarians respected by men of taste and +education. But these influences could not be permanent. The goodwill of +the Tractarian firm (if we may so express it) has now been acquired by +men with very different aims and methods. The ablest members of the +party are plunging violently into social politics, while the rank and +file in increasing numbers are fluttering round the Roman candle, into +which many of them must ultimately fall. + +The progress of the movement between 1833 and 1845 was almost entirely +in the direction of teaching the clergy to 'magnify their office.' The +other part of the scheme, the combat against theological liberalism, +fell quite into the background. The main reason for this was that during +those strange years the theologians so completely dominated Oxford that +liberalism could hardly raise its head, and was despised as well as +hated. Only after Newman's secession could the regeneration of the +University begin. Then indeed liberalism came in like a flood, though it +was a very shallow flood in some cases. This was the day of the +self-satisfied young rationalist, 'ecarté par une plaisanterie des +croyances dont la raison d'un Pascal ne réussit pas à se dégager,' as +Renan says--an orgy of facile free thought which after a generation was +chastised by another clerical reaction. + +If Newman could have foreseen the victory of his party in the English +Church, he might perhaps have been content to remain in it. We cannot +tell. But it is doubtful whether he would have taken Pusey's place as +leader of the party. Newman's influence was disturbing and subtly +disintegrating to every cause for which he laboured. His startling +candour often seemed like treachery. He could not work with others, and +broke with nearly all his friends, retaining only his disciples. He +confessed himself a bad judge of character. It is doubtful, after all, +whether he was much injured by the jealousy and almost instinctive fear +which he inspired among the Roman Catholic hierarchy. If he had been +allowed to take the place due to his abilities, his character, and his +reputation, what could he have done that he was unable to do at +Edgbaston? We cannot fancy him plunged in crooked ecclesiastical +intrigue, like that _Inglese italianato_, Cardinal Manning. Still less +can we fancy him haranguing strikers, and stealing the credit of +composing a trade dispute. No doubt he suffered under the sense of +injury; but probably he did what was in him to do. If the Roman Church +would not use him as a tool, it was probably because he would not have +been a good tool. There are some mistakes which that Church seldom +makes; it knows how to choose its men. + +What will be the verdict of history on the type of Catholicism which +Newman represented? He was kept out in the cold by a conservative Pope, +and honoured by a liberal Pope. Which was right, from the point of view +of Catholic interests and policy? This is perhaps the most important +question which the life of Newman raises; for it affects our +anticipations of the future even more than our judgments of the past. Is +Newman a safe or a possible guide for Catholics in the twentieth +century? + +Newman was no metaphysician; he confesses it himself. 'My turn of +mind,' he says, 'has never led me towards metaphysics; rather it has +been logical, ethical, practical.'[84] For metaphysics requires an +initial act of faith in human reason, and Newman had not this faith. +Even in his Anglican days he uttered many astonishing things in contempt +of reason. 'What is intellect itself (he asks) but a fruit of the Fall, +not found in paradise or in heaven, more than in little children, and at +the utmost but tolerated by the Church, and only not incompatible with +the regenerate mind?... Reason is God's gift, but so are the +passions.... Eve was tempted to follow passion and reason, and she +fell.'[85] 'Faith does not regard degrees of evidence.'[86] 'Faith and +humility consist, not in going about to prove, but in the outset +confiding in the testimony of others.' 'The more you set yourself to +argue and prove, in order to discover truth, the less likely you are to +reason correctly.'[87] The amazing crudity of this avowed obscurantism +is likely to make the orthodox apologist writhe, and to move the +rationalist to contemptuous laughter. In this and many other cases, +Newman seems to love to caricature himself, and to put his beliefs in +that form in which they outrage common sense most completely. We can +imagine nothing more calculated to drive a young and ingenuous mind into +flippant scepticism than a course of Newman's sermons. The _reductio ad +absurdum_ of his arguments is not left to the reader to make; it is +innocently provided by the preacher. + +And yet Newman's central position is not absurd, or only becomes absurd +when it is applied to justify belief in gross superstition. He holds +that what he calls 'reasoning' deals only with abstractions, and is not +the faculty on which we rely in forming 'judgments.' These judgments, to +which we give our 'assent,' and by which we regulate our conduct, are +affirmations of the basal personality. And these have an authority far +greater than can ever arise out of the logical manipulation of concepts. +'There is no ultimate test of truth besides the testimony borne to the +truth by the mind itself.' The 'mind itself,' the concrete personality, +is concerned with realities, while the intellect, which for him +corresponds very nearly with the discursive reason (dihanoia) of the +Greek philosophers, is at home only in mathematics and, up to a certain +point, in logic. The concepts of the intellect have no existence outside +it. 'The mind has the gift, by an act of creation, of bringing before it +abstractions and generalisations which have no counterpart, no +existence, out of it.'[88] Parenthetically, we may remark that passages +like this show how wide of the truth Mr. Barry is when he speaks of +Newman as a 'thorough Alexandrine.' To deny the existence of universals, +to regard them as mere creations of the mind, is rank blasphemy to a +Platonist; and the Alexandrines were Christian Platonists. No more +misleading statement could be made about Newman's philosophy than to +associate him with Platonism of any kind, whether Pagan or Christian. +Newman adopts the sensationalist (Lockian) theory of knowledge. Ideas +are copies or modifications of the data presented by the senses; 'first +principles are abstractions from facts, not elementary truths prior to +reasoning.' This is pure nominalism, in its crudest form. It makes all +arguments in favour of the great truths of religion valueless; for if +there are no universals, rational theism is impossible. It follows that +the famous scholastic 'proofs of God's existence' have for Newman no +cogency whatever; indeed it is difficult to see how he can have escaped +condemning the whole philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas as a juggling with +bloodless concepts. Newman himself pleaded that he had no wish to oppose +the official dogmatics of his Church. But protestations are of no avail +where the facts are so clear. 'The natural theology of our schools,' +says a writer in the _Tablet_, quoted by Dr. Caldecott in his +'Philosophy of Religion,' 'is based frankly and wholly on the appeal to +reason.' This is notoriously true; and what Newman thought of reason we +have already seen. His extreme disparagement of the intellect seems to +preclude what he calls 'real assent' to the creeds and dogmas of +Catholicism; for these clearly consist of 'notional' propositions. But +Newman would answer that the Church is a concrete fact, to which 'real +assent' can be given; and the Church has guaranteed the truth of the +notional propositions in question. But since reason is put out of court +as a witness to truth, on what faculty, or on what evidence, does Newman +rely? Feeling he distrusts; that side of mysticism, at any rate, finds +no sympathy from him. Nor does he, like many Kantians and others, make +the will supreme over the other faculties. Rather, as we have seen, he +bases his reliance on the verdicts of the undivided personality, which +he often calls conscience. This line of apologetic was at this very time +being ably developed by Julius Hare. It is in itself an argument which +has no necessary connexion with obscurantism. 'Personalism,' as it is +technically called, reminds us that we do actually base our judgments on +grounds which are nob purely rational; that the intellect, in forming +concepts, has to be content with an approximate resemblance to concrete +reality; and that the will and feelings have their rights and claims +which cannot be ignored in a philosophy of religion. But while it is +compatible with a robust faith in the powers of the constructive +intellect, personalism is beyond question a self-sufficient, +independent, individualistic doctrine. When it is combined with a +nominalist theory of knowledge, it naturally suggests that every man may +and should live by the creed which bests suits his idiosyncrasies. Now +there was much in Newman's temperament which made him turn in this +direction. 'Lead, kindly Light' has been the favourite hymn of many an +independent thinker, to whom the authority of the Church is less than +nothing. But on another side Newman was all his life a fierce upholder +of the principle of authority. His reason for accepting the dogmas of +the Church, and for wishing to destroy heresiarchs like wild beasts, was +certainly not that his basal personality testified to the truth and +value of all ecclesiastical dogmas. He believed them 'by confiding in +the testimony of others'--in other words, on the authority of the +Catholic Church. If we push back the enquiry one step further, and ask +on what grounds he chooses to prefer the authority of the Catholic +Church to other authorities, such as natural science or philosophy, we +are driven again to lay great stress on the almost political necessity +which he felt that such a Divine society should exist. In accepting the +authority of the Church, he accepted the authority of all that the +Church teaches, in complete independence of human reason. But the Roman +Church never professes to be independent of human reason. The official +scholastic philosophy claims to be a demonstrative proof of theism. + +Newman, then, was only half a Catholic. He accepted with all the fervour +of a neophyte the principle of submission to Holy Church. But in place +of the official intellectualist apologetic, which an Englishman may +study to great advantage in the remarkably able series of manuals issued +by the Jesuits of Stonyhurst, he substituted a philosophy of experience +which is certainly not Catholic. The authority claimed by the Roman +Church rests on one side upon revelation, on the other upon an elaborate +structure of demonstrative reasoning, which the simple folk are allowed +to 'take as read,' only because they cannot be expected to understand +it, but which is declared to be of irresistible cogency to any properly +instructed mind. To deny the validity of reasoning upon Divine things is +to withdraw one of the supports on which Catholicism rests. +Subjectivism, based on vital experience, mixes no better with this +system than oil with water. Scholasticism prides itself on clear-cut +definitions, on irrefragable logic, on using words always in the same +sense. For Newman, as for his disciples the Modernists, theological +terms are only symbols for varying values, and he holds that the moment +they are treated as having any fixed connotation, error begins. It is no +wonder if learned Catholics thought that Newman did not play the game. +Father Perrone, in spite of his friendship for the object of his +criticism, declared that 'Newman miscet et confundit omnia.' + +The accusation of scepticism, which was not unnaturally brought against +him, was hotly resented by Newman, and with some justice. Of the +intensity of his personal conviction there can be no doubt whatever. +Indeed, it was just because his faith was in no danger that he cared so +little for any intellectual defence of it. He might have made his own +the lines of Wordsworth: + + 'Here then we rest; not fearing for our creed + The worst that human reasoning can achieve + To unsettle or perplex it.' + +Wordsworth too, it may be remembered, speaks of 'reason' with hardly +more respect than Newman himself as: + + 'The inferior faculty that moulds + With her minute and speculative pains + Opinion, ever changing.' + +Robert Browning also, especially in his later years, uses +anti-intellectualist language equally uncompromising. 'Wholly distrust +thy reason,' he says in 'La Saisiaz.' Coleridge's distinction between +'understanding' and 'reason,' or Westcott's distinction between 'reason' +and 'reasoning,' might have saved these great writers from the +appearance, and perhaps more than the appearance, of blaspheming against +the highest and most divine faculty of human nature. For the reason is +something much higher than logic-chopping; it can provide, from its own +resources, a remedy for the intellectual error which is just now +miscalled intellectualism; it is the activity of the whole personality +under the guidance of its highest part; and because it is a real +unification of our disordered nature, it can bring us into real contact +with the higher world of Spirit. Newman's scepticism was not +doubtfulness about matters of faith; it was only a wholly unjustifiable +contempt and distrust for the unaided activity of the human mind. This +activity, as far as he could see, produced only various forms of +'liberalism,' which he strangely enough regarded as a kind of +scepticism. Thus he retorted, with equal injustice, the unjust charge +brought against himself. + +Newman has often been suspected or accused of quibbling and intellectual +dishonesty. Kingsley, whose healthy but somewhat rough English morality +and common sense were revolted by Newman's whole attitude to life and +conduct, was unable to conceive how any educated man could believe in +winking Virgins and liquefying blood, and thought that Newman must be +dishonest. More recently Dr. Abbott has accused him of being a +_philomythus_. Judged by ordinary standards, Newman's criteria of belief +do seem incompatible with intellectual honesty. Locke, whom Newman +resembles in his theory of knowledge, lays down a canon which condemns +absolutely the Cardinal's doctrine of assent. 'There is one unerring +mark,' he says, 'by which a man may know whether he is a lover of truth +in earnest, namely, the not entertaining any proposition with greater +assurance than the proofs it is built on will warrant.' Newman himself +quotes this dictum, and argues against it that men do, as a matter of +fact, form their judgments in a very different fashion. To most people, +however, the fact that opinions _are_ so manufactured is no proof that +they _ought_ to be so. To most people it seems plain that the practical +necessity of making unverified assumptions, and the habit of clinging to +them because we have made them, even after their falsity has been +exposed, is a satisfactory explanation of the prevalence of error, but +not a reason for acquiescing in it. It is useful, they hold, to point +out how assumption has a perilous tendency to pass for proof, not that +we may contentedly confuse assumption with proof, but that we may be on +our guard against doing so. But such is Newman's dislike of 'reason' +that he rejoices to find that the majority of mankind are, in fact, not +guided by it. And then, having made this discovery, he is quite ready to +'reason' himself, but not in the manner of an earnest seeker after +truth. Reason, for him, is a serviceable weapon of attack or defence, +but he is like a man fighting with magic impenetrable armour. He enjoys +a bout of logical fence; but it will decide nothing for him: his +'certitude' is independent of it. It is easy to see that such an +attitude must appear profoundly dishonest to any man who accepts Locke's +maxim about truth-seeking. It is equally easy to see that Newman would +spurn the charge of dishonesty as hotly as the charge of scepticism. His +principles made it easy for him to adopt the characteristic Catholic +habit of 'believing' anything that is pleasing to the religious +imagination. His sermons are full of such phrases as 'Scripture _seems_ +to show us'; 'why should we not believe ...'; 'who knows whether ...,' +and the like, all introducing some fantastic superstition. He +deliberately accepts the insidious and deadly doctrine that 'no man is +convinced of a thing who can endure the thought of its contradictory +being true.' To which we may rejoin that, on the contrary, no man has a +right to be convinced of anything until he has fairly faced the +hypothesis of its contradictory being true. So long as Newman's method +prevailed in Europe, every branch of practical knowledge was condemned +to barrenness. + +For what kind of knowledge is it which is acquired, not by the exercise +of the discursive intellect, or by the evidence of our senses, but by +the affirmations of our basal personality? Surely the legitimate +province of 'personalism' lies in the region of general ideas, or rather +in the _Weltanschauung_ as a whole. Our undivided personality protests +against any philosophy which makes life irrational, or base, or +incurably evil. It claims that those pictures of reality which are +provided by the intellect, by the æsthetic sense, and by the moral +sense, shall all have justice done to them in any attempted synthesis. +It rejects materialism, metaphysical dualism, solipsism, and pessimism, +on one or other of these grounds. Such a final interpretation of +existence as any of these offers, leaves out some fundamental and +essential factor of experience, and is therefore untenable. If no +metaphysical scheme can be constructed which is at once comprehensive +and inwardly consistent, personalism insists that we must acknowledge +defeat for the time, rather than take refuge in a logical system which +may be free from inner contradictions but which does not satisfy the +whole man as a living and active spiritual being. This is a sound +argument. But it is absurd to suppose that our personality, acting as an +undivided whole, can decide whether the institutional Church, or one +branch of it, is the Body of Christ and the receptacle of infallible +revelation; whether Christ was born at Bethlehem or Nazareth; or whether +Nestorius was a heretic. We have no magical sword for cutting these +knots, and no miraculous guide to tell us that authority A is to be +believed implicitly, while the possibility of authority B being right is +not to be entertained even in thought. Newman as usual supplies us with +the best weapons against himself. It startles us to find, even in 1852, +such a sentence as this: 'Revealed religion furnishes facts to other +sciences, which those sciences, left to themselves, would never reach. +Thus, in the science of history, the preservation of our race in Noah's +ark is an historical fact, which history never would arrive at without +revelation.' The transition from belief on the purely internal ground of +personal assent to belief on the purely external ground of Church +authority is certainly abrupt and hard to explain; but Newman makes it +habitually, without any consciousness of a _salto mortale_. In the +'Apologia' he even says that the argument from personality is 'one form +of the argument from authority.' The argument seems to be--'There is no +third alternative besides Catholicism or Rationalism. But "personality" +will not accept the dictation of reason; therefore it must accept the +authority of the Church.' It is a strange argument. All through his life +he enormously exaggerated the moral and intellectual weight which should +be attached to Church tradition. 'Securus judicat orbis terrarum' were +the words which rang in his ears at the supreme moment of his great +decision. His 'orbis terrarum' was the Latin empire. And when even in +those countries the authority of the Pope is rejected, he condemns +modern civilisation as an aberration. This however is a complete +abandonment of his own test. He first says 'The judgment of the great +world is final'; and then 'If the world decides against Rome, so much +the worse for the world.' After all, Newman had no right to complain if +his opponents found his reasoning disingenuous. To make up our minds +first, and to argue in favour of the decision afterwards, is in truth to +make the reason a hewer of wood and drawer of water to the irrational +part of our nature. + +It is precisely his sympathy with Catholicism on the religious side, and +his alienation from its intellectual method, which makes Newman's +apologetic such a two-edged weapon. In attempting to defend Catholicism, +he has gone far to explain it. To the historian, there is no great +mystery about the growth and success of the Western Catholic Church. +Christianity was already a syncretistic religion in the second century. +Like the other forms of worship with which it competed for the popular +favour, it contained the necessary elements of mystery-cult, of ethical +rule, of social brotherhood, and of personal devotion. But besides many +genuine points of superiority, it had a decisive advantage over the +religions of Isis and Mithra in the exclusiveness and intolerance which +it derived from the Jewish tradition. When the failure of the last +persecution forced the Empire to make a concordat with the Church, the +transformation of the federated but autonomous Christian communities +into a centralised theocratic despotism, claiming secular as well as +spiritual sovereignty, was only a matter of time. It was inevitable, +just as the principate of Augustus and the sultanate of Diocletian were +inevitable; but there is nothing specially divine or glorious about any +of these phases of human evolution. The revolt of Northern Europe in the +sixteenth century was equally inevitable; and so is the alienation of +enlightened minds from the Roman Church at the present day. Newman shows +with great force and ingenuity that all the developments in the Roman +system which Protestantism rejects as later accretions were natural and +necessary. But this only means that the Catholic Church, in order to +live, was compelled to adapt itself to the prevailing conditions of +human culture in the countries where it desired to be supreme. The +argument, so far as it goes, tells against rather than in favour of any +special supernatural character belonging to that institution. And if the +'orbis terrarum,' which once gave its verdict in favour of Latin +Catholicism, is now disposed to reverse its decision, how, on Newman's +principle, can its right to do so be denied? The true reasons for the +strength and vitality which the Roman Church still retains are not +difficult to find. Its system possesses an inner consistency, which is +dearly purchased by neglecting much that should enter into a large and +true view of the world, but which guarantees to those who have once +accepted it an untroubled calm and assurance very acceptable to those +who have been tossed upon a sea of doubt. It surrounds itself with an +impenetrable armour by persuading its adherents that all moral and +intellectual scruples, in matters where Holy Church has pronounced its +verdict, are suggestions of the Evil One, to be spurned like the +prickings of sensuality. It has succeeded, by long experience, in +providing satisfaction for nearly all the needs of the average man, and +for all the needs of the average woman. In particular, the æsthetic +tastes which, in Southern Europe at any rate, are closely connected with +religious feeling, are fully catered for; and those superstitions which +the majority of mankind still love in their hearts, though they are +somewhat ashamed of them, are allowed to luxuriate unchecked. Further, +Catholicism encourages and blesses that _esprit de corps_ which has +produced the brightest triumphs of self-abnegation as well as the +darkest crimes of cruel bigotry in human history. A Church which unites +these advantages is in no danger of falling into insignificance, even if +the best intellect and morality of the age are estranged from it. It may +even have a great future as the nucleus of a conservative resistance to +the social revolution. It is doubtful whether those who wish to preserve +the traditions and civilisation of the past will be able to find +anywhere, except in the Latin Church, an organisation sufficiently +coherent and universal to provide a rallying ground for defence against +the new barbarian invasion--proceeding this time not from the rude +nations of the North, but from the crowded alleys of our great +towns--which threatens to plunge us into a new Dark Age. The menace of +the Red Peril will secure, for a long time to come, the survival of the +Black. + +But the Roman Catholicism which has a future is probably that of +Manning, and not that of Newman. A Church which depends for its strength +and prestige on the iron discipline of a centralised autocracy, and on +the fanatical devotion of soldiers who know no duty except obedience, no +cause except the interests of their society, can make no terms with the +disintegrating nominalism, the uncertain subjectivism, of a mind like +Newman's. It has been the strange fate of this great man, after driving +a wedge deep into the Anglican Church, which at this day is threatened +with disruption through the movement which he helped to originate, to +have nearly succeeded in doing the same to the far more compact +structure of Roman Catholicism. The Modernist movement has from the +first appealed to Newman as its founder, and has sought to protect +itself under his authority. It is necessary to consider, as the last +topic of this article, whether this affiliation can be allowed to be +true. No one who has read any of Newman's works can doubt that he would +have recoiled with horror from the destructive criticism of Loisy, the +contempt for scholastic authority of Tyrrell, and the defiance hurled at +the Papacy in the manifesto of the Italian Modernists. Newman's doctrine +of Development was far removed from that of Bergson's 'L'Évolution +Créatrice.' He defended the fact of development against the staticism of +contemporary Anglicanism; but his notion of development was more like +the unrolling of a scroll than the growth of a tree or the expansion and +change of a human character. 'Every Catholic holds,' he says, 'that the +Christian dogmas were in the Church from the time of the Apostles; that +they were ever in their substance what they are now.' Compare this with +the following words from the Italian manifesto: 'The supernatural life +of Christ in the faithful and in the Church has been clothed in an +historical form, which has given birth to what we might somewhat loosely +call the Christ of legend.... Such a criticism does away with the +possibility of finding in Christ's ministry even the embryonic form of +the Church's later theological teaching.' 'A dogma,' says Le Roy, one of +the ablest philosophers of the school, 'proclaims, above all, a +prescription of practical order; it is the formula of a rule of +practical conduct. Why then should we not bring theory into harmony with +practice?' + +These extracts mark a much later phase of the revolt against Catholic +dogma and scholastic theology than can be found in Newman's writings. +They are contemporary with the Pragmatism of James and Schiller, and the +Activism of Bergson. So bold a defiance of tradition would have been +impossible thirty years earlier. And yet, when Newman pours scorn upon +human reason, and when he enthrones the 'conscience' as the supreme +arbiter of truth, is he not, in fact, preparing the way for these +startling declarations, which imply a complete rupture with Catholic +authority? Dogmas are indisputably 'notional' propositions; that is to +say, they belong to that class of truths to which Newman ascribes only a +very subordinate importance. We cannot, in his sense,'assent' to an +historical proposition as such, but only to the authority which has +ordered us to believe it. And is there any justification for Newman's +confidence that this authority may make apparent innovations, such as he +admits to have been made throughout the history of the Church, but no +real changes? If he had been able to think out the implications of his +doctrine of development with the help of such arguments as those of +Bergson, would he not have seen that without change and real innovation +there can be no true evolution? Do not the fluidity and pragmatic +character of dogma, so much insisted on by Sabatier and Le Roy, follow +from the anti-intellectualist personalism which we have seen to be the +foundation of Newman's philosophy of religion? The Modernist might argue +that he is only extending to the history of the Church the doctrine of +education by experience which Newman found to be true in the +life-history of the individual. Life itself, with its experiences and +its needs, is the revealer of truth. We cannot anticipate the wisdom of +the future. + + 'I do not ask to see + The distant scene; one step enough for me.' + +The kindly light leads a man on step by step; it conducts him from +experience to experience, not without lapses into error; it reproves him +if he desires to 'choose and see his path.' If this is true in the +history of the individual, is it not probably also true in the history +of the Church? And if it is true in the history of the Church, are not +the dogmatists wrong who have tried to legislate not only for the +present but the future, and to bind the Church for all time to the +formulations which appeared satisfactory to themselves? If Providence is +leading the Church through varied experiences in order to teach it +greater wisdom, is it not clear that we must not rashly preclude the +possibility of future revelation by stereotyping the results of some +earlier stage of experience? Thus the empiricism of Newman leads +logically to consequences which he would have been among the first to +reject. + +Some rather shallow thinkers in this country have expressed their +surprise and regret that the Vatican has refused to make any terms with +Modernism. They have supposed that the fault lies with an ignorant and +reactionary Pope. But there are many reasons why this dangerous and +disintegrating tendency must be rigorously excluded from Roman +Catholicism. In the first place, Modernism destroys the historical basis +of Christianity, and converts the Incarnation and Atonement into myths +like those of other dying and rising saviour-gods, which hardly pretend +to be historical. But it was this foundation in history which helped +largely to secure the triumph of Christianity over its rivals. In the +place of the historical God-Man, Modernism gives us the history of the +Church as an object of reverence. We are bidden to contemplate an +institution of amazingly tough vitality but great adaptability, which in +its determination to survive has not only changed colour like a +chameleon but has from time to time put forth new organs and discovered +new weapons of offence and defence. We ask for evidence that the Church +has regenerated the world; and we are shown how, by hook or by crook, it +has succeeded in safeguarding its own interests. Ecclesiastical +historians are ingenious and unscrupulous; but it is impossible even for +them to exhibit Church history as the record of a continuous +intervention of the Spirit of Christ in human affairs. If any Spirit has +presided over the councils of popes, cardinals, and inquisitors it is +not that of the Founder of Christianity. + +Further, the religious philosophy of Modernism is bad, much worse than +the scholasticism which it derides. It is in essentials a revival of the +sophistry of Protagoras. And if it were metaphysically more respectable +than it is, it is so widely opposed to the whole system of Catholic +apologetics, that if it were accepted, it would necessitate a complete +reconstruction of Catholic dogma. Let any man read the Stonyhurst +manuals, and say whether the radical empiricism of the Modernists could +find a lodgment anywhere in such a system without disturbing the +stability of the whole. Catholicism is one of the most compact +structures in the world, and it rests on presuppositions which are far +removed from those of Modernism. It is one thing to admit that dogmas in +many cases have a pragmatic origin, and quite another to say that they +may be invented or rejected with a pragmatic purpose. The healthy human +intellect will never believe that the same proposition may be true for +faith and untrue in fact; but this is the Modernist contention. + +Lastly, the subjectivism of Newman and the Modernists is fatal to that +exclusiveness which is the corner-stone of Catholic policy. The analogy +between the individual and the Church suggests that God may 'fulfil +Himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world.' As +there are many individuals, each of whom is being guided separately by +the 'kindly light,' so there may be many churches. The pragmatic proof +of the truth of a religion, from the fact of its survival and successful +working, does not justify the Roman claim to monopoly. The Protestant +churches also display vitality, and their members seem to exhibit the +fruits of the Spirit. The condemnations of Modernism published by the +Vatican show that the Papal court is quite alive to this danger. To the +outsider, indeed, it might seem a happy solution of a long controversy +if the Roman Church would be content to claim the gifts of grace which +are really hers, without denying the validity of the Orders and +Sacraments of other bodies, and the genuineness of the Christian graces +which they exhibit. It would then be admitted on all hands that some +temperaments are more suited to Catholicism, others to Protestantism, +and that the character of each man develops most satisfactorily under +the discipline which suits his nature. But we must not expect any such +concession from Rome; and in truth such an admission would be the +beginning of the end for Catholicism in its present form. + +Our conclusion then is that although Newman was not a Modernist, but an +exceedingly stiff conservative, he did introduce into the Roman Church a +very dangerous and essentially alien habit of thought, which has since +developed into Modernism. Perhaps Monsignor Talbot was not far wrong, +from his own point of view, when he called him 'the most dangerous man +in England.' One side of his religion was based on principles which, +when logically drawn out, must lead away from Catholicism in the +direction of an individualistic religion of experience, and a +substitution of history for dogma which makes all truth relative and all +values fluid. Newman's writings have always made genuine Catholics +uneasy, though they hardly know why. It is probable that here is the +solution. + +The character of Newman--for with this we must end--may seem to have +been more admirable than lovable. He was more apt to make disciples than +friends. Yet he was loved and honoured by men whose love is an honour, +and he is admired by all who can appreciate a consistently unworldly +life. The Roman Church has been less unpopular in England since Newman +received from it the highest honour which it can bestow. Throughout his +career he was a steadfast witness against tepid and insincere +professions of religion, and against any compromise with the shifting +currents of popular opinion. All cultivated readers, who have formed +their tastes on the masterpieces of good literature, are attracted, +sometimes against their will, by the dignity and reserve of his style, +qualities which belong to the man, and not only to the writer. Like +Goethe, he disdains the facile arts which make the commonplace reader +laugh and weep. 'Ach die zärtlichen Herzen! ein Pfuscher vermag sie zu +rühren!' Like Wordsworth, he might say 'To stir the blood I have no +cunning art.' There are no cheap effects in any of Newman's writings. He +is the most undemocratic of teachers. Such men do what can be done to +save a nation from itself, its natural enemy. They are not indifferent +to fame, because they desire influence; but they will do nothing to +advertise themselves. The public must come to them; they will not go to +the public. There have been other great men who have been as indifferent +as Newman to the applause of the vulgar. But they have been generally +either pure intellectualists or pure artists, in whom + + 'The intellectual power through words and things + Went sounding on a dim and perilous way.' + +Newman's 'confidence towards God' was of a still nobler kind. It rested +on an unclouded faith in the Divine guidance, and on a very just +estimate of the worthlessness of contemporary praise and blame. There +have been very few men who have been able to combine so strong a faith +with a thorough distrust of both logic-chopping and emotional +excitement, and who, while denying themselves these aids to conviction, +have been able to say, calmly and without petulance, that with them it +is a very small thing to be judged of man's judgment. + + 'What (he asks) can increase their peace who believe and + trust in the Son of God? Shall we add a drop to the ocean, + or grains to the sand of the sea? We pay indeed our + superiors full reverence, and with cheerfulness as unto the + Lord; and we honour eminent talents as deserving admiration + and reward; and the more readily act we thus, because these + are little things to pay.'[89] + +Such unworldliness as this, in the well-chosen words of R.H. Hutton, +'stands out in strange and almost majestic contrast to the eager turmoil +of confused passions, hesitating ideals, tentative virtues, and groping +philanthropies, amidst which it was lived.' + +Another mark of greatness is unbroken consistency and unity of aim in a +long life. There are few parallels to the neglect of his own literary +reputation by Newman. Higher interests, he thought, were at stake; and +so he had no dream of building for himself 'a monument more durable than +brass,' and of claiming a pedestal among the great writers of English +prose and verse. He accepted long years of literary barrenness; he wrote +historical essays for which he had no special aptitude, and dogmatic +disquisitions which even his genius could not save from dulness; he even +descended into mere journalism. The 'Apologia' would probably not have +been written but for the accident of Kingsley's attack. It has, no +doubt, been said with truth that Newman showed great dexterity in +choosing opponents with whom to cross swords--Kingsley, Pusey, +Gladstone, and his old Anglican self. But this does not alter the fact +that a man who must have been conscious of rare literary gifts made no +attempt to immortalise himself by them. It was for the Church, and not +for himself, that he wrote as well as lived. + +That his life is for the most part a record of sadness and failure is no +indication that he was not one of the great men of his time. +Independence is no passport to success in a world where, as Swift said, +climbing and crawling are performed in much the same attitude. And if we +are right in our view that there was something in the composition of his +mind which prevented him from being either a complete Catholic or a +complete Protestant, this too is no obstacle to our recognition of his +greatness. He has left an indelible mark upon two great religious +bodies. He has stirred movements which still agitate the Church of +England and the Church of Rome, and the end of which is not yet in +sight. Anglo-Catholicism and Modernism are alien growths, perhaps, in +the institutions where they have found a place; but the man who beyond +all others is responsible for grafting them upon the old stems is secure +of his place in history. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [82] Cf. e. _Parochial and Plain Sermons_, vi. 259. + + [83] Mark Pattison, _Memoirs_, p. 97. + + [84] _Stray Essays_, p. 94. + + [85] _Parochial and Plain Sermons_, v. 112. + + [86] _Ibid_. vi. 259. + + [87] _Ibid_. vi. 340. + + [88] _Grammar of Assent_, part i. c. 1 and 2. + + [89] _Parochial and Plain Sermons_, vii. 73. + + + + +ST. PAUL + +(1914) + + +Among all the great men of antiquity there is none, with the exception +of Cicero, whom we may know so intimately as Saul of Tarsus. The main +facts of his career have been recorded by a contemporary, who was +probably his friend and travelling companion. A collection of letters, +addressed to the little religious communities which he founded, reveals +the character of the writer no less than the nature of his work. Alone +among the first preachers of Christianity, he stands before us as a +living man. Ohiost phepnytai, toi de skiai hahissoysi. We know very +little in reality of Peter and James and John, of Apollos and Barnabas. +And of our divine Master no biography can ever be written. + +With St. Paul it is quite different. He is a saint without a luminous +halo. His personal characteristics are too distinct and too human to +make idealisation easy. For this reason he has never been the object of +popular devotion. Shadowy figures like St. Joseph and St. Anne have been +divinised and surrounded with picturesque legends; but St. Paul has been +spared the honour or the ignominy of being coaxed and wheedled by the +piety of paganised Christianity. No tender fairy-tales are attached to +his cult; he remains for us what he was in the flesh. It is even +possible to feel an active dislike for him. Lagarde ('Deutsche +Schriften,' p. 71) abuses him as a politician might vilify an opponent. +'It is monstrous' (says he) 'that men of any historical training should +attach any importance to this Paul. This outsider was a Pharisee from +top to toe even after he became a Christian'--and much more to the same +effect. Nietzsche describes him as 'one of the most ambitious of men, +whose superstition was only equalled by his cunning. A much tortured, +much to be pitied man, an exceedingly unpleasant person both to himself +and to others.... He had a great deal on his conscience. He alludes to +enmity, murder, sorcery, idolatry, impurity, drunkenness, and the love +of carousing.' Renan, who could never have made himself ridiculous by +such ebullitions as these, does not disguise his repugnance for the +'ugly little Jew' whose character he can neither understand nor admire. +These outbursts of personal animosity, so strange in modern critics +dealing with a personage of ancient history, show how vividly his figure +stands out from the canvas. There are very few historical characters who +are alive enough to be hated. + +It is, however, only in our own day that the personal characteristics of +St. Paul have been intelligently studied; and the most valuable books +about him are later than the unbalanced tirades of Lagarde and +Nietzsche, and the carping estimate of Renan. In the nineteenth century, +Paul was obscured behind Paulinism. His letters were studied as +treatises on systematic theology. Elaborate theories of atonement, +justification, and grace were expounded on his authority, as if he had +been a religious philosopher or theological professor like Origen and +Thomas Aquinas. The name of the apostle came to be associated with +angular and frigid disquisitions which were rapidly losing their +connexion with vital religion. It has been left for the scholars of the +present century to give us a picture of St. Paul as he really was--a man +much nearer to George Fox or John Wesley than to Origen or Calvin; the +greatest of missionaries and pioneers, and only incidentally a great +theologian. The critical study of the New Testament has opened our eyes +to see this and many other things. Much new light has also been thrown +by studies in the historical geography of Asia Minor, a work in which +British scholars have characteristically taken a prominent part. The +delightful books of Sir W.M. Ramsay have now been supplemented by the +equally attractive volume of another travelling scholar, Professor +Deissmann. A third source of new information is the mass of inscriptions +and papyri which have been discovered in the last twenty years. The +social life of the middle and lower classes in the Levant, their +religious beliefs and practices, and the language which they spoke, are +now partially known to us, as they never were before. The human interest +of the Pauline Epistles, and of the Acts, is largely increased by these +accessions to knowledge. + +The Epistles are real letters, not treatises by a theological professor, +nor literary productions like the Epistles of Seneca. Each was written +with reference to a definite situation; they are messages which would +have been delivered orally had the Apostle been present. Several letters +have certainly been lost; and St. Paul would probably not have cared +much to preserve them. There is no evidence that he ever thought of +adding to the Canon of Scripture by his correspondence. The Author of +Acts seems not to have read any of the letters. This view of the +Epistles has rehabilitated some of them, which were regarded as spurious +by the Tübingen school and their successors. The question which we now +ask when the authenticity of an Epistle is doubted is, Do we find the +same man? not, Do we find the same system? There is, properly speaking, +no system in St. Paul's theology, and there is a singularly rapid +development of thought. The 'Pastoral Epistles' are probably not +genuine, though the defence of them is not quite a desperate +undertaking. Of the rest, the weight of evidence is slightly against the +Pauline authorship of Ephesians, the vocabulary of which differs +considerably from that of the undoubted Epistles; and the short letter +called 2 Thessalonians is open to some suspicion. The genuineness of +Ephesians is not of great importance to the student of Pauline theology, +unless the closely allied Epistle to the Colossians is also rejected; +and there has been a remarkable return of confidence in the Pauline +authorship of this letter. All the other Epistles seem to be firmly +established. + +The other source of information about St. Paul's life is the Acts of +the Apostles, the value of which as a historical document is very +variously estimated. The doubts refer mainly to the earlier chapters, +before St. Paul appears on the scene. Sane criticism can hardly dispute +that the 'we-passages,' in which the writer speaks of St. Paul and +himself in the first person plural, are the work of an eye-witness, and +that most of the important facts in the later chapters are from the same +source. The difficult problem is concerned with the relation of this +writer to the editor, who is responsible for the 'Petrine' part of the +book. There is very much to be said in favour of the tradition that this +editor, who also compiled the Third Gospel, was Lucas or Lucanus, the +physician and friend of St. Paul. It does not necessarily follow that he +was the fellow-traveller who in a few places speaks of himself in the +first person. Luke (if we may decide the question for ourselves by +giving him this name) must have been a man of very attractive character; +full of kindness, loyalty, and Christian charity. He is the most +feminine (not effeminate) writer in the New Testament, and shows a +marked partiality for the tender aspects of Christianity. He is +attracted by miracles, and by all that makes history picturesque and +romantic. His social sympathies are so keen that his gospel furnishes +the Christian socialist with nearly all his favourite texts. Above all, +he is a Greek man of letters, dominated by the conventions of Greek +historical composition. For the Greek, history was a work of art, +written for edification, and not merely a bald record of facts. The +Greek historian invented speeches for his principal characters; this was +a conventional way of elucidating the situation for the benefit of his +readers. Everyone knows how Thucydides, the most conscientious historian +in antiquity, habitually uses this device, and how candidly he explains +his method. We can hardly doubt that the author of Acts has used a +similar freedom, though the report of the address to the elders of +Ephesus reads like a summary of an actual speech. The narrative is +coloured in places by the historian's love for the miraculous. Critics +have also suspected an eirenical purpose in his treatment of the +relations between St. Paul and the Jerusalem Church. + +Saul of Tarsus was a Benjamite of pure Israelite descent, but also a +Roman citizen by birth. His famous old Jewish name was Latinised or +Graecised as Paulos (Sahylost means 'waddling,' and would have been a +ridiculous name); he doubtless bore both names from boyhood. Tarsus is +situated in the plain of Cilicia, and is now about ten miles from the +sea. It is backed by a range of hills, on which the wealthier residents +had villas, while the high glens of Taurus, nine or ten miles further +inland, provided a summer residence for those who could afford it, and a +fortified acropolis in time of war. The town on the plain must have been +almost intolerable in the fierce Anatolian summer-heat. The harbour was +a lake formed by the Cydnus, five or six miles below Tarsus; but light +ships could sail up the river into the heart of the city. Thus Tarsus +had the advantages of a maritime town, though far enough from the sea to +be safe from pirates. The famous pass called the 'Cilician Gates' was +traversed by a high-road through the gorge into Cappadocia. Ionian +colonists came to Tarsus in very early times; and Ramsay is confident +that Tarshish, 'the son of Javan,' in Gen. x. 4, is none other than +Tarsus. The Greek settlers, of course, mixed with the natives, and the +Oriental element gradually swamped the Hellenic. The coins of Tarsus +show Greek figures and Aramaic lettering. The principal deity was +Baal-Tarz, whose effigy appears on most of the coins. Under the +successors of Alexander, Greek influence revived, but the administration +continued to be of the Oriental type; and Tarsus never became a Greek +city, until in the first half of the second century B.C. it proclaimed +its own autonomy, and renamed itself Antioch-on-Cydnus. Great privileges +were granted it by Antiochus Epiphanes, and it rapidly grew in wealth +and importance. Besides the Greeks, there was a large colony of Jews, +who always established themselves on the highways of the world's +commerce. Since St. Paul was a 'citizen' of Tarsus, i.e. a member of +one of the 'Tribes' into which the citizens were divided, it is probable +(so Ramsay argues) that there was a large 'Tribe' of Jews at Tarsus; for +no Jew would have been admitted into, or would have consented to join, a +Greek Tribe, with its pagan cult. + +So matters stood when Cilicia became a Roman Province in 104 B.C. The +city fell into the hands of the barbarian Tigranes twenty years later, +but Gnaeus Pompeius re-established the Roman power, and with it the +dominance of Hellenism, in 63. Augustus turned Cilicia into a mere +adjunct of Syria; and the pride of Tarsus received a check. +Nevertheless, the Emperor showed great favour to the Tarsians, who had +sided with Julius and himself in the civil wars. Tarsus was made a +'libera civitas,' with the right to live under its own laws. The leading +citizens were doubtless given the Roman citizenship, or allowed to +purchase it. Among these would naturally be a number of Jews, for that +nation loved Julius Cæsar and detested Pompeius. But Hellenism could not +retain its hold on Tarsus. Dion Chrysostom, who visited it at the +beginning of the second century A.D., found it a thoroughly Oriental +town, and notes that the women were closely veiled in Eastern fashion. +Possibly this accounts for St. Paul's prejudice against unveiled women +in church. One Greek institution, however, survived and flourished--a +university under municipal patronage. Strabo speaks with high admiration +of the zeal for learning displayed by the Tarsians, who formed the +entire audience at the professors' lectures, since no students came from +outside. This last fact shows, perhaps, that the lecturers were not men +of wide reputation; indeed, it is not likely that Tarsus was able to +compete with Athens and Alexandria in attracting famous teachers. The +most eminent Tarsians, such as Antipater the Stoic, went to Europe and +taught there. What distinguished Tarsus was its love of learning, widely +diffused in all classes of the population. + +St. Paul did not belong to the upper class. He was a working artisan, a +'tent-maker,' who followed one of the regular trades of the place. +Perhaps, as Deissmann thinks, the 'large letters' of Gal. vi. 11 imply +that he wrote clumsily, like a working man and not like a scribe. The +words indicate that he usually dictated his letters. The 'Acts of Paul +and Thekla' describe him as short and bald, with a hook-nose and +beetling brows; there is nothing improbable in this description. But he +was far better educated than the modern artisan. Not that a single +quotation from Menander (1 Cor. xv. 33) shows him to be a good Greek +scholar; an Englishman may quote 'One touch of nature makes the whole +world kin' without being a Shakespearean. But he was well educated +because he was the son of a strict Jew. A child in such a home would +learn by heart large pieces of the Old Testament, and, at the Synagogue +school, all the _minutiæ_ of the Jewish Law. The pupil was not allowed +to write anything down; all was committed to the memory, which in +consequence became extremely retentive. The perfect pupil 'lost not a +drop from his teacher's cistern.' At the age of about fourteen the boy +would be sent to Jerusalem, to study under one of the great Rabbis; in +St. Paul's case it was Gamaliel. Under his tuition the young Pharisee +would learn to be a 'strong Churchman.' The Rabbis viewed everything +from an ecclesiastical standpoint. The interests of the Priesthood, the +Altar, and the Temple overshadowed everything else. The Priestly Code, +says Mr. Cohu, practically resolves itself into one idea: Everything in +Israel belongs to God; all places, all times, all persons, and all +property are His. But God accepts a part of His due; and, if this part +is scrupulously paid, He will send His blessing upon the remainder. +Besides the written law, the Pharisee had to take on himself the still +heavier burden of the oral law, which was equally binding. It was a +seminary education of the most rigorous kind. St Paul cannot reproach +himself with any slackness during his novitiate. He threw himself into +the system with characteristic ardour. Probably he meant to be a +Jerusalem Rabbi himself, still practising his trade, as the Rabbis +usually did. For he was unmarried; and every Jew except a Rabbi was +expected to marry at or before the age of twenty-one. + +He suffered from some obscure physical trouble, the nature of which we +can only guess. It was probably epilepsy, a disease which is compatible +with great powers of endurance and great mental energy, as is proved by +the cases of Julius Cæsar and Napoleon. He was liable to mystical +trances, in which some have found a confirmation of the supposition that +he was epileptic. But these abnormal states were rare with him; in +writing to the Galatians he has to go back fourteen years to the date +when he was 'caught up into the third heaven,' The visions and voices +which attended his active ministry prove nothing about his health. At +that time anyone who underwent a psychical experience for which he could +not account believed that he was possessed by a spirit, good or bad. It +is significant that Tertullian, at the end of the second century, says +that 'almost the majority of mankind derive their knowledge of God from +visions.' The impression that St. Paul makes upon us is that of a man +full of nervous energy and able to endure an exceptional amount of +privation and hardship. A curious indication, which has not been +noticed, is that, as he tells us himself, he five times received the +maximum number of lashes from Jewish tribunals. These floggings in the +Synagogues were very severe, the operator being required to lay on with +his full strength. There is evidence that in most cases a much smaller +number of strokes than the full thirty-nine was inflicted, so as not to +endanger the life of the culprit. The other trials which he +mentions--three Roman scourgings, one stoning, a day and night spent in +battling with the waves after shipwreck, would have worn out any +constitution not exceptionally tough. + +We must bear in mind this terrible record of suffering if we wish to +estimate fairly the character of the man. During his whole life after +his conversion he was exposed not only to the hardships of travel, +sometimes in half-civilised districts, but to 'all the cruelty of the +fanaticism which rages like a consuming fire through the religious +history of the East from the slaughter of Baal's priests to the +slaughter of St. Stephen, and from the butcheries of Jews at Alexandria +under Caligula to the massacres of Christians at Adana, Tarsus, and +Antioch in the year 1909'--(Deissmann). It is one evil result of such +furious bigotry that it kindles hatred and resentment in its victims, +and tempts them to reprisals. St. Paul does speak bitterly of his +opponents, though chiefly when he finds that they have injured his +converts, as in the letter to the Galatians. Modern critics have +exaggerated this element in a character which does not seem to have been +fierce or implacable. He writes like a man engaged in a stern conflict +against enemies who will give no quarter, and who shrink from no +treachery. But the sharpest expression that can be laid to his charge is +the impatient, perhaps half humorous wish that the Judaisers who want to +circumcise the Galatians might be subjected to a severer operation +themselves (Gal. v. 12). The dominant impression that he makes upon us +is that he was cast in a heroic mould. He is serenely indifferent to +criticism and calumny; no power on earth can turn him from his purpose. +He has made once for all a complete sacrifice of all earthly joys and +all earthly ties; he has broken (he, the devout Jewish Catholic) with +his Church and braved her thunders; he has faced the opprobrium of being +called traitor, heretic, and apostate; he has 'withstood to the face' +the Palestinian apostles who were chosen by Jesus and held His +commission; he has set his face to achieve, almost single-handed, the +conquest of the Roman Empire, a thing never dreamed of by the Jerusalem +Church; he is absolutely indifferent whether his mission will cost him +his life, or only involve a continuation of almost intolerable hardship. +It is this indomitable courage, complete self-sacrifice, and +single-minded devotion to a magnificently audacious but not +impracticable idea, which constitute the greatness of St. Paul's +character. He was, with all this, a warm-hearted and affectionate man, +as he proves abundantly by the tone of his letters. His personal +religion was, in essence, a pure mysticism; one worships a Christ whom +he has experienced as a living presence in his soul. The mystic who is +also a man of action, and a man of action because he is a mystic, wields +a tremendous power over other men. He is like an invulnerable knight, +fighting in magic armour. + +It is an interesting and difficult question whether we should regard the +intense moral dualism of the Epistle to the Romans as a confession that +the writer has had an unusually severe personal battle with temptation. +The moral struggle certainly assumes a more tragic aspect in these +passages than in the experience of many saintly characters. We find +something like it in Augustine, and again in Luther; it may even be +suggested that these great men have stamped upon the Christian tradition +the idea of a harsher 'clash of yes and no' than the normal experience +of the moral life can justify. But it is not certain that the first +person singular in such verses as 'O wretched man that I am! who shall +deliver me from this body of death?' is a personal confession at all. It +may be for human nature generally that he is speaking, when he gives +utterance to that consciousness of sin which was one of the most +distinctive parts of the Christian religion from the first. It does not +seem likely that a man of so lofty and heroic a character was ever +seriously troubled with ignominious temptations. That he yielded to +them, as Nietzsche and others have suggested, is in the highest degree +improbable. Even if the self-reproaches were uttered in his own person, +we have many other instances of saints who have blamed themselves +passionately for what ordinary men would consider slight transgressions. +Of all the Epistles, the Second to the Corinthians is the one which +contains the most intimate self-revelations, and few can read it without +loving as well as honouring its author. + +We know nothing of the Apostle's residence at Jerusalem except the name +of his teacher. But it was at this time that he became steeped in the +Pharisaic doctrines which loamed the framework in which his earlier +Christian beliefs were set. It is now recognised that Pharisaism, far +from being the antipodes of Christianity, was rather the quarter where +the Gospel found its best recruits. The Pharisaic school contained the +greater part of whatever faith, loyalty and piety remained among the +Jewish people; and its dogmatic system passed almost entire into the +earliest Christian Church, with the momentous addition that Jesus was +the Messiah. A few words on the Pharisaic teaching which St. Paul must +have imbibed from Gamaliel are indispensable even in an article which +deals with Paul, and not with Paulinism. + +The distinctive feature of the Jewish religion is not, as is often +supposed, its monotheism, Hebrew religion in its golden age was +monolatry rather than monotheism; and when Jahveh became more strictly +'the only God,' the cult of intermediate beings came in, and restored a +quasi-polytheism. The distinctive feature in Jewish faith is its +historical and teleological character. The God of the Jew is not natural +law. If the idea of necessary causation ever forced itself upon his +mind, he at once gave it the form of predestination. The whole of +history is an unfolding of the divine purpose; and so history as a whole +has for the Jew an importance which it never had for a Greek thinker, +nor for the Hellenised Jew Philo. The Hebrew idea of God is dynamic and +ethical; it is therefore rooted in the idea of Time. The Pharisaic +school modified this prophetic teaching in two ways. It became more +spiritual; anthropomorphisms were removed, and the transcendence of God +above the world was more strictly maintained. On the other hand, the +religious relationship became in their hands narrower and more external. +The notion of a covenant was defined more rigorously; the Law was +practically exalted above God, so that the Rabbis even represent the +Deity as studying the Law. With this legalism went a spirit of intense +exclusiveness and narrow ecclesiasticism. As God was raised above direct +contact with men, the old animistic belief in angels and demons, which +had lasted on in the popular mind by the side of the worship of Jahveh, +was extended in a new way. A celestial hierarchy was invented, with +names, and an infernal hierarchy too; the malevolent ghosts of animism +became fallen angels. Satan, who in Job is the crown-prosecutor, one of +God's retinue, becomes God's adversary; and the angels, formerly +manifestations of God Himself, are now quite separated from Him. A +supramundane physics or cosmology was evolved at the same time. Above +Zion, the centre of the earth, rise seven heavens, in the highest of +which the Deity has His throne. The underworld is now first divided into +Paradise and Gehenna. The doctrine of the fall of man, through his +participation in the representative guilt of his first parents, is +Pharisaic; as is the strange legend, which St. Paul seems to have +believed (2 Cor. xi. 3), that the Serpent carnally seduced Eve, and so +infected the race with spiritual poison. Justification, in Pharisaism as +for St. Paul, means the verdict of acquittal. The bad receive in this +life the reward for any small merits which they may possess; the sins of +the good must be atoned for; but merits, as in Roman Catholicism, may be +stored and transferred. Martyrdoms especially augment the spiritual +bank-balance of the whole nation. There was no official Messianic +doctrine, only a mass of vague fancies and beliefs, grouped round the +central idea of the appearance on earth of a supernatural Being, who +should establish a theocracy of some kind at Jerusalem. The righteous +dead will be raised to take part in this kingdom. The course of the +world is thus divided into two epochs--'this age' and 'the age to come.' +A catastrophe will end the former and inaugurate the latter. The +promised deliverer is now waiting in heaven with God, until his hour +comes; and it will come very soon. All this St. Paul must have learned +from Gamaliel. It formed the framework of his theology as a Christian +for many years after his conversion, and was only partially thrown off, +under the influence of mystical experience and of Greek ideas, during +the period covered by the letters. The lore of good and bad spirits (the +latter are 'the princes of this world' in I Cor. ii. 6, 8) pervades the +Epistles more than modern readers are willing to admit. It is part of +the heritage of the Pharisaic school. + +It is very unlikely (in spite of Johannes Weiss) that St. Paul ever saw +Jesus in the flesh. But he did come in contact with the little Christian +community at Jerusalem. These disciples at first attempted to live as +strict members of the Jewish Church. They knew that the coming Messiah +was their crucified Master, but this belief involved no rupture with +Judaism. So at least they thought themselves; the Sanhedrin saw more +clearly what the new movement meant. The crisis came when numerous +'Hellenists' attached themselves to the Church--Jews of the Dispersion, +from Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere. A threatened rupture between these and +the Palestinian Christians was averted by the appointment of seven +deacons or charity commissioners, among whom Stephen soon became +prominent by the dangerously 'liberal' character of his teaching. Philo +gives important testimony to the existence of a 'liberal' school among +the Jews of the Dispersion, who, under pretext of spiritualising the +traditional law, left off keeping the Sabbath and the great festivals, +and even dispensed with the rite of circumcision. Thus the admission of +Gentiles on very easy terms into the Church was no new idea to the +Palestinian Jews; it was known to them as part of the shocking laxity +which prevailed among their brethren of the Dispersion. With Stephen, +this kind of liberalism seemed to have entered the group of 'disciples.' +He was accused of saying that Jesus was to destroy the temple and change +the customs of Moses. In his bold defence he admitted that in his view +the Law was valid only for a limited period, which would expire so soon +as Jesus returned as Messiah. This was quite enough for the Sanhedrin. +They stoned Stephen, and compelled the 'disciples' to disperse and fly +for their lives. Only the Apostles, whose devotion to the Law was well +known, were allowed to remain. This last fact, briefly recorded in Acts, +is important as an indication that the persecution was directed only +against the liberalising Christians, and that these were the great +majority. Saul, it seems, had no quarrel with the Twelve; his hatred and +fanaticism were aroused against a sect of Hellenist Jews who openly +proclaimed that the Law had been abrogated in advance by their Master, +who, as Saul observed with horror, had incurred the curse of the Law by +dying on a gibbet. All the Pharisee in him was revolted; and he led the +savage heretic-hunt which followed the execution of Stephen. + +What caused the sudden change which so astonished the survivors among +his victims? To suppose that nothing prepared for the vision near +Damascus, that the apparition in the sky was a mere 'bolt from the +blue,' is an impossible theory. The best explanation is furnished by a +study of the Apostle's character, which we really know very well. The +author of the Epistles was certainly not a man who could watch a young +saint being battered to death by howling fanatics, and feel no emotion. +Stephen's speech may have made him indignant; his heroic death, the very +ideal of a martyrdom, must have awakened very different feelings. An +undercurrent of dissatisfaction, almost of disgust, at the arid and +unspiritual seminary teaching of the Pharisees now surged up and came +very near the surface. His bigotry sustained him as a persecutor for a +few weeks more; but how if he could himself see what the dying Stephen +said that he saw? Would not that be a welcome liberation? The vision +came in the desert, where men see visions and hear voices to this day. +They were very common in the desert of Gobi when Marco Polo traversed +it. 'The Spirit of Jesus,' as he came to call it, spoke to his heart, +and the form of Jesus flashed before his eyes. Stephen had been right; +the Crucified was indeed the Lord from heaven. So Saul became a +Christian; and it was to the Christianity of Stephen, not to that of +James the Lord's brother, that he was converted. The Pharisee in him was +killed. + +The travelling missionary was as familiar a figure in the Levant as the +travelling lecturer on philosophy. The Greek language brought all +nationalities together. The Hellenising of the East had gone on steadily +since the conquests of Alexander; and Greek was already as useful as +Latin in many parts of the West. A century later, Marcus Aurelius wrote +his Confessions in Greek; and even in the middle of the third century, +when the tide was beginning to turn in favour of Latin, Plotinus +lectured in Greek at Rome. Christianity, within a few years after the +Crucifixion, had allied itself definitely with the speech, and +therefore inevitably with the spirit, of Hellenism. At no time since +have travel and trade been so free between the West of Europe and the +West of Asia. A Phrygian merchant (according to the inscription on his +tomb) made seventy-two journeys to Rome in the course of his +business-life. The decomposition of nationalities, and the destruction +of civic exclusiveness, led naturally to the formation of voluntary +associations of all kinds, from religious sects to trade unions; +sometimes a single association combined these two functions. The +Oriental religions appealed strongly to the unprivileged classes, among +which genuine religious faith was growing, while the official cults of +the Roman Empire were unsatisfying in themselves and associated with +tyranny. The attempt of Augustus to resuscitate the old religion was +artificial and unfruitful. The living movement was towards a syncretism +of religious ideas and practices, all of which came from the Eastern +provinces and beyond them. The prominent features in this new devotion +were the removal of the supreme Godhead from the world to a +transcendental sphere; contempt for the world and ascetic abnegation of +'the flesh'; a longing for healing and redemption, and a close +identification of salvation with individual immortality; and, finally, +trust in sacraments ('mysteries,' in Greek) as indispensable means of +grace or redemption. This was the Paganism with which Christianity had +to reckon, as well as with the official cult and its guardians. The +established church it conquered and destroyed; the living syncretistic +beliefs it cleansed, simplified, and disciplined, but only absorbed by +becoming itself a syncretistic religion. But besides Christians and +Pagans, there were the Jews, dispersed over the whole Empire. There were +at least a million in Egypt, a country which St. Paul, for reasons +unknown to us, left severely alone; there were still more in Syria, and +perhaps five millions in the whole Empire. In spite of the fecundity of +Jewish women, so much emphasised by Seeck in his history of the Downfall +of the Ancient World, it is impossible that the Hebrew stock should have +multiplied to this extent. There must have been a very large number of +converts, who were admitted, sometimes without circumcision, on their +profession of monotheism and acceptance of the Jewish moral code. The +majority of these remained in the class technically called +'God-fearers,' who never took upon themselves the whole yoke of the Law. +These half-Jews were the most promising field for Christian +missionaries; and nothing exasperated the Jews more than to see St. Paul +fishing so successfully in their waters. The spirit of propagandism +almost disappeared from Judaism after the middle of the second century. +Judaism shrank again into a purely Eastern religion, and renounced the +dangerous compromise with Western ideas. The labours of St. Paul made an +all-important parting of the ways. Their result was that Christianity +became a European religion, while Judaism fell back upon its old +traditions. + +It is very unfortunate that we have no thoroughly trustworthy records of +the Apostle's earlier mission preaching. The Epistles only cover a +period of about ten years; and the rapid development of thought which +can be traced during this short time prevents us from assuming that his +earlier teaching closely resembled that which we find in the Letters. +But if, during the earlier period, he devoted his attention mainly to +those who were already under Jewish influence, we may be sure that he +spoke much of the Messiahship of Jesus, and of His approaching return, +these being the chief articles of faith in Judaic Christianity. This +was, however, only the framework. What attracted converts was really the +historical picture of the life of Jesus; his message of love and +brotherhood, which they found realised in the little communities of +believers; and the abolition of all external barriers between human +beings, such as social position, race, and sex, which had undoubtedly +been proclaimed by the Founder, and contained implicitly the promise of +an universal religion. We can infer what the manner of his preaching was +from the style of the letters, which were probably dictated like +extempore addresses, without much preparation. He was no trained orator, +and he thoroughly disdained the arts of the rhetorician. His Greek, +though vigorous and effective, is neither correct nor elegant. His +eloquence is of the kind which proceeds from intense conviction, and +from a thorough knowledge of Old Testament prophecy and psalmody--no bad +preparation for a religious teacher. If at times he argued like a Rabbi, +these frigid debates were as acceptable to ancient Jews as they are to +modern Scotsmen. And when he takes fire, as he deals with some vital +truth which he has lived as well as learned and taught, he establishes +his right to be called what he never aimed at being--a writer of genius. +Such passages as 1 Cor. xiii., Phil, ii., Rom. viii., rank among the +finest compositions in later Greek literature. Regarded merely as a +piece of poetical prose, 1 Cor. xiii. is finer than anything that had +been written in the Greek language since the great Attic prose-writers. +And if this was dictated impromptu, similar outbursts of splendid +eloquence were probably frequent in his mission-preaching. Their effect +must have been overwhelming, when reinforced by the flashing eye of the +speaker, and by the absolute sincerity which none could doubt who saw +his face and figure, furrowed by toil and scarred by torture. + +In addressing the Gentiles, we may assume that he followed the customary +Jewish line of apologetic, denouncing the folly of idolatry--an aid to +worship which is quite innocent and natural in some peoples, but which +the Jews never understood; that he spoke much of judgment to come; and +especially that he contrasted the pure and affectionate social life of +the Christian brotherhood with the licentiousness, cruelty, injustice, +oppression, and mutual suspicion of Pagan society. This argument +probably struck home in very many 'Gentile' hearts. The old +civilisation, with all the brilliant qualities which make many moderns +regret its destruction, rested on too narrow a base. The woman and the +slave were left out, the woman especially by the Greeks, and the slave +by the Romans. Acute social inequalities always create pride, brutality, +and widespread sexual immorality. And when the structure which +maintained these inequalities is itself tottering, the oppressed classes +begin to feel that they are unnecessary, and to hope for emancipation. +When St. Paul drew his lurid pictures of Pagan society steeped in +unnatural abominations, without hope for the future, 'hateful and hating +one another,' and then pointed to the little flock of Christians--among +whom no one was allowed to be idle and no one to starve, and where +family life was pure and mutual confidence full, frank and seldom +abused--the woman and the slave, of whom Aristotle had spoken so +contemptuously, flocked into his congregations, and began to organise +themselves for that victory which Nietzsche thought so deplorable. + +It is not necessary in this essay to traverse again the familiar field +of St. Paul's missionary journeys. The first epoch, which embraces about +fourteen years, had its scene in Syria and Cilicia, with the short tour +in Cyprus and other parts of Asia Minor. The second period, which ends +with the imprisonment in A.D. 58 or 59, is far more important. St. Paul +crosses into Europe; he works in Macedonia and Greece. Churches are +founded in two of the great towns of the ancient world, Corinth and +Ephesus. According to his letters, we must assume that he only once +returned to Jerusalem from the great tour in the West, undertaken after +the controversy with Peter; and that the object of this visit was to +deliver the money which he had promised to collect for the poor 'saints' +at Jerusalem. He intended after this to go to Rome, and thence to +Spain--a scheme worthy of the restless genius of an Alexander. He saw +Rome indeed, but as a prisoner. The rest of his life is lost in +obscurity. The writer of the Acts does not say that the two years' +imprisonment ended in his execution; and if it was so, it is difficult +to see why such a fact should be suppressed. If the charge against him +was at last dismissed, because the accusers did not think it worth while +to come to Rome to prosecute it, St. Luke's silence is more explicable. +In any case, we may regard it as almost certain that St. Paul ended his +life under a Roman axe during the reign of Nero. + +'There is hardly any fact' (says Harnack) 'which deserves to be turned +over and pondered so much as this, that the religion of Jesus has never +been able to root itself in Jewish or even upon Semitic soil.' This +extraordinary result is the judgment of history upon the life and work +of St. Paul. Jewish Christianity rapidly withered and died. According to +Justin, who must have known the facts, Jesus was rejected by the whole +Jewish nation 'with a few exceptions.' In Galilee especially, few, if +any, Christian Churches existed. There are other examples, of which +Buddhism is the most notable, of a religion gaining its widest +acceptance outside the borders of the country which gave it birth. But +history oilers no parallel to the complete vindication of St. Paul's +policy in carrying Christianity over into the Græco-Roman world, where +alone, as the event proved, it could live. This is a complete answer to +those who maintain that Christ made no break with Judaism. Such a +statement is only tenable if it is made in the sense of Harnack's words, +that 'what Gentile Christianity did was to carry out a process which had +in fact commenced long before in Judaism itself, viz. the process by +which the Jewish religion was inwardly emancipated and turned into a +religion for the world.' But the true account would be that Judaism, +like other great ideas, had to 'die to live,' It died in its old form, +in giving birth to the religion of civilised humanity, as the Greek +nation perished in giving birth to Hellenism, and the Roman in creating +the Mediterranean empire of the Caesars and the Catholic Church of the +Popes. The Jewish people were unable to make so great a sacrifice of +their national hopes. With the matchless tenacity which characterises +their race they clung to their tribal God and their temporal and local +millennium. The disasters of A.D. 70 and of the revolt under Hadrian +destroyed a great part of the race, and at last uprooted it from the +soil of Palestine. But conservatism, as usual, has had its partial +justification. Judaism has refused to acknowledge the religion of the +civilised world as her legitimate child; but the nation has refused also +to surrender its life. There are no more Greeks and Romans; but the Jews +we have always with us. + +St. Paul saw that the Gospel was a far greater and more revolutionary +scheme than the Galilean apostles had dreamed of. In principle he +committed himself from the first to the complete emancipation of +Christianity from Judaism. But it was inevitable that he did not at +first realise all that he had undertaken. And, fortunately for us, the +most rapid evolution in his thought took place daring the ten years to +which his extant letters belong. It is exceedingly interesting to trace +his gradual progress away from Apocalyptic Messianism to a position very +near that of the fourth Gospel. The evangelist whom we call St. John is +the best commentator on Paulinism. This is one of the most important +discoveries of recent New Testament criticism. + +In the earliest Epistles--those to the Thessalonians--we have the naïve +picture of Messiah coming on the clouds, which, as we now know, was part +of the Pharisaic tradition. In the central group the Christology is far +more complex. Besides the Pharisaic Messiah, and the records of the +historical Jesus of Nazareth, we have now to reckon with the +Jewish-Alexandrian idea of the generic, archetypal man, which is +unintelligible without reference to the Platonic philosophy. Philo is +here a great help towards understanding one of the most difficult parts +of the Apostle's teaching. We have also, fully developed, the mystical +doctrine of the Spirit of Christ immanent in the soul of the believer, a +conception which was the core of St. Paul's personal religion, and more +than anything else emancipated him from apocalyptic dreams of the +future. We have also a fourth conception, quite distinct from the three +which have been mentioned--that of Christ as a cosmic principle, the +instrument in creation and the sustainer of all his in the universe. We +must again have recourse to Philo and his doctrine of the Logos, to +understand the genesis of this idea, and to the Fourth Gospel to find it +stated in clear philosophical form. In this second period, these +theories about the Person of Christ are held concurrently, without any +attempt to reconcile or systematise them. The eschatology is being +seriously modified by the conception of a 'spiritual body,' which is +prepared for us so soon as our 'outward man' decays in death. The +resurrection of the flesh is explicitly denied (1 Cor. xv. 50); but a +new and incorruptible 'clothing' will be given to the soul in the future +state. Already the fundamental Pharisaic doctrine of the two ages--the +present age and that which is to come--is in danger. St. Paul can now, +like a true Greek, contrast the things that are seen, which are +temporal, with the things that are not seen, which are eternal. The +doctrine of the Spirit as a present possession of Christians brings down +heaven to earth and exalts earth to heaven; the 'Parousia' is now only +the end of the existing world-order, and has but little significance for +the individual. These ideas have not displaced the earlier apocalyptic +language; but it is easy to see that the one or the other must recede +into the background, and that the Pharisaic tradition will be the one to +fade. + +The third group of Epistles--Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians--are +steeped in ideas which belong to Greek philosophy and the Greek +mystery-religions. It would be impossible to translate them into any +Eastern language. The Rabbinical disputes with the Jews about +justification and election have disappeared; the danger ahead is now +from theosophy and the barbarised Platonism which was afterwards matured +in Gnosticism. The teaching is even more Christocentric than before; and +the Catholic doctrine of the Church as the body of Christ is more +prominent than individualistic mysticism. The cosmology is thoroughly +Johannine, and only awaits the name of the Logos. + +This receptiveness to new ideas is one of the most remarkable features +in St. Paul's mind. Few indeed are the religious prophets and preachers +whose convictions are still malleable after they have begun to govern +the minds of others. St. Paul had already proved that he was a man who +would 'follow the gleam,' even when it called him to a complete breach +with his past. And the further development of his thought was made much +easier by the fact that he was no systematic philosopher, but a great +missionary who was willing to be all things to all men, while his own +faith was unified by his strength of purpose, and by the steady glow of +the light within. + +It is difficult for us to realise the life of his little communities +without importing into the picture features which belong to a later +time. The organisation, such as it was, was democratic. The congregation +as a whole exercised a censorship over the morals of its members, and +penalties were inflicted 'by vote of the majority' (2 Cor. ii. 6). The +family formed a group for religious purposes, and remained the +recognised unit till the second century. In Ignatius and Hermas we find +the campaign against family churches in full swing. The meetings were +like those of modern revivalists, and sometimes became disorderly. But +of the moral beauty which pervaded the whole life of the brotherhoods +there can be no doubt. Many of the converts had formerly led +disreputable lives; but these were the most likely to appreciate the +gain of being no longer outlaws, but members of a true family. The +heathen were amazed at the kind of people whom the Christians admitted +and treated like brethren; but in the first century scandals do not seem +to have been frequent. Women, who were probably always the majority, +enjoyed a consideration unknown by them before. The extreme importance +attached by the early Church to sexual purity made it possible for them +to mix freely with Christian men; indeed, the strange and perilous +practice of a 'brother' and a virgin sharing the same house seems to +have already begun, if this is the meaning of the obscure passage in I +Cor. vii. 36. + +Chastity and indifference to death were the two qualities in Christians +which made the greatest impression on their neighbours. Galen is +especially interesting on the former topic. But we must add a third +characteristic--the cheerfulness and happiness which marked the early +Christian communities. 'Joy' as a moral quality is a Christian +invention, as a study of the usage of charha in Greek will show. Even in +Augustine's time the temper of the Christians, 'serena et non dissolute +hilaris' was one of the things which attracted him to the Church. The +secret of this happy social life was an intense realisation of +corporate unity among the members of the confraternity, which they +represented to themselves as a 'mystery'--a mystical union between the +Head and members of a 'body.' It is in this conception, and not in +ritual details, that we are justified in finding a real and deep +influence of the mystery-cults upon Christianity. The Catholic +conception of sacraments as bonds uniting religious communities, and as +channels of grace flowing from a corporate treasury, was as certainly +part of the Greek mystery-religion as it was foreign to Judaism. The +mysteries had their bad side, as might be expected in private and +half-secret societies; but their influence as a whole was certainly +good. The three chief characteristics of mystery-religion were, first, +rites of purification, both moral and ceremonial; second, the promise of +spiritual communion with some deity, who through them enters into his +worshippers; third, the hope of immortality, which the Greeks often +called 'deification,' and which was secured to those who were initiated. + +It is useless to deny that St. Paul regarded Christianity as, at least +on one side, a mystery-religion. Why else should he have used a number +of technical terms which his readers would recognise at once as +belonging to the mysteries? Why else should he repeatedly use the word +'mystery' itself, applying it to doctrines distinctive of Christianity, +such as the resurrection with a 'spiritual body,' the relation of the +Jewish people to God, and, above all, the mystical union between Christ +and Christians? The great' mystery' is 'Christ in you, the hope of +glory' (Col i. 27). It was as a mystery-religion that Europe accepted +Christianity. Just as the Jewish Christians took with them the whole +framework of apocalyptic Messianism, and set the figure of Jesus within +it, so the Greeks took with them the whole scheme of the mysteries, with +their sacraments, their purifications and fasts, their idea of a +mystical brotherhood, and their doctrine of 'salvation' (sôtêrhia is +essentially a mystery word) through membership in a divine society, +worshipping Christ as the patronal deity of their mysteries. + +Historically, this type of Christianity was the origin of Catholicism, +both Western and Eastern; though it is only recently that this character +of the Pauline churches has been recognised. And students of the New +Testament have not yet realised the importance of the fact that St. +Paul, who was ready to fight to the death against the Judaising of +Christianity, was willing to take the first step, and a long one, +towards the Paganising of it. It does not appear that his personal +religion was of this type. He speaks with contempt of some doctrines and +practices of the Pagan mysteries, and will allow no _rapprochement_ with +what he regards as devil-worship. In this he remains a pure Hebrew. But +he does not appear to see any danger in allowing his Hellenistic +churches to assimilate the worship of Christ to the honours paid to the +gods of the mysteries, and to set their whole religion in this +framework, provided only that they have no part nor lot with those who +sit at 'the table of demons'--the sacramental love-feasts of the heathen +mysteries. The dangers which he does see, and against which he issues +warnings, are, besides Judaism, antinomianism and disorder on the one +hand, and dualistic asceticism on the other. He dislikes or mistrusts +'the speaking with tongues' (glôssolalhia), which was the favourite +exhibition of religious enthusiasm at Corinth. (On this subject Prof. +Lake's excursus is the most instructive discussion that has yet +appeared. The 'Testament of Job' and the magical papyri show that +gibberish uttered in a state of spiritual excitement was supposed to be +the language of angels and spirits, understood by them and acting upon +them as a charm.) He urges his converts to do all things 'decently and +in order.' He is alarmed at signs of moral laxity on the part of +self-styled 'spiritual persons'--a great danger in all times of ecstatic +enthusiasm. He is also alive to the dangers connected with that kind of +asceticism which is based on theories of the impurity of the body--the +typical Oriental form of world-renunciation. But he does not appear to +have foreseen the unethical and polytheistic developments of sacramental +institutionalism. In this particular his Judaising opponents had a +little more justification than he is willing to allow them. + + +ST. PAUL + +There is something transitional about all St. Paul's teaching. We cannot +take him out of his historical setting, as so many of his commentators +in the nineteenth century tried to do. This is only another way of +saying that he was, to use his own expression, a wise master-builder, +not a detached thinker, an arm-chair philosopher. To the historian, +there must always be something astounding in the magnitude of the task +which he set himself, and in his enormous success. The future history of +the civilised world for two thousand years, perhaps for all time, was +determined by his missionary journeys and hurried writings. It is +impossible to guess what would have become of Christianity if he had +never lived; we cannot even be sure that the religion of Europe would be +called by the name of Christ. This stupendous achievement seems to have +been due to an almost unique practical insight into the essential +factors of a very difficult and complex situation. We watch him, with +breathless interest, steering the vessel which carried the Christian +Church and its fortunes through a narrow channel full of sunken rocks +and shoals. With unerring instinct he avoids them all, and brings the +ship, not into smooth water, but into the open sea, out of that perilous +strait. And so far was his masterly policy from mere opportunism, that +his correspondence has been 'Holy Scripture' for fifty generations of +Christians, and there has been no religious revival within Christianity +that has not been, on one side at least, a return to St. Paul. +Protestants have always felt their affinity with this institutionalist, +mystics with this disciplinarian. The reason, put shortly, is that St. +Paul understood what most Christians never realise, namely, that the +Gospel of Christ is not _a_ religion, but religion itself, in its most +universal and deepest significance. + + + + +INSTITUTIONALISM AND MYSTICISM + +(1914) + + +It happens sometimes that two opposite tendencies flourish together, +deriving strength from a sense of the danger with which each is +threatened by the popularity of the other. Where the antagonism is not +absolute, each may gain by being compelled to recognise the strong +points in the rival position. In a serious controversy the right is +seldom or never all on one side; and in the normal course of events both +theories undergo some modification through the influence of their +opponents, until a compromise, not always logically defensible, brings +to an end the acute stage of the controversy. Such a tension of rival +movements is very apparent in the religious thought of our day. The +quickening of spiritual life in our generation has taken two forms, +which appear to be, and to a large extent are, sharply opposed to each +other. On the one side, there has been a great revival of mysticism. +Mysticism means an immediate communion, real or supposed, between the +human soul and the Soul of the World or the Divine Spirit. The +hypothesis on which it rests is that there is a real affinity between +the individual soul and the great immanent Spirit, who in Christian +theology is identified with the Logos-Christ. He was the instrument in +creation, and through the Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit, +in which the Incarnation is continued, has entered into the most +intimate relation with the inner life of the believer. This revived +belief in the inspiration of the individual has immensely strengthened +the position of Christian apologists, who find their old fortifications +no longer tenable against the assaults of natural science and +historical criticism. It has given to faith a new independence, and has +vindicated for the spiritual life the right to stand on its own feet and +rest on its own evidence. Spiritual things, we now realise, are +spiritually discerned. The enlightened soul can see the invisible, and +live its true life in the suprasensible sphere. The primary evidence for +the truth of religion is religious experience, which in persons of +religious genius--those whom the Church calls saints and +prophets--includes a clear perception of an eternal world of truth, +beauty, and goodness, surrounding us and penetrating us at every point. +It is the unanimous testimony of these favoured spirits that the +obstacles in the way of realising this transcendental world are purely +subjective and to a large extent removable by the appropriate training +and discipline. Nor is there any serious discrepancy among them either +as to the nature of the vision which is the highest reward of human +effort, or as to the course of preparation which makes us able to +receive it. The Christian mystic must begin with the punctual and +conscientious discharge of his duties to society; he must next purify +his desires from all worldly and carnal lusts, for only the pure in +heart can see God; and he may thus fit himself for 'illumination'--the +stage in which the glory and beauty of the spiritual life, now clearly +discerned, are themselves the motive of action and the incentive to +contemplation; while the possibility of a yet more immediate and +ineffable vision of the Godhead is not denied, even in this life. There +is reason to think that this conception of religion appeals more and +more strongly to the younger generation to-day. It brings an intense +feeling of relief to many who have been distressed by being told that +religion is bound up with certain events in antiquity, the historicity +of which it is in some cases difficult to establish; with a cosmology +which has been definitely disproved; and with a philosophy which they +cannot make their own. It allows us what George Meredith calls 'the +rapture of the forward view.' It brings home to us the meaning of the +promise made by the Johannine Christ that there are many things as yet +hid from humanity which will in the future be revealed by the Spirit of +Truth. It encourages us to hope that for each individual who is trying +to live the right life the venture of faith will be progressively +justified in experience. It breaks down the denominational barriers +which divide men and women who worship the Father in spirit and in +truth--barriers which become more senseless in each generation, since +they no longer correspond even approximately with real differences of +belief or of religious temperament. It makes the whole world kin by +offering a pure religion which is substantially the same in all climates +and in all ages--a religion too divine to be fettered by any man-made +formulas, too nobly human to be readily acceptable to men in whom the +ape and tiger are still alive, but which finds a congenial home in the +purified spirit which is the 'throne of the Godhead.' Such is the type +of faith which is astir among us. It makes no imposing show in Church +conferences; it does not fill our churches and chapels; it has no +organisation, no propaganda; it is for the most part passively loyal, +without much enthusiasm, to the institutions among which it finds +itself. But in reality it has overleapt all barriers; it knows its true +spiritual kin; and amid the strifes and perplexities of a sad and +troublous time it can always recover its hope and confidence by +ascending in heart and mind to the heaven which is closer to it than +breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. + +But on the other side we see a tendency, even more manifest if we look +for external signs, to emphasise the institutional side of religion, +that which prompts men and women to combine in sacred societies, to +cherish enthusiastic loyalties for the Church of their early education +or of their later choice, to find their chief satisfaction in acts of +corporate worship, and to subordinate their individual tastes and +beliefs to the common tradition and discipline of a historical body. It +is now about eighty years since this tendency began to manifest itself +as a new phenomenon in the Anglican Church. Since then, it has spread to +other organisations. It has prompted a new degree of denominational +loyalty in several Protestant bodies on the Continent, in America, and +in our own country; and it has arrested the decline of the Roman +Catholic Church in countries where the outlook seemed least hopeful from +the ecclesiastical point of view. Such a movement, so widespread and so +powerful in its results, is clearly a thing to be reckoned with by all +who desire to estimate rightly the signs of the times. It is a current +running in the opposite direction to the mystical tendency, which +regards unity as a spiritual, not a political ideal. Fortunately, the +theory of institutionalism has lately been defended and expounded by +several able writers belonging to different denominations; so that we +may hope, by comparing their utterances, to understand the attractions +of the theory and its meaning for those who so highly value it. + +Aubrey Moore, writing in 1889, connected the Catholic revival with the +abandonment of atomism in natural philosophy and of Baconian +metaphysics. These were, he thought, the counterpart of individualism in +politics and Calvinism in religion. The adherents of mid-Victorian +science and philosophy were bewildered by the phenomenon of 'men in the +nineteenth century actually expressing a belief in a divine society and +a supernatural presence in our midst, a brotherhood in which men become +members of an organic whole by sharing in a common life, a service of +man which is the natural and spontaneous outcome of the service of +God.'[90] In the view of this learned and acute thinker, Catholicism, or +institutionalism, is destined to supplant Protestantism, as the organic +theory is destined to displace the atomic. + +More recently Troeltsch, writing as a Protestant, has emphasised the +institutional side of religion in the most uncompromising way. + + 'One of the clearest results of all religious history and + religious psychology is that the essence of all religion is + not dogma and idea, but cultus and communion, the living + intercourse with the Deity--an intercourse of the entire + community, having its vital roots in religion and deriving + its ultimate power of thus uniting individuals, from its + faith in God.... Whatever the future may bring us, we cannot + expect a certainty and force of the knowledge of God and of + His redemptive power to subsist without communion and + cultus. And so long as a Christianity of any kind shall + subsist at all, it will be united with a cultus, and with + Christ holding a central position in the cultus.'[91] + +From America, the last refuge of individualism, there has come a +pronouncement not less drastic. Professor Royce, the author of the +admirable metaphysical treatise entitled 'The World and the Individual,' +has recently published a double series of Hibbert Lectures on 'The +Problem of Christianity,' in which he affirms the institutionalist +theory with a surprising absence of qualification. The whole book is +dominated by one idea, advocated with a _naïveté_ which would hardly +have been possible to a theologian--the idea that churchmanship is the +essential part of the Christian religion. + + 'The salvation of the individual man is determined by some + sort of membership in a certain spiritual community--a + religious community, and in its inmost nature a divine + community, in whose life the Christian virtues are to reach + their highest expression and the spirit of the Master is to + obtain its earthly fulfilment. In other words, there is a + certain universal and divine spiritual community. Membership + in that community is necessary to the salvation of man.... + Such a community exists, is needed, and is an indispensable + means of salvation for the individual man, and is the + fitting realm wherein alone the kingdom of heaven which the + Master preached can find its expression, and wherein alone + the Christian virtues can be effectively preached.'[92] + +These statements, which in vigour and rigour would satisfy the most +extreme curialist in the Society of Jesus, are not a little startling in +an American philosopher, who, as far as the present writer knows, does +not belong to any 'Catholic' Church. The thesis thus enunciated is the +argument of the whole book, in which 'loyalty to the beloved community' +is declared to be the characteristic Christian virtue. It is true that +the satisfaction of Professor Royce's Catholic readers is destined to be +damped in the second volume, where he forbids us to look for the ideal +divine community in any existing Church, and expresses his conviction +that great changes must come over the dogmatic teaching of Christianity. +But for our purpose the significant fact is that throughout the book he +insists that Christianity is essentially an institutional religion, the +most completely institutional of all religions. For Professor Royce to +be a Christian is to be a Churchman. + +Our last witness shall be the learned Roman Catholic layman, Baron +Friedrich von Hügel, the deepest thinker, perhaps, of all living +theologians in this country. 'It is now ever increasingly clear to all +deep impartial students that religion has ever primarily expressed and +formed itself in cultus, in social organisation, social worship, +intercourse between soul and soul and between soul and God; and in +symbols and sacraments, in contacts between spirit and matter.' He +proceeds to discuss the strength and weakness of institutionalism in a +perfectly candid spirit, but with too particular reference to the +present conditions within the Roman Church to help us much in our more +general survey. He mentions the drawbacks of an official philosophy, +prescribed by authority; 'only in 1835 did the Congregation of the Index +withdraw heliocentric books from its list.' He emphasises the necessity +of historical dogmas, but admits that orthodoxy cherishes, along with +them, 'fact-like historical pictures' which 'cannot be taken as +directly, simply factual.' He vindicates the orthodoxy of religious +toleration, and refuses to consign all non-Catholics to perdition, +lamenting the tendency to identify absolutely the visible and invisible +Church, which prevails among 'some of the (now dominant) Italian and +German Jesuit Canonists.' Lastly, he boldly recommends the frank +abandonment of the Papal claim to exercise temporal power in Italy. This +is not so much a critique of institutionalism as the plea of a Liberal +Catholic that the logic of institutionalism should not be allowed to +override all other considerations. The Baron is, indeed, himself a +mystic, though also a strong believer in the necessity of institutional +religion. + +We have then a considerable body of very competent opinion, that a man +cannot be a Christian unless he is a Churchman. To the mystic pure and +simple, such a statement seems monstrous. Did not even Augustine say, 'I +want to know God and my own soul; these two things, and no third +whatever'? What intermediary can there be, he will ask, between the soul +and God? What sacredness is there in an organisation? Is it not a matter +of common experience that the morality of an institution, a society, a +state, is inferior to that of the individuals who compose it? And is +organised Catholicism an exception to this rule? And yet we must admit +the glamour of the idea of a divine society. It arouses that _esprit de +corps_ which is the strongest appeal that can be made to some noble +minds. It calls for self-sacrifice and devoted labour in a cause which +is higher than private interest. It demands discipline and co-operation, +through which alone great things can be done on the field of history. It +holds out a prospect of really influencing the course of events. And if +there has been a historical Incarnation, it follows that God has +actually intervened on the stage of history, and that it is His will to +carry out some great and divine purpose in and by means of the course of +history. With this object, as the Catholic believes, He established an +institutional Church, pledged to the highest of all causes; and what +greater privilege can there be than to take part in this work, as a +soldier in the army of God in His long campaign against the spiritual +powers of evil? The Christian institutionalist is the servant of a grand +idea. + +There are, however, a few questions which we are bound to ask him. +First, is his idea of the Church Christian? Did the Founder of +Christianity contemplate or even implicitly sanction the establishment +of a semi-political international society, such as the Catholic Church +has actually been? Orthodox Catholicism maintains that He did. Modernism +admits that He did not, but adds that if He had known that the Messianic +expectation was illusory, and that the existing world-order was to +continue for thousands of years, He would certainly have wished that a +Catholic Church should exist. And, argues the Modernist, if it is a good +thing that a Catholic Church should exist, it is useless to quarrel with +the conditions under which alone it can maintain its existence. The +philosophical historian must admit that all the changes which the +Catholic Church has undergone--its concessions to Pagan superstition, +its secular power, its ruthless extirpation of rebels against its +authority, its steadily growing centralisation and autocracy--were +forced upon it in the struggle for existence. Those who wish that Church +history had been different are wishing the impossible, or wishing that +the Church had perished. But this argument is not valid as a defence of +a divine institution. It is rather a merciless exposure of what happens, +and must happen, to a great idea when it is enslaved by an institution +of its own creation. The political organisation which has grown up round +the idea ends by strangling it, and continues to fight for its own +preservation by the methods which govern the policy of all other +political organisations--force, fraud, and accommodation. There is +nothing in the political history of Catholicism which suggests in the +slightest degree that the spirit of Christ has been the guiding +principle in its councils. Its methods have, on the contrary, been more +cruel, more fraudulent, more unscrupulous, than those of most secular +powers. If the Founder of Christianity had appeared again on earth +during the so-called ages of faith, it is hardly possible to doubt that +He would, have been burnt alive or crucified again. What the Latin +Church preserved was not the religion of Christ, which lived on by its +inherent indestructibility, but parts of the Aristotelian and Platonic +philosophies, distorted and petrified by scholasticism, a vast quantity +of purely Pagan superstitions, and the _arcana imperii_ of Roman +Cæsarism. The normal end of Scholasticism is a mummified philosophy of +authority, in which there are no problems to solve, but a great many +dead pundits to consult. The normal end of a policy which exploits the +superstitions of the peasant is a desperate warfare against education. +The normal end of Roman Imperialism is a sultanate like that of +Diocletian. It is difficult to find a proof of infallible and +supernatural wisdom in the evolution of which these are the last terms. +We read with the utmost sympathy and admiration Baron von Hügel's loyal +and reverent appeals to the authorities of his Church, that they may +draw out the strong and beneficent powers of institutionalism, and avoid +its insidious dangers. But it may be doubted whether such a policy is +possible. The future of Roman Catholicism is, I fear, with the +Ultramontanes. They, and not the Modernists, are in the line of +development which Catholicism as an institution has consistently +followed, and must continue to follow to the end. I can see no other +fate in store for the _soma_ of Catholicism; the germ-cells of true +Christianity live their own life within it, and are transmitted without +taint to those who are born of the Spirit. + +We must further ask the institutionalist what are his grounds for +identifying the Church of God with the particular institution to which +he belongs. On the institutionalist hypothesis, it might have been +expected either that there would have been no divisions in Christendom, +or that all seceding bodies would have shown such manifest inferiority +in wisdom, morality, and sanctity, that the exclusive claims of the +Great Church would have been ratified at the bar of history. This is, in +fact, the claim which Roman Catholics make. But it can only be upheld by +writing history in the spirit of an advocate, or by giving a preference, +not in accordance with modern ethical views, to certain types of +character which are produced by the monastic life of the Catholic +'religious,' It is increasingly difficult to find, in the lives of those +who belong to any one denomination, proofs of marked superiority over +other Christians. Of course, we know little of the real character of our +neighbours as they appear in the eyes of God; but in considering a +theory which lays so much stress on history as Catholic institutionalism +does, we are bound to make use of such evidence as we have. And the +evidence does not support the theory that we cannot be Christians unless +we are Catholics. Nor does it even countenance the view that we cannot +be Christians unless we are enthusiastic members of _some_ religious +corporation. Professor Royce seems to have been carried away by the idea +which prompted him to write his book; but a little thought about the +characters of his acquaintances might have given him pause. + +The mechanical theory of devolution which assumes so much importance in +some fashionable Anglican teaching about the Church need not detain us +long. The logical choice must ultimately be between the great +international Catholic Church and what Auguste Sabatier called the +religion of the Spirit. The religion of all Protestants, when it is not +secularised, as it too often is, belongs to this latter type, even when +they lay most stress on the idea of brotherhood and corporate action. +For with them institutions are never much more than associations for +mutual help and edification. The Protestant always hopes to be saved +_qua_ Christian, not _qua_ Churchman. + +A third question which must be asked is whether institutionalism in +practice makes for unity among Christians, or for division. Too often +the chief visible sign of the 'corporate idea' of which so much is said, +is the rigidity of the spikes which it erects round its own particular +fold. The obstacles to acts of reunion (which in no way carry with them +the necessity of formal amalgamation) are raised almost exclusively by +stiff institutionalists. The much-discussed Kikuyu case has brought this +home to everybody. But for these uncompromising Churchmen, Christians of +all denominations would be glad enough to meet together at the Lord's +table on special occasions like the service which gave rise to this +controversy. Anglicans are well aware that the differences of opinion +within their body are far greater than those which separate some of them +from Protestant Nonconformity, and others of them from Home. Allegiance +to this or that denomination is generally an accident of early +surroundings. To make these external classifications into barriers which +cannot be crossed is either an absurdity or a confession that a Church +is a political aggregate. A Roman Monsignor explained, _à propos_ of the +Kikuyu service, that no Roman Catholic could ever communicate in a +Protestant church, because in so doing he would be guilty of an act of +apostasy, and would be no longer a Roman Catholic. The attitude is +consistent with the Roman claim to universal jurisdiction; for any other +body it would be absurd. The stiff institutionalist is debarred by his +theory from fraternising with many who should be his friends, while he +is bound to others with whom he has no sympathy. His theory is once more +found to conflict with the facts. + +Lastly, we must ask whether institutionalism is really a spiritual and +moral force. Of the advantages of _esprit de corps_ I have spoken +already. No one can doubt that unity is strength, or that Catholicism +has an immense advantage over its rivals in the efficiency of its +organisation. But is not this advantage dearly purchased? Party loyalty +is notoriously unscrupulous. The idealised institution becomes itself +the object of worship, and it is entirely forgotten that a Christian +Church ought to have no 'interests' except the highest welfare of +humanity. The substitution of military for civil ethics has worked +disastrously on the conduct of Churchmen. Theoretically it is admitted +by Roman casuists that an immoral order ought not to be obeyed; but it +is not for a layman to pronounce immoral any order received from a +priest; if the order is really immoral, 'obedience' exonerates him who +executes it; in all other cases disobedience is a deadly sin. The result +of this submission of private judgment is that the voice of conscience +is often stifled, and unscrupulous policies are carried through by +Churchmen, which secular public opinion would have condemned decisively +and rejected. The persecution of Dreyfus is a recent and strong +instance. If all France had been Catholic, the victim of this shocking +injustice would certainly have died in prison. It is extremely doubtful +whether the presence of a highly organised Church is conducive to moral +and social reform in a country. The temptation to play a political game +seems to be always too strong. In Ireland the priesthood has probably +helped to maintain a comparatively high standard of sexual morality, but +it cannot be said that the Irish Catholic population is in other +respects a model of civilisation and good citizenship. In education +especially the influence of ecclesiasticism has been almost uniformly +pernicious, so that it seems impossible for any country where the +children are left under priestly influence to rise above a certain +rather low level of civilisation. The strongest claim of +institutionalism to our respect is probably the beneficial restraint +which it exercises upon many persons who need moral and intellectual +guidance. It is the fashion to disparage the scholastic theology, and it +has certainly suffered by being congealed, like everything else that +Rome touches, into a hard system; but it is immeasurably superior to the +theosophies and fancy religions which run riot in the superficially +cultivated classes of Protestant countries. The undisciplined mystic, in +his reliance on the inner light, may fall into various kinds of +_Schwärmerei_ and superstition. In some cases he may even lose his +sanity for want of a wise restraining influence. It is not an accident +that America, where institutionalism is weakest, is the happy +hunting-ground of religious quacks and cranks. Individualists are too +prone to undervalue the steadying influence of ancient and consecrated +tradition, which is kept up mainly by ecclesiastical institutions. These +probably prevent many rash experiments from being tried, especially in +the field of morals. Even writers like Dr. Frazer insist on the immense +services which consecrated tradition still renders to humanity. These +claims may be admitted; but they come very far short of the +glorification of institutionalism which we found in the authors quoted a +few pages back. + +The institutionalist, however, may reply that he by no means admits the +validity of Sabatier's antithesis between religions of authority and the +religion of the Spirit. His own religion, he believes, is quite as +spiritual as that of the Protestant individualist. He may quote the fine +saying of a medieval mystic that he who can see the inward in the +outward is more spiritual than he who can only see the inward in the +inward. We may, indeed, be thankful that we have not to choose between +two mutually exclusive types of religion. The Quaker, whom we may take +as the type of anti-institutional mysticism, has a brotherhood to which +he is proud to belong, and for which he feels loyalty and affection. And +Catholicism has been rich in contemplative saints who have lived in the +light of the Divine presence. The question raised in this essay is +rather of the relative importance of these two elements in the religious +life, than of choosing one and rejecting the other. I will conclude by +saying that our preference of one of these types to the other will be +largely determined by our attitude towards history. I am glad to see +that Professor Bosanquet, in his fine Gifford Lectures, has the courage +to expose the limitations of the 'historical method,' now so popular. He +protests against Professor Ward's dictum that 'the actual is wholly +historical,' as a view little better than naïve realism. History, he +says, is a hybrid form of experience, incapable of any considerable +degree of being or trueness. It is a fragmentary diorama of finite +life-processes seen from the outside, and very imperfectly known. It +consists largely of assigning parts in some great world-experience to +particular actors--a highly speculative enterprise. To set these +contingent and dubious constructions above the operations of pure +thought and pure insight is indeed a return to the philosophy of the man +in the street. 'Social morality, art, philosophy, and religion take us +far beyond the spatio-temporal externality of history; these are +concrete and necessary living worlds, and in them the finite mind begins +to experience something of what individuality must ultimately mean.' Our +inquiry has thus led us to the threshold of one of the fundamental +problems of philosophy--the value and reality of time. For the +institutionalist, happenings in time have a meaning and importance far +greater than the mystic is willing to allow to them. Like most other +great philosophical problems, this question is largely one of +temperament. Christianity has found room for both types. I believe, +however, that the aberrations or exaggerations of institutionalism have +been, and are, more dangerous, and further removed from the spirit of +Christianity than those of mysticism, and that we must look to the +latter type, rather than to the former, to give life to the next +religious revival. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [90] Moore, _Science and the Faith_, Introduction. + + [91] Troeltsch, _Die Bedeutung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu + für den Glauben,_ pp. 25 _sq_. + + [92] Royce, _The Problem of Christianity_, vol. i. 39. + + + + +THE INDICTMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY + +(1917) + + +No thinking man can deny that this war has grievously stained the +reputation of Europe. Even if the verdict of history confirms the +opinion that the conspiracy which threw the torch into the +powder-magazine was laid by a few persons in one or two countries, and +that the unparalleled outrages which have accompanied the conflict were +ordered by a small coterie of brutal officers, we cannot forget that +these crimes have been committed by the responsible representatives of a +civilised European power, and that the nation which they represent has +shown no qualms of conscience. That such a calamity, the permanent +results of which include a holocaust of European wealth and credit, +accumulated during a century of unprecedented industry and ingenuity, +the loss of innumerable lives, and the destruction of all the old and +honourable conventions which have hitherto regulated the intercourse of +civilised nations with each other, in war as well as in peace, should +have been possible, is justly felt to be a reproach to the whole +continent, and especially to the nations which have taken the lead in +its civilisation and culture. The ancient races of Asia, which have +never admitted the moral superiority of the West, are keenly interested +spectators of our suicidal frenzy. A Japanese is reported to have said, +'We have only to wait a little longer, till Europe has completed her +_hara kiri_.' This is, indeed, what any intelligent observer must think +about the present struggle. Just as the feudal barons of England +destroyed each other and brought the feudal system to an end in the +Wars of the Roses, so the great industrial nations are rending to pieces +the whole fabric of modern industrialism, which can never be +reconstructed. Mr. Norman Angell was perfectly right in his argument +that a European war would be ruinous to both sides. The material objects +at stake, such as the control of the Turkish Empire and the African +continent, are not worth more than an insignificant fraction of the +war-bill. We are witnessing the suicide of a social order, and our +descendants will marvel at our madness, as we marvel at the senseless +wars of the past. + +There has, it is plain, been something fundamentally wrong with European +civilisation, and the disease appears to be a moral one. With this +conviction it is natural that men should turn upon the official +custodians of religion and morality, and ask them whether they have been +unfaithful to their trust, or whether it is not rather proved that the +faith which they profess is itself bankrupt and incapable of exerting +any salutary influence upon human character and action. Christianity +stands arraigned at the bar of public opinion. But it is not without +significance that the indictment should now be urged with a vehemence +which we do not find in the records of former convulsions. It was not +generally felt to be a scandal to Christianity that England was at war +for 69 years out of the 120 which preceded the battle of Waterloo. +Either our generation expected more from Christianity, or it was far +more shocked by the sudden outbreak of this fierce war than our +ancestors were by the almost chronic condition of desultory campaigning +to which they were accustomed. The latter is probably the true reason. +The belief in progress, which at the beginning of the industrial +revolution was an article of faith, had become a tacitly accepted +presupposition of all serious thought; and even those who were dubious +about the moral improvement of mankind in other directions, seldom +denied that we were more humane and peaceable than our forefathers. The +disillusion has struck our self-complacency in its most vital spot. +Nothing in our own experience had prepared us for the hideous savagery +and vandalism of German warfare, the first accounts of which we +received with blank amazement and incredulity. Then, when disbelief was +no longer possible, there awoke within us a sense of fear for our homes +and women and children--feeling to which modern civilised man had long +been a stranger. We had not supposed that the non-combatant population +of any European country would ever again be exposed to the horrors of +savage warfare. This, much more than the war itself, has made thousands +feel that the house of civilisation is built upon the sand, and that +Christianity has failed to subdue the most barbarous instincts of human +nature. Christians cannot regret that the flagrant contradiction between +the principles of their creed and the scenes that have been enacted +during the last three years is fully recognised. But the often repeated +statement that 'Christianity has failed' needs more examination than it +usually receives from those who utter it. + +History acquaints us with two kinds of religion, which, though they are +not entirely separate from each other, differ very widely in their +effects upon conduct and morality. The _religio_ which Lucretius hated, +and from which he strangely hoped that the atomistic materialism of +Epicurus had finally delivered mankind, has its roots in the sombre and +confused superstitions of the savage. Fear, as Statius and Petronius +tell us, created the gods of this religion. These deities are mysterious +and capricious powers, who exact vengeance for the transgression of +arbitrary laws which they have not revealed, and who must be propitiated +by public sacrifice, lest some collective punishment fall on the tribe, +blighting its crops and smiting its herds with murrain, or giving it +over into the hand of its enemies. This religion makes very little +attempt to correct the current standard of values. Its rewards are +wealth and prosperity; its punishments are calamity in this world and +perhaps torture in the next. It is not, however, incapable of +moralisation. The wrath of heaven may visit not the innocent violation +of some _tabu_, but cruelty and injustice. In the historical books of +the Old Testament, though Uzzah is stricken dead for touching the ark, +and the subjects of King David afflicted with pestilence because their +ruler took a census of his people, Jehovah is above all things a +righteous God, who punishes bloodshed, adultery, and social oppression. +So in Greece the Furies pursue the homicide and the perjurer, till the +name of his family is clean put out. Herodotus tells us how the family +of Glaucus was extinguished because he consulted the oracle of Delphi +about an act of embezzlement which he was meditating. + +International law was protected by the same fear of divine vengeance. +The murder of heralds must by all means be expiated. When the Romans +repudiate their 'scrap of paper' with the Samnites, they deliver up to +the enemy the officers who signed it, though (with characteristic +'slimness') not the army which the mountaineers had captured and +liberated under the agreement. To destroy the temples in an enemy's +country was an act of wanton impiety; Herodotus cannot understand the +religious intolerance which led the Persians to burn the shrines of +Greek gods. Thus religion had a restraining influence in war throughout +antiquity, and in the Middle Ages. The Pope, who was believed to hold +the keys of future bliss and torment, was frequently, though by no means +always, obeyed by the turbulent feudal lords, and often enforced the +sanctity of a contract by the threat or the imposition of +excommunication and interdict. In order to make these penalties more +terrible, the torments of those who died under the displeasure of the +Church were painted in the most vivid colours. But in the official and +popular Christian eschatology, as in the terrestrial theodicy of the Old +Testament, there is little or no moral idealism. The joys or pains of +the future life are made to depend, in part at least, on the observance +or violation of the moral law, but they are themselves of a kind which +the natural man would desire or dread. They are an enhanced, because a +deferred, retribution of the same kind which in more primitive religions +promises earthly prosperity to the righteous, and earthly calamities to +the wicked. Values, positive and negative, are taken nearly as they +stand in the estimation of the average man. + +But there is another religious tradition, which in Greece was almost +separated from the official and national cults, and among the Hebrews +was often in opposition to them. The Hebrew prophets certainly +proclaimed that 'the history of the world is the judgment of the world,' +and often assumed, too crudely as it seems to us, that national +calamities are a proof of national transgression; but the whole course +of development in prophecy was towards an autonomous morality based on a +spiritual valuation of life. Its quarrel with sacerdotalism was mainly +directed against the unethical _tabu_-morality of the priesthood; the +revolt was grounded in a lofty moral idealism, which found expression in +a half-symbolic vision of a coming state in which might and right should +coincide. The apocalyptic prophecies of post-exilic Judaism, which were +not based, like some political predictions of the earlier prophets, on a +statesmanlike view of the international situation, but on hopes of +supernatural intervention, had their roots in visions of a new and +better world-order. This aspiration, which had to disentangle itself by +degrees from the patriotic dreams of a stubborn and unfortunate race, +was projected into the near future, and was mixed with less worthy +political ambitions which had a different origin. The prophet always +foreshortens his revelation, and generally blends the city of God with a +vision of his own country transfigured. We see him doing this even +to-day, in his Utopian dreams of social reconstruction. + +And so it has always been. We remember Condorcet foretelling a reign of +truth and peace just before he was compelled to flee from the storm of +calumny to die in a damp cell at Bourg la Reine; and Kant hailing the +approach of a peaceful international republic while Napoleon was +preparing to drown Europe in blood. Apocalyptism is a compromise between +the religion of rewards and punishments and the religion of spiritual +deliverance. It calls a new world into existence to redress the balance +of the old; but its discontent with the old is mainly the result of a +moral and spiritual valuation of life. Greek philosophy has really much +in common with Hebrew prophecy, though the Greek envisaged his ideal +world as the eternal background of reality, and not under the form of +history. In its maturest form, it is a transvaluation of all values in +accordance with an absolute ideal standard--that of the Good, the True, +and the Beautiful. This idealism appears in a still more drastic form in +the religions of Asia, which preach deliverance by demonetising at a +stroke all the world's currency. Spiritual values are alone accepted; +man wins peace and freedom by renouncing in advance all of which fortune +may deprive him. + +We are apt to assume, in deference to our theories of human progress, +that the evolution of religion is normally from a lower to a higher +type. It would, indeed, be absurd to question that the religion of a +civilised people is usually more spiritual and more rational than that +of barbarians. But none the less, the history of religions is generally +a history of decline. In Judaism the prophets came before the Scribes +and the Pharisees. Brahmanism and Buddhism were both degraded by +superstitions and unethical rites. Christianity, which began as a +republication of the purest prophetic teaching, has suffered the same +fate. In each case, when the revelation has lost its freshness, and the +enthusiasm which it evoked has begun to cool, a reversion to older +habits of thought and customs takes place; and sometimes it may be said +that the old religion has really conquered the new. + +Christianity, as taught by its Founder, is based on a transvaluation of +values even more complete than that of Stoicism and the later Platonism, +because, while it regards the objects of ordinary ambition as a positive +hindrance to the higher life, it accepts and gives value to those pains +of sympathy which Greek thought dreaded, as detracting from the calm +enjoyment of the philosophic life. This acceptance of the world's +suffering, from which every other spiritual religion and philosophy +promise a way of escape, is perhaps the most distinctive feature of +Christian ethics. In practice, it thus achieves a more complete conquest +of evil than any other system; and by bringing sorrow and sympathy into +the Divine life, it not only presents the character and nature of the +Deity in a new light, but opens out a new ideal of moral perfection. +This is not the place for a discussion of the main characteristics of +the Gospel of Christ, and they are familiar to us all. But, since we are +now considering the charge of failure brought against Christianity in +connexion with the present world-war, it seems necessary to emphasise +two points which are not always remembered. + +The first is that there is no evidence that the historical Christ ever +intended to found a new institutional religion. He neither attempted to +make a schism in the Jewish Church nor to substitute a new system for +it. He placed Himself deliberately in the prophetic line, only claiming +to sum up the series in Himself. The whole manner of His life and +teaching was prophetic. The differences which undoubtedly may be found +between His style and that of the older prophets do not remove Him from +the company in which He clearly wished to stand. He treated the +institutional religion of His people with the independence and +indifference of the prophet and mystic; and the hierarchy, which, like +other hierarchies, had a sure instinct in discerning a dangerous enemy, +was not slow to declare war to the knife against Him. Such, He reminded +His enemies, was the treatment which all the prophets had met with from +the class to which those enemies belonged. This, then, is the first fact +to remember. Institutional Christianity may be a legitimate and +necessary historical development from the original Gospel, but it is +something alien to the Gospel itself. The first disciples believed that +they had the Master's authority for expecting the end of the existing +world-order in their own lifetime. They believed that He had come +forward with the cry of 'Hora novissima!' Whether they misunderstood Him +or not, they clearly could not have held this opinion if they had +received instructions for the constitution of a Church. + +The second point on which it is necessary to insist is that Christ never +expected, or taught His disciples to expect, that His teaching would +meet with wide acceptance, or exercise political influence. 'The +world'--organised human society--was the enemy and was to continue the +enemy. His message, He foresaw, would be scorned and rejected by the +majority; and those who preached it were to expect persecution. This +warning is repeated so often in the Gospels that it would be superfluous +to give quotations. He made it quite plain that the big battalions are +never likely to be gathered before the narrow gate. He declared that +only false prophets are well spoken of by the majority. When we consider +the revolutionary character of the Christian idealism, its indifference +to nearly all that passes for 'religion' with the vulgar, and its +reversal of all current valuations, it is plain that it is never likely +to be a popular creed. As surely as the presence of high spiritual +instincts in the human mind guarantees its indestructibility, so surely +the deeply-rooted prejudices which keep the majority on a lower level +must prevent the Gospel of Christ from dominating mundane politics or +social life. + +Moreover, the actual extent of its influence cannot be estimated. The +inwardness and individualism of its teaching make its apparent +effectiveness smaller than its real power, which works secretly and +unobserved. The vices which Christ regarded with abhorrence are +perversions of character--hypocrisy, hard-heartedness, and worldliness +or secularity; and who can say what degree of success the Gospel has +achieved in combating these? The method of Christianity is alien to all +externalism and machinery; it does not lend itself to those +accommodations and compromises without which nothing can be done in +politics. As Harnack says, the Gospel is not one of social improvement, +but of spiritual redemption. Its influence upon social and political +life is indirect and obscure, operating through a subtle modification of +current valuations, and curbing the competitive and acquisitive +instincts, which nearly correspond with what Christ called 'Mammon' and +St. Paul 'the flesh.' Christianity is a spiritual dynamic, which has +very little to do directly with the mechanism of social life. + +It is, therefore, certain that when we speak of Christianity as a +factor in human life, we must not identify it with the opinions or +actions of the multitudes who are nominally Christians. We must not even +identify it, without qualification, with the types of character +exhibited by those who try to frame their lives in accordance with its +precepts. For these types are very largely determined by the ideals +which belong to the stage through which the life of the race is passing; +and these differ so widely in different ages and countries that the +historian of religion might well despair if he was compelled to regard +them all as typical manifestations of the same idea. There are times +when the disciple of Christ seems to turn his back upon society; he is +occupied solely with the relation of the individual soul to God. These +are periods when the opportunities for social service are much +restricted by a faulty structure of the body politic; periods when +secular civilisation is so brutal, or so servile, that the religious +life can only be led in seclusion from it. At another time the typical +Christian seems to be the active and valiant soldier of a militant +corporation. At another, again, he is a philanthropist, who devotes his +life to the redress of some great wrong, such as slavery, or the +promotion of a more righteous system of production and distribution. In +all these types we can trace the operation of the genius of +Christianity, but they are partial manifestations of it, with much alien +admixture. The spirit of the age, as well as the spirit of Christ, has +moulded the various types of Christian piety. + +If there has ever been a time when organised Christianity was a concrete +embodiment of the pure principles of the Gospel, we must look for it in +the era of the persecutions, when the Church had already gained +coherence and discipline and a corporate self-consciousness, and was +still preserved from the corrupting influence of secularity by the +danger which attended the profession of an illicit creed. A vivid +picture of the Christian communities at this period has been given by +Dobschütz, whose learning and impartiality are unimpeachable. The Church +at this time demanded from its followers an unreserved confession, even +when this meant death. It was a brotherhood within which there was no +privileged class. Men and women, the free and the slave, had an equal +share in it. It abolished the fundamental Greek distinction of civilised +and barbarian. It looked with contempt on none. Its great organisation +was spread by purely voluntary means, till it gained a firm footing +throughout the Empire and beyond it. To a large extent it was an +association for mutual aid. Wherever anyone was in need, help was at +hand. The tangible advantages of belonging to such a guild were so great +that the Church had to enforce labour on all who could work, as a +condition of sharing in the benefits of membership. Social distinctions, +such as those of rich and poor, master and slave, were not abolished, +but they had lost their sting, because genuine affection, loyalty and +sympathy neutralised these inequalities. Great importance was laid on +truth, integrity in business, and sexual purity. A complete rupture with +pagan standards of morality was insisted on from new members. The human +body must be kept holy, as the temple of God. Revenge was forbidden, and +injustice was endured with meekness and pardon. This is no imaginary +picture. In that brief golden age of the Church, such were indeed the +characteristics of the Christian society. In the opinion of Dobschütz +the moral condition of the Church in the second century was much higher +than among St. Paul's converts in the first. The paucity of references +to sins of the flesh, and to fraud, is to be accounted for by the actual +rarity of such offences. For a short time, then, the artificial +selection effected by the persecutions kept the Church pure; and from +the happy pictures which we can reconstruct of this period we can judge +what a really Christian society would be like. + +The history of institutional Catholicism must be approached from a +different side. Troeltsch argues with much cogency that the Catholic +Church must be regarded rather as the last creative achievement of +classical antiquity than as the beginning of the Middle Ages. Its growth +belongs mainly to the political history of Europe; the strictly +religious element in it is quite subordinate. There is, as Modernist +critics have seen, a real break between the Palestinian Gospel and the +elaborate mystery-religion, with its graded hierarchy, its Roman +organisation, its Hellenistic speculative theology, which achieved the +conquest of the Empire in the fourth century. The Church, as Loisy says, +determined to survive and to conquer, and adapted itself to the demands +of the time. It has travelled far from the simple teaching of the +earthly Christ; though we may, if we choose, hold that His spirit +continued to direct the growing and changing institution which, as a +matter of history, had its source in the Galilean ministry. In truth, +however, the extremely efficient organisation of the Roman Church began +in self-defence and was continued for conquest. It is one of the +strongest of all human institutions, so that it was said before the war +that it is one of the 'three invincibles,' the other two being the +German Army and the Standard Oil Trust. + +But our admiration for the subtle and tenacious power of this +corporation must not blind us to its essentially political character. +Its policy has been always directed to self-preservation and +aggrandisement; it is an _imperium in imperio_, which has only checked +fanatical nationalism by the competing influence of a still more +fanatical partisanship. In the present war, the problem before the +Pope's councillors was whether the friendship of the Central Powers or +that of the Entente was best worth cultivating; and the unshaken loyalty +of Austria to the Church, together with a natural preference for German +methods of governing as compared with democracy, turned the scale +against us. In Ireland, in Canada and in Spain the Catholic priests have +been formidable enemies of our cause. As for the other Churches, they +have not the same power of arbitrating in national quarrels. The Russian +Church has never been independent of the secular government; and the +Anglican and Lutheran Churches can hardly be expected to be impartial +when the vital interests of England or Germany are at stake. Lovers of +peace have not much to hope for from organised religion. National +Christianity, as Mr. Bernard Shaw says, will only be possible when we +have a nation of Christs. + +The downfall of the medieval European system, though in truth it was a +theory rather than a fact, has removed some of the restraints upon war. +The determining principle of the medieval political theory was the +conception of a 'lex Dei,' which included the 'lex Mosis,' the 'lex +Christi,' and the 'lex ecclesiae,' but which also, as 'lex naturæ,' +comprised the law, science, and ethics of antiquity. These laws were +super-national, and no nation dared explicitly to repudiate them. They +formed the basis of a real system of international law, resting, like +everything else in the Middle Ages, on supposed divine authority. + +This theory, with its sanctions, was shattered at the Renaissance; and +the Machiavellian doctrine of the absolute State, accepted by Bacon and +put into practice by Frederick the Great, has prevailed ever since, +though not without frequent protests. The rise of nationalities, each +with an intense self-consciousness, has facilitated the adoption of a +theory too grossly immoral to have found favour except in the peculiar +circumstances of modern civilisation. The emergence of nationalities was +often connected with a legitimate struggle for freedom; and at such +times _esprit de corps_ seems to be almost the sum of morality, the +substitute for all other virtues. Loyalty is one of the most attractive +of moral qualities, and it necessarily inhibits criticism of its own +objects, which has the appearance of treason. But, unless the aims of +the corporate body which claims our absolute allegiance are right and +reasonable, loyalty may be, and often has been, the parent of hideous +crimes, and a social evil of the first magnitude. The perversion of +_esprit de corps_ does incalculable harm in every direction, destroying +all sense of honour and justice, of chivalry and generosity, of sympathy +and humanity. It involves a complete repudiation of Christianity, which +breaks down all barriers by ignoring them, and insists on love and +justice towards all mankind without distinction. The worship of the +State has during the last half-century been sedulously and artificially +fostered in Germany, until it has produced a kind of moral insanity. +Even philosophical historians like Troeltsch seem unable to see the +monstrosity of a political doctrine which has caused his country to be +justly regarded as the enemy of the whole human race. Eucken, writing +some years before the war, in a rather gingerly manner deprecates +_Politismus_ as a national danger; but he does not dare to grasp the +nettle firmly. It is possible that this deification of the State in +Germany may be in part due to an unsatisfied instinct of worship. In +Roman Catholic countries, where there must be a divided allegiance, +patriotism never, perhaps, assumes such sinister and fanatical forms. + +But we shall not understand the attraction which this naked immoralism +in international affairs exercises over the minds of many who are not +otherwise ignoble, if we do not remember that the repudiation of the +Christian ethical standard has been equally thorough in commercial +competition. The German officer believes himself to have chosen a +morally nobler profession than that of the business-man; he serves (he +thinks) a larger cause, and he is content with much less personal +reward. Socialist assailants of our industrial system, much as they +dislike war, would probably agree with him. It is not necessary to +condemn all competition. The desire to excel others is not +reprehensible, when the rivalry is in rendering useful social service. +But it cannot be denied that the present condition of industry is such +that a heavy premium is offered to mere cupidity; that the fraternal +social life which Christianity enjoins is often literally impossible, +except at the cost of economic suicide; and that in a competitive system +a business man is, by the very force of circumstances, a warrior, though +war is an enemy of love and destructive of Christian society. When the +object of bargaining is to give as little and gain as much as possible, +the Christian standard of values has been rejected as completely as it +was by Machiavelli himself. The competition between two parties to a +bargain is often a competition in unserviceableness. Money is very +frequently made by creating a local and temporary monopoly, which +enables the vendor to squeeze the purchaser. In all such transactions +one man's gain is another man's loss. This state of things, the evils of +which are almost universally recognised and deplored, marks the end of +the glorification of productive industry which was one result of the +Reformation. + +Hardly anything distinguishes modern from medieval ethics more sharply +than the emphasis laid by Protestant morality on the duty of making and +producing something tangible. Theoretically the Protestant may hold that +'doing ends in death,' and he may sing these words on Sunday; but his +whole life on week days is occupied in strenuous 'doing.' We find in +Calvinism and Quakerism the genuinely religious basis of the modern +business life, which, however, has degenerated sadly, now that the +largest fortunes are made by dealing in money rather than in +commodities. In the books of Samuel Smiles, and in Clough's poem +beginning 'Hope ever more and believe, O Man,' we find the Gospel of +productive work preached with fervour. It is out of favour now in +England; but in America we still see quaint attempts to make business a +religion, as in the Middle Ages religion was a business. In these +circles, it is productive activity as such to which value is attached, +without much enquiry as to the utility of the product. The result has +been an immense accumulation of the apparatus of life, without any +corresponding elevation in moral standards. The mischiefs wrought by +modern commercialism are largely the fruit of the purely irrational +production which it encourages. There are, says Professor Santayana, +Nibelungen who toil underground over a gold which they will never use, +and in their obsession with production begrudge themselves all +inclinations to recreation, to merriment, to fancy. Visible signs of +such unreason appear in the relentless and hideous aspect which life +puts on; for those instruments which emancipate themselves from their +uses soon become hateful. 'A barbaric civilisation, built on blind +impulse and ambition, should fear to awaken a deeper detestation than +could ever be aroused by those more beautiful tyrannies, chivalrous or +religious, against which past revolutions have been directed.' We +cannot, indeed, be surprised that this ideal of productive work as a +means of grace, precious for its own sake, has no attraction for the +masses, and that independent thinkers like Edward Carpenter should write +books on 'Civilisation, its Cause and Cure.' + +This Puritan ideal is not so much unchristian as narrow and +unintelligent; but the money-making life has of late become more and +more frankly predatory and anti-social. The great trusts, and the arts +of the company-promoter, can hardly be said to perform any social +service; they exist to levy tribute on the public. We may say therefore +that, though war between the leading nations of the world had become a +strange idea and a far-off memory, we had by no means risen above the +principles and practices of war in our internal life. The immunity from +militarism hitherto enjoyed by Britain and the United States was a +fortunate accident, not a proof of higher morality. Our fleet protected +both ourselves and the Americans from the necessity of maintaining a +conscript army; but we had drifted into a condition in which civil war +seemed not to be far off, and in which violence and lawlessness were +increasing. By a strange inconsistency, many who on moral or religious +grounds condemned wars between nations were found to condone or justify +acts of war against the State, organised by discontented factions of its +citizens. Revolutionary strikes, prepared long in advance by forced +levies of money which were candidly called war-funds, had as their +avowed aim the paralysis of the industries of the country and the +reduction of the population to distress by withholding the necessaries +of life. These acts of civil war, and disgraceful outbreaks of criminal +anarchism, were justified by persons who professed a conscientious +objection to defending their homes and families against a foreign +invader. This state of mind proves how little essential connexion there +is between democracy and peace. It discloses a confusion of ideas even +greater than the antithesis between industrialism and militarism in the +writings of Herbert Spencer. On this latter fallacy it is enough to +quote the words of Admiral Mahan; 'As far as the advocacy of peace rests +on material motives like economy and prosperity, it is the service of +Mammon; and the bottom of the platform will drop out when Mammon thinks +that war will pay better.' This is notoriously what has happened in +Germany. A short war, with huge indemnities, seemed to German financiers +a promising speculation. If such were the rotten foundations upon which +anti-militarism in this country was based, the Churches cannot be blamed +for giving the peace-movement a rather lukewarm support. + +In Germany there was no internal anarchy, such as prevailed in England; +there was also no illusion about the imminence of war. Our politicians +ought to have read the signs of the times better; but they were too +intent on feeling the pulse of the electorate at home to attend to +disturbing and unwelcome symptoms abroad. The causes of the war are not +difficult to determine. War has long been a national industry of +Germany, and the idea of it evoked no moral repugnance. The military +virtues were extolled; the military profession enjoyed an astonishing +social prestige; the learned class proclaimed the biological necessity +of international conflicts. The army believed itself to be invincible, +and it had begun to control the policy of the country; where these two +conditions exist, no diplomacy can avert war. Professionalism always has +a selfish and anti-social element in its code, and the professionalism +of the soldier is always prone to override the rights and disdain the +scruples of civilians. + +The dominant classes in Germany also found that their power was being +undermined by the growing industrialisation. The steady increase in the +social-democratic vote was a portent not to be disregarded. A letter +from a German officer to a friend in Roumania, which found its way into +the newspapers, tells a great deal of truth in a few words. 'You cannot +conceive,' he wrote, 'what difficulty we had in persuading our Emperor +that it was necessary to let loose this war. But it has been done; and I +hope that for a long time to come we shall hear no more in Germany of +pacifism, internationalism, democracy, and similar pestilent doctrines.' +Sir Charles Walston, in his thoughtful book 'Aristodemocracy,' lays +great stress on this. 'It appeared to me,' he says, 'ever since 1905, +that in the immediate future it was all a question as to whether the +labour-men, the practical pacifists, would arrive at the realisation of +their power before the militarists had forced a war upon us, or whether +the military powers would anticipate this result, and within the next +few years force a war upon the world.' To the influence of the military +was added the cupidity of the commercial and financial class. The law of +diminishing returns was driving capital further and further afield; and +large profits, it was hoped, might be made by the exploitation of +backward countries and the reduction of their inhabitants to serfdom. To +a predatory and parasitic class war seems only a logical extension of +the principles upon which it habitually acts; and for this reason +privileged orders seldom feel much moral compunction about a war-policy. +Lastly, among the causes of the war must be reckoned one which has +received far too little attention from social and political +philosophers--the tenacious and half-unconscious memories of a race. +Injustice comes home to roost, sometimes after an astonishingly long +interval. The disaffection of Catholic Ireland would be quite +unintelligible without the massacres of the sixteenth century and the +unjust trade-legislation of the seventeenth and eighteenth. The +bitterness of the working class in England has its roots in the earlier +period of the industrial revolution (about 1760-1832), when the +labourer, with his wife and children, was treated as the 'cannon-fodder' +of industry. Similarly, the seeds of Prussian brutality and +aggressiveness were sown at Jena and in the raiding of Prussia for +recruits before the Moscow expedition. If such were the causes of the +great world-war, how little can be hoped from courts of international +arbitration! + +These considerations have, perhaps, made it clear that the main causes +of international conflicts are what the Epistle of St. James declares +them to be--'the lusts that war in your members,' the pugnacious and +acquisitive instincts which pervade our social life in times of peace, +and not least in those nations which pride themselves on having advanced +beyond the militant stage. There are some who accept this state of +things as natural and necessary, and who blame Christianity for carrying +on a futile campaign against human nature. This is a very different +indictment from that which condemns Christianity for tolerating a +preventible evil; and it is, in our opinion, even less justified. The +argument that, because war has always existed, it must always continue +to exist, is justly ridiculed by Mr. Norman Angell. 'It is commonly +asserted that old habits of thought can never be shaken; that, as men +have been, so they will be. That, of course, is why we now eat our +enemies, enslave their children, examine witnesses with the thumbscrew, +and burn those who do not attend the same church.' + +The long history of war as a racial habit explains why a ruinous and +insane anachronism shows such tenacity; for the conditions which +established the habit among primitive tribes demonstrably no longer +exist. It is probably true, as William James says, that 'militarist +writers without exception regard war as a biological or sociological +necessity'; lawyers might say the same about litigation. But laws of +nature 'are not efficient causes, and it is open to any one to prove +that they are not laws, if he can break them with impunity. It would be +the height of pessimistic fatalism to hold that men must always go on +doing that which they hate, and which brings them to misery and ruin. +Man is not bound for ever by habits contracted during his racial nonage; +his moral, rational, and spiritual instincts are as natural as his +physical appetites; and against them, as St. Paul says, 'there is no +law,' Huxley's Romanes Lecture gave an unfortunate support to the +mischievous notion that the 'cosmic process' is the enemy of morality. +The truth seems to be that Nature presents to us not a categorical +imperative, but a choice. Do we prefer to pay our way in the world, or +to be parasites? War, with very few exceptions, is a mode of parasitism. +Its object is to exploit the labour of other nations, to make them pay +tribute, or to plunder them openly, as the Germans have plundered the +cities of Belgium. War is a parasitic industry; and Christianity forbids +parasitism. Nature has her own penalties for the lower animals which +make this choice, and they strike with equal severity 'the peoples that +delight in war,' The bellicose nations have nearly all perished. + +There remains, however, a class of wars which escapes this +condemnation; and about them difficult moral problems may be raised. We +can hardly deny to a growing and civilised nation the right to expand at +the expense of barbarous hunters and nomads. No one would suggest that +the Americans ought to give back their country to the Indians, or that +Australia should be abandoned to the aborigines. But were the +Anglo-Saxons justified in expropriating the Britons, and the Spaniards +the Aztecs? There is room for differences of opinion in these cases; and +a very serious problem may arise in the future, as to whether the +European races are morally justified in using armed force to restrict +Asiatic competition. As a general principle, we must condemn the +expropriation of any nation which is in effective occupation of the +soil. The popular estimate of superior and inferior races is thoroughly +unchristian and unscientific, as is the prejudice against a dark skin. +The opinion that a nation which is increasing in population has a right +to expel the inhabitants of another country to make room for its own +emigrants is surely untenable. If it justifies war at all, it sanctions +a war of extermination, which would attain its objects most completely +by massacring girls and young women. The pressure of population is a +real cause of war; but the moral is, not that war is right, but that a +nation must cut its coat according to its cloth, and limit its numbers. + +Unless we justify wars of extermination, war has no biological sanction, +and Christianity is not flying in the face of nature by condemning it. +On the contrary, by condemning every form of parasitism, it indicates +the true path of evolution. It is equally right in rejecting the purely +economic valuation of human goods. The 'economic man' does not exist in +nature; he is a fictitious creature who is responsible for a great deal +of social injustice. Some modern economists, like Mr. Hobson, would +substitute for the old monetary standards of production and distribution +an attempt to estimate the 'human costs' of labour. Creative work +involving ingenuity and artistic qualities is not 'costly' at all, +unless the hours of labour, or the nervous strain, exceed the powers of +the worker. More monotonous work is not costly to the worker if the +day's labour is fairly short, or if some variety can be introduced. The +human cost is greatly increased if the worker thinks that his labour is +useless, or that it will only benefit those who do not deserve the +enjoyment of its fruits. Work which only produces frivolous luxuries is +and ought to be unwelcome to the producer, even if he is well paid. It +must also be emphasised that worry and anxiety take the heart out of a +man more than anything else. Security of employment greatly reduces the +'human cost' of labour. These considerations are comparatively new in +political economy. They change it from a highly abstract science into a +study of the conditions of human welfare as affected by social +organisation. The change is a victory for the ideas of Buskin and +Morris, though not necessarily for the practical remedies for social +maladjustments which they propounded. It brings political economy into +close relations with ethics and religion, and should induce economists +to consider carefully the contribution which Christianity makes to the +solution of the whole problem. For Christianity has its remedy to +propose, and it is a solution of the problem of war, not less than of +industrial evils. + +Christianity gives the world a new and characteristic standard of +values. It diminishes greatly the values which can accrue from +competition, and enhances immeasurably the non-competitive values. 'A +man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he +possesseth.' 'Is not the life more than meat, and the body than +raiment?' 'The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness +and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.' Passages like these are found in +every part of the New Testament. This Christian idealism has a direct +bearing on the doctrine of 'human costs.' Work is irksome, not only when +it is excessive or ill-paid, but when the worker is lazy, selfish, +envious or discontented. There is one thing which can make almost any +work welcome. If it is done from love or unselfish affection, the human +cost is almost _nil_, because it is not counted or consciously felt. +This is no exaggeration when it is applied to the devoted labour of the +mother and the nurse, or to that of the evangelist conscious of a divine +vocation. But in all useful work the keen desire to render social +service, or to do God's will, diminishes to an incalculable extent the +'human cost' of labour. This principle introduces a deep cleavage +between the Christian remedy and that of political socialism, which +fosters discontent and indignation as a lever for social amelioration. +Men are made unhappy in order that they may be urged to claim a larger +share of the world's wealth. Christianity considers that, measured by +human costs, the remedy is worse than the disease. The adoption of a +truer standard of value would tear up the lust of accumulation by the +roots, and would thus effect a real cure. It would also stop the +grudging and deliberately bad work which at present seriously diminishes +the national wealth. + +The Christian cure is the only real cure. It is the fashion to assume +that militarism and cupidity are vices of the privileged classes, and +that democracies may be trusted neither to plunder the minority at home +nor to seek foreign adventures by unjust wars. There is not the +slightest reason to accept either of these views. Political power is +always abused; an unrepresented class is always plundered. Nor are +democracies pacific, except by accident. At present they do not wish to +see the capital which they regard as their prospective prey dissipated +in war; and for this reason their influence in our time will probably be +on the side of peace. But, as soon as the competition of cheap Asiatic +labour becomes acute, we may expect to see the democracies bellicose and +the employing class pacific. This is not guess-work; we already see how +the democracies of California and Australia behave towards immigrants +from Asia. Readers of Anatole France will remember his description of +the economic wars decreed by the Senate of the great republic, at the +end of 'L'Île des Pingouins.' It would, indeed, be difficult to prove +that the expansion of the United States has differed much, in methods +and morals, from that of the European monarchies; and the methods of +trade-unions are the methods of pitiless belligerency. Democracy and +socialism are broken reeds for the lover of peace to lean upon. + +In conclusion, our answer to the indictment against Christianity is +that institutional religion does not represent the Gospel of Christ, but +the opinions of a mass of nominal Christians. It cannot be expected to +do much more than look after its own interests and reflect the moral +ideas of its supporters. The real Gospel, if it were accepted, would +pull up by the roots not only militarism but its analogue in civil life, +the desire to exploit other people for private gain. But it is not +accepted. We have seen that the Founder of Christianity had no illusions +as to the reception which His message of redemption would meet with. The +'Prince of this World' is not Christ, but the Devil. Nevertheless, He +did speak of the 'whole lump' being gradually leavened, and we shall not +exceed the limits of a reasonable and justifiable optimism if we hope +that the accumulated experience of humanity, and perhaps a real though +very slow modification for the better of human nature itself, may at +last eliminate the wickedest and most insane of our maleficent +institutions. The human race has probably hundreds of thousands of years +to live, whereas our so-called civilisation cannot be traced back for +more than a few thousand years. The time when 'nation shall not lift up +sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,' will +probably come at last, though no one can predict what the conditions +will be which will make such a change possible. + +The signs are not very favourable at present for internationalism. The +great nations, bankrupt and honey-combed with social unrest, will be +obliged after the war to organise themselves as units, with governments +strong enough to put down revolutions, and directed by men of the +highest mercantile ability, whose main function will be to increase +productiveness and stop waste. We may even see Germany mobilised as one +gigantic trust for capturing markets and regulating prices. A +combination so formidable would compel other nations, and our own +certainly among the number, to adopt a similar organisation. This would, +of course, mean a complete victory for bureaucratic state-socialism, and +the defeat of democracy and trade-union syndicalism. Such a change, +which few would just now welcome, will occur if no other form of state +is able to survive; and this is what we may live to see. But there is +no finality about any experiments in government. A period of +internationalism may follow the intense nationalism which historical +critics foresee for the twentieth century. Or perhaps the international +labour-organisations may be too strong for the centralising forces. It +is just possible that Labour, by a concerted movement during the violent +reaction against militarism which will probably follow the war, will +forbid any further military or naval preparations to be made. + +Whatever forms reconstruction may take, Christianity will have its part +to play in making the new Europe. It will be able to point to the +terrible vindication of its doctrines in the misery and ruin which have +overtaken a world which has rejected its valuations and scorned its +precepts. It is not Christianity which has been judged and condemned at +the bar of civilisation; it is civilisation which has destroyed itself +because it has honoured Christ with its lips, while its heart has been +far from Him. But a spiritual religion can win a victory only within its +own sphere. It can promise no Deuteronomic catalogue of blessings and +cursings to those who obey or disobey its principles. Social happiness +and peace would certainly follow a whole-hearted acceptance of Christian +principles; but they would not certainly bring wealth or empire. +'Philosophy,' said Hegel, 'will bake no man's bread'; and it is only in +a spiritual sense that the meek-spirited can expect to possess the +earth. Nevertheless, it is a mistake to suppose that a Christian nation +would be unable to hold its own in the struggle for existence. A nation +in which every citizen endeavoured to pay his way and to help his +neighbour would be in no danger of servitude or extinction. The mills of +God grind slowly, but the future does not belong to lawless violence. In +the long run, the wisdom that is from above will be justified in her +children. + + + + +SURVIVAL AND IMMORTALITY + +(1917) + + +The recrudescence of superstition in England was plain to all observers +many years before the war; it was perhaps most noticeable among the +half-educated rich. Several causes contributed to this phenomenon. The +craving for the supernatural, a very ancient and deeply rooted +thought-habit, had been suppressed and driven underground by the +arrogant dominance of a materialistic philosophy, and by the absorption +of society in the pursuit of gain and pleasure. Modern miracles were +laughed out of court. But materialism has supernaturalism for its +nemesis. An abstract science, erecting itself into a false philosophy, +leaves half our nature unsatisfied, and becomes morally bankrupt before +its intellectual errors are exposed. Supernaturalism is the refuge of +the materialist who wishes to make room for ideal values without +abandoning the presuppositions of materialism. By dovetailing acts of +God into the order of nature, he materialises the spiritual, but brings +the Divine will into the world of experience, from which it had been +expelled, and produces a rough scheme of providential government, by +which he can live. + +The revolt against scientific materialism was made much easier by the +disintegration of the mechanical theory itself. Biology found itself +cramped by the categories of inorganic science, and claimed its +autonomy. The result was a fatal breach in the defences of materialism, +for biology is being driven to accept final causes, and would be glad to +adopt some theory of vitalism, if it could do so without falling back +into the old error of a mysterious 'vital force.' Biological truth, it +is plain, cannot be reduced to the purely quantitative categories of +mathematics and physics. Then psychology aspired to be a philosophy of +real existence, and attacked both absolutism and materialism. The +pretensions of psychology rehabilitated subjectivism and founded +pragmatism, till reactionary theology took heart of grace and defended +crude supernaturalism, with the whole apparatus of sacerdotal magic, as +the 'Gospel for human needs.' All protection against the grossest +superstitions was thus swept away. With no fixed standard of reference +to distinguish fact from fiction, it was possible to argue that +'whatever suits souls is true.' + +In this atmosphere many old habits of thought reasserted themselves. +While we enjoyed peace and prosperity, the credulity of the public found +its chief outlet in various systems of faith-healing and in the +time-honoured pretensions of priest-craft. But the devastation which the +war has brought into countless loving families has turned the current of +superstition strongly towards necromancy. The 'will to believe,' no +longer inhibited and suspected as a reason for doubt, has been allowed +to create its own logic. A few highly educated men, who have long been +playing with occultism and gratifying their intellectual curiosity by +exploring the dark places of perverted mysticism, have been swept off +their feet by it, and their authority, as 'men of science,' has +dispelled the hesitation of many more to accept what they dearly wished +to believe. The longing of the bereaved has created for itself a +spurious and dreary satisfaction. + +One cause of this strange movement cannot be emphasised too strongly. It +proves that the Christian hope of immortality burns very dimly among us. +Those who study the utterances of our religious guides must admit that +it is so. References to the future life had, before the war, become rare +even in the pulpit. The topic was mainly reserved for letters of +condolence, and was then handled gingerly, as if it would not bear much +pressure. Working-class audiences and congregations listened eagerly to +the wildest promises of an earthly utopia the day after tomorrow, but +cooled down at once when they were reminded that 'if in this life only +we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.' Accordingly, +the clerical demagogue showed more interest in the unemployed than in +the unconverted. Christianity, which began as a revolutionary idealism, +had sunk into heralding materialistic revolution. Such teachers have no +message of hope and comfort for those who have lost their dearest. And +they have, in fact, been deserted. Their secularised Christianity was +received with half-contemptuous approval by trade unions, but far deeper +hopes, fears, and longings have now been stirred, which concern all men +and women alike, and on the answers to which the whole value of +existence is now seen to depend. Christianity can answer them, but not +the Churches through the mouths of their accredited representatives. And +so, instead of 'the blessed hope of everlasting life,' the bereaved have +been driven to this pathetic and miserable substitute, the barbaric +belief in ghosts and dæmons, which was old before Christianity was +young. And what a starveling hope it is that necromancy offers us! An +existence as poor and unsubstantial as that of Homer's Hades, which the +shade of Achilles would have been glad to exchange for serfdom to the +poorest farmer, and with no guarantee of permanence, even if the power +of comforting or terrifying surviving relations is supposed to persist +for a few years. Such a prospect would add a new terror to death; and +none would desire it for himself. It is plainly the dream of an aching +heart, which cannot bear to be left alone. + +But, it will be said, there is scientific evidence for survival. This +claim is now made. Cases are reported, with much parade of scientific +language and method, and those who reject the stories with contemptuous +incredulity are accused of mere prejudice. Nevertheless, I cannot help +being convinced that if communications between the dead and the living +were part of the nature of things, they would have been established long +ago beyond cavil. For there are few things which men have wished more +eagerly to believe. It is no doubt just possible that among the +vibrations of the fundamental ingredients of our world--those attenuated +forms of matter which are said to be not even 'material,' there may be +some which act as vehicles for psychical interchange. If such psychic +waves exist, the discovery is wholly in favour of materialism. It would +tend to rehabilitate those notions of spirit as the most rarefied form +of matter--an ultra-gaseous condition of it--which Stoicism and the +Christian Stoic Tertullian postulated. The meaning of 'God is Spirit' +could not be understood till this insidious residue of materialism had +been got rid of. It is a retrograde theory which we are asked to +re-examine and perhaps accept. The moment we are asked to accept +'scientific evidence' for spiritual truth, the alleged spiritual truth +becomes for us neither spiritual nor true. It is degraded into an event +in the phenomenal world, and when so degraded it cannot be +substantiated. Psychical research is trying to prove that eternal values +are temporal facts, which they can never be. + +The case for necromancy is no better if we leave 'scientific proof' +alone, and appeal to the relativist metaphysics of the psychological +school. Intercourse with the dead is, we are told, a real psychical +experience, and we need not worry ourselves with the question whether it +has any 'objective truth.' But we cannot allow psychology to have the +last word in determining the truth or falsehood of religious or +spiritual experience. The extravagant claims of this science to take the +place of philosophy must be abated. + +Psychology is the science which describes mental states, as physical +science describes the behaviour of matter in motion. Both are abstract +sciences. Physical science treats nature as the totality of things +conceived of as independent of any subject; psychology treats inner +experience as independent of any object. Both are outside any idea of +value, though it is needless to say that the votaries of both sciences +trespass habitually, and often unconsciously. Both are dualisms with one +side ignored or suppressed. When psychology meddles with ontological +problems--when, for instance it denies the existence of an Absolute, or +says that reality cannot be known--it is taking too much upon itself, +and has fallen into the same error as the materialism of the last +century. On such questions as the immortality of the soul it must remain +silent. + +Faith in human immortality stands or falls with the belief in _absolute +values_. The interest of consciousness, as Professor Pringle-Pattison +has said in his admirable Gifford Lectures, lies in the ideal values of +which it is the bearer, not in its mere existence as a more refined kind +of fact. Idealism is most satisfactorily defined as the interpretation +of the world according to a scale of value, or, in Plato's phrase, by +the Idea of the Good. The highest values in this scale are absolute, +eternal, and super-individual, and lower values are assigned their place +in virtue of their correspondence to or participation in these absolute +values. I agree with Münsterberg that the conditional and subjective +values of the pragmatist have no meaning unless we have acknowledged +beforehand the independent value of truth. If the proof of the merely +individual significance of truth has itself only individual importance, +it cannot claim any general meaning. If, on the other hand, it demands +to be taken as generally valid, the possibility of a general truth is +acknowledged from the start. If this one exception is granted, the whole +illusory universe of relativism is overthrown. To deny any thought which +is more than relative is to deprive even scepticism itself of the +presuppositions on which it rests. The logical sceptic has no _ego_ to +doubt with. 'Every doubt of absolute values destroys itself. As thought +it contradicts itself; as doubt it denies itself; as belief it despairs +of itself.' It is not necessary or desirable to follow Münsterberg in +identifying valuation with will. He talks of the will judging; but the +will cannot judge. In contemplating existence we use our will to fix our +attention, and then try conscientiously to prevent it from influencing +the verdict. But this illegitimate use of the word 'will' does not +impair the force of the argument for absolute values. + +Now, valuation arranges experience in a different manner from natural +science. The attributes of reality, in our world of values, are +Goodness, Truth, and Beauty. And we assert that we have as good reason +to claim objective reality for these Ideas as for anything in the world +revealed to our senses. 'All claims on man's behalf,' says Professor +Pringle-Pattison, 'must be based on the objectivity of the values +revealed in his experience, and brokenly realised there. Man does not +make values any more than he makes reality.' Our contention is that the +world of values, which forms the content of idealistic thought and +aspiration, is the real world; and in this world we find our own +immortality. + +But there could be no greater error than to leave the two worlds, or the +two 'judgments,' that of existence and that of value, contrasted with +each other, or treated as unrelated in our experience. A value-judgment +which is not also a judgment of existence is in the air; it is the +baseless fabric of a vision. Existence is itself a value, and an +ingredient in every valuation; that which has no existence has no value. +And, on the other side, it is a delusion to suppose that any science can +dispense with valuation. Even mathematics admits that there is a right +and a wrong way of solving a problem, though by confining itself to +quantitative measurements it can assert no more than a hypothetical +reality for its world. It is quite certain that we can think of no +existing world without valuation. + +'The ultimate identity of existence and value is the venture of faith to +which mysticism and speculative idealism are committed.'[93] It is +indeed the presupposition of all philosophy and all religion; without +this faith there can, properly speaking, be no belief in God. But the +difference between naturalism and idealism may, I think, be better +stated otherwise than by emphasising the contrast between existence and +value, which it is impossible for either side to maintain. Naturalism +seeks to interpret the world by investigation of origins; idealism by +investigation of ends. The one finds the explanation of evolution in +that from which it started, the other in that to which it tends. The one +explains the higher by the lower; the other the lower by the higher. +This is a plain issue; either the world shows a teleology or it does +not. If it does, the philosophy based on the inorganic sciences is +wrong. And the attempt to explain the higher by the lower becomes +mischievous or impossible when we pass from one _order_ to another. In +speaking of different 'orders,' we do not commit ourselves to any sudden +breaks or leaps in evolution. The organic may be linked to the +inorganic, soul to the lower forms of life, spirit to soul. But whether +the 'scale of perfection' is a ladder or an inclined plane, new +categories are necessary as we ascend it. And unless we admit an inner +teleology as a determining factor in growth, many facts even in +physiology are hard to explain. + +If the basis of our faith in the world-order is the conviction that the +Ideas of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful are fully real and fully +operative, we must try to form some clear notion of what these Ideas +mean, and how they are related to each other. The goal of Truth, as an +absolute value, is unity, which in the outer world means harmony, in the +intercourse of spirit with spirit, love; and in the inner world, peace +or happiness. The goal of Goodness as an absolute value is the +realisation of the ought-to-be in victorious moral effort. Beauty is the +self-recognition of creative Spirit in its own works; it is the +expression of Nature's own deepest character. Beauty gives neither +information nor advice; but it satisfies a part of our nature which is +not less Divine than that which pays homage to Truth and Goodness. + +Now, these absolute values are supra-temporal. If the soul were in time, +no value could arise; for time is always hurling its own products into +nothingness, and the present is an unextended point, dividing an unreal +past from an unreal future. The soul is not in time; time is rather in +the soul. Values are eternal and indestructible. When Plotinus says that +'nothing that really _is_ can ever perish' (hapolehitai ohyden thôn +hontôn), and when Höffding says that 'no value perishes out of the +world,' they are saying the same thing. In so far as we can identify +ourselves in thought and mind with the absolute values, we are sure of +our immortality. + +But it will be said that in the first place this promise of immortality +carries with it no guarantee of survival in time, and in the second +place that it offers us, at last, only an impersonal immortality. Let us +take these two objections in turn, though they are in reality closely +connected. + +We must not regard time as an external, inhuman, unconscious process. +Time is the frame of soul-life; outside this it has no existence. The +entire cosmic process is the life-frame of the universal Soul, the +Divine Logos. With this life we are vitally connected, however brief and +unimportant the span and the task of an individual career may seem to +us. If my particular life-meaning passes out of activity, it will be +because the larger life, to which I belong, no longer needs that form of +expression. My death, like my birth, will have a teleological +justification, to which my supra-temporal self will consent. When a good +man's work in this world is done, when he is able to say, without +forgetting his many failures, 'I have finished the work that Thou gavest +me to do,' surely his last word will be, 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy +servant depart in peace'; not, 'Grant that I may flit for a while over +my former home, and hear what is happening to my country and my family.' +We may leave it to our misguided necromancers to describe the adventures +of the disembodied ghost-- + + 'Quo cursu deserta petiverit, et quibus ante + Infelix sua tecta supervolitaverit alis.' + +The most respectable motive which leads men to desire a continuance of +active participation in the affairs of time is that which Tennyson +expresses in the often-quoted line, 'Give her the wages of going on, and +not to die.' We may feel that we have it in us to do more for God and +our fellow-men than we shall be able to accomplish in this life, even if +it be prolonged to old age. Is not this a desire which we may prefer as +a claim? And in any case, it is admitted that time is the form of the +will. Are we to have no more will after death? Further, is our probation +over when we die? What is to be the fate of that large majority who, so +far as we can see, are equally undeserving of heaven and of hell? To +these questions no answer is possible, because we are confronted with a +blank wall of ignorance. We do not know whether there will be any future +probation. We do not know whether Robert Browning's expectation of +'other tasks in other lives, God willing,' will be fulfilled. + + 'And I shall thereupon + Take rest, ere I be gone + Once more on my adventure brave and new.' + +The question here raised is whether there is such a thing as +reincarnation. This belief, so widely held at all times by eminent +thinkers, and sanctioned by some of the higher religions, cannot be +dismissed as obsolete or impossible. But if it is put in the form, 'Will +the same self live again on earth under different conditions?' it may be +that no answer can be given, not only because we do not know, but +because the question itself is meaningless. The psycho-physical organism +which was born at a certain date and which will die on another date is +compacted of idiosyncrasies, inherited and acquired, which seem to be +inseparable from its history as born of certain parents and living under +certain conditions. It is not easy to say what part of such an organism +could be said to maintain its identity, if it were housed in another +body and set down in another time and place, when all recollection of a +previous state has been (as we must admit) cut off. The only continuity, +it seems to me, would be that of the racial self, if there is such a +thing, or of the directing intelligence and will of the higher Power +which sends human beings into the world to perform their allotted tasks. + +The second objection, which, as I have said, is closely connected with +the first, is that idealism offers us a merely impersonal immortality. +But what is personality? The notion of a world of spiritual atoms, +'_solida pollentia simplicitate_,' as Lucretius says, seems to be +attractive to some minds. There are thinkers of repute who even picture +the Deity as the constitutional President of a _collegium_ of souls. +This kind of pluralism is of course fundamentally incompatible with the +presuppositions of my paper. The idea of the 'self' seems to me to be an +arbitrary fixation of our average state of mind, a half-way house which +belongs to no order of real existence. The conception of an abstract ego +seems to involve three assumptions, none of which is true. The first is +that there is a sharp line separating subject from object and from other +subjects. The second is that the subject, thus sundered from the object, +remains identical through time. The third is that this indiscerptible +entity is in some mysterious way both myself and my property. In +opposition to the first, I maintain that the foci of consciousness flow +freely into each other even on the psychical plane, while in the eternal +world there are probably no barriers at all. In opposition to the +second, it is certain that the empirical self is by no means identical +throughout, and that the spiritual life, in which we may be said to +attain real personality for the first time, is only 'ours' potentially. +In opposition to the third, I repeat that the question whether it is +'my' soul that will live in the eternal world seems to have no meaning +at all. In philosophy as in religion, we had better follow the advice of +the Theologia Germanica and banish, as far as possible, the words 'me +and mine' from our vocabulary. For personality is not something given to +start with. It does not belong to the world of claims and counter-claims +in which we chiefly live. We must be willing to lose our soul on this +level of experience, before we can find it unto life eternal. +Personality is a teleological fact; it is here in the making, elsewhere +in fact and power. So in the case of our friends. The man whom we love +is not the changing psycho-physical organism; it is the Christ in him +that we love, the perfect man who is struggling into existence in his +life and growth. If we ask what a man is, the answer may be either, 'He +is what he loves,' or 'He is what he is worth.' The two are not very +different. Thus I cannot agree with Keyserling, who in criticising this +type of thought (with which, none the less, he has great sympathy) says +that 'mysticism, whether it likes it or not, ends in an impersonal +immortality.' For impersonality is a purely negative conception, like +timelessness. What is negated in 'timelessness' is not the reality of +the present, but the unreality of the past and future. So the +'impersonality' which is here (not without warrant from the mystics +themselves) said to belong to eternal life is really the liberation of +the idea of personality. Personality is allowed to expand as far as it +can, and only so can it come into its own. When Keyserling adds, 'The +instinct of immortality really affirms that the individual is not +ultimate,' I entirely agree with him. + +The question, however, is not whether in heaven the circumference of the +soul's life is indefinitely enlarged, but whether the centre remains. +These centres are centres of consciousness; and consciousness apparently +belongs to the world of will. It comes into existence when the will has +some work to do. It is not conterminous with life; there is a life which +is below consciousness, and there may be a life above consciousness, or +what we mean by consciousness. We must remind ourselves that we are +using a spatial metaphor when we speak of a centre of consciousness, and +a temporal one when we ask about a continuing state of consciousness; +and space and time do not belong to the eternal world. The question +therefore needs to be transformed before any answer can be given to it. +Spiritual life, we are justified in saying, must have a richness of +content; it is, potentially at least, all embracing. But this +enhancement of life is exhibited not only in extension but in intensity. +Eternal life is no diffusion or dilution of personality, but its +consummation. It seems certain that in such a state of existence +individuality must be maintained. If every life in this world represents +an unique purpose in the Divine mind, and if the end or meaning of +soul-life, though striven for in time, has both its source and its +achievement in eternity, this, the value and reality of the individual +life, must remain as a distinct fact in the spiritual world. + +We are sometimes inclined to think, with a natural regret, that the +conditions of life in the eternal world are so utterly unlike those of +the world which we know, that we must either leave our mental picture of +that life in the barest outline, or fill it in with the colours which we +know on earth, but which, as we are well aware, cannot portray truly the +life of blessed spirits. To some extent this is true; and whereas a bare +and colourless sketch of the richest of all facts is as far from the +truth as possible, we may allow ourselves to fill in the picture as best +we can, if we remember the risks which we run in doing so. There are, +it seems to me, two chief risks in allowing our imagination to create +images of the bliss of heaven. One is that the eternal world, thus drawn +and painted with the forms and colours of earth, takes substance in our +minds as a second physical world, either supposed to exist somewhere in +space, or expected to come into existence somewhen in time. This is the +heaven of popular religion; and being a geographical or historical +expression, it is open to attacks which cannot be met. Hence in the +minds of many persons the whole fact of human immortality seems to +belong to dreamland. The other danger is that, since a geographical and +historical heaven is found to have no actuality, the hope of eternal +life, with all that the spiritual world contains, should be relegated to +the sphere of the 'ideal.' This seems to be the position of Höffding, +and is quite clearly the view of thinkers like Santayana. They accept +the dualism of value and existence, and place the highest hopes of +humanity in a world which has value only and no existence. This seems to +me to be offering mankind a stone for bread. Martineau's protest against +this philosophy is surely justified: + + 'Amid all the sickly talk about "ideals," it is well to + remember that as long as they are a mere self-painting of + the yearning spirit, they have no more solidity than + floating air-bubbles, gay in the sunshine and broken by the + passing wind. You do not so much as touch the threshold of + religion, so long as you are detained by the phantoms of + your thought; the very gate of entrance to religion, the + moment of its new birth, is the discovery that your gleaming + ideal is the everlasting real.'[94] + +But though our knowledge of the eternal world is much less than we could +desire, it is much greater than many thinkers allow. We are by no means +shut off from realisation and possession of the eternal values while we +live here. We are not confined to local and temporal experience. We know +what Truth and Beauty mean, not only for ourselves but for all souls +throughout the universe, and for God Himself. Above all, we know what +Love means. Now Love, which is the realisation in experience of +spiritual existence, has an unique value as a hierophant of the highest +mysteries. And Love guarantees personality, for it needs what has been +called _otherness_. In all love there must be a subject and an object, +and a bond between them which transcends without annulling their +separateness. What this means for personal immortality has been seen by +many great minds. As an example I will quote from Plotinus' picture of +life in the spiritual world. This writer is certainly not inclined to +overestimate the claims of separate individuality, and he is under no +obligation to make his doctrine conform to the dogmas of any creed. + + 'Spirits yonder see themselves in others. For there all + things are transparent, and there is nothing dark or + resisting, but everyone is manifest to everyone internally, + and all things are manifest; for light is manifest to light. + For everyone has all things in himself and sees all things + in another, so that all things are everywhere and all is all + and each is all, and infinite the glory.'[95] + +This eternal world is about us and within us while we live here. 'Heaven +is nearer to our souls than the earth is to our bodies.' The world which +we ordinarily think of as real is an arbitrary selection from +experience, corresponding roughly to the average reaction of life upon +the average man. Some values, such as existence, persistence, and +rationality, are assumed to be 'real'; others are relegated to the +'ideal' Under the influence of natural science, special emphasis is laid +on those values with which that science is engaged. But our world +changes with us. It rises as we rise, and falls as we fall. It puts on +immortality as we do. 'Such as men themselves are, such will God appear +to them to be.'[96] Spinoza rightly says that all true knowledge takes +place _sub specie æternitatis_. For the pneymatikost the whole of life +is spiritual, and, as Eucken says, he recognises the whole of the +spiritual life as his own life-being. He learns, as Plotinus declares in +a profound sentence, that 'all things that are Yonder are also Here +below.' + +Is it then the conclusion of the whole matter that eternal life is +merely the true reading of temporal life? Is earth, when seen with +purged vision, not merely the shadow of heaven, but heaven itself? If we +could fuse past, present, and future into a _totum simul_, an 'Eternal +Now,' would that be eternity? This I do not believe. A full +understanding of the values of our life in time would indeed give us a +good _picture_ of the eternal world; but that world itself, the abode of +God and of blessed spirits, is a state higher and purer than can be +fully expressed in the order of nature. The _perpetuity_ of natural laws +as they operate through endless ages is only a Platonic 'image' of +eternity. That all values are perpetual is true; but they are something +more than perpetual: they are eternal. These laws are the creative +forces which shape our lives from within; but all the creatures, as St. +Augustine says in a well-known passage, declare their inferiority to +their Creator. 'We are lower than He, for He made us.' Scholastic +theologians interposed an intermediary which they called _ævum_ between +time and eternity. _Ævum_ is perpetuity, which they rightly +distinguished from true eternity. Christianity is philosophically right +in insisting that our true home, our _patria_, is 'not here.' Nor is it +in any place: it is with God,'whose centre is everywhere and His +circumference nowhere.' There remaineth a rest for the people of God, +when their warfare on earth is accomplished. + +A Christian must feel that the absence of any clear revelation about a +_future_ state is an indication that we are not meant to make it a +principal subject of our thoughts. On the other hand, the more we think +about the eternal values the happier we shall be. As Spinoza says, 'Love +directed towards the eternal and infinite fills the mind with pure joy, +and is free from all sadness. Wherefore it is greatly to be desired, and +sought after with our whole might.' But he also says, and I think +wisely, that there are few subjects on which the 'free' man will ponder +less often, than on death. The end of life is as right and natural as +its beginning; we must not rebel against the common lot, either for +ourselves or for our friends. We are to live in the present though not +for the present. The two lines of Goethe which Lewis Nettleship was so +fond of quoting convey a valuable lesson: + + 'Nur we du bist, sei alles, immer kindlich: + So bist du alles, bist unüberwindlich.' + +'Death does not count,' as Nettleship used to say; and he met his own +fate on the Alps with a cheerfulness which showed that he believed it. +The craving for mere survival, no matter under what conditions, is +natural to some persons, and those who have it not must not claim any +superiority over those who shudder at the idea of resigning this +'pleasing, anxious being.' Some brave and loyal men, like Samuel +Johnson, have feared death all their lives long; while others, even when +fortune smiles upon them, 'have a desire to depart and to be with +Christ, which is far better.' But the longing for survival, and the +anxious search for evidence which may satisfy it, have undoubtedly the +effect of binding us to earth and earthly conditions; they come between +us and faith in true immortality. They cannot restore to us what death +takes away. They cannot lay the spectre which made Claudio a craven. + + 'Ay, but to die and go we know not where; + To lie in cold obstruction and to rot; + This sensible warm motion to become + A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit + To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside + In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; + To be imprisoned in the viewless winds, + And blown with restless violence round about + The pendent world; or to be worse than worst + Of those that lawless and uncertain thoughts + Imagine howling! 'tis too horrible! + The weariest and most loathed earthly life + That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment + Can lay on nature, is a paradise + To what we fear of death.' + +We know now, if we did not know it three years ago, that the average man +can face death, and does face it in the majority of cases, with a +serenity which would be incomprehensible if he did not know in his +heart of hearts that it does not matter much. He may have no articulated +faith in immortality, but, like Spinoza, he has 'felt and experienced +that he is eternal.' Perhaps he only says to himself, 'Who dies if +England lives?' But the England that lives is his own larger self, the +life that is more his own life than the beating of his heart, which a +bullet may still for ever. And if the exaltation of noble patriotism can +'abolish death, and bring life and immortality to light' for almost any +unthinking lad from our factories and hedgerows, should not religion be +able to do as much for us all? And may it not be that some touch of +heroic self-abnegation is necessary before we can have a soul which +death cannot touch? When Christ said that those who are willing to lose +their souls shall save them, is not this what He meant? We must accustom +ourselves to breathe the air of the eternal values, if we desire to live +for ever. And a strong faith is not curious about details. 'Beloved, now +are we sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we +know that when He is made manifest we shall be like Him, for we shall +see Him as He is.' + +FOOTNOTES: + + [93] Quoted by Professor Pringle-Pattison from an article by + me in the _Times_ Literary Supplement. + + [94] _Study of Religion_, vol. i. 12. + + [95] _Ennead_, v. 8, 4. + + [96] From John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Outspoken Essays, by William Ralph Inge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 15249-8.txt or 15249-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/4/15249/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, and the +PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Outspoken Essays + +Author: William Ralph Inge + +Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15249] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, and the +PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<h1>OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>WILLIAM RALPH INGE, C.V.O., D.D.</h2> + +<h3>DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S</h3> + +<h4>FIFTH IMPRESSION</h4> + +<h4>LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON</h4> +<h4>FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK </h4> +<h4>BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS</h4> + +<h4>1920</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE" />PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>All the Essays in this volume, except the first, have appeared in the +<i>Edinburgh Review</i>, the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, or the <i>Hibbert Journal</i>. I +have to thank the Publishers and Editors of those Reviews for their +courtesy in permitting me to reprint them. The articles on <i>The Birth-Rate, +The Future of the English Race, Bishop Gore and the Church of England</i>, and +<i>Cardinal Newman</i> are from the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>; those on <i>Patriotism, +Catholic Modernism, St. Paul</i>, and <i>The Indictment against Christianity</i> +are from the <i>Quarterly Review</i>; those on <i>Institutionalism and Mysticism</i> +and <i>Survival and Immortality</i> from the <i>Hibbert Journal</i>. I have not +attempted to remove all traces of overlapping, which I hope may be pardoned +in essays written independently of each other; but a few repetitions have +been excised.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table summary="toc"> + <tr><td align="left"><br /></td><td align="left"><a href="#PREFACE"><b>PREFACE</b></a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER I</td><td align="left"><a href="#OUR_PRESENT_DISCONTENTS">OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER II</td><td align="left"><a href="#PATRIOTISM">PATRIOTISM</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER III</td><td align="left"><a href="#THE_BIRTH_RATE">THE BIRTH-RATE</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER IV</td><td align="left"><a href="#THE_FUTURE_OF_THE_ENGLISH_RACE">THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH RACE</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER V</td><td align="left"><a href="#BISHOP_GORE_AND_THE_CHURCH_OF_ENGLAND"> BISHOP GORE AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER VI</td><td align="left"><a href="#ROMAN_CATHOLIC_MODERNISM">ROMAN CATHOLIC MODERNISM</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER VII</td><td align="left"><a href="#CARDINAL_NEWMAN">CARDINAL NEWMAN</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER VIII</td><td align="left"><a href="#ST_PAUL">ST. PAUL</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER IX</td><td align="left"><a href="#INSTITUTIONALISM_AND_MYSTICISM">INSTITUTIONALISM AND MYSTICISM</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER X</td><td align="left"><a href="#THE_INDICTMENT_AGAINST_CHRISTIANITY">THE INDICTMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY</a></td></tr> + <tr><td align="left">CHAPTER XI</td><td align="left"><a href="#SURVIVAL_AND_IMMORTALITY">SURVIVAL AND IMMORTALITY</a></td></tr> + </table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>λθακα ψευδἡ λἑγω, <br /></span> +<span>ἡ σκλἡρ' ἁληθἡ; φρἁζε, ση γαρ ἡ κρἱσιϛ.<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;"><i>Euripides</i>.</span></div></div> + +<div class="poem">The case of historical writers is hard; for if they tell the truth they +provoke man, and if they write what is false they offend God.—<i>Matthew +Paris</i>.<br /></div> + +<div class="poem">Quattuor sunt maxime comprehendendae veritatis offendicula; videlicet, +fragilis et indignae auctoritatis exemplum, consuetudinis diuturnitas, +vulgi sensus imperiti, et propriae ignorantiae occultatio cum ostentatione +sapientiae superioris.—<i>Roger Bacon</i>.</div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Iudicio perpende; et si tibi vera videntur,<br /></span> +<span>Dede manus; aut si falsum est, accingere contra.<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;"><i>Lucretius</i>.</span> +</div></div> + + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Eventu rerum stolidi didicere magistro.</span> +<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;"><i>Claudian</i>.</span></div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Ἁλλ ἡ τοι μεν ταὑτα θεὡν ἑν γοὑνασι κεἱται.<br /></span><p><br /></p> +<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;"><i>Homer</i>.</span></div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="OUR_PRESENT_DISCONTENTS" id="OUR_PRESENT_DISCONTENTS" />OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS</h2> + +<h3>(AUGUST, 1919)</h3> + + +<p>The Essays in this volume were written at various times before and during +the Great War. In reading them through for republication, I have to ask +myself whether my opinions on social science and on the state of religion, +the two subjects which are mainly dealt with in this collection, have been +modified by the greatest calamity which has ever befallen the civilised +world, or by the issue of the struggle. I find very little that I should +now wish to alter. The war has caused events to move faster, but in the +same direction as before. The social revolution has been hurried on; the +inevitable counter-revolution has equally been brought nearer. For if there +is one safe generalisation in human affairs, it is that revolutions always +destroy themselves. How often have fanatics proclaimed 'the year one'! But +no revolutionary era has yet reached 'year twenty-five.' As regards the +national character, there is no sign, I fear, that much wisdom has been +learnt. We are more wasteful and reckless than ever. The doctrinaire +democrat still vapours about democracy, though representative government +has obviously lost both its power and its prestige. The labour party still +hugs its comprehensive assortment of economic heresies. Organised religion +remains as impotent as it was before the war. But one fact has emerged with +startling clearness. Human nature has not been changed by civilisation. It +has neither been levelled up nor levelled down to an average mediocrity. +Beneath the dingy uniformity of international fashions in dress, man +remains what he has always been—a splendid fighting animal, a +self-sacrificing hero, and a bloodthirsty savage. Human nature is at once +sublime and horrible, holy and satanic. Apart from the accumulation of +knowledge and experience, which are external and precarious acquisitions, +there is no proof that we have changed much since the first stone age.</p> + +<p>The war itself, as we shall soon be compelled to recognise, had its roots +deep in the political and social structure of Europe. The growth of wealth +and population, and the law of diminishing returns, led to a scramble for +unappropriated lands producing the raw materials of industry. It was, in a +sense, a war of capital; but capitalism is no accretion upon the body +politic; it is the creator of the modern world and an essential part of a +living organism. The Germans unquestionably made a deep-laid plot to +capture all markets and cripple or ruin all competitors. Their aims and +methods were very like those of the Standard Oil Trust on a still larger +scale. The other nations had not followed the logic of competition in the +same ruthless manner; there were several things which they were not willing +to do. But war to the knife cannot be confined to one of the combatants; +the alternative, <i>Weltmacht oder Niedergang</i>, was thrust by Germany upon +the Allies when she chose that motto for herself. If the modern man were as +much dominated by economic motives as is sometimes supposed, the suicidal +results of such a conflict would have been apparent to all; but the poetry +and idealism of human nature, no longer centred, as formerly, in religion, +had gathered round a romantic patriotism, for which the belligerents were +willing to sacrifice their all without counting the cost. Like other +idealisms, patriotism varies from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy.</p> + +<p>But there was another cause which led to the war. Germany was a curious +combination of seventeenth century theory and very modern practice. An +Emperor ruling by divine right was the head of the most scientific state +that the world has seen. In many ways Germany, with an intelligent, +economical, and uncorrupt Government, was a model to the rest of the world. +But the whole structure was menaced by that form of individualistic +materialism which calls itself social democracy, and which in practice is +at once the copy of organic materialism and the reaction against it. The +motives for drilling a whole nation in the pursuit of purely national and +purely materialistic aims are not strong enough to prevent disintegration. +The German <i>Kriegsstaat</i> was falling to pieces through internal fissures. A +successful war might give the empire a new lease of life; otherwise, the +rising tide of revolution was certain to sweep it away. As Sir Charles +Walston has shown, it was for some years doubtful whether the democratic +movement would obtain control before the bureaucracy and army chiefs +succeeded in precipitating a war. There was a kind of race between the two +forces. This was the situation which Lord Haldane found still existing in +his famous visit to Germany. In the event, the conservative powers were +able to strike and to rush public opinion. Perhaps the bureaucracy was +carried along by its own momentum. Two or three years before the war a +German publicist, replying to an eminent Englishman, who asked him who +really directed the policy of Germany, answered: 'It is a difficult +question. Nominally, of course, the Emperor is responsible; but he is a man +of moods, not a strong man. In reality, the machine runs itself. Whither it +is carrying us we none of us know; I fear towards some great disaster.' +This seems to be the truth of the matter. No doubt, a romantic imperialism, +with dreams of restoring the empire of Charlemagne, was a factor in the +criminal enterprise. No doubt the natural ambitions of officers, and the +greed of contractors and speculators, played their part in promoting it. +But when we consider that Germany held all the winning cards in a game of +peaceful penetration and economic competition, we should attribute to the +Imperial Government a strange recklessness if we did not conclude that the +political condition of Germany itself, and the automatic working of the +machine, were the main causes why the attack was made. There is, in fact, +abundant evidence that it was so. The scheme failed only because Germany +was foolish enough to threaten England before settling accounts with +Russia. But this, again, was the result of internal pressure. Hamburg, and +all the interests which the name stands for, cared less for expansion in +the East than for the capture of markets overseas. For this important +section of conservative Germany, England was the enemy. So the gauntlet was +thrown down to the whole civilised world at once, and the odds against +Germany were too great.</p> + +<p>For the time being, the world has no example of a strong monarchy. The +three great European empires are, at the time of writing, in a state of +septic dissolution. The victors have sprung to the welcome conclusion that +democracy is everywhere triumphant, and that before long no other type of +civilised state will exist. The amazing provincialism of American political +thought accepts this conclusion without demur; and our public men, some of +whom doubtless know better, have served the needs of the moment by +effusions of political nonsense which almost surpass the orations delivered +every year on the Fourth of July. But no historian can suppose that one of +the most widespread and successful forms of human association has been +permanently extinguished because the Central Empires were not quite strong +enough to conquer Europe, an attempt which has always failed, and probably +will always fail. The issue is not fully decided, even for our own +generation. The ascendancy will belong to that nation which is the best +organised, the most strenuous, the most intelligent, the most united. +Before the war none would have hesitated to name Germany as holding this +position; and until the downfall of the Empire the nation seemed to possess +those qualities unimpaired. The three Empires collapsed in hideous chaos as +soon as they deposed their monarchs. In the case of Russia, it is difficult +to imagine any recovery until the monarchy is restored; and Germany would +probably be well-advised to choose some member of the imperial family as a +constitutional sovereign. A monarch frequently represents his subjects +better than an elected assembly; and if he is a good judge of character he +is likely to have more capable and loyal advisers. President Wilson's +declaration that 'a steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained +except by a partnership of democratic nations; for no autocratic government +could ever be trusted to keep faith within it,' is one of the most childish +exhibitions of doctrinaire <i>naïveté</i> which ever proceeded from the mouth of +a public man. History gives no countenance to the theory that popular +governments are either more moral or more pacific than strong monarchies. +The late Lord Salisbury, in one of his articles in the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, +spoke the truth on this subject. 'Moderation, especially in the matter of +territory, has never been a characteristic of democracy. Wherever it has +had free play, in the ancient world or the modern, in the old hemisphere or +the new, a thirst for empire and a readiness for aggressive war has always +marked it. Though governments may have an appearance and even a reality of +pacific intent, their action is always liable to be superseded by the +violent and vehement operations of mere ignorance.' The United States are +no exception to this rule. They have extended their dominion by much the +same means as the empire of the Tsars or our own. Texas and Upper +California, the Philippines and Porto Rico, were annexed forcibly; New +Mexico, Alaska, and Louisiana were bought; Florida was acquired by treaty; +Maine filched from Canada. In no case were the wishes of the inhabitants +consulted. Our own experience of republicanism is the same. It was during +the short period when Great Britain had no king that Cromwell's court-poet, +Andrew Marvell, urged him to complete his glorious career by demolishing +our present allies:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>A Cæsar he, ere long, to Gaul,<br /></span> +<span>To Italy an Hannibal.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>On the other hand, none of the 'autocrats' wanted this war. The Kaiser was +certainly pushed into it.</p> + +<p>Democracy is a form of government which may be rationally defended, not as +being good, but as being less bad than any other. Its strongest merits seem +to be: first, that the citizens of a democracy have a sense of +proprietorship and responsibility in public affairs, which in times of +crisis may add to their tenacity and endurance. The determination of the +Federals in the American Civil War, and of the French and British in the +four years' struggle against Germany, may be legitimately adduced as +arguments for democracy. When De Tocqueville says that 'it is hard for a +democracy to begin or to end a war,' the second is truer than the first. +And, secondly, the educational value of democracy is so great that it may +be held to counterbalance many defects. Mill decides in favour of democracy +mainly on the ground that 'it promotes a better and higher form of national +character than any other polity,' since government by authority stunts the +intellect, narrows the sympathies, and destroys the power of initiative. +'The perfect commonwealth,' says Mr. Zimmern,' is a society of free men and +women, each at once ruling and being ruled,' It is also fair to argue that +monarchies do not escape the worst evils of democracies. An autocracy is +often obliged to oppress the educated classes and to propitiate the mob. +Domitian massacred senators with impunity, and only fell '<i>postquam +cerdonibus esse timendus coeperat</i>.' If an autocracy does not rest on the +army, which leads to the chaos of praetorianism, it must rely on '<i>panem et +circenses</i>.' Hence it has some of the worst faults of democracy, without +its advantages. As Mr. Graham Wallas says: 'When a Tsar or a bureaucracy +finds itself forced to govern in opposition to a vague national feeling +which may at any moment create an overwhelming national purpose, the +autocrat becomes the most unscrupulous of demagogues, and stirs up racial +or religious or social hatred, or the lust for foreign war, with less +scruple than a newspaper proprietor under a democracy,' The autocrat, in +fact, is often a slave, as the demagogue is often a tyrant. Lastly, the +democrat may urge that one of the commonest accusations against +democracy—that the populace chooses its rulers badly—is not true in times +of great national danger. On the contrary, it often shows a sound instinct +in finding the strongest man to carry it through a crisis. At such times +the parrots and monkeys are discarded, and a Napoleon or a Kitchener is +given a free hand, though he may have despised all the demagogic arts. In +other words, a democracy sometimes knows when to abdicate. The excesses of +revolutionists are not an argument against democracy, since revolutions are +anything rather than democratic.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the indictment against democracy is a very heavy one, and it +is worth while to state the main items in the charge.</p> + +<p>1. Whatever may be truly said about the good sense of a democracy during a +great crisis, at ordinary times it does not bring the best men to the top. +Professor Hearnshaw, in his admirable 'Democracy at the Crossroads,' +collects a number of weighty opinions confirming this judgment. Carlyle, +who proclaimed the merits of silence in some thirty volumes, blames +democracy for ignoring the 'noble, silent men' who could serve it best, and +placing power in the hands of windbags. Ruskin, Matthew Arnold, Sir James +Stephen, Sir Henry Maine, and Lecky, all agree that 'the people have for +the most part neither the will nor the power to find out the best men to +lead them.' In France the denunciations of democratic politicians are so +general that it would be tedious to enumerate the writers who have uttered +them. One example will suffice; the words are the words of Anatole Beaulieu +in 1885:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The wider the circle from which politicians and + state-functionaries are recruited, the lower seems their + intellectual level to have sunk. This deterioration in the + personnel of government has been yet more striking from the + moral point of view. Politics have tended to become more + corrupt, more debased, and to soil the hands of those who + take part in them and the men who get their living by them. + Political battles have become too bitter and too vulgar not + to have inspired aversion in the noblest and most upright + natures by their violence and their intrigues. The élite of + the nation in more than one country are showing a tendency + to have nothing to do with them. Politics is an industry in + which a man, to prosper, requires less intelligence and + knowledge than boldness and capacity for intrigue. It has + already become in some states the most ignominious of + careers. Parties are syndicates for exploitation, and its + forms become ever more shameless. </p></div> + +<p>A later account of French politics, drawn from inside knowledge and +experience, is the remarkable novel, 'Les Morts qui parlent,' by the +Vicomte Le Vogué. Readers of this book will not forget the description of +the <i>bain de haine</i> in which a new deputy at once finds himself plunged, +and the canker of corruption which eats into the whole system. It is no +wonder that the majority of Frenchmen do not care to record their votes. In +1906, 5,209,606 votes were given, 6,383,852 electors did not go to the +poll. The record of democracy in the new countries is no better. We must +regretfully admit that Louis Simond was right when he said, 'Few people +take the trouble to persuade the people, except those who see their +interest in deceiving them.'</p> + +<p>2. The democracy is a ready victim to shibboleths and catchwords, as all +demagogues know too well. 'The abstract idea,' as Schérer says, 'is the +national aliment of popular rhetoric, the fatal form of thought which, for +want of solid knowledge, operates in a vacuum.' The politician has only to +find a fascinating formula; facts and arguments are powerless against it. +The art of the demagogue is the art of the parrot; he must utter some +senseless catchword again and again, working on the suggestibility of the +crowd. Archbishop Trench, 'On the Study of Words,' notices this fact of +psychology and the use which is commonly made of it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>If I wanted any further evidence of the moral atmosphere + which words diffuse, I would ask you to observe how the + first thing men do, when engaged in controversy with others, + is ever to assume some honourable name to themselves, such + as, if possible, shall beg the whole subject in dispute, and + at the same time to affix on their adversaries a name which + shall place them in a ridiculous or contemptible or odious + light. A deep instinct, deeper perhaps than men give any + account of to themselves, tells them how far this will go; + that multitudes, utterly unable to weigh the arguments on + one side or the other, will yet be receptive of the + influences which these words are evermore, however + imperceptibly, diffusing. By argument they might hope to + gain over the reason of a few, but by help of these + nicknames the prejudices and passions of the many. </p></div> + +<p>The chief instrument of this base art is no longer the public speech but +the newspaper.</p> + +<p>The psychology of the crowd has been much studied lately, by Le Bon and +other writers in France, by Mr. Graham Wallas in England. I think that Le +Bon is in danger of making The Crowd a mystical, superhuman entity. Of +course, a crowd is made up of individuals, who remain individuals still. We +must not accept the stuffed idol of Rousseau and the socialists, 'The +General Will,' and turn it into an evil spirit. There is no General Will. +All we have a right to say is that individuals are occasionally guided by +reason, crowds never.</p> + +<p>3. Several critics of democracy have accused it not only of rash +iconoclasm, but of obstinate conservatism and obstructiveness. It seems +unreasonable to charge the same persons with two opposite faults; but it is +true that where the popular emotions are not touched, the masses will cling +to old abuses from mere force of habit. As Maine says, universal suffrage +would have prohibited the spinning-jenny and the power-loom, the +threshing-machine and the Gregorian calendar; and it would have restored +the Stuarts. The theory of democracy—<i>vox populi vox dei</i>—is a pure +superstition, a belief in a divine or natural sanction which does not +exist. And superstition is usually obstructive. 'We erect the temporary +watchwords of evanescent politics into eternal truths; and having accepted +as platitudes the paradoxes of our fathers, we perpetuate them as obstacles +to the progress of our children.'<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1" /><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>4. A more serious danger is that of vexatious and inquisitive tyranny. This +is exercised partly through public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, +anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is +not content to be the average man. But partly it is seen in constant +interference with the legislature and the executive. No one can govern who +cannot afford to be unpopular, and no democratic official can afford to be +unpopular. Sometimes he has to wink at flagrant injustice and oppression; +at other times a fanatical agitation compels him to pass laws which forbid +the citizen to indulge perfectly harmless tastes, or tax him to contribute +to the pleasures of the majority. In many ways a Russian under the Tsars +was far less interfered with than an Englishman or American or Australian.</p> + +<p>5. But the two diseases which are likely to be fatal to democracy are +anarchy and corruption. A democratic government is almost necessarily weak +and timid. A democracy cannot tolerate a strong executive for fear of +seeing the control pass out of the hands of the mob. The executive must be +unarmed and defenceless. The result is that it is at the mercy of any +violent and anti-social faction. No civilised government has ever given a +more ludicrous and humiliating object-lesson than the Cabinet and House of +Commons in the years before the war, in face of the outrages committed by a +small gang of female anarchists. The legalisation of terrorism by the +trade-unions was too tragic a surrender to be ludicrous, but it was even +more disgraceful. None could be surprised when, during the war, the +Government shrank from dealing with treasonable conspiracy in the same +quarter.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The <i>Times</i> for May 24, 1917, contained a noteworthy example + of justice influenced by pressure, and therefore applied + with flagrant inequality. In parallel columns appeared + reports of 'sugar-sellers fined' and 'strike leaders + released.' The former paid the full penalty of their + misdeeds because no body of outside opinion maintained them. + The latter, who were stated to have committed offences for + which the maximum penalty was penal servitude for life, got + off scot-free because they were members of a powerful + organisation which was able to bring immense weight to bear + on the Government.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2" /><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> </p></div> + +<p>The 'immense weight' was, of course, the threat of virtually betraying the +country to the Germans. The country is at this moment at the mercy of any +lawless faction which may choose either to hold the community to ransom by +paralysing our trade and channels of supply, or by organised violence +against life and property. Democracy is powerless against sectional +anarchism; and when such movements break out there is no remedy except by +substituting for democracy a government of a very different type.</p> + +<p>Democracy is, in fact, a disintegrating force. It is strong in destruction, +and tends to fall to pieces when the work of demolition (which may of +course be a necessary task) is over. Democracy dissolves communities into +individuals and collects them again into mobs. It pulls up by the roots the +social order which civilisation has gradually evolved, and leaves men +<i>déracinés</i>, as Bourget says in one of his best novels, homeless and +friendless, with no place ready for them to fill. It is the opposite +extreme to the caste system of India, which, with all its faults, does not +seem to breed the European type of <i>enragé</i>, the enemy of society as such.</p> + +<p>6. The corruption of democracies proceeds directly from the fact that one +class imposes the taxes and another class pays them. The constitutional +principle, 'No taxation without representation,' is utterly set at nought +under a system which leaves certain classes without any effective +representation at all. At the present time it is said that one-tenth of the +population pays five-sixths of the taxes. The class which imposes the taxes +has refused to touch the burden of the war with one of its fingers; and +every month new doles at the public expense are distributed under the +camouflage of 'social reform.' At every election the worldly goods of the +minority are put up to auction. This is far more immoral than the +old-fashioned election bribery, which was a comparatively honest deal +between two persons; and in its effects it is far more ruinous. Democracy +is likely to perish, like the monarchy of Louis XVI, through national +bankruptcy.</p> + +<p>Besides these defects, the democracy has ethical standards of its own, +which differ widely from those of the educated classes. Among the poor, +'generosity ranks far before justice, sympathy before truth, love before +chastity, a pliant and obliging disposition before a rigidly honest one. In +brief, the less admixture of intellect required for the practice of any +virtue, the higher it stands in popular estimation.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3" /><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> In this country, at +any rate, democracy means a victory of sentiment over reason. Some may +prefer the softer type of character, and may hope that it will make +civilisation more humane and compassionate than it has been in the past. +Unfortunately, experience shows that none is so cruel as the disillusioned +sentimentalist. He thinks that he can break or ignore nature's laws with +impunity; and then, when he finds that nature has no sentiment, he rages +like a mad dog, and combines with his theoretical objection to capital +punishment a lust to murder all who disagree with him. This is the genesis +of Jacobinism and Bolshevism.</p> + +<p>But whether we think that the bad in democracy predominates over the good, +or the good over the bad, a question which I shall not attempt to decide, +the popular balderdash about it corresponds to no real conviction. The +upper class has never believed in it; the middle class has the strongest +reasons to hate and fear it. But how about the lower class, in whose +interests the whole machine is supposed to have been set going? The working +man has no respect for either democracy or liberty. His whole interest is +in transferring the wealth of the minority to his own pocket. There was a +time when he thought that universal suffrage would get for him what he +desires; but he has lost all faith in constitutional methods. To levy +blackmail on the community, under threats of civil war, seems to him a more +expeditious way of gaining his object. Monopolies are to be established by +pitiless coercion of those who wish to keep their freedom. The trade unions +are large capitalists; they are well able to start factories for themselves +and work them for their own exclusive profit. But they find it more +profitable to hold the nation to ransom by blockading the supply of the +necessaries of life. The new labourer despises productivity for the same +reason that the old robber barons did: it is less trouble to take money +than to make it. The most outspoken popular leaders no longer conceal their +contempt for and rejection of democracy. The socialists perceive the +irreconcilable contradiction between the two ideas,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4" /><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and they are right. +Democracy postulates community of interest or loyal patriotism. When these +are absent it cannot long exist. Syndicalism, which seems to be growing, is +the antipodes of socialism, but, like socialism, it can make no terms with +democracy. 'If syndicalism triumphs,' says its chief prophet Sorel, 'the +parliamentary régime, so dear to the intellectuals, will be at an end.' +'The syndicalist has a contempt for the vulgar idea of democracy; the vast +unconscious mass is not to be taken into account when the minority wishes +to act so as to benefit it.'<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5" /><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> 'The effect of political majorities,' says +Mr. Levine, 'is to hinder advance,' Accordingly, political methods are +rejected with contempt. The anarchists go one step further. Bakunin +proclaims that 'we reject all legislation, all authority, and all +influence, even when it has proceeded from universal suffrage.' These +powerful movements, opposed as they are to each other, agree in spurning +the very idea of democracy, which Lord Morley defines as government by +public opinion, and which may be defined with more precision as direct +government by the votes of the majority among the adult members of a +nation. Even a political philosopher like Mr. Lowes Dickinson says, 'For my +part, I am no democrat.'</p> + +<p>Who then are the friends of this <i>curieux fétiche</i>, as Quinet called +democracy? It appears to have none, though it has been the subject of +fatuous laudation ever since the time of Rousseau. The Americans burn +incense before it, but they are themselves ruled by the Boss and the Trust.</p> + +<p>The attempt to justify the labour movement as a legitimate development of +the old democratic Liberalism is futile. Freedom to form combinations is +no doubt a logical application of <i>laisser faire</i>; and the anarchic +possibilities latent in <i>laisser faire</i> have been made plain in the +anti-democratic movements of labour. But Liberalism rested on a too +favourable estimate of human nature and on a belief in the law of progress. +As there is no law of progress, and as civilised society is being destroyed +by the evil passions of men, Liberalism is, for the time, quite +discredited. It would also be true to say that there is a fundamental +contradiction between the two dogmas of Liberalism. These were, that +unlimited competition is stimulating to the competitors and good for the +country, and that every individual is an end, not a means. Both are +anarchical; but the first logically issues in individualistic anarchy, the +last in communistic anarchy. The economic and the ethical theory of +Liberalism cannot be harmonised. The result—cruel competition tempered by +an artificial process of counter-selection in favour of the unfittest—was +by no means satisfactory. But it was better than what we are now threatened +with.</p> + +<p>That the labour movement is economically rotten it is easy to prove. In the +words of Professor Hearnshaw, 'the government has ceased to govern in the +world of labour, and has been compelled, instead of governing, to bribe, to +cajole, to beg, to grovel. It has purchased brief truces at the cost of +increasing levies of Danegeld drawn from the diminishing resources of the +patient community. It has embarked on a course of payment of blackmail +which must end either in national bankruptcy or in the social revolution +which the anarchists seek.' The powerful trade-unions are now plundering +both the owners of their 'plant,' and the general public. It is easy to +show that their members already get much more than their share of the +national wealth. Professor Bowley<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6" /><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> has estimated that an equal division +of the national income would give about £160 a year to each family, free of +taxes. But even this estimate, discouraging as it is, seems not to allow +sufficiently for the fact that under the present system much of the income +of the richer classes is counted twice or three times over. Abolish large +incomes, and jewels, pictures, wines, furs, special and rare skill like +that of the operating surgeon and fashionable portrait painter, lose all or +most of their money value. All the large professional incomes, except those +of the low comedian and his like, are made out of the rich, and are counted +at least twice for income-tax. It is certain that a large part of the +national income could not be 'redistributed,' and that in the attempt to do +so credit would be destroyed and wealth would melt like a snow man. The +miners, therefore, are not seeking justice; they are blackmailing rich and +poor alike by their monopoly of one of the necessaries of life. And now +they strike against paying income-tax!</p> + +<p>It is not necessary or just to bring railing accusations against any class +as a body. Power is always abused, and in this case there is much honest +ignorance, stimulated by agitators who are seldom honest. In a recent +number of the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> Sir Lynden Macassey speaks of the +widespread, almost universal, fallacies to which the hand-worker has fallen +a victim. They believe that all their aspirations can be satisfied out of +present-day profits and production. They believe that in restricting output +they are performing a moral duty to their class. They do not believe that +the prosperity of the country depends upon its production, and are opposed +to all labour-saving devices. They refuse co-operation because they desire +the continuance of the class-war. Such perversity would seem hardly +credible if it were not attested by overwhelming evidence. The Government +remedy is first to create unemployment and then to endow it—the shortest +and maddest road to ruin since the downfall of the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>We may have a faint hope that some of these fallacies will be abandoned by +the workmen when their destructive results can no longer be concealed. But +sentimentalism seems to be incurable. It erects irrationality into an act +of religious faith, gives free rein to the emotion of pity, and thinks that +it is imitating the Good Samaritan by robbing the Priest and Levite for the +benefit of the man by the road-side. The sentimentalist shows a bitter +hatred against those who wish to cure an evil by removing its causes. A +good example is the language of writers like Mr. Chesterton about eugenics +and population. If social maladies were treated scientifically, the trade +of the emotional rhetorician would be gone.</p> + +<p>We have seen that democracy—the rule of majorities—has been discredited +and abandoned in action, though officially we all bow down before it. +Another popular delusion is that the chief change in the last fifty years +has been a conversion of the world from individualism to socialism. In the +language of the Christian socialists, who wish to combine the militant +spirit and organisation of medieval Catholicism with a bid for the popular +vote, we have 'rediscovered the Corporate Idea.' But if we take socialism, +not in the narrower sense of collectivism, which would be an economic +experiment, but in the wider sense of a keen consciousness of the +solidarity of the community as an organic whole, there is very little truth +in the commonly held notion that we have become more socialistic. It is +easy to see how the idea has arisen. It became necessary to find some +theoretical justification for raising taxes, no longer for national needs, +but for the benefit of the class which imposed them; and this justification +was found in the theory that all wealth belongs to 'the State,' and may be +justly divided up as 'the State'—that is to say, the majority of the +voters—may determine. Whenever the question arises of voting new doles to +the dominant section of the people at the expense of the minority, our new +political philosophers profess themselves fervent socialists. But true +socialism, which is almost synonymous with patriotism, is as conspicuously +absent in those who call themselves socialists as it is strong in those who +repudiate the title. This paradox can be easily proved. The most +socialistic enterprise in which a nation ever engages is a great war. A +nation at war is conscious of its corporate unity and its common interests, +as it is at no other time. The nation then calls upon every citizen to +surrender all his personal rights and to offer his life and limbs in the +service of the community. And what has been the record of the 'socialists' +in the struggle for national existence in which we have been engaged? In +the years preceding the war they ridiculed the idea that the country was in +danger of being attacked, and used all their power to prevent us from +preparing against attack. They steadily opposed the teaching of patriotism +in the schools. When the war began, they prevented the Government from +introducing compulsory service until our French Allies, who were left to +bear the brunt, were on the point of collapse; they, in very many cases, +refused to serve themselves, thereby avowing that, as far as they were +concerned, they were willing to see their country conquered by a horde of +cruel barbarians; and they nearly handed over our armies to destruction by +fomenting strikes at the most critical periods of the war. This attitude +cannot be accounted for by any conscientious objection to violence, which +is in fact their favourite weapon, except against the enemies of their +country. Their socialism is, in truth, individualism run mad; it is the +very antithesis to the consciousness of organic unity in a nation, which is +the spiritual basis of socialism. In this sense, the nation as a whole has +shown a fine socialistic temper; but the disgraceful exception has been the +socialist party. The intense and perverted individualism of the so-called +socialist is shown in another way. Whatever liberties a State may permit to +its citizens, it is certain that no nation can be in a healthy condition +unless the government keeps in its own hands the keys of birth and of +death. The State has the right of the farmer to decide how many cows should +be allowed to graze upon ten acres of grass; the right of the forester to +decide how many square feet are required for each tree in a wood. It has +also the right and the duty of the gardener to pull up noxious weeds in his +flower-beds. But the socialist vehemently repudiates both these rights. +Being an ultra-individualist, he is in favour of <i>laisser faire</i>, where +<i>laisser faire</i> is most indefensible and most disastrous.</p> + +<p>It would be easy to maintain that the organic idea was more potent, both +under medieval feudalism and under nineteenth-century industrialism, than +it is now. In former days, economic and social equality were not even +aimed at, because it was thought inevitable that in a social organism there +must be subordination and a hierarchy of functions. Essentially, and in the +sight of God, all are equal, or, rather, the essential differences between +man and man are absolutely independent of social status. In a few years +Lazarus may be in heaven and Dives in hell. Beside this equality of moral +opportunity and tremendous inequality in self-chosen destiny, the status of +master and servant seemed of small importance; it was a temporary and +trivial accident. Accordingly, in feudal times, as to-day in really +Catholic communities, feelings of injustice and social bitterness were +seldom aroused and class differences take on a more genial colour. In spite +of the lawlessness and brutality of the Middle Ages it is probable that men +were happier then than they are now.</p> + +<p>The French Revolution, which was a disintegrating solvent, pulverised +society, and was impotent to reconstruct it. Yet under the industrial +régime which followed it in this country, the nation was conscious of its +unity. The system was the best that could have been devised for increasing +the population and aggregate wealth of the country; and even those who +suffered most under it were not without pride in its results. The ill-paid +workman of the last century would have thought it a poor thing to do a +deliberately bad day's work.</p> + +<p>I am not praising either the age of feudalism or the 'hungry forties' of +the nineteenth century. In the latter case especially the sacrifice exacted +from the poor was too great for the rather vulgar success of which it was +the condition. But to call that age the period of individualism, and our +own generation the period of socialism, is in my opinion a profound +mistake. In Germany, too, the real socialists are not the 'Spartacist' +scoundrels who have betrayed and ruined their country, but the bureaucracy +with their <i>Deutschland über Alles</i>. If I were a little more of a +socialist, I could almost admire them, in spite of all their crimes.</p> + +<p>The landed gentry (and in honesty I must add the endowed clergy) are a +survival of feudalism, as the capitalist is a survival of industrialism. +Both have to a large extent survived their functions. The mailclad baron, +round whose fortified castle the peasants and others gathered for +protection, has become the country gentleman, against whom the indictment +is not so much that his only pursuit is pleasure, as that his only pleasure +is pursuit. 'The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate' were +intelligible while the rich man protected the poor man from being plundered +and killed by marauders; but in our times nobody wants a castle or to live +under the shadow of a castle. The clerical profession was a necessity when +most people could neither read nor write. But to-day our best prophets and +preachers are laymen. As at ancient Athens, in the time of Aristophanes, +'the young learn from the schoolmaster, the mature from the poets.' +Similarly, the captain of industry cannot hold the same autocratic position +as formerly, in view of the growing intelligence and capacity of the +workmen; and the capitalist who is not a captain of industry is a debtor to +the community to an extent which he does not always realise. This class is +becoming painfully conscious of its vulnerability.</p> + +<p>There are, therefore, irrational survivals in our social order; and though +it may be proved that they are not a severe burden on the community, it is +natural that popular bitterness and discontent should fasten upon them and +exaggerate their evil results. It cannot be disputed that this bitterness +and discontent were becoming very acute in the years before the war. An +increasing number of persons saw no meaning and no value in our +civilisation. This feeling was common in all classes, including the +so-called leisured class; and was so strong that many welcomed with joy the +clear call to a plain duty, though it was the duty of facing all the +horrors of war. What is the cause of this discontent? There are few more +important questions for us to answer.</p> + +<p>Those who find the cause in the existence of the survivals which we have +mentioned are certainly mistaken. It is no new thing that there should be a +small class more or less parasitic on the community. The whole number of +persons who pay income-tax on £5000 a year and upwards is only 13,000 out +of 46 millions, and their wealth, if it could be divided up, would make no +appreciable difference to the working man. The wage-earners are better off +than they have ever been before in our history, and the danger of +revolution comes not from the poor, but from the privileged artisans who +already have incomes above the family average. We must look elsewhere for +an explanation of social unrest. If we consider what are the chief centres +of discontent throughout the civilised world, we shall find that they are +the great aggregations of population in wealthy industrial countries. +Social unrest is a disease of town-life. Wherever the conditions which +create the great modern city exist, we find revolutionary agitation. It has +spread to Barcelona, to Buenos Ayres, and to Osaka, in the wake of the +factory. The inhabitants of the large town do not envy the countryman and +would not change with him. But, unknown to themselves, they are leading an +unnatural life, cut off from the kindly and wholesome influences of nature, +surrounded by vulgarity and ugliness, with no traditions, no loyalties, no +culture, and no religion. We seldom reflect on the strangeness of the fact +that the modern working-man has few or no superstitions. At other times the +masses have evolved for themselves some picturesque nature-religion, some +pious ancestor-worship, some cult of saints or heroes, some stories of +fairies, ghosts, or demons, and a mass of quaint superstitions, genial or +frightening. The modern town-dweller has no God and no Devil; he lives +without awe, without admiration, without fear. Whatever we may think about +these beliefs, it is not natural for men and women to be without them. The +life of the town artisan who works in a factory is a life to which the +human organism has not adapted itself; it is an unwholesome and unnatural +condition. Hence, probably, comes the <i>malaise</i> which makes him think that +any radical change must be for the better.</p> + +<p>Whatever the cause of the disease may be (and I do not pretend that the +conditions of urban life are an adequate explanation) the malady is there, +and will probably prove fatal to our civilisation. I have given my views +on this subject in the essay called <i>The Future of the English Race.</i> And +yet there is a remedy within the reach of all if we would only try it.</p> + +<p>The essence of the Christian revelation is the proclamation of a standard +of absolute values, which contradicts at every point the estimates of good +and evil current in 'the world.' It is not necessary, in such an essay as +this, to write out the Beatitudes, or the very numerous passages in the +Gospels and Epistles in which the same lessons are enforced. It is not +necessary to remind the reader that in Christianity all the paraphernalia +of life are valued very lightly; that all the good and all the evil which +exalt or defile a man have their seat within him, in his own character; +that we are sent into the world to suffer and to conquer suffering; that it +is more blessed to give than to receive; that love is the great revealer of +the mysteries of life; that we have here no continuing city, and must +therefore set our affections and lay up our treasures in heaven; that the +things that are seen are temporal, and the things that are not seen are +eternal. This is the Christian religion. It is a form of idealism; and +idealism means a belief in absolute or spiritual values.</p> + +<p>When applied to human life, it introduces, as it were, a new currency, +which demonetises the old; or gives us a new scale of prices, in which the +cheapest things are the dearest, and the dearest the cheapest. The world's +standards are quantitative; those of Christianity are qualitative. And +being qualitative, spiritual goods are unlimited in amount; they are +increased by being shared; and we rob nobody by taking them.</p> + +<p>Secularists ask impatiently what Christianity has done or proposes to do to +make mankind happier, by which they mean more comfortable. The answer is +(to put it in a form intelligible to the questioner) that Christianity +increases the wealth of the world by creating new values. Wealth depends on +human valuation. For example, if women were sufficiently well educated not +to care about diamonds, the Kimberley mines would pay no dividends, and the +rents in Park Lane would go down. The prices of paintings by old masters +would decline if millionaires preferred to collect another kind of scalps +to decorate their wigwams. Bookmakers and company-promoters live on the +widespread passion for acquiring money without working for it. It is hardly +possible to estimate the increase of real wealth, and the stoppage of +waste, which would result from the adoption of a rational, still more of a +Christian, valuation of the good things of life. I have dealt with this +subject in the essay on <i>The Indictment against Christianity</i>, and have +emphasised the importance of taking into consideration, in all economic +questions, the <i>human costs</i> of production, the factors which make work +pleasant or irksome, and especially the moral condition of the worker. +Good-will diminishes the toll which labour takes of the labourer; envy and +hatred vastly increase it while they diminish its product. It is, of +course, impossible that the worker should not resent having to devote his +life to making what is useless or mischievous, and to ministering to the +irrational wastefulness of luxury. Christianity, in condemning the selfish +and irresponsible use of money, seeks to remove one of the chief causes of +social bitterness. Senseless extravagance is the best friend of revolution.</p> + +<p>The abuse poured upon 'the old political economy,' as it is called, is only +half deserved. As compared with the insane doctrines now in favour with the +working-man, the old political economy was sound and sensible. Hard work, +thrift, and economy in production are, in truth, as we used to be told, the +only ways to increase the national wealth, and the contrary practices can +only lead to economic ruin. There is not much fault to find with the old +economists so long as they recognised that their science was an abstract +science, which for its own purposes dealt with an unreal abstraction—the +'economic man.' Every science is obliged to isolate one aspect of reality +in this way. But when political economy was treated as a philosophy of life +it began to be mischievous. A book on 'the science of the stomach,' without +knowledge of physiology or the working of other organs, would not be of +much use. Man has never been a merely acquisitive being; for example, he +is also a fighting and a praying being. If our dominant motives were +changed, the whole conditions dealt with by political economy would change +with them. There have been civilisations in which the passion for +accumulation was comparatively weak; and notoriously there are many persons +in whom it is wholly absent. Devotion to art, to scientific investigation, +and to religion is strong enough, where it exists, to kill 'the economic +man' in human nature. A civilised nation honours its idealists, and +recognises the immense benefit which they confer on the community by +creating or revealing new and inexhaustible values; in an uncivilised +country they can hardly live. Ruskin and William Morris saw, and doubtless +exaggerated, the danger to which spiritual values were exposed at the hands +of the dominant economism. Our danger now is that neglect of the simplest +economic laws may plunge the nation into such misery that the people will +no longer be willing to support art, science, learning, and philosophy. A +large section of the labour party has the same standard of values as the +hated 'capitalist,' and detests those whom it calls intellectuals and +sky-pilots because they depreciate the currency which their class, no less +than the capitalist, believes to be the only sound money.</p> + +<p>It may be asked whether there is any reason to think that there is now less +regard for the higher, the qualitative values of life, than at other +periods. My opinion is that ever since the time of Rousseau and his +contemporaries, we have been led astray by a will-of-the-wisp akin to the +apocalyptic dreams of the Jews in the last two centuries before Christ, +dreams which also filled the minds of the first generation of Christians. +The Greeks never made the mistake of throwing their ideals into the future, +a practice which, as Dr. Bosanquet has said, 'is the death of all sane +idealism.' The belief in 'a good time coming' is a Jewish delusion. It +nourished the Jews in their amazing obstinacy, and led to the annihilation +of their State which, to the very end, they saw in their dreams bruising +all other nations with a rod of iron, and breaking them in pieces like a +potter's vessel. But, as any idealism is better than none, the Hebrew race +has won remarkable triumphs, though of a kind which it never desired.</p> + +<p>The myth of progress is our form of apocalyptism. In France it began with +sentimentalism, developing normally into homicidal mania. In England it +took the form of a kind of Deuteronomic religion. As a reward for our +national virtues, our population expanded, our exports and imports went up +by leaps and bounds, and our empire received additions every decade. It was +plain that when Christ said 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit +the earth,' He was thinking of the British Empire. The whole structure of +our social order encouraged the measurement of everything by quantitative +standards. Everyone could understand that a generation which travels sixty +miles an hour must be five times as civilised as one which only travelled +twelve. Thus the beneficent 'law of progress' was exemplified in that +nation which had best deserved to be its exponent. The myth in question is +that there is a natural law of improvement, manifested by greater +complexity of structure, by increase of wants and the means to satisfy +them. A nation advances in civilisation by increasing in wealth and +population, and by multiplying the accessories and paraphernalia of life.</p> + +<p>Belief in this alleged law has vitiated our natural science, our political +science, our history, our philosophy, and even our religion. Science +declared that 'the survival of the fittest' was a law of nature, though +nature has condemned to extinction the majestic animals of the saurian era, +and has carefully preserved the bug, the louse, and the spirochaeta +pallida.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>We dined as a rule on each other;<br /></span> +<span>What matter? the toughest survived,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>is a fair parody of this doctrine. In political science, by a portentous +snobbery, the actual evolution of European government was assumed to be in +the line of upward progress. Our histories contrasted the benighted +condition of past ages with the high morality and general enlightenment of +the present. In philosophy, the problem of evil was met by the theory that +though the Deity is not omnipotent yet, He is on His way to become so. He +means well, and if we give Him time, He will make a real success of His +creation. Human beings, too, commonly make a very poor thing of their lives +here. But continue their training after they are dead and they will all +come to perfection. We have been living on this secularised idealism for a +hundred and fifty years. It has driven out the true idealism, of which it +is a caricature, and has made the deeper and higher kind of religious faith +abnormally difficult. Even the hope of immortality has degenerated into a +belief in apparitions and voices from the dead.</p> + +<p>Nature knows nothing of this precious law. Her figure is not the vertical +line, nor even the spiral, but the circle—the vicious circle, according to +Samuel Butler. 'Men eat birds, birds eat worms, worms eat men again.' Some +stars are getting hotter, others cooler. Life appears at a certain +temperature and is extinguished at another temperature. Evolution and +involution balance each other and go on concurrently. The normal condition +of every species on this planet is not progress but stationariness. +'Progress,' so-called, is an incident of adaptation to new conditions. Bees +and ants must have spent millennia in perfecting their organisation; now +that they have reached a stable equilibrium, no more changes are +perceptible. The 'progress' of humanity has consisted almost entirely in +the transformation of the wild man of the woods, not into <i>homo sapiens</i> +but into <i>homo faber</i>, man the tool-maker, a process of which nature +expresses her partial disapproval by plaguing us with diverse diseases and +taking away our teeth and claws. It is not certain that there has been much +change in our intellectual and moral endowments since pithecanthropus +dropped the first half of his name. I should be sorry to have to maintain +that the Germans of to-day are morally superior to the army which defeated +Quintilius Varus, or that the modern Turks are more humane than the hordes +of Timour the Tartar. If there is to be any improvement in human nature +itself we must look to the infant science of eugenics to help us.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to say how this myth of progress came to take hold of the +imagination, in the teeth of science and experience. Quinet speaks of the +'fatalistic optimism' of historians, of which there have certainly been +some strange examples. We can only say that secularism, like other +religions, needs an eschatology, and has produced one. A more energetic +generation than ours looked forward to a gradual extension of busy +industrialism over the whole planet; the present ideal of the masses seems +to be the greatest idleness of the greatest number, or a Fabian farm-yard +of tame fowls, or (in America) an ice-water-drinking gynæcocracy. But the +superstition cannot flourish much longer. The period of expansion is over, +and we must adjust our view of earthly providence to a state of decline. +For no nation can flourish when it is the ambition of the large majority to +put in fourpence and take out ninepence. The middle-class will be the first +victims; then the privileged aristocracy of labour will exploit the poor. +But trade will take wings and migrate to some other country where labour is +good and comparatively cheap.</p> + +<p>The dethronement of a fetish may give a sounder faith its chance. In the +time of decay and disintegration which lies before us, more persons will +seek consolation where it can be found. 'Happiness and unhappiness,' says +Spinoza, 'depend on the nature of the object which we love. When a thing is +not loved, no quarrels will arise concerning it, no sadness will be felt if +it perishes, no envy if it is possessed by another; no fear, no hatred, no +disturbance of the mind. All these things arise from the love of the +perishable. But love for a thing eternal and infinite feeds the mind wholly +with joy, and is itself untainted with any sadness; wherefore it is greatly +to be desired and sought for with our whole strength.' It is well known +that these noble words were not only sincere, but the expression of the +working faith of the philosopher; and we may hope that many who are doomed +to suffer hardship and spoliation in the evil days that are coming will +find the same path to a happiness which cannot be taken from them. +Spinoza's words, of course, do not point only to religious exercises and +meditation. The spiritual world includes art and science in all their +branches, when these are studied with a genuine devotion to the Good, the +True, and the Beautiful for their own sakes. We shall need 'a remnant' to +save Europe from relapsing into barbarism; for the new forces are almost +wholly cut off from the precious traditions which link our civilisation +with the great eras of the past. The possibility of another dark age is not +remote; but there must be enough who value our best traditions to preserve +them till the next spring-time of civilisation. We must take long views, +and think of our great-grandchildren.</p> + +<p>It is tempting to dream of a new Renaissance, under which the life of +reason will at last be the life of mankind. Though there is little sign of +improvement in human nature, a favourable conjunction of circumstances may +bring about a civilisation very much better than ours to-day. For a time, +at any rate, war may be practically abolished, and the military qualities +may find another and a less pernicious outlet. 'Sport,' as Santayana says, +'is a liberal form of war stripped of its compulsions and malignity; a +rational art and the expression of a civilised instinct.' The art of living +may be taken in hand seriously. Some of the ingenuity which has lately been +lavished on engines of destruction may be devoted to improvements in our +houses, which should be easily and cheaply put together and able to be +carried about in sections; on labour-saving devices which would make +servants unnecessary; and on international campaigns against diseases, some +of the worst of which could be extinguished for ever by twenty years of +concerted effort. A scientific civilisation is not impossible, though we +are not likely to live to see it. And, if science and humanism can work +together, it will be a great age for mankind. Such hopes as these must be +allowed to float before our minds: they are not unreasonable, and they will +help us to get through the twentieth century, which is not likely to be a +pleasant time to live in.</p> + +<p>Some writers, like Mr. H.G. Wells, recognising the danger which threatens +civilisation, have suggested the formation of a society for mutual +encouragement in the higher life. Mr. Wells developed this idea in his +'Modern Utopia.' He contemplated a brotherhood, like the Japanese Samurai, +living by a Rule, a kind of lay monastic order, who should endeavour to +live in a perfectly rational and wholesome manner, so as to be the nucleus +of whatever was best in the society of the time. The scheme is interesting +to a Platonist, because of its resemblance to the Order of Guardians in the +'Republic.' A very good case may be made out for having an ascetic Order of +moral and physical aristocrats, and entrusting them with the government of +the country. Plato forbade his guardians to own wealth, and thus secured an +uncorrupt administration, one of the rarest and best of virtues in a +government. But political events are not moving in this direction at +present; and the question for us is whether those who believe in science +and humanism should attempt to form a society, not to rule the country, but +to protect themselves and the ideas which they wish to preserve. But I +agree with Mr. Wells' second thoughts, that the time is not ripe for such a +scheme.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7" /><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Christianity, 'the greatest new beginning in the world's +history,' appeared, as he says, in an age of disintegration, and 'we are in +a synthetic rather than a disintegrating phase.... <i>Only a very vast and +terrible war-explosion can, I think, change this state of affairs.'</i> The +vast explosion has occurred, and the stage of disintegration, which Mr. +Wells ought perhaps to have seen approaching even eleven years ago, has +clearly begun. But it will have to go further before the need of such a +society is felt. The time may come when the educated classes, and those who +desire freedom to live as they think right, will find themselves oppressed, +not only in their home-life by the tyranny of the trade-unions, but in +their souls by the pulpy and mawkish emotionalism of herd-morality. Then a +league for mutual protection may be formed. If such a society ever comes +into being, the following principles are, I think, necessary for its +success. First, it must be on a religious basis, since religion has a +cohesive force greater than any other bond. The religious basis will be a +blend of Christian Platonism and Christian Stoicism, since it must be +founded on that faith in absolute spiritual values which is common to +Christianity and Platonism, with that sturdy defiance of tyranny and +popular folly which was the strength of Stoicism. Next, it must not be +affiliated to any religious organisation; otherwise it will certainly be +exploited in denominational interests. Thirdly, it must include some purely +disciplinary asceticism, such as abstinence from alcohol and tobacco for +men, and from costly dresses and jewellery for women. This is necessary, +because it is more important to keep out the half-hearted than to increase +the number of members. Fourthly, it must prescribe a simple life of duty +and discipline, since frugality will be a condition of enjoying +self-respect and freedom. Fifthly, it will enjoin the choice of an open-air +life in the country, where possible. A whole group of French writers, such +as Proudhon, Delacroix, Leconte de Lisle, Flaubert, Leblond, and Faguet +agree in attributing our social <i>malaise</i> to life in great towns. The lower +death-rates of country districts are a hint from nature that they are +right. Sixthly, every member must pledge himself to give his best work. As +Dr. Jacks says, 'Producers of good articles respect each other; producers +of bad despise each other and hate their work.' It may be necessary for +those who recognise the right of the labourer to preserve his self-respect, +to combine in order to satisfy each other's needs in resistance to the +trade-unions. Seventhly, there must be provision for community-life, like +that of the old monasteries, for both sexes. The members of the society +should be encouraged to spend some part of their lives in these +institutions, without retiring from the world altogether. Temporary +'retreats' might be of great value. Intellectual work, including scientific +research, could be carried on under very favourable conditions in these lay +monasteries and convents, which should contain good libraries and +laboratories. Lastly, a distinctive dress, not merely a badge, would +probably be essential for members of both sexes.</p> + +<p>This last provision tempts me to add that the Government would do well to +appoint at once a Royal Commission, or, rather, two Commissions, to decide +on a compulsory national uniform for both sexes. Experts should recommend +the most comfortable, becoming, and economical dress that could be devised, +with considerable variety for the different trades and professions. Such a +law would do more for social equality than any readjustment of taxation. It +has been often noticed that every man looks a gentleman in khaki; and it is +to be feared that many war brides have suffered a painful surprise on +seeing their husbands for the first time in civilian garb. There need be no +suggestion of militarism about the new costume; but a man's calling might +be recorded, like the name of his regiment, on his shoulder-straps, and the +absence of such a badge would be regarded as a disgrace, whether the +subject was a tramp or one of the idle rich. This suggestion may seem +trivial, or even ludicrous; and I may be reminded of my dislike of meddling +legislation; but the importance of the philosophy of clothes has not +diminished since 'Sartor Resartus.' Clerical dignitaries might be trusted +to vote for this mitigation of their lot.</p> + +<p>Some may wonder why I have not expressed a hope that the guardianship of +our intellectual and spiritual birthright may pass into the hands of the +National Church. I heartily wish that I could cherish this hope. But +organised religion has been a failure ever since the first concordat +between Church and State under Constantine the Great. The Church of England +in its corporate capacity has never seemed to respect anything but +organised force. In the sixteenth century it proclaimed Henry VIII the +Supreme Head of the Church; in the seventeenth century it passionately +upheld the 'right divine of kings to govern wrong'; in the eighteenth and +nineteenth it was the obsequious supporter of the squirearchy and +plutocracy; and now it grovels before the working-man, and supports every +scheme of plundering the minority. In fact, we must distinguish sharply +between ecclesiasticism, theology, and religion. The future of +ecclesiasticism is a political question. In the opinion of some good +judges, the acute nationalism now dominant in Europe will quickly pass +away, and a duel will supervene between the 'Black International' and the +'Red.' Catholicism, it is supposed, will shelter all who dread revolution +and all who value traditional civilisation; its unrivalled organisation +will make it the one possible centre of resistance to anarchy and +barbarism, and the conflict will go on till one side or the other is +overthrown. This prediction, which opens a truly appalling prospect for +civilisation, might be less terrible if the Church were to open its arms to +a new Renaissance, and become once more, as in the beginning of the modern +period, the home of learning and the patroness of the arts. But we must not +overlook the new and growing power of science; and science can no more make +terms with Catholic ecclesiasticism than with the Revolution. The Jacobins +guillotined Lavoisier, 'having no need of chemists'; but the Church burnt +Bruno and imprisoned Galileo. Science, too strong to be victimised again, +may come between the two enemies of civilisation, the Bolshevik and the +Ultramontane; it is, I think, our best hope.</p> + +<p>I am conscious that I have spoken with too little sympathy in one or two of +these essays about the Ritualist party. I was more afraid of it a few years +ago than I am now. The Oxford movement began as a late wave of the Romantic +movement, with wistful eyes bent upon the past. But Romanticism, which +dotes on ruins, shrinks from real restoration. Medievalism is attractive +only when seen from a short distance. So the movement is ceasing to be +either medieval or Catholic or Anglican; it is becoming definitely Latin. +But a Latin Church in England which disowns the Pope is an absurdity. Many +of the shrewder High Churchmen are, as I have said in this volume, throwing +themselves into political agitation and intrigue, for which Catholics +always have a great aptitude; but this involves them in another +inconsistency. For Catholicism is essentially hierarchical and +undemocratic, though it keeps a 'career open to the talents.' The spirit of +Catholicism breathes in the Third Canto of the 'Paradiso,' where Dante asks +the soul of a friend whom he finds in the lowest circle of Paradise, +whether he does not desire to go higher. The friend replies: 'Brother, the +force of charity quiets our will, making us wish only for what we have and +thirst for nothing more. If we desired to be in a sublimer sphere, our +desires would be discordant with the will of Him who here allots us our +diverse stations.... The manner in which we are ranged from step to step in +this kingdom pleases the whole kingdom, as it does the King who gives us +the power to will as He wills.' Accordingly, these ecclesiastical votaries +of democracy cut a strange figure when they seek to legislate for the +Church. The High Church scheme (defeated the other day by a small majority) +for drawing up a constitution for the Church, consisted in disfranchising +the large majority of the electorate and reserving the initiative and veto +for the House of Lords (the Bishops). In fact, the constitution which our +Catholic democrats would like best for the Church closely resembles that of +Great Britain before the first Reform Bill. In the same way the ritualistic +clergy, while professing a superstitious reverence for the episcopal +office, make a point of flouting the authority of their own bishop. The +movement, in my opinion, is beginning to break up, and Rome will be the +chief gainer. But many of its leaders have been among the glories of the +Church of England, and I could never speak of them with disrespect.</p> + +<p>Catholicism, whether Roman or Anglican, stands to lose heavily by the decay +of institutionalism as an article of faith. It is becoming impossible for +those who mix at all with their fellow-men to believe that the grace of God +is distributed denominationally. The Christian virtues, so far as we can +see, flower impartially in the souls of Catholic and Protestant, of +Churchman and Schismatic, of Orthodox and Heretic. And the test, 'by their +fruits ye shall know them,' cannot be openly rejected by any Christian. But +fanatical institutionalism has been the driving force of Catholicism as a +power in the world, from the very first. The Church has lived by its +monopolies and conquered by its intolerance. The war has given a further +impetus to the fall of this belief, which, with its dogma, <i>Extra ecclesiam +nulla salus</i>, was tottering before the crisis came.</p> + +<p>The prospects of Christian theology are very difficult to estimate; and I +am so convinced myself of the superiority of the Catholic theology based +on Neoplatonism, that I cannot view the matter with impartial detachment. +We all tend to predict the triumph of our own opinions. But miracles must, +I am convinced, be relegated to the sphere of pious opinion. It is not +likely, perhaps, that the progress of science will increase the difficulty +of believing them; but it can never again be possible to make the truths of +religion depend on physical portents having taken place as recorded. The +Christian revelation can stand without them, and the rulers of the Church +will soon have to recognise that in very many minds it does stand without +them.</p> + +<p>I have already indicated what I believe to be the essential parts of that +revelation. Whether it will be believed by a larger number of persons a +hundred years hence than to-day depends, I suppose, on whether the nation +will be in a more healthy condition than it is now. The chief rival to +Christianity is secularism; and this creed has some bitter disappointments +in store for its worshippers. I cannot help hoping that the human race, +having taken in succession every path except the right one, may pay more +attention to the narrow way that leadeth unto life. In morals, the Church +will undoubtedly have a hard battle to fight. The younger generation has +discarded all <i>tabus</i>, and in matters of sex we must be prepared for a +period of unbridled license. But such lawlessness brings about its own cure +by arousing disgust and shame; and the institution of marriage is far too +deeply rooted to be in any danger from the revolution.</p> + +<p>I have, I suppose, made it clear that I do not consider myself specially +fortunate in having been born in 1860, and that I look forward with great +anxiety to the journey through life which my children will have to make. +But, after all, we judge our generation mainly by its surface currents. +There may be in progress a storage of beneficent forces which we cannot +see. There are ages of sowing and ages of reaping: the brilliant epochs may +be those in which spiritual wealth is squandered, the epochs of apparent +decline may be those in which the race is recuperating after an exhausting +effort. To all appearance, man has still a great part of his long lease +before him, and there is no reason to suppose that the future will be less +productive of moral and spiritual triumphs than the past. The source of all +good is like an inexhaustible river; the Creator pours forth new treasures +of goodness, truth, and beauty for all who will love them and take them. +'Nothing that truly <i>is</i> can ever perish,' as Plotinus says; whatever has +value in God's sight is safe for evermore. Our half-real world is the +factory of souls, in which we are tried, as in a furnace. We are not to set +our hopes upon it, but to learn such wisdom as it can teach us while we +pass through it. I will therefore end these thoughts on our present +discontents with two messages of courage and confidence, one from Chaucer, +the other from Blake.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>That thee is sent, receyve in buxomnesse,<br /></span> +<span>The wrastling for this worlde axeth a fall.<br /></span> +<span>Her is non hoom, her nis but wildernesse:<br /></span> +<span>Forth, pilgrim, forth! Forth, beste, out of thy stall!<br /></span> +<span>Know thy contree, look up, thank God of all:<br /></span> +<span>Weyve thy lust, and let thy gost thee lede;<br /></span> +<span>And trouthe shall delivere, it is no drede.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And this:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Joy and woe are woven fine,<br /></span> +<span>A clothing for the soul divine;<br /></span> +<span>Under every grief and pine<br /></span> +<span>Runs a joy with silken twine.<br /></span> +<span>It is right it should be so;<br /></span> +<span>Man was made for joy and woe;<br /></span> +<span>And when this we rightly know<br /></span> +<span>Safely through the world we go.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Times Literary Supplement</i>, July 18, 1918.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Hearnshaw, <i>Democracy at the Crossroads</i>, p. 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3" /><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Miss M. Loane. Mr. Stephen Reynolds has said the same.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4" /><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Professor Hearnshaw quotes: 'Il y a opposition évidente et +irréductible entre les principes socialistes et les principes +démocratiques. Il n'y a pas de conceptions politiques qui soient séparées +par des abîmes plus profonds que la démocratie et le socialisme' (Le Bon). +'Socialism must be built on ideas and institutions totally different from +the ideas and institutions of democracy' (Levine). 'La democratic tend à la +conciliation des classes, tandis que le socialisme organise la lutte de +classe' (Lagardelle).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5" /><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> A.D. Lewis, <i>Syndicalism and the General Strike</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6" /><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>The Division of the Product of Industry</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7" /><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>First and Last Things</i> (pp. 148-9. Published in 1908).</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PATRIOTISM" id="PATRIOTISM" />PATRIOTISM</h2> + +<h3>(1915)</h3> + + +<p>The sentiment of patriotism has seemed to many to mark an arrest of +development in the psychical expansion of the individual, a half-way house +between mere self-centredness and full human sympathy. Some moralists have +condemned it as pure egoism, magnified and disguised. 'Patriotism,' says +Ruskin, 'is an absurd prejudice founded on an extended selfishness.' Mr. +Grant Allen calls it 'a vulgar vice—the national or collective form of the +monopolist instinct.' Mr. Havelock Ellis allows it to be 'a virtue—among +barbarians.' For Herbert Spencer it is 'reflex egoism—extended +selfishness.' These critics have made the very common mistake of judging +human emotions and sentiments by their roots instead of by their fruits. +They have forgotten the Aristotelian canon that the 'nature' of anything is +its completed development (ἡ φὑσιϛ τἑλοϛ ἑστιν. The human self, +as we know it, is a transitional form. It had a humble origin, and is +capable of indefinite enhancement. Ultimately, we are what we love and care +for, and no limit has been set to what we may become without ceasing to be +ourselves. The case is the same with our love of country. No limit has been +set to what our country may come to mean for us, without ceasing to be our +country. Marcus Aurelius exhorted himself—'The poet says, Dear city of +Cecrops; shall not I pay, Dear city of God?' But the city of God in which +he wished to be was a city in which he would still live as 'a Roman and an +Antonine.' The citizen of heaven knew that it was his duty to 'hunt +Sarmatians' on earth, though he was not obliged to imbrue his hands with +'Cæsarism.'</p> + +<p>Patriotism has two roots, the love of clan and the love of home. In +migratory tribes the former alone counts; in settled communities +diversities of origin are often forgotten. But the love of home, as we know +it, is a gentler and more spiritual bond than clanship. The word home is +associated with all that makes life beautiful and sacred, with tender +memories of joy and sorrow, and especially with the first eager outlook of +the young mind upon a wonderful world. A man does not as a rule feel much +sentiment about his London house, still less about his office or factory. +It is for the home of his childhood, or of his ancestors, that a man will +fight most readily, because he is bound to it by a spiritual and poetic +tie. Expanding from this centre, the sentiment of patriotism embraces one's +country as a whole.</p> + +<p>Both forms of patriotism—the local and the racial, are frequently alloyed +with absurd, unworthy or barbarous motives. The local patriot thinks that +Peebles, and not Paris, is the place for pleasure, or asks whether any good +thing can come out of Nazareth. To the Chinaman all aliens are 'outer +barbarians' or 'foreign devils.' Admiration for ourselves and our +institutions is too often measured by our contempt and dislike for +foreigners. Our own nation has a peculiarly bad record in this respect. In +the reign of James I the Spanish ambassador was frequently insulted by the +London crowd, as was the Russian ambassador in 1662; not, apparently, +because we had a burning grievance against either of those nations, but +because Spaniards and Russians are very unlike Englishmen. That at least is +the opinion of the sagacious Pepys on the later of these incidents. 'Lord! +to see the absurd nature of Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and +jeering at anything that looks strange.' Defoe says that the English are +'the most churlish people alive' to foreigners, with the result that 'all +men think an Englishman the devil.' In the 17th and 18th centuries Scotland +seems to have ranked as a foreign country, and the presence of Scots in +London was much resented. Cleveland thought it witty to write:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom;<br /></span> +<span>Not forced him wander, but confined him home.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And we all remember Dr. Johnson's gibes.</p> + +<p>British patriotic arrogance culminated in the 18th and in the first half of +the 19th century; in Lord Palmerston it found a champion at the head of the +government. Goldsmith describes the bearing of the Englishman of his day:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,<br /></span> +<span>I see the lords of human kind pass by.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Michelet found in England 'human pride personified in a people,' at a time +when the characteristic of Germany was 'a profound impersonality.' It may +be doubted whether even the arrogant brutality of the modern Prussian is +more offensive to foreigners than was the calm and haughty assumption of +superiority by our countrymen at this time. Our grandfathers and +great-grandfathers were quite of Milton's opinion, that, when the Almighty +wishes something unusually great and difficult to be done, He entrusts it +to His Englishmen. This unamiable characteristic was probably much more the +result of insular ignorance than of a deep-seated pride. 'A generation or +two ago,' said Mr. Asquith lately, 'patriotism was largely fed and fostered +upon reciprocal ignorance and contempt.' The Englishman seriously believed +that the French subsisted mainly upon frogs, while the Frenchman was +equally convinced that the sale of wives at Smithfield was one of our +national institutions. This fruitful source of international +misunderstanding has become less dangerous since the facilities of foreign +travel have been increased. But in the relations of Europe with alien and +independent civilisations, such as that of China, we still see brutal +arrogance and vulgar ignorance producing their natural results.</p> + +<p>Another cause of perverted patriotism is the inborn pugnacity of the <i>bête +humaine</i>. Our species is the most cruel and destructive of all that inhabit +this planet. If the lower animals, as we call them, were able to formulate +a religion, they might differ greatly as to the shape of the beneficent +Creator, but they would nearly all agree that the devil must be very like a +big white man. Mr. McDougall<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8" /><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> has lately raised the question whether +civilised man is less pugnacious than the savage; and he answers it in the +negative. The Europeans, he thinks, are among the most combative of the +human race. We are not allowed to knock each other on the head during +peace; but our civilisation is based on cut-throat competition; our +favourite games are mimic battles, which I suppose effect for us a +'purgation of the emotions' similar to that which Aristotle attributed to +witnessing the performance of a tragedy: and, when the fit seizes us, we +are ready to engage in wars which cannot fail to be disastrous to both +combatants. Mr. McDougall does not regret this disposition, irrational +though it is. He thinks that it tends to the survival of the fittest, and +that, if we substitute emulation for pugnacity, which on other grounds +might seem an unmixed advantage, we shall have to call in the science of +eugenics to save us from becoming as sheeplike as the Chinese. There is, +however, another side to this question, as we shall see presently.</p> + +<p>Another instinct which has supplied fuel to patriotism of the baser sort is +that of acquisitiveness. This tendency, without which even the most +rudimentary civilisation would be impossible, began when the female of the +species, instead of carrying her baby on her back and following the male to +his hunting-grounds, made some sort of a lair for herself and her family, +where primitive implements and stores of food could be kept. There are +still tribes in Brazil which have not reached this first step towards +humanisation. But the instinct of hoarding, like all other instincts, tends +to become hypertrophied and perverted; and with the institution of private +property comes another institution—that of plunder and brigandage. In +private life, no motive of action is at present so powerful and so +persistent as acquisitiveness, which, unlike most other desires, knows no +satiety. The average man is rich enough when he has a little more than he +has got, and not till then. The acquisition and possession of land +satisfies this desire in a high degree, since land is a visible and +indestructible form of property. Consequently, as soon as the instincts of +the individual are transferred to the group, territorial aggrandisement +becomes a main preoccupation of the state. This desire was the chief cause +of wars, while kings and nobles regarded the territories over which they +ruled as their private estates. Wherever despotic or feudal conditions +survive, such ideas are likely still to be found, and to cause dangers to +other states. The greatest ambition of a modern emperor is still to be +commemorated as a 'Mehrer des Reichs.'</p> + +<p>Capitalism, by separating the idea of property from any necessary +connection with landed estate, and democracy, by denying the whole theory +on which dynastic wars of conquest are based, have both contributed to +check this, perhaps the worst kind of war. It would, however, be a great +error to suppose that the instinct of acquisitiveness, in its old and +barbarous form, has lost its hold upon even the most civilised nations. +When an old-fashioned brigand appears, and puts himself at the head of his +nation, he becomes at once a popular hero. By any rational standard of +morality, few greater scoundrels have lived than Frederick the Great and +Napoleon I. But they are still names to conjure with. Both were men of +singularly lucid intellect and entirely medieval ambitions. Their great +achievement was to show how under modern conditions aggressive war may be +carried on without much loss (except in human life) to the aggressor. They +tore up all the conventions which regulated the conduct of warfare, and +reduced it to sheer brigandage and terrorism. And now, after a hundred +years, we see these methods deliberately revived by the greatest military +power in the world, and applied with the same ruthlessness and with an +added pedantry which makes them more inhuman. The perpetrators of the crime +calculated quite correctly that they need fear no reluctance on the part of +the nation, no qualms of conscience, no compassionate shrinking, no +remorse. It must, indeed, be a bad cause that cannot count on the support +of the large majority of the people at the <i>beginning</i> of a war. Pugnacity, +greed, mere excitement, the contagion of a crowd, will fill the streets of +almost any capital with a shouting and jubilant mob on the day after a war +has been declared.</p> + +<p>And yet the motives which we have enumerated are plainly atavistic and +pathological. They belong to a mental condition which would conduct an +individual to the prison or the gallows. We do not argue seriously whether +the career of the highwayman or burglar is legitimate and desirable; and it +is impossible to maintain that what is disgraceful for the individual is +creditable for the state. And apart from the consideration that predatory +patriotism deforms its own idol and makes it hateful in the eyes of the +world, subsequent history has fully confirmed the moral instinct of the +ancient Greeks, that national insolence or injustice (ὑβριϛ) +brings its own severe punishment. The imaginary dialogue which Thucydides +puts into the mouth of the Athenian and Melian envoys, and the debate in +the Athenian Assembly about the punishment of revolted Mitylene, are +intended to prepare the reader for the tragic fate of the Sicilian +expedition. The same writer describes the break-up of all social morality +during the civil war in words which seem to herald the destruction not only +of Athens but of Greek freedom. Machiavelli's 'Prince' shows how history +can repeat itself, reiterating its lesson that a nation which gives itself +to immoral aggrandisement is far on the road to disintegration. Seneca's +rebuke to his slave-holding countrymen, 'Can you complain that you have +been robbed of the liberty which you have yourselves abolished in your own +homes?' applies equally to nations which have enslaved or exploited the +inhabitants of subject lands. If the Roman Empire had a long and glorious +life, it was because its methods were liberal, by the standard of ancient +times. In so far as Rome abused her power, she suffered the doom of all +tyrants.</p> + +<p>The illusions of imperialism have been made clearer than ever by the course +of modern history. Attempts to destroy a nationality by overthrowing its +government, proscribing its language, and maltreating its citizens, are +never successful. The experiment has been tried with great thoroughness in +Poland; and the Poles are now more of a nation than they were under the +oppressive feudal system which existed before the partitions. Our own +empire would be a ludicrous failure if it were any part of our ambition to +Anglicise other races. The only English parts of the empire were waste +lands which we have peopled with our own emigrants. We hauled down the +French flag in Canada, with the result that Eastern Canada is now the only +flourishing French colony, and the only part of the world where the French +race increases rapidly. We have helped the Dutch to multiply with almost +equal rapidity in South Africa. We have added several millions to the +native population of Egypt, and over a hundred millions to the population +of India. Similarly, the Americans have made Cuba for the first time a +really Spanish island, by driving out its incompetent Spanish governors and +so attracting immigrants from Spain. On the whole, in imperialism nothing +fails like success. If the conqueror oppresses his subjects, they will +become fanatical patriots, and sooner or later have their revenge; if he +treats them well, and 'governs them for their good,' they will multiply +faster than their rulers, till they claim their independence. The +Englishman now says, 'I am quite content to have it so'; but that is not +the old imperialism.</p> + +<p>The notion that frequent war is a healthy tonic for a nation is scarcely +tenable. Its dysgenic effect, by eliminating the strongest and healthiest +of the population, while leaving the weaklings at home to be the fathers of +the next generation, is no new discovery. It has been supported by a +succession of men, such as Tenon, Dufau, Foissac, de Lapouge, and Richet in +France; Tiedemann and Seeck in Germany; Guerrini in Italy; Kellogg and +Starr Jordan in America. The case is indeed overwhelming. The lives +destroyed in war are nearly all males, thus disturbing the sex equilibrium +of the population; they are in the prime of life, at the age of greatest +fecundity; and they are picked from a list out of which from 20 to 30 per +cent. have been rejected for physical unfitness. It seems to be proved that +the children born in France during the Napoleonic wars were poor and +undersized—30 millimetres below the normal height. War combined with +religious celibacy to ruin Spain. 'Castile makes men and wastes them,' said +a Spanish writer. 'This sublime and terrible phrase sums up the whole of +Spanish history.' Schiller was right; 'Immer der Krieg verschlingt die +besten.' We in England have suffered from this drain in the past; we shall +suffer much more in the next generation.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>We have fed our sea for a thousand years,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And she calls us, still unfed,<br /></span> +<span>Though there's never a wave of all her waves<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But marks our English dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>We have strawed our best to the weed's unrest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To the shark and the sheering gull,<br /></span> +<span>If blood be the price of admiralty,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lord God, we ha' paid in full.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Aggressive patriotism is thus condemned by common sense and the verdict of +history no less than by morality. We are entitled to say to the militarists +what Socrates said to Polus:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>This doctrine of yours has now been examined and found + wanting. And this doctrine alone has stood the test—that we + ought to be more afraid of doing than of suffering wrong; + and that the prime business of every man [and nation] is not + to seem good, but to be good, in all private and public + dealings. </p></div> + +<p>If the nations would render something more than lip-service to this +principle, the abolition of war would be within sight; for, as Ruskin says, +echoing the judgment of the Epistle of St. James, 'The first reason for all +wars, and for the necessity of national defences, is that the majority of +persons, high and low, in all European countries, are thieves.' But it must +be remembered that, in spite of the proverb, it takes in reality only one +to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in +favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.</p> + +<p>Our own conversion to pacificism, though sincere, is somewhat recent. Our +literature does not reflect it. Bacon is frankly militarist:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Above all, for empire and greatness, it importeth most, that + a nation do profess arms, as their principal honour, study, + and occupation. For the things which we formerly have spoken + of are but habilitations towards arms; and what is + habitation without intention and act?... It is so plain that + a man profiteth in that he most intendeth, that it needeth + not to be stood upon. It is enough to point at it; that no + nation, which doth not directly profess arms, may look to + have greatness fall into their mouths. </p></div> + +<p>A state, therefore, 'ought to have those laws or customs, which may reach +forth unto them just occasions of war.' Shakespeare's 'Henry V' has been +not unreasonably recommended by the Germans as 'good war-reading.' It would +be easy to compile a <i>catena</i> of bellicose maxims from our literature, +reaching down to the end of the 19th century. The change is perhaps due +less to progress in morality than to that political good sense which has +again and again steered our ship through dangerous rocks. But there has +been some real advance, in all civilised countries. We do not find that men +talked about the 'bankruptcy of Christianity' during the Napoleonic +campaigns. Even the Germans think it necessary to tell each other that it +was Belgium who began this war.</p> + +<p>But, though pugnacity and acquisitiveness have been the real foundation of +much miscalled patriotism, better motives are generally mingled with these +primitive instincts. It is the subtle blend of noble and ignoble sentiment +which makes patriotism such a difficult problem for the moralist. The +patriot nearly always believes, or thinks he believes, that he desires the +greatness of his country because his country stands for something +intrinsically great and valuable. Where this conviction is absent we cannot +speak of patriotism, but only of the cohesion of a wolf-pack. The Greeks, +who at last perished because they could not combine, had nevertheless a +consciousness that they were the trustees of civilisation against +barbarism; and in their day of triumph over the Persians they were filled, +for a time, with an almost Jewish awe in presence of the righteous judgment +of God. The 'Persæ' of Æschylus is one of the noblest of patriotic poems. +The Romans, a harder and coarser race, had their ideal of <i>virtus</i> and +<i>gravitas</i>, which included simplicity of life, dignity and self-restraint, +honesty and industry, and devotion to the state. They rightly felt that +these qualities constituted a vocation to empire. There was much harshness +and injustice in Roman imperialism; but what nobler epitaph could even the +British empire desire than the tribute of Claudian, when the weary Titan +was at last stricken and dying:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Hæc est, in gremium victos quæ sola recepit,<br /></span> +<span>humanumque genus communi nomine fovit<br /></span> +<span>matris non dominæ ritu, civesque vocavit<br /></span> +<span>quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Jewish patriotism was of a different kind. A federation of fierce Bedouin +tribes, encamped amid hostile populations, and set in the cockpit of rival +empires against which it was impossible to stand, the Israelites were +hammered by misfortune into the most indestructible of all organisms, a +theocracy. Their religion was to them what, in a minor degree, Roman +Catholicism has been to Ireland and Poland, a consecration of patriotic +faith and hope. Westphal says the Jews failed because they hated foreigners +more than they loved God. They have had good reason to hate foreigners. But +undoubtedly the effect of their hatred has been that the great gifts which +their nation had to give to humanity have come through other hands, and so +have evoked no gratitude. In the first century of our era they were called +to an almost superhuman abnegation of their inveterate nationalism, and +they could not rise to it. As almost every other nation would have done, +they chose the lower patriotism instead of the higher; and it was against +their will that the religion of civilised humanity grew out of Hebrew soil. +But they gained this by their choice, tragic though it was, that they have +stood by the graves of all the empires that oppressed them, and have +preserved their racial integrity and traditions in the most adverse +circumstances. The history of the Jews also shows that oppression and +persecution are far more efficacious in binding a nation together than +community of interest and national prosperity. Increase of wealth divides +rather than unites a people; but suffering shared in common binds it +together with hoops of steel.</p> + +<p>The Jews were the only race whose spiritual independence was not crushed by +the Roman steam-roller. It would be unfair to say that Rome destroyed +nations; for her subjects in the West were barbarous tribes, and in the +East she displaced monarchies no less alien to their subjects than her own +rule. But she prevented the growth of nationalities, as it is to be feared +we have done in India; and the absence of sturdy independence in the +countries round the Mediterranean, especially in the Greek-speaking +provinces, made the final downfall inevitable. The lesson has its warning +for modern theorists who wish to obliterate the sentiment of nationality, +the revival of which, after a long eclipse, has been one of the +achievements of modern civilisation. For it was not till long after the +destruction of the Western Roman Empire that nationality began to assume +its present importance in Europe.</p> + +<p>The transition from medieval to modern history is most strongly marked by +the emergence of this principle, with all that it involves. At the end of +the Middle Ages Europe was at last compelled to admit that the grand idea +of an universal state and an universal church had definitely broken down. +Hitherto it had been assumed that behind all national disputes lay a <i>ius +gentium</i> by which all were bound, and that behind all religious questions +lay the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, from which there was no +appeal. The modern period which certainly does not represent the last word +of civilisation, has witnessed the abandonment of these ideas. The change +took place gradually. France became a nation when the English raids ceased +in the middle of the 15th century. Spain achieved unity a generation later +by the union of Castile and Aragon and the expulsion of the Moors from the +peninsula. Holland found herself in the heroic struggle against Spain in +the 16th century. But the practice of conducting wars by hiring foreign +mercenaries, a sure sign that the nationalist spirit is weak, continued +till much later. And the dynastic principle, which is the very negation of +nationalism, actually culminated in the 18th century; and this is the true +explanation of the feeble resistance which Europe offered to the French +revolutionary armies, until Napoleon stirred up the dormant spirit of +nationalism in the peoples whom he plundered. 'In the old European system,' +says Lord Acton, 'the rights of nationalities were neither recognised by +governments nor asserted by the people. The interests of the reigning +families, not those of the nations, regulated the frontiers; and the +administration was conducted generally without any reference to popular +desires.' Marriage or conquest might unite the most diverse nations under +one sovereign, such as Charles V.</p> + +<p>While such ideas prevailed, the suppression of a nation did not seem +hateful; the partition of Poland evoked few protests at the time, though +perhaps few acts of injustice have recoiled with greater force on the heads +of their perpetrators than this is likely to do. Poles have been and are +among the bitterest enemies of autocracy, and the strongest advocates of +republicanism and racialism, in all parts of the world. The French +Revolution opened a new era for nationalism, both directly and indirectly. +The deposition of the Bourbons was a national act which might be a +precedent for other oppressed peoples. And when the Revolution itself began +to trample on the rights of other nations, an uprising took place, first in +Spain and then in Prussia, which proved too strong for the tyrant. The +apostasy of France from her own ideals of liberty proved the futility of +mere doctrines, like those of Rousseau, and compelled the peoples to arm +themselves and win their freedom by the sword. The national militarism of +Prussia was the direct consequence of her humiliation at Jena and +Auerstädt, and of the harsh terms imposed upon her at Tilsit. It is true +that the Congress of Vienna attempted to revive the old dynastic system. +But for the steady opposition of England, the clique of despots might have +reimposed the old yoke upon their subjects. The settlement of 1815 also +left the entire centre of Europe in a state of chaos; and it was only by +slow degrees that Italy and Germany attained national unity. Poland, the +Austrian Empire, and the Balkan States still remain in a condition to +trouble the peace of the world. In Austria-Hungary the clash of the +dynastic and the nationalist ideas is strident; and every citizen of that +empire has to choose between a wider and a narrower allegiance.</p> + +<p>Europeans are, in fact, far from having made up their minds as to what is +the organic whole towards which patriotic sentiment ought to be directed. +Socialism agrees with despotism in saying, 'It is the political aggregate, +the state,' however much they may differ as to how the state should be +administered. For this reason militarism and state-socialism might at any +time come to terms. They are at one in exaggerating the 'organic' unity of +a political or geographical <i>enclave</i>; and they are at one in depreciating +the value of individual liberty. Loyalty to 'the state' instead of to 'king +and country' is not an easy or a natural emotion. The state is a bloodless +abstraction, which as a rule only materialises as a drill-sergeant or a +tax-collector. Enthusiasm for it, and not only for what can be got out of +it, does not extend much beyond the Fabian Society. Cæsarism has the great +advantage of a visible head, as well as of its appeal to very old and +strong thought-habits; and accordingly, in any national crisis, loyalty to +the War-lord is likely to show unexpected strength, and doctrinaire +socialism unexpected weakness.</p> + +<p>But devotion to the head of the state in his representative capacity is a +different thing from the old feudal loyalty. It is far more impersonal; the +ruler, whether an individual or a council, is reverenced as a non-human and +non-moral embodiment of the national power, a sort of Platonic idea of +coercive authority. This kind of loyalty may very easily be carried too +far. In reality, we are members of a great many 'social organisms,' each of +which has indefeasible claims upon us. Our family, our circle of +acquaintance, our business or profession, our church, our country, the +comity of civilised nations, humanity at large, are all social organisms; +and some of the chief problems of ethics are concerned with the adjustment +of their conflicting claims. To make any one of these absolute is +destructive of morality. But militarism and socialism deliberately make the +state absolute. In internal affairs this may lead to the ruthless +oppression of individuals or whole classes; in external relations it +produces wars waged with 'methods of barbarism.' The whole idea of the +state as an organism, which has been emphasised by social reformers as a +theoretical refutation of selfish individualism, rests on the abuse of a +metaphor. The bond between the dwellers in the same political area is far +less close than that between the organs of a living body. Every man has a +life of his own, and some purely personal rights; he has, moreover, moral +links with other human associations, outside his own country, and important +moral duties towards them. No one who reflects on the solidarity of +interests among capitalists, among hand-workers, or, in a different way, +among scholars and artists, all over the world, can fail to see that the +apotheosis of the state, whether in the interest of war or of revolution, +is an anachronism and an absurdity.</p> + +<p>A very different basis for patriotic sentiment is furnished by the +scientific or pseudo-scientific theories about race, which have become very +popular in our time. When the history of ideas in the 20th century comes to +be written, it is certain that among the causes of this great war will be +named the belief of the Germans in the superiority of their own race, based +on certain historical and ethnological theories which have acted like a +heady wine in stimulating the spirit of aggression among them. The theory, +stated briefly, is that the shores of the Baltic are the home of the finest +human type that has yet existed, a type distinguished by blond hair, great +physical strength, unequalled mental vigour and ability, superior morality, +and an innate aptitude for governing and improving inferior races. +Unfortunately for the world, this noble stock cannot flourish for very long +in climates unlike its own; but from the earliest historical times it has +'swarmed' periodically, subjugating the feebler peoples of the south, and +elevating them for a time above the level which they were naturally fitted +to reach. Wherever we find marked energy and nobleness of character, we may +suspect Aryan blood; and history will usually support our surmise. Among +the great men who were certainly or probably Germans were Agamemnon, Julius +Cæsar, the Founder of Christianity, Dante, and Shakespeare. The blond +Nordic giant is fulfilling his mission by conquering and imposing his +culture upon other races. They ought to be grateful to him for the service, +especially as it has a sacrificial aspect, the lower types having, at least +in their own climates, greater power of survival.</p> + +<p>This fantastic theory has been defended in a large number of German books, +of which the 'Foundations of the Nineteenth Century,' by the renegade +Englishman Houston Chamberlain, is the most widely known. The objections to +it are numerous. It is notorious that until the invention of gunpowder the +settled and civilised peoples of Europe were in frequent danger from bands +of hardier mountaineers, forest-dwellers, or pastoral nomads, who generally +came from the north. But the formidable fighting powers of these marauders +were no proof of intrinsic superiority. In fact, the most successful of +these conquerors, if success is measured by the amount of territory overrun +and subdued, were not the 'great blond beasts' of Nietzsche, but yellow +monsters with black hair, the Huns and Tartars.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9" /><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> The causes of Tartar +ascendancy had not the remotest connection with any moral or intellectual +qualities which we can be expected to admire. Nor can the Nordic race, well +endowed by nature as it undoubtedly is, prove such a superiority as this +theory claims for it. Some of the largest brains yet measured have been +those of Japanese; and the Jews have probably a higher average of ability +than the Teutons. Again, the Germans are not descended from a pure Nordic +stock. The Northern type can be best studied in Scandinavia, where the +people share with the Irish the distinction of being the handsomest race in +the world. The German is a mixture of various anatomical types, including, +in some parts, distinct traces of Mongolian blood, which indicate that the +raiding Huns meddled, according to their custom, with the German women, and +bequeathed to a section of the nation the Turanian cheek-bones, as well as +certain moral characteristics. Lastly, the German race has never shown much +aptitude for governing and assimilating other peoples. The French, by +virtue of their greater sympathy, are far more successful.</p> + +<p>The French have their own form of this pseudo-science in their doctrine of +the persistence of national characteristics. Each nation may be summed up +in a formula: England, for example, is 'the country of will.' A few +instances may, no doubt, be quoted in support of this theory. Julius Cæsar +said: 'Duas res plerasque Gallia industriosissime prosequitur, rem +militarem et argute loqui'; and these are still the characteristics of our +gallant allies. And Madame de Staël may be thought to have hit off the +German character very cleverly about the time when Bismarck first saw the +light. 'The Germans are vigorously submissive. They employ philosophical +reasonings to explain what is the least philosophic thing in the world, +respect for force and the fear which transforms that respect into +admiration.' But the fact remains that the characters of nations frequently +change, or rather that what we call national character is usually only the +policy of the governing class, forced upon it by circumstances, or the +manner of living which climate, geographical position, and other external +causes have made necessary for the inhabitants of a country.</p> + +<p>To found patriotism on homogeneity of race is no wiser than to bound it by +frontier lines. As the Abbé Noël has lately written about his own country, +Belgium,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>the race is not the nation. The nation is not a + physiological fact; it is a moral fact. What constitutes a + nation is the community of sentiments and ideals which + results from a common history and education. The variations + of the cephalic index are here of no great importance. The + essential factor of the national consciousness resides in a + certain common mode of conceiving the conditions of the + social life. </p></div> + +<p>Belgium, the Abbé maintains, has found this national consciousness amid her +sufferings; there are no longer any distinctions between French-speaking +Belgians and Walloons or Flemings. This is in truth the real base of +patriotism. It is the basis of our own love for our country. What Britain +stands for is what Britain is. We have long known in our hearts what +Britain stands for; but we have now been driven to search our thoughts and +make our ideals explicit to ourselves and others. The Englishman has become +a philosopher <i>malgré lui</i>, 'Whatever the world thinks,' writes Bishop +Berkeley. 'he who hath not much meditated upon God, the human soul, and the +<i>summum bonum</i>, may possibly make a thriving earthworm, but will most +indubitably make a sorry patriot and a sorry statesman.' These words, which +were quoted by Mr. Arthur Balfour a few years ago, may seem to make a large +demand on the average citizen; but in our quiet way we have all been +meditating on these things since last August, and we know pretty well what +our <i>summum bonum</i> is for our country. We believe in chivalry and fair play +and kindliness—these things first and foremost; and we believe, if not +exactly in democracy, yet in a government under which a man may think and +speak the thing he wills. We do not believe in war, and we do not believe +in bullying. We do not flatter ourselves that we are the supermen; but we +are convinced that the ideas which we stand for, and which we have on the +whole tried to carry out, are essential to the peaceful progress and +happiness of humanity; and for these ideas we have drawn the sword. The +great words of Abraham Lincoln have been on the lips of many and in the +hearts of all since the beginning of the great contest: 'With malice +towards none; with charity for all: with firmness in the right as God gives +us to see the right—let us strive on to finish the work we are in.'</p> + +<p>Patriotism thus spiritualised and moralised is the true patriotism. When +the emotion is once set in its right relations to the whole of human life +and to all that makes human life worth living, it cannot become an immoral +obsession. It is certain to become an immoral obsession if it is isolated +and made absolute. We have seen the appalling perversion—the methodical +diabolism—which this obsession has produced in Germany. It has startled us +because we thought that the civilised world had got beyond such insanity; +but it is of course no new thing. Machiavelli said, 'I prefer my country to +the salvation of my soul'—a sentiment which sounds noble but is not; it +has only a superficial resemblance to St. Paul's willingness to be +'accursed' for the sake of his countrymen. Devil-worship remains what it +was, even when the idol is draped in the national flag. This obsession may +be in part a survival from savage conditions, when all was at stake in +every feud; but chiefly it is an example of the idealising and +universalising power of the imagination, which turns every unchecked +passion into a monomania. The only remedy is, as Lowell's Hosea Biglow +reminds us, to bear in mind that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>our true country is that ideal realm which we represent to + ourselves under the names of religion, duty, and the like. + Our terrestrial organisations are but far-off approaches to + so fair a model; and all they are verily traitors who resist + not any attempt to divert them from this their original + intendment. Our true country is bounded on the north and the + south, on the east and west, by Justice, and when she + oversteps that invisible boundary-line by so much as a + hair's breadth, she ceases to be our mother, and chooses + rather to be looked upon <i>quasi noverca</i>. </p></div> + +<p>So Socrates said that the wise man will be a citizen of his true city, of +which the type is laid up in heaven, and only conditionally of his earthly +country.</p> + +<p>The obsession of patriotism is not the only evil which we have to consider. +We may err by defect as well as by excess. Herbert Spencer speaks of an +'anti-patriotic bias'; and it can hardly be disputed that many Englishmen +who pride themselves on their lofty morality are suffering from this mental +twist. The malady seems to belong to the Anglo-Saxon constitution, for it +is rarely encountered in other countries, while we had a noisy +pro-Napoleonic faction a hundred years ago, and the Americans had their +'Copperheads' in the Northern States during the civil war. In our own day, +every enemy of England, from the mad Mullah to the mad Kaiser, has had his +advocates at home; and the champions of Boer and Boxer, of Afridi and +Afrikander, of the Mahdi and the Matabele, have been usually the same +persons. The English, it would appear, differ from other misguided rascals +in never being right even by accident. But the idiosyncrasy of a few +persons is far less important than the comparative insensibility of whole +classes to the patriotic appeal, except when war is actually raging. This +is not specially characteristic of our own country. The German Emperor has +complained of his Social Democrats as 'people without a fatherland'; and +the cry 'À bas la patrie' has been heard in France.</p> + +<p>It is usual to explain this attitude by the fact that the manual workers +'have no stake in the country,' and might not find their condition altered +for the worse by subjection to a foreign power. A few of our working-men +have given colour to this charge by exclaiming petulantly that they could +not be worse off under the Germans; but in this they have done themselves +and their class less than justice. The anti-militarism and cosmopolitanism +of the masses in every country is a profoundly interesting fact, a problem +which demands no superficial investigation. It is one result of that +emancipation from traditional ideas, which makes the most important +difference between the upper and middle classes on the one side and the +lower on the other. We lament that the working-man takes but little +interest in Christianity, and rack our brains to discover what we have done +to discredit our religion in his eyes. The truth is that Christianity, as a +dogmatic and ecclesiastical system, is unintelligible without a very +considerable knowledge of the conditions under which it took shape. But +what are the ancient Hebrews, and the Greeks and Romans, to the +working-man? He is simply cut off from the means of reading intelligently +any book of the Bible, or of understanding how the institution called the +Catholic Church, and its offshoots, came to exist. As our staple education +becomes more 'modern' and less literary, the custodians of organised +religion will find their difficulties increasing. But the same is true +about patriotism. Love of country means pride in the past and ambition for +the future. Those who live only in the present are incapable of it. But our +working-man knows next to nothing about the past history of England; he has +scarcely heard of our great men, and has read few of our great books. It is +not surprising that the appeal to patriotism leaves him cold. This is an +evil that has its proper remedy. There is no reason why a sane and elevated +love of country should not be stimulated by appropriate teaching in our +schools. In America this is done—rather hysterically; and in +Germany—rather brutally. The Jews have always made their national history +a large part of their education, and even of their religion. Nothing has +helped them more to retain their self-consciousness as a nation. Ignorance +of the past and indifference to the future usually go together. Those who +most value our historical heritage will be most desirous to transmit it +unimpaired.</p> + +<p>But the absence of traditional ideas is by no means an unmixed evil. The +working-man sees more clearly than the majority of educated persons the +absurdity of international hatred and jealousy. He is conscious of greater +solidarity with his own class in other European countries than with the +wealthier class in his own; and as he approaches the whole question without +prejudice, he cannot fail to realise how large a part of the product of +labour is diverted from useful purposes by modern militarism. International +rivalry is in his eyes one of the most serious obstacles to the abolition +of want and misery. Tolstoy hardly exaggerates when he says: 'Patriotism to +the peoples represents only a frightful future; the fraternity of nations +seems an ideal more and more accessible to humanity, and one which humanity +desires.' Military glory has very little attraction for the working-man. +His humanitarian instincts appear to be actually stronger than those of +the sheltered classes. To take life in any circumstances seems to him a +shocking thing; and the harsh procedure of martial law and military custom +is abhorrent to him. He sees no advantage and no credit in territorial +aggrandisement, which he suspects to be prompted mainly by the desire to +make money unjustly. He is therefore a convinced pacificist; though his +doctrine of human brotherhood breaks down ignominiously when he finds his +economic position threatened by the competition of cheap foreign labour. If +an armed struggle ever takes place between the nations of Europe (or their +colonists) and the yellow races, it will be a working-man's war. But on the +whole, the best hope of getting rid of militarism may lie in the growing +power of the working class. The poor, being intensely gregarious and very +susceptible to all collective emotions, are still liable to fits of warlike +excitement. But their real minds are at present set against an aggressive +foreign policy, without being shut against the appeals of a higher +patriotism.</p> + +<p>And yet the irritation which is felt against preachers of the brotherhood +of man is not without justification. Some persons who condemn patriotism +are simply lacking in public spirit, or their loyalty is monopolised by +some fad or 'cause,' which is a poor substitute for love of country. The +man who has no prejudices in favour of his own family and his own country +is generally an unamiable creature. So we need not condemn Molière for +saying, 'L'ami du genre humain n'est pas du tout mon fait,' nor Brunetière +for declaring that 'Ni la nature ni l'histoire n'ont en effet voulu que les +hommes fussent tous frères.' But French Neo-catholicism, a bourgeois +movement directed against all the 'ideas of 1789,' seems to have adopted +the most ferocious kind of chauvinism. M. Paul Bourget wrote the other day +in the <i>Écho de Paris</i>, 'This war must be the first of many, since we +cannot exterminate sixty-five million Germans in a single campaign!' The +women and children too! This is not the way to revive the religion of +Christ in France.</p> + +<p>The practical question for the future is whether there is any prospect of +returning, under more favourable auspices, to the unrealised ideal of the +Middle Ages—an agreement among the nations of Europe to live amicably +under one system of international law and right, binding upon all, and with +the consciousness of an intellectual and spiritual unity deeper than +political divisions. 'The nations are the citizens of humanity,' said +Mazzini; and so they ought to be. Some of the omens are favourable. +Militarism has dug its own grave. The great powers increased their +armaments till the burden became insupportable, and have now rushed into +bankruptcy in the hope of shaking it off. In prehistoric times the lords of +creation were certain gigantic lizards, protected by massive armour-plates +which could only be carried by a creature thirty to sixty feet long. Then +they died, when neither earth, air, nor water could support them any +longer. Such must be the end of the European nations, unless they learn +wisdom. The lesson will be brought home to them by Transatlantic +competition. The United States of America had already, before this war, an +initial advantage over the disunited states of Europe, amounting to at +least 10 per cent. on every contract; after the war this advantage will be +doubled. It remains to be seen whether the next generation will honour the +debts which we are piling up. Disraeli used to complain of what he called +'Dutch finance,' which consists in 'mortgaging the industry of the future +to protect property in the present.' Pitt paid for the great war of a +hundred years ago in this manner; after a century we are still groaning +under the burden of his loans. We may hear more of the iniquity of 'Dutch +finance' when the democracies of the next generation have a chance of +repudiating obligations which, as they will say, they did not contract. +However that may be, international rivalry is plainly very bad business; +and there are great possibilities in the Hague Tribunal, if, and only if, +the signatories to the conference bind themselves to use force against a +recalcitrant member. The conduct of Germany in this war has shown that +public opinion is powerless to restrain a nation which feels strong enough +to defy it.</p> + +<p>Another cause which may give patriots leisure to turn their thoughts away +from war's alarms is that the 'swarming' period of the European races is +coming to an end. The unparalleled increase of population in the first +three quarters of the 19th century has been followed by a progressive +decrease in the birth-rate, which will begin to tell upon social conditions +when the reduction in the death-rate, which has hitherto kept pace with it, +shall have reached its natural limit. Europe with a stationary population +will be in a much happier condition; and problems of social reform can then +be tackled with some hope of success. Honourable emulation in the arts of +life may then take the place of desperate competition and antagonism. Human +lives will begin to have a positive value, and we may even think it fair to +honour our saviours more than our destroyers. The effects of past follies +will then soon be effaced; for nations recover much more quickly from wars +than from internal disorders. External injuries are rapidly cured; but +'those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves.' The greatest obstacle +to progress is not man's inherited pugnacity, but his incorrigible tendency +to parasitism. The true patriot will keep his eye fixed on this, and will +dread as the state's worst enemies those citizens who at the top and bottom +of the social scale have no other ambition than to hang on and suck the +life-blood of the nation. Great things may be hoped from the new science of +eugenics, when it has passed out of its tentative and experimental stage.</p> + +<p>In the distant future we may reasonably hope that patriotism will be a +sentiment like the loyalty which binds a man to his public school and +university, an affection purged of all rancour and jealousy, a stimulus to +all honourable conduct and noble effort, a part of the poetry of life. It +is so already to many of us, and has been so to the noblest Englishmen +since we have had a literature. If Henry V's speech at Agincourt is the +splendid gasconade of a royal freebooter, there is no false ring in the +scene where John of Gaunt takes leave of his banished son; nor in Sir +Walter Scott's 'Breathes there a man with soul so dead,' etc. 'If I forget +thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.' We cannot quite +manage to substitute London for Zion in singing psalms, though there are +some in England—Eton, Winchester, Oxford, Cambridge—which do evoke these +feelings. These emotions of loyalty and devotion are by no means to be +checked or despised. They have an infinite potency for good. In spiritual +things there is no conflict between intensity and expansion. The deepest +sympathy is, potentially, also the widest. He who loves not his home and +country which he has seen, how shall he love humanity in general which he +has not seen? There are, after all, few emotions of which one has less +reason to be ashamed than the little lump in the throat which the +Englishman feels when he first catches sight of the white cliffs of Dover.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8" /><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> In his <i>Introduction to Social Psychology</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9" /><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The reasons of their irresistible strength have been explained +in a most brilliant manner by Dr. Peisker in the first volume of the +'Cambridge Medieval History.'</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_BIRTH_RATE" id="THE_BIRTH_RATE" />THE BIRTH-RATE</h2> + +<h3>(1917)</h3> + + +<p>The numbers of every species are determined, not by the procreative power +of its members, which always greatly exceeds the capacity of the earth to +support a progeny increasing in geometrical progression, but by two +factors, the activity of its enemies and the available supply of food. +Those species which survive owe their success in the struggle for existence +mainly to one of two qualities, enormous fertility or parental care. The +female cod spawns about 6,000,000 eggs at a time, of which at most +one-third—perhaps much less—are afterwards fertilised. An infinitesimal +proportion of these escapes being devoured by fish or fowl. An +insect-eating bird is said to require for its support about 250,000 insects +a year, and the number of such birds must amount to thousands of millions. +As a rule there is a kind of equilibrium between the forces of destruction +and of reproduction. If a species is nearly exterminated by its enemies, +those enemies lose their food-supply and perish themselves. In some +sheltered spot the survivors of the victims remain and increase till they +begin to send out colonies again. In some species, such as the mice in La +Plata, and the beasts and birds which devour them, there is an alternation +of increase and decrease, to be accounted for in this way. But permanent +disturbances of equilibrium sometimes occur. The rabbit in Australia, +having found a virgin soil, multiplied for some time almost up to the limit +of its natural fertility and is firmly established on that continent. The +brown rat (some say) has exterminated our black rat and the Maori rat in +New Zealand. The microbe of the terrible disease which the crews of +Columbus brought back to Europe, after causing a devastating epidemic at +the end of the fifteenth century, established a kind of <i>modus vivendi</i> +with its hosts, and has remained as a permanent scourge in Europe. Other +microbes, like those of cholera and plague, emigrate from the lands where +they are endemic, like a horde of Tartars, and after slaying all who are +susceptible disappear from inanition. The draining of the fens has driven +the anopheles mosquito from England, and our countrymen no longer suffer +from 'ague.' Cleanlier habits are banishing the louse and its accompaniment +typhus fever.</p> + +<p>Fertility and care for offspring seem as a rule to vary inversely. The +latter is the path of biological progress, and is characteristic of all +viviparous animals. That any degree of parental attention is incompatible +with the immense fecundity of the lower organisms needs no demonstration. +Such fertility is not necessary to keep up the numbers of the higher +species, which find abundant food in the swarming progeny of the lower +types, and are not themselves exposed to wholesale slaughter. Speaking of +fishes, Sutherland says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Of species that exhibit no sort of parental care, the + average of forty-nine gives 1,040,000 eggs to a female each + year; while among those which make nests or any apology for + nests the number is only about 10,000. Among those which + have any protective tricks, such as carrying the eggs in + pouches or attached to the body, or in the mouth, the + average number is under 1000; while among those whose care + takes the form of uterine or quasi-uterine gestation which + brings the young into the world alive, an average of 56 eggs + is quite sufficient. </p></div> + +<p>Man is no exception to these laws. His evolution has been steadily in the +direction of diminishing fertility and increasing parental care. This does +not necessarily imply that the modern European loves his children better +than the savage loves his. It is grim necessity, not want of affection, +which determines the treatment of children by their parents over a great +part of the world, and through the greater part of human history. The +homeless hunters, who represent the lowest stage of savagery, are now +almost extinct. In these tribes the woman has to follow the man carrying +her baby. Under such conditions the chances of rearing a large family are +small indeed. Very different is the life of the grassland nomads, who roam +over the Arabian plateau and the steppes of Central Asia. These tribes, who +really live as the parasites of their flocks and herds, depending on them +entirely for subsistence, often multiply rapidly. Their typical unit is the +great patriarchal family, in which the <i>sheikh</i> may have scores of children +by different mothers. These children soon begin to earn their keep, and are +taken care of. If, however, the patriarch so chooses, Hagar with her child +is cast adrift, to find her way back to her own people, if she can. The +grasslands are usually almost as full as they can hold. A period of +drought, or pressure by rivals, in former times sent a horde of these hardy +shepherds on a raid into the nearest settled province; and if, like the +Tartars, they were mounted, they usually killed, plundered, and conquered +wherever they went, until the discovery of gunpowder saved civilisation +from the recurrent peril of barbarian inroads. Barbarians of another type, +hunters with fixed homes, seldom increase rapidly, partly because the +dangers of forest-life for young children are much greater than on the +steppe.</p> + +<p>In the primitive river-valley civilisations, such as Egypt and Babylonia, +the conditions of increase were so favourable that a dense population soon +began to press upon the means of subsistence. In Egypt the remedy was a +centralised government which could undertake great irrigation works and +intensive cultivation. In Babylonia, for the first time in history, foreign +trade was made to support a larger population than the land itself could +maintain. There was little or no infanticide in Babylonia, but the +death-rate in these steaming alluvial plains has always been very high.</p> + +<p>When we turn to poor and mountainous countries like Greece, the conditions +are very different. It was an old belief among the Hellenes that in the +days before the Trojan War 'the world was too full of people.' The increase +was doubtless made possible by the trade which developed in the Minoan +period, but the sources of food-supply were liable to be interfered with. +Hence came the necessity for active colonisation, which lasted from the +eighth to the sixth century B.C. This period of expansion came to an end +when all the available sites were occupied. In the sixth century the Greeks +found themselves headed off, in the west by Phoenicians and Etruscans, in +the east by the Persian Empire. The problem of over-population was again +pressing upon them. Incessant civil wars between Hellenes kept the numbers +down to some extent; but Greek battles were not as a rule very bloody, and +every healthy nation has a surprising capacity of making good the losses +caused by war. The first effect of the check to emigration was that the old +ideal of the 'self-sufficient life,' which meant the practice of mixed +farming, had to be partially abandoned. The most flourishing States, and +especially Athens, had to take to manufactures, which they exchanged for +the food-products of the Balkan States and South Russia. The result was an +increasing urbanisation, and a new population of free 'resident aliens.' +Conservatives hated this change and wished to revive the old ideal of a +small self-supporting State, with a maximum of 20,000 or 30,000 citizens. +Plato, in his latest work, the 'Laws,' wishes his model city to be not too +near the sea, the proximity of which 'fills the streets with merchants and +shopkeepers, and begets dishonesty in the souls of men.' On the other side +Isocrates, the most far-seeing of Athenian politicians, realised that the +day of small city-states was over, and that the limited, 'self-sufficient' +community would not long maintain its independence. He urged his countrymen +to pursue a policy of peaceful penetration in Western Asia, as the Greeks +were soon to do under the successors of Alexander. But the prejudice +against industrialism was very strong. Greece in the fifth century remained +a poor country; her exports were not more than enough to pay for the food +of her existing population; and that population had to be artificially +restricted. The Greeks were an exceptionally healthy and long-lived race; +their great men for the most part lived to ages which have no parallel +until the nineteenth century. The infant death-rate from natural causes may +have been rather high, as it is in modern Greece, but it was augmented by +systematic infanticide. The Greek father had an absolute right to decide +whether a new-comer was to be admitted to the family. In Ephesus alone of +Greek cities a parent was compelled to prove that he was too poor to rear a +child before he was allowed to get rid of it.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10" /><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> Even Hesiod, centuries +earlier, advises a father not to bring up more than one son, and daughters +were sacrificed more frequently than sons. The usual practice was to expose +the infant in a jar; anyone who thought it worth while might rescue the +baby and bring it up as a slave. But this was not often done. At Gela, in +Sicily, there are 233 'potted' burials in an excavated graveyard, out of a +total of 570.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11" /><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The proportion of female infants exposed must have been +very large. The evidence of literature is supported by such letters as this +from a husband at Oxyrhynchus: 'When—good luck to you—your child is born, +if it is a male, let it live; if a female, expose it.'<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12" /><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Besides +infanticide, abortion was freely practised, and without blame.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13" /><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> The +Greek citizen married rather late; but as his bride was usually in her +'teens this would not affect the birth-rate. Nor need we attach much +importance, as a factor in checking population, to the characteristic Greek +vice, nor to prostitution, which throughout antiquity was incredibly cheap +and visited by no physical penalty. As for slaves, Xenophon recommends that +they should be allowed to have children as a reward for good conduct.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14" /><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<p>A rapid decline in population set in under the successors of Alexander. +Polybius ascribes it to selfishness and a high standard of comfort, which +is doubtless true of the upper and middle classes;<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15" /><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> but the depopulation +of rural Greece can hardly be so accounted for. Perhaps the forests were +cut down, and the rainfall diminished. It was the general impression that +the soil was far less productive than formerly. The decay of the Hellenic +race was accelerated after the Roman conquest, until the old stock became +almost extinct. This disappearance of the most gifted race that ever +inhabited our planet is one of the strangest catastrophes of history, and +is full of warnings for the modern sociologist. Industrial slavery, +indifference to parenthood, and addiction to club-life were certainly three +of the main causes, unless we prefer to regard the two last as symptoms of +hopelessness about the future.</p> + +<p>The same disease fell upon Italy, and was coincident not with the murderous +war against Hannibal and the subsequent campaigns, costly though they were, +in Spain, Syria, and Macedonia, but with the Hellenisation of social life. +Lucan, under Nero, complains that the towns have lost more than half their +inhabitants, and that the country-side lies waste. Under Titus it was +estimated that, whereas Italy under the Republic could raise nearly 800,000 +soldiers, that number was now reduced by one-half. Marcus Aurelius planted +a large tribe of Marcomanni on unoccupied land in Italy. In the fourth +century Bologna, Modena, Piacenza, and many other towns in North Italy were +in ruins. The land of the Volscians and Aequians, once densely populated, +was a desert even in Livy's time. Samnium remained the wilderness that +Sulla had left it; and Apulia was a lonely sheep-walk.</p> + +<p>The causes of this depopulation have been often discussed, both in +antiquity and in our own day. Slavery, infanticide, celibacy, wars and +massacres, large estates, and pestilence have all been named as causes; but +I am inclined to think that all these influences together are insufficient +to account for so rapid a decline. The toll of war was lighter by far than +in periods when the population was rising; infectious disease (unless we +suppose, as some have suggested, that malaria became for the first time +endemic under the Roman domination) invaded the empire in occasional and +destructive epidemics, but a healthy population recovers from pestilence, +as from war, with great rapidity. The large grazing ranches displaced +farms because corn-growing in Italy was unprofitable, but there was a large +supply of grain from Sicily, Africa, and other districts. Slavery +undoubtedly accounts for a great deal. This institution is excessively +wasteful of human life; it is never possible to keep up the numbers of +slaves without slave-hunting in the countries from which they come. And we +must remember that ancient civilisation was almost entirely urban. The +barbarians found ample waste lands between the towns, which they did not as +a rule care to visit, probably because those who did so soon fell victims +to microbic diseases. The sanitary condition of ancient cities was better +than in the Middle Ages; but the death-rate was probably too high to permit +of any increase in the population. But after admitting that all these +causes were operative, it may be that we shall be obliged to acknowledge +also a psychological factor. If a nation has no hopes for the future, if it +is even doubtful whether life is worth living, if it is disposed to +withdraw from the struggle for existence and to meet the problems of life +in a temper of passive resignation, it will not regard children as a +heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord, but rather as an encumbrance. +That such was the temper of the later Roman Empire may be gathered not only +from the literature, which is singularly devoid of hopefulness and +enterprise, but from the rapid spread of monasticism and eremitism in this +period. The prevalence of this world-weariness of course needs explanation, +and the cause is rather obscure. It does not seem to be connected with +unfavourable external conditions, but rather with a racial exhaustion akin +to senile decay in the individual. But there is no real analogy between the +life of an individual and that of a nation, and it would be very rash to +insist on the hypothesis of racial decay, which perhaps has no biological +basis.</p> + +<p>The influence of Christianity on population is very difficult to estimate. +Nothing is more unscientific than to collect the ethical precepts and +practices of nations which profess the Christian religion, and to label +them as 'the results of Christianity.' The historian of religion would +indeed be faced by a strange task if he were compelled to trace the moral +ideals of Simeon Stylites and of Howard the philanthropist, of Francis of +Assisi and Oliver Cromwell, of Thomas Aquinas and Thomas à Becket, to a +common source. The only ethical and social principles which can properly be +called Christian are those which can be proved to have their root in the +teaching and example of the Founder of Christianity. But the Gospel of +Christ was a product of Jewish soil. It is historically connected with the +Jewish prophetic tradition, which it carried to its fullest development and +presented in an universalised and spiritualised form. Its social teaching +consists chiefly of general principles which have to be applied to +conditions unlike those contemplated by its first disciples, who were under +the influence of the apocalyptic expectations prevalent at the time. Jewish +morality was in its origin the morality of a tribe of nomad Bedouins; and +we have seen that infant life is held sacred by these peoples. Marriage is +regarded as a duty, and childlessness as a misfortune or a disgrace. The +forward look, characteristic of the Hebrews from the first, made every Jew +desirous to leave descendants who might witness happier times, and one of +whom might even be the promised Deliverer of his people. No Hebrew of +either sex was allowed to be a servant of vice; abnormal practices, though +screened by Canaanite religion, were far less common than in Greece or +Italy. To this wholesome morality Christianity added the doctrines of the +value, in the sight of God, of every human life, and of the sanctity of the +body as the 'temple of God.' To the Pagans, the continence of the +Christians was, next to their affection for each other, their most +remarkable characteristic. From the first, the new religion set itself +firmly against infanticide and abortion, and won one of its most signal +moral triumphs in driving underground and greatly diminishing homosexual +vice. Its encouragement of celibacy, especially for those who followed the +'religious' vocation, was an offset to its healthy influence on family +life, and ultimately, as Galton has shown, worked great mischief by +sterilising for centuries many of the gentlest and noblest in each +generation; but this tendency was adventitious to Christianity, and would +never have taken root on Palestinian soil. The cult of virginity has +lasted on, with much else that belongs to the later Hellenistic age, in +Catholicism.</p> + +<p>In the Middle Ages the population question slumbered. The miserable chaos +into which the old civilisation sank after the barbarian invasions, the +orgies of massacre and plunder, the almost total oblivion of medical +science, and the pestiferous condition of the medieval walled town, which +could be smelt miles away, averted any risk of over-population. Families +were very large, but the majority of the children died. Millions were swept +away by the Black Death; millions more by the Crusades. Such books as that +of Luchaire, on France in the reign of Philip Augustus, bring vividly +before us the horrible condition of society in feudal times, and explain +amply the sparsity of the population.</p> + +<p>The early modern period contains another notable example of a sudden and +unaccountable decline in population. The scene is Spain, which, after +playing an active and very prominent part in the world's history, sank +quickly into the lethargy from which it has never recovered. It may be +noted that here, as in the case of Rome, the decay of population and energy +followed a great influx of plundered wealth. On the other hand, the +increase of population in our newly-planted North American colonies must +have been extremely rapid for two or three generations.</p> + +<p>The enormous multiplication of the European races since the middle of the +eighteenth century is a phenomenon quite unique in history, and never +likely to be repeated.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16" /><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> It was rendered possible by the new +labour-saving inventions which immensely increased the exports which could +be exchanged for food, and by the opening up of vast new food-producing +areas. The chief method by which the increase was effected, especially in +the later period, has been the lengthening of human life by improved +sanitation and medical science.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17" /><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Since 1865 the average duration of +life in England and Wales has been raised by a little more than one-third. +Other European countries show the same ratio of improvement. This +astonishing result, so little known and so seldom referred to, was bound to +have a great effect on the birth-rate. So long as the swarming period +continued at its height, a net annual increase of 15 or even 20 per +thousand could be sustained; but the expansion of the European peoples has +now passed its zenith, and a tendency to revert to more normal conditions +is almost everywhere observable. One of the most advanced nations, France, +has already reached the equilibrium towards which other civilised nations +are moving. The old-established families in the United States are believed +to be actually dwindling.</p> + +<p>The student of international vital statistics will be struck first by the +very wide differences in the birth-rate of different countries. He will +then notice that the more backward countries have on the whole a +considerably higher birth-rate than the more advanced. Thirdly, he will +observe the parallelism between the birth-rate and death-rate, which makes +the net increase in countries with a high birth-rate very little larger +than that of countries with a low birth-rate. The following figures will +illustrate these points; they are taken from the Registrar-General's Blue +Book for 1912.</p> + +<table summary="Statistics on Brith-rates, Death-rates and rate of change from the Registrar-General's Blue Book for 1912."> +<tr> <th></th> <th align="right">Birth-rate</th> <th align="right"> Death-rate</th> <th align="right"> Net rate of</th></tr> +<tr> <th></th> <th></th> <th></th> <th align="right">increase</th></tr> +<tr> <td>United Kingdom</td> <td align="right">23.9</td> <td align="right">13.8</td> <td align="right">10.1</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Autralia</td> <td align="right">28.7</td> <td align="right">11.2</td> <td align="right">17.5</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Austria</td> <td align="right">31.3</td> <td align="right">20.5</td> <td align="right">10.8</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Belgium</td> <td align="right">22.9</td> <td align="right">16.4</td> <td align="right"> 6.5</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>France</td> <td align="right">19.0</td> <td align="right">17.5</td> <td align="right"> 1.5</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Germany</td> <td align="right">28.6</td> <td align="right">17.3</td> <td align="right">11.3</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Italy</td> <td align="right">32.4</td> <td align="right">18.2</td> <td align="right">14.2</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>New Zealand</td> <td align="right">26.5</td> <td align="right"> 8.9</td> <td align="right">17.6</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Norway</td> <td align="right">25.4</td> <td align="right">13.4</td> <td align="right">12.0</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Roumania</td> <td align="right">43.4</td> <td align="right">22.9</td> <td align="right">20.5</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Russia</td> <td align="right">44.0</td> <td align="right">28.9</td> <td align="right">15.1</td> </tr> +</table> + +<p>It will be seen that Australia and New Zealand, with low birth-rates and +the lowest death-rates in the world increase more rapidly than Russia with +an enormous birth-rate and proportionately high death-rate. No one can +doubt that our colonies achieve their increase with far less friction and +misery than the prolific but short-lived Slavs. Civilisation in a high form +is incompatible with such conditions as these figures disclose in Russia. +The figures for Egypt and India are similar to the Russian, but in India, +which is overfull, the mortality is greater than even in Russia, and the +same is true of China, in which we are told that seven out of ten children +die in infancy. It has been suggested that the fairest measure of a +country's well-being, as regards its actual vitality, is the square of the +death-rate divided by the birth-rate.</p> + +<p>It is well known that a decline in the birth-rate set in about forty years +ago in this country, and has gone on steadily ever since, till the fall now +amounts to about one-third of the total births. It thus corresponds very +nearly to the fall in the death-rate during the same period. It is also +well known that this decline is not evenly distributed among different +classes of the people. Until the decline began, large families were the +rule in all classes, and the slightly larger families of the poor were +compensated by their somewhat higher mortality. But since 1877 large +families have become increasingly rare in the upper and middle classes, and +among the skilled artisans. They are frequent in the thriftless ranks of +unskilled labour, and in one section of well-paid workmen—the miners. The +highest birth-rates at present are in the mining districts and in the +slums. The lowest are in some of the learned professions. In the Rhondda +Valley the birth-rate is still about forty, which is double the rate in the +prosperous residential suburbs of London. In the seats of the textile +industry the decline has been very severe, although wages are fairly good; +among the agricultural labourers the rate is also low. It will be found +that in all trades where the women work for wages the birth-rate has fallen +sharply; the miner's wife does not earn money, and has therefore less +inducement to restrict her family. In agricultural districts the housing +difficulty is mainly responsible; in the upper and middle classes the heavy +expense of education and the burden of rates and taxes are probably the +main reasons why larger families are not desired. We may add that in almost +all the professions old men are overpaid and young men under-paid. Mr. and +Mrs. Whetham<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18" /><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> have found that, before 1870, 143 marriages of men whose +names appear in 'Who's Who' resulted in 743 children, an average of 5.2 +each; after 1870 the average is only 3.08. Celibacy also is commoner among +the educated. 'From the reports issued by two Women's Colleges, it appears +that, excluding those who have left college within three years or less, out +of 3000 women only 22 per cent. have married, and the number of children +born to each marriage is undoubtedly very small.' The writers consider that +this state of things is extremely dangerous for the country, inasmuch as we +are now breeding mainly from our worst stocks (the feeble-minded are very +prolific), while our best families are stationary or dwindling. Without +denying the general truth of this pessimistic conclusion,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19" /><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> it may be +pointed out that the miners are, physically at least, above the average of +the whole population, and that the very low birth-rate of residential +districts is partly due to the presence in large numbers of unmarried +domestic servants. The death-rate of the slums is also very high.</p> + +<p>The fears of the eugenist about the quality of the population are far more +reasonable than the invectives of the fanatic about its defective quantity. +Of the latter class we may say with Havelock Ellis that 'those who seek to +restore the birth-rate of half a century ago are engaged in a task which +would be criminal if it were not based on ignorance, and which is in any +case fatuous.' And yet I hope to show before the close of this article that +for two or three generations the British Empire could absorb a considerable +increase, and that the Government might with advantage stimulate this by +schemes of colonisation. The lament of the eugenist resounds in all +countries alike. The German complains that the Poles, whom he considers an +inferior race, breed like rabbits, while the gifted exponents of <i>Kultur</i> +only breed like hares. The American is nervous about the numbers of the +negro; he has more reason to be nervous about the fecundity of the Slav and +South Italian immigrant. Everywhere the tendency is for the superior stock +to dwindle till it becomes a small aristocracy. The Americans of British +descent are threatened with this fate. Pride and a high standard of living +are not biological virtues. The man who needs and spends little is the +ultimate inheritor of the earth. I know of no instance in history in which +a ruling race has not ultimately been ousted or absorbed by its subjects. +Complete extermination or expropriation is the only successful method of +conquest. The Anglo-Saxon race has thus established itself in the greater +part of Britain, and in Australasia. In North America it has destroyed the +Indian hunter, who could not be used for industrial purposes; but the +temptation to exploit the negro and the cheaper European races was too +strong to be resisted, and Nature's heaviest penalty is now being exacted +against the descendants of our sturdy colonists. We did not lose America in +the eighteenth century; we are losing it now. As for South Africa, the +Kaffir can live like a gentleman (according to his own ideas) on six +months' ill-paid work every year; the Englishman finds an income of £200 +too small. There is only one end to this kind of colonisation. The danger +at home is that the larger part of the population is now beginning to +insist upon a scale of remuneration and a standard of comfort which are +incompatible with any survival-value. We all wish to be privileged +aristocrats, with no serfs to work for us. Dame Nature cares nothing for +the babble of politicians and trade-union regulations. She says to us what +Plotinus, in a remarkable passage, makes her say: 'You should not ask +questions; you should try to understand. <i>I am not in the habit of +talking.</i>' In Nature's school it is a word and a blow, and the blow first. +Before the close of this article I will return to the eugenic problem, and +will consider whether anything can be done to solve it.</p> + +<p>At the present time, when an apparently internecine conflict is raging +between the British Empire and Germany, a more detailed comparison of the +vital statistics of the two countries will be read with interest. In +England and Wales the birth-rate culminated in 1876 at a little over 36, +after slowly rising from 33 in 1850. From 1876 the line of decline is +almost straight, down to the ante-war figure of about 24. In Prussia, owing +partly to wars, the fluctuations have been violent. In 1850 the figure +(omitting decimals) was 39; in 1855, 34; in 1859, 40; in 1871, 34; in 1875, +nearly 41. From this date, as in England, the steady decline began. In 1907 +the rate had fallen to 33; in 1913 (German Empire) to 27.5. Here we may +notice the abnormally high rate in the years following the great war of +1870, a phenomenon which was marked also throughout Europe after the +Napoleonic wars. We may also notice that the decline has been of late +slightly more rapid in Germany, falling from a high birth-rate, than in +England, where the maximum was never so high. Another fact which comes out +when the German figures are more carefully examined is that urbanisation in +Germany has a sterilising effect which is not operative in England. +Prinzing gives the comparative figures of <i>legitimate</i> fertility for +Prussia as follows:</p> + +<table summary="Legitimate fertility for Prussia."> +<tr><th></th><th align="right">1879-1882</th><th align="right"> 1894-1897</th><th align="left"></th></tr> +<tr> <td>Berlin</td> <td align="right">23.8</td> <td align="right">16.9</td> <td align="right"><a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20" /><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Other great towns</td> <td align="right">26.7</td> <td align="right">23.5</td> <td></td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Towns of 20,000 to 100,000</td> <td align="right">26.8</td> <td align="right">25.7</td> <td></td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Small towns</td> <td align="right">27.8</td> <td align="right">25.9</td> <td></td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Country districts</td> <td align="right">28.8</td> <td align="right">29.0</td> <td></td> </tr> +</table> + +<p>Now urbanisation is going on even more rapidly in Germany than in England. +The death-rate in England and Wales rose from 21 in 1850 to 23.5 in 1854; +after sharp fluctuations it reached 23.7 in 1864; since then it has +declined to its present figure (in normal times) of 14. In Prussia after +the war of 1870 and the small-pox epidemic of 1871, there has been a steady +fall from 26 to 17.3 (German Empire in 1911). The net increase is only +slightly larger (in proportion to the population) in Germany than in +England; and the increase in our great colonies, especially in +Australasia, is much higher than in Germany. There is therefore no reason +to suppose that a rapid alteration is going on to our disadvantage.</p> + +<p>It is widely believed that the Roman Catholic Church, by sternly forbidding +the artificial limitation of families, is increasing its numbers at the +expense of the non-Catholic populations. To some extent this is true. The +Prussian figures for 1895-1900 give the number of children per marriage as:</p> + + +<table summary="Prussian figures for 1985-1900: number of children per marriage."> +<tr> <td>Both parents Catholic</td> <td align="right"> 5</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Both parents Protestant</td> <td align="right"> 4</td> </tr> +<tr> <td>Both parents Jews</td> <td align="right"> 3.7</td> </tr> +</table> + + +<p>An examination of the entries in 'Who's Who' gives about the same +proportion for well-to-do families in England. The Catholic birth-rate of +the Irish is nearly 40.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21" /><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> The French-Canadians are among the most +prolific races in the world. On the other hand, their infant mortality is +very high, and it is said that French-Canadian parents take these losses +philosophically. It is quite a different question whether it is ultimately +to the advantage of a nation which desires to increase its numbers to +profess the Roman Catholic religion. The high birth-rates are all in +unprogressive Catholic populations. When a Catholic people begins to be +educated, the priests apparently lose their influence upon the habits of +the laity, and a rapid decline in the births at once sets in. The most +advanced countries which did not accept the Reformation, France and +Belgium, are precisely those in which parental prudence has been carried +almost to excess. We must also remember that the Dutch Boers, who are +Protestants, but who live under simple conditions not unlike those of the +French-Canadians, are equally prolific, as were our own colonists in the +United States before that country was industrialised. The advantages in +numbers gained by Roman Catholicism are likely to be confined to half-empty +countries, where there is really room for more citizens, and where social +ambition and the love of comfort are the chief motives for restricting the +family.</p> + +<p>The population of a settled country cannot be increased at will; it depends +on the supply of food. The choice is between a high birth-rate combined +with a high death-rate, and a low birth-rate with a low death-rate. The +great saving of life which has been effected during the last fifty years +carries with it the necessity of restricting the births. The next question +to be considered is how this restriction is to be brought about. The oldest +methods are deliberate neglect and infanticide. In China, where authorities +differ as to the extent to which female infants are exposed, the practice +certainly prevails of feeding infants whom their mothers are unable to +suckle on rice and water, which soon terminates their existence. Such +methods would happily find no advocates in Europe. The very ancient art of +procuring miscarriage is a criminal act in most civilised countries, but it +is practised to an appalling extent. Hirsch, who quotes his authorities, +estimates that 2,000,000 births are so prevented annually in the United +States, 400,000 in Germany, 50,000 in Paris, and 19,000 in Lyons. In our +own country it is exceedingly common in the northern towns, and attempts +are now being made to prohibit the sale of certain preparations of lead +which are used for this purpose. Alike on grounds of public health and of +morality, it is most desirable that this mischievous practice should be +checked. Its great prevalence in the United States is to be attributed +mainly to the drastic legislation in that country against the sale and use +of preventives, to which many persons take objection on moral or æsthetic +grounds, but which is surely on an entirely different level from the +destruction of life that has already begun. The 'Comstock' legislation in +America has done unmixed harm. It is worse than useless to try to put down +by law a practice which a very large number of people believes to be +innocent, and which must be left to the taste and conscience of the +individual. To the present writer it seems a <i>pis aller</i> which high-minded +married persons should avoid if they can practise self-restraint. Whatever +injures the feeling of 'sanctification and honour' with which St. Paul +bids us to regard these intimacies of life, whatever tends to profane or +degrade the sacraments of wedded love, is so far an evil. But this is +emphatically a matter in which every man and woman must judge for +themselves, and must refrain from judging others.</p> + +<p>In every modern civilised country population is restricted partly by the +deliberate postponement of marriage. In many cases this does no harm +whatever; but in many others it gravely diminishes the happiness of young +people, and may even cause minor disturbances of health. Moreover, it would +not be so widely adopted but for the tolerance, on the part of society, of +the 'great social evil,' the opprobrium of our civilisation. In spite of +the failure hitherto of priests, moralists, and legislators to root it out, +and in spite of the acceptance of it as inevitable by the majority of +Continental opinion, I believe that this abomination will not long be +tolerated by the conscience of the free and progressive nations. It is +notorious that the whole body of women deeply resents the wrong and +contumely done by it to their sex, and that, if democracy is to be a +reality, the immolation of a considerable section of women drawn from the +poorer classes cannot be suffered to continue. It is also plain to all who +have examined the subject that the campaign against certain diseases, the +malignity and wide diffusion of which are being more fully realised every +year, cannot be successful through medical methods alone. If the +institution in question were abolished, medical science would soon reduce +these scourges to manageable limits, and might at last exterminate them +altogether; but while it continues there is no hope of doing this. I +believe then that the time will come when the trade in vice will cease; and +if I am right, early marriages will become the rule in all classes. This +will render the population question more acute, especially as the diseases +which we hope to extirpate are the commonest cause both of sterility and of +infant mortality. Under this pressure, we must expect to see preventive +methods widely accepted as the least of unavoidable evils.</p> + +<p>When we reflect on the whole problem in its widest aspects, we see that +civilised humanity is confronted by a Choice of Hercules. On the one side, +biological law seems to urge us forward to the struggle for existence and +expansion. The nation in that case will have to be organised on the lines +of greatest efficiency. A strong centralised government will occupy itself +largely in preventing waste. All the resources of the nation must be used +to the uttermost. Parks must be cut up into allotments; the unproductive +labours of the scholar and thinker must be jealously controlled and +limited. Inefficient citizens must be weeded out; wages must be low and +hours of work long. Moreover, the State must be organised for war; for its +neighbours, we must suppose, are following the same policy. Then the fierce +extra-group competition must come to its logical arbitrament in a life and +death struggle. And war between two over-peopled countries, for both of +which more elbow-room is a vital necessity, must be a war of complete +expropriation or extermination. It must be so, for no other kind of war can +achieve its object. The horrors of the present conflict will be as nothing +compared with a struggle between two highly-organised State socialisms, +each of which knows that it must either colonise the territory of the other +or starve. It is idle to pretend that such a necessity will never arise. +Another century of increase in Europe like that of the nineteenth century +would bring it very near. If this policy is adopted, we shall see all the +principal States organising themselves with a perfection far greater than +that of Germany to-day, but taking German methods as their model; and the +end will be the extermination of the smaller or looser organisations. Such +a prospect may well fill us with horror; and it is terrible to find some of +the ablest thinkers of Germany, such as Ernst Troeltsch, writing calm +elegies over 'the death of Liberalism' and predicting the advent of an era +of cut-throat international competition. Juvenal speaks of the folly of +<i>propter vitam vivendi perdere causas</i>; and who would care to live in such +a world? But does Nature care whether we enjoy our lives or not?</p> + +<p>The other choice is that which France has made for herself; it is on the +lines of Plato's ideal State. Each country is to be, as far as possible, +self-sufficing. If it cannot grow sufficient food for itself, it must of +course export its coal or its gold, or the products of its industry and +ingenuity. But it must know approximately what 'the number of the State' +(as Plato said) should be. It must limit its population to that number, and +the limit will be fixed, not at the maximum number who can live there +anyhow, but at the maximum number who can 'live well.' The object aimed at +will not be constant expansion, but well-being. The energies liberated from +the pitiless struggle for existence will be devoted to making social life +wiser, happier, more harmonious and more beautiful. Have we any reason to +hope that this policy is not contrary to the hard laws which Nature imposes +on every species in the world?</p> + +<p>In the first place, would such a State escape being devoured by some brutal +'expanding' neighbour? What would have happened to France if she had stood +alone in this war? The danger is real; but we may answer that France, as a +matter of fact, did not stand alone, because other nations thought her too +precious to be sacrificed. And the completely organised competitive State +which I have imagined would be a far more unlovely place than Germany, and +more unpleasant to live in. The spectacle of a saner and happier polity +next door would break up the purely competitive State from within; the +strain would be too great for human nature. We cannot argue confidently +from the struggle for existence among the lower animals to our own species. +For a long time past, human evolution has been directed, not to living +anyhow, but to living in a certain way. We are guided by ideals for the +future, by purposes winch we clearly set before ourselves, in a way which +is impossible to the brutes. These purposes are common to the large +majority of men. No State can long maintain a rigid and oppressive +organisation, except under the threat of danger; and a nation which aims +only at perfecting its own culture is not dangerous to its neighbours. It +is probable that without the supposed menace of another military Power on +its eastern flank German militarism would have begun to crumble.</p> + +<p>In the second place, would the absence of sharp competition within the +group lead to racial degeneration? This is a difficult question to answer. +Perhaps a diminution of pugnacity and of the means to gratify this instinct +would not be a misfortune. But it is certainly true that, if the operation +of natural selection is suspended, rational selection must take its place. +Failing this, reversion to a lower type is inevitable. The infant science +of eugenics will have much to say on this subject hereafter; at present we +are only discovering how complex and obscure the laws of heredity are. The +State of the future will have to step in to prevent the propagation of +undesirable variations, whether physical or mental, and will doubtless find +means to encourage the increase of families that are well endowed by +Nature.</p> + +<p>Assuming that a nation as a whole prefers a policy of this kind, and aims +at such an equilibrium of births and deaths as will set free the energies +of the people for the higher objects of civilised life, how will it escape +the cacogenic effects of family restriction in the better classes combined +with reckless multiplication among the refuse which always exists in a +large community? This is a problem which has not yet been solved. Public +opinion is not ready for legislation against the multiplication of the +unfit, and it is not easy to see what form such legislation could take. +Many of the very poor are not undesirable parents; we must not confound +economic prosperity with biological fitness. The 'submerged tenth' should +be raised, where it is possible, into a condition of self-respect and +responsibility; but they must not be allowed to be a burden upon the +efficient; and the upper and middle classes should simplify their habits so +far as to make marriage and parenthood possible for the young professional +man. Special care should be taken that taxation is so adjusted as not to +penalise parenthood in the socially valuable middle class.</p> + +<p>For some time to come we are likely to see, in all the leading nations, a +restricted birth-rate, prompted by desire for social betterment, combined, +however, with concessions to the rival policy of commercial expansion, +growing numbers, and military preparation. The nations will not cease to +fear and suspect each other in the twentieth century, and any one nation +which chooses to be a nuisance to Europe will keep back the progress and +happiness of the rest. The prospect is not very bright; a too generous +confidence might betray some nation into irretrievable disaster. But the +bracing influence of national danger may perhaps be beneficial. For we have +to remember the pitiable decay of the ancient classical civilisation, which +was partly due, as we have found, to a desire for comfortable and easy +living. There have been signs that many of our countrymen no longer think +the strenuous life worth while; part of our resentment against Germany +resembles the annoyance of an old-fashioned firm, disturbed in its +comfortable security by the competition of a young and more vigorous rival. +It is even suggested that after the war we should protect ourselves against +German competition by tariff walls. This abandonment of the free trade +policy on which our prosperity is built would soon bring our over-populated +island to ruin.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, if we leave the distant future to fend for itself when the +time comes, what should be our policy with regard to population for the +next fifty years? I am led to an opinion which may seem to run counter to +the general purport of this article. For though the British Isles are even +dangerously full, so that we are liable to be starved out if we lose the +command of the sea, the British Empire is very far from being +over-populated. In Canada and Australasia there is probably room for nearly +200,000,000 people. These countries are remarkably healthy for Northern +Europeans; there is no reason why they should not be as rich and powerful +as the United States are now. We hope that we have saved the Empire from +German cupidity—for the time; but we cannot tell how long we may be +undisturbed. It would be criminal folly not to make the most of the respite +granted us, by peopling our Dominions with our own stock, while yet there +is time. This, however, cannot be done by casual and undirected emigration +of the old kind. We need an Imperial Board of Emigration, the officials of +which will work in co-operation with the Governments of our Dominions. +These Governments, it may be presumed, will be anxious, after the war, to +strengthen the colonies by increasing their population and developing their +resources. They, like ourselves, have had a severe fright, and know that +prompt action is necessary. Systematic plans of colonisation should be +worked out, and emigrants drafted off to the Dominions as work can be found +for them. Young women should be sent out in sufficient numbers to keep the +sexes equal. We know now that our young people who emigrate are by no means +lost to the Empire. The Dominions have shown that in time of need they are +able and willing to defend the mother country with their full strength. +Indeed, a young couple who emigrate are likely to be of more value to the +Empire than if they had stayed at home; and their chances of happiness are +much increased if they find a home in a part of the world where more human +beings are wanted. But without official advice and help emigration is +difficult. Parents do not know where to send their sons, nor what training +to give them. Mistakes are made, money is wasted, and bitter disappointment +caused. All this may be obviated if the Government will take the matter up +seriously. The real issue of this war is whether our great colonies are to +continue British; and the question will be decided not only on the field of +battle, but by the action of our Government and people after peace is +declared. The next fifty years will decide for all time whether those +magnificent and still empty countries are to be the home of great nations +speaking our language, carrying on our institutions, and valuing our +traditions. When the future of our Dominions is secure, the part of England +as a World-Power will have been played to a successful issue, and we may be +content with a position more consonant with the small area of these +islands.</p> + +<p>I believe, then, that if facilities for migration are given by Government +action, it will be not only possible but desirable for the increase in the +population of the Empire, taken as a whole, to be maintained during the +twentieth century. It is, of course, possible that chemical discoveries and +other scientific improvements may greatly increase the yield of food from +the soil, and that in this way the final limit to the population of the +earth may be further off than now seems probable. But within a few +centuries, at most, this limit must be reached; and after that we may hope +that the world will agree to maintain an equilibrium between births and +deaths, that being the most stable and the happiest condition in which +human beings can live together.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22" /><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10" /><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Myres, <i>Eugenics Review</i>, April, 1915.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11" /><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, <i>Kultur der Gegenwart</i>, 2, 4, 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12" /><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Cimon, Pericles, and Socrates all had three sons, and +apparently no daughters.—Zimmern, <i>The Greek Commonwealth</i>, p. 331.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13" /><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Cf. (e.g.)</i> Plato, <i>Theaetetus</i>, 149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14" /><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> We may suppose that the disproportion of the sexes, caused by +female infanticide, was about rectified by the deaths of males in battle +and civic strife. We do not hear that the Greek had any difficulty in +finding a wife.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15" /><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Families, he says, were limited to one or two 'in order to +leave these rich.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16" /><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The population of England and Wales is said to have been +4,800,000 in 1600, and 6,500,000 in 1750. It was 8,890,000 in 1801, +32,530,000 in 1901, and approximately 37,000,000 in 1914.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17" /><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Statistics are wanting for the early part of the industrial +revolution, but my study of pedigrees leads me to think that the average +duration of life was considerably increased in the eighteenth century.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18" /><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>The Family and the Nation</i>, p. 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19" /><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The births per 1000 married men under fifty-five in the +different classes are:—Upper and middle class, 119; Intermediate, 132; +Skilled workmen, 153; Intermediate, 158; Unskilled workmen, 213.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20" /><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> It must be remembered that the illegitimate birth-rate in +Berlin is scandalously high.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21" /><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> The crude birth-rate of Ireland is wholly misleading, because +so many young couples emigrate before the birth of their first child.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22" /><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> The possible effect of the labour movement in diminishing the +population is considered in the next Essay. The last two years have, in my +opinion, made the outlook less favourable.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FUTURE_OF_THE_ENGLISH_RACE" id="THE_FUTURE_OF_THE_ENGLISH_RACE" />THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH RACE</h2> + +<h3>(THE GALTON LECTURE, 1919)</h3> + + +<p>In the year 1890 Sir Charles Dilke ended his survey of 'Greater Britain' +and its problems with the prediction that 'the world's future belongs to +the Anglo-Saxon, the Russian, and the Chinese races.' This was in the +heyday of British imperialism, which was inaugurated by Seeley's 'Expansion +of England' and Froude's 'Oceana,' and which inspired Mr. Chamberlain to +proclaim at Toronto in 1887 that the 'Anglo-Saxon stock is infallibly +destined to be the predominant force in the history and civilisation of the +world.' It was an arrogant, but not truculent, mood, which reached its +climax at the 1897 Jubilee, and rapidly declined during and after the Boer +war. These writers and statesmen were utterly blind to the German peril, +though the disciples of Treitschke were already working out a theory about +the future destinies of the world, in which neither Great Britain nor +Russia nor China counted for very much. There were illusions on both sides +of the North Sea, which had to be paid for in blood. In both countries +imperialism was a sentiment curiously compounded of idealism and bombast, +and supported by very doubtful science. In the case of Germany the +distortion of facts was deliberate and monstrous. Not only was every +schoolboy brought up on cooked population statistics and falsified +geography, but the thick-set, brachycephalous Central European persuaded +himself that he belonged to the pure Nordic race, the great blond beasts of +Nietzsche, which, as he was taught, had already produced nearly all the +great men in history, and was now about to claim its proper place as +master of the world. Political anthropology is no genuine science. Race and +nationality are catchwords for which rulers find that their subjects are +willing to fight, as they fought for what they called religion four hundred +years ago. In reality, if we want to find a pure race, we must visit the +Esquimaux, or the Fuegians, or the Pygmies; we shall certainly not find one +in Europe. Our own imperialists had their illusions too, and we are not rid +of them yet, because we do not realise that the fate of races is decided, +not in the council-chamber or on the battle-field, but by the same laws of +nature which determine the distribution of the various plants and animals +of the world. It may be that by approaching our subject from this side we +shall arrive at a more scientific, if a more chastened, anticipation of our +national future than was acceptable to the enthusiasts of expansion in the +last twenty years of Queen Victoria's reign.</p> + +<p>The history of the world shows us that there have been three great human +reservoirs which from time to time have burst their banks and flooded +neighbouring countries. These are the Arabian peninsula, the steppes of +Central Asia, and the lands round the Baltic, the original home of the +Germanic and Anglo-Saxon peoples. The invaders in each case were pastoral +folk, who were driven from their homes by over-population, or drought and +famine, or the pressure of enemies behind them. It is easy for nomads to +'trek,' even for great distances; and till the discovery of gunpowder they +were the most formidable of foes. The Arabs and Northern Europeans have +founded great civilisations; the Mongol hordes have been an unmitigated +curse to humanity. The invaders never kept their blood pure. The famous +Jewish nose is probably Hittite, and certainly not Bedouin. There are no +pure Turks in Europe, and the Hungarians have lost all resemblance to +Mongols. The modern Germans seem to belong mainly to the round-headed +Alpine race, which migrated into Europe in early times from the Asiatic +highlands. In England there is a larger proportion of Nordic blood, because +the Anglo-Saxons partially exterminated the natives; but the old +Mediterranean race, which had made its way up the warm western coasts, +still holds its own in Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, and the Western Highlands; +and within the last hundred years, owing to frequent migrations, has mixed +so thoroughly with the Anglo-Saxon stock that the English are becoming +darker in each generation. This is not the result of a racial decay of the +blonds, as the American, Dr. Charles Woodruff, supposes, but is to be +accounted for by the fact that dark eyes seem to be a Mendelian dominant, +and dark hair a more potent character than light. The inhabitants of these +islands are nearly all long-headed, this being a characteristic of both the +Nordic and Mediterranean races. The round-headed invaders, who perhaps +brought with them the so-called Celtic languages at a remote period, and +imposed them upon the inhabitants, seem to have left no other mark upon the +population, though their type of head is prevalent over a great part of +France.</p> + +<p>The ability of races to flourish in climates other than their own is a +question of supreme importance to historians and statesmen, and, it need +not be said, to emigrants. But it is only lately that it has been studied +scientifically, and the results are still tentative. German ethnologists, +of what we may call the <i>ædicephalous</i> school, already referred to, regard +it as one of the tragedies of nature that the noble Nordic race, to which +they think they belong, dies out when it penetrates southwards. In +accordance with this law, the yellow-haired Achæans decayed in Greece, the +Lombards in North Italy, the Vandals in Spain and Africa. After a few +generations of life in a warm climate the Aryan stock invariably +disappears. We shall show reasons for thinking that this theory is much +exaggerated; but there is undoubtedly some truth in it. It has been found +to be impossible for white men to colonise India, Burma, tropical America, +and West Africa. It has been said that 'there is in India no third +generation of pure English blood.' It is notoriously difficult to bring up +even one generation of white children in India. The French cannot maintain +themselves without race admixture in Martinique and Guadaloupe, nor the +Dutch in Java, though it is said that the expectation of life for a +European in Java is as good as in his own country. It seems to be also true +that the blond race suffers most in a hot climate. In the Philippines it +was observed that the fair-haired soldiers in the American army succumbed +most readily to disease. In Queensland the Italian colonists are said to +stand the heat better than the English, and Mr. Roosevelt, among other +items of good advice which he bestowed so liberally on the European +nations, advised us to populate the torrid parts of Australia with +immigrants from the Latin races. In Natal the English families who are +settled in the country are said to be enervated by the climate; and on the +high plateaux of the interior our countrymen find it necessary to pay +periodical visits to the coast, to be unbraced. The early deaths and not +infrequent suicides of Rand magnates may indicate that the air of the +Transvaal is too stimulating for a life of high tension and excitement. +There are even signs that the same may be true in a minor degree of the +United States of America. Both the capitalist and the working man, if they +come of English stock, seem to wear out more quickly than at home; and the +sterility of marriages among the long settled American families is so +pronounced that it can hardly be due entirely to voluntary restriction of +parentage. The effects of an unsuitable climate are especially shown in +nervous disorders, and are therefore likely to tell most heavily on those +who engage in intellectual pursuits, and perhaps on women rather more than +on men. The sterilising effects of women's higher education in America are +incontrovertible, though this inference is hotly denied in England. At +Holyoake College it was found that only half the lady graduates afterwards +married, and the average family of those who did marry was less than two +children. At Bryn Mawr only 43 per cent, married, and had 0.84 children +each; the average family per graduate was therefore 0.37. If it be objected +that new immigrants and their children are healthy and vigorous in America, +it may be truly answered that the effects of an unfavourable climate are +manifested fully only in the third and later generations. The argument may +be further supported by the fate of black men who try to settle in Europe. +Their strongly pigmented skin, which seems to protect them from the actinic +rays of the tropical sun, so noxious to Europeans, and their broad +nostrils, which inhale a larger number of tubercle bacilli than the narrow +nose-slits of the Northerner, are disadvantages in a temperate climate. In +any case, of the many thousands of negro servants who lived in England in +the eighteenth century, it would be difficult to find a single descendant.</p> + +<p>But there are other factors in the problem which should make us beware of +hasty generalisations. It is obvious that since the American Republic +contains many climates in its vast area, there may be parts of it which are +perfectly healthy for Anglo-Saxons, and other parts where they cannot live +without degenerating. Very few athletes, we are told, come from south of +the fortieth parallel of latitude. But the decline in the birth-rate is +most marked in the older colonies, the New England States, where for a long +period the English colonists, living mainly on the land, not only throve +and developed a singularly virile type of humanity, but multiplied with +almost unexampled rapidity. The same is true not only of the French +Canadian farmers, but of the South African Boers, who rear enormous +families in a climate very different from that of Holland. The inference is +that Europeans living on the land may flourish in any tolerably healthy +climate which is not tropical.</p> + +<p>There are, in fact, two other causes besides climate which may prevent +immigrants from multiplying in a new country. The first of these is the +presence of microbic diseases to which the old inhabitants are wholly or +partially immune, but which find a virgin soil in the bodies of the +newcomers. The strongest example is the West Coast of Africa, of which Miss +Mary Kingsley writes: 'Yet remember, before you elect to cast your lot with +the West Coasters, that 85 per cent, of them die of fever, or return home +with their health permanently wrecked. Also remember that there is no +getting acclimatised to the Coast. There are, it is true, a few men out +there who, although they have been resident in West Africa for years, have +never had fever, but you can count them on the fingers of one hand.' There +can be no acclimatisation where the weeding out is as drastic as this. +Either the anopheles mosquito or the European must quit. There are parts of +tropical America where the natives have actually been protected by the +malaria, which keeps the white man at arm's length. But more often the +microbe is on the side of the civilised race, killing off the natives who +have not run the gauntlet of town-life. The extreme reluctance of the +barbarians who overran the Roman Empire to settle in the towns is easily +accounted for if, as is probable, the towns killed them off whenever they +attempted to live in them. The difference is remarkable between the fate of +a conquered race which has become accustomed to town-life, and that of one +which has not. There are no 'native quarters' in the towns of any country +where the aborigines were nomads or tillers of the soil. To the North +American Indian, residence in a town is a sentence of death. The American +Indians were accustomed to none of our zymotic diseases except malaria. In +the north they were destroyed wholesale by tuberculosis; in Mexico and +Peru, where large towns existed before the conquest, they fared better. +Fiji was devastated by measles; other barbarians by small-pox. Negroes have +acquired, through severe natural selection, a certain degree of +immunisation in America; but even now it is said that 'every other negro +dies of consumption.' There are, however, two races, both long accustomed +to town-life under horribly insanitary conditions, which have shown that +they can live in almost any climate. These are the Jews and the Chinese. +The medieval Ghetto exterminated all who were not naturally resistant to +every form of microbic disease; the modern Jew, though often of poor +physique, is hard to kill. The same may be said of the Chinaman, who, when +at home, lives under conditions which would kill most Europeans.</p> + +<p>The other factor, which is really promoting the gradual disappearance of +the Anglo-Saxons from the United States, is of a very different character. +The descendants of the old immigrants are on the whole the aristocracy of +the country. Now it is a law which hardly admits of exceptions, that +aristocracies do not maintain their numbers. The ruling race rules itself +out; nothing fails like success. Gibbon has called attention to the extreme +respect paid to long descent in the Roman Empire, and to the strange fact +that, in the fourth century, no ingenuity of pedigree makers could deny +that all the great families of the Republic were extinct, so that the +second-rate plebeian family of the Anicii, whose name did appear in the +Fasti, enjoyed a prestige far greater than that of the Howards and Stanleys +in this country. Our own peerage consists chiefly of parvenus. Only six of +our noble families, it is said, can trace their descent in the male line +without a break to the fifteenth century. The peerage of Sweden tells the +same tale. According to Gallon, the custom or law of primogeniture, +combined with the habit of marrying heiresses who, as the last +representatives of dwindling families, tend to be barren, is mainly +responsible for this. Additional causes may be the greater danger which the +officer-class incurs in war, and, in former times, the executioner's axe. +In our own day the reluctance of rich and self-indulgent women to bear +children is undoubtedly a factor in the infertility of the leisured class.</p> + +<p>This brings us naturally to the second part of our discussion—the +consideration of the causes which lead to the increase or decrease of +population. It is the most important part of our inquiry; for it is usually +assumed that the British Isles will continue to send out colonists in large +numbers, as it did in the last century, and the hopes of the imperialist +that a large part of the world will speak English for all time depend on +the untested assurance that the swarming-time of our race is not yet over. +Our starting-point must be that the pressure of population upon the means +of subsistence is a constant fact in the human race, as in every other +species of animals and plants. There is no species in which the numbers are +not kept down, far below the natural capacity for increase, by the +limitation of available food. It may not always be easy to trace the +connection between the appearance of new lives and the passing away of +old, nor to say whether it is the birth-rate which determines the +death-rate, or the death-rate the birth-rate. But it is well known that, +wherever statistics are kept, the numbers of births and of deaths rise and +fall in nearly parallel lines, so that the net rate of increase hardly +alters at all, unless some change, which can easily be traced, occurs in +the habits of the people or in the amount of the food supply. In civilised +countries the greater care taken of human life, and its consequent +prolongation, has reduced the birth-rate, just as in the higher mammals we +find a greatly diminished fertility as compared with the lower, and a much +higher survival-rate among the offspring born. The average duration of life +in this country has increased by about one-third in the last sixty years, +and the birth-rate has fallen in almost exactly the same proportion. The +position of a nation in the scale of civilisation may almost be gauged by +its births and deaths. The order in Europe, beginning with the lowest +birth-rate, is France, Belgium, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, +Norway, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Spain, Austria, Italy, Hungary, the +Balkan States, Russia. The order of death-rates, again beginning at the +bottom, is Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United +Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Serbia, Spain, Bulgaria, +Hungary, Roumania, Russia. These two lists, as will be seen, correspond +very nearly with the scale of descending civilisation, the only notable +exception being the low position of France in the second list. This anomaly +is explained by the fact that France having a stationary population, the +death-rate in that country corresponds nearly with the mean expectation of +life, whereas in countries where the population is increasing rapidly, +either by excess of births over deaths or by immigration, the preponderance +of young lives brings the death-rate down. We must, therefore, be on our +guard against supposing that countries with the lowest death-rates are +necessarily the most healthy. In New Zealand, for example, the death-rate +is under 10 per 1000, the lowest in the world; and though that country is +undoubtedly healthy, no one supposes that the average duration of life in +New Zealand is a hundred years. To ascertain whether a nation is +long-lived, we must correct the crude death-rate by taking into account the +average age of the population. When this correction has been made, a low +death-rate, and the low birth-rate which necessarily accompanies it, is a +sign that the doctors are doing their duty by keeping their patients alive. +If our physicians desire more maternity cases, they must make more work for +the undertaker. Large families almost always mean a high infant mortality; +and it is significant that a twelfth child has a very much poorer chance of +survival than a first or second. The agitation for the endowment of +motherhood and the reduction of infant mortality is therefore futile, +because, while other conditions remain the same, every baby 'saved' sends +another baby out of the world or prevents him from coming into it. The +number of the people is not determined by philanthropists or even by +parents. Children will come somehow whenever there is room for them, and go +when there is none. But other conditions do not remain the same, and it is +in these other conditions that we must seek the causes of expansion or +contraction in the numbers of a community.</p> + +<p>At the end of the sixteenth century the population of England and Wales +amounted to about five millions, and a hundred years later to about six. +There is no reason to think that under the conditions then existing the +country could have supported a larger number. The birth-rate was kept high +by the pestilential state of the towns, and thus the pressure of numbers +was less felt than it is now, since it was possible to have, though not to +rear, unlimited families. Occasionally, from accidental circumstances, +England was for a short time under-populated, and these were the periods +when, according to Professor Thorold Rogers, Archdeacon Cunningham, and +other authorities, the labourer was well off. The most striking example was +in the half-century after the Black Death, which carried off nearly half +the population. Wages increased threefold, and the Government tried in vain +to protect employers by enforcing pre-plague rates. Not only were wages +high, but food was so abundant that farmers often gave their men a square +meal which was not in the contract. The other period of prosperity for the +working man, according to our authorities, was the second quarter of the +eighteenth century. It has not, we think, been noticed that this also +followed a temporary set-back in the population. In 1688 the population of +England and Wales was 5,500,520; in 1710 it was more than a quarter of a +million less. The cause of this decline is obscure, but its effects soon +showed themselves in easier conditions of life, especially for the poor. +Such periods of under-saturation, which some new countries are still +enjoying, are necessarily short. Population flows in as naturally as water +finds its level.</p> + +<p>It was not till the accession of George III that the increase in our +numbers became rapid. No one until then would have thought of singling out +the Englishman as the embodiment of the good apprentice. Meteren, in the +sixteenth century, found our countrymen 'as lazy as Spaniards'; most +foreigners were struck by our fondness for solid food and strong drink. The +industrial revolution came upon us suddenly; it changed the whole face of +the country and the apparent character of the people. In the far future our +descendants may look back upon the period in which we are living as a +strange episode which disturbed the natural habits of our race. The first +impetus was given by the plunder of Bengal, which, after the victories of +Clive, flowed into the country in a broad stream for about thirty years. +This ill-gotten wealth played the same part in stimulating English +industries as the 'five milliards,' extorted from France, did for Germany +after 1870. The half-century which followed was marked by a series of +inventions, which made England the workshop of the world. But the basis of +our industrial supremacy was, and is, our coal. Those who are in the habit +of comparing the progressiveness of the North-Western European with the +stagnation or decadence of the Latin races, forget the fact, which is +obvious when it has once been pointed out, that the progressive nations are +those which happen to have valuable coal fields. Countries which have no +coal are obliged to import it paying the freight, or to smelt their iron +with charcoal This process makes excellent steel—the superiority of +Swedish razors is due to wood-smelting—but it is so wasteful of wood that +the Mediterranean peoples very early in history injured their climate by +cutting down their scanty forests, thereby diminishing their rainfall, and +allowing the soil to be washed off the hillsides. The coasts of the +Mediterranean are, in consequence, far less productive than they were two +thousand years ago. But in England, when the start was once made, all +circumstances conspired to turn our once beautiful island into a chaos of +factories and mean streets, reeking of smoke, millionaires, and paupers. We +were no longer able to grow our own food; but we made masses of goods which +the manufacturers ware eager to exchange for it; and the population grew +like crops on a newly-irrigated desert. During the nineteenth century the +numbers were nearly quadrupled. Let those who think that the population of +a country can be increased at will, reflect whether it is likely that any +physical, moral, or psychological change came over the nation coincidently +with the inventions of the spinning-jenny and the steam-engine. It is too +obvious for dispute that it was the possession of capital wanting +employment, and of natural advantages for using it, that called these +multitudes of human beings into existence, to eat the food which they paid +for by their labour. And it should be equally obvious that the existence of +forty-six millions of people upon 121,000 square miles of territory depends +entirely upon our finding a market for our manufactures abroad, for so only +are we able to pay for the food of the people. It is most unfortunate that +these exports must, with our present population, include coal, which, if we +had any thought for posterity, we should guard jealously and use sparingly; +for in five hundred years at the outside our stock will be gone, and we +shall sink to a third-rate Power at once. We are sacrificing the future in +order to provide for an excessive and discontented population in the +present. During the present century we have begun to be conscious that our +foreign trade is threatened; and so sensitive is the birth-rate to +economic conditions that it has begun to curve very slightly downward in +relation to the death-rate, instead of descending with it in parallel +lines.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23" /><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> This may be partly due to the curtailment of facilities for +emigration, owing to the filling up of the new countries. For emigration +does not diminish the population of the country which the emigrants leave; +it only increases its birth-rate.</p> + +<p>We are now in a position to enumerate the causes which actually lead to an +increase in the population of a country. The first is an increase in the +amount of food produced in the country itself. If the parks and gardens of +the gentry were ploughed up or turned into allotments, a few hundred +thousands would be added to the population of the United Kingdom, at the +cost of one of the few remaining beauties which make our country attractive +to the eye. The introduction of the potato into Ireland added several +millions of squalid inhabitants to that ill-conditioned island, and when +the crop failed, large numbers of them inflicted themselves on the United +States, to the detriment of that country. The richest countries to-day are +those which produce more food than they require, such as the United States, +Canada, Australia, Roumania, and the Argentine. (We need hardly say that +throughout this survey we are using the statistics of the years immediately +before the war.) But this state of things cannot last long, for the net +increase in such countries is invariably high, either by reason of a very +high birth-rate, as in Roumania, or because newcomers flock in to enjoy a +land of plenty. Another condition which leads to abnormally rapid increase +is found when a civilised nation conquers and administers a backward +country, introducing better methods of agriculture, and especially +irrigation and the reclamation of waste lands. The alien Government also +gives greater security, without raising the standard of living among the +natives, since the dominant race usually monopolises the lucrative +careers. In this way we are directly responsible for increasing the +population of Egypt from seven millions in 1883 to nine and three-quarter +millions in 1899, an augmentation which, in the absence of immigration, +illustrates the great natural fertility of the human race in the rare +circumstances when unchecked increase is possible. Still more remarkable is +the rise in the population of Java from five millions in 1825 to +twenty-eight and a half millions in the first decade of this century. The +cause of this increase is the augmented supply of food combined with a very +low standard of living, a combination which is specially characteristic of +Asia, where extreme supersaturation exists in India and China. A third +cause is production of goods which can be exchanged for food grown abroad. +This exchange, as we have seen, is stimulated by the presence of capital +seeking employment. Our large towns are the creation of the capitalist, +much more than if he had populated their depressing streets with his own +children. Fourthly, a reduction in the standard of living of course makes a +larger population possible. The misery of the working class in the +generation after the Napoleonic Wars was a condition of the prosperity of +our export trade at this period; and conversely, the prosperity of our +export trade was necessary to the existence of the new inhabitants. +Capitalism is the cause of our dense population; and the proletariat would +infallibly cut their own throats by destroying it.</p> + +<p>It is an important question whether a crowded population adds to the +security of a nation or not. Numbers are undoubtedly of great importance in +modern warfare. The French would have been less able to resist the Germans +without allies in 1914 than they were in 1870. But we must not suppose that +France could support a much larger population without reducing her standard +of living to the point of under-deeding; and an under-fed nation is +incapable of the endurance required of first-class soldiers. A nation may +be so much weakened in physique by under-feeding as to be impotent from a +military point of view, in spite of great numbers; this is the case in +India and China. Deficient nourishment also diminishes the day's work. If +European and American capital goes to China, and provides proper food for +the workmen, we may have an early opportunity of discovering whether the +supporters of the League of Nations have any real conscientious objection +to violence and bloodshed. We may surmise that the European man, the +fiercest of all beasts of prey, is not likely to abandon the weapons which +have made him the lord and the bully of the planet. He has no other +superiority to the races which he arrogantly despises. Under a régime of +peace the Asiatic would probably be his master. To return from a short +digression, we must note further that a nation with a low standard has no +reserve to fall back upon; it lives on the margin of subsistence, which may +easily fail in war-time, especially if much food is imported when +conditions are normal. It can hardly be an accident that in this war the +nations with a high birth-rate broke up in the order of their fecundity, +while France stood like a rock. The sacrifice of comfort to numbers, which +we have seen to be possible by maintaining a low standard of living, not +only diminishes the happiness of a nation, and keeps it low in the scale of +civilisation; it may easily prove to be a source of weakness in war.</p> + +<p>The expedients often advocated to encourage denser population—which those +who urge them thoughtlessly assume to be a good thing—such as endowment of +parenthood, and better housing at the expense of the taxpayer—have no +effect except to penalise and sterilise those who pay the doles, for the +benefit of those who receive them. They are intensely dysgenic in their +operation, for they cripple and at last eliminate just those stocks which +have shown themselves to be above the average in ability. The process has +already advanced a long way, even without the reckless legislation which is +now advocated. The lowest birth-rates, less than half that of the unskilled +labourers, are those of the doctors, the teaching profession, and ministers +of religion. The position of this class, intellectually and often +physically the finest in the kingdom, is rapidly becoming intolerable, and +it is the wastrels who mainly benefit by their spoliation.</p> + +<p>The causes of shrinkage in population are the opposites of those which we +have found to promote its increase. The production of food may be +diminished by the exhaustion of the soil, or by the progressive aridity +caused by cutting down woods. The manufacture of goods to be exchanged for +food may fall off owing to foreign competition, a result which is likely to +follow from a rise in the standard of living, for the labourer then demands +higher wages, and consumes more food per head, which of itself must check +fertility, since the same amount of food will now support a smaller number. +The delusion shared by the whole working class that they can make work for +each other, at wages fixed by themselves, is ludicrous; a community cannot +subsist 'by taking in each other's washing.' Or the supply of importable +food may fail by the peopling up of the countries which grow it. Any +conditions which make it no longer worth while to invest capital in +business, or which destroy credit, have the same effect. One of the causes +of the decay of the Roman Empire was the drain of specie to the East in +exchange for perishable commodities. When trade is declining a general +listlessness comes over the industrial world, and the output falls still +further. There have been alleged instances of peoples which have dwindled +and even disappeared from <i>taedium vitae</i>. This is said to have been the +cause of the extinction of the Guanches of the Canary Islands; but the +symptoms described rather suggest an outbreak of sleeping-sickness.</p> + +<p>Paradoxical as it may seem, neither voluntary restriction of births, nor +famine, nor pestilence, nor war, has much effect in reducing numbers. +Birth-control instead of diminishing the population, may only lower the +death-rate. France in 1781, with a birth-rate of 39, had much the same net +increase as in the years before the war with a birth-rate of 20. The +parallel lines of the births and deaths in this country have already been +mentioned. Famine and pestilence are followed at once by an increased +number of births. India and China, though frequently ravaged by both these +scourges, remain super-saturated. Of course, if the famine is chronic, the +population must fall to the point where the food is sufficient; and a +zymotic disease which has become endemic may be too strong for the natural +fertility of the nation attacked, as has happened to several barbarous +races; but an invasion of plague, cholera, or influenza has no permanent +effect on the numbers of Europeans. War resembles plague in its action upon +population. When, as in the late war, nearly the whole of the able-bodied +men are on active service, the loss of population caused by cessation of +births is greater than all the fatal casualties of the battle-field. A +rough calculation gives the result that twelve million lives have been lost +to the belligerent nations by the separation of husbands and wives during +the war. And yet it may be predicted that these losses, added to the eight +millions or so who have been killed, would be made good in a very few years +but for the destruction of capital and credit which the war has caused. If +we study the vital statistics of a country like Germany, which has engaged +in several severe wars since births and deaths began to be registered, we +shall find that the contour-line representing the fluctuations of the +birth-rate indicates a steep ravine in the year or years while the war +lasted, followed by a hump or high table-land for several years after. In a +short time, as far as numbers are concerned, the war is as if it had never +been. When we remember that the number of possible fathers is much reduced +by casualties, this rise in the birth-rate after a war offers a strong +confirmation of the thesis which we have been maintaining, that the ebb and +flow of population are not affected by conscious intention, but by +increased or diminished pressure of numbers upon subsistence. If the German +people, who before the war consumed more food than was good for them, have +been habituated by our blockade to a reasonable abstemiousness, we shall +have contributed to the eventual increase of the German people, in spite of +all their soldiers whom we killed in France, and the civilians whom we +starved in Germany. And if our success leads to a greater consumption by +our working class, our population will show a corresponding decline. +Emigration, as we have seen, does not diminish the home population by a +single unit; and so, while there are empty lands available for +colonisation, it is by far the best method of adding to the numbers of our +race.</p> + +<p>It should now be possible to form a judgment on the prospects of the +Anglo-Saxon race in various parts of the world. In India, Burma, New +Guinea, the West Indian Islands, and tropical Africa there is no +possibility of ever planting a healthy European population. These +dependencies may grow food for us, or send us articles which we can +exchange for food, but they are not, and never can be, colonies of +Anglo-Saxons. The prospects of South Africa are very dubious. The white man +is there an aristocrat, directing semi-servile labour. The white population +of the gold and diamond fields will stay there till the mines give out, and +no longer. Large tracts of the country may at last be occupied only by +Kaffirs. The United States of America are becoming less Anglo-Saxon every +year, and this process is likely to continue, since in unskilled labour the +Italian and the Pole seem to give better value for their wages than the +Englishman or born American, with his high standard of comfort. In Canada, +the temperate part of Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania the chances for +a large and flourishing English-speaking population seem to be very +favourable, though in these dominions the high standard of living is a +check to population, and in the case of Australasia the possibility of +foreign conquest, while these priceless lands are still half empty, cannot +be altogether excluded.</p> + +<p>Even more interesting to most of us is the future of our race at home. As +regards quality, the outlook for the present is bad. We have seen that the +destruction of the upper and professional classes by taxation directed +expressly against them has already begun, and this victimisation is certain +to become more and more acute, till these classes are practically +extinguished. The old aristocracy showed a tendency to decay even when they +were unduly favoured by legislation, and a little more pressure will drive +them to voluntary sterility and extermination. Even more to be regretted is +the doom of the professional aristocracy, a caste almost peculiar to our +country. These families can often show longer, and usually much better +pedigrees than the peerage; the persistence of marked ability in many of +them, for several generations, is the delight of the eugenist. They are +perhaps the best specimens of humanity to be found in any country of the +world. Yet they have no prospects except to be gradually harassed out of +existence, like the <i>curiales</i> of the later Roman Empire. The power will +apparently be grasped by a new highly privileged class, the aristocracy of +labour. This class, being intelligent, energetic, and intensely selfish, +may retain its domination for a considerable time. It is a matter of course +that, having won its privilege of exploiting the community, it will use all +its efforts to preserve that privilege and to prevent others from sharing +it. In other words, it will become an exclusive and strongly conservative +class, on a broader basis than the territorial and commercial aristocracies +which preceded it. It will probably be strong enough to discontinue the +system of State doles which encourages the wastrel to multiply, as he does +multiply, much faster than the valuable part of the population. We are at +present breeding a large parasitic class subsisting on the taxes and +hampering the Government. The comparative fertility of the lowest class as +compared with the better stocks has greatly increased, and is still +increasing. The competent working-class families, as well as the rich, are +far less fertile than the waste products of our civilisation. Dr. Tredgold +found that 43 couples of the parasitic class averaged 7.4 children per +family, while 91 respectable couples from the working class averaged only +3.7 per family. Mr. Sidney Webb examined the statistics of the Hearts of +Oak Benefit Society, which is patronised by the best type of mechanic, and +found that the birth-rate among its members has fallen 46 per cent, between +1881 and 1901; or, taking the whole period between 1880 and 1904, the +falling off is 52 per cent. This decline proves that the period of +industrial expansion in England is nearly over. It would be far better if +our birth-rate were as low as that of France, as it would be but for the +reckless propagation of the 'submerged tenth,' England being now a paradise +for human refuse, the offscourings of Europe (170,000 in 1908) take the +place of the better stocks, whose position is made artificially +unfavourable. These doles are at present paid by the minority, and this +method may be expected to continue until the looting of the propertied +classes comes to an enforced end. This will not take long, for it is +certain that the amount of wealth available for plunder is very much +smaller than is usually supposed. It is easy to destroy capital values, but +very difficult to distribute them. The time will soon arrive when the +patient sheep will be found to have lost not only his fleece but his skin, +and the privileged workman will then have to choose between taxing himself +and abandoning socialism. There is little doubt which he will prefer. The +result will be that the festering sore of our slum-population will dry up, +and the gradual disappearance of this element will be some compensation, +from the eugenic point of view, for the destruction of the intellectual +class. This process will considerably, and beneficially, diminish the +population: and there are several other factors which will operate in the +same direction. High wage industry can only maintain itself against the +competition of cheaper labour abroad by introducing every kind of +labour-saving device. The number of hands employed in a factory must +progressively diminish. And as, in spite of all that ingenuity can do, the +competition of the cheaper races is certain to cripple our foreign trade, +the trade unions will be obliged to provide for a shrinkage in their +numbers. We may expect that every unionist will be allowed to place one +son, and only one, in the privileged corporation. A man will become a miner +or a railwayman 'by patrimony,' and it will be difficult to gain admission +to a union in any other way. The position of those who cannot find a place +within the privileged circle will be so unhappy that most unionists will +take care to have one son only. Another change which will tend to +discourage families will be the increased employment of women as +bread-winners. Nothing is more remarkable in the study of vital statistics +than the comparative birth-rates of those districts in which women earn +wages, and of those in which they do not. The rate of increase among the +miners is as great as that of the reckless casual labourers, and the +obvious reason is that the miner's wife loses nothing by having children, +since she does not earn wages. Contrast with these high figures (running up +to 40 per thousand) the very low birth-rates of towns like Bradford, where +the women are engaged in the textile industry and earn regular wages in +support of the family budget. If the time comes when the majority of women +are wage-earners, we may even see the pressure of population entirely +withdrawn. Thus in every class of the nation influences are at work tending +to a progressive decrease in our national fertility. It must be remembered, +however, that at present the annual increase, in peace time, is 9 or 10 per +thousand, so that it may be some time before an equilibrium is reached. But +if our predictions are sound, a positive decrease, and probably a rapid +one, is likely to follow. For our ability to exchange our manufactures for +food will grow steadily less, as the self-indulgent and 'work-shy' labourer +succeeds in gaining his wishes. If the coal begins to give out, the retreat +will become a rout.</p> + +<p>We are witnessing the decline and fall of the social order which began with +the industrial revolution 160 years ago. The cancer of industrialism has +begun to mortify, and the end is in sight. Within 200 years, it may be—for +we must allow for backwashes and cross-currents which will retard the flow +of the stream—the hideous new towns which disfigure our landscape may have +disappeared, and their sites may have been reclaimed for the plough. +Humanitarian legislation, so far from arresting this movement, is more +likely to accelerate it, and the same may be said of the insatiate greed of +our new masters. It is indeed instructive to observe how cupidity and +sentiment, which (with pugnacity) are the only passions which the practical +politician needs to consider, usually defeat their own ends. The working +man is sawing at the branch on which he is seated. He may benefit for a +time a minority of his own class, but only by sealing the doom of the rest. +A densely populated country, which is unable to feed itself, can never be a +working-man's paradise, a land of short hours and high wages. And the +sentimentalist, kind only to be cruel, unwittingly promotes precisely the +results which he most deprecates, though they are often much more +beneficial than his own aims. The evil that he would he does not; and the +good that he would not, that he sometimes does.</p> + +<p>For, much as we must regret the apparently inevitable ruin of the upper and +upper middle classes, to which England in the past has owed the major part +of her greatness, we cannot regard the trend of events as an unmixed +misfortune. The industrial revolution has no doubt had some beneficial +results. It has founded the British Empire, the most interesting and +perhaps the most successful experiment in government on a large scale that +the world has yet seen. It has foiled two formidable attempts to place +Europe under the heel of military monarchies. It has brought order and +material civilisation to many parts of the world which before were +barbarous. But these achievements have been counterbalanced by many evils, +and in any case they have done their work. The aggregation of mankind in +large towns is itself a misfortune; the life of great cities is wholesome +neither for body nor for mind. The separation of classes has become more +complete; the country may even be divided into the picturesque counties +where money is spent, and the ugly counties where it is made. Except London +and the sea-ports, the whole of the South of England is more or less +parasitic. We must add that in the early days of the movement the workman +and his children were exploited ruthlessly. It is true that if they had not +been exploited they would not have existed; but a root of bitterness was +planted which, according to what seems to be the law in such cases, sprang +up and bore its poisonous fruit about two generations later. It is a +sinister fact that the worst trouble is now made by the youngest men. The +large fortunes which were made by the manufacturers were not, on the whole, +well spent. Their luxury was not of a refined type; literature and art were +not intelligently encouraged; and even science was most inadequately +supported. The great achievements of the nineteenth century in science and +letters, and to a less degree in art, were independent of the industrial +world, and were chiefly the work of that class which is now sinking +helplessly under the blows of predatory taxation. Capitalism itself has +degenerated; the typical millionaire is no longer the captain of industry, +but the international banker and company promoter. It is more difficult +than ever to find any rational justification for the accumulations which +are in the hands of a few persons. It is not to be expected that the +working class should be less greedy and unscrupulous than the educated; +indeed it is plain that, now that it realises its power, it will be even +more so. In some ways the national character has stood the strain of these +unnatural conditions very well. Those who feared that the modern Englishman +would make a poor soldier have had to own that they were entirely wrong. +But as long as industrialism continues, we shall be in a state of thinly +disguised civil war. There can be no industrial peace while our urban +population remains, because the large towns are the creation of the system +which their inhabitants now want to destroy. They can and will destroy it, +but only by destroying themselves. When the suicidal war is over we shall +have a comparatively small population, living mainly in the country and +cultivating the fruits of the earth. It will be more like the England of +the eighteenth century than the England which we know. There will be no +very rich men; and if the birth-rate is regulated there should be no +paupers. It will be a far pleasanter age to live in than the present, and +more favourable to the production of great intellectual work, for life will +be more leisurely, and social conditions more stable. We may hope that some +of our best families will determine to survive, <i>coûte que coûte</i>, until +these better times arrive. We shall not attempt to prophesy what the +political constitution will be. Every existing form of government is bad; +and our democracy can hardly survive the two diseases which generally kill +democracies—reckless plunder of the national wealth, and the impotence of +the central government in face of revolutionary and predatory sectionalism.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, we must understand that although the consideration of mankind in +the mass, and the calculation of tendencies based on figures and averages, +must lead us to somewhat pessimistic and cynical views of human nature, +there is no reason why individuals, unless they wish to make a career out +of politics (since it is the sad fate of politicians always to deal with +human nature at its worst), should conform themselves to the low standards +of the world around them. It is only 'in the loomp' that humanity, whether +poor or rich, 'is bad.' There are materials, though far less abundant than +we could wish, for a spiritual reformation, which would smooth the +transition to a new social order, and open to us unfailing sources of +happiness and inspiration, which would not only enable us to tide over the +period of dissolution, but might make the whole world our debtor. No nation +is better endowed by nature with a faculty for sane idealism than the +English. We were never intended to be a nation of shopkeepers, if a +shopkeeper is doomed to be merely a shopkeeper, which of course he is not. +Our brutal commercialism has been a temporary aberration; the +quintessential Englishman is not the hero of Smiles' 'Self-help'; he is +Raleigh, Drake, Shakespeare, Milton, Johnson, or Wordsworth, with a +pleasant spice of Dickens. He is, in a word, an idealist who has not quite +forgotten that he is descended from an independent race of sea-rovers, +accustomed to think and act for themselves. Mr. Havelock Ellis, one of the +wisest and most fearless of our prophets to-day, quotes from an anonymous +journalist a prediction which may come true: 'London may yet be the +spiritual capital of the world; while Asia—rich in all that gold can buy +and guns can give, lord of lands and bodies, builder of railways and +promulgator of police regulations, glorious in all material +glories—postures, complacent and obtuse, before a Europe content in the +possession of all that matters.' For, as the Greek poet says, 'the soul's +wealth is the only real wealth.' The spirit creates values, while the +demagogue shrieks to transfer the dead symbols of them. 'All that matters' +is what the world can neither give nor take away. The spiritual integration +of society which we desire and behold afar off must be illuminated by the +dry light of science, and warmed by the rays of idealism, a white light +but not cold. And idealism must be compacted as a religion, for it is the +function of religion to prevent the fruits of the flowering-times of the +spirit from being lost. Science has not yet come to its own in forming the +beliefs and practice of mankind, because it has been so much excluded from +higher education, and so much repressed by sentimentalism under the wing of +religion. The nation that first finds a practical reconciliation between +science and idealism is likely to take the front place among the peoples of +the world. In England we have to struggle not only against ignorance, but +against a deep-rooted intellectual insincerity, which is our worst national +fault. The Englishman hates an idea which he has never met before, as he +hates the disturber of his privacy in a steam-ship cabin; and he takes +opportunities of making things unpleasant for those who utter indiscreet +truths. As Samuel Butler says: 'We hold it useful to have a certain number +of melancholy examples whose notorious failure shall serve as a warning to +those who do not cultivate a power of immoral self-control which shall +prevent them from saying, or even thinking, anything that shall not be to +their immediate and palpable advantage.' To do our countrymen justice, it +is often not self-interest, but a tendency to deal with the concrete +instance, in disregard of the general law, that blinds them to the larger +aspects of great problems. Those who are able to trace causes and effects +further than the majority must expect to be unpopular, but they will not +mind it, if they can do good by speaking. The logic of events will justify +them, and science has a new weapon in official statistics which will +register at once the disastrous effects upon wealth and trade which the +insane theories of the demagogue will bring about. No agitator can explain +away ascertained figures; if we go down hill, we shall do it with our eyes +open. It may be that reactions will be set up which will render the +anticipations in this article erroneous. Things never turn out either so +well or so badly as they logically ought to do. Prophecy is only an +amusement; what does concern us all deeply is that we should see in what +direction we are now moving.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23" /><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> In the small islands round our coast increase has ceased for +some decades. The vital statistics of these islands furnish an excellent +illustration of automatic adjustment to a state of supersaturation.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BISHOP_GORE_AND_THE_CHURCH_OF_ENGLAND" id="BISHOP_GORE_AND_THE_CHURCH_OF_ENGLAND" />BISHOP GORE AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND</h2> + +<h3>(1908)</h3> + + +<p>The strength and the weakness of the Anglican Church lie in the fact that +it is not the best representative of any well-defined type of Christianity. +It is not strictly a Protestant body; for Protestantism is the democracy of +religion, and the Church of England retains a hierarchical organisation, +with an order of priests who claim a divine commission not conferred upon +them by the congregation. It is not a State Church as the Russian Empire +has<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24" /><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> a State Church. That is a position which it has neither the will +nor the power to regain. Still less could it ever justify a claim to +separate existence as a purely Catholic Church, independent of the Church +of Rome. A community of Catholics whose claim to be a Catholic and not a +Protestant Church is denied by all other Catholics, by all Protestants, and +by all who are neither Catholics nor Protestants, could not long retain +sufficient prestige to keep its adherents together. The destiny of such a +body is written in the history of the 'Old Catholics,' who seceded from +Rome because they would not accept the dogma of Papal infallibility. The +seceders included many men of high character and intellect, but in numbers +and influence they are quite insignificant. The Church of England has only +one title to exist, and it is a strong one. It may claim to represent the +religion of the English people as no other body can represent it. 'No +Church,' Döllinger wrote in 1872, 'is so national, so deeply rooted in +popular affection, so bound up with the institutions and manners of the +country, or so powerful in its influence on national character.' These +words are still partly true, though it is not possible to make the +assertion with so much confidence as when Döllinger wrote. The English +Church represents, on the religious side, the convictions, tastes, and +prejudices of the English gentleman, that truly national ideal of +character, which has long since lost its adventitious connexion with +heraldry and property in land. A love of order, seemliness, and good taste +has led the Anglican Church along a middle path between what a +seventeenth-century divine called 'the meretricious gaudiness of the Church +of Rome and the squalid sluttery of fanatic conventicles.' A keen sense of +honour and respect for personal uprightness, a hatred of cruelty and +treachery, created and long maintained in the English Church an intense +repugnance against the priestcraft of the Roman hierarchy, feelings which +have only died down because the bitter memories of the sixteenth century +have at last become dim. A jealous love of liberty, combined with contempt +for theories of equality, produced a system of graduated ranks in Church +government which left a large measure of freedom, both in speech and +thought, even to the clergy, and encouraged no respect for what Catholics +mean by authority. The Anglican Church is also characteristically English +in its dislike for logic and intellectual consistency and in its distrust +of undisciplined emotionalism, which in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries was known and dreaded under the name of 'enthusiasm.' This type +is not essentially aristocratic. It does not traverse the higher ideals of +the working class, which respects and admires the qualities of the +'gentleman,' though it resents the privileges long connected with the name. +But it has no attraction for what may be impolitely called the vulgar +class, whose religious feelings find a natural vent in an unctuous +emotionalism and sentimental humanitarianism. This class, which forms the +backbone of Dissent and Liberalism, is instinctively antipathetic to +Anglicanism. Nor does the Anglican type of Christianity appeal at all to +the 'Celtic fringe,' whose temperament is curiously opposite to that of the +English, not only in religion but in most other matters. The Irish and the +Welsh are no more likely to become Anglicans than the lowland Scotch are to +adopt Roman Catholicism. Whether Dissent is a permanent necessity in +England is a more difficult question, in spite of the class differences of +temperament above mentioned. If the Anglican organisation were elastic +enough to permit the order of lay-readers to be developed on strongly +Evangelical lines, the lower middle class might find within the Church the +mental food which it now seeks in Nonconformist chapels, and might gain in +breadth and dignity by belonging once more to a great historic body.</p> + +<p>The Church of England, then, can justify its existence as English +Christianity, and in no other way. It began its separate career with a +series of (doubtless) illogical compromises, in the belief that there is an +underlying unity, though not uniformity, in the religion as well as in the +character of the English people, which would be strong enough to hold a +national Church together. The dissenters from the Reformation settlement +were numerically insignificant, and their existence was not regarded as a +peril to the Church, for it was recognised that in a free country absolute +agreement cannot be secured. The Roman Catholics, after some futile +persecution, were allowed to remain loyal to their old allegiance in +spiritual matters, while the Independents and similar bodies were +anarchical on principle, and upheld the 'dissidence of Dissent' as a thing +desirable in itself. But the defection of the Wesleyan Methodists was +another matter. This was a blow to the Church of England as irreparable as +the loss of Northern Europe to the Papacy. It finally upset the balance of +parties in the Church, by detaching from it the larger number of the +Evangelicals, particularly in the tradesman class. It gave a great stimulus +to Nonconformity, which now became for the first time an important factor +in the national life. Till the Wesleyan secession, the Nonconformists in +England had been a feeble folk. From a return made to the Crown in 1700, it +appeared that the Dissenters numbered about one in twenty of the +population. Now they are as numerous as the Anglicans. Their prestige has +also been largely augmented by their dominating position in the United +States, where the Episcopal Church, long viewed with disfavour as tainted +with British sympathies, has never recovered its lost ground, and is a +comparatively small, though wealthy and influential sect. Within the +Anglican communion, the inevitable religious revival of the nineteenth +century began on Evangelical lines, but soon took a form determined by +other influences than those which covered England with the ostentatiously +hideous chapels of the Wesleyans. The extent of the revival has indeed been +much exaggerated by the numerous apologists of the Catholic movement. The +undoubted increase of professional zeal, activity, and efficiency among the +clergy has been taken as proof of a corresponding access of enthusiasm +among the laity, for which there is not much evidence. In spite of slovenly +services and an easy standard of clerical duty, the observances of religion +held a larger place in the average English home before the Oxford Movement +than is often supposed, larger, indeed, than they do now, when family +prayers and Bible reading have been abandoned in most households.</p> + +<p>The Oxford Movement claimed to be, and was, a revival of the principles of +Anglo-Catholicism, which had not been left without witness for any long +period since the Reformation. The continuity is certain, as is the +continuity of the Ritualism of our day with the Tractarianism of seventy +years ago; but the development has been rapid, especially in the last +thirty years. Those who can remember the High Churchmen of Pusey's +generation, or their disciples who in many country parsonages preserved the +faith of their Tractarian teachers whole and undefiled, must be struck by +the divergence between the principles which they then heard passionately +maintained, and those which the younger generation, who use their name and +enjoy their credit, avow to be their own.</p> + +<p>In the Tractarians the Nonjurors seemed to have come to life again, and one +might easily find enthusiastic Jacobites among them. Unlike their +successors, they showed no sympathy with political Radicalism. Their love +for and loyalty to the English Church, which found melodious expression in +Keble's poetry, were intense. They were not hostile to Evangelicalism +within the Church, until the ultra-Protestant party declared war against +them; but they viewed Dissent with scorn and abhorrence. They would gladly +have excluded Nonconformists from any status in the Universities, and +opposed any measures intended to conciliate their prejudices or remove +their disabilities. Archdeacon Denison, in his sturdy opposition to the +'conscience clause' in Church schools, was a typical representative of the +old High Church party. But still more bitter was their animosity against +religious Liberalism. Even after the feud with the Evangelicals had +developed into open war, Pusey was ready to join with Lord Shaftesbury and +his party in united anathemas against the authors of 'Essays and Reviews.' +The beginnings of Old Testament criticism evoked an outburst of fury almost +unparalleled. When Bishop Gray, of Cape Town, solemnly 'excommunicated' +Bishop Colenso, of Natal, and enjoined the faithful to 'treat him as a +heathen man and a publican,' for exposing the unhistorical character of +portions of the Pentateuch, he became a hero with the whole High Church +party, and even the more liberal among the bishops were cowed by the +tempest of feeling which the case aroused. In the same period, many Oxford +men can remember Bishop Wilberforce's attack upon Darwinism, and, somewhat +later, Dean Burgon's University sermon which ended with the stirring +peroration: Leave me my ancestors in Paradise, and I leave you yours in the +Zoological Gardens!' From the same pulpit Liddon, a little before his +death, uttered a pathetic remonstrance against the course which his younger +disciples were taking about inspiration and tradition.</p> + +<p>Reverence for tradition was a very prominent feature in the theology of the +older generation. They spent an immense amount of time, learning, and +ingenuity in establishing a <i>catena</i> of patristic and orthodox authority +for their principles, reaching back to the earliest times, and handed down +in this country by a series of Anglo-Catholic divines. This unbroken +tradition was conceived of as purely static, a 'mechanical unpacking,' as +Father Tyrrell puts it, of the doctrine once delivered to the Apostles. +The Church, according to their theory, was supernaturally guided by the +Holy Ghost, and its decisions were consequently infallible, as long as the +Church remained undivided. Thus the earlier General Councils, before the +schism between East and West, may not be appealed against, and the Creeds +drawn up by them can never be revised. Since the great schism, the +infallible inspiration of the Church has been in abeyance, like an old +English peerage when a peer leaves two or more daughters and no sons. This +fantastic theory condemns all later developments, and leaves the Church +under the weight of the dead hand. On the question of the Establishment the +party was divided, some of its members attaching great value to the union +of Church and State, while others made claims for the Church, in the matter +of self-government, which were hardly compatible with Establishment. Their +bond of union was their conviction of 'the necessity of impressing on +people that the Church was more than a merely human institution; that it +had privileges, sacraments, a ministry, ordained by Christ Himself; that it +was a matter of highest obligation to remain united to the Church.'<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25" /><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>As compared with their successors, the Tractarians were academic and +learned; they preached thoughtful and carefully prepared sermons; they +cared little for ecclesiastical millinery, and often acquiesced in very +simple and 'backward' ceremonial. Their theory of the Church, their +personal piety and self-discipline, were of a thoroughly medieval type, as +may be seen from certain chapters in the life of Pusey. They fought the +battle of Anglo-Catholicism, at Oxford and elsewhere, with a whole-hearted +conviction that knew no misgivings or scruples. Oxford has not forgotten +the election, as late as 1862, of an orthodox naval officer to a chair of +history for which Freeman was a candidate.</p> + +<p>A change of tone was already noticeable, according to Dean Church, soon +after Newman's secession. Many High Churchmen, in speaking of the English +Church, became apologetic or patronising or lukewarm. Progressive members +of the party professed a distaste for the name Anglican, and wished to be +styled Catholics pure and simple. The same men began to speak of their +opponents in the Church as Protestants; no longer as ultra-Protestants. +Other changes soon manifested themselves. The archaeological side of the +movement lost its interest; the appeal to antiquity became only a +convenient argument to defend practices adopted on quite other grounds. The +<i>epigoni</i> of the Catholic revival are not learned; they know even less of +the Fathers than of their Bibles. Their chief literature consists of a +weekly penny newspaper, which reflects only too well their prejudices and +aspirations. On the other hand, they are far busier than the older +generation. The movement has become democratic; it has passed from the +quadrangles of Oxford to the streets and lanes of our great cities, where +hundreds of devoted clergymen are working zealously, without care for +remuneration or thought of recognition, among the poorest of the populace. +Of late years, the more energetic section of the party has not only +abandoned the 'Church and King' Toryism of the old High Church party, but +has plunged into socialism. The Mirfield community is said to be strongly +imbued with collectivist ideas; and the Christian Social Union, which is +chiefly supported by High Churchmen, tends to become more and more a Union +of Christian Socialists, instead of being, as was intended by its founders, +a non-political association for the study of social duties and problems in +the light of the Sermon on the Mount. This attitude is partly the result of +a close acquaintance with the sufferings of the urban proletariat, which +moves the priests who minister among them to a generous sympathy with their +lot; and, partly, it may be, to an unavowed calculation that an alliance +with the most rapidly growing political party may in time to come be useful +to the Church. Their methods of teaching are also more democratic, though +many of them make the fatal mistake of despising preaching. They rely +partly on what they call 'definite Catholic teaching,' including frequent +exhortations to the practice of confession; and partly on appeals to the +eye, by symbolic ritual and elaborate ceremonial. Their more ornate +services are often admirably performed from a spectacular point of view, +and are far superior to most Roman Catholic functions in reverence, beauty, +and good taste. The extreme section of the party is contemptuously lawless, +not only repudiating the authority of the Judicial Committee of the Privy +Council, but flouting the bishops with studied insolence. A glaring +instance is to be found in the correspondence between Mr. Athelstan Riley +and the Bishop of Oxford, which followed the Report of the Royal Commission +on ritual practices.</p> + +<p>Doctrinally, the modern Ritualist is prepared to surrender the old theory +of inspiration. He takes, indeed, but little interest in the Bible; his +oracle is not the Book, but 'the Church.' What he means by the Church it is +not easy to say. The old Anglican theory of the infallible undivided Church +is not repudiated by him, but does not appeal to minds which look forward +much more than backward; he is not yet, except in a few instances, disposed +to accept the modern Roman Church as the arbiter of doctrine; and the +English Church has no living voice to which he pays the slightest respect. +The 'tradition of Western Catholicism' is a phrase which has a meaning for +him, and he probably hopes for a reunion, at some distant date, of the +Anglican Church with a reformed Rome. It is therefore essential, in his +opinion, that no alteration shall take place in the formularies which we +share with Rome; the Bible may be thrown to the critics, but the Creeds are +inviolable. The Thirty-nine Articles he passes by with silent disdain. They +are, he thinks not unjustly, a document to which no one, High, Low, or +Broad, can now subscribe without mental reservations.</p> + +<p>The theory of development in doctrine, which, in its latest application by +'Modernists' like Loisy and Tyrell, is now agitating the Roman Church, is +exciting interest in a few of the more thoughtful Anglo-Catholics; but the +majority are blind to the difficulties for which the theory of two kinds of +truth is a desperate remedy. Nor is it likely, perhaps, that the plain +Englishman will ever allow that an ostensibly historical proposition may be +false as a matter of fact, but true for faith.</p> + +<p>This party in the Church has a lay Pope, who represents the opinions of +the more enterprising among the rank and file, and is president of their +society, the English Church Union. It has the ably conducted weekly +newspaper above referred to, and it has the general sympathy and support of +the strongest man in the English Church, Charles Gore, Bishop of +Birmingham. This prelate, partly by his personal qualities—his eloquence, +high-minded disinterestedness, and splendid generosity, and partly by +knowing exactly what he wants, and having full courage of his opinions, has +at present an influence in the Anglican Church which is probably far +greater than that of any other man. It is therefore a matter of public +interest to ascertain what his views and intentions are, as an +ecclesiastical statesman and reformer, and as a theologian.</p> + +<p>Bishop Gore exercised a strong influence over the younger men at Oxford +before the publication of 'Lux Mundi.' But it was his editorship of this +book, and his contribution to it, which first brought his name into +prominence as a leader of religious thought. The religious public, with +rather more penetration than usual, fastened on the pages about +inspiration, and the limitations of Christ's human knowledge, which are +from the editor's own pen, as the most significant part of the book. The +authors are believed to have been annoyed by the disproportionate attention +paid to this short section. But in truth these pages indicated a new +departure among the High Church party, a change more important than the +acceptance of the doctrine of evolution, which was being made smoother for +the religious public by the brilliant writings of Aubrey Moore. The +acceptance of the verdict of modern criticism as to the authorship of the +110th Psalm, in the face of the recorded testimony of Christ that it was +written by David, was a concession to 'Modernism' which staggered the +old-fashioned High Churchman. Liddon did not conceal his distress that such +doctrine should have come out of the Pusey House. But the manifesto was +well timed; it enabled the younger men to go forward more freely, and +sacrificed nothing that was in any way essential to the Anglo-Catholic +position. Since the appearance of 'Lux Mundi,' the High Church clergy have +been able without fear to avow their belief in the scientific theories +associated with Darwin's name, and their rejection of the rigid doctrine of +verbal inspiration, while the Evangelicals, who have not been emancipated +by their leaders, labour under the reproach of extreme obscurantism in +their attitude towards Biblical studies.</p> + +<p>As Canon of Westminster, and then as Bishop of Worcester, and of +Birmingham, Dr. Gore has written and spoken much, and has defined his +position more closely in relation to Anglo-Catholicism, to Church Reform, +and to the social question. It will be convenient to take these three heads +separately.</p> + +<p>This Bishop regards the excesses of the Ritualists as a deplorable but +probably inevitable incident in a great movement. He quotes Newman's +remonstrance against some hot-headed members of his adopted Church, who, +'having done their best to set the house on fire, leave to others the task +of extinguishing the flames.'<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26" /><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> But he reminds us that there has always +been 'intemperate zeal' in the Church, from the time of St. Paul's letters +to the Church at Corinth to our own day. 'It must needs be that offences +come,' wherever persons of limited wisdom are very much in earnest. The +remedy for extravagance is to give fair scope for the legitimate principle. +In the case of the so-called Ritualist movement, the inspiring principle or +motive is easily found. It is the idea of a visible Church, exercising +lawful authority over its members.</p> + +<p>This is the key to Bishop Gore's whole position. It rests on the conviction +that Jesus Christ founded, and meant to found, a visible Church, an +organised society. It is reasonable, the Bishop says, to suppose that He +did intend this, for it is only by becoming embodied in the convictions of +a society, and informing its actions, that ideas have reality and power. +Christianity could never have lived if there had been no Christian Church. +And, from the first, Christians believed that this society, the Catholic +Church, was not left to organise itself on any model which from time to +time might seem to promise the best results, but was instituted from above, +as a Divine ordinance, by the authority of Christ Himself.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27" /><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> The witness +of the early Christian writers is unanimous that the conception of a +visible Church was a prominent feature in the Christianity of the +sub-apostolic age, and it is plain that the civil power suspected the +Christians just because they were so well organised. The Roman Empire was +accustomed to tolerate superstitions, but it was part of her policy to +repress <i>collegia illicita</i>. The witness of the New Testament points in the +same direction. Jesus Christ committed His message, not to writing, but to +a 'little flock' of devoted adherents. He instituted the two great +sacraments (Bishop Gore will admit no uncertainty on this point) to be a +token of membership and a bond of brotherhood. He instituted a <i>civitas +Dei</i> which was to be wide enough to embrace all, but which makes for itself +an exclusive claim. The 'heaven' of the first century was a city, a new +Jerusalem; Christians are spoken of by St. Paul as citizens of a heavenly +commonwealth. The distinction between the universal invisible Church and +particular visible Churches is 'utterly unscriptural,' and was overthrown +long ago by William Law in his controversy with Hoadly.</p> + +<p>As for the 'Apostolical Succession,' Dr. Gore thinks that its principle is +more important than the form in which it is embodied. The succession would +not be broken if all the presbyters in the Church governed as a college of +bishops; and if something of this kind actually happened for a time in the +early Church no argument against the Apostolical Succession can be based +thereon.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28" /><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> The principle is that no ministry is valid which is assumed, +which a man takes upon himself, or which is delegated to him from below. +That this theory is Sacerdotalism in a sense may be admitted. But it does +not imply a <i>vicarious</i> priesthood, only a representative one. It does not +deny the priesthood which belongs to the Church as a whole. The true +sacerdotalism means that Christianity is the life of an organised society, +in which a graduated body of ordained ministers is made the instrument of +unity. It is no doubt true that in such a Church unspiritual men are made +to mediate spiritual gifts, but happily we may distinguish character and +office. Nor must we be deterred from asserting our convictions by the +indignant protests which we are sure to hear, that we are 'unchurching' the +non-episcopal bodies,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29" /><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> We do not assert that God is tied to His +covenant, but only that we are so.</p> + +<p>Dr. Gore has no difficulty in proving that the sacerdotal theory of the +Christian ministry took shape at an early date, and has been consistently +maintained in the Catholic Church from ancient times to our own day. It is +much more difficult to trace it back to the Apostolic age, even if, with +Dr. Gore, we accept as certain the Pauline authorship of the Pastoral +Epistles, which is still <i>sub judice</i>. The 'Didache' is a stumbling-block +to those who wish to find Catholic practice in the century after our Lord's +death; but that document is dismissed as composed by a Jewish Christian for +a Jewish Christian community. After the second century, the apologists for +the priesthood are in smooth waters.</p> + +<p>The conclusion is that 'the various presbyterian and congregationalist +organisations, in dispensing with the episcopal succession, violated a +fundamental law of the Church's life.'<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30" /><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> 'A ministry not episcopally +received is invalid, that is to say, it falls outside the conditions of +covenanted security, and cannot justify its existence in terms of the +covenant.'<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31" /><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> The Anglican Church is not asking for the cause to be +decided all her own way; for she has much to do to recall herself to her +true principles. 'God's promise to Judah was that she should remember her +ways and should be ashamed, when she should receive her sisters Samaria and +Sodom, and that He would give them to her for daughters, but not by her +covenant.'<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32" /><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> The 'covenant' which the Church is to be content to forgo in +order to recover Samaria and <i>Sodom</i> (the 'Free Churches' can hardly be +expected to relish this method of opening negotiations) is apparently the +covenant between Church and State. 'In the future the Anglican Church must +be content to act as, first of all, part and parcel of the Catholic Church, +ruled by her laws, empowered by her spirit.' The bishops are to be ready to +maintain, at all cost, the inherent spiritual independence which belongs to +their office.</p> + +<p>Such a theory of the essentials of a true Church necessarily requires, as a +corollary, a refutation of the Roman Catholic theory of orders, which +reduces the Anglican clergy to the same level as the ministers of +schismatical sects. Bishop Gore answers the objection that the Roman Church +is the logical expression of his theory of the ministry, by saying that +Roman Catholicism is not the development of the whole of the Church, but +only of a part of it; and moreover, that spiritually it does not represent +the whole of Christianity as it finds expression in the first Christian age +or in the New Testament.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33" /><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> The Roman Church is a one-sided outgrowth of +the religion of Christ—a development of those qualities in Christianity +with which the Latin genius has special affinity. It has committed itself +to unhistorical doctrines, involving a deficient appreciation of the +intellectual and moral claim of truth to be valued for its own sake no less +than for its results. Much of its teaching can only be explained as the +result of an 'over-reckless accommodation to the unregenerate natural +instincts in religion.'<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34" /><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> The fact that the largest section of +Christendom has become what Rome now is, is no proof that theirs is the +line of true development. We can see this clearly enough if we consider the +case of Buddhism. The main existing developments of Buddhism are a mere +travesty of the spirit of Sakya Muni.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35" /><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> In this way Dr. Gore anticipates +and rejects the argument since then put forward by Loisy, and other Liberal +Catholic apologists, that history has proved Roman Catholicism to be the +proper development of Christ's religion. In short, the Anglican Church, +which indisputably possesses the Apostolic Succession, has no reason to go +humbly to Borne to obtain recognition of her Orders.</p> + +<p>So far, in reviewing Bishop Gore's published opinions, we are on familiar +High Anglican ground. But what is the Bishop's seat of authority in +doctrine? He has shown himself willing, within limits, to apply critical +methods to Holy Scripture. He has very little respect for the infallible +Pope. And he would be the last to trust to private judgment—the +<i>testimonium Spiritus Sancti</i> as understood by some Protestants. Where, +then, is the ultimate Court of Appeal? Bishop Gore finds it in the two +earliest of the three Creeds, 'in which Catholic consent is especially +expressed;' and in a half apologetic manner he adds that this Catholic +basis has been 'generally understood' to imply 'an unrealisable but not +therefore unreal appeal to a General Council.'<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36" /><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> No revision, therefore, +of the Church's doctrinal formularies can be made except by the authority +of a court which can never, by any possibility, be summoned! The unique +sanctity and obligation which Bishop Gore considers to attach to the Creeds +have been asserted by him again and again with a vehemence which proves +that he regards the matter as of vital importance. 'There must be no +compromise as regards the Creeds.... If those who live in an atmosphere of +intellectual criticism become incapable of such sincere public profession +of belief as the Creed contains, the Church must look to recruit her +ministry from classes still capable of a more simple and unhesitating +faith.'<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37" /><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> And, again, in his most recent book: 'I have taken occasion +before now to make it evident that, as far as I can secure it, I will admit +no one into this diocese, or into Holy Orders, to minister for the +congregation, who does not <i>ex animo</i> believe the Creeds.'<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38" /><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> Dr. Gore has +not spared to stigmatise as morally dishonest those who desire to serve the +Church as its ministers while harbouring doubts about the physical miracle +known as the Virgin Birth, and one of his clergy was a few years ago +induced to resign his living by an aspersion of this kind, to which the +Bishop gave publicity in the daily press.</p> + +<p>Now it has been generally supposed that the Anglican clergy are bound to +declare their adhesion not only to the Creeds, but to the Thirty-nine +Articles, and to the infallible truth of Holy Scripture. Bishop Gore, +however, holds that when a new deacon, on the day of his ordination, +solemnly declares that he 'assents to the Thirty-nine Articles,' and that +he 'believes the doctrine therein set forth to be agreeable to the word of +God,' he 'can no longer fairly be regarded as bound to particular phrases +or expressions in the Articles.'<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39" /><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> And further, when the same new deacon +expresses his 'unfeigned belief in all the canonical Scriptures of the Old +and New Testaments,' 'that expression of belief can be fairly and justly +made by anyone who believes heartily that the Bible, as a whole, records +and contains the message of God to man in all its stages of delivery and +that each one of the books contains some element or aspect of this +revelation.'<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40" /><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>The Bishop himself has affirmed his personal belief that some narratives in +the Old Testament are probably not historical. It may fairly be asked on +what principle he is prepared to evade the plain sense and intention of a +doctrinal test in two cases while stigmatising as morally flagitious any +attempts to do the same in a third. For it is unquestionable that a general +assent to the Articles does not mean that the man who gives that assent is +free to repudiate any 'particular phrases or expressions' which do not +please him. A witness who admitted having signed an affidavit with this +intention would cut a poor figure in a law court. And it is difficult to +see how adhesion to the antiquated theory of inspiration could be demanded +more stringently than by the form of words which was drawn up, as none can +doubt, to secure it. These things being so, either the accusation of bad +faith applies to the treatment which the Bishop justifies in the case of +the Articles and the Bible, or it should not be brought against those who +apply to one clause in their vows the principle which is admitted and used +in two others.</p> + +<p>There are some honourable men who have abstained from entering the service +of the Church on account of these requirements. But there are many others +who recognise that knowledge grows and opinions change, while formularies +for the most part remain unaltered; and who consider that, so long as their +general position is understood by those among whom they work, it would be +overscrupulous to refuse an inward call to the ministry because they know +that they will be asked to give a formal assent to unsuitably worded tests +drawn up three centuries ago. Dr. Gore himself would probably have been +refused ordination fifty years ago on the ground of his lax views on +inspiration; and the Bishops who approved of the condemnation of Colenso, +who condemned 'Essays and Reviews,' and who would have condemned 'Lux +Mundi,' were more 'honest' to the tests than their successors. But an +obstinate persistence in that kind of honesty would have excluded from the +ministry all except fools, liars, and bigots. Again, it might have been +supposed that the laity also, who at their baptism and confirmation made +the same declaration of belief in 'all the articles' of the Apostles' +Creed, and who are bidden by the Church to repeat the same Creed every +week, are in the same position as the clergy. But the Bishop again attempts +to draw a distinction. 'The responsibility of joining in the Creed is left +to the conscience of the layman,' but not to the conscience of the +clergyman, nor, we suppose, of the choir.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41" /><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> This plea seems to us a very +lame one. The Church of England has never thought of imposing severer +doctrinal tests on the clergy than on the laity, and assent to the Creeds +is as integral a part of the baptismal as of the ordination vows.</p> + +<p>No loyal Christian wishes to impugn a doctrine which touches so closely the +life of the Redeemer as the account of His miraculous conception, which +appears, in our texts, in two books of the New Testament. If the tradition +is as old as the Church, which is very doubtful, it must, from the nature +of the case, rest on the unsupported assertion of Mary, the mother of +Jesus; for Joseph could only testify that the child was not his. It is +therefore useless to reinforce the Gospel narrative by appealing to +'Catholic tradition,'<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42" /><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> as if it could add anything to the evidence. It +is significant, however, of the Bishop's own feelings about tradition, that +he quietly sets aside the plain statement of the Synoptic Gospels that +Joseph and Mary had a large family of four sons and more than one daughter +by their marriage. This statement, which is doubtless historical, became +intolerable to the conscience of the Church during the long frenzy of +asceticism, when marital relations were regarded as impure and degrading; +and in consequence the perpetual virginity of Mary, though contradicted in +the New Testament, became as much an article of faith as her conception of +Jesus by the Holy Ghost. We have no wish to criticise the arguments for the +Virgin Birth which Dr. Gore has collected in his 'Dissertations.' But when +a strenuous effort is made to exclude from the ministry of the Church all +who cannot declare <i>ex animo</i> that they believe it to be a certain +historical fact, it becomes a duty to point out that, on ordinary +principles of evidence, the story must share the uncertainty which hangs +over other strange and unsupported narratives. The Bishop expresses his +doubt whether those who regard this miracle as unproven can be convinced of +the Divinity of Christ. This only shows how difficult it is for an +ecclesiastic in his high position to induce either clergy or laity to talk +frankly to him. To most educated men there would be no difficulty in +believing that the Son of God became incarnate through the agency of two +earthly parents. The analogy of hybrids in the animal world is not felt to +apply to the union of the human and divine natures, except by persons of +very low intelligence. We should have preferred to be silent on this +delicate subject, but for the fact that some men whom the Church can ill +spare have been advised officially not to apply for ordination, on account +of their views about this miracle. Fortunately, the practice of demanding +more specific declarations than the law requires has not been adopted in +most dioceses.</p> + +<p>The question of the miraculous element in religious truth has indeed +reached an acute stage. The Catholic doctrine is and always has been that +there are two 'orders'—the natural and the supernatural—on the same +plane, and distinguishable from each other. The Catholic theologian is +prepared to define what occurrences in the lives of the Saints are natural, +and what supernatural. Miracles are of frequent occurrence, and are +established by ordinary evidence. Three miracles have to be placed to the +credit of each candidate for canonisation before he or she is entitled to +bear the title of saint, and the evidence for these miracles is sifted by a +commission. This theory has been practically abandoned in the English +Church. There are few among our ecclesiastics and theologians who would +spend five minutes in investigating any alleged supernatural occurrence in +our own time. It would be assumed that, if true, it must be ascribed to +some obscure natural cause. The result is that the miracles in the Creeds, +or in the New Testament, are isolated as they have never been before. They +seem to form an order by themselves, a class of fact belonging neither to +the world of phenomena as we know it, nor to the world of spirit as we know +it. From this situation has arisen the tendency, increasingly prevalent +both in the Roman Church and in Protestant Germany, to distinguish 'truths +of faith' from 'truths of fact,' The former, it is said, have a +representative, symbolic character, and are only degraded by being placed +in the same category as physical phenomena. This contention is open to very +serious objections, but it at least indicates the actual state of the +problem, viz. that to most educated men the miraculous element in +Christianity seems to float between earth and heaven, no longer essentially +connected with either, while on the other hand the majority of religious +people, including a few men of high intelligence, find it difficult to +realise their faith without the help of the miraculous. Supernaturalism, +which from the scientific point of view is the most unsatisfactory of all +theories, traversing as it does the first article in the creed of +science—the uniformity of nature—gives, after all, a kind of crude +synthesis of the natural and the spiritual, by which it is possible to +live; it is, for many persons, an indispensable bridge between the world of +phenomena and the world of spirit. But when the heavy-handed dogmatist +requires a categorical assent to the literal truth of the miraculous, in +exactly the same sense in which physical facts are true, a tension between +faith and reason cannot be avoided. And it is in this literal sense that +Bishop Gore requires all his clergy to assent to the miracles in the +Creeds.</p> + +<p>The fact is that the Catholic party in the Church are in a hopeless +<i>impasse</i> with regard to dogma. They cannot take any step which would +divide them from 'the whole Church,' and the whole Church no longer exists +except as an ideal—it has long ago been shivered into fragments. The Roman +Church is in a much better position. The Pope may at any time 'interpret' +tradition in such a manner as to change it completely—there is no appeal +from his authoritative pronouncements; but for the High Anglican there is +no living authority, only the dead hand, and a Council which can never +meet. It is much as if no important legislation could be passed in this +country without a joint session of our Parliament and the American +Congress. It is difficult to see any way of escape, except by accepting the +principle of development in a sense which would repudiate the time-honoured +'appeal to antiquity.'</p> + +<p>We have next to consider Bishop Gore as a Church Reformer. We have seen +that he desires an autonomous Church, which can legislate for itself. The +dead hand, which weighs so lightly upon him when it forbids any attempt to +revise the formularies of the faith, seems to him intolerably heavy when it +obliges the Church to conform to 'the laws, canons, and rubrics of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which it cannot alter or add to.'<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43" /><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> +The only remedy, he thinks, is a really representative assembly, of +bishops, presbyters, and laymen. In the early Church, as he points out, the +laity were always recognised as constituent members of the government of +the Church. In a democratic age, the laity as a body should exercise the +powers which in the Middle Ages were delegated to, or usurped by, +'emperors, kings, chiefs and lords.' The parish ought to have the real +control of the Church buildings, except the chancel; the Church servants +ought to be appointed and removed by the parish meeting. It would be a step +forward if these parish councils could be organised under diocesan +regulation, and invested with the control of the parish finances, except +the vicar's stipend; the right to object to the appointment of an unfit +pastor; and some power of determining the ceremonial at the Church +services. The diocesan synod should become a reality; there should also be +provincial synods, which could become national by fusion. But in the last +resort the declaration of the mind of the Church on matters of doctrine and +morals ought to belong to the bishops.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44" /><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<p>But who are the laity? 'By a layman,' he says, 'I mean one who fulfils the +duties of Church membership—one who is baptised into the Church, who has +been confirmed if he has reached years of discretion, and who is a +communicant.' A roll of Church members, he suggests, should be kept in each +parish, on which should be entered the name of each confirmed person, male +or female. The names of those who had passed (say) two years without +communicating should be struck off the roll. Further, names should be +removable for any scandalous offences.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45" /><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> + +<p>It is easy to see that the 'communicant franchise' would work entirely in +favour of that party in the Church which attaches the greatest importance +to that Sacrament. It would exclude a large number of Protestant laymen who +subscribe to Church funds, and who on any other franchise would have a +share in its government. But we need not suspect Dr. Gore of any <i>arrière +pensée</i> of this kind. His ideal of parochial life is one which must appeal +to all who wish well to the Church. We will quote a few characteristic +sentences: </p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Are we to set to work to revive St. Paul's ideal of the + life of a Church? If so, what we need is not more + Christians, but better Christians. We want to make the moral + meaning of Church membership understood and its conditions + appreciated. We want to make men understand that it costs + something to be a Christian; that to be a Christian, that + is, a Churchman, is to be an intelligent participator in a + corporate life consecrated to God, and to concern oneself, + therefore, as a matter of course, in all that touches the + corporate life, its external as well as its spiritual + conditions.... We Christians are fellow-citizens together in + the commonwealth that is consecrated to God, a commonwealth + of mortal men with bodies as well as souls.'<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46" /><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> </p></div> + +<p>With regard to ritual, he will not allow that the disputes are unimportant. +The vital question of self-government is at stake. From this point of view, +a 'mere ceremony' may mean a great deal. St. Paul, who said 'Circumcision +is nothing,' also said, 'If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you +nothing,'<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47" /><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> This is quite consistent with his hearty disapproval of the +introduction of purely Roman ceremonial.</p> + +<p>Does this ideal of a free Church in a free State involve disestablishment? +Not necessarily, Dr. Gore thinks. Why should not legal authority be +entrusted to diocesan courts, with a right of appeal to a court of bishops, +abolishing the jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee in spiritual cases? +It is the paralysis of spiritual authority, in his opinion, which pushes +into prominence all extravagances, and conceals the vast amount of +agreement which exists in essentials. 'We are weary of debating societies; +we want the healthy discipline of co-operative government.'<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48" /><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> The policy +of this self-governing Church is to be 'Liberal-Catholic,' a type which +'responds to the moral needs of our great race.'</p> + +<p>Such is the scheme of Church reform towards which the Bishop is working; +and he has told us, in the sentence last quoted, what kind of Church he +looks forward to see. But what kind of Church would it actually be, if his +designs were carried out? It would not be a national Church; for his +belief that Catholicism 'responds to the moral needs of our race' is +contradicted by the whole history of modern England. The laity of England +may not be quite 'as Protestant as ever they were, though we often hear +that they are so; but they show no disposition to become Catholics. +Catholicism as we know it is Latin Christianity, and even in the Latin +countries it is now a hothouse plant, dependent on a special education in +Catholic schools and seminaries, with an <i>index librorum prohibitorum</i>. +Such a system is impossible in England. Seminaries for the early training +of future clergymen may indeed be established; but beds of exotics cannot +be raised by keeping the gardeners in greenhouses while the young plants +are in the open air. The 'Liberal Catholic' Church, accordingly, would +shed, by degrees, the very large number of Churchmen who still call +themselves Protestant. Nor would the adjective 'Liberal' secure the +adhesion of the 'intellectuals.' Bishop Gore's Liberalism would exclude +most of them as effectually as the most rigid Conservatism. It would also +be a disestablished and disendowed Church; for surely it is building +castles in the air to think of episcopal courts recognised by law. The +prospect of disestablishment does not alarm the Bishop. Some of his +utterances suggest that he would almost welcome it. Indeed, +disestablishment is viewed with complacency by an increasing number of High +Church clergy. They feel that they can never carry out their plans for +de-Protestantising the Church while the Crown has the appointment of the +bishops. For even if, as has lately been the case, their party gets more +than its due share of preferment, there will always, under the existing +system, be a sufficient number of Liberal and Evangelical bishops on the +bench to make a consistent policy of Catholicising impossible. And the +Catholic party are so admirably organised that they are confident in their +power to carry their schemes under any form of self-government, even though +the mass of the laity are untouched by their views. Moreover, the town +clergy, among whom are to be found advocates of disestablishment, find in +many places that the parochial idea has completely broken down. The unit is +the congregation, no longer the parish, and the clergy are supported by +pew-rents and voluntary offerings, not by endowments. In such parishes, +disestablishment might, they think, give them greater liberty, and would +make little difference to them in other ways. But in the country districts +the case is very different. Thirty years after disestablishment, the quiet +country rectory, nestling in its bower of trees and shrubs, with all that +it has meant for centuries in English rural life, would in most villages be +a thing of the past.</p> + +<p>For these reasons, the Bishop's policy of reconstructing the Church of +England as a self-governing body, professing definitely Catholic principles +and enjoining Catholic practices, seems to us an impossible one. The chief +gainer by it would be the Church of Rome, which would gather in the most +consistent and energetic of the Anglo-Catholics, who would be dissatisfied +at the contrast between the pretensions of their own Church and its +isolated position. The non-episcopal bodies would also gain numerous +recruits from among the ruins of the Evangelical and Liberal parties in the +Church.</p> + +<p>But, it may be said, this dismal forecast may be falsified if the Anglican +Church can win the masses. The English populace are at present neither +Protestant nor Catholic; they are, if we count heads, mainly heathen. May +not the working man, who has no leaning to dissent, unless it be the +'corybantic Christianity' of the Salvation Army, be brought into the +Church?</p> + +<p>Bishop Gore has always shown an earnest sympathy with the aspirations of +the working class to improve their material condition. He is also +profoundly impressed by the apparent discrepancy between the teachings of +Christ about wealth and the principles which His professed disciples wholly +follow and in part avow. These anxious questionings form the subject of a +fine sermon which he preached at the Church Congress of 1906, on the text +about the camel and the needle's eye. Jesus Christ chose to be born of poor +and humble parents, in a land remote from the centre of political or +intellectual influence, and in the circle of labouring men. He chose to +belong to the class of the respectable artisan, and most of the twelve +Apostles came from the same social level. In His teaching He plainly +associated blessedness with the lot of poverty, and extreme danger with the +lot of wealth. All through the New Testament the assumption is that God is +on the side of the poor against the rich. As Jowett once said, there is +more in the New Testament against being rich, and in favour of being poor, +than we like to recognise. And is not this the cause of our failure to win +the masses? Is it not because we are the Church of capital rather than of +labour? The Church ought to be a community in which religion works upward +from below. The Church of England expresses that point of view which is +precisely not that which Christ chose for His Church. The incomes of the +bishops range them with the wealthier classes; the clergy associate with +the gentry and not with the artisans. We must acknowledge with deep +penitence that we are on wrong lines. For himself, the Bishop admits that +he has 'a permanently troubled conscience' in the matter. Then, with that +admirable courage and practicality which is the secret of much of his +influence, he proceeds to indicate four 'lines of hopeful recovery.' First, +the Church must get rid of the administration of poor relief. Where the +charity of the Church is understood to mean the patronage of the rich, it +can do nothing without disaster. All will be in vain till it has ceased to +be a plausible taunt that a man or woman goes to church for what can be +got. Secondly, we must give the artisans their true place in Church +management, and must consult their tastes in all non-essentials. Thirdly, +the clergy should 'concentrate themselves upon bringing out the social +meaning of the sacraments,' and giving voice to the spirit of Christian +brotherhood. Lastly, we ought to free the clerical profession entirely from +any association of class.</p> + +<p>The Bishop is not a Collectivist, but he has great sympathy with some of +the aims of Socialism. In a 'Pan-Anglican Paper' just issued, he discusses +the attitude of the Church towards Socialism. Christianity, he says, must +remain independent of State-Socialism, as of other organisations of +society. Socialism would make a far deeper demand on character than most of +its adherents realise. 'An experiment in State-Socialism, based on the +average level of human character as it exists at present, would be doomed +to disastrous failure.' (Bishop Creighton said the same thing more +epigrammatically. 'Socialism will only be possible when we are all perfect, +and then it will not be needed.') But what we have is no Socialistic State, +but a great body of aspiration, based on a great demand for justice in +human life. The indictment of our present social organisation is indeed +overwhelming, and with this indictment Christianity ought to have the +profoundest sympathy, for it is substantially the indictment of the Old +Testament prophets. The prophets were on the side of the poor; and so was +our Lord. Where is the prophetic spirit in the Church to-day? We need 'a +tremendous act of penitence.' Our charities have been mere ambulance-work; +but 'the Christian Church was not created to be an ambulance-corps.' We +have followed the old school of political economy instead of the prophets +and Christ. Broadly, we may contrast two ideals of society: individualism, +which means in the long run the right of the strong; and socialism, which +means that the society is supreme over the individual. 'On the whole, +Christianity is with Socialism.'</p> + +<p>This 'Pan-Anglican Paper' is a fair representation of the views which are +spreading rapidly among the High Church clergy. The party is in fact making +a determined effort to enlist the sympathies of the working man with the +Church, by offering him in return its sympathy and countenance in his +struggle against capitalism. This is a phase of the movement which it is +very difficult to judge fairly. Dr. Gore's sermon was calculated to give +any Christian who heard it, whether Conservative or Liberal, 'a troubled +conscience;' and his practical suggestions are as convincing as any +suggestions that are not platitudes are likely to be. But in weaker hands +this sympathy with the cause of Labour is in great danger of becoming one +of the most insidious temptations that can attack a religious body. The +Church of England has been freely accused of too great complaisance to the +powers that be, when those powers were oligarchic. Some of the clergy are +now trying to repeat, rather than redress, this error, by an obsequious +attitude to King Working-man. But the Church ought to be equally proof +against the <i>vultus instantis tyranni</i> and the <i>civium ardor prava +iubentium</i>. The position of a Church which should sell itself to the Labour +party would be truly ignominious. It would be used so long as the +politicians of the party needed moral support and eloquent advocacy, and +spurned as soon as its services were no longer necessary. The taunt of +Helen to Aphrodite in the third book of the 'Iliad' sounds very apposite +when we read the speeches of some clerical 'Christian Socialists,' who find +it more exciting to organise processions of the unemployed than to attend +to their professional duties.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>ἡσο παρ' αὑτον ιοὑσα, θεὡν δ' ἁπὁεικε κελεὑθου,<br /></span> +<span>μηδ' ἑτι σοἱσι πὁδεσσιν ὑποστρἑψειαϛ Ὁλυμπον,<br /></span> +<span>ἁλλ' αἱεἱ κεἱνον ὁἱζυε καἱ ἑ φὑλασσε,<br /></span> +<span>εἱϛ ὁ κἑ σ' ἡ ἁλοχον ποιἡσεται, ἡ ὁ γε δοὑλην.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49" /><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is as a slave, not as an honoured help-mate, that the Social Democrats +would treat any Christian body that helped them to overthrow our present +civilisation. And rightly; for Christ's only injunction in the sphere of +economics was, 'Take heed and beware of all covetousness,' He refused +pointedly to have anything to do with disputes about the distribution of +property; and in the parable of the Prodigal Son the demand, 'Give me the +portion of goods that falleth to me,' is the prelude to a journey in that +'far country' which is forgetfulness of God (<i>terra longinqua est oblivio +Dei</i>). Christ unquestionably meant His followers to think but little of the +accessories of life. He believed that if men could be induced to adopt the +true standard of values, economic relations would adjust themselves. He +promised His disciples that they should not want the necessaries of +subsistence, and for the rest, He held that the freedom from anxiety, +covetousness, and envy, which He enjoined as a duty, would also make their +life happy. This is a very different spirit from that which makes +Socialism a force in politics.</p> + +<p>Bishop Gore, we may be sure, will not willingly allow the High Church party +to be entangled in corrupt alliances. When he handles what may be called +applied Christianity, he does so in a manner which makes us rejoice at the +popularity of his books. The little commentaries on the Sermon on the +Mount, and on the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians, are admirable. They +are simple, practical, and profound. We subjoin a short analysis of the +notes on the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, as an illustration of +the teaching which runs all through the three commentaries.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Sermon on the Mount is not the whole of Christianity. It + is the climax of law, of the letter that killeth. The Divine + requirement is pressed home with unequalled force upon the + conscience; yet not in the form of mere laws of conduct, but + as a type of character. It is promulgated not by an + inaccessible God, but by the Divine Love manifested in + manhood. The hard demand of the letter is closely connected + with the promise of the Spirit. We are told that many of the + precepts in the sermon were anticipated by Pagan and Jewish + writers. But this we might have expected, since all men are + rational and moral through fellowship with the Word, who is + also the Reason of God. Christ is the light which in + conscience and reason lightens every man throughout the + history of the race. But the Sermon is comprehensive where + other summaries are fragmentary, it is pure where they are + mixed. It is teaching for grown men, who require principles, + not rules. And it is authoritative, reinforced by the + mysterious Person of the speaker. The Beatitudes are a + description of character. Christ requires us, not to do such + and such things, but to be such and such people. ... True + blessedness consists in membership of the kingdom of heaven, + which is a life of perfect relationship with man and nature + based on perfect fellowship with God.... The Beatitudes + describe the Christian character in detail; in particular, + they describe it as contrasted with the character of the + world, which, in the religious sense, may be defined as + human society as it organises itself apart from God. The + first Beatitude enjoins detachment, such as His who emptied + Himself, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. We + are all to be detached; there are some whom our Lord + counsels to be literally poor. 'Blessed are they that + mourn' means that we are not to screen ourselves from the + common lot of pain. We must distinguish 'godly sorrow' from + the peevish discontent and slothfulness which St. Paul calls + the sorrow of the world, and which in medieval casuistry is + named acedia. 'Blessed are the meek' means that we are not + to assert ourselves unless it is our duty to do so. The true + Christian is a man who in his private capacity cannot be + provoked. On a general view of life, though not always in + particular cases, we must allow that we are not treated + worse than we deserve. The fourth Beatitude tells us that if + we want righteousness seriously, we can have it. The fifth + proclaims the reward of mercy, that is, compassion in + action. Pity which does nothing is only hypocrisy or + emotional self-indulgence. On the whole, we can determine + men's attitude to us by our attitude to them; the merciful + do obtain mercy. 'Purity of heart' means singleness of + purpose; but in the narrower sense of purity it is worth + while to say that those who profess to find it 'impossible' + to lead a pure life might overcome their fault if they would + try to be Christlike altogether, instead of struggling with + that one fault separately. 'Sincerum est nisi vas, + quodcunque infundis acescit.' On the seventh—there are many + kinds of false peace, which Christ came to break up; but + fierce, relentless competition is an offence in a Christian + nation. The last shows what our reward is likely to be in + this world, if we follow these counsels. Where the + Christ-character is not welcomed, it is hated. </p></div> + +<p>From the later sections a few characteristic comments may be given in an +abridged form.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We are apt to have rather free and easy notions of the + Divine fatherhood. To call God our Father, we must ourselves + be sons; and it is only those who are led by the Spirit of + God who are the sons of God.... Ask for great things, and + small things will be given to you. This is exactly the + spirit of the Lord's Prayer.... Act for God. Direct your + thoughts and intentions Godward, and your intelligence and + affections will gradually follow along the line of your + action.... You must put God first, or nowhere.... It is a + perilous error to say that we have only to follow our + conscience; we have to enlighten our conscience and keep it + enlightened.... There is no greater plague of our generation + than the nervous anxiety which characterises all its + efforts. We ought to be reasonably careful, and then go + boldly forward in the peace of God.... Our Lord did not + mean to make of His disciples a new kind of Pharisee. + ....'Judge not,' means, Do not be critical. The condemnation + of one who is always finding fault carries no moral weight. + It is those who have the lowest and vaguest standards of + what is right who are often the most critical in judgment of + other people.... We ought so to limit our desires that what + we want for ourselves we can reasonably expect also for + others.... A man who wants to do his duty must always be + prepared to stand alone.... Christianity is not so much a + statement of the true end or ideal of human life, as a great + spiritual instrument for realising the end. </p></div> + +<p>These extracts will be sufficient to show what are the characteristics of +these little commentaries. They exhibit extreme honesty of purpose, +fearless acceptance of Christ's teaching honestly interpreted, scorn of +unreality and empty words, and a determination never to allow preaching to +be divorced from practice. No more stimulating Christian teaching has been +given in our generation.</p> + +<p>The valuable treatise on the Holy Communion, called 'The Body of Christ,' +is too theological for detailed discussion in these pages. The points in +which the Roman Church has perverted and degraded the really Catholic +sacramental doctrine are forcibly exposed, and the true nature of the +sacrament is unfolded in a masterly and beautiful manner.</p> + +<p>A study of the whole body of theological writings from the pen of this +remarkable man leaves us with the conviction that he is one of the most +powerful spiritual forces in our generation. It is the more to be regretted +that in certain points he seems to be hampered by false presuppositions and +misled by unattainable ideals. His loyalty to 'Catholic truth,' as +understood by the party in the Church to which he consents to belong, +prevents him from understanding where the shoe really pinches among those +of the younger generation who are both thoughtful and devout. He makes a +fetish of the Creeds, documents which only represent the opinions of a +majority at a meeting; and what manner of meetings Church Councils +sometimes were, is known to history. He is still impressed with the +grandeur of the Catholic idea, as embodied in the Roman Church, and will +do nothing to preclude reunion, should a more enlightened policy ever +prevail at the Vatican. But this country has done with the Roman Empire, in +its spiritual as well as its temporal form. The dimensions of that proud +dominion have shrunk with the expansion of knowledge; new worlds have been +opened out, geographical and mental, which never owned its sway; the <i>caput +orbis</i> has become provincial, and her authority is spurned even within her +own borders. There is no likelihood of the English people ever again +accepting 'Catholicism,' if Catholicism is the thing which history calls by +that name. The movement which the Bishop hopes to lead to victory will +remain, as it has been hitherto, a theory of the ministry rather than of +the Church, and its strength will be confined, as it is now, mainly to +clerical circles.</p> + +<p>Catholicism and Protestantism (in so far as they are more than names for +institutionalism and mysticism, which are permanent types) are both +obsolescent phases in the evolution of the Christian religion. 'The time +cometh when neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem shall men worship +the Father.'</p> + +<p>A profound reconstruction is demanded, and for those who have eyes to see +has been already for some time in progress. The new type of Christianity +will be more Christian than the old, because it will be more moral. A +number of unworthy beliefs about God are being tacitly dropped, and they +are so treated because they are unworthy of Him. The realm of nature is +being claimed for Him once more; the distinction between natural and +supernatural is repudiated; we hear less frequent complaints that God 'does +nothing' because He does not assert Himself by breaking one of His own +laws. The divinity of Christ implies—one might almost say it means—the +eternal supremacy of those moral qualities which He exhibited in their +perfection. 'Conversio fit ad Dominum ut Spiritum,' as Bengel said. The +visible or Catholic Church is not the name of an institution which has the +privilege of being governed by bishops. It is 'dispersed throughout the +whole world,' under many banners and many disguises. Its political reunion +is (Plato would say) an ἑν μὑθω εὑχἡ, and is at present +neither to be expected nor desired. Among those who are by right citizens +of the spiritual kingdom, those only are in danger of exclusion from it who +entrench themselves in a little fort of their own and erect barriers, which +may make them their own prisoners, but which will not hinder the great +commonwealth of seekers after truth from working out modern problems by +modern lights, until the whole of our new and rich inheritance, +intellectual, moral, and æsthetic, shall be brought again under the +obedience of Christ.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24" /><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> In 1908.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25" /><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Palmer's <i>Narrative</i>, p 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26" /><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Contemporary Review</i>, April 1899.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27" /><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>The Church and the Ministry</i>, pp. 9, 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28" /><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>., p. 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29" /><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <i>The Church and the Ministry</i>, p. 110.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30" /><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>., p. 344.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31" /><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>., p. 345.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32" /><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>., p. 348.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33" /><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>The Mission of the Church</i>, p. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34" /><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Church Congress Report</i>, 1896, p. 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35" /><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>., p. 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36" /><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Church Congress Report</i>, 1903, p. 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37" /><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>., p. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38" /><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>The New Theology and the Old Religion</i>, p. 162.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39" /><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>Church Congress Report</i>, 1903, p. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40" /><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41" /><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>The New Theology and the Old Religion</i>, p. 163.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42" /><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Dissertations</i>, pp. 41-49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43" /><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Church Congress Report</i>, 1899, p. 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44" /><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Church Congress Report</i>, 1899, pp. 65-67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45" /><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>., 1896, pp. 342-346.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46" /><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Epistle to the Ephesians</i>, pp. 113, 114.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47" /><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Contemporary Review</i>, April 1899.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48" /><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49" /><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> 'Go and sit thou by his side, and depart from the way of the +gods; neither let thy feet ever bear thee back to Olympus; but still be +vexed for his sake and guard him, till he make thee his wife—or rather his +slave.'</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ROMAN_CATHOLIC_MODERNISM" id="ROMAN_CATHOLIC_MODERNISM" />ROMAN CATHOLIC MODERNISM</h2> + +<h3>(1909)</h3> + + +<p>The Liberal movement in the Roman Church is viewed by most Protestants with +much the same mixture of sympathy and misgiving with which Englishmen +regard the ambition of Russian reformers to establish a constitutional +government in their country. Freedom of thought and freedom of speech are +almost always desirable; but how, without a violent revolution, can they be +established in a State which exists only as a centralised autocracy, held +together by authority and obedience? This sympathy, and these fears, are +likely to be strongest in those who have studied the history of Western +Catholicism with most intelligence. From the Edict of Milan to the +Encyclical of Pius X, the evolution which ended in papal absolutism has +proceeded in accordance with what looks like an inner necessity of growth +and decay. The task of predicting the policy of the Vatican is surely not +so difficult as M. Renan suggested, when he remarked to a friend of the +present writer, 'The Church is a woman; it is impossible to say what she +will do next.' For where is the evidence of caprice in the history of the +Roman Church? If any State has been guided by a fixed policy, which has +imposed itself inexorably on its successive rulers, in spite of the utmost +divergences in their personal characters and aims, that State is the +Papacy.</p> + +<p>Beneath all the eddies which have broken the surface, the great stream has +flowed on, and has flowed in one direction. The same logic of events which +transformed the constitutional principate of Augustus into the sultanate +of Diocletian and Valentinian, has brought about a parallel development in +the Church which inherited the traditions, the policy, and the territorial +sphere of the dead Empire. The second World-State which had its seat on the +Seven Hills has followed closely in the footsteps of the first. It is not +too fanciful to trace, as Harnack has done, the resemblance in +detail—Peter and Paul in the place of Romulus and Remus; the bishops and +arch-bishops instead of the proconsuls; the troops of priests and monks as +the legionaries; while the Jesuits are the Imperial bodyguard, the +protectors and sometimes the masters of the sovereign. One might carry the +parallel further by comparing the schism between the Eastern and Western +Churches, and the later defection of northern Europe, with the disruption +of the Roman Empire in the fourth century; and in the sphere of thought, by +comparing the scholastic philosophy and casuistry with the <i>Summa</i> of Roman +law in the Digest.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50" /><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<p>The fundamental principles of such a government are imposed upon it by +necessity. In the first place, progressive centralisation, and the +substitution of a graduated hierarchy for popular government, came about as +inevitably in the Catholic Church as in the Mediterranean Empire of the +Caesars. The primitive colleges of presbyters soon fell under the rule of +the bishops, the bishops under the patriarchs; and then Rome suffered her +first great defeat in losing the Eastern patriarchates, which she could not +subjugate. The truncated Church, no longer 'universal,' found itself +obliged to continue the same policy of centralisation, and with such +success that, under Innocent III, the triumph of the theocracy seemed +complete. The Papacy dominated Europe <i>de facto</i>, and claimed to rule the +world <i>de jure</i>. Boniface VIII, when the clouds were already gathering, +issued the famous Bull 'Unam sanctam,' in which he said: 'Subesse Romano +pontifici omnes humanas creaturas declaramus, definimus, et pronuntiamus +omnino esse de necessitate salutis.' The claim is logical. A theocracy +(when religion is truly monotheistic)<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51" /><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> must claim to be universal <i>de +jure</i>; and its ruler must be the infallibly inspired and autocratic +vicegerent of the Almighty. He is the rightful lord of the world, whether +he gives a continent to the King of Spain by a stroke of the pen, or +whether his secular jurisdiction is limited by the walls of his palace. In +the fourteenth century the Pope is already called 'dominus deus +noster'—precisely the style in which Martial adulates Domitian. In the +Bull of Pius V (1570) the claim of universal dominion is reiterated; it is +asserted that the Almighty,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'cui data est omnis in caelo et in terra potestas, unam + sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam, extra quam + nulla est salus, uni soli in terris, videlicet apostolorum + principi Petro Petrique successori Romano pontifici in + potestatis plenitudine tradidit gubernandam.' </p></div> + +<p>But the final victory of infallibilism was the achievement of the +nineteenth-century Jesuits, who completed the dogmatic apotheosis of the +Pope at the moment when the last vestiges of his temporal power were being +snatched from him.</p> + +<p>Now a government of this type is always in want of money. The spiritual +Roman Empire was as costly an institution as the court and the bureaucracy +of Diocletian and his successors. The same necessity which suppressed +democracy in the Church drove it to elaborate an oppressive system of +taxation, in which every weakness of human nature was systematically +exploited for gain, and every morsel of divine grace placed on a tariff. +But this method of raising revenue is only possible while the priests can +persuade the people that they really control a treasury of grace, from +which they can make or withhold grants at their pleasure. It stands or +falls with a non-ethical and magical view of the divine economy which is +hardly compatible with a high level of culture or morality. The Catholic +Church has thus been obliged, for purely fiscal reasons, to discourage +secular education, particularly of a scientific kind, and to keep the +people, so far as possible, in the mental and moral condition most +favourable to such transactions as the purchase of indulgences and the +payment of various insurances against hell and purgatory.</p> + +<p>Another necessity of absolute government is the repression of free +criticism directed against itself. Heresy and schism in an autocratic +Church take the place of treason against the sovereign. Cyprian, in the +third century, had already laid down the principles by which alone the +central authority could be maintained.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Ab arbore frange ramum; fractus germinare non poterit. A + fonte praecide rivum; praecisus arescit.... Quisquis ab + ecclesia separatus adulterae iungitur, a promissis ecclesiae + separatur. Alienus est, hostis est. Habere non potest Deum + patrem, qui ecclesiam non habet matrem.' </p></div> + +<p>Schismatics are therefore rebels, whose lives are forfeit under the laws of +treason. Heretics are in no better case; for the Church is the only +infallible interpreter both of Scripture and of tradition; and to differ +from her teaching is as disloyal as to secede from her jurisdiction. Even +Augustine could say, 'I should not believe the Gospel, if the authority of +the Church did not determine me to do so'; a statement which a modern +ultra-montane has capped by saying, 'Without the authority of the Pope, I +should not place the Bible higher than the Koran.' Bellarmine claims an +absolute monopoly of inspiration for the Roman Church on the ground that +Rome alone has preserved the apostolic succession beyond dispute.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52" /><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> As +for the treatment which heretics deserve, the same authority is very +explicit.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'In the first place, heretics do more mischief than any + pirate or brigand, because they slay souls; nay more, they + subvert the foundations of all good and fill the + commonwealth with the disturbances which necessarily follow + religious differences. In the second place, capital + punishment inflicted on them has a good effect on very many + persons. Many whom impunity was making indifferent are + roused by these executions to consider what is the nature of + the heresy which attracts them, and to take care not to end + their earthly lives in misery and lose their future + happiness. Thirdly, it is a kindness to obstinate heretics + to remove them from this life. For the longer they live, the + more errors they devise, the more men they pervert, and the + greater damnation they acquire for themselves.'<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53" /><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> </p></div> + +<p>In all matters which are not essential for the safety of the autocracy, an +absolutist Church will consult the average tastes of its subjects. If the +populace are at heart pagan, and hanker after sensuous ritual, dramatic +magic, and a rich mythology, these must be provided. The 'intellectuals,' +being few and weak, may be safely rebuffed or disregarded until their +discoveries are thoroughly popularised. The pronouncements of the Roman +Inquisition in the case of Galileo are typical.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The theory that the sun is in the centre of the world, and + stationary, is absurd, false in philosophy, and formally + heretical, because it is contrary to the express language of + Holy Scripture. The theory that the earth is not the centre + of the world, nor stationary, but that it moves with a daily + motion, is also absurd and false in philosophy, and, + theologically considered, it is, to say the least, erroneous + in faith.' </p></div> + +<p>The exigencies of despotic government thus supply the key to the whole +policy and history of the Papacy. 'The worst form of State' can only be +bolstered up by the worst form of government. There should therefore be no +difficulty in distinguishing between the official policy of the Roman +See—which has been almost uniformly odious—and the history of the +Christian religion in the Latin countries, which has added new lustre to +human nature. The Catholic saints did not fly through the air, nor were +their hearts pierced with supernatural darts, as the mendacious hagiology +of their Church would have us believe; but they have a better title to be +remembered by mankind, as the best examples of a beautiful and precious +kind of human excellence.</p> + +<p>The papal autocracy has now reached its Byzantine period of decadence. +During the Middle Ages Catholicism suited the Latin races very well on the +whole. Their ancestral paganism was allowed to remain substantially +unchanged—the <i>nomina</i>, but not the <i>numina</i> were altered; their awe and +reverence for the <i>caput orbis</i>, ingrained in the populations of Europe by +the history of a thousand years, made submission to Rome natural and easy; +a host of myths 'abounding in points of attachment to human experience and +in genial interpretations of life, yet lifted beyond visible nature and +filling a reported world believed in on faith,'<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54" /><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> adorned religion with +an artistic and poetical embroidery very congenial to the nations of the +South. But a monarchy essentially Oriental in its constitution is unsuited +to modern Europe. Its whole scheme is based on keeping the laity in +contented ignorance and subservience; and the laity have emancipated +themselves The Teutonic nations broke the yoke as soon as they attained a +national self-consciousness. They escaped from a system which had educated, +but never suited them. Nor has the shrinkage been merely territorial. The +Pyrrhic victories over Gallicanism, Jansenism, Catholic democracy +(Lamennais), historical theology (Döllinger and the Old Catholics), each +alienated a section of thinking men in the Catholic countries. The Roman +Church can no longer be called Catholic, except in the sense in which the +kingdom of Francis II remained the Holy Roman Empire. It is an exclusive +sect, which preserves much more political power than its numbers entitle it +to exert, by means of its excellent discipline, and by the sinister policy +of fomenting political disaffection. Examples of this last are furnished by +the contemporary history of Ireland, of France, and of Poland.</p> + +<p>These considerations are of primary importance when we try to answer the +questions: To what extent is the Roman Church fettered by her own past? Is +there any insuperable obstacle to a modification of policy which might +give her a new lease of life? We have seen how much importance is attached +to the Church's title-deeds. Is tradition a fatal obstacle to reform? +Theoretically, the tradition which she traces back to the apostles gives +her a fixed constitution. So the Catholic Church has always maintained. +'Regula quidem fidei una omnino est, sola immobilis et irreformabilis.'<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55" /><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> +The rule of faith may be better understood by a later age than an earlier, +but there can be no additions, only a sort of unpacking of a treasure which +was given whole and entire in the first century. In reality, of course, +there has been a steady evolution in conformity to type, the type being not +the 'little flock' of Christ or the Church of the Apostles, but the +absolute monarchy above described. It has long been the <i>crux</i> of Catholic +apologetics to reconcile the theoretical immobility of dogma with the +actual facts.</p> + +<p>The older method was to rewrite history. It was convenient, for example, to +forget that Pope Honorius I had been anathematised by three ecumenical +councils. The forged Decretals gave a more positive sanction to absolutist +claims; and interpolations in the Greek Fathers deceived St. Thomas Aquinas +into giving his powerful authority to infallibilism. This method cannot be +called obsolete, for the present Pope recently informed the faithful that +'the Hebrew patriarchs were familiar with the doctrine of the Immaculate +Conception, and found consolation in the thought of Mary in the solemn +moments of their life.'<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56" /><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> But such simple devices are hardly practicable +in an age when history is scientifically studied. Moreover, other +considerations, besides controversial straits, have suggested a new theory +of tradition. A Cæsar who, like the kings of the Medes and Persians, is +bound by the laws of his predecessors, is not absolute. Acceptance of the +theory of development in dogma would relieve the Pope from the weight of +the dead hand.</p> + +<p>The new apologetic is generally said to have been inaugurated by Cardinal +Newman. His work 'The Development of Christian Doctrine,' is no doubt an +epoch-making book, though the idea of tradition as the product of the +living spirit of a religious society, preserving its moral identity while +expressing itself, from time to time, in new forms, was already familiar to +readers of Schleiermacher. Newman gives us several 'tests' of true +development. These are—preservation of type; continuity of principles; +power of assimilation; logical sequence; anticipation of results; tendency +to conserve the old; chronic vigour. These tests, he considered, +differentiate the Roman Church from all other Christian bodies, and prove +its superiority. The Church has its own genius, which yes and works in it. +This is indeed the Holy Spirit of God, promised by Jesus Christ. Through +the operation of this spirit, old things become new, and fresh light is +shed from the sacred pages of Scripture. Catholic tradition is, in fact, +the glorified but ever-present Christ Himself, reincarnating Himself, +generation after generation, in the historical Church. It is unnecessary to +enquire whether there is apostolic authority for every new dogma, for the +Church is the mouthpiece of the living Christ.</p> + +<p>This theory marks, on one side, the complete and final apotheosis of the +Pope and the hierarchy, who are thereby made independent even of the past +history of the Church. Pius IX was not slow to realise that the only court +of appeal against his decisions was closed in 1870. 'La tradizione sono +io,' he said, in the manner of Louis XIV. The Pope is henceforth not the +interpreter of a closed cycle of tradition, but the pilot who guides its +course always in the direction of the truth. This is to destroy the old +doctrine of tradition. The Church becomes the source of revelation instead +of its custodian. On the other side, it is a perilous concession to modern +ideas. There is an obvious danger that, as the result of this doctrine, the +dogmas of the Church may seem to have only a relative and provisional +truth; for, if each pronouncement were absolutely true, there would be no +real development, and the appearance of it in history would become +inexplicable.</p> + +<p>This new and, in appearance, more liberal attitude towards modern ideas of +progress has raised the hopes of many in the Roman Church whose minds and +consciences are troubled by the ever-widening chasm which separates +traditional dogma from secular knowledge. While dogma was +stationary—<i>immobilis et irreformabilis</i>—there seemed to be no prospect +except that the progress of human knowledge would leave theology further +and further behind, till the rupture between Catholicism and civilisation +became absolute. The idea that the Church would ever modify her teaching to +bring it into harmony with modern science seemed utterly chimerical. But if +the static theory of revelation is abandoned, and a dynamic theory +substituted for it; if the divine part of Christianity resides, not in the +theoretical formulations of revealed fact, but in the living and energising +spirit of the Church; why should not dogmatic theology become elastic, +changing periodically in correspondence with the development of human +knowledge, and no longer stand in irreconcilable contradiction with the +ascertained laws of nature?</p> + +<p>Thus the dethronement of tradition by the Pope contributed to make the +Modernist movement possible. The Modernists have even claimed Newman as on +their side. This appeal cannot be sustained. 'The Development of Christian +Doctrine' is mainly a polemic against the high Anglican position, and an +answer to attacks upon Roman Catholicism from this side. Anglicanism at +that time had committed itself to a thoroughly stationary view of +revelation. Its 'appeal to antiquity'—a period which, in accordance with a +convenient theory, it limited to the councils of the 'undivided +Church'—was intended to prove the catholicity and orthodoxy of the English +Church, as the faithful guardian of apostolic tradition, and to condemn the +medieval and modern accretions sanctioned by the Church of Rome. The +earlier theory of tradition left the Roman Church open to damaging +criticism on this side; no ingenuity could prove that all her doctrines +were 'primitive.' Even in those early days of historical criticism, it must +have been plain to any candid student of Christian 'origins' that the +Pauline Churches were far more Protestant than Catholic in type. But Newman +had set himself to prove that 'the Christianity of history is not +Protestantism; if ever there were a safe truth, it is this,' Accordingly, +he argues that 'Christianity came into the world as an idea rather than an +institution, and had to fit itself with armour of its own providing.' Such +expressions sound very like the arguments of the Modernists; but Newman +assuredly never contemplated that they would be turned against the policy +of his own Church, in the interests of the critical rationalism which he +abhorred. His attitude towards dogma is after all not very different from +that of the older school. 'Time was needed' (he says) 'for the elucidation +of doctrines communicated once for all through inspired persons'; his +examples are purgatory and the papal supremacy. He insists that his 'tests' +of true development are only controversial, 'instruments rather than +warrants of right decisions.' The only real 'warrant' is the authority of +the infallible Church. It is highly significant that one of the features in +Roman Catholicism to which he appeals as proving its unblemished descent +from antiquity is its exclusiveness and intolerance.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The Fathers (he says complacently) anathematised doctrines, + not because they were old, but because they were new; for + the very characteristic of heresy is novelty and originality + of manifestation. Such was the exclusiveness of the + Christianity of old. I need not insist on the steadiness + with which that principle has been maintained ever since.' </p></div> + +<p>The Cardinal is right; it is quite unnecessary to insist upon it; but, when +the Modernists claim Newman as their prophet, it is fair to reply that, if +we may judge from his writings, he would gladly have sent some of them to +the stake.</p> + +<p>The Modernist movement, properly so called, belongs to the last twenty +years, and most of the literature dates from the present century. It began +in the region of ecclesiastical history, and soon passed to biblical +exegesis, where the new heresy was at first called 'concessionism,' The +scope of the debate was enlarged with the stir produced by Loisy's +'L'Évangile et l'Église' and 'Autour d'un Petit Livre'; it spread over the +field of Christian origins generally, and problems connected with them, +such as the growth of ecclesiastical power and the evolution of dogma. For +a few years the orthodox in France generally spoke of the new tendency as +<i>loisysme</i>. It was not till 1905 that Edouard Le Roy published his +'Qu'est-ce qu'un dogme?' which carried the discussion into the domain of +pure philosophy, though the studies of Blondel and Laberthonnière in the +psychology of religion may be said to involve a metaphysic closely +resembling that of Le Roy. Mr. Tyrrell's able works have a very similar +philosophical basis, which is also assumed by the group of Italian priests +who have remonstrated with the Pope.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57" /><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> M. Loisy protests against the +classification made in the papal Encyclical which connects biblical +critics, metaphysicians, psychologists, and Church reformers, as if they +were all partners in the same enterprise. But in reality the same +presuppositions, the same philosophical principles, are found in all the +writers named; and the differences which may easily be detected in their +writings are comparatively superficial. The movement appears to be +strongest in France, where the policy of the Vatican has been uniformly +unfortunate of recent years, and has brought many humiliations upon French +Catholics. Italy has also been moved, though from slightly different +causes. In the protests from that country we find a tone of disgust at the +constitution of the Roman hierarchy and the character of the papal +<i>entourage</i>, about which Italians are in a position to know more than other +Catholics. Catholic Germany has been almost silent; and Mr. Tyrrell is the +only Englishman whose name has come prominently forward.</p> + +<p>It will be convenient to consider the position of the Modernists under +three heads: their attitude towards New Testament criticism, especially in +relation to the life of Christ; their philosophy; and their position in the +Roman Catholic Church.</p> + +<p>The Modernists themselves desire, for the most part, that criticism rather +than philosophy should be regarded as the starting-point of the movement. +'So far from our philosophy dictating our critical method, it is the +critical method that has of its own accord forced us to a very tentative +and uncertain formulation of various philosophical conclusions.... This +independence of our criticism is evident in many ways.'<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58" /><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> The writers of +this manifesto, and M. Loisy himself, appear not to perceive that their +critical position rests on certain very important philosophical +presuppositions; nor indeed is any criticism of religious origins possible +without presuppositions which involve metaphysics. The results of their +critical studies, as bearing on the life of Christ, we shall proceed to +summarise, departing as little as possible from the actual language of the +writers, and giving references in all cases. It must, however, be +remembered that some of the group, such as Mr. Tyrrell, have not committed +themselves to the more extreme critical views, while others, such as the +Abbé Laberthonnière, the most brilliant and attractive writer of them all, +hold a moderate position on the historical side. It is perhaps significant +that those who are specialists in biblical criticism are the most radical +members of the school.</p> + +<p>The Gospels, says M. Loisy, are for Christianity what the Pentateuch is for +Judaism. Like the Pentateuch, they are a patchwork and a compound of +history and legend. The differences between them amount in many cases to +unmistakable contradictions. In Mark the life of Jesus follows a +progressive development. The first to infer His Messiahship is Simon Peter +at Cæsarea Philippi; and Jesus Himself first declares it openly in His +trial before the Sanhedrin. In Matthew and Luke, on the contrary, Jesus is +presented to the public as the Son of God from the beginning of His +ministry; He comes forward at once as the supreme Lawgiver, the Judge, the +anointed of God. The Fourth Gospel goes much further still. His heavenly +origin, His priority to the world, His co-operation in the work of creation +and salvation, are ideas which are foreign to the other Gospels, but which +the author of the Fourth Gospel has set forth in his prologue, and, in +part, put into the mouth of John the Baptist.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59" /><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> The difference between +the Christ of the Synoptic Gospels and the Christ of John may be summed up +by saying that 'the Christ of the Synoptics is historical, but is not God; +the Johannine Christ is divine, but not historical.'<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60" /><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> But even Mark +(according to M. Loisy) probably only incorporates the document of an +eye-witness; his Gospel betrays Pauline influence.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61" /><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> The Gospel which +bears his name is later than the destruction of Jerusalem, and was issued, +probably about A.D. 75, by an unknown Christian, not a native of Palestine, +who wished to write a book of evangelical instruction in conformity with +the ideas of the Hellenic-Christian community to which he belonged.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62" /><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> The +tradition connecting it with Peter may indicate that it was composed at +Rome, but has no other historical value.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63" /><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<p>The Gospel of Matthew was probably written about the beginning of the +second century by a non-Palestinian Jew residing in Asia Minor or Syria. He +is before all things a Catholic ecclesiastic, and may well have been one of +the presbyters or bishops of the churches in which the institution of a +monarchical episcopate took root.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64" /><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> The narratives peculiar to Matthew +have the character rather of legendary developments than of genuine +reminiscences. The historical value of these additions is <i>nil</i>. As a +witness to fact, Matthew ranks below Mark, and even below Luke.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65" /><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> In +particular, the chapters about the birth of Christ seem not to have the +slightest historical foundation. The fictitious character of the genealogy +is proved by the fact that Jesus seems not to have known of His descent +[from David]. The story of the virgin birth turns on a text from Isaiah. Of +this part of the Gospel, Loisy says, 'rien n'est plus arbitraire comme +exégèse, ni plus faible comme narration fictive.'<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66" /><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> Luke has taken more +pains to compose a literary treatise than Mark or Matthew. The authorities +which he follows seem to be—the source of our Mark, the so-called Matthew +<i>logia</i>, and some other source or sources. But he treats his material more +freely than Matthew. 'The lament of Christ over the holy city, His words to +the women of Jerusalem, His prayer for His executioners, His promise to the +penitent thief, His last words, are very touching traits, which may be in +conformity with the spirit of Jesus, but which have no traditional +basis.'<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67" /><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> 'The fictitious character of the narratives of the infancy is +less apparent in the Third Gospel than in the First, because the stories +are much better constructed as legend, and do not resemble a <i>midrash</i> upon +Messianic prophecies. "Le merveilleux en est moins banal et moins enfantin. +II paraît cependant impossible de leur reconnaître une plus grande valeur +de fond."'<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68" /><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p> + +<p>The Gospel of Luke was probably written (not by a disciple of St. Paul) +between 90 and 100 A.D.; but the earliest redaction, which traced the +descent of Jesus from David through Joseph, has been interpolated in the +interests of the later idea of a virgin birth. The first two chapters are +interesting for the history of Christian beliefs, not for the history of +Christ. As for the Fourth Gospel, it is enough to say that the author had +nothing to do with the son of Zebedee, and that he is in no sense a +biographer of Christ, but the first and greatest of the Christian +mystics.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69" /><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<p>The result of this drastic treatment of the sources may be realised by +perusing chapter vii of Loisy's 'Les Évangiles Synoptiques,' The following +is a brief analysis of this chapter, entitled 'La Carrière de Jésus.' Jesus +was born at Nazareth about four years before the Christian era. His family +were certainly pious, but none of His relatives seems to have accepted the +Gospel during His lifetime. Like many others, the young Jesus was attracted +by the terrifying preaching of John the Baptist, from whom He received +Baptism. When John was imprisoned He at once attempted to take his place. +He began to preach round the lake of Galilee, and was compelled by the +persistent demands of the crowd to 'work miracles.' This mission only +lasted a few months; but it was long enough for Jesus to enrol twelve +auxiliaries, who prepared the villages of Galilee for His coming, +travelling two and two through the north of Palestine. Jesus found His +audience rather among the <i>déclassés</i> of Judaism than among the Puritans. +The staple of His teaching was the advent of the 'kingdom of God'—the +sudden and speedy coming of the promised Messiah. This teaching was +acceptable neither to Herod Antipas nor to the Pharisees; and their +hostility obliged Jesus to fly for a short time to the Phoenician territory +north of Galilee. But a conference between the Master and His disciples at +Cæsarea Philippi ended in a determination to visit the capital and there +proclaim Jesus as the promised Messiah. As they approached Jerusalem, even +the ignorant disciples were frightened at the risks they were running, but +Jesus calmed their fears by promising that they should soon be set on +twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 'Jésus n'allait pas à +Jérusalem pour y mourir.'<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70" /><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> + +<p>The doomed prophet made his public entry into Jerusalem as Messiah, and, as +a first act of authority, cleared the temple courts by an act of violence, +in which He was doubtless assisted by His disciples. For some days after +this He preached daily about the coming of the kingdom, and foiled with +great dexterity the traps which His enemies laid for Him. 'But the +situation could only end in a miracle or a catastrophe, and it was the +catastrophe which happened.'<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71" /><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> Jesus was arrested, after a brief scuffle +between the satellites of the High Priest and the disciples; and the +latter, without waiting to see the end, fled northwards towards their +homes. When brought before Pilate, Jesus probably answered 'Yes' to the +question whether He claimed to be a king; but 'la parole du Christ +johannique, Mon royaume n'est pas de ce monde, n'aurait jamais pu être dite +par le Christ d'histoire.' This confession led naturally to His immediate +execution; after which</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'on peut supposer que les soldats détachèrent le corps de la + croix avant le soir et le mirent dans quelque fosse commune, + où l'on jetait pêle-mêle les restes des suppliciés. Les + conditions de sépulture furent telles qu'au bout de quelques + jours il aurait été impossible de reconnaître la dépouille + du Sauveur, quand même on l'aurait cherchée.'<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72" /><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> </p></div> + +<p>The disciples, however, had been too profoundly stirred by hope to accept +defeat. None of them had seen Jesus die; and though they knew that He was +dead, they hardly realised it. Besides, they were fellow-countrymen of +those who had asked whether Jesus was not Elijah, or even John the Baptist, +come to life again. What more natural than that Peter should see the Master +one day while fishing on the lake? 'The impulse once given, this belief +grew by the very need which it had to strengthen itself.' Christ 'appeared +also to the eleven,' So it was that their faith brought them back to +Jerusalem, and Christianity was born.</p> + +<p>'The supernatural life of Christ in the faithful and in the Church has been +clothed in an historical form, which has given birth to what we might +somewhat loosely call the Christ of legend.' So the Italian manifesto sums +up the result of this reconstruction or denudation of the Gospel +history.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73" /><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> 'Such a criticism,' say the authors not less frankly than +truly, 'does away with the possibility of finding in Christ's teaching even +the embryonic form of the Church's later theological teaching.'<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74" /><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> + +<p>Readers unfamiliar with Modernist literature will probably have read the +foregoing extracts with utter amazement. It seems hardly credible that such +views should be propounded by Catholic priests, who claim to remain in the +Catholic Church, to repeat her creeds, minister at her altars, and share +her faith. What more, it may well be asked, have rationalist opponents of +Christianity ever said, in their efforts to tear up the Christian religion +by the roots, than we find here admitted by Catholic apologists? What is +left of the object of the Church's worship if the Christ of history was but +an enthusiastic Jewish peasant whose pathetic ignorance of the forces +opposed to Him led Him to the absurd enterprise of attempting a <i>coup +d'état</i> at Jerusalem? Is not Jesus reduced by this criticism to the same +level as Theudas or Judas of Galilee? and, if this is the true account, +what sentiment can we feel, when we read His tragic story, but compassion +tinged with contempt?</p> + +<p>And on what principles are such liberties taken with our authorities? What +is the criterion by which it is decided that Christ said, 'I am a king,' +but not 'My kingdom is not of this world'? Why must the resurrection have +been only a subjective hallucination in the minds of the disciples? To +these questions there is a plain answer. The non-intervention of God in +history is an axiom with the Modernists. 'L'historien,' says M. Loisy, 'n'a +pas à s'inspirer de l'agnosticisme pour écarter Dieu de l'histoire; il ne +l'y rencontre jamais.'<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75" /><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> It would be more accurate to say that, whenever +the meeting takes place, 'the historian' gives the Other the cut direct.</p> + +<p>But now comes in the peculiar philosophy by which the Modernists claim to +rehabilitate themselves as loyal and orthodox Catholics, and to turn the +flank of the rationalist position, which they have seemed to occupy +themselves. The reaction against Absolutism in philosophy has long since +established itself in Germany and France. In England and Scotland the +battle still rages; in America the rebound has been so violent that an +extreme form of anti-intellectualism is now the dominant fashion in +philosophy. It would have been easy to predict—and in fact the prediction +was made—that the new world-construction in terms of will and action, +which disparages speculative or theoretical truth and gives the primacy to +what Kant called the practical reason, would be eagerly welcomed by +Christian apologists, hard-pressed by the discoveries of science and +biblical criticism. Protestants, in fact, had recourse to this method of +apologetic before the Modernist movement arose. The Ritschlian theology in +Germany (in spite of its 'static' view of revelation), and the +<i>Symbolo-fidéisme</i> of Sabatier and Ménégoz, have many affinities with the +position of Tyrrell, Laberthonnière, and Le Roy.</p> + +<p>It is exceedingly difficult to compress into a few pages a fair and +intelligible statement of a <i>Weltansicht</i> which affects the whole +conception of reality, and which has many ramifications. There is an +additional difficulty in the fact that few of the Modernists are more than +amateurs in philosophy. They are quick to see the strategic possibilities +of a theory which separates faith and knowledge, and declares that truths +of faith can never come into collision with truths of fact, because they +'belong to different orders.' It suits them to follow the pragmatists in +talking about 'freely chosen beliefs,' and 'voluntary certainty '; Mr. +Tyrrell even maintains that 'the great mass of our beliefs are reversible, +and depend for their stability on the action or permission of the will.' +But philosophy is for them mainly a controversial weapon. It gives them the +means of justifying their position as Catholics who wish to remain loyal to +their Church and her formularies, but no longer believe in the miracles +which the Church has always regarded as matters of fact. Nevertheless, an +attempt must be made to explain a point of view which, to the plain man, is +very strange and unfamiliar.</p> + +<p>Two words are constantly in the mouth of Modernist controversialists in +speaking of their opponents. The adherents of the traditional theology are +'intellectualists,' and their conception of reality is 'static.' The +meaning of the latter charge may perhaps be best explained from +Laberthonnière's brilliantly written essay, 'Le Réalisme Chrétien et +l'Idéalisme Grec.' The Greeks, he says, were insatiable in their desire to +<i>see</i>, like children. Blessedness, for them, consisted in a complete vision +of reality; and, since thought is the highest kind of vision, salvation +was conceived of by them as the unbroken contemplation of the perfectly +true, good, and beautiful. Hence arose the philosophy of 'concepts'; they +idealised nature by considering it <i>sub specie æternitatis</i>. Reality +resided in the unchanging ideas; the mutable, the particular, the +individual was for them an embarrassment, a 'scandal of thought.' The sage +always tries to escape from the moving world of becoming into the static +world of being. But an ideal world, so conceived, can only be an +abstraction, an impoverishment of reality. Such an idealism gives us +neither a science of origins nor a science of ends. Greek wisdom sought +eternity and forgot time; it sought that which never dies, and found that +which never lives.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'An abstract doctrine, like that of Greek philosophy or of + Spinoza, consists always in substituting for reality, by + simplification, ideas or concepts which they think + statically in their logical relations, regarding them at the + same time as adequate representations and as essences + immovably defined.'<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76" /><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> </p></div> + +<p>Hellenised Christianity, proceeds our critic, regarded the incarnation +statically, as a fact in past history. But the real Christ is an object of +faith. 'He introduces into us the principles of that which we ought to be. +That which He reveals, He makes in revealing it.' In other words, Christ, +and the God whom He reveals, are a power or force rather than a fact. 'A +God who has nothing to become has nothing to do.' God is not the idea of +ideas, but the being of beings and the life of our life. He is not a +supreme notion, but a supreme life and an immanent action. He is not the +'unmoved mover,' but He is in the movement itself as its principle and end. +While the Greeks conceived the world <i>sub specie æternitatis</i>, God is +conceived by modern thought <i>sub specie temporis</i>. God's eternity is not a +sort of arrested time in which there is no more life; it is, on the +contrary, the maximum of life.</p> + +<p>It is plain that we have here a one-sided emphasis on the dynamic aspect of +reality no less fatal to sound philosophy than the exclusively static view +which has been falsely attributed to the Greeks. A little clear thinking +ought to be enough to convince anyone that the two aspects of reality which +the Greeks called στἁσιϛ and κἱνησιϛ are correlative +and necessary to each other. A God who is merely the principle of movement +and change is an absurdity. Time is always hurling its own products into +nothingness. Unless there is a being who can say, 'I am the Lord, I change +not,' the 'sons of Jacob' cannot flatter themselves that they are 'not +consumed.'<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77" /><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> But Laberthonnière and his friends are not much concerned +with the ultimate problems of metaphysics; what they desire is to shake +themselves free from 'brute facts' in the past, to be at liberty to deny +them as facts, while retaining them as representative ideas of faith. If +reality is defined to consist only in life and action, it is a meaningless +abstraction to snip off a moment in the process, and ask, 'Did it ever +really take place?' This awkward question may therefore be ignored as +meaningless and irrelevant, except from the 'abstract' standpoint of +physical science.</p> + +<p>The crusade against 'intellectualism' serves the same end. M. Le Roy and +the other Christian pragmatists have returned to the Nominalism of Duns +Scotus. The following words of Frassen, one of Scotus' disciples, might +serve as a motto for the whole school:</p> + +<p>'Theologia nostra non est scientia. Nullatenus speculativa est, sed +simpliciter practica. Theologiae obiectum non est speculabile, sed +operabile. Quidquid in Deo est practicum est respectu nostri.'</p> + +<p>M. Le Roy also seems to know only these two categories. Whatever is not +'practical'—having an immediate and obvious bearing on conduct—is +stigmatised as 'theoretical' or 'speculative.' But the whole field of +scientific study lies outside this classification, which pretends to be +exhaustive. Science has no 'practical' aim, in the narrow sense of that +which may serve as a guide to moral action; nor does it deal with +'theoretical' or 'speculative' ideas, except provisionally, until they can +be verified. The aim of science is to determine the laws which prevail in +the physical universe; and its motive is that purely disinterested +curiosity which is such an embarrassing phenomenon to pragmatists. And +since the faith which lies behind natural science is at least as strong as +any other faith now active in the world, it is useless to frame categories +in such a way as to exclude the question, 'Did this or that occurrence, +which is presented as an event in the physical order, actually happen, or +not?' The question has a very definite meaning for the man of science, as +it has for the man in the street. To call it 'theoretical' is ridiculous.</p> + +<p>What M. Le Roy means by 'interpreting dogmas in the language of practical +action' may be gathered from his own illustrations. The dogma, 'God is our +Father,' does not define a 'theoretical relation' between Him and us. It +signifies that we are to behave to Him as sons behave to their father. 'God +is personal' means that we are to behave to Him as if He were a human +person. 'Jesus is risen' means that we are to think of Him as if He were +our contemporary. The dogma of the Real Presence means that we ought to +have, in the presence of the consecrated Host, the same feelings which we +should have had in the presence of the visible Christ. 'Let the dogmas be +interpreted in this way, and no one will dispute them.'<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78" /><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + +<p>The same treatment of dogma is advocated in Mr. Tyrrell's very able book +'Lex Orandi.' The test of truth for a dogma is not its correspondence with +phenomenal fact, but its 'prayer-value.' This writer, at any rate before +his suspension by the Society of Jesus, to which he belonged, is less +subversive in his treatment of history than the French critics whom we have +quoted. Although in apologetics the criterion for the acceptance of dogmas +must, he thinks, be a moral and practical one, he sometimes speaks as if +the 'prayer-value' of an ostensibly historical proposition carried with it +the necessity of its truth as matter of fact. </p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Between the inward and the outward, the world of reality + and the world of appearances, the relation is not merely one + of symbolic correspondence. The distinction that is demanded + by the dualism of our mind implies and presupposes a causal + and dynamic unity of the two. We should look upon the + outward world as being an effectual symbol of the inward, in + consequence of its natural and causal connection + therewith.'<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79" /><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> </p></div> + +<p>But Mr. Tyrrell does not seem to mean all that these sentences might imply. +He speaks repeatedly, in the 'Lex Orandi,' of the 'will-world' as the only +real world.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The will (he says) cannot make that true which in itself is + not true. But it can make that a fact relatively to our mind + and action which is not a fact relative to our + understanding.... It rests with each of us by an act of will + to create the sort of world to which we shall accommodate + our thought and action. ....It does not follow that harmony + of faith with the truths of reason and facts of experience + is the best or essential condition of its credibility.... + Abstractions (he refers to the world as known to science) + are simple only because they are barren forms created by the + mind itself. Faith and doubt have a common element in the + deep sense of the insufficiency of the human mind to grasp + ultimate truths.... The world given to our outward senses is + shadowy and dreamy, except so far as we ascribe to it some + of the characteristics of will and spirit.... The world of + appearance is simply subordinate to the real world of our + will and affections.' </p></div> + +<p>Because the 'abstract' sciences cannot and do not attempt to reach ultimate +truth, it is assumed that they are altogether 'barren forms,' This is the +error of much Oriental mysticism, which denies all value to what it regards +as the lower categories. In his later writings Mr. Tyrrell objects to being +classed with the American and English pragmatists—the school of Mr. +William James. But the doctrine of these passages is ultra-pragmatist. The +will, which is illegitimately stretched to include feeling,<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80" /><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> is treated +as the creator as well as the discerner of reality. The 'world of +appearance' is plastic in its grasp. It is this metaphysical pragmatism +which is really serviceable to Modernism. If the categories of the +understanding can be so disparaged as to be allowed no independent truth, +value, or importance, all collisions between faith and fact may be avoided +by discrediting in advance any conclusions at which science may arrive. +Assertions about 'brute fact' which are scientifically false may thus not +be untrue when taken out of the scientific plane, because outside that +plane they are harmless word-pictures, soap-bubbles blown off by the +poetical creativeness of faith Any assertion about fact which commends +itself to the will and affections and which is proved by experience to +furnish nutriment to the spiritual life, may be adhered to without scruple. +It is not only useful, but true, in the only sense in which truth can be +predicated of anything in the higher sphere.</p> + +<p>The obvious criticism on this notion of religious truth as purely moral and +practical is that it is itself abstract and one-sided. The universe as it +appears to discursive thought, with its vast system of seemingly uniform +laws, which operate without much consideration for our wishes or feelings, +must be at least an image of the real universe. We cannot accept the +irreconcilable dualism between the will-world and the world of phenomena +which the philosophical Modernists assume. The dualism, or rather the +contradiction, is not in the nature of things, nor in the constitution of +our minds, but in the consciousness of the unhappy men who are trying to +combine two wholly incompatible theories. On the critical side they are +pure rationalists, much as they dislike the name. They claim, as we have +seen, to have advanced to philosophy through criticism. But the Modernist +critics start with very well-defined presuppositions. They ridicule the +notion that 'God is a personage in history'; they assume that for the +historian 'He cannot be found anywhere'; that He is as though He did not +exist. On the strength of this presupposition, and for no other reason, +they proceed to rule out, without further investigation, all alleged +instances of divine intervention in history. Unhampered by any of the +misgivings which predispose the ordinary believer to conservatism, they +follow the rationalist argument to its logical conclusions with startling +ruthlessness. And then, when the whole edifice of historical religion seems +to have been overthrown to the very foundations, they turn round suddenly +and say that all their critical labours mean nothing for faith, and that we +may go on repeating the old formulas as if nothing had happened. The +Modernists pour scorn on the scholastic 'faculty-psychology,' which +resolves human personality into a syndicate of partially independent +agents; but, in truth, their attempt to blow hot and cold with the same +mouth seems to have involved them in a more disastrous self-disruption than +has been witnessed in the history of thought since the fall of the +Nominalists. In a sceptical and disillusioned age their disparagement of +'intellectualism' or rather of discursive thought in all its operations, +might find a response. But in the twentieth century the science which, as +critics, they follow so unswervingly will not submit to be bowed out of the +room as soon as matters of faith come into question. Our contemporaries +believe that matters of fact are important, and they insist, with +ever-increasing emphasis, that they shall not be called upon to believe, as +part of their religious faith, anything which as a matter of fact, is not +true. The Modernist critic, when pressed on this side, says that it is +natural for faith to represent its ideas in the form of historical facts, +and that it is this inevitable tendency which causes the difficulties +between religion and science. A sane criticism will allow that this is very +largely true, but will not, we are convinced, be constrained to believe +with M. Loisy that the historical original of the Christian Redeemer was +the poor deluded enthusiast whom he portrays in 'Les Évangiles +Synoptiques.'</p> + +<p>However this may be—and it must remain a matter of opinion—the very +serious question arises, whether it is really natural for faith to +represent its ideas in the form of historical facts when it knows that +these facts have no historical basis. The writers with whom we are dealing +evidently think it is natural and inevitable, and we must assume that they +speak from their own spiritual experience. But this state of mind does not +seem to be a very common one. Those who believe in the divinity of Christ, +but not in His supernatural birth and bodily resurrection, do not, as a +rule, make those miracles the subject of their meditations, but find their +spiritual sustenance in communion with the 'Christ who is the same +yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Those who regard Jesus only as a prophet +sent by God to reveal the Father, generally pray only to the God whom He +revealed, and cherish the memory of Jesus with no other feelings than +supreme gratitude and veneration. Those, lastly, who worship in God only +the Great Unknown who makes for righteousness, find myths and +anthropomorphic symbols merely disturbing in such devotions as they are +still able to practise. In dealing with convinced Voluntarists it is +perhaps not disrespectful to suggest that the difficult position in which +they find themselves has produced a peculiar activity of the will, such as +is seldom found under normal conditions.</p> + +<p>We pass to the position of the Modernists in the Roman Catholic Church. It +is well known that the advisers of Pius X have committed the Papacy to a +wholesale condemnation of the new movement. The reasons for this +condemnation are thus summed up by a distinguished ecclesiastic of that +Church<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81" /><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Why has the Pope condemned the Modernists? (1) Because the + Modernists have denied that the divine facts related in the + Gospel are historically true. (2) Because they have denied + that Christ for most of His life knew that He was God, and + that He ever knew that He was the Saviour of the world. (3) + Because they have denied the divine sanction and the + perpetuity of the great dogmas which enter into the + Christian creed. (4) Because they have denied that Christ + Himself personally ever founded the Church or instituted the + Sacraments. (5) Because they deny and subvert the divine + constitution of the Church, by teaching that the Pope and + the bishops derive their powers, not directly from Christ + and His Apostles, but from the Christian people.' </p></div> + + +<p>The official condemnation is contained in two documents—the decree of the +Holy Inquisition, 'Lamentabili sane exitu,' July 3, 1907, and the +Encyclical, 'Pascendi dominici gregis,' September 8, 1907. These +pronouncements are intended for Catholics; and their tone is that of +authoritative denunciation rather than of argument. In the main, the +summary which they give of Modernist doctrines is as fair as could be +expected from a judge who is passing sentence; but the papal theologians +have not always resisted the temptation to arouse prejudice by +misrepresenting the views which they condemn. We have not space to analyse +these documents, nor is it necessary to do so. It will be more to the +purpose to consider whether, in spite of their official condemnation, the +Modernists are likely in the future to make good their footing in the Roman +Church.</p> + +<p>Even before the Encyclical the Modernists had used very bold language about +the authority of the Church.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The visible Church (writes Mr. Tyrrell in his "Much-abused + Letter") is but a means, a way, a creature, to be used where + it helps, to be left where it hinders.... Who have taught us + that the consensus of theologians cannot err, but the + theologians themselves? Mortal, fallible, ignorant men like + ourselves! ... Their present domination is but a passing + episode in the Church's history.... May not history repeat + itself? [as in the transition from Judaism to Christianity]. + Is God's arm shortened that He should not again out of the + very stones raise up seed to Abraham? May not Catholicism, + like Judaism, have to die in order that it may live again in + a greater and grander form? Has not every organism got its + limits of development, after which it must decay and be + content to survive in its progeny? Wine-skins stretch, but + only within measure; for there comes at last a + bursting-point when new ones must be provided.' </p></div> + +<p>In a note he explains: 'The Church of the Catacombs became the Church of +the Vatican; who can tell what the Church of the Vatican may not turn +into?'</p> + +<p>It is thus on a very elastic theory of development that the Modernists +rely. 'The differences between the larval and final stages of many an +insect are often far greater than those which separate kind from kind.' And +so this Proteus of a Church, which has changed its form so completely since +the Gospel was first preached in the subterranean galleries of Rome, may +undergo another equally startling metamorphosis and come to believe in a +God who never intervenes in history. We may here remind our readers of +Newman's tests of true development, and mark the enormous difference.</p> + +<p>Mr. Tyrrell's 'Much-abused Letter' reaches, perhaps, the high-water mark of +Modernist claims. Not all the writers whom we have quoted would view with +complacency the prospect of the Catholic Church dying to live again, or +being content to live only in its progeny. The proverb about the new +wine-skins is one of sinister augury in such a connection. If the Catholic +Church is really in such an advanced stage of decay that it must die before +it can live, why do those who grasp the situation wish to keep it alive? +Are they not precisely pouring their new wine into old bottles? Mr. Tyrrell +himself draws the parallel with Judaism in the first century. Paul, he +says, 'did not feel that he had broken with Judaism,' But the Synagogue did +feel that he had done so, and history proved that the Synagogue was right.</p> + +<p>Development, however great the changes which it exhibits, can only follow +certain laws; and the development of the Church of Rome has steadily +followed a direction opposite to that which the Modernists demand that it +shall take. Newman might plausibly claim that the doctrines of purgatory +and of the papal supremacy are logically involved in the early claims of +the Roman Church. The claim is true at least in this sense, that, given a +political Church organised as an autocracy, these useful doctrines were +sure, in the interests of the government, to be promulgated sooner or +later. But there is not the slightest reason to suppose that the next +development will be in the direction of that peculiar kind of Liberalism +favoured by the Modernists. It is difficult to see how the Vatican could +even meet the reformers half-way without making ruinous concessions.' This +supernatural mechanism,' M. Loisy says in his last book, 'Modernism tends +to ruin completely,' Just so; but the Roman Church lives entirely on the +faith in supernatural mechanism. Her sacramental and sacerdotal system is +based on supernatural mechanism—on divine interventions in the physical +world conditioned by human agency; her theology and books of devotion are +full of supernatural mechanism; the lives of her saints, her relics and +holy places, the whole literature of Catholic mysticism, the living piety +and devotion of the faithful, wherever it is still to be found, are based +entirely on that very theory of supernaturalistic dualism which the +Modernist, when he acts as critic, begins by ruling out as devoid of any +historical or scientific actuality. The attractiveness of Catholicism as a +cult depends almost wholly on its frank admission of the miraculous as a +matter of daily occurrence. To rationalise even contemporary history as M. +Loisy has rationalised the Gospels would be suicide for Catholicism.</p> + +<p>It is tempting to give a concrete instance by way of illustrating the +impassable chasm which divides Catholicism as a working system from the +academic scheme of transformation which we have been considering.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The French Catholics (writes the <i>Times</i> correspondent in + Paris on June 25, 1908) are awaiting with concern the report + of a special commission on a mysterious affair known as the + Miraculous Hailstones of Remiremont. On Sunday, May 26, + 1907, during a violent storm that swept over that region of + the Vosges, among the great quantity of hailstones that fell + at the time a certain number were found split in two. On the + inner face of each of the halves, according to the local + papers that appeared the next day, was the image of the + Madonna venerated at Remiremont and known as Notre Dame du + Trésor. The local Catholics regarded it as a reply to the + municipal council's veto of the procession in honour of the + Virgin. So many people testified to having seen the + miraculous hailstones that the bishop of Saint-Dié + instituted an inquiry; 107 men, women, and children were + heard by the parish priest, and certain well-known men of + science [names given] were consulted. The report has just + been published in the <i>Semaine Religieuse</i>, and concludes in + favour of the absolute authenticity of the fact under + inquiry. ....The last word rests with the bishop, who will + decide according to the conclusions of the report of the + special commission.' </p></div> + +<p>This is Catholicism in practice. Those who think to reform it by their +contention that supernatural interventions can never be matters of fact, +are liable to the reproach which they most dislike—that of scholastic +intellectualism, and neglect of concrete experience.</p> + +<p>This denial of the supernatural as a factor in the physical world seems to +us alone sufficient to make the position of the Modernists in the Roman +Church untenable. That form of Christianity stands or falls with belief in +miracles. It has always sought to bring the divine into human life by +intercalating acts of God among facts of nature. Its whole sacred +literature, as we have said, is penetrated through and through by the +belief that God continually intervenes to change the course of events. What +would become of the cult of Mary and the saints if it were recognised that +God does not so interfere, and that the saints, if criticism allows that +they ever existed, can do nothing by their intercessions to avert calamity +or bring blessing? The Modernist priest, it appears, can still say 'Ora pro +nobis' to a Mary whose biography he believes to be purely mythical. At any +rate, he can tell his consultants with a good conscience that if they pray +to Mary for grace they will receive it. But what is the good of this +make-believe? And, if it is part of a transaction in which the worshipper +pays money for assistance which he believes to be miraculous and only +obtainable through the good offices of the Church, is it even morally +honest? The worshipper may be helped by his subjective conviction that his +cheque on the treasury of merit has been honoured; but if, apart from the +natural effects of suggestion, nothing has been given him but a mere +<i>placebo</i>, is the sacerdotal office one which an honourable man would wish +to fill?</p> + +<p>We have no wish whatever to make any imputation against the motives of the +brave men who have withstood the thunders of the Vatican, and who in some +cases have been professionally ruined by their courageous avowal of their +opinions. Perhaps none but a Catholic priest can understand how great the +sacrifice is when one in his position breaks away from the authority of +those who speak in the name of the Church, and deliberately incurs the +charge, still so terrible in Catholic ears, of being a heretic and a +teacher of heresy. Not one man in twenty would dare to face the storm of +obloquy, hatred, and calumny which is always ready to fall on the head of a +heretical priest. The Encyclical indicates the measures which are to be +taken officially against Modernists. Pius X ordains that all the young +professors suspected of Modernism are to be driven from their chairs in the +seminaries; that infected books are to be condemned indiscriminately, even +though they may have received an <i>imprimatur</i>; that a committee of censors +is to be established in every diocese for the revision of books; that +meetings of liberal priests or laymen are to be forbidden; that every +diocese is to have a vigilance committee to discover and inform against +Modernists; and that young clerical Modernists are to be put 'in the lowest +places,' and held up to the contempt of their more orthodox or obsequious +comrades. But this persecution is as nothing compared with the crushing +condemnation with which the religious world, which is his only world, +visits this kind of contumacy; the loss of friendships, the grief and shame +of loved relatives, and the haunting dread that an authority so august as +that which has condemned him cannot have spoken in vain. Assuredly all +lovers of truth must do homage to the courage and self-sacrifice of these +men. The doubt which may be reasonably felt and expressed as to the +consistency of their attitude reflects no discredit on them personally. +Nevertheless, the alternative must be faced, that a 'modernised' +Catholicism must either descend to deliberate quackery, or proclaim that +the bank from which the main part of her revenues is derived has stopped +payment.</p> + +<p>What will be the end of the struggle, and in what condition will it leave +the greatest Church in Christendom? There are some who think that the +Church will grow tired of the attitude of Canute, and will retreat to the +chair which Modernism proffers, well above high-water mark. But the policy +of Rome has never been concession, but repression, even at the cost of +alienating large bodies of her supporters; and we believe that in the +present instance, as on former occasions, the Vatican will continue to +proscribe Modernism until the movement within her body is crushed. She can +hardly do otherwise, for the alternative offered is not a gradual reform of +her dogmas, but a sweeping revolution. This we have made abundantly clear +by quotations from the Modernists themselves. If the Vatican once +proclaimed that such views about supernaturalism as those which we have +quoted are permissible, a deadly wound would be inflicted on the faith of +simple Catholics all over the world. The Vicar of Christ would seem to them +to have apostatised. The whole machinery of piety, as practised in Catholic +countries, would be thrown out of gear. Nor is there any strong body of +educated laymen, such as exists in the Protestant Churches, who could +influence the Papacy in the direction of Liberalism. Not only are the laity +taught that their province is to obey, and never to call in question the +decisions of ecclesiastics, but the large majority of thoughtful laymen +have already severed their connection with the Church, and take no interest +in projects for its reform. Everything points to a complete victory for the +Jesuits and the orthodox party; and, much as we may regret the stifling of +free discussion, and the expulsion of earnest and conscientious thinkers +from the Church which they love, it is difficult to see how any other +policy could be adopted.</p> + +<p>Of the Modernists, a few will secede, others will remain in the Church, +though in open revolt against the Vatican; but the majority will be +silenced, and will make a lip-submission to authority. The disastrous +results of the rebellion, and of the means taken to crush it, will be +apparent in the deterioration of the priesthood. Modern thought, it will be +said, has now been definitely condemned by the Church; war has been openly +declared against progress. Many who, before the crisis of the last few +years, believed it possible to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood without +any sacrifice of intellectual honesty, will in the future find it +impossible to do so. We may expect to see this result most palpable in +France, where men think logically, and are but little influenced by custom +and prejudice. Unless the Republican Government blows the dying embers into +a blaze by unjust persecution, it is to be feared that Catholicism in that +country may soon become 'une quantité négligeable.' The prospects of the +Church in Italy and Spain do not seem very much better. In fact the only +comfort which we can suggest to those who regret the decline of an august +institution, is that decadent autocracies have often shown an astonishing +toughness. But as head of the universal Church, in any true sense of the +word, Rome has finished her life.</p> + +<p>A more vital question, for those at least who are Christians, but not Roman +Catholics, is in what shape the Christian religion will emerge from the +assaults upon traditional beliefs which science and historical criticism +are pressing home. We have given our reasons for rejecting the Modernist +attempt at reconstruction. In the first place, we do not feel that we are +required by sane criticism to surrender nearly all that M. Loisy has +surrendered. We believe that the kingdom of God which Christ preached was +something much more than a patriotic dream. We believe that He did speak as +never man spake, so that those who heard Him were convinced that He was +more than man. We believe, in short, that the object of our worship was a +historical figure. Nothing has yet come to light, or is likely to come to +light, which prevents us from identifying the Christ of history with the +Christ of faith, or the Christ of experience.</p> + +<p>But, if too much is surrendered on one side, too much is taken back on the +other. The contention that the progress of knowledge has left the +traditional beliefs and cultus of Catholics untouched is untenable. It is +not too much to say that the whole edifice of supernaturalistic dualism +under which Catholic piety has sheltered itself for fifteen hundred years +has fallen in ruins to the ground. There is still enough superstition left +to win a certain vogue for miraculous cures at Lourdes, and split +hailstones at Remiremont. But that kind of religion is doomed, and will not +survive three generations of sound secular education given equally to both +sexes. The craving for signs and wonders—that broad road which attracts so +many converts and wins so rapid a success—leads religion at last to its +destruction, as Christ seems to have warned His own disciples. Science has +been the slowly advancing Nemesis which has overtaken a barbarised and +paganised Christianity. She has come with a winnowing fan in her hand, and +she will not stop till she has thoroughly purged her floor. She has left us +the divine Christ, whatever may be the truth about certain mysterious +events in His human life. But assuredly she has not left us the right to +offer wheedling prayers to a mythical Queen of Heaven; she has not left us +the right to believe in such puerile stories as the Madonna-stamp on +hailstones, in order to induce a comfortably pious state of mind.</p> + +<p>The dualism alleged to exist between faith and knowledge will not serve. +Man is one, and reality is one; there can no more be two 'orders of +reality' not affecting each other than there can be two faculties in the +human mind working independently of each other. The universe which is +interpreted to us by our understanding is not unreal, nor are its laws +pliant to our wills, as the pragmatists do vainly talk. It is a divinely +ordered system, which includes man, the roof and crown of things, and +Christ, in whom is revealed to us its inner character and meaning. It is +not the province of faith either to flout scientific knowledge, or to +contaminate the material on which science works by intercalating what M. Le +Roy calls 'transhistorical symbols'—myths in fact—which do not become +true by being recognised as false, as the new apologetic seems to suggest. +Faith is not the born storyteller of Modernist theology. Faith is, on the +practical side, just the resolution to stand or fall by the noblest +hypothesis; and, on the intellectual side, it is a progressive initiation, +by experiment which ends in experience, into the unity of the good, the +true, and the beautiful, founded on the inner assurance that these three +attributes of the divine nature have one source and conduct to one goal.</p> + +<p>The Modernists are right in finding the primary principle of faith in the +depths of our undivided personality. They are right in teaching that faith +develops and comes into its own only through the activity of the whole man. +They are right in denying the name of faith to correct opinion, which may +leave the character untouched. As Hartley Coleridge says:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Think not the faith by which the just shall live<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven,<br /></span> +<span>Far less a feeling fond and fugitive,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given.<br /></span> +<span>It is an affirmation and an act<br /></span> +<span>That bids eternal truth be present fact.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>For all this we are grateful to them. But we maintain that the future of +Christianity is in the hands of those who insist that faith and knowledge +must be confronted with each other till they have made up their quarrel. +The crisis of faith cannot be dealt with by establishing a <i>modus vivendi</i> +between scepticism and superstition. That is all that Modernism offers us; +and it will not do. Rather we will believe, with Clement of Alexandria, +that πιστη ἡ γνὡσιϛ, +γνωστη δε ἡ πἱστιϛ.</p> + +<p>If this confidence in the reality of things hoped for and the hopefulness +of things real be well-founded, we must wait in patience for the coming of +the wise master-builders who will construct a more truly Catholic Church +out of the fragments of the old, with the help of the material now being +collected by philosophers, psychologists, historians, and scientists of all +creeds and countries. When the time comes for this building to rise, the +contributions of the Modernists will not be described as wood, hay, or +stubble. They have done valuable service to biblical criticism, and in +other branches, which will be always recognised. But the building will not +(we venture to prophesy) be erected on their plan, nor by their Church. +History shows few examples of the rejuvenescence of decayed autocracies. +Nor is our generation likely to see much of the reconstruction. The +churches, as institutions, will continue for some time to show apparent +weakness; and other moralising and civilising agencies will do much of +their work. But, since there never has been a time when the character of +Christ and the ethics which he taught have been held in higher honour than +the present, there is every reason to expect that the next 'Age of Faith,' +when it comes, will be of a more genuinely Christian type than the last.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50" /><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Bishop Creighton always emphasised this view of Roman +Catholicism. 'The Roman Church,' he wrote, 'is the most complete expression +of Erastianism, for it is not a Church at all, but a state in its +organisation; and the worst form of state—an autocracy.' (<i>Life and +Letters</i>, ii. 375.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51" /><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> In contrast with 'henotheism' or 'monolatry,' such as the +worship of the early Hebrews.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52" /><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> 'Nunc defecit certa successio in omnibus ecclesiis +apostolicis, praeterquam in Romana, et ideo ex testimonio huius solius +ecclesiae sumi potest certum argumentum ad probandas apostolicas +traditiones.' Bellarmine, <i>De Verbo Dei scripto et non scripto</i>, IV, ix, +10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53" /><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Bellarmine, <i>De Laicis</i>, III, xxi, 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54" /><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Santayana, <i>Return in Religion</i>, p. 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55" /><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Tertullian, <i>De Virg. Vel</i>., 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56" /><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Encyclical of October 27, 1901.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57" /><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> In <i>The Programme of Modernism</i>, and <i>Quello che vogliamo</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58" /><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>The Programme of Modernism</i>, p. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59" /><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>The Programme of Modernism</i>, pp. 50-54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60" /><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Loisy, <i>Simples Réflexions</i>, p. 168.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61" /><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> <i>Ibid. L'Évangile et l'Église</i>, pp. 3-5</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62" /><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Ibid. Les Évangiles Synoptiques</i>, p. 119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63" /><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64" /><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>. p. 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65" /><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>. pp. 138, 139.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66" /><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>. p. 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67" /><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Loisy, <i>Les Évangiles Synoptiques</i>, p. 166.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68" /><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>. p. 169.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69" /><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> <i>Ibid. Le Quatrième Évangile</i>, passim.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70" /><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Loisy, <i>Les Évangiles Synoptiques</i>, p. 214.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71" /><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>. p. 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72" /><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Loisy, <i>Les Évangiles Synoptiques</i>, p. 223.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73" /><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> <i>The Programme of Modernism</i>, pp. 82, 83.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74" /><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>. p. 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75" /><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Loisy, <i>Simples Réflexions</i>, p. 211.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76" /><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Laberthonnière, <i>Le Réalisme Chrétien et l'Idéalisme Grec,</i> +pp. 44, 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77" /><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> <i>Malachi</i>, ii. 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78" /><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Le Roy, <i>Dogme et Critique</i>, p. 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79" /><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> <i>Lex Orandi</i>, p. 165 (abridged).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80" /><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> This is not carelessness on the part of the writer. Paulsen +also says (<i>Introduction to Philosophy</i>, p. 112), 4 It is impossible to +separate feeling and willing from each other.... Only in the highest stage +of psychical life, in man, does a partial separation of feeling from +willing occur.' But it is the highest stage of psychical life, the human, +with which we are alone concerned; and in this stage it is both possible +and necessary to distinguish between feeling and willing. Some +Voluntarists, hard pressed by facts, try to make 'will' cover the whole of +conscious and subconscious life, with the exception of logical reasoning, +which is excluded as a sort of pariah!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81" /><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Mgr. Moyes, in <i>The Nineteenth Century</i>, December, 1907.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CARDINAL_NEWMAN" id="CARDINAL_NEWMAN" />CARDINAL NEWMAN</h2> + +<h3>(1912)</h3> + + +<p>The life of Newman was divided into two nearly equal portions by his change +of religion in October 1845. For the earlier half of his career we have +long had his own narrative; and Newman is a prince of autobiographers. It +was his wish that the 'Apologia' should be the final and authoritative +account of his life in the Church of England, and of the steps by which he +was led to transfer his allegiance to another communion. The voluminous +literature of the Tractarian movement, which includes large collections of +Newman's own letters, has confirmed the accuracy of his narrative, and has +made any further description of that strange episode in English University +life superfluous. With the 'Apologia' and Dean Church's 'Oxford Movement' +before him, the reader needs no more. Mr. Wilfrid Ward has therefore been +well advised to adhere loyally to the Cardinal's wishes, by confining +himself to the last half of Newman's life, after a brief summary of his +childhood, youth, and middle age till 1845. Nevertheless, it is misleading +to give the title 'The Life of Cardinal Newman' to a work which is only, as +it were, the second volume of a biography. There are very few men, however +long-lived, who have not done much of their best work before the age of +forty-five, and Newman was certainly not one of the exceptions. From every +point of view, except that of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical historian, +Newman's Anglican career was far more interesting and important than his +residence at Birmingham. He will live in history, not as the recluse of +Edgbaston, nor as the wearer of the Cardinal's hat which fell to his lot, +almost too late to save the credit of the Vatican, when he had passed the +normal limit of human life, but as the real founder and leader of +nineteenth century Anglo-Catholicism, the movement which he created and +then tried in vain to destroy. The projects and failures and successes of +his later life seem very pale and almost petty when compared with the +activities of the years while he was making a chapter of English history. +His greatest book, though it was written many years after his secession, is +the record of a drama which ended in the interview with Father Dominic the +Passionist. It is 'The History of my Religious Opinions'; and after 1845 +his religious opinions had, as he says himself, no further history. The +incomparable style which will give him a permanent place among the masters +of English prose was the product of his life at Oxford, where he lived in a +society of highly cultivated men, whose writings show many of the same +excellences as his own. Newman's English is only the Oriel manner at its +best. Such an instrument could hardly have been forged at the Birmingham +Oratory, where his associates, who had followed him from Littlemore, were +of such an inferior type that Mark Pattison, who knew them, was surprised +that he could be satisfied with their company. His best sermons and his +best poetry belong to his Anglican period. 'The Dream of Gerontius,' with +all its tender grace, is far less virile than 'Lead, kindly Light,' and +other short poems of his youth. Moreover, his record as a Roman +ecclesiastic is one of almost unrelieved failure. If he had died eighteen +years after his secession, when he already looked upon himself as an old +man whose course was nearly run, he would have been regarded as one who had +sacrificed a great career in the Church of England for neglect and +obscurity. From the first he was distrusted by the 'Old Catholics' (the old +Roman Catholic families in England), and suspected at the Vatican, where +Talbot assiduously represented him as 'the most dangerous man in England.' +When Manning, Archdeacon of Chichester, followed his example and joined the +Roman Church, Newman was confronted with a still more subtle and relentless +opponent, whose hostility was never relaxed till the accession of a +Liberal Pope made it no longer possible to resist the bestowal of tardy +honours upon a feeble octogenarian. The recognition came in time to soothe +his decline, but too late to enable him to leave his mark upon the +administration of the Roman Church.</p> + +<p>The main events in a very uneventful career are narrated at length in Mr. +Ward's volumes. After his 'conversion' Newman first resided in a small +community at Maryvale (Oscott) but soon left it on a journey to Rome, where +he spent some time at the Collegio di Propaganda, and had a foretaste of +the distrust with which Pius IX and his advisers always regarded him. His +plan at this time was to found a theological seminary at Maryvale; and in +this scheme he had the support of Wiseman, the ablest Roman ecclesiastic in +the United Kingdom. But the 'Essay on Development,' with its unscholastic +language and unfamiliar line of apologetic, seriously alarmed the +theologians at Rome; and Newman, accepting the first of many rebuffs, +abandoned this project in favour of another. He resolved to join the +Oratorians, an order founded by St. Philip Neri, and obtained permission to +modify, in his projected establishment, the rules of the Order, which, +among other things, prescribed frequent floggings in public. He visited +Naples, and came back a believer in the liquefaction of the saint's blood. +The amazing letter to Henry Wilberforce, writter from Santa Croce, shows +that he was the most docile and credulous of converts. Even the Holy House +at Loreto caused him no difficulty. 'He who floated the ark on the surges +of a world-wide sea, and inclosed in it all living things, who has hidden +the terrestrial paradise, who said that faith might remove mountains ... +could do this wonder also.' It 'may have been'; 'everybody believes it in +Rome'; therefore Newman 'has no doubt'!</p> + +<p>The new Oratory was placed by Papal brief at Birmingham. The first members +of it were his friends who had left the English Church with him. Recruits +soon came in, and branch houses were talked of. But for many years Newman +had reason to complain of neglect and want of sympathy. He even found empty +churches when he preached in London. In conjunction with Faber, he next +started a series of 'Lives of the Saints,' in which the most absurd +'miracles' were accepted without question as true. The 'Old Catholics,' who +had no stomach for such food, protested; and Newman, this time thoroughly +irritated, had to admit another failure. The Oratory, however, and its +London offshoot under Faber were prosperous, and the churches where Newman +preached were not long empty. In 1850 we find him in better spirits. He +employed his energies in a series of clever lectures on 'Anglican +Difficulties,' in which he ridiculed the Church of his earlier vows with +all the refined cruelty of which he was a master. But he was soon in +trouble again. One Dr. Giacinto Achilli, formerly a Dominican friar, gave +lectures in London upon the scandals of the Roman Inquisition, which had +imprisoned him for attacking the Catholic faith and fomenting sedition. The +temper of the British public at this time made it ready to believe anything +to the discredit of the Roman Church, and Achilli became a popular hero. +Wiseman published a libellous article upon him in the <i>Dublin Review</i>, +which passed unnoticed. But when Newman repeated the charges of profligacy +in a public lecture, Achilli brought an action for libel, which in costs +and expenses cost Newman £12,000. The money however was paid, and much more +than paid, by his co-religionists. This trial was quickly followed by the +inauguration of a scheme for founding a Catholic University in Ireland, the +avowed object of which was to withdraw young Catholics from the +liberalising influences of mixed education. This scheme was sure to appeal +strongly to Newman. Liberalism had come in with a rush at Oxford, after the +dissipation of the 'long nightmare' (as Mark Pattison calls it) while the +University was dominated by religious medievalism. The Oxford of Newman had +become the Oxford of Jowett. The ablest of Newman's young friends and +disciples, such as Mark Pattison and J.A. Froude, were now in the opposite +camp, full of anger and disgust at the seductive influences from which they +had just escaped. Newman, as might be expected, was anxious to protect +Catholic students from similar dangers, and accepted the post of Rector of +the proposed Catholic University. He intended it to provide 'philosophical +defences of Catholicity and Revelation, and create a Catholic literature.' +The lectures in which he expounded his ideals at Dublin were a great +success, and he returned to England full of hope. With a curious inability +to read the character of one who was to be his worst enemy, he offered +Manning the post of Vice-Rector. Manning's refusal was followed by his +failure to obtain the support of Ward, Henry Wilberforce, and others; and +Catholic opinion in Ireland was much divided. For three or four years +Newman was engaged in ineffectual efforts to push his scheme forward. At +last, in 1855, he was installed as Rector, and began his work at Dublin. A +fine church was built at St. Stephen's Green with the surplus of the +Achilli subscriptions, and Newman produced some excellent literary work in +the form of University lectures and sermons. But the whole movement was +viewed with distrust by the Irish ecclesiastics, who, as he said in a +moment of impatience, 'regard any intellectual man as being on the road to +perdition.' There was a cloud over his work from first to last. He had been +promised a bishopric, without which he was made to feel himself in an +inferior position by the Irish prelates; but the promise was not fulfilled. +The Irish objected to one or two English professors on his staff, because +they were English. Dr. Cullen, the ruling spirit in the Irish hierarchy, +was a narrow conservative, who wished to use Newman merely as an instrument +against progressive tendencies in Church and State. In 1857 he resigned an +impossible task, and returned to Birmingham.</p> + +<p>New undertakings followed, no more successful than the abortive university +scheme. There was to be a new translation of the Bible, and a new Catholic +magazine called the <i>Rambler</i>. The former enterprise was already well +advanced when the general indifference of the Catholic public caused it to +be abandoned. The <i>Rambler</i>, the contributors to which used a freedom of +discussion unpalatable to Roman ecclesiastics, struggled on amid a storm of +criticism till 1859, when Newman, who was then himself editor, resigned, +and one more humiliating failure was registered. The management of the +magazine passed into other hands. The Oratory School at Birmingham, a much +less contentious undertaking, was successfully launched in the same year.</p> + +<p>In 1860 came the emancipation of the States of the Church by Cavour and +Victor Emmanuel. Newman referred to the Piedmontese as 'sacrilegious +robbers,' but his advocacy of the temporal power was not strong enough to +please the Vatican, while the strength of Manning's language left nothing +to be desired. Newman became more unpopular than ever. His reputation +suffered by his former connection with the <i>Rambler</i> and his supposed +connection with the <i>Home and Foreign Review</i>, which Acton intended to +represent the views of progressive Catholics, till it also was snuffed out +by the hierarchy. The five years from 1859 to 1864 are considered by Mr. +Ward to have been the saddest in Newman's life. He felt, truly enough, that +the dominant party had no sympathy with his aims, and that he was treated +as 'some wild incomprehensible beast, a spectacle for Dr. Wiseman to +exhibit to strangers, as himself being the hunter who captured it.' 'All +through my life I have been plucked,' he writes to an old Oxford friend. +There was even in his mind at this time a wistful yearning after the +friends and the Church that he had left—a feeling, doubtless transient, +but significant, which his biographer has allowed to show itself in a few +pages of his book. After reminding himself, in his diary, of the warning +against those who, after putting their hand to the plough, 'look back,' he +proceeds to look back, because he cannot help it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I live more and more in the past, and in hopes that the + past may revive in the future.... I think, as death comes + on, his cold breath is felt on soul as on body, and that, + viewed naturally, my soul is half dead now, whereas then [in + his Protestant days] it was in the freshness and fervour of + youth.... I say the same of my state of mind from 1834 to + 1845, when I became a Catholic. It is a time past and + gone—it relates to a work done and over. "Quis mihi + tribuat, ut sim iuxta menses pristinos, secundum dies, + quibus Deus custodiebat me? Quando splendebat lucerna eius + super caput meum, et ad lumen eius ambulabam in tenebris?" + ... I have no friend at Rome; I have laboured in England, to + be misrepresented, backbitten and scorned. I have laboured + in Ireland, with a door ever shut in my face.... + Contemporaneously with this neglect on the part of those for + whom I laboured, there has been a drawing towards me on the + part of Protestants. Those very books and labours which + Catholics did not understand, Protestants did. I am under + the temptation of looking out for, if not courting, + Protestant praise.... What I wrote as a Protestant has had + far greater power, force, meaning, success, than my Catholic + works.' </p></div> + +<p>Such reflections might seem to indicate a disposition to return to the +Anglican fold. But a man must have vanquished pride in its most insidious +form before he can leave the Church of Rome for any other. The aristocratic +<i>hauteur</i> of the <i>civis Romanus</i> among barbarians lives on in the sentiment +of the Roman Catholic towards Protestants. When Newman was publicly charged +with intending to return to Anglicanism, this spirit broke out in a +disagreeable and insulting manner.</p> + +<p>The bitterness of these five years of neglect, in which he had been eating +his heart in silence, must be remembered in connexion with the famous +Kingsley controversy, which in 1864 roused him to put on his armour and +fight for his reputation. There had always been an element of combativeness +in Newman's disposition. '<i>Nescio quo pacto</i>, my spirits most happily rise +at the prospect of danger,' he wrote early in life. And when he could +persuade himself that not only his honour but that of the Church was at +stake, he could feel and show the true Catholic ferocity, the cruellest +spirit on earth. 'A heresiarch,' he had written even in his Anglican days, +'should meet with no mercy. He must be dealt with by the competent +authority as if he were embodied evil. To spare him is a false and +dangerous pity. It is to endanger the souls of thousands, and it is +uncharitable towards himself'! This was the temper, soured by defeat and +not mellowed by age, which Charles Kingsley in an evil moment for himself +chose wantonly to provoke. At Christmas 1863 there appeared in <i>Macmillan's +Magazine</i> a review of Froude's 'History of England,' in which Kingsley +wrote 'Truth for its own sake has never been a virtue with the Roman +clergy. Father Newman informs us that it need not be, and on the whole +ought not to be—that cunning is the weapon which Heaven has given to the +saints wherewith to withstand the brute male force of the wicked world.' +This charge was in fact based on a careless reading, or an imperfect +recollection, of the twentieth discourse in 'Sermons on Subjects of the +Day.' The discourse in question is a somewhat nauseous glorification of the +servile temper, but it only says that the meekness of the saints is (by +Divine providence) so successful that it is always mistaken for craft. The +<i>imputation</i> of cunning is therefore a note of sanctity in its victim. +Kingsley ought to have read the sermon again, and withdrawn unreservedly +from an untenable position. But he thought that something less than a +complete apology would serve; and so gave Newman the opportunity of his +life. When the withdrawal which he offered was rejected, Kingsley made +matters ten times worse for himself by an ill-considered pamphlet called +'What then does Dr. Newman mean?' In this effusion he vents all his scorn +and hatred for Catholicism—for its tortuous tactics, its monstrous +credulity and appetite for miracles, which must proceed, according to him, +either from infantile folly or from deliberate imposture. Forgetting +altogether that he has to defend himself against a specific charge of +slander, he offers his great opponent the choice between writing himself +down a knave or a fool—a knave if he pretends to believe in the Holy Coat +and the blood of St. Januarius, a fool if he does believe in them.</p> + +<p>The coarseness of this attack upon an elderly man of saintly character and +acknowledged intellectual eminence, who had to all appearance blighted a +great career by honestly obeying his conscience, offended the British +public, which was now fully disposed to give a respectful and favourable +hearing to whatever Newman might care to say in reply. In a Catholic +country it would have been useless for a Protestant, however falsely +attacked, to appeal to Catholic public opinion for justice; but Newman +understood the English character, and saw his splendid chance.</p> + +<p>The famous defence was, from every point of view except the highest, a +complete triumph. And although Hort was strictly accurate in describing +the treatment of Kingsley as 'horribly unchristian,' it is demanding too +much of human nature to expect a master of fence, when wantonly attacked +with a bludgeon, to abstain from the pleasure of pricking his adversary +scientifically in the tender parts of his body. The bitterest passages were +excised in later editions; and the 'Apologia' remains a masterpiece of +autobiography, and a powerful defence of Catholicism. To Newman this +appeared to be the turning-point in his fortunes. He felt strong enough to +administer a severe snub to Monsignor Talbot, his old enemy, who, hearing +of the success the 'Apologia,' invited him to preach at Rome. Then at once +he threw himself into a great scheme for founding an Oratory at Oxford. +Eight and a half acres were bought between Worcester College, the Clarendon +Press, the Observatory, and Beaumont Street, a magnificent site, which the +Oratorians acquired for only £8400. But here again he was thwarted. W.G. +Ward opposed the scheme with all his might, insisting on the necessity of +'preserving the purity of a Catholic atmosphere throughout the whole course +of education.' The whole tendency of the Ultramontane movement was to +secure, before all other things, a body of militant young Catholics to +fight the battles of the Church. Newman was willing to support the English +Church in its warfare against unbelief; to the Ultramontane a Protestant is +as certainly damned as an atheist, and is more mischievous as being less +amenable to Catholic influence. Manning and Talbot seem to have given the +project its <i>coup de grâce</i> at Rome, and Newman sold the land which he had +bought. He was bitterly disappointed; but the growth of public esteem had +given him self-confidence, and he did not again fall into despondency, +though he had a strange presentiment of approaching death, which prompted +his last famous poem, 'The Dream of Gerontius.' A second attempt to go to +Oxford was thwarted by enemies at Home and in England in 1866-7. The +extreme party, with Manning, now Archbishop, at their head, seemed to be +victorious all along the line. They were able to proceed to their supreme +triumph in the Vatican Council which issued the dogma of Papal +Infallibility. Newman, while others were intriguing and haranguing, was +quietly engaged in preparing his subtlest and (on one side) his most +characteristic work, 'The Grammar of Assent,' an attempt at a Catholic +apologetic on a 'personalist,' as opposed to an 'intellectualist' basis. He +declined to take an active part in the theological conferences about +infallibility, being by this time well aware how little weight such +arguments as he could bring were likely to have at Rome. He was disgusted +at the insolent aggressiveness of the Ultramontanes, but he had no wish to +combat it. The situation was hopeless, and he knew it. The death of several +friends increased the sense of isolation, and during the years 1875 to 1879 +his silence and depression were very noticeable to those who lived with +him. His dearest friend, Ambrose St. John, was one of several who died +about this time. But Trinity College, Oxford, made him an honorary fellow +in 1877, an honour which seemed to prognosticate the far higher distinction +which was soon to be conferred upon him.</p> + +<p>The death of Pius IX in 1878 brought to an end the long reign of +obscurantism at the Vatican, and with the election of Leo XIII Newman +emerged from the cloud under which he had remained for more than a +generation. The new Pope lost no time in making him a Cardinal, though even +now the prize seemed to be on the point of slipping through his fingers. He +valued the honour immensely as setting the official seal of approbation on +his life's work, and the last ten years of his life were quietly happy. He +was able to mingle actively in affairs of public interest, and to write +long letters, till near the end. He died on August 11, 1890, in his +ninetieth year, and was buried, by his own request, in the same grave with +his friend Ambrose St. John.</p> + +<p>Why is it that this sad, isolated, broken life, in which the young man +renounces the creed of the boy, and the elder man pours scorn upon the +loyalties of his prime; which found its last haven in a society which +wished to make a tool of him but distrusted him too much for even this +pitiful service, has still an absorbing interest for our generation? For it +is not only in England that Newman's fame lives and grows. In France there +is a cult of Newman, which has produced biographies by Bremond and Faure, +as well as a history of the Catholic Revival in England by Thureau-Dangin. +In England, besides Dean Church's 'Oxford Movement,' we have biographies by +R.H. Hutton and W. Barry, and appreciations or depreciations by E. Abbott, +Leslie Stephen, Froude, Mark Pattison, and several others.</p> + +<p>The interest is mainly personal and psychological. Newman's writings, and +his life, are a 'human document' in a very peculiar degree. Bremond is +right in calling attention to the <i>autocentrism</i> of Newman. 'Although (he +says) the words "I" and "me" are relatively rare in Newman's writings, +whether as preacher, novelist, controversialist, philosopher, or poet, he +always reveals and always describes himself.' Even his historical portraits +are reconstructed from his inner consciousness; hence their historical +falsity—all ages are mixed in his histories—and their philosophical +truth. In a sense he was the most reserved of men. We do not know whether +he had any ordinary temptations; we do not know whether he ever fell in +love. But the texture of his mind and the growth of his opinions have been +laid bare to us with the candour of a saint and the accuracy of a dissector +or analyst. He reminds us of De Quincey, who also could tell the story of +his own life, but no other, and whose style, like his own, was modelled on +the literary traditions of the eighteenth century.</p> + +<p>He has left us, in the 'Apologia,' a picture of his precocious and dreamy +boyhood, when he lived in a world of his own, peopled by angels and +spirits, a world in which the supernatural was the only nature. He was +lonely and reserved, then as always. It is not for nothing that in his +sermons he expatiates so often on the impenetrability of the human soul. A +nature so self-centred has always something hard and inhuman about it; he +was loved, but loved little in return. And yet he craved for more affection +than he could reciprocate. 'I cannot ever realise to myself,' he wrote +once, 'that anyone loves me.' It is a common feeling in imaginative, +withdrawn characters. Deepseated in his nature was a reverence for the +hidden springs of thought, action, and belief. When he spoke of +'conscience,' as he did continually, he meant, not the faculty which +decides ethical problems, but the undivided soul-nature which underlies the +separate activities of thought, will, and feeling. In this sense the +epigrammatist was right who said that 'to Newman his own nature was a +revelation which he called conscience.' He 'followed the gleam,' uncertain +whither it would lead him. The poem 'Lead, kindly Light' is the most +intimate self-revelation that he ever made. This mental attitude, which he +took early in life, became the foundation of his 'personalist' philosophy, +and of the anti-intellectualism which was the negative side of it. But this +reliance on the inner light, which nearly made a mystic of him, was clouded +by a haunting fear of God's wrath, which imparts a gloomy tinge to his +Anglican sermons, and which, while he was halting between the English +Church and Rome, plied him with the very unmystical question 'Where shall I +be most <i>safe</i>?' an argument which he had used repeatedly and without +scruple in his parochial sermons.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82" /><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> + +<p>It is nevertheless true that this self-centred spirit was, at least in +early life, impressionable and open to the influence of others. His +friendship with Hurrell Froude and Keble affected his opinions +considerably: and still more potent was the pervading intangible influence +of Oxford—the academic atmosphere. It cannot indeed be said that the +University was at this time in a healthy condition. Mark Pattison has +described with caustic contempt the intellectual lethargy of the place, and +the miserable quality of the lectures. Oxford was still <i>de facto</i> a close +clerical corporation, and in most colleges 'clubbable men' rather than +scholars were chosen for the fellowships. Oriel won its unique position by +breaking through this tradition, and also by making originality rather than +success in the university examinations the main qualification for election. +But even at Oriel, and among the ablest men, there was great ignorance of +much that was being thought and written elsewhere. Knowledge of German was +rare. Even the classics were not read in a humanistic spirit. 'Of the world +of wisdom and sentiment—of poetry and philosophy, of social and political +experience, contained in the Latin and Greek classics, and of the true +relation of the degenerate and semi-barbarous Christian writers of the +fourth century to that world—Oxford, in 1830, had never dreamt.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83" /><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> +Theological prejudice in fact distorted the whole outlook of the resident +fellows, and confounded all estimation of relative values. Newman never, +all through his life, took a step towards overcoming this early prejudice. +He imagined a golden age of the Church, or several golden ages, and found +them in 'the first three centuries,' in the time of Alfred the Great or of +Edward the Confessor, or in the seventeenth century. He was only sure that +the sixteenth century was made of much baser metal. This unhistorical +idealisation of the past, even of a barbarous past, was very characteristic +of Newman and his friends. They bequeathed to the Anglican Church the +strange legend of an age of pure doctrine and heroic practice, to which it +should be our aim to 'return.' The real strength of this legend lies in the +fact that it has no historical foundation. The ideal which is presented as +a return or a revival is nothing of the kind, but a creation of our own +time, projected by the imagination into the past, from which it comes back +with a halo of authority. Newman had his full share of these illusions. In +his youth and prime he was more of an Englishman than an Anglican. He +despised foreigners, unless they were Catholic saints, could not bear the +sight of the <i>tricolor</i>, and hated all the 'ideas of the Revolution.' His +dictum, 'Luther is dead, but Hildebrand and Loyola are alive,' throws a +flood of light upon the contents of his mind, as does the truly British +prejudice which caused him to be horrified at the sight of ships coaling at +Malta 'on a holy day.' His range of ideas was so much restricted that +Bremond, a sincere admirer, says that his imagination lived on 'une poignée +de souvenirs d'enfant.' How tragic was the fate which caught this loyal +Englishman and more than loyal Oxonian in the meshes of a cosmopolitan +institution in which England counted for little and Oxford for nothing at +all! </p> + +<p>The Reform of 1832 seemed to threaten the English Church with destruction. +Arnold in this year wrote 'The Church, as it now stands, no human power can +save.' The bishops were stunned and bewildered by the unexpected outbreak +of popular hostility. Old methods of defence were plainly useless; some new +plan of campaign must be devised against the double assault of political +radicalism and theological liberalism. To Newman both alike were of the +devil; theological liberalism especially was only specious infidelity. He +never had the slightest inkling that a deep religious earnestness and love +of truth underlay the revolt against orthodox tradition. His fighting +instincts were aroused. When Keble attributed the scheme for suppressing +some Irish bishopries to 'national apostasy,' he rushed to arms in defence +of Church privileges and property. In the first Tract (1833) he says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'A notion has gone abroad that the people can take away your + power. They think they have given it and can take it away. + They have been deluded into a notion that present palpable + usefulness, produceable results, acceptableness to your + flocks—that these and such-like are the tests of your + Divine commission. Enlighten them in this matter. Exalt our + holy fathers the Bishops, as the representatives of the + Apostles, and the Angels of the Churches, and magnify your + office, as being ordained by them to take part in their + ministry.' </p></div> + +<p>That was the keynote of the whole Tractarian movement. A weapon was needed +to smite liberalism. Nothing but a compact and powerful organisation could +repel the foe. God must have provided such an organisation: a Divine +society, certain of ultimate victory, must exist somewhere. Newman and his +friends hoped to find it in the Anglican Church; and such was the power of +their contagious zeal and confident enthusiasm, that the immediate danger +was actually staved off, and the Establishment was allowed a new lease of +life. But the national Church of England was not constituted to resist the +national will, and the attempt to reorganise it on Catholic lines was +fore-doomed to failure. And so, since the assumption that a great +institutional fighting Church <i>must</i> exist was never even questioned, when +Anglicanism failed him there was no other refuge but Rome.</p> + +<p>He was certainly more logical than his friends who remained behind. +Anglo-Catholicism has its theoretical basis in a definition of Catholicity +which is repudiated by all other Catholics; its traditions are largely +legendary. But it is an eclectic system well suited to the English +character, and the distorted view of history which Newman bequeathed to the +party has enabled it to borrow much that is good from different sides, +without any sense of inconsistency. The idea of a Divine society has been +and is the inspiration of thousands of ardent workers in the Anglican +Church. It lifted the religion of many Englishmen from the somewhat gross +and bourgeois condition in which the movement found it, to a pure and +unworldly idealism. And, unlike most other religious revivals, especially +in this country, it has remained remarkably free from unhealthy +emotionalism and hysterics. The social atmosphere of Oxford, always alien +to mawkish sentiment, penetrated the whole movement, and maintained in it +for many years a certain sanity and dignity which, while they doubtless +prevented it from spreading widely in the middle class, made the +Tractarians respected by men of taste and education. But these influences +could not be permanent. The goodwill of the Tractarian firm (if we may so +express it) has now been acquired by men with very different aims and +methods. The ablest members of the party are plunging violently into social +politics, while the rank and file in increasing numbers are fluttering +round the Roman candle, into which many of them must ultimately fall.</p> + +<p>The progress of the movement between 1833 and 1845 was almost entirely in +the direction of teaching the clergy to 'magnify their office.' The other +part of the scheme, the combat against theological liberalism, fell quite +into the background. The main reason for this was that during those strange +years the theologians so completely dominated Oxford that liberalism could +hardly raise its head, and was despised as well as hated. Only after +Newman's secession could the regeneration of the University begin. Then +indeed liberalism came in like a flood, though it was a very shallow +flood in some cases. This was the day of the self-satisfied young +rationalist, 'ecarté par une plaisanterie des croyances dont la raison d'un +Pascal ne réussit pas à se dégager,' as Renan says—an orgy of facile free +thought which after a generation was chastised by another clerical +reaction.</p> + +<p>If Newman could have foreseen the victory of his party in the English +Church, he might perhaps have been content to remain in it. We cannot tell. +But it is doubtful whether he would have taken Pusey's place as leader of +the party. Newman's influence was disturbing and subtly disintegrating to +every cause for which he laboured. His startling candour often seemed like +treachery. He could not work with others, and broke with nearly all his +friends, retaining only his disciples. He confessed himself a bad judge of +character. It is doubtful, after all, whether he was much injured by the +jealousy and almost instinctive fear which he inspired among the Roman +Catholic hierarchy. If he had been allowed to take the place due to his +abilities, his character, and his reputation, what could he have done that +he was unable to do at Edgbaston? We cannot fancy him plunged in crooked +ecclesiastical intrigue, like that <i>Inglese italianato</i>, Cardinal Manning. +Still less can we fancy him haranguing strikers, and stealing the credit of +composing a trade dispute. No doubt he suffered under the sense of injury; +but probably he did what was in him to do. If the Roman Church would not +use him as a tool, it was probably because he would not have been a good +tool. There are some mistakes which that Church seldom makes; it knows how +to choose its men.</p> + +<p>What will be the verdict of history on the type of Catholicism which Newman +represented? He was kept out in the cold by a conservative Pope, and +honoured by a liberal Pope. Which was right, from the point of view of +Catholic interests and policy? This is perhaps the most important question +which the life of Newman raises; for it affects our anticipations of the +future even more than our judgments of the past. Is Newman a safe or a +possible guide for Catholics in the twentieth century?</p> + +<p>Newman was no metaphysician; he confesses it himself. 'My turn of mind,' +he says, 'has never led me towards metaphysics; rather it has been logical, +ethical, practical.'<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84" /><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> For metaphysics requires an initial act of faith +in human reason, and Newman had not this faith. Even in his Anglican days +he uttered many astonishing things in contempt of reason. 'What is +intellect itself (he asks) but a fruit of the Fall, not found in paradise +or in heaven, more than in little children, and at the utmost but tolerated +by the Church, and only not incompatible with the regenerate mind?... +Reason is God's gift, but so are the passions.... Eve was tempted to follow +passion and reason, and she fell.'<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85" /><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> 'Faith does not regard degrees of +evidence.'<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86" /><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> 'Faith and humility consist, not in going about to prove, +but in the outset confiding in the testimony of others.' 'The more you set +yourself to argue and prove, in order to discover truth, the less likely +you are to reason correctly.'<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87" /><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> The amazing crudity of this avowed +obscurantism is likely to make the orthodox apologist writhe, and to move +the rationalist to contemptuous laughter. In this and many other cases, +Newman seems to love to caricature himself, and to put his beliefs in that +form in which they outrage common sense most completely. We can imagine +nothing more calculated to drive a young and ingenuous mind into flippant +scepticism than a course of Newman's sermons. The <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> of +his arguments is not left to the reader to make; it is innocently provided +by the preacher.</p> + +<p>And yet Newman's central position is not absurd, or only becomes absurd +when it is applied to justify belief in gross superstition. He holds that +what he calls 'reasoning' deals only with abstractions, and is not the +faculty on which we rely in forming 'judgments.' These judgments, to which +we give our 'assent,' and by which we regulate our conduct, are +affirmations of the basal personality. And these have an authority far +greater than can ever arise out of the logical manipulation of concepts. +'There is no ultimate test of truth besides the testimony borne to the +truth by the mind itself.' The 'mind itself,' the concrete personality, is +concerned with realities, while the intellect, which for him corresponds +very nearly with the discursive reason (διἁνοια) of the Greek +philosophers, is at home only in mathematics and, up to a certain point, in +logic. The concepts of the intellect have no existence outside it. 'The +mind has the gift, by an act of creation, of bringing before it +abstractions and generalisations which have no counterpart, no existence, +out of it.'<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88" /><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> Parenthetically, we may remark that passages like this show +how wide of the truth Mr. Barry is when he speaks of Newman as a 'thorough +Alexandrine.' To deny the existence of universals, to regard them as mere +creations of the mind, is rank blasphemy to a Platonist; and the +Alexandrines were Christian Platonists. No more misleading statement could +be made about Newman's philosophy than to associate him with Platonism of +any kind, whether Pagan or Christian. Newman adopts the sensationalist +(Lockian) theory of knowledge. Ideas are copies or modifications of the +data presented by the senses; 'first principles are abstractions from +facts, not elementary truths prior to reasoning.' This is pure nominalism, +in its crudest form. It makes all arguments in favour of the great truths +of religion valueless; for if there are no universals, rational theism is +impossible. It follows that the famous scholastic 'proofs of God's +existence' have for Newman no cogency whatever; indeed it is difficult to +see how he can have escaped condemning the whole philosophy of St. Thomas +Aquinas as a juggling with bloodless concepts. Newman himself pleaded that +he had no wish to oppose the official dogmatics of his Church. But +protestations are of no avail where the facts are so clear. 'The natural +theology of our schools,' says a writer in the <i>Tablet</i>, quoted by Dr. +Caldecott in his 'Philosophy of Religion,' 'is based frankly and wholly on +the appeal to reason.' This is notoriously true; and what Newman thought of +reason we have already seen. His extreme disparagement of the intellect +seems to preclude what he calls 'real assent' to the creeds and dogmas of +Catholicism; for these clearly consist of 'notional' propositions. But +Newman would answer that the Church is a concrete fact, to which 'real +assent' can be given; and the Church has guaranteed the truth of the +notional propositions in question. But since reason is put out of court as +a witness to truth, on what faculty, or on what evidence, does Newman rely? +Feeling he distrusts; that side of mysticism, at any rate, finds no +sympathy from him. Nor does he, like many Kantians and others, make the +will supreme over the other faculties. Rather, as we have seen, he bases +his reliance on the verdicts of the undivided personality, which he often +calls conscience. This line of apologetic was at this very time being ably +developed by Julius Hare. It is in itself an argument which has no +necessary connexion with obscurantism. 'Personalism,' as it is technically +called, reminds us that we do actually base our judgments on grounds which +are nob purely rational; that the intellect, in forming concepts, has to be +content with an approximate resemblance to concrete reality; and that the +will and feelings have their rights and claims which cannot be ignored in a +philosophy of religion. But while it is compatible with a robust faith in +the powers of the constructive intellect, personalism is beyond question a +self-sufficient, independent, individualistic doctrine. When it is combined +with a nominalist theory of knowledge, it naturally suggests that every man +may and should live by the creed which bests suits his idiosyncrasies. Now +there was much in Newman's temperament which made him turn in this +direction. 'Lead, kindly Light' has been the favourite hymn of many an +independent thinker, to whom the authority of the Church is less than +nothing. But on another side Newman was all his life a fierce upholder of +the principle of authority. His reason for accepting the dogmas of the +Church, and for wishing to destroy heresiarchs like wild beasts, was +certainly not that his basal personality testified to the truth and value +of all ecclesiastical dogmas. He believed them 'by confiding in the +testimony of others'—in other words, on the authority of the Catholic +Church. If we push back the enquiry one step further, and ask on what +grounds he chooses to prefer the authority of the Catholic Church to other +authorities, such as natural science or philosophy, we are driven again to +lay great stress on the almost political necessity which he felt that such +a Divine society should exist. In accepting the authority of the Church, he +accepted the authority of all that the Church teaches, in complete +independence of human reason. But the Roman Church never professes to be +independent of human reason. The official scholastic philosophy claims to +be a demonstrative proof of theism.</p> + +<p>Newman, then, was only half a Catholic. He accepted with all the fervour of +a neophyte the principle of submission to Holy Church. But in place of the +official intellectualist apologetic, which an Englishman may study to great +advantage in the remarkably able series of manuals issued by the Jesuits of +Stonyhurst, he substituted a philosophy of experience which is certainly +not Catholic. The authority claimed by the Roman Church rests on one side +upon revelation, on the other upon an elaborate structure of demonstrative +reasoning, which the simple folk are allowed to 'take as read,' only +because they cannot be expected to understand it, but which is declared to +be of irresistible cogency to any properly instructed mind. To deny the +validity of reasoning upon Divine things is to withdraw one of the supports +on which Catholicism rests. Subjectivism, based on vital experience, mixes +no better with this system than oil with water. Scholasticism prides itself +on clear-cut definitions, on irrefragable logic, on using words always in +the same sense. For Newman, as for his disciples the Modernists, +theological terms are only symbols for varying values, and he holds that +the moment they are treated as having any fixed connotation, error begins. +It is no wonder if learned Catholics thought that Newman did not play the +game. Father Perrone, in spite of his friendship for the object of his +criticism, declared that 'Newman miscet et confundit omnia.'</p> + +<p>The accusation of scepticism, which was not unnaturally brought against +him, was hotly resented by Newman, and with some justice. Of the intensity +of his personal conviction there can be no doubt whatever. Indeed, it was +just because his faith was in no danger that he cared so little for any +intellectual defence of it. He might have made his own the lines of +Wordsworth:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Here then we rest; not fearing for our creed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The worst that human reasoning can achieve<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To unsettle or perplex it.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Wordsworth too, it may be remembered, speaks of 'reason' with hardly more +respect than Newman himself as:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">'The inferior faculty that moulds<br /></span> +<span>With her minute and speculative pains<br /></span> +<span>Opinion, ever changing.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Robert Browning also, especially in his later years, uses +anti-intellectualist language equally uncompromising. 'Wholly distrust thy +reason,' he says in 'La Saisiaz.' Coleridge's distinction between +'understanding' and 'reason,' or Westcott's distinction between 'reason' +and 'reasoning,' might have saved these great writers from the appearance, +and perhaps more than the appearance, of blaspheming against the highest +and most divine faculty of human nature. For the reason is something much +higher than logic-chopping; it can provide, from its own resources, a +remedy for the intellectual error which is just now miscalled +intellectualism; it is the activity of the whole personality under the +guidance of its highest part; and because it is a real unification of our +disordered nature, it can bring us into real contact with the higher world +of Spirit. Newman's scepticism was not doubtfulness about matters of faith; +it was only a wholly unjustifiable contempt and distrust for the unaided +activity of the human mind. This activity, as far as he could see, produced +only various forms of 'liberalism,' which he strangely enough regarded as a +kind of scepticism. Thus he retorted, with equal injustice, the unjust +charge brought against himself.</p> + +<p>Newman has often been suspected or accused of quibbling and intellectual +dishonesty. Kingsley, whose healthy but somewhat rough English morality and +common sense were revolted by Newman's whole attitude to life and conduct, +was unable to conceive how any educated man could believe in winking +Virgins and liquefying blood, and thought that Newman must be dishonest. +More recently Dr. Abbott has accused him of being a <i>philomythus</i>. Judged +by ordinary standards, Newman's criteria of belief do seem incompatible +with intellectual honesty. Locke, whom Newman resembles in his theory of +knowledge, lays down a canon which condemns absolutely the Cardinal's +doctrine of assent. 'There is one unerring mark,' he says, 'by which a man +may know whether he is a lover of truth in earnest, namely, the not +entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is +built on will warrant.' Newman himself quotes this dictum, and argues +against it that men do, as a matter of fact, form their judgments in a very +different fashion. To most people, however, the fact that opinions <i>are</i> so +manufactured is no proof that they <i>ought</i> to be so. To most people it +seems plain that the practical necessity of making unverified assumptions, +and the habit of clinging to them because we have made them, even after +their falsity has been exposed, is a satisfactory explanation of the +prevalence of error, but not a reason for acquiescing in it. It is useful, +they hold, to point out how assumption has a perilous tendency to pass for +proof, not that we may contentedly confuse assumption with proof, but that +we may be on our guard against doing so. But such is Newman's dislike of +'reason' that he rejoices to find that the majority of mankind are, in +fact, not guided by it. And then, having made this discovery, he is quite +ready to 'reason' himself, but not in the manner of an earnest seeker after +truth. Reason, for him, is a serviceable weapon of attack or defence, but +he is like a man fighting with magic impenetrable armour. He enjoys a bout +of logical fence; but it will decide nothing for him: his 'certitude' is +independent of it. It is easy to see that such an attitude must appear +profoundly dishonest to any man who accepts Locke's maxim about +truth-seeking. It is equally easy to see that Newman would spurn the charge +of dishonesty as hotly as the charge of scepticism. His principles made it +easy for him to adopt the characteristic Catholic habit of 'believing' +anything that is pleasing to the religious imagination. His sermons are +full of such phrases as 'Scripture <i>seems</i> to show us'; 'why should we not +believe ...'; 'who knows whether ...,' and the like, all introducing some +fantastic superstition. He deliberately accepts the insidious and deadly +doctrine that 'no man is convinced of a thing who can endure the thought of +its contradictory being true.' To which we may rejoin that, on the +contrary, no man has a right to be convinced of anything until he has +fairly faced the hypothesis of its contradictory being true. So long as +Newman's method prevailed in Europe, every branch of practical knowledge +was condemned to barrenness.</p> + +<p>For what kind of knowledge is it which is acquired, not by the exercise of +the discursive intellect, or by the evidence of our senses, but by the +affirmations of our basal personality? Surely the legitimate province of +'personalism' lies in the region of general ideas, or rather in the +<i>Weltanschauung</i> as a whole. Our undivided personality protests against any +philosophy which makes life irrational, or base, or incurably evil. It +claims that those pictures of reality which are provided by the intellect, +by the æsthetic sense, and by the moral sense, shall all have justice done +to them in any attempted synthesis. It rejects materialism, metaphysical +dualism, solipsism, and pessimism, on one or other of these grounds. Such a +final interpretation of existence as any of these offers, leaves out some +fundamental and essential factor of experience, and is therefore untenable. +If no metaphysical scheme can be constructed which is at once comprehensive +and inwardly consistent, personalism insists that we must acknowledge +defeat for the time, rather than take refuge in a logical system which may +be free from inner contradictions but which does not satisfy the whole man +as a living and active spiritual being. This is a sound argument. But it is +absurd to suppose that our personality, acting as an undivided whole, can +decide whether the institutional Church, or one branch of it, is the Body +of Christ and the receptacle of infallible revelation; whether Christ was +born at Bethlehem or Nazareth; or whether Nestorius was a heretic. We have +no magical sword for cutting these knots, and no miraculous guide to tell +us that authority A is to be believed implicitly, while the possibility of +authority B being right is not to be entertained even in thought. Newman +as usual supplies us with the best weapons against himself. It startles us +to find, even in 1852, such a sentence as this: "Revealed religion +furnishes facts to other sciences, which those sciences, left to +themselves, would never reach. Thus, in the science of history, the +preservation of our race in Noah's ark is an historical fact, which history +never would arrive at without revelation.' The transition from belief on +the purely internal ground of personal assent to belief on the purely +external ground of Church authority is certainly abrupt and hard to +explain; but Newman makes it habitually, without any consciousness of a +<i>salto mortale</i>. In the 'Apologia' he even says that the argument from +personality is 'one form of the argument from authority.' The argument +seems to be—'There is no third alternative besides Catholicism or +Rationalism. But "personality" will not accept the dictation of reason; +therefore it must accept the authority of the Church.' It is a strange +argument. All through his life he enormously exaggerated the moral and +intellectual weight which should be attached to Church tradition. 'Securus +judicat orbis terrarum' were the words which rang in his ears at the +supreme moment of his great decision. His 'orbis terrarum' was the Latin +empire. And when even in those countries the authority of the Pope is +rejected, he condemns modern civilisation as an aberration. This however is +a complete abandonment of his own test. He first says 'The judgment of the +great world is final'; and then 'If the world decides against Rome, so much +the worse for the world.' After all, Newman had no right to complain if his +opponents found his reasoning disingenuous. To make up our minds first, and +to argue in favour of the decision afterwards, is in truth to make the +reason a hewer of wood and drawer of water to the irrational part of our +nature.</p> + +<p>It is precisely his sympathy with Catholicism on the religious side, and +his alienation from its intellectual method, which makes Newman's +apologetic such a two-edged weapon. In attempting to defend Catholicism, he +has gone far to explain it. To the historian, there is no great mystery +about the growth and success of the Western Catholic Church. Christianity +was already a syncretistic religion in the second century. Like the other +forms of worship with which it competed for the popular favour, it +contained the necessary elements of mystery-cult, of ethical rule, of +social brotherhood, and of personal devotion. But besides many genuine +points of superiority, it had a decisive advantage over the religions of +Isis and Mithra in the exclusiveness and intolerance which it derived from +the Jewish tradition. When the failure of the last persecution forced the +Empire to make a concordat with the Church, the transformation of the +federated but autonomous Christian communities into a centralised +theocratic despotism, claiming secular as well as spiritual sovereignty, +was only a matter of time. It was inevitable, just as the principate of +Augustus and the sultanate of Diocletian were inevitable; but there is +nothing specially divine or glorious about any of these phases of human +evolution. The revolt of Northern Europe in the sixteenth century was +equally inevitable; and so is the alienation of enlightened minds from the +Roman Church at the present day. Newman shows with great force and +ingenuity that all the developments in the Roman system which Protestantism +rejects as later accretions were natural and necessary. But this only means +that the Catholic Church, in order to live, was compelled to adapt itself +to the prevailing conditions of human culture in the countries where it +desired to be supreme. The argument, so far as it goes, tells against +rather than in favour of any special supernatural character belonging to +that institution. And if the 'orbis terrarum,' which once gave its verdict +in favour of Latin Catholicism, is now disposed to reverse its decision, +how, on Newman's principle, can its right to do so be denied? The true +reasons for the strength and vitality which the Roman Church still retains +are not difficult to find. Its system possesses an inner consistency, which +is dearly purchased by neglecting much that should enter into a large and +true view of the world, but which guarantees to those who have once +accepted it an untroubled calm and assurance very acceptable to those who +have been tossed upon a sea of doubt. It surrounds itself with an +impenetrable armour by persuading its adherents that all moral and +intellectual scruples, in matters where Holy Church has pronounced its +verdict, are suggestions of the Evil One, to be spurned like the prickings +of sensuality. It has succeeded, by long experience, in providing +satisfaction for nearly all the needs of the average man, and for all the +needs of the average woman. In particular, the æsthetic tastes which, in +Southern Europe at any rate, are closely connected with religious feeling, +are fully catered for; and those superstitions which the majority of +mankind still love in their hearts, though they are somewhat ashamed of +them, are allowed to luxuriate unchecked. Further, Catholicism encourages +and blesses that <i>esprit de corps</i> which has produced the brightest +triumphs of self-abnegation as well as the darkest crimes of cruel bigotry +in human history. A Church which unites these advantages is in no danger of +falling into insignificance, even if the best intellect and morality of the +age are estranged from it. It may even have a great future as the nucleus +of a conservative resistance to the social revolution. It is doubtful +whether those who wish to preserve the traditions and civilisation of the +past will be able to find anywhere, except in the Latin Church, an +organisation sufficiently coherent and universal to provide a rallying +ground for defence against the new barbarian invasion—proceeding this time +not from the rude nations of the North, but from the crowded alleys of our +great towns—which threatens to plunge us into a new Dark Age. The menace +of the Red Peril will secure, for a long time to come, the survival of the +Black.</p> + +<p>But the Roman Catholicism which has a future is probably that of Manning, +and not that of Newman. A Church which depends for its strength and +prestige on the iron discipline of a centralised autocracy, and on the +fanatical devotion of soldiers who know no duty except obedience, no cause +except the interests of their society, can make no terms with the +disintegrating nominalism, the uncertain subjectivism, of a mind like +Newman's. It has been the strange fate of this great man, after driving a +wedge deep into the Anglican Church, which at this day is threatened with +disruption through the movement which he helped to originate, to have +nearly succeeded in doing the same to the far more compact structure of +Roman Catholicism. The Modernist movement has from the first appealed to +Newman as its founder, and has sought to protect itself under his +authority. It is necessary to consider, as the last topic of this article, +whether this affiliation can be allowed to be true. No one who has read any +of Newman's works can doubt that he would have recoiled with horror from +the destructive criticism of Loisy, the contempt for scholastic authority +of Tyrrell, and the defiance hurled at the Papacy in the manifesto of the +Italian Modernists. Newman's doctrine of Development was far removed from +that of Bergson's 'L'Évolution Créatrice.' He defended the fact of +development against the staticism of contemporary Anglicanism; but his +notion of development was more like the unrolling of a scroll than the +growth of a tree or the expansion and change of a human character. 'Every +Catholic holds,' he says, 'that the Christian dogmas were in the Church +from the time of the Apostles; that they were ever in their substance what +they are now.' Compare this with the following words from the Italian +manifesto: 'The supernatural life of Christ in the faithful and in the +Church has been clothed in an historical form, which has given birth to +what we might somewhat loosely call the Christ of legend.... Such a +criticism does away with the possibility of finding in Christ's ministry +even the embryonic form of the Church's later theological teaching.' 'A +dogma,' says Le Roy, one of the ablest philosophers of the school, +'proclaims, above all, a prescription of practical order; it is the formula +of a rule of practical conduct. Why then should we not bring theory into +harmony with practice?'</p> + +<p>These extracts mark a much later phase of the revolt against Catholic dogma +and scholastic theology than can be found in Newman's writings. They are +contemporary with the Pragmatism of James and Schiller, and the Activism of +Bergson. So bold a defiance of tradition would have been impossible thirty +years earlier. And yet, when Newman pours scorn upon human reason, and when +he enthrones the 'conscience' as the supreme arbiter of truth, is he not, +in fact, preparing the way for these startling declarations, which imply a +complete rupture with Catholic authority? Dogmas are indisputably +'notional' propositions; that is to say, they belong to that class of +truths to which Newman ascribes only a very subordinate importance. We +cannot, in his sense,'assent' to an historical proposition as such, but +only to the authority which has ordered us to believe it. And is there any +justification for Newman's confidence that this authority may make apparent +innovations, such as he admits to have been made throughout the history of +the Church, but no real changes? If he had been able to think out the +implications of his doctrine of development with the help of such arguments +as those of Bergson, would he not have seen that without change and real +innovation there can be no true evolution? Do not the fluidity and +pragmatic character of dogma, so much insisted on by Sabatier and Le Roy, +follow from the anti-intellectualist personalism which we have seen to be +the foundation of Newman's philosophy of religion? The Modernist might +argue that he is only extending to the history of the Church the doctrine +of education by experience which Newman found to be true in the +life-history of the individual. Life itself, with its experiences and its +needs, is the revealer of truth. We cannot anticipate the wisdom of the +future.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i18">'I do not ask to see<br /></span> +<span>The distant scene; one step enough for me.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The kindly light leads a man on step by step; it conducts him from +experience to experience, not without lapses into error; it reproves him if +he desires to 'choose and see his path.' If this is true in the history of +the individual, is it not probably also true in the history of the Church? +And if it is true in the history of the Church, are not the dogmatists +wrong who have tried to legislate not only for the present but the future, +and to bind the Church for all time to the formulations which appeared +satisfactory to themselves? If Providence is leading the Church through +varied experiences in order to teach it greater wisdom, is it not clear +that we must not rashly preclude the possibility of future revelation by +stereotyping the results of some earlier stage of experience? Thus the +empiricism of Newman leads logically to consequences which he would have +been among the first to reject.</p> + +<p>Some rather shallow thinkers in this country have expressed their surprise +and regret that the Vatican has refused to make any terms with Modernism. +They have supposed that the fault lies with an ignorant and reactionary +Pope. But there are many reasons why this dangerous and disintegrating +tendency must be rigorously excluded from Roman Catholicism. In the first +place, Modernism destroys the historical basis of Christianity, and +converts the Incarnation and Atonement into myths like those of other dying +and rising saviour-gods, which hardly pretend to be historical. But it was +this foundation in history which helped largely to secure the triumph of +Christianity over its rivals. In the place of the historical God-Man, +Modernism gives us the history of the Church as an object of reverence. We +are bidden to contemplate an institution of amazingly tough vitality but +great adaptability, which in its determination to survive has not only +changed colour like a chameleon but has from time to time put forth new +organs and discovered new weapons of offence and defence. We ask for +evidence that the Church has regenerated the world; and we are shown how, +by hook or by crook, it has succeeded in safeguarding its own interests. +Ecclesiastical historians are ingenious and unscrupulous; but it is +impossible even for them to exhibit Church history as the record of a +continuous intervention of the Spirit of Christ in human affairs. If any +Spirit has presided over the councils of popes, cardinals, and inquisitors +it is not that of the Founder of Christianity.</p> + +<p>Further, the religious philosophy of Modernism is bad, much worse than the +scholasticism which it derides. It is in essentials a revival of the +sophistry of Protagoras. And if it were metaphysically more respectable +than it is, it is so widely opposed to the whole system of Catholic +apologetics, that if it were accepted, it would necessitate a complete +reconstruction of Catholic dogma. Let any man read the Stonyhurst manuals, +and say whether the radical empiricism of the Modernists could find a +lodgment anywhere in such a system without disturbing the stability of the +whole. Catholicism is one of the most compact structures in the world, and +it rests on presuppositions which are far removed from those of Modernism. +It is one thing to admit that dogmas in many cases have a pragmatic origin, +and quite another to say that they may be invented or rejected with a +pragmatic purpose. The healthy human intellect will never believe that the +same proposition may be true for faith and untrue in fact; but this is the +Modernist contention.</p> + +<p>Lastly, the subjectivism of Newman and the Modernists is fatal to that +exclusiveness which is the corner-stone of Catholic policy. The analogy +between the individual and the Church suggests that God may 'fulfil Himself +in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world.' As there are +many individuals, each of whom is being guided separately by the 'kindly +light,' so there may be many churches. The pragmatic proof of the truth of +a religion, from the fact of its survival and successful working, does not +justify the Roman claim to monopoly. The Protestant churches also display +vitality, and their members seem to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit. The +condemnations of Modernism published by the Vatican show that the Papal +court is quite alive to this danger. To the outsider, indeed, it might seem +a happy solution of a long controversy if the Roman Church would be content +to claim the gifts of grace which are really hers, without denying the +validity of the Orders and Sacraments of other bodies, and the genuineness +of the Christian graces which they exhibit. It would then be admitted on +all hands that some temperaments are more suited to Catholicism, others to +Protestantism, and that the character of each man develops most +satisfactorily under the discipline which suits his nature. But we must not +expect any such concession from Rome; and in truth such an admission would +be the beginning of the end for Catholicism in its present form.</p> + +<p>Our conclusion then is that although Newman was not a Modernist, but an +exceedingly stiff conservative, he did introduce into the Roman Church a +very dangerous and essentially alien habit of thought, which has since +developed into Modernism. Perhaps Monsignor Talbot was not far wrong, from +his own point of view, when he called him 'the most dangerous man in +England.' One side of his religion was based on principles which, when +logically drawn out, must lead away from Catholicism in the direction of an +individualistic religion of experience, and a substitution of history for +dogma which makes all truth relative and all values fluid. Newman's +writings have always made genuine Catholics uneasy, though they hardly know +why. It is probable that here is the solution.</p> + +<p>The character of Newman—for with this we must end—may seem to have been +more admirable than lovable. He was more apt to make disciples than +friends. Yet he was loved and honoured by men whose love is an honour, and +he is admired by all who can appreciate a consistently unworldly life. The +Roman Church has been less unpopular in England since Newman received from +it the highest honour which it can bestow. Throughout his career he was a +steadfast witness against tepid and insincere professions of religion, and +against any compromise with the shifting currents of popular opinion. All +cultivated readers, who have formed their tastes on the masterpieces of +good literature, are attracted, sometimes against their will, by the +dignity and reserve of his style, qualities which belong to the man, and +not only to the writer. Like Goethe, he disdains the facile arts which make +the commonplace reader laugh and weep. 'Ach die zärtlichen Herzen! ein +Pfuscher vermag sie zu rühren!' Like Wordsworth, he might say 'To stir the +blood I have no cunning art.' There are no cheap effects in any of Newman's +writings. He is the most undemocratic of teachers. Such men do what can be +done to save a nation from itself, its natural enemy. They are not +indifferent to fame, because they desire influence; but they will do +nothing to advertise themselves. The public must come to them; they will +not go to the public. There have been other great men who have been as +indifferent as Newman to the applause of the vulgar. But they have been +generally either pure intellectualists or pure artists, in whom</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'The intellectual power through words and things<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Went sounding on a dim and perilous way.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Newman's 'confidence towards God' was of a still nobler kind. It rested on +an unclouded faith in the Divine guidance, and on a very just estimate of +the worthlessness of contemporary praise and blame. There have been very +few men who have been able to combine so strong a faith with a thorough +distrust of both logic-chopping and emotional excitement, and who, while +denying themselves these aids to conviction, have been able to say, calmly +and without petulance, that with them it is a very small thing to be judged +of man's judgment.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'What (he asks) can increase their peace who believe and + trust in the Son of God? Shall we add a drop to the ocean, + or grains to the sand of the sea? We pay indeed our + superiors full reverence, and with cheerfulness as unto the + Lord; and we honour eminent talents as deserving admiration + and reward; and the more readily act we thus, because these + are little things to pay.'<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89" /><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> </p></div> + +<p>Such unworldliness as this, in the well-chosen words of R.H. Hutton, +'stands out in strange and almost majestic contrast to the eager turmoil of +confused passions, hesitating ideals, tentative virtues, and groping +philanthropies, amidst which it was lived.'</p> + +<p>Another mark of greatness is unbroken consistency and unity of aim in a +long life. There are few parallels to the neglect of his own literary +reputation by Newman. Higher interests, he thought, were at stake; and so +he had no dream of building for himself 'a monument more durable than +brass,' and of claiming a pedestal among the great writers of English prose +and verse. He accepted long years of literary barrenness; he wrote +historical essays for which he had no special aptitude, and dogmatic +disquisitions which even his genius could not save from dulness; he even +descended into mere journalism. The 'Apologia' would probably not have been +written but for the accident of Kingsley's attack. It has, no doubt, been +said with truth that Newman showed great dexterity in choosing opponents +with whom to cross swords—Kingsley, Pusey, Gladstone, and his old +Anglican self. But this does not alter the fact that a man who must have +been conscious of rare literary gifts made no attempt to immortalise +himself by them. It was for the Church, and not for himself, that he wrote +as well as lived.</p> + +<p>That his life is for the most part a record of sadness and failure is no +indication that he was not one of the great men of his time. Independence +is no passport to success in a world where, as Swift said, climbing and +crawling are performed in much the same attitude. And if we are right in +our view that there was something in the composition of his mind which +prevented him from being either a complete Catholic or a complete +Protestant, this too is no obstacle to our recognition of his greatness. He +has left an indelible mark upon two great religious bodies. He has stirred +movements which still agitate the Church of England and the Church of Rome, +and the end of which is not yet in sight. Anglo-Catholicism and Modernism +are alien growths, perhaps, in the institutions where they have found a +place; but the man who beyond all others is responsible for grafting them +upon the old stems is secure of his place in history.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82" /><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Cf. e. <i>Parochial and Plain Sermons</i>, vi. 259.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83" /><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Mark Pattison, <i>Memoirs</i>, p. 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84" /><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> <i>Stray Essays</i>, p. 94.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85" /><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> <i>Parochial and Plain Sermons</i>, v. 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86" /><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>. vi. 259.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87" /><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> <i>Ibid</i>. vi. 340.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88" /><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> <i>Grammar of Assent</i>, part i. c. 1 and 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89" /><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> <i>Parochial and Plain Sermons</i>, vii. 73.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ST_PAUL" id="ST_PAUL" />ST. PAUL</h2> + +<h3>(1914)</h3> + + +<p>Among all the great men of antiquity there is none, with the exception of +Cicero, whom we may know so intimately as Saul of Tarsus. The main facts of +his career have been recorded by a contemporary, who was probably his +friend and travelling companion. A collection of letters, addressed to the +little religious communities which he founded, reveals the character of the +writer no less than the nature of his work. Alone among the first preachers +of Christianity, he stands before us as a living man. Οἱοϛ +πἑπνυται, τοι δε +σκιαι ἁἱσσουσι. +We know very little in reality of Peter and James and John, of Apollos and +Barnabas. And of our divine Master no biography can ever be written.</p> + +<p>With St. Paul it is quite different. He is a saint without a luminous halo. +His personal characteristics are too distinct and too human to make +idealisation easy. For this reason he has never been the object of popular +devotion. Shadowy figures like St. Joseph and St. Anne have been divinised +and surrounded with picturesque legends; but St. Paul has been spared the +honour or the ignominy of being coaxed and wheedled by the piety of +paganised Christianity. No tender fairy-tales are attached to his cult; he +remains for us what he was in the flesh. It is even possible to feel an +active dislike for him. Lagarde ('Deutsche Schriften,' p. 71) abuses him as +a politician might vilify an opponent. 'It is monstrous' (says he) 'that +men of any historical training should attach any importance to this Paul. +This outsider was a Pharisee from top to toe even after he became a +Christian'—and much more to the same effect. Nietzsche describes him as +'one of the most ambitious of men, whose superstition was only equalled by +his cunning. A much tortured, much to be pitied man, an exceedingly +unpleasant person both to himself and to others.... He had a great deal on +his conscience. He alludes to enmity, murder, sorcery, idolatry, impurity, +drunkenness, and the love of carousing.' Renan, who could never have made +himself ridiculous by such ebullitions as these, does not disguise his +repugnance for the 'ugly little Jew' whose character he can neither +understand nor admire. These outbursts of personal animosity, so strange in +modern critics dealing with a personage of ancient history, show how +vividly his figure stands out from the canvas. There are very few +historical characters who are alive enough to be hated.</p> + +<p>It is, however, only in our own day that the personal characteristics of +St. Paul have been intelligently studied; and the most valuable books about +him are later than the unbalanced tirades of Lagarde and Nietzsche, and the +carping estimate of Renan. In the nineteenth century, Paul was obscured +behind Paulinism. His letters were studied as treatises on systematic +theology. Elaborate theories of atonement, justification, and grace were +expounded on his authority, as if he had been a religious philosopher or +theological professor like Origen and Thomas Aquinas. The name of the +apostle came to be associated with angular and frigid disquisitions which +were rapidly losing their connexion with vital religion. It has been left +for the scholars of the present century to give us a picture of St. Paul as +he really was—a man much nearer to George Fox or John Wesley than to +Origen or Calvin; the greatest of missionaries and pioneers, and only +incidentally a great theologian. The critical study of the New Testament +has opened our eyes to see this and many other things. Much new light has +also been thrown by studies in the historical geography of Asia Minor, a +work in which British scholars have characteristically taken a prominent +part. The delightful books of Sir W.M. Ramsay have now been supplemented +by the equally attractive volume of another travelling scholar, Professor +Deissmann. A third source of new information is the mass of inscriptions +and papyri which have been discovered in the last twenty years. The social +life of the middle and lower classes in the Levant, their religious beliefs +and practices, and the language which they spoke, are now partially known +to us, as they never were before. The human interest of the Pauline +Epistles, and of the Acts, is largely increased by these accessions to +knowledge.</p> + +<p>The Epistles are real letters, not treatises by a theological professor, +nor literary productions like the Epistles of Seneca. Each was written with +reference to a definite situation; they are messages which would have been +delivered orally had the Apostle been present. Several letters have +certainly been lost; and St. Paul would probably not have cared much to +preserve them. There is no evidence that he ever thought of adding to the +Canon of Scripture by his correspondence. The Author of Acts seems not to +have read any of the letters. This view of the Epistles has rehabilitated +some of them, which were regarded as spurious by the Tübingen school and +their successors. The question which we now ask when the authenticity of an +Epistle is doubted is, Do we find the same man? not, Do we find the same +system? There is, properly speaking, no system in St. Paul's theology, and +there is a singularly rapid development of thought. The 'Pastoral Epistles' +are probably not genuine, though the defence of them is not quite a +desperate undertaking. Of the rest, the weight of evidence is slightly +against the Pauline authorship of Ephesians, the vocabulary of which +differs considerably from that of the undoubted Epistles; and the short +letter called 2 Thessalonians is open to some suspicion. The genuineness of +Ephesians is not of great importance to the student of Pauline theology, +unless the closely allied Epistle to the Colossians is also rejected; and +there has been a remarkable return of confidence in the Pauline authorship +of this letter. All the other Epistles seem to be firmly established.</p> + +<p>The other source of information about St. Paul's life is the Acts of the +Apostles, the value of which as a historical document is very variously +estimated. The doubts refer mainly to the earlier chapters, before St. Paul +appears on the scene. Sane criticism can hardly dispute that the +'we-passages,' in which the writer speaks of St. Paul and himself in the +first person plural, are the work of an eye-witness, and that most of the +important facts in the later chapters are from the same source. The +difficult problem is concerned with the relation of this writer to the +editor, who is responsible for the 'Petrine' part of the book. There is +very much to be said in favour of the tradition that this editor, who also +compiled the Third Gospel, was Lucas or Lucanus, the physician and friend +of St. Paul. It does not necessarily follow that he was the +fellow-traveller who in a few places speaks of himself in the first person. +Luke (if we may decide the question for ourselves by giving him this name) +must have been a man of very attractive character; full of kindness, +loyalty, and Christian charity. He is the most feminine (not effeminate) +writer in the New Testament, and shows a marked partiality for the tender +aspects of Christianity. He is attracted by miracles, and by all that makes +history picturesque and romantic. His social sympathies are so keen that +his gospel furnishes the Christian socialist with nearly all his favourite +texts. Above all, he is a Greek man of letters, dominated by the +conventions of Greek historical composition. For the Greek, history was a +work of art, written for edification, and not merely a bald record of +facts. The Greek historian invented speeches for his principal characters; +this was a conventional way of elucidating the situation for the benefit of +his readers. Everyone knows how Thucydides, the most conscientious +historian in antiquity, habitually uses this device, and how candidly he +explains his method. We can hardly doubt that the author of Acts has used a +similar freedom, though the report of the address to the elders of Ephesus +reads like a summary of an actual speech. The narrative is coloured in +places by the historian's love for the miraculous. Critics have also +suspected an eirenical purpose in his treatment of the relations between +St. Paul and the Jerusalem Church.</p> + +<p>Saul of Tarsus was a Benjamite of pure Israelite descent, but also a Roman +citizen by birth. His famous old Jewish name was Latinised or Graecised as +Paulos (Σαὑλοϛ means 'waddling,' and would have been a +ridiculous name); he doubtless bore both names from boyhood. Tarsus is +situated in the plain of Cilicia, and is now about ten miles from the sea. +It is backed by a range of hills, on which the wealthier residents had +villas, while the high glens of Taurus, nine or ten miles further inland, +provided a summer residence for those who could afford it, and a fortified +acropolis in time of war. The town on the plain must have been almost +intolerable in the fierce Anatolian summer-heat. The harbour was a lake +formed by the Cydnus, five or six miles below Tarsus; but light ships could +sail up the river into the heart of the city. Thus Tarsus had the +advantages of a maritime town, though far enough from the sea to be safe +from pirates. The famous pass called the 'Cilician Gates' was traversed by +a high-road through the gorge into Cappadocia. Ionian colonists came to +Tarsus in very early times; and Ramsay is confident that Tarshish, 'the son +of Javan,' in Gen. x. 4, is none other than Tarsus. The Greek settlers, of +course, mixed with the natives, and the Oriental element gradually swamped +the Hellenic. The coins of Tarsus show Greek figures and Aramaic lettering. +The principal deity was Baal-Tarz, whose effigy appears on most of the +coins. Under the successors of Alexander, Greek influence revived, but the +administration continued to be of the Oriental type; and Tarsus never +became a Greek city, until in the first half of the second century B.C. it +proclaimed its own autonomy, and renamed itself Antioch-on-Cydnus. Great +privileges were granted it by Antiochus Epiphanes, and it rapidly grew in +wealth and importance. Besides the Greeks, there was a large colony of +Jews, who always established themselves on the highways of the world's +commerce. Since St. Paul was a 'citizen' of Tarsus, i.e. a member of one +of the 'Tribes' into which the citizens were divided, it is probable (so +Ramsay argues) that there was a large 'Tribe' of Jews at Tarsus; for no Jew +would have been admitted into, or would have consented to join, a Greek +Tribe, with its pagan cult.</p> + +<p>So matters stood when Cilicia became a Roman Province in 104 B.C. The city +fell into the hands of the barbarian Tigranes twenty years later, but +Gnaeus Pompeius re-established the Roman power, and with it the dominance +of Hellenism, in 63. Augustus turned Cilicia into a mere adjunct of Syria; +and the pride of Tarsus received a check. Nevertheless, the Emperor showed +great favour to the Tarsians, who had sided with Julius and himself in the +civil wars. Tarsus was made a 'libera civitas,' with the right to live +under its own laws. The leading citizens were doubtless given the Roman +citizenship, or allowed to purchase it. Among these would naturally be a +number of Jews, for that nation loved Julius Cæsar and detested Pompeius. +But Hellenism could not retain its hold on Tarsus. Dion Chrysostom, who +visited it at the beginning of the second century A.D., found it a +thoroughly Oriental town, and notes that the women were closely veiled in +Eastern fashion. Possibly this accounts for St. Paul's prejudice against +unveiled women in church. One Greek institution, however, survived and +flourished—a university under municipal patronage. Strabo speaks with high +admiration of the zeal for learning displayed by the Tarsians, who formed +the entire audience at the professors' lectures, since no students came +from outside. This last fact shows, perhaps, that the lecturers were not +men of wide reputation; indeed, it is not likely that Tarsus was able to +compete with Athens and Alexandria in attracting famous teachers. The most +eminent Tarsians, such as Antipater the Stoic, went to Europe and taught +there. What distinguished Tarsus was its love of learning, widely diffused +in all classes of the population.</p> + +<p>St. Paul did not belong to the upper class. He was a working artisan, a +'tent-maker,' who followed one of the regular trades of the place. Perhaps, +as Deissmann thinks, the 'large letters' of Gal. vi. 11 imply that he +wrote clumsily, like a working man and not like a scribe. The words +indicate that he usually dictated his letters. The 'Acts of Paul and +Thekla' describe him as short and bald, with a hook-nose and beetling +brows; there is nothing improbable in this description. But he was far +better educated than the modern artisan. Not that a single quotation from +Menander (1 Cor. xv. 33) shows him to be a good Greek scholar; an +Englishman may quote 'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin' +without being a Shakespearean. But he was well educated because he was the +son of a strict Jew. A child in such a home would learn by heart large +pieces of the Old Testament, and, at the Synagogue school, all the +<i>minutiæ</i> of the Jewish Law. The pupil was not allowed to write anything +down; all was committed to the memory, which in consequence became +extremely retentive. The perfect pupil 'lost not a drop from his teacher's +cistern.' At the age of about fourteen the boy would be sent to Jerusalem, +to study under one of the great Rabbis; in St. Paul's case it was Gamaliel. +Under his tuition the young Pharisee would learn to be a 'strong +Churchman.' The Rabbis viewed everything from an ecclesiastical standpoint. +The interests of the Priesthood, the Altar, and the Temple overshadowed +everything else. The Priestly Code, says Mr. Cohu, practically resolves +itself into one idea: Everything in Israel belongs to God; all places, all +times, all persons, and all property are His. But God accepts a part of His +due; and, if this part is scrupulously paid, He will send His blessing upon +the remainder. Besides the written law, the Pharisee had to take on himself +the still heavier burden of the oral law, which was equally binding. It was +a seminary education of the most rigorous kind. St Paul cannot reproach +himself with any slackness during his novitiate. He threw himself into the +system with characteristic ardour. Probably he meant to be a Jerusalem +Rabbi himself, still practising his trade, as the Rabbis usually did. For +he was unmarried; and every Jew except a Rabbi was expected to marry at or +before the age of twenty-one.</p> + +<p>He suffered from some obscure physical trouble, the nature of which we can +only guess. It was probably epilepsy, a disease which is compatible with +great powers of endurance and great mental energy, as is proved by the +cases of Julius Cæsar and Napoleon. He was liable to mystical trances, in +which some have found a confirmation of the supposition that he was +epileptic. But these abnormal states were rare with him; in writing to the +Galatians he has to go back fourteen years to the date when he was 'caught +up into the third heaven,' The visions and voices which attended his active +ministry prove nothing about his health. At that time anyone who underwent +a psychical experience for which he could not account believed that he was +possessed by a spirit, good or bad. It is significant that Tertullian, at +the end of the second century, says that 'almost the majority of mankind +derive their knowledge of God from visions.' The impression that St. Paul +makes upon us is that of a man full of nervous energy and able to endure an +exceptional amount of privation and hardship. A curious indication, which +has not been noticed, is that, as he tells us himself, he five times +received the maximum number of lashes from Jewish tribunals. These +floggings in the Synagogues were very severe, the operator being required +to lay on with his full strength. There is evidence that in most cases a +much smaller number of strokes than the full thirty-nine was inflicted, so +as not to endanger the life of the culprit. The other trials which he +mentions—three Roman scourgings, one stoning, a day and night spent in +battling with the waves after shipwreck, would have worn out any +constitution not exceptionally tough.</p> + +<p>We must bear in mind this terrible record of suffering if we wish to +estimate fairly the character of the man. During his whole life after his +conversion he was exposed not only to the hardships of travel, sometimes in +half-civilised districts, but to 'all the cruelty of the fanaticism which +rages like a consuming fire through the religious history of the East from +the slaughter of Baal's priests to the slaughter of St. Stephen, and from +the butcheries of Jews at Alexandria under Caligula to the massacres of +Christians at Adana, Tarsus, and Antioch in the year 1909 '—(Deissmann). +It is one evil result of such furious bigotry that it kindles hatred and +resentment in its victims, and tempts them to reprisals. St. Paul does +speak bitterly of his opponents, though chiefly when he finds that they +have injured his converts, as in the letter to the Galatians. Modern +critics have exaggerated this element in a character which does not seem to +have been fierce or implacable. He writes like a man engaged in a stern +conflict against enemies who will give no quarter, and who shrink from no +treachery. But the sharpest expression that can be laid to his charge is +the impatient, perhaps half humorous wish that the Judaisers who want to +circumcise the Galatians might be subjected to a severer operation +themselves (Gal. v. 12). The dominant impression that he makes upon us is +that he was cast in a heroic mould. He is serenely indifferent to criticism +and calumny; no power on earth can turn him from his purpose. He has made +once for all a complete sacrifice of all earthly joys and all earthly ties; +he has broken (he, the devout Jewish Catholic) with his Church and braved +her thunders; he has faced the opprobrium of being called traitor, heretic, +and apostate; he has 'withstood to the face' the Palestinian apostles who +were chosen by Jesus and held His commission; he has set his face to +achieve, almost single-handed, the conquest of the Roman Empire, a thing +never dreamed of by the Jerusalem Church; he is absolutely indifferent +whether his mission will cost him his life, or only involve a continuation +of almost intolerable hardship. It is this indomitable courage, complete +self-sacrifice, and single-minded devotion to a magnificently audacious but +not impracticable idea, which constitute the greatness of St. Paul's +character. He was, with all this, a warm-hearted and affectionate man, as +he proves abundantly by the tone of his letters. His personal religion was, +in essence, a pure mysticism; one worships a Christ whom he has experienced +as a living presence in his soul. The mystic who is also a man of action, +and a man of action because he is a mystic, wields a tremendous power over +other men. He is like an invulnerable knight, fighting in magic armour.</p> + +<p>It is an interesting and difficult question whether we should regard the +intense moral dualism of the Epistle to the Romans as a confession that the +writer has had an unusually severe personal battle with temptation. The +moral struggle certainly assumes a more tragic aspect in these passages +than in the experience of many saintly characters. We find something like +it in Augustine, and again in Luther; it may even be suggested that these +great men have stamped upon the Christian tradition the idea of a harsher +'clash of yes and no' than the normal experience of the moral life can +justify. But it is not certain that the first person singular in such +verses as 'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of +death?' is a personal confession at all. It may be for human nature +generally that he is speaking, when he gives utterance to that +consciousness of sin which was one of the most distinctive parts of the +Christian religion from the first. It does not seem likely that a man of so +lofty and heroic a character was ever seriously troubled with ignominious +temptations. That he yielded to them, as Nietzsche and others have +suggested, is in the highest degree improbable. Even if the self-reproaches +were uttered in his own person, we have many other instances of saints who +have blamed themselves passionately for what ordinary men would consider +slight transgressions. Of all the Epistles, the Second to the Corinthians +is the one which contains the most intimate self-revelations, and few can +read it without loving as well as honouring its author.</p> + +<p>We know nothing of the Apostle's residence at Jerusalem except the name of +his teacher. But it was at this time that he became steeped in the +Pharisaic doctrines which loamed the framework in which his earlier +Christian beliefs were set. It is now recognised that Pharisaism, far from +being the antipodes of Christianity, was rather the quarter where the +Gospel found its best recruits. The Pharisaic school contained the greater +part of whatever faith, loyalty and piety remained among the Jewish +people; and its dogmatic system passed almost entire into the earliest +Christian Church, with the momentous addition that Jesus was the Messiah. A +few words on the Pharisaic teaching which St. Paul must have imbibed from +Gamaliel are indispensable even in an article which deals with Paul, and +not with Paulinism.</p> + +<p>The distinctive feature of the Jewish religion is not, as is often +supposed, its monotheism, Hebrew religion in its golden age was monolatry +rather than monotheism; and when Jahveh became more strictly 'the only +God,' the cult of intermediate beings came in, and restored a +quasi-polytheism. The distinctive feature in Jewish faith is its historical +and teleological character. The God of the Jew is not natural law. If the +idea of necessary causation ever forced itself upon his mind, he at once +gave it the form of predestination. The whole of history is an unfolding of +the divine purpose; and so history as a whole has for the Jew an importance +which it never had for a Greek thinker, nor for the Hellenised Jew Philo. +The Hebrew idea of God is dynamic and ethical; it is therefore rooted in +the idea of Time. The Pharisaic school modified this prophetic teaching in +two ways. It became more spiritual; anthropomorphisms were removed, and the +transcendence of God above the world was more strictly maintained. On the +other hand, the religious relationship became in their hands narrower and +more external. The notion of a covenant was defined more rigorously; the +Law was practically exalted above God, so that the Rabbis even represent +the Deity as studying the Law. With this legalism went a spirit of intense +exclusiveness and narrow ecclesiasticism. As God was raised above direct +contact with men, the old animistic belief in angels and demons, which had +lasted on in the popular mind by the side of the worship of Jahveh, was +extended in a new way. A celestial hierarchy was invented, with names, and +an infernal hierarchy too; the malevolent ghosts of animism became fallen +angels. Satan, who in Job is the crown-prosecutor, one of God's retinue, +becomes God's adversary; and the angels, formerly manifestations of God +Himself, are now quite separated from Him. A supramundane physics or +cosmology was evolved at the same time. Above Zion, the centre of the +earth, rise seven heavens, in the highest of which the Deity has His +throne. The underworld is now first divided into Paradise and Gehenna. The +doctrine of the fall of man, through his participation in the +representative guilt of his first parents, is Pharisaic; as is the strange +legend, which St. Paul seems to have believed (2 Cor. xi. 3), that the +Serpent carnally seduced Eve, and so infected the race with spiritual +poison. Justification, in Pharisaism as for St. Paul, means the verdict of +acquittal. The bad receive in this life the reward for any small merits +which they may possess; the sins of the good must be atoned for; but +merits, as in Roman Catholicism, may be stored and transferred. Martyrdoms +especially augment the spiritual bank-balance of the whole nation. There +was no official Messianic doctrine, only a mass of vague fancies and +beliefs, grouped round the central idea of the appearance on earth of a +supernatural Being, who should establish a theocracy of some kind at +Jerusalem. The righteous dead will be raised to take part in this kingdom. +The course of the world is thus divided into two epochs—'this age' and +'the age to come.' A catastrophe will end the former and inaugurate the +latter. The promised deliverer is now waiting in heaven with God, until his +hour comes; and it will come very soon. All this St. Paul must have learned +from Gamaliel. It formed the framework of his theology as a Christian for +many years after his conversion, and was only partially thrown off, under +the influence of mystical experience and of Greek ideas, during the period +covered by the letters. The lore of good and bad spirits (the latter are +'the princes of this world' in I Cor. ii. 6, 8) pervades the Epistles more +than modern readers are willing to admit. It is part of the heritage of the +Pharisaic school.</p> + +<p>It is very unlikely (in spite of Johannes Weiss) that St. Paul ever saw +Jesus in the flesh. But he did come in contact with the little Christian +community at Jerusalem. These disciples at first attempted to live as +strict members of the Jewish Church. They knew that the coming Messiah was +their crucified Master, but this belief involved no rupture with Judaism. +So at least they thought themselves; the Sanhedrin saw more clearly what +the new movement meant. The crisis came when numerous 'Hellenists' attached +themselves to the Church—Jews of the Dispersion, from Syria, Egypt, and +elsewhere. A threatened rupture between these and the Palestinian +Christians was averted by the appointment of seven deacons or charity +commissioners, among whom Stephen soon became prominent by the dangerously +'liberal' character of his teaching. Philo gives important testimony to the +existence of a 'liberal' school among the Jews of the Dispersion, who, +under pretext of spiritualising the traditional law, left off keeping the +Sabbath and the great festivals, and even dispensed with the rite of +circumcision. Thus the admission of Gentiles on very easy terms into the +Church was no new idea to the Palestinian Jews; it was known to them as +part of the shocking laxity which prevailed among their brethren of the +Dispersion. With Stephen, this kind of liberalism seemed to have entered +the group of 'disciples.' He was accused of saying that Jesus was to +destroy the temple and change the customs of Moses. In his bold defence he +admitted that in his view the Law was valid only for a limited period, +which would expire so soon as Jesus returned as Messiah. This was quite +enough for the Sanhedrin. They stoned Stephen, and compelled the +'disciples' to disperse and fly for their lives. Only the Apostles, whose +devotion to the Law was well known, were allowed to remain. This last fact, +briefly recorded in Acts, is important as an indication that the +persecution was directed only against the liberalising Christians, and that +these were the great majority. Saul, it seems, had no quarrel with the +Twelve; his hatred and fanaticism were aroused against a sect of Hellenist +Jews who openly proclaimed that the Law had been abrogated in advance by +their Master, who, as Saul observed with horror, had incurred the curse of +the Law by dying on a gibbet. All the Pharisee in him was revolted; and he +led the savage heretic-hunt which followed the execution of Stephen.</p> + +<p>What caused the sudden change which so astonished the survivors among his +victims? To suppose that nothing prepared for the vision near Damascus, +that the apparition in the sky was a mere 'bolt from the blue,' is an +impossible theory. The best explanation is furnished by a study of the +Apostle's character, which we really know very well. The author of the +Epistles was certainly not a man who could watch a young saint being +battered to death by howling fanatics, and feel no emotion. Stephen's +speech may have made him indignant; his heroic death, the very ideal of a +martyrdom, must have awakened very different feelings. An undercurrent of +dissatisfaction, almost of disgust, at the arid and unspiritual seminary +teaching of the Pharisees now surged up and came very near the surface. His +bigotry sustained him as a persecutor for a few weeks more; but how if he +could himself see what the dying Stephen said that he saw? Would not that +be a welcome liberation? The vision came in the desert, where men see +visions and hear voices to this day. They were very common in the desert of +Gobi when Marco Polo traversed it. 'The Spirit of Jesus,' as he came to +call it, spoke to his heart, and the form of Jesus flashed before his eyes. +Stephen had been right; the Crucified was indeed the Lord from heaven. So +Saul became a Christian; and it was to the Christianity of Stephen, not to +that of James the Lord's brother, that he was converted. The Pharisee in +him was killed.</p> + +<p>The travelling missionary was as familiar a figure in the Levant as the +travelling lecturer on philosophy. The Greek language brought all +nationalities together. The Hellenising of the East had gone on steadily +since the conquests of Alexander; and Greek was already as useful as Latin +in many parts of the West. A century later, Marcus Aurelius wrote his +Confessions in Greek; and even in the middle of the third century, when the +tide was beginning to turn in favour of Latin, Plotinus lectured in Greek +at Rome. Christianity, within a few years after the Crucifixion, had allied +itself definitely with the speech, and therefore inevitably with the +spirit, of Hellenism. At no time since have travel and trade been so free +between the West of Europe and the West of Asia. A Phrygian merchant +(according to the inscription on his tomb) made seventy-two journeys to +Rome in the course of his business-life. The decomposition of +nationalities, and the destruction of civic exclusiveness, led naturally to +the formation of voluntary associations of all kinds, from religious sects +to trade unions; sometimes a single association combined these two +functions. The Oriental religions appealed strongly to the unprivileged +classes, among which genuine religious faith was growing, while the +official cults of the Roman Empire were unsatisfying in themselves and +associated with tyranny. The attempt of Augustus to resuscitate the old +religion was artificial and unfruitful. The living movement was towards a +syncretism of religious ideas and practices, all of which came from the +Eastern provinces and beyond them. The prominent features in this new +devotion were the removal of the supreme Godhead from the world to a +transcendental sphere; contempt for the world and ascetic abnegation of +'the flesh'; a longing for healing and redemption, and a close +identification of salvation with individual immortality; and, finally, +trust in sacraments ('mysteries,' in Greek) as indispensable means of grace +or redemption. This was the Paganism with which Christianity had to reckon, +as well as with the official cult and its guardians. The established church +it conquered and destroyed; the living syncretistic beliefs it cleansed, +simplified, and disciplined, but only absorbed by becoming itself a +syncretistic religion. But besides Christians and Pagans, there were the +Jews, dispersed over the whole Empire. There were at least a million in +Egypt, a country which St. Paul, for reasons unknown to us, left severely +alone; there were still more in Syria, and perhaps five millions in the +whole Empire. In spite of the fecundity of Jewish women, so much emphasised +by Seeck in his history of the Downfall of the Ancient World, it is +impossible that the Hebrew stock should have multiplied to this extent. +There must have been a very large number of converts, who were admitted, +sometimes without circumcision, on their profession of monotheism and +acceptance of the Jewish moral code. The majority of these remained in the +class technically called 'God-fearers,' who never took upon themselves the +whole yoke of the Law. These half-Jews were the most promising field for +Christian missionaries; and nothing exasperated the Jews more than to see +St. Paul fishing so successfully in their waters. The spirit of +propagandism almost disappeared from Judaism after the middle of the second +century. Judaism shrank again into a purely Eastern religion, and renounced +the dangerous compromise with Western ideas. The labours of St. Paul made +an all-important parting of the ways. Their result was that Christianity +became a European religion, while Judaism fell back upon its old +traditions.</p> + +<p>It is very unfortunate that we have no thoroughly trustworthy records of +the Apostle's earlier mission preaching. The Epistles only cover a period +of about ten years; and the rapid development of thought which can be +traced during this short time prevents us from assuming that his earlier +teaching closely resembled that which we find in the Letters. But if, +during the earlier period, he devoted his attention mainly to those who +were already under Jewish influence, we may be sure that he spoke much of +the Messiahship of Jesus, and of His approaching return, these being the +chief articles of faith in Judaic Christianity. This was, however, only the +framework. What attracted converts was really the historical picture of the +life of Jesus; his message of love and brotherhood, which they found +realised in the little communities of believers; and the abolition of all +external barriers between human beings, such as social position, race, and +sex, which had undoubtedly been proclaimed by the Founder, and contained +implicitly the promise of an universal religion. We can infer what the +manner of his preaching was from the style of the letters, which were +probably dictated like extempore addresses, without much preparation. He +was no trained orator, and he thoroughly disdained the arts of the +rhetorician. His Greek, though vigorous and effective, is neither correct +nor elegant. His eloquence is of the kind which proceeds from intense +conviction, and from a thorough knowledge of Old Testament prophecy and +psalmody—no bad preparation for a religious teacher. If at times he argued +like a Rabbi, these frigid debates were as acceptable to ancient Jews as +they are to modern Scotsmen. And when he takes fire, as he deals with some +vital truth which he has lived as well as learned and taught, he +establishes his right to be called what he never aimed at being—a writer +of genius. Such passages as 1 Cor. xiii., Phil, ii., Rom. viii., rank among +the finest compositions in later Greek literature. Regarded merely as a +piece of poetical prose, 1 Cor. xiii. is finer than anything that had been +written in the Greek language since the great Attic prose-writers. And if +this was dictated impromptu, similar outbursts of splendid eloquence were +probably frequent in his mission-preaching. Their effect must have been +overwhelming, when reinforced by the flashing eye of the speaker, and by +the absolute sincerity which none could doubt who saw his face and figure, +furrowed by toil and scarred by torture.</p> + +<p>In addressing the Gentiles, we may assume that he followed the customary +Jewish line of apologetic, denouncing the folly of idolatry—an aid to +worship which is quite innocent and natural in some peoples, but which the +Jews never understood; that he spoke much of judgment to come; and +especially that he contrasted the pure and affectionate social life of the +Christian brotherhood with the licentiousness, cruelty, injustice, +oppression, and mutual suspicion of Pagan society. This argument probably +struck home in very many 'Gentile' hearts. The old civilisation, with all +the brilliant qualities which make many moderns regret its destruction, +rested on too narrow a base. The woman and the slave were left out, the +woman especially by the Greeks, and the slave by the Romans. Acute social +inequalities always create pride, brutality, and widespread sexual +immorality. And when the structure which maintained these inequalities is +itself tottering, the oppressed classes begin to feel that they are +unnecessary, and to hope for emancipation. When St. Paul drew his lurid +pictures of Pagan society steeped in unnatural abominations, without hope +for the future, 'hateful and hating one another,' and then pointed to the +little flock of Christians—among whom no one was allowed to be idle and no +one to starve, and where family life was pure and mutual confidence full, +frank and seldom abused—the woman and the slave, of whom Aristotle had +spoken so contemptuously, flocked into his congregations, and began to +organise themselves for that victory which Nietzsche thought so deplorable.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary in this essay to traverse again the familiar field of +St. Paul's missionary journeys. The first epoch, which embraces about +fourteen years, had its scene in Syria and Cilicia, with the short tour in +Cyprus and other parts of Asia Minor. The second period, which ends with +the imprisonment in A.D. 58 or 59, is far more important. St. Paul crosses +into Europe; he works in Macedonia and Greece. Churches are founded in two +of the great towns of the ancient world, Corinth and Ephesus. According to +his letters, we must assume that he only once returned to Jerusalem from +the great tour in the West, undertaken after the controversy with Peter; +and that the object of this visit was to deliver the money which he had +promised to collect for the poor 'saints' at Jerusalem. He intended after +this to go to Rome, and thence to Spain—a scheme worthy of the restless +genius of an Alexander. He saw Rome indeed, but as a prisoner. The rest of +his life is lost in obscurity. The writer of the Acts does not say that the +two years' imprisonment ended in his execution; and if it was so, it is +difficult to see why such a fact should be suppressed. If the charge +against him was at last dismissed, because the accusers did not think it +worth while to come to Rome to prosecute it, St. Luke's silence is more +explicable. In any case, we may regard it as almost certain that St. Paul +ended his life under a Roman axe during the reign of Nero.</p> + +<p>'There is hardly any fact' (says Harnack) 'which deserves to be turned over +and pondered so much as this, that the religion of Jesus has never been +able to root itself in Jewish or even upon Semitic soil.' This +extraordinary result is the judgment of history upon the life and work of +St. Paul. Jewish Christianity rapidly withered and died. According to +Justin, who must have known the facts, Jesus was rejected by the whole +Jewish nation 'with a few exceptions.' In Galilee especially, few, if any, +Christian Churches existed. There are other examples, of which Buddhism is +the most notable, of a religion gaining its widest acceptance outside the +borders of the country which gave it birth. But history oilers no parallel +to the complete vindication of St. Paul's policy in carrying Christianity +over into the Græco-Roman world, where alone, as the event proved, it could +live. This is a complete answer to those who maintain that Christ made no +break with Judaism. Such a statement is only tenable if it is made in the +sense of Harnack's words, that 'what Gentile Christianity did was to carry +out a process which had in fact commenced long before in Judaism itself, +viz. the process by which the Jewish religion was inwardly emancipated and +turned into a religion for the world.' But the true account would be that +Judaism, like other great ideas, had to 'die to live,' It died in its old +form, in giving birth to the religion of civilised humanity, as the Greek +nation perished in giving birth to Hellenism, and the Roman in creating the +Mediterranean empire of the Caesars and the Catholic Church of the Popes. +The Jewish people were unable to make so great a sacrifice of their +national hopes. With the matchless tenacity which characterises their race +they clung to their tribal God and their temporal and local millennium. The +disasters of A.D. 70 and of the revolt under Hadrian destroyed a great part +of the race, and at last uprooted it from the soil of Palestine. But +conservatism, as usual, has had its partial justification. Judaism has +refused to acknowledge the religion of the civilised world as her +legitimate child; but the nation has refused also to surrender its life. +There are no more Greeks and Romans; but the Jews we have always with us.</p> + +<p>St. Paul saw that the Gospel was a far greater and more revolutionary +scheme than the Galilean apostles had dreamed of. In principle he committed +himself from the first to the complete emancipation of Christianity from +Judaism. But it was inevitable that he did not at first realise all that he +had undertaken. And, fortunately for us, the most rapid evolution in his +thought took place daring the ten years to which his extant letters belong. +It is exceedingly interesting to trace his gradual progress away from +Apocalyptic Messianism to a position very near that of the fourth Gospel. +The evangelist whom we call St. John is the best commentator on Paulinism. +This is one of the most important discoveries of recent New Testament +criticism.</p> + +<p>In the earliest Epistles—those to the Thessalonians—we have the naïve +picture of Messiah coming on the clouds, which, as we now know, was part of +the Pharisaic tradition. In the central group the Christology is far more +complex. Besides the Pharisaic Messiah, and the records of the historical +Jesus of Nazareth, we have now to reckon with the Jewish-Alexandrian idea +of the generic, archetypal man, which is unintelligible without reference +to the Platonic philosophy. Philo is here a great help towards +understanding one of the most difficult parts of the Apostle's teaching. We +have also, fully developed, the mystical doctrine of the Spirit of Christ +immanent in the soul of the believer, a conception which was the core of +St. Paul's personal religion, and more than anything else emancipated him +from apocalyptic dreams of the future. We have also a fourth conception, +quite distinct from the three which have been mentioned—that of Christ as +a cosmic principle, the instrument in creation and the sustainer of all his +in the universe. We must again have recourse to Philo and his doctrine of +the Logos, to understand the genesis of this idea, and to the Fourth Gospel +to find it stated in clear philosophical form. In this second period, these +theories about the Person of Christ are held concurrently, without any +attempt to reconcile or systematise them. The eschatology is being +seriously modified by the conception of a 'spiritual body,' which is +prepared for us so soon as our 'outward man' decays in death. The +resurrection of the flesh is explicitly denied (1 Cor. xv. 50); but a new +and incorruptible 'clothing' will be given to the soul in the future state. +Already the fundamental Pharisaic doctrine of the two ages—the present age +and that which is to come—is in danger. St. Paul can now, like a true +Greek, contrast the things that are seen, which are temporal, with the +things that are not seen, which are eternal. The doctrine of the Spirit as +a present possession of Christians brings down heaven to earth and exalts +earth to heaven; the 'Parousia' is now only the end of the existing +world-order, and has but little significance for the individual. These +ideas have not displaced the earlier apocalyptic language; but it is easy +to see that the one or the other must recede into the background, and that +the Pharisaic tradition will be the one to fade.</p> + +<p>The third group of Epistles—Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians—are +steeped in ideas which belong to Greek philosophy and the Greek +mystery-religions. It would be impossible to translate them into any +Eastern language. The Rabbinical disputes with the Jews about justification +and election have disappeared; the danger ahead is now from theosophy and +the barbarised Platonism which was afterwards matured in Gnosticism. The +teaching is even more Christocentric than before; and the Catholic doctrine +of the Church as the body of Christ is more prominent than individualistic +mysticism. The cosmology is thoroughly Johannine, and only awaits the name +of the Logos.</p> + +<p>This receptiveness to new ideas is one of the most remarkable features in +St. Paul's mind. Few indeed are the religious prophets and preachers whose +convictions are still malleable after they have begun to govern the minds +of others. St. Paul had already proved that he was a man who would 'follow +the gleam,' even when it called him to a complete breach with his past. And +the further development of his thought was made much easier by the fact +that he was no systematic philosopher, but a great missionary who was +willing to be all things to all men, while his own faith was unified by +his strength of purpose, and by the steady glow of the light within.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for us to realise the life of his little communities +without importing into the picture features which belong to a later time. +The organisation, such as it was, was democratic. The congregation as a +whole exercised a censorship over the morals of its members, and penalties +were inflicted 'by vote of the majority' (2 Cor. ii. 6). The family formed +a group for religious purposes, and remained the recognised unit till the +second century. In Ignatius and Hermas we find the campaign against family +churches in full swing. The meetings were like those of modern revivalists, +and sometimes became disorderly. But of the moral beauty which pervaded the +whole life of the brotherhoods there can be no doubt. Many of the converts +had formerly led disreputable lives; but these were the most likely to +appreciate the gain of being no longer outlaws, but members of a true +family. The heathen were amazed at the kind of people whom the Christians +admitted and treated like brethren; but in the first century scandals do +not seem to have been frequent. Women, who were probably always the +majority, enjoyed a consideration unknown by them before. The extreme +importance attached by the early Church to sexual purity made it possible +for them to mix freely with Christian men; indeed, the strange and perilous +practice of a 'brother' and a virgin sharing the same house seems to have +already begun, if this is the meaning of the obscure passage in I Cor. vii. +36.</p> + +<p>Chastity and indifference to death were the two qualities in Christians +which made the greatest impression on their neighbours. Galen is especially +interesting on the former topic. But we must add a third +characteristic—the cheerfulness and happiness which marked the early +Christian communities. 'Joy' as a moral quality is a Christian invention, +as a study of the usage of χαρα in Greek will show. Even in +Augustine's time the temper of the Christians, 'serena et non dissolute +hilaris' was one of the things which attracted him to the Church. The +secret of this happy social life was an intense realisation of corporate +unity among the members of the confraternity, which they represented to +themselves as a 'mystery'—a mystical union between the Head and members of +a 'body.' It is in this conception, and not in ritual details, that we are +justified in finding a real and deep influence of the mystery-cults upon +Christianity. The Catholic conception of sacraments as bonds uniting +religious communities, and as channels of grace flowing from a corporate +treasury, was as certainly part of the Greek mystery-religion as it was +foreign to Judaism. The mysteries had their bad side, as might be expected +in private and half-secret societies; but their influence as a whole was +certainly good. The three chief characteristics of mystery-religion were, +first, rites of purification, both moral and ceremonial; second, the +promise of spiritual communion with some deity, who through them enters +into his worshippers; third, the hope of immortality, which the Greeks +often called 'deification,' and which was secured to those who were +initiated.</p> + +<p>It is useless to deny that St. Paul regarded Christianity as, at least on +one side, a mystery-religion. Why else should he have used a number of +technical terms which his readers would recognise at once as belonging to +the mysteries? Why else should he repeatedly use the word 'mystery' itself, +applying it to doctrines distinctive of Christianity, such as the +resurrection with a 'spiritual body,' the relation of the Jewish people to +God, and, above all, the mystical union between Christ and Christians? The +great' mystery' is 'Christ in you, the hope of glory' (Col i. 27). It was +as a mystery-religion that Europe accepted Christianity. Just as the Jewish +Christians took with them the whole framework of apocalyptic Messianism, +and set the figure of Jesus within it, so the Greeks took with them the +whole scheme of the mysteries, with their sacraments, their purifications +and fasts, their idea of a mystical brotherhood, and their doctrine of +'salvation' (σωτηρἱα is essentially a mystery word) through +membership in a divine society, worshipping Christ as the patronal deity of +their mysteries.</p> + +<p>Historically, this type of Christianity was the origin of Catholicism, +both Western and Eastern; though it is only recently that this character of +the Pauline churches has been recognised. And students of the New Testament +have not yet realised the importance of the fact that St. Paul, who was +ready to fight to the death against the Judaising of Christianity, was +willing to take the first step, and a long one, towards the Paganising of +it. It does not appear that his personal religion was of this type. He +speaks with contempt of some doctrines and practices of the Pagan +mysteries, and will allow no <i>rapprochement</i> with what he regards as +devil-worship. In this he remains a pure Hebrew. But he does not appear to +see any danger in allowing his Hellenistic churches to assimilate the +worship of Christ to the honours paid to the gods of the mysteries, and to +set their whole religion in this framework, provided only that they have no +part nor lot with those who sit at 'the table of demons'—the sacramental +love-feasts of the heathen mysteries. The dangers which he does see, and +against which he issues warnings, are, besides Judaism, antinomianism and +disorder on the one hand, and dualistic asceticism on the other. He +dislikes or mistrusts 'the speaking with tongues' (γλωσσολαλἱα), +which was the favourite exhibition of religious enthusiasm at Corinth. (On +this subject Prof. Lake's excursus is the most instructive discussion that +has yet appeared. The 'Testament of Job' and the magical papyri show that +gibberish uttered in a state of spiritual excitement was supposed to be the +language of angels and spirits, understood by them and acting upon them as +a charm.) He urges his converts to do all things 'decently and in order.' +He is alarmed at signs of moral laxity on the part of self-styled +'spiritual persons'—a great danger in all times of ecstatic enthusiasm. He +is also alive to the dangers connected with that kind of asceticism which +is based on theories of the impurity of the body—the typical Oriental form +of world-renunciation. But he does not appear to have foreseen the +unethical and polytheistic developments of sacramental institutionalism. In +this particular his Judaising opponents had a little more justification +than he is willing to allow them.</p> + + +<h3>ST. PAUL</h3> + +<p>There is something transitional about all St. Paul's teaching. We cannot +take him out of his historical setting, as so many of his commentators in +the nineteenth century tried to do. This is only another way of saying that +he was, to use his own expression, a wise master-builder, not a detached +thinker, an arm-chair philosopher. To the historian, there must always be +something astounding in the magnitude of the task which he set himself, and +in his enormous success. The future history of the civilised world for two +thousand years, perhaps for all time, was determined by his missionary +journeys and hurried writings. It is impossible to guess what would have +become of Christianity if he had never lived; we cannot even be sure that +the religion of Europe would be called by the name of Christ. This +stupendous achievement seems to have been due to an almost unique practical +insight into the essential factors of a very difficult and complex +situation. We watch him, with breathless interest, steering the vessel +which carried the Christian Church and its fortunes through a narrow +channel full of sunken rocks and shoals. With unerring instinct he avoids +them all, and brings the ship, not into smooth water, but into the open +sea, out of that perilous strait. And so far was his masterly policy from +mere opportunism, that his correspondence has been 'Holy Scripture' for +fifty generations of Christians, and there has been no religious revival +within Christianity that has not been, on one side at least, a return to +St. Paul. Protestants have always felt their affinity with this +institutionalist, mystics with this disciplinarian. The reason, put +shortly, is that St. Paul understood what most Christians never realise, +namely, that the Gospel of Christ is not <i>a</i> religion, but religion itself, +in its most universal and deepest significance.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INSTITUTIONALISM_AND_MYSTICISM" id="INSTITUTIONALISM_AND_MYSTICISM" />INSTITUTIONALISM AND MYSTICISM</h2> + +<h3>(1914)</h3> + + +<p>It happens sometimes that two opposite tendencies flourish together, +deriving strength from a sense of the danger with which each is threatened +by the popularity of the other. Where the antagonism is not absolute, each +may gain by being compelled to recognise the strong points in the rival +position. In a serious controversy the right is seldom or never all on one +side; and in the normal course of events both theories undergo some +modification through the influence of their opponents, until a compromise, +not always logically defensible, brings to an end the acute stage of the +controversy. Such a tension of rival movements is very apparent in the +religious thought of our day. The quickening of spiritual life in our +generation has taken two forms, which appear to be, and to a large extent +are, sharply opposed to each other. On the one side, there has been a great +revival of mysticism. Mysticism means an immediate communion, real or +supposed, between the human soul and the Soul of the World or the Divine +Spirit. The hypothesis on which it rests is that there is a real affinity +between the individual soul and the great immanent Spirit, who in Christian +theology is identified with the Logos-Christ. He was the instrument in +creation, and through the Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit, in +which the Incarnation is continued, has entered into the most intimate +relation with the inner life of the believer. This revived belief in the +inspiration of the individual has immensely strengthened the position of +Christian apologists, who find their old fortifications no longer tenable +against the assaults of natural science and historical criticism. It has +given to faith a new independence, and has vindicated for the spiritual +life the right to stand on its own feet and rest on its own evidence. +Spiritual things, we now realise, are spiritually discerned. The +enlightened soul can see the invisible, and live its true life in the +suprasensible sphere. The primary evidence for the truth of religion is +religious experience, which in persons of religious genius—those whom the +Church calls saints and prophets—includes a clear perception of an eternal +world of truth, beauty, and goodness, surrounding us and penetrating us at +every point. It is the unanimous testimony of these favoured spirits that +the obstacles in the way of realising this transcendental world are purely +subjective and to a large extent removable by the appropriate training and +discipline. Nor is there any serious discrepancy among them either as to +the nature of the vision which is the highest reward of human effort, or as +to the course of preparation which makes us able to receive it. The +Christian mystic must begin with the punctual and conscientious discharge +of his duties to society; he must next purify his desires from all worldly +and carnal lusts, for only the pure in heart can see God; and he may thus +fit himself for 'illumination'—the stage in which the glory and beauty of +the spiritual life, now clearly discerned, are themselves the motive of +action and the incentive to contemplation; while the possibility of a yet +more immediate and ineffable vision of the Godhead is not denied, even in +this life. There is reason to think that this conception of religion +appeals more and more strongly to the younger generation to-day. It brings +an intense feeling of relief to many who have been distressed by being told +that religion is bound up with certain events in antiquity, the historicity +of which it is in some cases difficult to establish; with a cosmology which +has been definitely disproved; and with a philosophy which they cannot make +their own. It allows us what George Meredith calls 'the rapture of the +forward view.' It brings home to us the meaning of the promise made by the +Johannine Christ that there are many things as yet hid from humanity which +will in the future be revealed by the Spirit of Truth. It encourages us to +hope that for each individual who is trying to live the right life the +venture of faith will be progressively justified in experience. It breaks +down the denominational barriers which divide men and women who worship the +Father in spirit and in truth—barriers which become more senseless in each +generation, since they no longer correspond even approximately with real +differences of belief or of religious temperament. It makes the whole world +kin by offering a pure religion which is substantially the same in all +climates and in all ages—a religion too divine to be fettered by any +man-made formulas, too nobly human to be readily acceptable to men in whom +the ape and tiger are still alive, but which finds a congenial home in the +purified spirit which is the 'throne of the Godhead.' Such is the type of +faith which is astir among us. It makes no imposing show in Church +conferences; it does not fill our churches and chapels; it has no +organisation, no propaganda; it is for the most part passively loyal, +without much enthusiasm, to the institutions among which it finds itself. +But in reality it has overleapt all barriers; it knows its true spiritual +kin; and amid the strifes and perplexities of a sad and troublous time it +can always recover its hope and confidence by ascending in heart and mind +to the heaven which is closer to it than breathing, and nearer than hands +and feet.</p> + +<p>But on the other side we see a tendency, even more manifest if we look for +external signs, to emphasise the institutional side of religion, that which +prompts men and women to combine in sacred societies, to cherish +enthusiastic loyalties for the Church of their early education or of their +later choice, to find their chief satisfaction in acts of corporate +worship, and to subordinate their individual tastes and beliefs to the +common tradition and discipline of a historical body. It is now about +eighty years since this tendency began to manifest itself as a new +phenomenon in the Anglican Church. Since then, it has spread to other +organisations. It has prompted a new degree of denominational loyalty in +several Protestant bodies on the Continent, in America, and in our own +country; and it has arrested the decline of the Roman Catholic Church in +countries where the outlook seemed least hopeful from the ecclesiastical +point of view. Such a movement, so widespread and so powerful in its +results, is clearly a thing to be reckoned with by all who desire to +estimate rightly the signs of the times. It is a current running in the +opposite direction to the mystical tendency, which regards unity as a +spiritual, not a political ideal. Fortunately, the theory of +institutionalism has lately been defended and expounded by several able +writers belonging to different denominations; so that we may hope, by +comparing their utterances, to understand the attractions of the theory and +its meaning for those who so highly value it.</p> + +<p>Aubrey Moore, writing in 1889, connected the Catholic revival with the +abandonment of atomism in natural philosophy and of Baconian metaphysics. +These were, he thought, the counterpart of individualism in politics and +Calvinism in religion. The adherents of mid-Victorian science and +philosophy were bewildered by the phenomenon of 'men in the nineteenth +century actually expressing a belief in a divine society and a supernatural +presence in our midst, a brotherhood in which men become members of an +organic whole by sharing in a common life, a service of man which is the +natural and spontaneous outcome of the service of God.'<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90" /><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> In the view of +this learned and acute thinker, Catholicism, or institutionalism, is +destined to supplant Protestantism, as the organic theory is destined to +displace the atomic.</p> + +<p>More recently Troeltsch, writing as a Protestant, has emphasised the +institutional side of religion in the most uncompromising way.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'One of the clearest results of all religious history and + religious psychology is that the essence of all religion is + not dogma and idea, but cultus and communion, the living + intercourse with the Deity—an intercourse of the entire + community, having its vital roots in religion and deriving + its ultimate power of thus uniting individuals, from its + faith in God.... Whatever the future may bring us, we cannot + expect a certainty and force of the knowledge of God and of + His redemptive power to subsist without communion and + cultus. And so long as a Christianity of any kind shall + subsist at all, it will be united with a cultus, and with + Christ holding a central position in the cultus.'<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91" /><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> </p></div> + +<p>From America, the last refuge of individualism, there has come a +pronouncement not less drastic. Professor Royce, the author of the +admirable metaphysical treatise entitled 'The World and the Individual,' +has recently published a double series of Hibbert Lectures on 'The Problem +of Christianity,' in which he affirms the institutionalist theory with a +surprising absence of qualification. The whole book is dominated by one +idea, advocated with a <i>naïveté</i> which would hardly have been possible to a +theologian—the idea that churchmanship is the essential part of the +Christian religion.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The salvation of the individual man is determined by some + sort of membership in a certain spiritual community—a + religious community, and in its inmost nature a divine + community, in whose life the Christian virtues are to reach + their highest expression and the spirit of the Master is to + obtain its earthly fulfilment. In other words, there is a + certain universal and divine spiritual community. Membership + in that community is necessary to the salvation of man.... + Such a community exists, is needed, and is an indispensable + means of salvation for the individual man, and is the + fitting realm wherein alone the kingdom of heaven which the + Master preached can find its expression, and wherein alone + the Christian virtues can be effectively preached.'<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92" /><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> </p></div> + +<p>These statements, which in vigour and rigour would satisfy the most extreme +curialist in the Society of Jesus, are not a little startling in an +American philosopher, who, as far as the present writer knows, does not +belong to any 'Catholic' Church. The thesis thus enunciated is the argument +of the whole book, in which 'loyalty to the beloved community' is declared +to be the characteristic Christian virtue. It is true that the satisfaction +of Professor Royce's Catholic readers is destined to be damped in the +second volume, where he forbids us to look for the ideal divine community +in any existing Church, and expresses his conviction that great changes +must come over the dogmatic teaching of Christianity. But for our purpose +the significant fact is that throughout the book he insists that +Christianity is essentially an institutional religion, the most completely +institutional of all religions. For Professor Royce to be a Christian is to +be a Churchman.</p> + +<p>Our last witness shall be the learned Roman Catholic layman, Baron +Friedrich von Hügel, the deepest thinker, perhaps, of all living +theologians in this country. 'It is now ever increasingly clear to all deep +impartial students that religion has ever primarily expressed and formed +itself in cultus, in social organisation, social worship, intercourse +between soul and soul and between soul and God; and in symbols and +sacraments, in contacts between spirit and matter.' He proceeds to discuss +the strength and weakness of institutionalism in a perfectly candid spirit, +but with too particular reference to the present conditions within the +Roman Church to help us much in our more general survey. He mentions the +drawbacks of an official philosophy, prescribed by authority; 'only in 1835 +did the Congregation of the Index withdraw heliocentric books from its +list.' He emphasises the necessity of historical dogmas, but admits that +orthodoxy cherishes, along with them, 'fact-like historical pictures' which +'cannot be taken as directly, simply factual.' He vindicates the orthodoxy +of religious toleration, and refuses to consign all non-Catholics to +perdition, lamenting the tendency to identify absolutely the visible and +invisible Church, which prevails among 'some of the (now dominant) Italian +and German Jesuit Canonists.' Lastly, he boldly recommends the frank +abandonment of the Papal claim to exercise temporal power in Italy. This is +not so much a critique of institutionalism as the plea of a Liberal +Catholic that the logic of institutionalism should not be allowed to +override all other considerations. The Baron is, indeed, himself a mystic, +though also a strong believer in the necessity of institutional religion.</p> + +<p>We have then a considerable body of very competent opinion, that a man +cannot be a Christian unless he is a Churchman. To the mystic pure and +simple, such a statement seems monstrous. Did not even Augustine say, 'I +want to know God and my own soul; these two things, and no third whatever'? +What intermediary can there be, he will ask, between the soul and God? What +sacredness is there in an organisation? Is it not a matter of common +experience that the morality of an institution, a society, a state, is +inferior to that of the individuals who compose it? And is organised +Catholicism an exception to this rule? And yet we must admit the glamour of +the idea of a divine society. It arouses that <i>esprit de corps</i> which is +the strongest appeal that can be made to some noble minds. It calls for +self-sacrifice and devoted labour in a cause which is higher than private +interest. It demands discipline and co-operation, through which alone great +things can be done on the field of history. It holds out a prospect of +really influencing the course of events. And if there has been a historical +Incarnation, it follows that God has actually intervened on the stage of +history, and that it is His will to carry out some great and divine purpose +in and by means of the course of history. With this object, as the Catholic +believes, He established an institutional Church, pledged to the highest of +all causes; and what greater privilege can there be than to take part in +this work, as a soldier in the army of God in His long campaign against the +spiritual powers of evil? The Christian institutionalist is the servant of +a grand idea.</p> + +<p>There are, however, a few questions which we are bound to ask him. First, +is his idea of the Church Christian? Did the Founder of Christianity +contemplate or even implicitly sanction the establishment of a +semi-political international society, such as the Catholic Church has +actually been? Orthodox Catholicism maintains that He did. Modernism admits +that He did not, but adds that if He had known that the Messianic +expectation was illusory, and that the existing world-order was to continue +for thousands of years, He would certainly have wished that a Catholic +Church should exist. And, argues the Modernist, if it is a good thing that +a Catholic Church should exist, it is useless to quarrel with the +conditions under which alone it can maintain its existence. The +philosophical historian must admit that all the changes which the Catholic +Church has undergone—its concessions to Pagan superstition, its secular +power, its ruthless extirpation of rebels against its authority, its +steadily growing centralisation and autocracy—were forced upon it in the +struggle for existence. Those who wish that Church history had been +different are wishing the impossible, or wishing that the Church had +perished. But this argument is not valid as a defence of a divine +institution. It is rather a merciless exposure of what happens, and must +happen, to a great idea when it is enslaved by an institution of its own +creation. The political organisation which has grown up round the idea ends +by strangling it, and continues to fight for its own preservation by the +methods which govern the policy of all other political +organisations—force, fraud, and accommodation. There is nothing in the +political history of Catholicism which suggests in the slightest degree +that the spirit of Christ has been the guiding principle in its councils. +Its methods have, on the contrary, been more cruel, more fraudulent, more +unscrupulous, than those of most secular powers. If the Founder of +Christianity had appeared again on earth during the so-called ages of +faith, it is hardly possible to doubt that He would, have been burnt alive +or crucified again. What the Latin Church preserved was not the religion of +Christ, which lived on by its inherent indestructibility, but parts of the +Aristotelian and Platonic philosophies, distorted and petrified by +scholasticism, a vast quantity of purely Pagan superstitions, and the +<i>arcana imperii</i> of Roman Cæsarism. The normal end of Scholasticism is a +mummified philosophy of authority, in which there are no problems to solve, +but a great many dead pundits to consult. The normal end of a policy which +exploits the superstitions of the peasant is a desperate warfare against +education. The normal end of Roman Imperialism is a sultanate like that of +Diocletian. It is difficult to find a proof of infallible and supernatural +wisdom in the evolution of which these are the last terms. We read with the +utmost sympathy and admiration Baron von Hügel's loyal and reverent appeals +to the authorities of his Church, that they may draw out the strong and +beneficent powers of institutionalism, and avoid its insidious dangers. But +it may be doubted whether such a policy is possible. The future of Roman +Catholicism is, I fear, with the Ultramontanes. They, and not the +Modernists, are in the line of development which Catholicism as an +institution has consistently followed, and must continue to follow to the +end. I can see no other fate in store for the <i>soma</i> of Catholicism; the +germ-cells of true Christianity live their own life within it, and are +transmitted without taint to those who are born of the Spirit.</p> + +<p>We must further ask the institutionalist what are his grounds for +identifying the Church of God with the particular institution to which he +belongs. On the institutionalist hypothesis, it might have been expected +either that there would have been no divisions in Christendom, or that all +seceding bodies would have shown such manifest inferiority in wisdom, +morality, and sanctity, that the exclusive claims of the Great Church would +have been ratified at the bar of history. This is, in fact, the claim which +Roman Catholics make. But it can only be upheld by writing history in the +spirit of an advocate, or by giving a preference, not in accordance with +modern ethical views, to certain types of character which are produced by +the monastic life of the Catholic 'religious,' It is increasingly difficult +to find, in the lives of those who belong to any one denomination, proofs +of marked superiority over other Christians. Of course, we know little of +the real character of our neighbours as they appear in the eyes of God; but +in considering a theory which lays so much stress on history as Catholic +institutionalism does, we are bound to make use of such evidence as we +have. And the evidence does not support the theory that we cannot be +Christians unless we are Catholics. Nor does it even countenance the view +that we cannot be Christians unless we are enthusiastic members of <i>some</i> +religious corporation. Professor Royce seems to have been carried away by +the idea which prompted him to write his book; but a little thought about +the characters of his acquaintances might have given him pause.</p> + +<p>The mechanical theory of devolution which assumes so much importance in +some fashionable Anglican teaching about the Church need not detain us +long. The logical choice must ultimately be between the great international +Catholic Church and what Auguste Sabatier called the religion of the +Spirit. The religion of all Protestants, when it is not secularised, as it +too often is, belongs to this latter type, even when they lay most stress +on the idea of brotherhood and corporate action. For with them institutions +are never much more than associations for mutual help and edification. The +Protestant always hopes to be saved <i>qua</i> Christian, not <i>qua</i> Churchman.</p> + +<p>A third question which must be asked is whether institutionalism in +practice makes for unity among Christians, or for division. Too often the +chief visible sign of the 'corporate idea' of which so much is said, is the +rigidity of the spikes which it erects round its own particular fold. The +obstacles to acts of reunion (which in no way carry with them the necessity +of formal amalgamation) are raised almost exclusively by stiff +institutionalists. The much-discussed Kikuyu case has brought this home to +everybody. But for these uncompromising Churchmen, Christians of all +denominations would be glad enough to meet together at the Lord's table on +special occasions like the service which gave rise to this controversy. +Anglicans are well aware that the differences of opinion within their body +are far greater than those which separate some of them from Protestant +Nonconformity, and others of them from Home. Allegiance to this or that +denomination is generally an accident of early surroundings. To make these +external classifications into barriers which cannot be crossed is either an +absurdity or a confession that a Church is a political aggregate. A Roman +Monsignor explained, <i>à propos</i> of the Kikuyu service, that no Roman +Catholic could ever communicate in a Protestant church, because in so +doing he would be guilty of an act of apostasy, and would be no longer a +Roman Catholic. The attitude is consistent with the Roman claim to +universal jurisdiction; for any other body it would be absurd. The stiff +institutionalist is debarred by his theory from fraternising with many who +should be his friends, while he is bound to others with whom he has no +sympathy. His theory is once more found to conflict with the facts.</p> + +<p>Lastly, we must ask whether institutionalism is really a spiritual and +moral force. Of the advantages of <i>esprit de corps</i> I have spoken already. +No one can doubt that unity is strength, or that Catholicism has an immense +advantage over its rivals in the efficiency of its organisation. But is not +this advantage dearly purchased? Party loyalty is notoriously unscrupulous. +The idealised institution becomes itself the object of worship, and it is +entirely forgotten that a Christian Church ought to have no 'interests' +except the highest welfare of humanity. The substitution of military for +civil ethics has worked disastrously on the conduct of Churchmen. +Theoretically it is admitted by Roman casuists that an immoral order ought +not to be obeyed; but it is not for a layman to pronounce immoral any order +received from a priest; if the order is really immoral, 'obedience' +exonerates him who executes it; in all other cases disobedience is a deadly +sin. The result of this submission of private judgment is that the voice of +conscience is often stifled, and unscrupulous policies are carried through +by Churchmen, which secular public opinion would have condemned decisively +and rejected. The persecution of Dreyfus is a recent and strong instance. +If all France had been Catholic, the victim of this shocking injustice +would certainly have died in prison. It is extremely doubtful whether the +presence of a highly organised Church is conducive to moral and social +reform in a country. The temptation to play a political game seems to be +always too strong. In Ireland the priesthood has probably helped to +maintain a comparatively high standard of sexual morality, but it cannot be +said that the Irish Catholic population is in other respects a model of +civilisation and good citizenship. In education especially the influence of +ecclesiasticism has been almost uniformly pernicious, so that it seems +impossible for any country where the children are left under priestly +influence to rise above a certain rather low level of civilisation. The +strongest claim of institutionalism to our respect is probably the +beneficial restraint which it exercises upon many persons who need moral +and intellectual guidance. It is the fashion to disparage the scholastic +theology, and it has certainly suffered by being congealed, like everything +else that Rome touches, into a hard system; but it is immeasurably superior +to the theosophies and fancy religions which run riot in the superficially +cultivated classes of Protestant countries. The undisciplined mystic, in +his reliance on the inner light, may fall into various kinds of +<i>Schwärmerei</i> and superstition. In some cases he may even lose his sanity +for want of a wise restraining influence. It is not an accident that +America, where institutionalism is weakest, is the happy hunting-ground of +religious quacks and cranks. Individualists are too prone to undervalue the +steadying influence of ancient and consecrated tradition, which is kept up +mainly by ecclesiastical institutions. These probably prevent many rash +experiments from being tried, especially in the field of morals. Even +writers like Dr. Frazer insist on the immense services which consecrated +tradition still renders to humanity. These claims may be admitted; but they +come very far short of the glorification of institutionalism which we found +in the authors quoted a few pages back.</p> + +<p>The institutionalist, however, may reply that he by no means admits the +validity of Sabatier's antithesis between religions of authority and the +religion of the Spirit. His own religion, he believes, is quite as +spiritual as that of the Protestant individualist. He may quote the fine +saying of a medieval mystic that he who can see the inward in the outward +is more spiritual than he who can only see the inward in the inward. We +may, indeed, be thankful that we have not to choose between two mutually +exclusive types of religion. The Quaker, whom we may take as the type of +anti-institutional mysticism, has a brotherhood to which he is proud to +belong, and for which he feels loyalty and affection. And Catholicism has +been rich in contemplative saints who have lived in the light of the Divine +presence. The question raised in this essay is rather of the relative +importance of these two elements in the religious life, than of choosing +one and rejecting the other. I will conclude by saying that our preference +of one of these types to the other will be largely determined by our +attitude towards history. I am glad to see that Professor Bosanquet, in his +fine Gifford Lectures, has the courage to expose the limitations of the +'historical method,' now so popular. He protests against Professor Ward's +dictum that 'the actual is wholly historical,' as a view little better than +naïve realism. History, he says, is a hybrid form of experience, incapable +of any considerable degree of being or trueness. It is a fragmentary +diorama of finite life-processes seen from the outside, and very +imperfectly known. It consists largely of assigning parts in some great +world-experience to particular actors—a highly speculative enterprise. To +set these contingent and dubious constructions above the operations of pure +thought and pure insight is indeed a return to the philosophy of the man in +the street. 'Social morality, art, philosophy, and religion take us far +beyond the spatio-temporal externality of history; these are concrete and +necessary living worlds, and in them the finite mind begins to experience +something of what individuality must ultimately mean.' Our inquiry has thus +led us to the threshold of one of the fundamental problems of +philosophy—the value and reality of time. For the institutionalist, +happenings in time have a meaning and importance far greater than the +mystic is willing to allow to them. Like most other great philosophical +problems, this question is largely one of temperament. Christianity has +found room for both types. I believe, however, that the aberrations or +exaggerations of institutionalism have been, and are, more dangerous, and +further removed from the spirit of Christianity than those of mysticism, +and that we must look to the latter type, rather than to the former, to +give life to the next religious revival.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90" /><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Moore, <i>Science and the Faith</i>, Introduction.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91" /><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Troeltsch, <i>Die Bedeutung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu für den +Glauben,</i> pp. 25 <i>sq</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92" /><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Royce, <i>The Problem of Christianity</i>, vol. i. 39.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_INDICTMENT_AGAINST_CHRISTIANITY" id="THE_INDICTMENT_AGAINST_CHRISTIANITY" />THE INDICTMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY</h2> + +<h3>(1917)</h3> + + +<p>No thinking man can deny that this war has grievously stained the +reputation of Europe. Even if the verdict of history confirms the opinion +that the conspiracy which threw the torch into the powder-magazine was laid +by a few persons in one or two countries, and that the unparalleled +outrages which have accompanied the conflict were ordered by a small +coterie of brutal officers, we cannot forget that these crimes have been +committed by the responsible representatives of a civilised European power, +and that the nation which they represent has shown no qualms of conscience. +That such a calamity, the permanent results of which include a holocaust of +European wealth and credit, accumulated during a century of unprecedented +industry and ingenuity, the loss of innumerable lives, and the destruction +of all the old and honourable conventions which have hitherto regulated the +intercourse of civilised nations with each other, in war as well as in +peace, should have been possible, is justly felt to be a reproach to the +whole continent, and especially to the nations which have taken the lead in +its civilisation and culture. The ancient races of Asia, which have never +admitted the moral superiority of the West, are keenly interested +spectators of our suicidal frenzy. A Japanese is reported to have said, 'We +have only to wait a little longer, till Europe has completed her <i>hara +kiri</i>.' This is, indeed, what any intelligent observer must think about the +present struggle. Just as the feudal barons of England destroyed each other +and brought the feudal system to an end in the Wars of the Roses, so the +great industrial nations are rending to pieces the whole fabric of modern +industrialism, which can never be reconstructed. Mr. Norman Angell was +perfectly right in his argument that a European war would be ruinous to +both sides. The material objects at stake, such as the control of the +Turkish Empire and the African continent, are not worth more than an +insignificant fraction of the war-bill. We are witnessing the suicide of a +social order, and our descendants will marvel at our madness, as we marvel +at the senseless wars of the past.</p> + +<p>There has, it is plain, been something fundamentally wrong with European +civilisation, and the disease appears to be a moral one. With this +conviction it is natural that men should turn upon the official custodians +of religion and morality, and ask them whether they have been unfaithful to +their trust, or whether it is not rather proved that the faith which they +profess is itself bankrupt and incapable of exerting any salutary influence +upon human character and action. Christianity stands arraigned at the bar +of public opinion. But it is not without significance that the indictment +should now be urged with a vehemence which we do not find in the records of +former convulsions. It was not generally felt to be a scandal to +Christianity that England was at war for 69 years out of the 120 which +preceded the battle of Waterloo. Either our generation expected more from +Christianity, or it was far more shocked by the sudden outbreak of this +fierce war than our ancestors were by the almost chronic condition of +desultory campaigning to which they were accustomed. The latter is probably +the true reason. The belief in progress, which at the beginning of the +industrial revolution was an article of faith, had become a tacitly +accepted presupposition of all serious thought; and even those who were +dubious about the moral improvement of mankind in other directions, seldom +denied that we were more humane and peaceable than our forefathers. The +disillusion has struck our self-complacency in its most vital spot. Nothing +in our own experience had prepared us for the hideous savagery and +vandalism of German warfare, the first accounts of which we received with +blank amazement and incredulity. Then, when disbelief was no longer +possible, there awoke within us a sense of fear for our homes and women and +children—feeling to which modern civilised man had long been a stranger. +We had not supposed that the non-combatant population of any European +country would ever again be exposed to the horrors of savage warfare. This, +much more than the war itself, has made thousands feel that the house of +civilisation is built upon the sand, and that Christianity has failed to +subdue the most barbarous instincts of human nature. Christians cannot +regret that the flagrant contradiction between the principles of their +creed and the scenes that have been enacted during the last three years is +fully recognised. But the often repeated statement that 'Christianity has +failed' needs more examination than it usually receives from those who +utter it.</p> + +<p>History acquaints us with two kinds of religion, which, though they are not +entirely separate from each other, differ very widely in their effects upon +conduct and morality. The <i>religio</i> which Lucretius hated, and from which +he strangely hoped that the atomistic materialism of Epicurus had finally +delivered mankind, has its roots in the sombre and confused superstitions +of the savage. Fear, as Statius and Petronius tell us, created the gods of +this religion. These deities are mysterious and capricious powers, who +exact vengeance for the transgression of arbitrary laws which they have not +revealed, and who must be propitiated by public sacrifice, lest some +collective punishment fall on the tribe, blighting its crops and smiting +its herds with murrain, or giving it over into the hand of its enemies. +This religion makes very little attempt to correct the current standard of +values. Its rewards are wealth and prosperity; its punishments are calamity +in this world and perhaps torture in the next. It is not, however, +incapable of moralisation. The wrath of heaven may visit not the innocent +violation of some <i>tabu</i>, but cruelty and injustice. In the historical +books of the Old Testament, though Uzzah is stricken dead for touching the +ark, and the subjects of King David afflicted with pestilence because their +ruler took a census of his people, Jehovah is above all things a righteous +God, who punishes bloodshed, adultery, and social oppression. So in Greece +the Furies pursue the homicide and the perjurer, till the name of his +family is clean put out. Herodotus tells us how the family of Glaucus was +extinguished because he consulted the oracle of Delphi about an act of +embezzlement which he was meditating.</p> + +<p>International law was protected by the same fear of divine vengeance. The +murder of heralds must by all means be expiated. When the Romans repudiate +their 'scrap of paper' with the Samnites, they deliver up to the enemy the +officers who signed it, though (with characteristic 'slimness') not the +army which the mountaineers had captured and liberated under the agreement. +To destroy the temples in an enemy's country was an act of wanton impiety; +Herodotus cannot understand the religious intolerance which led the +Persians to burn the shrines of Greek gods. Thus religion had a restraining +influence in war throughout antiquity, and in the Middle Ages. The Pope, +who was believed to hold the keys of future bliss and torment, was +frequently, though by no means always, obeyed by the turbulent feudal +lords, and often enforced the sanctity of a contract by the threat or the +imposition of excommunication and interdict. In order to make these +penalties more terrible, the torments of those who died under the +displeasure of the Church were painted in the most vivid colours. But in +the official and popular Christian eschatology, as in the terrestrial +theodicy of the Old Testament, there is little or no moral idealism. The +joys or pains of the future life are made to depend, in part at least, on +the observance or violation of the moral law, but they are themselves of a +kind which the natural man would desire or dread. They are an enhanced, +because a deferred, retribution of the same kind which in more primitive +religions promises earthly prosperity to the righteous, and earthly +calamities to the wicked. Values, positive and negative, are taken nearly +as they stand in the estimation of the average man.</p> + +<p>But there is another religious tradition, which in Greece was almost +separated from the official and national cults, and among the Hebrews was +often in opposition to them. The Hebrew prophets certainly proclaimed that +'the history of the world is the judgment of the world,' and often assumed, +too crudely as it seems to us, that national calamities are a proof of +national transgression; but the whole course of development in prophecy was +towards an autonomous morality based on a spiritual valuation of life. Its +quarrel with sacerdotalism was mainly directed against the unethical +<i>tabu</i>-morality of the priesthood; the revolt was grounded in a lofty moral +idealism, which found expression in a half-symbolic vision of a coming +state in which might and right should coincide. The apocalyptic prophecies +of post-exilic Judaism, which were not based, like some political +predictions of the earlier prophets, on a statesmanlike view of the +international situation, but on hopes of supernatural intervention, had +their roots in visions of a new and better world-order. This aspiration, +which had to disentangle itself by degrees from the patriotic dreams of a +stubborn and unfortunate race, was projected into the near future, and was +mixed with less worthy political ambitions which had a different origin. +The prophet always foreshortens his revelation, and generally blends the +city of God with a vision of his own country transfigured. We see him doing +this even to-day, in his Utopian dreams of social reconstruction.</p> + +<p>And so it has always been. We remember Condorcet foretelling a reign of +truth and peace just before he was compelled to flee from the storm of +calumny to die in a damp cell at Bourg la Reine; and Kant hailing the +approach of a peaceful international republic while Napoleon was preparing +to drown Europe in blood. Apocalyptism is a compromise between the religion +of rewards and punishments and the religion of spiritual deliverance. It +calls a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old; but its +discontent with the old is mainly the result of a moral and spiritual +valuation of life. Greek philosophy has really much in common with Hebrew +prophecy, though the Greek envisaged his ideal world as the eternal +background of reality, and not under the form of history. In its maturest +form, it is a transvaluation of all values in accordance with an absolute +ideal standard—that of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. This +idealism appears in a still more drastic form in the religions of Asia, +which preach deliverance by demonetising at a stroke all the world's +currency. Spiritual values are alone accepted; man wins peace and freedom +by renouncing in advance all of which fortune may deprive him.</p> + +<p>We are apt to assume, in deference to our theories of human progress, that +the evolution of religion is normally from a lower to a higher type. It +would, indeed, be absurd to question that the religion of a civilised +people is usually more spiritual and more rational than that of barbarians. +But none the less, the history of religions is generally a history of +decline. In Judaism the prophets came before the Scribes and the Pharisees. +Brahmanism and Buddhism were both degraded by superstitions and unethical +rites. Christianity, which began as a republication of the purest prophetic +teaching, has suffered the same fate. In each case, when the revelation has +lost its freshness, and the enthusiasm which it evoked has begun to cool, a +reversion to older habits of thought and customs takes place; and sometimes +it may be said that the old religion has really conquered the new.</p> + +<p>Christianity, as taught by its Founder, is based on a transvaluation of +values even more complete than that of Stoicism and the later Platonism, +because, while it regards the objects of ordinary ambition as a positive +hindrance to the higher life, it accepts and gives value to those pains of +sympathy which Greek thought dreaded, as detracting from the calm enjoyment +of the philosophic life. This acceptance of the world's suffering, from +which every other spiritual religion and philosophy promise a way of +escape, is perhaps the most distinctive feature of Christian ethics. In +practice, it thus achieves a more complete conquest of evil than any other +system; and by bringing sorrow and sympathy into the Divine life, it not +only presents the character and nature of the Deity in a new light, but +opens out a new ideal of moral perfection. This is not the place for a +discussion of the main characteristics of the Gospel of Christ, and they +are familiar to us all. But, since we are now considering the charge of +failure brought against Christianity in connexion with the present +world-war, it seems necessary to emphasise two points which are not always +remembered.</p> + +<p>The first is that there is no evidence that the historical Christ ever +intended to found a new institutional religion. He neither attempted to +make a schism in the Jewish Church nor to substitute a new system for it. +He placed Himself deliberately in the prophetic line, only claiming to sum +up the series in Himself. The whole manner of His life and teaching was +prophetic. The differences which undoubtedly may be found between His style +and that of the older prophets do not remove Him from the company in which +He clearly wished to stand. He treated the institutional religion of His +people with the independence and indifference of the prophet and mystic; +and the hierarchy, which, like other hierarchies, had a sure instinct in +discerning a dangerous enemy, was not slow to declare war to the knife +against Him. Such, He reminded His enemies, was the treatment which all the +prophets had met with from the class to which those enemies belonged. This, +then, is the first fact to remember. Institutional Christianity may be a +legitimate and necessary historical development from the original Gospel, +but it is something alien to the Gospel itself. The first disciples +believed that they had the Master's authority for expecting the end of the +existing world-order in their own lifetime. They believed that He had come +forward with the cry of 'Hora novissima!' Whether they misunderstood Him or +not, they clearly could not have held this opinion if they had received +instructions for the constitution of a Church.</p> + +<p>The second point on which it is necessary to insist is that Christ never +expected, or taught His disciples to expect, that His teaching would meet +with wide acceptance, or exercise political influence. 'The +world'—organised human society—was the enemy and was to continue the +enemy. His message, He foresaw, would be scorned and rejected by the +majority; and those who preached it were to expect persecution. This +warning is repeated so often in the Gospels that it would be superfluous to +give quotations. He made it quite plain that the big battalions are never +likely to be gathered before the narrow gate. He declared that only false +prophets are well spoken of by the majority. When we consider the +revolutionary character of the Christian idealism, its indifference to +nearly all that passes for 'religion' with the vulgar, and its reversal of +all current valuations, it is plain that it is never likely to be a popular +creed. As surely as the presence of high spiritual instincts in the human +mind guarantees its indestructibility, so surely the deeply-rooted +prejudices which keep the majority on a lower level must prevent the Gospel +of Christ from dominating mundane politics or social life.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the actual extent of its influence cannot be estimated. The +inwardness and individualism of its teaching make its apparent +effectiveness smaller than its real power, which works secretly and +unobserved. The vices which Christ regarded with abhorrence are perversions +of character—hypocrisy, hard-heartedness, and worldliness or secularity; +and who can say what degree of success the Gospel has achieved in combating +these? The method of Christianity is alien to all externalism and +machinery; it does not lend itself to those accommodations and compromises +without which nothing can be done in politics. As Harnack says, the Gospel +is not one of social improvement, but of spiritual redemption. Its +influence upon social and political life is indirect and obscure, operating +through a subtle modification of current valuations, and curbing the +competitive and acquisitive instincts, which nearly correspond with what +Christ called 'Mammon' and St. Paul 'the flesh.' Christianity is a +spiritual dynamic, which has very little to do directly with the mechanism +of social life.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, certain that when we speak of Christianity as a factor +in human life, we must not identify it with the opinions or actions of the +multitudes who are nominally Christians. We must not even identify it, +without qualification, with the types of character exhibited by those who +try to frame their lives in accordance with its precepts. For these types +are very largely determined by the ideals which belong to the stage through +which the life of the race is passing; and these differ so widely in +different ages and countries that the historian of religion might well +despair if he was compelled to regard them all as typical manifestations of +the same idea. There are times when the disciple of Christ seems to turn +his back upon society; he is occupied solely with the relation of the +individual soul to God. These are periods when the opportunities for social +service are much restricted by a faulty structure of the body politic; +periods when secular civilisation is so brutal, or so servile, that the +religious life can only be led in seclusion from it. At another time the +typical Christian seems to be the active and valiant soldier of a militant +corporation. At another, again, he is a philanthropist, who devotes his +life to the redress of some great wrong, such as slavery, or the promotion +of a more righteous system of production and distribution. In all these +types we can trace the operation of the genius of Christianity, but they +are partial manifestations of it, with much alien admixture. The spirit of +the age, as well as the spirit of Christ, has moulded the various types of +Christian piety.</p> + +<p>If there has ever been a time when organised Christianity was a concrete +embodiment of the pure principles of the Gospel, we must look for it in the +era of the persecutions, when the Church had already gained coherence and +discipline and a corporate self-consciousness, and was still preserved from +the corrupting influence of secularity by the danger which attended the +profession of an illicit creed. A vivid picture of the Christian +communities at this period has been given by Dobschütz, whose learning and +impartiality are unimpeachable. The Church at this time demanded from its +followers an unreserved confession, even when this meant death. It was a +brotherhood within which there was no privileged class. Men and women, the +free and the slave, had an equal share in it. It abolished the fundamental +Greek distinction of civilised and barbarian. It looked with contempt on +none. Its great organisation was spread by purely voluntary means, till it +gained a firm footing throughout the Empire and beyond it. To a large +extent it was an association for mutual aid. Wherever anyone was in need, +help was at hand. The tangible advantages of belonging to such a guild were +so great that the Church had to enforce labour on all who could work, as a +condition of sharing in the benefits of membership. Social distinctions, +such as those of rich and poor, master and slave, were not abolished, but +they had lost their sting, because genuine affection, loyalty and sympathy +neutralised these inequalities. Great importance was laid on truth, +integrity in business, and sexual purity. A complete rupture with pagan +standards of morality was insisted on from new members. The human body must +be kept holy, as the temple of God. Revenge was forbidden, and injustice +was endured with meekness and pardon. This is no imaginary picture. In that +brief golden age of the Church, such were indeed the characteristics of the +Christian society. In the opinion of Dobschütz the moral condition of the +Church in the second century was much higher than among St. Paul's converts +in the first. The paucity of references to sins of the flesh, and to fraud, +is to be accounted for by the actual rarity of such offences. For a short +time, then, the artificial selection effected by the persecutions kept the +Church pure; and from the happy pictures which we can reconstruct of this +period we can judge what a really Christian society would be like.</p> + +<p>The history of institutional Catholicism must be approached from a +different side. Troeltsch argues with much cogency that the Catholic Church +must be regarded rather as the last creative achievement of classical +antiquity than as the beginning of the Middle Ages. Its growth belongs +mainly to the political history of Europe; the strictly religious element +in it is quite subordinate. There is, as Modernist critics have seen, a +real break between the Palestinian Gospel and the elaborate +mystery-religion, with its graded hierarchy, its Roman organisation, its +Hellenistic speculative theology, which achieved the conquest of the Empire +in the fourth century. The Church, as Loisy says, determined to survive and +to conquer, and adapted itself to the demands of the time. It has travelled +far from the simple teaching of the earthly Christ; though we may, if we +choose, hold that His spirit continued to direct the growing and changing +institution which, as a matter of history, had its source in the Galilean +ministry. In truth, however, the extremely efficient organisation of the +Roman Church began in self-defence and was continued for conquest. It is +one of the strongest of all human institutions, so that it was said before +the war that it is one of the 'three invincibles,' the other two being the +German Army and the Standard Oil Trust.</p> + +<p>But our admiration for the subtle and tenacious power of this corporation +must not blind us to its essentially political character. Its policy has +been always directed to self-preservation and aggrandisement; it is an +<i>imperium in imperio</i>, which has only checked fanatical nationalism by the +competing influence of a still more fanatical partisanship. In the present +war, the problem before the Pope's councillors was whether the friendship +of the Central Powers or that of the Entente was best worth cultivating; +and the unshaken loyalty of Austria to the Church, together with a natural +preference for German methods of governing as compared with democracy, +turned the scale against us. In Ireland, in Canada and in Spain the +Catholic priests have been formidable enemies of our cause. As for the +other Churches, they have not the same power of arbitrating in national +quarrels. The Russian Church has never been independent of the secular +government; and the Anglican and Lutheran Churches can hardly be expected +to be impartial when the vital interests of England or Germany are at +stake. Lovers of peace have not much to hope for from organised religion. +National Christianity, as Mr. Bernard Shaw says, will only be possible +when we have a nation of Christs.</p> + +<p>The downfall of the medieval European system, though in truth it was a +theory rather than a fact, has removed some of the restraints upon war. The +determining principle of the medieval political theory was the conception +of a 'lex Dei,' which included the 'lex Mosis,' the 'lex Christi,' and the +'lex ecclesiae,' but which also, as 'lex naturæ,' comprised the law, +science, and ethics of antiquity. These laws were super-national, and no +nation dared explicitly to repudiate them. They formed the basis of a real +system of international law, resting, like everything else in the Middle +Ages, on supposed divine authority.</p> + +<p>This theory, with its sanctions, was shattered at the Renaissance; and the +Machiavellian doctrine of the absolute State, accepted by Bacon and put +into practice by Frederick the Great, has prevailed ever since, though not +without frequent protests. The rise of nationalities, each with an intense +self-consciousness, has facilitated the adoption of a theory too grossly +immoral to have found favour except in the peculiar circumstances of modern +civilisation. The emergence of nationalities was often connected with a +legitimate struggle for freedom; and at such times <i>esprit de corps</i> seems +to be almost the sum of morality, the substitute for all other virtues. +Loyalty is one of the most attractive of moral qualities, and it +necessarily inhibits criticism of its own objects, which has the appearance +of treason. But, unless the aims of the corporate body which claims our +absolute allegiance are right and reasonable, loyalty may be, and often has +been, the parent of hideous crimes, and a social evil of the first +magnitude. The perversion of <i>esprit de corps</i> does incalculable harm in +every direction, destroying all sense of honour and justice, of chivalry +and generosity, of sympathy and humanity. It involves a complete +repudiation of Christianity, which breaks down all barriers by ignoring +them, and insists on love and justice towards all mankind without +distinction. The worship of the State has during the last half-century been +sedulously and artificially fostered in Germany, until it has produced a +kind of moral insanity. Even philosophical historians like Troeltsch seem +unable to see the monstrosity of a political doctrine which has caused his +country to be justly regarded as the enemy of the whole human race. Eucken, +writing some years before the war, in a rather gingerly manner deprecates +<i>Politismus</i> as a national danger; but he does not dare to grasp the nettle +firmly. It is possible that this deification of the State in Germany may be +in part due to an unsatisfied instinct of worship. In Roman Catholic +countries, where there must be a divided allegiance, patriotism never, +perhaps, assumes such sinister and fanatical forms.</p> + +<p>But we shall not understand the attraction which this naked immoralism in +international affairs exercises over the minds of many who are not +otherwise ignoble, if we do not remember that the repudiation of the +Christian ethical standard has been equally thorough in commercial +competition. The German officer believes himself to have chosen a morally +nobler profession than that of the business-man; he serves (he thinks) a +larger cause, and he is content with much less personal reward. Socialist +assailants of our industrial system, much as they dislike war, would +probably agree with him. It is not necessary to condemn all competition. +The desire to excel others is not reprehensible, when the rivalry is in +rendering useful social service. But it cannot be denied that the present +condition of industry is such that a heavy premium is offered to mere +cupidity; that the fraternal social life which Christianity enjoins is +often literally impossible, except at the cost of economic suicide; and +that in a competitive system a business man is, by the very force of +circumstances, a warrior, though war is an enemy of love and destructive of +Christian society. When the object of bargaining is to give as little and +gain as much as possible, the Christian standard of values has been +rejected as completely as it was by Machiavelli himself. The competition +between two parties to a bargain is often a competition in +unserviceableness. Money is very frequently made by creating a local and +temporary monopoly, which enables the vendor to squeeze the purchaser. In +all such transactions one man's gain is another man's loss. This state of +things, the evils of which are almost universally recognised and deplored, +marks the end of the glorification of productive industry which was one +result of the Reformation.</p> + +<p>Hardly anything distinguishes modern from medieval ethics more sharply than +the emphasis laid by Protestant morality on the duty of making and +producing something tangible. Theoretically the Protestant may hold that +'doing ends in death,' and he may sing these words on Sunday; but his whole +life on week days is occupied in strenuous 'doing.' We find in Calvinism +and Quakerism the genuinely religious basis of the modern business life, +which, however, has degenerated sadly, now that the largest fortunes are +made by dealing in money rather than in commodities. In the books of Samuel +Smiles, and in Clough's poem beginning 'Hope ever more and believe, O Man,' +we find the Gospel of productive work preached with fervour. It is out of +favour now in England; but in America we still see quaint attempts to make +business a religion, as in the Middle Ages religion was a business. In +these circles, it is productive activity as such to which value is +attached, without much enquiry as to the utility of the product. The result +has been an immense accumulation of the apparatus of life, without any +corresponding elevation in moral standards. The mischiefs wrought by modern +commercialism are largely the fruit of the purely irrational production +which it encourages. There are, says Professor Santayana, Nibelungen who +toil underground over a gold which they will never use, and in their +obsession with production begrudge themselves all inclinations to +recreation, to merriment, to fancy. Visible signs of such unreason appear +in the relentless and hideous aspect which life puts on; for those +instruments which emancipate themselves from their uses soon become +hateful. 'A barbaric civilisation, built on blind impulse and ambition, +should fear to awaken a deeper detestation than could ever be aroused by +those more beautiful tyrannies, chivalrous or religious, against which past +revolutions have been directed.' We cannot, indeed, be surprised that this +ideal of productive work as a means of grace, precious for its own sake, +has no attraction for the masses, and that independent thinkers like Edward +Carpenter should write books on 'Civilisation, its Cause and Cure.'</p> + +<p>This Puritan ideal is not so much unchristian as narrow and unintelligent; +but the money-making life has of late become more and more frankly +predatory and anti-social. The great trusts, and the arts of the +company-promoter, can hardly be said to perform any social service; they +exist to levy tribute on the public. We may say therefore that, though war +between the leading nations of the world had become a strange idea and a +far-off memory, we had by no means risen above the principles and practices +of war in our internal life. The immunity from militarism hitherto enjoyed +by Britain and the United States was a fortunate accident, not a proof of +higher morality. Our fleet protected both ourselves and the Americans from +the necessity of maintaining a conscript army; but we had drifted into a +condition in which civil war seemed not to be far off, and in which +violence and lawlessness were increasing. By a strange inconsistency, many +who on moral or religious grounds condemned wars between nations were found +to condone or justify acts of war against the State, organised by +discontented factions of its citizens. Revolutionary strikes, prepared long +in advance by forced levies of money which were candidly called war-funds, +had as their avowed aim the paralysis of the industries of the country and +the reduction of the population to distress by withholding the necessaries +of life. These acts of civil war, and disgraceful outbreaks of criminal +anarchism, were justified by persons who professed a conscientious +objection to defending their homes and families against a foreign invader. +This state of mind proves how little essential connexion there is between +democracy and peace. It discloses a confusion of ideas even greater than +the antithesis between industrialism and militarism in the writings of +Herbert Spencer. On this latter fallacy it is enough to quote the words of +Admiral Mahan; 'As far as the advocacy of peace rests on material motives +like economy and prosperity, it is the service of Mammon; and the bottom of +the platform will drop out when Mammon thinks that war will pay better.' +This is notoriously what has happened in Germany. A short war, with huge +indemnities, seemed to German financiers a promising speculation. If such +were the rotten foundations upon which anti-militarism in this country was +based, the Churches cannot be blamed for giving the peace-movement a rather +lukewarm support.</p> + +<p>In Germany there was no internal anarchy, such as prevailed in England; +there was also no illusion about the imminence of war. Our politicians +ought to have read the signs of the times better; but they were too intent +on feeling the pulse of the electorate at home to attend to disturbing and +unwelcome symptoms abroad. The causes of the war are not difficult to +determine. War has long been a national industry of Germany, and the idea +of it evoked no moral repugnance. The military virtues were extolled; the +military profession enjoyed an astonishing social prestige; the learned +class proclaimed the biological necessity of international conflicts. The +army believed itself to be invincible, and it had begun to control the +policy of the country; where these two conditions exist, no diplomacy can +avert war. Professionalism always has a selfish and anti-social element in +its code, and the professionalism of the soldier is always prone to +override the rights and disdain the scruples of civilians.</p> + +<p>The dominant classes in Germany also found that their power was being +undermined by the growing industrialisation. The steady increase in the +social-democratic vote was a portent not to be disregarded. A letter from a +German officer to a friend in Roumania, which found its way into the +newspapers, tells a great deal of truth in a few words. 'You cannot +conceive,' he wrote, 'what difficulty we had in persuading our Emperor that +it was necessary to let loose this war. But it has been done; and I hope +that for a long time to come we shall hear no more in Germany of pacifism, +internationalism, democracy, and similar pestilent doctrines.' Sir Charles +Walston, in his thoughtful book 'Aristodemocracy,' lays great stress on +this. 'It appeared to me,' he says, 'ever since 1905, that in the immediate +future it was all a question as to whether the labour-men, the practical +pacifists, would arrive at the realisation of their power before the +militarists had forced a war upon us, or whether the military powers would +anticipate this result, and within the next few years force a war upon the +world.' To the influence of the military was added the cupidity of the +commercial and financial class. The law of diminishing returns was driving +capital further and further afield; and large profits, it was hoped, might +be made by the exploitation of backward countries and the reduction of +their inhabitants to serfdom. To a predatory and parasitic class war seems +only a logical extension of the principles upon which it habitually acts; +and for this reason privileged orders seldom feel much moral compunction +about a war-policy. Lastly, among the causes of the war must be reckoned +one which has received far too little attention from social and political +philosophers—the tenacious and half-unconscious memories of a race. +Injustice comes home to roost, sometimes after an astonishingly long +interval. The disaffection of Catholic Ireland would be quite +unintelligible without the massacres of the sixteenth century and the +unjust trade-legislation of the seventeenth and eighteenth. The bitterness +of the working class in England has its roots in the earlier period of the +industrial revolution (about 1760-1832), when the labourer, with his wife +and children, was treated as the 'cannon-fodder' of industry. Similarly, +the seeds of Prussian brutality and aggressiveness were sown at Jena and in +the raiding of Prussia for recruits before the Moscow expedition. If such +were the causes of the great world-war, how little can be hoped from courts +of international arbitration!</p> + +<p>These considerations have, perhaps, made it clear that the main causes of +international conflicts are what the Epistle of St. James declares them to +be—'the lusts that war in your members,' the pugnacious and acquisitive +instincts which pervade our social life in times of peace, and not least in +those nations which pride themselves on having advanced beyond the militant +stage. There are some who accept this state of things as natural and +necessary, and who blame Christianity for carrying on a futile campaign +against human nature. This is a very different indictment from that which +condemns Christianity for tolerating a preventible evil; and it is, in our +opinion, even less justified. The argument that, because war has always +existed, it must always continue to exist, is justly ridiculed by Mr. +Norman Angell. 'It is commonly asserted that old habits of thought can +never be shaken; that, as men have been, so they will be. That, of course, +is why we now eat our enemies, enslave their children, examine witnesses +with the thumbscrew, and burn those who do not attend the same church.'</p> + +<p>The long history of war as a racial habit explains why a ruinous and insane +anachronism shows such tenacity; for the conditions which established the +habit among primitive tribes demonstrably no longer exist. It is probably +true, as William James says, that 'militarist writers without exception +regard war as a biological or sociological necessity'; lawyers might say +the same about litigation. But laws of nature 'are not efficient causes, +and it is open to any one to prove that they are not laws, if he can break +them with impunity. It would be the height of pessimistic fatalism to hold +that men must always go on doing that which they hate, and which brings +them to misery and ruin. Man is not bound for ever by habits contracted +during his racial nonage; his moral, rational, and spiritual instincts are +as natural as his physical appetites; and against them, as St. Paul says, +'there is no law,' Huxley's Romanes Lecture gave an unfortunate support to +the mischievous notion that the 'cosmic process' is the enemy of morality. +The truth seems to be that Nature presents to us not a categorical +imperative, but a choice. Do we prefer to pay our way in the world, or to +be parasites? War, with very few exceptions, is a mode of parasitism. Its +object is to exploit the labour of other nations, to make them pay tribute, +or to plunder them openly, as the Germans have plundered the cities of +Belgium. War is a parasitic industry; and Christianity forbids parasitism. +Nature has her own penalties for the lower animals which make this choice, +and they strike with equal severity 'the peoples that delight in war,' The +bellicose nations have nearly all perished.</p> + +<p>There remains, however, a class of wars which escapes this condemnation; +and about them difficult moral problems may be raised. We can hardly deny +to a growing and civilised nation the right to expand at the expense of +barbarous hunters and nomads. No one would suggest that the Americans ought +to give back their country to the Indians, or that Australia should be +abandoned to the aborigines. But were the Anglo-Saxons justified in +expropriating the Britons, and the Spaniards the Aztecs? There is room for +differences of opinion in these cases; and a very serious problem may arise +in the future, as to whether the European races are morally justified in +using armed force to restrict Asiatic competition. As a general principle, +we must condemn the expropriation of any nation which is in effective +occupation of the soil. The popular estimate of superior and inferior races +is thoroughly unchristian and unscientific, as is the prejudice against a +dark skin. The opinion that a nation which is increasing in population has +a right to expel the inhabitants of another country to make room for its +own emigrants is surely untenable. If it justifies war at all, it sanctions +a war of extermination, which would attain its objects most completely by +massacring girls and young women. The pressure of population is a real +cause of war; but the moral is, not that war is right, but that a nation +must cut its coat according to its cloth, and limit its numbers.</p> + +<p>Unless we justify wars of extermination, war has no biological sanction, +and Christianity is not flying in the face of nature by condemning it. On +the contrary, by condemning every form of parasitism, it indicates the true +path of evolution. It is equally right in rejecting the purely economic +valuation of human goods. The 'economic man' does not exist in nature; he +is a fictitious creature who is responsible for a great deal of social +injustice. Some modern economists, like Mr. Hobson, would substitute for +the old monetary standards of production and distribution an attempt to +estimate the 'human costs' of labour. Creative work involving ingenuity and +artistic qualities is not 'costly' at all, unless the hours of labour, or +the nervous strain, exceed the powers of the worker. More monotonous work +is not costly to the worker if the day's labour is fairly short, or if some +variety can be introduced. The human cost is greatly increased if the +worker thinks that his labour is useless, or that it will only benefit +those who do not deserve the enjoyment of its fruits. Work which only +produces frivolous luxuries is and ought to be unwelcome to the producer, +even if he is well paid. It must also be emphasised that worry and anxiety +take the heart out of a man more than anything else. Security of employment +greatly reduces the 'human cost' of labour. These considerations are +comparatively new in political economy. They change it from a highly +abstract science into a study of the conditions of human welfare as +affected by social organisation. The change is a victory for the ideas of +Buskin and Morris, though not necessarily for the practical remedies for +social maladjustments which they propounded. It brings political economy +into close relations with ethics and religion, and should induce economists +to consider carefully the contribution which Christianity makes to the +solution of the whole problem. For Christianity has its remedy to propose, +and it is a solution of the problem of war, not less than of industrial +evils.</p> + +<p>Christianity gives the world a new and characteristic standard of values. +It diminishes greatly the values which can accrue from competition, and +enhances immeasurably the non-competitive values. 'A man's life consisteth +not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.' 'Is not the life +more than meat, and the body than raiment?' 'The Kingdom of God is not meat +and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.' Passages +like these are found in every part of the New Testament. This Christian +idealism has a direct bearing on the doctrine of 'human costs.' Work is +irksome, not only when it is excessive or ill-paid, but when the worker is +lazy, selfish, envious or discontented. There is one thing which can make +almost any work welcome. If it is done from love or unselfish affection, +the human cost is almost <i>nil</i>, because it is not counted or consciously +felt. This is no exaggeration when it is applied to the devoted labour of +the mother and the nurse, or to that of the evangelist conscious of a +divine vocation. But in all useful work the keen desire to render social +service, or to do God's will, diminishes to an incalculable extent the +'human cost' of labour. This principle introduces a deep cleavage between +the Christian remedy and that of political socialism, which fosters +discontent and indignation as a lever for social amelioration. Men are made +unhappy in order that they may be urged to claim a larger share of the +world's wealth. Christianity considers that, measured by human costs, the +remedy is worse than the disease. The adoption of a truer standard of value +would tear up the lust of accumulation by the roots, and would thus effect +a real cure. It would also stop the grudging and deliberately bad work +which at present seriously diminishes the national wealth.</p> + +<p>The Christian cure is the only real cure. It is the fashion to assume that +militarism and cupidity are vices of the privileged classes, and that +democracies may be trusted neither to plunder the minority at home nor to +seek foreign adventures by unjust wars. There is not the slightest reason +to accept either of these views. Political power is always abused; an +unrepresented class is always plundered. Nor are democracies pacific, +except by accident. At present they do not wish to see the capital which +they regard as their prospective prey dissipated in war; and for this +reason their influence in our time will probably be on the side of peace. +But, as soon as the competition of cheap Asiatic labour becomes acute, we +may expect to see the democracies bellicose and the employing class +pacific. This is not guess-work; we already see how the democracies of +California and Australia behave towards immigrants from Asia. Readers of +Anatole France will remember his description of the economic wars decreed +by the Senate of the great republic, at the end of 'L'Île des Pingouins.' +It would, indeed, be difficult to prove that the expansion of the United +States has differed much, in methods and morals, from that of the European +monarchies; and the methods of trade-unions are the methods of pitiless +belligerency. Democracy and socialism are broken reeds for the lover of +peace to lean upon.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, our answer to the indictment against Christianity is that +institutional religion does not represent the Gospel of Christ, but the +opinions of a mass of nominal Christians. It cannot be expected to do much +more than look after its own interests and reflect the moral ideas of its +supporters. The real Gospel, if it were accepted, would pull up by the +roots not only militarism but its analogue in civil life, the desire to +exploit other people for private gain. But it is not accepted. We have seen +that the Founder of Christianity had no illusions as to the reception which +His message of redemption would meet with. The 'Prince of this World' is +not Christ, but the Devil. Nevertheless, He did speak of the 'whole lump' +being gradually leavened, and we shall not exceed the limits of a +reasonable and justifiable optimism if we hope that the accumulated +experience of humanity, and perhaps a real though very slow modification +for the better of human nature itself, may at last eliminate the wickedest +and most insane of our maleficent institutions. The human race has probably +hundreds of thousands of years to live, whereas our so-called civilisation +cannot be traced back for more than a few thousand years. The time when +'nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn +war any more,' will probably come at last, though no one can predict what +the conditions will be which will make such a change possible.</p> + +<p>The signs are not very favourable at present for internationalism. The +great nations, bankrupt and honey-combed with social unrest, will be +obliged after the war to organise themselves as units, with governments +strong enough to put down revolutions, and directed by men of the highest +mercantile ability, whose main function will be to increase productiveness +and stop waste. We may even see Germany mobilised as one gigantic trust for +capturing markets and regulating prices. A combination so formidable would +compel other nations, and our own certainly among the number, to adopt a +similar organisation. This would, of course, mean a complete victory for +bureaucratic state-socialism, and the defeat of democracy and trade-union +syndicalism. Such a change, which few would just now welcome, will occur if +no other form of state is able to survive; and this is what we may live to +see. But there is no finality about any experiments in government. A period +of internationalism may follow the intense nationalism which historical +critics foresee for the twentieth century. Or perhaps the international +labour-organisations may be too strong for the centralising forces. It is +just possible that Labour, by a concerted movement during the violent +reaction against militarism which will probably follow the war, will forbid +any further military or naval preparations to be made.</p> + +<p>Whatever forms reconstruction may take, Christianity will have its part to +play in making the new Europe. It will be able to point to the terrible +vindication of its doctrines in the misery and ruin which have overtaken a +world which has rejected its valuations and scorned its precepts. It is not +Christianity which has been judged and condemned at the bar of +civilisation; it is civilisation which has destroyed itself because it has +honoured Christ with its lips, while its heart has been far from Him. But a +spiritual religion can win a victory only within its own sphere. It can +promise no Deuteronomic catalogue of blessings and cursings to those who +obey or disobey its principles. Social happiness and peace would certainly +follow a whole-hearted acceptance of Christian principles; but they would +not certainly bring wealth or empire. 'Philosophy,' said Hegel, 'will bake +no man's bread'; and it is only in a spiritual sense that the meek-spirited +can expect to possess the earth. Nevertheless, it is a mistake to suppose +that a Christian nation would be unable to hold its own in the struggle for +existence. A nation in which every citizen endeavoured to pay his way and +to help his neighbour would be in no danger of servitude or extinction. The +mills of God grind slowly, but the future does not belong to lawless +violence. In the long run, the wisdom that is from above will be justified +in her children.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SURVIVAL_AND_IMMORTALITY" id="SURVIVAL_AND_IMMORTALITY" />SURVIVAL AND IMMORTALITY</h2> + +<h3>(1917)</h3> + + +<p>The recrudescence of superstition in England was plain to all observers +many years before the war; it was perhaps most noticeable among the +half-educated rich. Several causes contributed to this phenomenon. The +craving for the supernatural, a very ancient and deeply rooted +thought-habit, had been suppressed and driven underground by the arrogant +dominance of a materialistic philosophy, and by the absorption of society +in the pursuit of gain and pleasure. Modern miracles were laughed out of +court. But materialism has supernaturalism for its nemesis. An abstract +science, erecting itself into a false philosophy, leaves half our nature +unsatisfied, and becomes morally bankrupt before its intellectual errors +are exposed. Supernaturalism is the refuge of the materialist who wishes to +make room for ideal values without abandoning the presuppositions of +materialism. By dovetailing acts of God into the order of nature, he +materialises the spiritual, but brings the Divine will into the world of +experience, from which it had been expelled, and produces a rough scheme of +providential government, by which he can live.</p> + +<p>The revolt against scientific materialism was made much easier by the +disintegration of the mechanical theory itself. Biology found itself +cramped by the categories of inorganic science, and claimed its autonomy. +The result was a fatal breach in the defences of materialism, for biology +is being driven to accept final causes, and would be glad to adopt some +theory of vitalism, if it could do so without falling back into the old +error of a mysterious 'vital force.' Biological truth, it is plain, cannot +be reduced to the purely quantitative categories of mathematics and +physics. Then psychology aspired to be a philosophy of real existence, and +attacked both absolutism and materialism. The pretensions of psychology +rehabilitated subjectivism and founded pragmatism, till reactionary +theology took heart of grace and defended crude supernaturalism, with the +whole apparatus of sacerdotal magic, as the 'Gospel for human needs.' All +protection against the grossest superstitions was thus swept away. With no +fixed standard of reference to distinguish fact from fiction, it was +possible to argue that 'whatever suits souls is true.'</p> + +<p>In this atmosphere many old habits of thought reasserted themselves. While +we enjoyed peace and prosperity, the credulity of the public found its +chief outlet in various systems of faith-healing and in the time-honoured +pretensions of priest-craft. But the devastation which the war has brought +into countless loving families has turned the current of superstition +strongly towards necromancy. The 'will to believe,' no longer inhibited and +suspected as a reason for doubt, has been allowed to create its own logic. +A few highly educated men, who have long been playing with occultism and +gratifying their intellectual curiosity by exploring the dark places of +perverted mysticism, have been swept off their feet by it, and their +authority, as 'men of science,' has dispelled the hesitation of many more +to accept what they dearly wished to believe. The longing of the bereaved +has created for itself a spurious and dreary satisfaction.</p> + +<p>One cause of this strange movement cannot be emphasised too strongly. It +proves that the Christian hope of immortality burns very dimly among us. +Those who study the utterances of our religious guides must admit that it +is so. References to the future life had, before the war, become rare even +in the pulpit. The topic was mainly reserved for letters of condolence, and +was then handled gingerly, as if it would not bear much pressure. +Working-class audiences and congregations listened eagerly to the wildest +promises of an earthly utopia the day after tomorrow, but cooled down at +once when they were reminded that 'if in this life only we have hope in +Christ, we are of all men most miserable.' Accordingly, the clerical +demagogue showed more interest in the unemployed than in the unconverted. +Christianity, which began as a revolutionary idealism, had sunk into +heralding materialistic revolution. Such teachers have no message of hope +and comfort for those who have lost their dearest. And they have, in fact, +been deserted. Their secularised Christianity was received with +half-contemptuous approval by trade unions, but far deeper hopes, fears, +and longings have now been stirred, which concern all men and women alike, +and on the answers to which the whole value of existence is now seen to +depend. Christianity can answer them, but not the Churches through the +mouths of their accredited representatives. And so, instead of 'the blessed +hope of everlasting life,' the bereaved have been driven to this pathetic +and miserable substitute, the barbaric belief in ghosts and dæmons, which +was old before Christianity was young. And what a starveling hope it is +that necromancy offers us! An existence as poor and unsubstantial as that +of Homer's Hades, which the shade of Achilles would have been glad to +exchange for serfdom to the poorest farmer, and with no guarantee of +permanence, even if the power of comforting or terrifying surviving +relations is supposed to persist for a few years. Such a prospect would add +a new terror to death; and none would desire it for himself. It is plainly +the dream of an aching heart, which cannot bear to be left alone.</p> + +<p>But, it will be said, there is scientific evidence for survival. This claim +is now made. Cases are reported, with much parade of scientific language +and method, and those who reject the stories with contemptuous incredulity +are accused of mere prejudice. Nevertheless, I cannot help being convinced +that if communications between the dead and the living were part of the +nature of things, they would have been established long ago beyond cavil. +For there are few things which men have wished more eagerly to believe. It +is no doubt just possible that among the vibrations of the fundamental +ingredients of our world—those attenuated forms of matter which are said +to be not even 'material,' there may be some which act as vehicles for +psychical interchange. If such psychic waves exist, the discovery is wholly +in favour of materialism. It would tend to rehabilitate those notions of +spirit as the most rarefied form of matter—an ultra-gaseous condition of +it—which Stoicism and the Christian Stoic Tertullian postulated. The +meaning of 'God is Spirit' could not be understood till this insidious +residue of materialism had been got rid of. It is a retrograde theory which +we are asked to re-examine and perhaps accept. The moment we are asked to +accept 'scientific evidence' for spiritual truth, the alleged spiritual +truth becomes for us neither spiritual nor true. It is degraded into an +event in the phenomenal world, and when so degraded it cannot be +substantiated. Psychical research is trying to prove that eternal values +are temporal facts, which they can never be.</p> + +<p>The case for necromancy is no better if we leave 'scientific proof' alone, +and appeal to the relativist metaphysics of the psychological school. +Intercourse with the dead is, we are told, a real psychical experience, and +we need not worry ourselves with the question whether it has any 'objective +truth.' But we cannot allow psychology to have the last word in determining +the truth or falsehood of religious or spiritual experience. The +extravagant claims of this science to take the place of philosophy must be +abated.</p> + +<p>Psychology is the science which describes mental states, as physical +science describes the behaviour of matter in motion. Both are abstract +sciences. Physical science treats nature as the totality of things +conceived of as independent of any subject; psychology treats inner +experience as independent of any object. Both are outside any idea of +value, though it is needless to say that the votaries of both sciences +trespass habitually, and often unconsciously. Both are dualisms with one +side ignored or suppressed. When psychology meddles with ontological +problems—when, for instance it denies the existence of an Absolute, or +says that reality cannot be known—it is taking too much upon itself, and +has fallen into the same error as the materialism of the last century. On +such questions as the immortality of the soul it must remain silent.</p> + +<p>Faith in human immortality stands or falls with the belief in <i>absolute +values</i>. The interest of consciousness, as Professor Pringle-Pattison has +said in his admirable Gifford Lectures, lies in the ideal values of which +it is the bearer, not in its mere existence as a more refined kind of fact. +Idealism is most satisfactorily defined as the interpretation of the world +according to a scale of value, or, in Plato's phrase, by the Idea of the +Good. The highest values in this scale are absolute, eternal, and +super-individual, and lower values are assigned their place in virtue of +their correspondence to or participation in these absolute values. I agree +with Münsterberg that the conditional and subjective values of the +pragmatist have no meaning unless we have acknowledged beforehand the +independent value of truth. If the proof of the merely individual +significance of truth has itself only individual importance, it cannot +claim any general meaning. If, on the other hand, it demands to be taken as +generally valid, the possibility of a general truth is acknowledged from +the start. If this one exception is granted, the whole illusory universe of +relativism is overthrown. To deny any thought which is more than relative +is to deprive even scepticism itself of the presuppositions on which it +rests. The logical sceptic has no <i>ego</i> to doubt with. 'Every doubt of +absolute values destroys itself. As thought it contradicts itself; as doubt +it denies itself; as belief it despairs of itself.' It is not necessary or +desirable to follow Münsterberg in identifying valuation with will. He +talks of the will judging; but the will cannot judge. In contemplating +existence we use our will to fix our attention, and then try +conscientiously to prevent it from influencing the verdict. But this +illegitimate use of the word 'will' does not impair the force of the +argument for absolute values.</p> + +<p>Now, valuation arranges experience in a different manner from natural +science. The attributes of reality, in our world of values, are Goodness, +Truth, and Beauty. And we assert that we have as good reason to claim +objective reality for these Ideas as for anything in the world revealed to +our senses. 'All claims on man's behalf,' says Professor Pringle-Pattison, +'must be based on the objectivity of the values revealed in his +experience, and brokenly realised there. Man does not make values any more +than he makes reality.' Our contention is that the world of values, which +forms the content of idealistic thought and aspiration, is the real world; +and in this world we find our own immortality.</p> + +<p>But there could be no greater error than to leave the two worlds, or the +two 'judgments,' that of existence and that of value, contrasted with each +other, or treated as unrelated in our experience. A value-judgment which is +not also a judgment of existence is in the air; it is the baseless fabric +of a vision. Existence is itself a value, and an ingredient in every +valuation; that which has no existence has no value. And, on the other +side, it is a delusion to suppose that any science can dispense with +valuation. Even mathematics admits that there is a right and a wrong way of +solving a problem, though by confining itself to quantitative measurements +it can assert no more than a hypothetical reality for its world. It is +quite certain that we can think of no existing world without valuation.</p> + +<p>'The ultimate identity of existence and value is the venture of faith to +which mysticism and speculative idealism are committed.'<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93" /><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> It is indeed +the presupposition of all philosophy and all religion; without this faith +there can, properly speaking, be no belief in God. But the difference +between naturalism and idealism may, I think, be better stated otherwise +than by emphasising the contrast between existence and value, which it is +impossible for either side to maintain. Naturalism seeks to interpret the +world by investigation of origins; idealism by investigation of ends. The +one finds the explanation of evolution in that from which it started, the +other in that to which it tends. The one explains the higher by the lower; +the other the lower by the higher. This is a plain issue; either the world +shows a teleology or it does not. If it does, the philosophy based on the +inorganic sciences is wrong. And the attempt to explain the higher by the +lower becomes mischievous or impossible when we pass from one <i>order</i> to +another. In speaking of different 'orders,' we do not commit ourselves to +any sudden breaks or leaps in evolution. The organic may be linked to the +inorganic, soul to the lower forms of life, spirit to soul. But whether the +'scale of perfection' is a ladder or an inclined plane, new categories are +necessary as we ascend it. And unless we admit an inner teleology as a +determining factor in growth, many facts even in physiology are hard to +explain.</p> + +<p>If the basis of our faith in the world-order is the conviction that the +Ideas of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful are fully real and fully +operative, we must try to form some clear notion of what these Ideas mean, +and how they are related to each other. The goal of Truth, as an absolute +value, is unity, which in the outer world means harmony, in the intercourse +of spirit with spirit, love; and in the inner world, peace or happiness. +The goal of Goodness as an absolute value is the realisation of the +ought-to-be in victorious moral effort. Beauty is the self-recognition of +creative Spirit in its own works; it is the expression of Nature's own +deepest character. Beauty gives neither information nor advice; but it +satisfies a part of our nature which is not less Divine than that which +pays homage to Truth and Goodness.</p> + +<p>Now, these absolute values are supra-temporal. If the soul were in time, no +value could arise; for time is always hurling its own products into +nothingness, and the present is an unextended point, dividing an unreal +past from an unreal future. The soul is not in time; time is rather in the +soul. Values are eternal and indestructible. When Plotinus says that +'nothing that really <i>is</i> can ever perish' (ἁπολεἱται +οὑδεν τὡν ὁντων), +and when Höffding says that 'no value perishes out of the +world,' they are saying the same thing. In so far as we can identify +ourselves in thought and mind with the absolute values, we are sure of our +immortality.</p> + +<p>But it will be said that in the first place this promise of immortality +carries with it no guarantee of survival in time, and in the second place +that it offers us, at last, only an impersonal immortality. Let us take +these two objections in turn, though they are in reality closely +connected.</p> + +<p>We must not regard time as an external, inhuman, unconscious process. Time +is the frame of soul-life; outside this it has no existence. The entire +cosmic process is the life-frame of the universal Soul, the Divine Logos. +With this life we are vitally connected, however brief and unimportant the +span and the task of an individual career may seem to us. If my particular +life-meaning passes out of activity, it will be because the larger life, to +which I belong, no longer needs that form of expression. My death, like my +birth, will have a teleological justification, to which my supra-temporal +self will consent. When a good man's work in this world is done, when he is +able to say, without forgetting his many failures, 'I have finished the +work that Thou gavest me to do,' surely his last word will be, 'Lord, now +lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace'; not, 'Grant that I may flit for +a while over my former home, and hear what is happening to my country and +my family.' We may leave it to our misguided necromancers to describe the +adventures of the disembodied ghost—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Quo cursu deserta petiverit, et quibus ante<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Infelix sua tecta supervolitaverit alis.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The most respectable motive which leads men to desire a continuance of +active participation in the affairs of time is that which Tennyson +expresses in the often-quoted line, 'Give her the wages of going on, and +not to die.' We may feel that we have it in us to do more for God and our +fellow-men than we shall be able to accomplish in this life, even if it be +prolonged to old age. Is not this a desire which we may prefer as a claim? +And in any case, it is admitted that time is the form of the will. Are we +to have no more will after death? Further, is our probation over when we +die? What is to be the fate of that large majority who, so far as we can +see, are equally undeserving of heaven and of hell? To these questions no +answer is possible, because we are confronted with a blank wall of +ignorance. We do not know whether there will be any future probation. We +do not know whether Robert Browning's expectation of 'other tasks in other +lives, God willing,' will be fulfilled.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5">'And I shall thereupon<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Take rest, ere I be gone<br /></span> +<span>Once more on my adventure brave and new.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The question here raised is whether there is such a thing as reincarnation. +This belief, so widely held at all times by eminent thinkers, and +sanctioned by some of the higher religions, cannot be dismissed as obsolete +or impossible. But if it is put in the form, 'Will the same self live again +on earth under different conditions?' it may be that no answer can be +given, not only because we do not know, but because the question itself is +meaningless. The psycho-physical organism which was born at a certain date +and which will die on another date is compacted of idiosyncrasies, +inherited and acquired, which seem to be inseparable from its history as +born of certain parents and living under certain conditions. It is not easy +to say what part of such an organism could be said to maintain its +identity, if it were housed in another body and set down in another time +and place, when all recollection of a previous state has been (as we must +admit) cut off. The only continuity, it seems to me, would be that of the +racial self, if there is such a thing, or of the directing intelligence and +will of the higher Power which sends human beings into the world to perform +their allotted tasks.</p> + +<p>The second objection, which, as I have said, is closely connected with the +first, is that idealism offers us a merely impersonal immortality. But what +is personality? The notion of a world of spiritual atoms, '<i>solida +pollentia simplicitate</i>,' as Lucretius says, seems to be attractive to some +minds. There are thinkers of repute who even picture the Deity as the +constitutional President of a <i>collegium</i> of souls. This kind of pluralism +is of course fundamentally incompatible with the presuppositions of my +paper. The idea of the 'self' seems to me to be an arbitrary fixation of +our average state of mind, a half-way house which belongs to no order of +real existence. The conception of an abstract ego seems to involve three +assumptions, none of which is true. The first is that there is a sharp +line separating subject from object and from other subjects. The second is +that the subject, thus sundered from the object, remains identical through +time. The third is that this indiscerptible entity is in some mysterious +way both myself and my property. In opposition to the first, I maintain +that the foci of consciousness flow freely into each other even on the +psychical plane, while in the eternal world there are probably no barriers +at all. In opposition to the second, it is certain that the empirical self +is by no means identical throughout, and that the spiritual life, in which +we may be said to attain real personality for the first time, is only +'ours' potentially. In opposition to the third, I repeat that the question +whether it is 'my' soul that will live in the eternal world seems to have +no meaning at all. In philosophy as in religion, we had better follow the +advice of the Theologia Germanica and banish, as far as possible, the words +'me and mine' from our vocabulary. For personality is not something given +to start with. It does not belong to the world of claims and counter-claims +in which we chiefly live. We must be willing to lose our soul on this level +of experience, before we can find it unto life eternal. Personality is a +teleological fact; it is here in the making, elsewhere in fact and power. +So in the case of our friends. The man whom we love is not the changing +psycho-physical organism; it is the Christ in him that we love, the perfect +man who is struggling into existence in his life and growth. If we ask what +a man is, the answer may be either, 'He is what he loves,' or 'He is what +he is worth.' The two are not very different. Thus I cannot agree with +Keyserling, who in criticising this type of thought (with which, none the +less, he has great sympathy) says that 'mysticism, whether it likes it or +not, ends in an impersonal immortality.' For impersonality is a purely +negative conception, like timelessness. What is negated in 'timelessness' +is not the reality of the present, but the unreality of the past and +future. So the 'impersonality' which is here (not without warrant from the +mystics themselves) said to belong to eternal life is really the liberation +of the idea of personality. Personality is allowed to expand as far as it +can, and only so can it come into its own. When Keyserling adds, 'The +instinct of immortality really affirms that the individual is not +ultimate,' I entirely agree with him.</p> + +<p>The question, however, is not whether in heaven the circumference of the +soul's life is indefinitely enlarged, but whether the centre remains. These +centres are centres of consciousness; and consciousness apparently belongs +to the world of will. It comes into existence when the will has some work +to do. It is not conterminous with life; there is a life which is below +consciousness, and there may be a life above consciousness, or what we mean +by consciousness. We must remind ourselves that we are using a spatial +metaphor when we speak of a centre of consciousness, and a temporal one +when we ask about a continuing state of consciousness; and space and time +do not belong to the eternal world. The question therefore needs to be +transformed before any answer can be given to it. Spiritual life, we are +justified in saying, must have a richness of content; it is, potentially at +least, all embracing. But this enhancement of life is exhibited not only in +extension but in intensity. Eternal life is no diffusion or dilution of +personality, but its consummation. It seems certain that in such a state of +existence individuality must be maintained. If every life in this world +represents an unique purpose in the Divine mind, and if the end or meaning +of soul-life, though striven for in time, has both its source and its +achievement in eternity, this, the value and reality of the individual +life, must remain as a distinct fact in the spiritual world.</p> + +<p>We are sometimes inclined to think, with a natural regret, that the +conditions of life in the eternal world are so utterly unlike those of the +world which we know, that we must either leave our mental picture of that +life in the barest outline, or fill it in with the colours which we know on +earth, but which, as we are well aware, cannot portray truly the life of +blessed spirits. To some extent this is true; and whereas a bare and +colourless sketch of the richest of all facts is as far from the truth as +possible, we may allow ourselves to fill in the picture as best we can, if +we remember the risks which we run in doing so. There are, it seems to me, +two chief risks in allowing our imagination to create images of the bliss +of heaven. One is that the eternal world, thus drawn and painted with the +forms and colours of earth, takes substance in our minds as a second +physical world, either supposed to exist somewhere in space, or expected to +come into existence somewhen in time. This is the heaven of popular +religion; and being a geographical or historical expression, it is open to +attacks which cannot be met. Hence in the minds of many persons the whole +fact of human immortality seems to belong to dreamland. The other danger is +that, since a geographical and historical heaven is found to have no +actuality, the hope of eternal life, with all that the spiritual world +contains, should be relegated to the sphere of the 'ideal.' This seems to +be the position of Höffding, and is quite clearly the view of thinkers like +Santayana. They accept the dualism of value and existence, and place the +highest hopes of humanity in a world which has value only and no existence. +This seems to me to be offering mankind a stone for bread. Martineau's +protest against this philosophy is surely justified:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Amid all the sickly talk about "ideals," it is well to + remember that as long as they are a mere self-painting of + the yearning spirit, they have no more solidity than + floating air-bubbles, gay in the sunshine and broken by the + passing wind. You do not so much as touch the threshold of + religion, so long as you are detained by the phantoms of + your thought; the very gate of entrance to religion, the + moment of its new birth, is the discovery that your gleaming + ideal is the everlasting real.'<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94" /><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> </p></div> + +<p>But though our knowledge of the eternal world is much less than we could +desire, it is much greater than many thinkers allow. We are by no means +shut off from realisation and possession of the eternal values while we +live here. We are not confined to local and temporal experience. We know +what Truth and Beauty mean, not only for ourselves but for all souls +throughout the universe, and for God Himself. Above all, we know what Love +means. Now Love, which is the realisation in experience of spiritual +existence, has an unique value as a hierophant of the highest mysteries. +And Love guarantees personality, for it needs what has been called +<i>otherness</i>. In all love there must be a subject and an object, and a bond +between them which transcends without annulling their separateness. What +this means for personal immortality has been seen by many great minds. As +an example I will quote from Plotinus' picture of life in the spiritual +world. This writer is certainly not inclined to overestimate the claims of +separate individuality, and he is under no obligation to make his doctrine +conform to the dogmas of any creed.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Spirits yonder see themselves in others. For there all + things are transparent, and there is nothing dark or + resisting, but everyone is manifest to everyone internally, + and all things are manifest; for light is manifest to light. + For everyone has all things in himself and sees all things + in another, so that all things are everywhere and all is all + and each is all, and infinite the glory.'<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95" /><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> </p></div> + +<p>This eternal world is about us and within us while we live here. 'Heaven is +nearer to our souls than the earth is to our bodies.' The world which we +ordinarily think of as real is an arbitrary selection from experience, +corresponding roughly to the average reaction of life upon the average man. +Some values, such as existence, persistence, and rationality, are assumed +to be 'real'; others are relegated to the 'ideal' Under the influence of +natural science, special emphasis is laid on those values with which that +science is engaged. But our world changes with us. It rises as we rise, and +falls as we fall. It puts on immortality as we do. 'Such as men themselves +are, such will God appear to them to be.'<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96" /><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> Spinoza rightly says that all +true knowledge takes place <i>sub specie æternitatis</i>. For the +πνευματικοϛ +the whole of life is spiritual, and, as Eucken says, he +recognises the whole of the spiritual life as his own life-being. He +learns, as Plotinus declares in a profound sentence, that 'all things that +are Yonder are also Here below.'</p> + +<p>Is it then the conclusion of the whole matter that eternal life is merely +the true reading of temporal life? Is earth, when seen with purged vision, +not merely the shadow of heaven, but heaven itself? If we could fuse past, +present, and future into a <i>totum simul</i>, an 'Eternal Now,' would that be +eternity? This I do not believe. A full understanding of the values of our +life in time would indeed give us a good <i>picture</i> of the eternal world; +but that world itself, the abode of God and of blessed spirits, is a state +higher and purer than can be fully expressed in the order of nature. The +<i>perpetuity</i> of natural laws as they operate through endless ages is only a +Platonic 'image' of eternity. That all values are perpetual is true; but +they are something more than perpetual: they are eternal. These laws are +the creative forces which shape our lives from within; but all the +creatures, as St. Augustine says in a well-known passage, declare their +inferiority to their Creator. 'We are lower than He, for He made us.' +Scholastic theologians interposed an intermediary which they called <i>ævum</i> +between time and eternity. <i>Ævum</i> is perpetuity, which they rightly +distinguished from true eternity. Christianity is philosophically right in +insisting that our true home, our <i>patria</i>, is 'not here.' Nor is it in any +place: it is with God,'whose centre is everywhere and His circumference +nowhere.' There remaineth a rest for the people of God, when their warfare +on earth is accomplished.</p> + +<p>A Christian must feel that the absence of any clear revelation about a +<i>future</i> state is an indication that we are not meant to make it a +principal subject of our thoughts. On the other hand, the more we think +about the eternal values the happier we shall be. As Spinoza says, 'Love +directed towards the eternal and infinite fills the mind with pure joy, and +is free from all sadness. Wherefore it is greatly to be desired, and sought +after with our whole might.' But he also says, and I think wisely, that +there are few subjects on which the 'free' man will ponder less often, than +on death. The end of life is as right and natural as its beginning; we must +not rebel against the common lot, either for ourselves or for our friends. +We are to live in the present though not for the present. The two lines of +Goethe which Lewis Nettleship was so fond of quoting convey a valuable +lesson:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Nur we du bist, sei alles, immer kindlich:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">So bist du alles, bist unüberwindlich.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>'Death does not count,' as Nettleship used to say; and he met his own fate +on the Alps with a cheerfulness which showed that he believed it. The +craving for mere survival, no matter under what conditions, is natural to +some persons, and those who have it not must not claim any superiority over +those who shudder at the idea of resigning this 'pleasing, anxious being.' +Some brave and loyal men, like Samuel Johnson, have feared death all their +lives long; while others, even when fortune smiles upon them, 'have a +desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.' But the +longing for survival, and the anxious search for evidence which may satisfy +it, have undoubtedly the effect of binding us to earth and earthly +conditions; they come between us and faith in true immortality. They cannot +restore to us what death takes away. They cannot lay the spectre which made +Claudio a craven.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Ay, but to die and go we know not where;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This sensible warm motion to become<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To be imprisoned in the viewless winds,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And blown with restless violence round about<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The pendent world; or to be worse than worst<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of those that lawless and uncertain thoughts<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Imagine howling! 'tis too horrible!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The weariest and most loathed earthly life<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Can lay on nature, is a paradise<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To what we fear of death.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We know now, if we did not know it three years ago, that the average man +can face death, and does face it in the majority of cases, with a serenity +which would be incomprehensible if he did not know in his heart of hearts +that it does not matter much. He may have no articulated faith in +immortality, but, like Spinoza, he has 'felt and experienced that he is +eternal.' Perhaps he only says to himself, 'Who dies if England lives?' But +the England that lives is his own larger self, the life that is more his +own life than the beating of his heart, which a bullet may still for ever. +And if the exaltation of noble patriotism can 'abolish death, and bring +life and immortality to light' for almost any unthinking lad from our +factories and hedgerows, should not religion be able to do as much for us +all? And may it not be that some touch of heroic self-abnegation is +necessary before we can have a soul which death cannot touch? When Christ +said that those who are willing to lose their souls shall save them, is not +this what He meant? We must accustom ourselves to breathe the air of the +eternal values, if we desire to live for ever. And a strong faith is not +curious about details. 'Beloved, now are we sons of God; and it doth not +yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He is made manifest we +shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93" /><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> Quoted by Professor Pringle-Pattison from an article by me in +the <i>Times</i> Literary Supplement.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94" /><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> <i>Study of Religion</i>, vol. i. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95" /><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> <i>Ennead</i>, v. 8, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96" /><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> From John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist.</p></div> +</div> + +<p>THE END</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Outspoken Essays, by William Ralph Inge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 15249-h.htm or 15249-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/4/15249/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, and the +PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Outspoken Essays + +Author: William Ralph Inge + +Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15249] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, and the +PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS + +BY + +WILLIAM RALPH INGE, C.V.O., D.D. + +DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S + +FIFTH IMPRESSION + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON +FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK +BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS + +1920 + + + + +PREFACE + + +All the Essays in this volume, except the first, have appeared in the +_Edinburgh Review_, the _Quarterly Review_, or the _Hibbert Journal_. I +have to thank the Publishers and Editors of those Reviews for their +courtesy in permitting me to reprint them. The articles on _The +Birth-Rate, The Future of the English Race, Bishop Gore and the Church +of England_, and _Cardinal Newman_ are from the _Edinburgh Review_; +those on _Patriotism, Catholic Modernism, St. Paul_, and _The Indictment +against Christianity_ are from the _Quarterly Review_; those on +_Institutionalism and Mysticism_ and _Survival and Immortality_ from the +_Hibbert Journal_. I have not attempted to remove all traces of +overlapping, which I hope may be pardoned in essays written +independently of each other; but a few repetitions have been excised. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I. OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS 1 + + II. PATRIOTISM 35 + + III. THE BIRTH-RATE 59 + + IV. THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH RACE 82 + + V. BISHOP GORE AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 106 + + VI. ROMAN CATHOLIC MODERNISM 137 + + VII. CARDINAL NEWMAN 172 + +VIII. ST. PAUL 205 + + IX. INSTITUTIONALISM AND MYSTICISM 230 + + X. THE INDICTMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY 243 + + XI. SURVIVAL AND IMMORTALITY 266 + + + + +Photera theleist soi malthaka pseydhe lhego, he sklher' alethhe; +phrhaze, she gar he krhisist. + +_Euripides_. + + +The case of historical writers is hard; for if they tell the truth +they provoke man, and if they write what is false they offend +God.--_Matthew Paris_. + +Quattuor sunt maxime comprehendendae veritatis offendicula; videlicet, +fragilis et indignae auctoritatis exemplum, consuetudinis diuturnitas, +vulgi sensus imperiti, et propriae ignorantiae occultatio cum +ostentatione sapientiae superioris.--_Roger Bacon_. + + Iudicio perpende; et si tibi vera videntur, + Dede manus; aut si falsum est, accingere contra. + +_Lucretius_. + + +Eventu rerum stolidi didicere magistro. + +_Claudian_. + + +'All' he toi men tahyta thehon en gohynasi kehitai. + +_Homer_. + + + + +I + +OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS + +(AUGUST, 1919) + + +The Essays in this volume were written at various times before and +during the Great War. In reading them through for republication, I have +to ask myself whether my opinions on social science and on the state of +religion, the two subjects which are mainly dealt with in this +collection, have been modified by the greatest calamity which has ever +befallen the civilised world, or by the issue of the struggle. I find +very little that I should now wish to alter. The war has caused events +to move faster, but in the same direction as before. The social +revolution has been hurried on; the inevitable counter-revolution has +equally been brought nearer. For if there is one safe generalisation in +human affairs, it is that revolutions always destroy themselves. How +often have fanatics proclaimed 'the year one'! But no revolutionary era +has yet reached 'year twenty-five.' As regards the national character, +there is no sign, I fear, that much wisdom has been learnt. We are more +wasteful and reckless than ever. The doctrinaire democrat still vapours +about democracy, though representative government has obviously lost +both its power and its prestige. The labour party still hugs its +comprehensive assortment of economic heresies. Organised religion +remains as impotent as it was before the war. But one fact has emerged +with startling clearness. Human nature has not been changed by +civilisation. It has neither been levelled up nor levelled down to an +average mediocrity. Beneath the dingy uniformity of international +fashions in dress, man remains what he has always been--a splendid +fighting animal, a self-sacrificing hero, and a bloodthirsty savage. +Human nature is at once sublime and horrible, holy and satanic. Apart +from the accumulation of knowledge and experience, which are external +and precarious acquisitions, there is no proof that we have changed much +since the first stone age. + +The war itself, as we shall soon be compelled to recognise, had its +roots deep in the political and social structure of Europe. The growth +of wealth and population, and the law of diminishing returns, led to a +scramble for unappropriated lands producing the raw materials of +industry. It was, in a sense, a war of capital; but capitalism is no +accretion upon the body politic; it is the creator of the modern world +and an essential part of a living organism. The Germans unquestionably +made a deep-laid plot to capture all markets and cripple or ruin all +competitors. Their aims and methods were very like those of the Standard +Oil Trust on a still larger scale. The other nations had not followed +the logic of competition in the same ruthless manner; there were several +things which they were not willing to do. But war to the knife cannot be +confined to one of the combatants; the alternative, _Weltmacht oder +Niedergang_, was thrust by Germany upon the Allies when she chose that +motto for herself. If the modern man were as much dominated by economic +motives as is sometimes supposed, the suicidal results of such a +conflict would have been apparent to all; but the poetry and idealism of +human nature, no longer centred, as formerly, in religion, had gathered +round a romantic patriotism, for which the belligerents were willing to +sacrifice their all without counting the cost. Like other idealisms, +patriotism varies from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy. + +But there was another cause which led to the war. Germany was a curious +combination of seventeenth century theory and very modern practice. An +Emperor ruling by divine right was the head of the most scientific state +that the world has seen. In many ways Germany, with an intelligent, +economical, and uncorrupt Government, was a model to the rest of the +world. But the whole structure was menaced by that form of +individualistic materialism which calls itself social democracy, and +which in practice is at once the copy of organic materialism and the +reaction against it. The motives for drilling a whole nation in the +pursuit of purely national and purely materialistic aims are not strong +enough to prevent disintegration. The German _Kriegsstaat_ was falling +to pieces through internal fissures. A successful war might give the +empire a new lease of life; otherwise, the rising tide of revolution was +certain to sweep it away. As Sir Charles Walston has shown, it was for +some years doubtful whether the democratic movement would obtain control +before the bureaucracy and army chiefs succeeded in precipitating a war. +There was a kind of race between the two forces. This was the situation +which Lord Haldane found still existing in his famous visit to Germany. +In the event, the conservative powers were able to strike and to rush +public opinion. Perhaps the bureaucracy was carried along by its own +momentum. Two or three years before the war a German publicist, replying +to an eminent Englishman, who asked him who really directed the policy +of Germany, answered: 'It is a difficult question. Nominally, of course, +the Emperor is responsible; but he is a man of moods, not a strong man. +In reality, the machine runs itself. Whither it is carrying us we none +of us know; I fear towards some great disaster.' This seems to be the +truth of the matter. No doubt, a romantic imperialism, with dreams of +restoring the empire of Charlemagne, was a factor in the criminal +enterprise. No doubt the natural ambitions of officers, and the greed of +contractors and speculators, played their part in promoting it. But when +we consider that Germany held all the winning cards in a game of +peaceful penetration and economic competition, we should attribute to +the Imperial Government a strange recklessness if we did not conclude +that the political condition of Germany itself, and the automatic +working of the machine, were the main causes why the attack was made. +There is, in fact, abundant evidence that it was so. The scheme failed +only because Germany was foolish enough to threaten England before +settling accounts with Russia. But this, again, was the result of +internal pressure. Hamburg, and all the interests which the name stands +for, cared less for expansion in the East than for the capture of +markets overseas. For this important section of conservative Germany, +England was the enemy. So the gauntlet was thrown down to the whole +civilised world at once, and the odds against Germany were too great. + +For the time being, the world has no example of a strong monarchy. The +three great European empires are, at the time of writing, in a state of +septic dissolution. The victors have sprung to the welcome conclusion +that democracy is everywhere triumphant, and that before long no other +type of civilised state will exist. The amazing provincialism of +American political thought accepts this conclusion without demur; and +our public men, some of whom doubtless know better, have served the +needs of the moment by effusions of political nonsense which almost +surpass the orations delivered every year on the Fourth of July. But no +historian can suppose that one of the most widespread and successful +forms of human association has been permanently extinguished because the +Central Empires were not quite strong enough to conquer Europe, an +attempt which has always failed, and probably will always fail. The +issue is not fully decided, even for our own generation. The ascendancy +will belong to that nation which is the best organised, the most +strenuous, the most intelligent, the most united. Before the war none +would have hesitated to name Germany as holding this position; and until +the downfall of the Empire the nation seemed to possess those qualities +unimpaired. The three Empires collapsed in hideous chaos as soon as they +deposed their monarchs. In the case of Russia, it is difficult to +imagine any recovery until the monarchy is restored; and Germany would +probably be well-advised to choose some member of the imperial family as +a constitutional sovereign. A monarch frequently represents his +subjects better than an elected assembly; and if he is a good judge of +character he is likely to have more capable and loyal advisers. +President Wilson's declaration that 'a steadfast concert for peace can +never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations; for +no autocratic government could ever be trusted to keep faith within it,' +is one of the most childish exhibitions of doctrinaire _naivete_ which +ever proceeded from the mouth of a public man. History gives no +countenance to the theory that popular governments are either more moral +or more pacific than strong monarchies. The late Lord Salisbury, in one +of his articles in the _Quarterly Review_, spoke the truth on this +subject. 'Moderation, especially in the matter of territory, has never +been a characteristic of democracy. Wherever it has had free play, in +the ancient world or the modern, in the old hemisphere or the new, a +thirst for empire and a readiness for aggressive war has always marked +it. Though governments may have an appearance and even a reality of +pacific intent, their action is always liable to be superseded by the +violent and vehement operations of mere ignorance.' The United States +are no exception to this rule. They have extended their dominion by much +the same means as the empire of the Tsars or our own. Texas and Upper +California, the Philippines and Porto Rico, were annexed forcibly; New +Mexico, Alaska, and Louisiana were bought; Florida was acquired by +treaty; Maine filched from Canada. In no case were the wishes of the +inhabitants consulted. Our own experience of republicanism is the same. +It was during the short period when Great Britain had no king that +Cromwell's court-poet, Andrew Marvell, urged him to complete his +glorious career by demolishing our present allies: + + A Caesar he, ere long, to Gaul, + To Italy an Hannibal. + +On the other hand, none of the 'autocrats' wanted this war. The Kaiser +was certainly pushed into it. + +Democracy is a form of government which may be rationally defended, not +as being good, but as being less bad than any other. Its strongest +merits seem to be: first, that the citizens of a democracy have a sense +of proprietorship and responsibility in public affairs, which in times +of crisis may add to their tenacity and endurance. The determination of +the Federals in the American Civil War, and of the French and British in +the four years' struggle against Germany, may be legitimately adduced as +arguments for democracy. When De Tocqueville says that 'it is hard for a +democracy to begin or to end a war,' the second is truer than the first. +And, secondly, the educational value of democracy is so great that it +may be held to counterbalance many defects. Mill decides in favour of +democracy mainly on the ground that 'it promotes a better and higher +form of national character than any other polity,' since government by +authority stunts the intellect, narrows the sympathies, and destroys the +power of initiative. 'The perfect commonwealth,' says Mr. Zimmern,' is a +society of free men and women, each at once ruling and being ruled,' It +is also fair to argue that monarchies do not escape the worst evils of +democracies. An autocracy is often obliged to oppress the educated +classes and to propitiate the mob. Domitian massacred senators with +impunity, and only fell '_postquam cerdonibus esse timendus coeperat_.' +If an autocracy does not rest on the army, which leads to the chaos of +praetorianism, it must rely on '_panem et circenses_.' Hence it has some +of the worst faults of democracy, without its advantages. As Mr. Graham +Wallas says: 'When a Tsar or a bureaucracy finds itself forced to govern +in opposition to a vague national feeling which may at any moment create +an overwhelming national purpose, the autocrat becomes the most +unscrupulous of demagogues, and stirs up racial or religious or social +hatred, or the lust for foreign war, with less scruple than a newspaper +proprietor under a democracy,' The autocrat, in fact, is often a slave, +as the demagogue is often a tyrant. Lastly, the democrat may urge that +one of the commonest accusations against democracy--that the populace +chooses its rulers badly--is not true in times of great national danger. +On the contrary, it often shows a sound instinct in finding the +strongest man to carry it through a crisis. At such times the parrots +and monkeys are discarded, and a Napoleon or a Kitchener is given a +free hand, though he may have despised all the demagogic arts. In other +words, a democracy sometimes knows when to abdicate. The excesses of +revolutionists are not an argument against democracy, since revolutions +are anything rather than democratic. + +Nevertheless, the indictment against democracy is a very heavy one, and +it is worth while to state the main items in the charge. + +1. Whatever may be truly said about the good sense of a democracy during +a great crisis, at ordinary times it does not bring the best men to the +top. Professor Hearnshaw, in his admirable 'Democracy at the +Crossroads,' collects a number of weighty opinions confirming this +judgment. Carlyle, who proclaimed the merits of silence in some thirty +volumes, blames democracy for ignoring the 'noble, silent men' who could +serve it best, and placing power in the hands of windbags. Ruskin, +Matthew Arnold, Sir James Stephen, Sir Henry Maine, and Lecky, all agree +that 'the people have for the most part neither the will nor the power +to find out the best men to lead them.' In France the denunciations of +democratic politicians are so general that it would be tedious to +enumerate the writers who have uttered them. One example will suffice; +the words are the words of Anatole Beaulieu in 1885: + + The wider the circle from which politicians and + state-functionaries are recruited, the lower seems their + intellectual level to have sunk. This deterioration in the + personnel of government has been yet more striking from the + moral point of view. Politics have tended to become more + corrupt, more debased, and to soil the hands of those who + take part in them and the men who get their living by them. + Political battles have become too bitter and too vulgar not + to have inspired aversion in the noblest and most upright + natures by their violence and their intrigues. The elite of + the nation in more than one country are showing a tendency + to have nothing to do with them. Politics is an industry in + which a man, to prosper, requires less intelligence and + knowledge than boldness and capacity for intrigue. It has + already become in some states the most ignominious of + careers. Parties are syndicates for exploitation, and its + forms become ever more shameless. + +A later account of French politics, drawn from inside knowledge and +experience, is the remarkable novel, 'Les Morts qui parlent,' by the +Vicomte Le Vogue. Readers of this book will not forget the description +of the _bain de haine_ in which a new deputy at once finds himself +plunged, and the canker of corruption which eats into the whole system. +It is no wonder that the majority of Frenchmen do not care to record +their votes. In 1906, 5,209,606 votes were given, 6,383,852 electors did +not go to the poll. The record of democracy in the new countries is no +better. We must regretfully admit that Louis Simond was right when he +said, 'Few people take the trouble to persuade the people, except those +who see their interest in deceiving them.' + +2. The democracy is a ready victim to shibboleths and catchwords, as all +demagogues know too well. 'The abstract idea,' as Scherer says, 'is the +national aliment of popular rhetoric, the fatal form of thought which, +for want of solid knowledge, operates in a vacuum.' The politician has +only to find a fascinating formula; facts and arguments are powerless +against it. The art of the demagogue is the art of the parrot; he must +utter some senseless catchword again and again, working on the +suggestibility of the crowd. Archbishop Trench, 'On the Study of Words,' +notices this fact of psychology and the use which is commonly made of +it. + + If I wanted any further evidence of the moral atmosphere + which words diffuse, I would ask you to observe how the + first thing men do, when engaged in controversy with others, + is ever to assume some honourable name to themselves, such + as, if possible, shall beg the whole subject in dispute, and + at the same time to affix on their adversaries a name which + shall place them in a ridiculous or contemptible or odious + light. A deep instinct, deeper perhaps than men give any + account of to themselves, tells them how far this will go; + that multitudes, utterly unable to weigh the arguments on + one side or the other, will yet be receptive of the + influences which these words are evermore, however + imperceptibly, diffusing. By argument they might hope to + gain over the reason of a few, but by help of these + nicknames the prejudices and passions of the many. + +The chief instrument of this base art is no longer the public speech +but the newspaper. + +The psychology of the crowd has been much studied lately, by Le Bon and +other writers in France, by Mr. Graham Wallas in England. I think that +Le Bon is in danger of making The Crowd a mystical, superhuman entity. +Of course, a crowd is made up of individuals, who remain individuals +still. We must not accept the stuffed idol of Rousseau and the +socialists, 'The General Will,' and turn it into an evil spirit. There +is no General Will. All we have a right to say is that individuals are +occasionally guided by reason, crowds never. + +3. Several critics of democracy have accused it not only of rash +iconoclasm, but of obstinate conservatism and obstructiveness. It seems +unreasonable to charge the same persons with two opposite faults; but it +is true that where the popular emotions are not touched, the masses will +cling to old abuses from mere force of habit. As Maine says, universal +suffrage would have prohibited the spinning-jenny and the power-loom, +the threshing-machine and the Gregorian calendar; and it would have +restored the Stuarts. The theory of democracy--_vox populi vox dei_--is +a pure superstition, a belief in a divine or natural sanction which does +not exist. And superstition is usually obstructive. 'We erect the +temporary watchwords of evanescent politics into eternal truths; and +having accepted as platitudes the paradoxes of our fathers, we +perpetuate them as obstacles to the progress of our children.'[1] + +4. A more serious danger is that of vexatious and inquisitive tyranny. +This is exercised partly through public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, +anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who +is not content to be the average man. But partly it is seen in constant +interference with the legislature and the executive. No one can govern +who cannot afford to be unpopular, and no democratic official can afford +to be unpopular. Sometimes he has to wink at flagrant injustice and +oppression; at other times a fanatical agitation compels him to pass +laws which forbid the citizen to indulge perfectly harmless tastes, or +tax him to contribute to the pleasures of the majority. In many ways a +Russian under the Tsars was far less interfered with than an Englishman +or American or Australian. + +5. But the two diseases which are likely to be fatal to democracy are +anarchy and corruption. A democratic government is almost necessarily +weak and timid. A democracy cannot tolerate a strong executive for fear +of seeing the control pass out of the hands of the mob. The executive +must be unarmed and defenceless. The result is that it is at the mercy +of any violent and anti-social faction. No civilised government has ever +given a more ludicrous and humiliating object-lesson than the Cabinet +and House of Commons in the years before the war, in face of the +outrages committed by a small gang of female anarchists. The +legalisation of terrorism by the trade-unions was too tragic a surrender +to be ludicrous, but it was even more disgraceful. None could be +surprised when, during the war, the Government shrank from dealing with +treasonable conspiracy in the same quarter. + + The _Times_ for May 24, 1917, contained a noteworthy example + of justice influenced by pressure, and therefore applied + with flagrant inequality. In parallel columns appeared + reports of 'sugar-sellers fined' and 'strike leaders + released.' The former paid the full penalty of their + misdeeds because no body of outside opinion maintained them. + The latter, who were stated to have committed offences for + which the maximum penalty was penal servitude for life, got + off scot-free because they were members of a powerful + organisation which was able to bring immense weight to bear + on the Government.[2] + +The 'immense weight' was, of course, the threat of virtually betraying +the country to the Germans. The country is at this moment at the mercy +of any lawless faction which may choose either to hold the community to +ransom by paralysing our trade and channels of supply, or by organised +violence against life and property. Democracy is powerless against +sectional anarchism; and when such movements break out there is no +remedy except by substituting for democracy a government of a very +different type. + +Democracy is, in fact, a disintegrating force. It is strong in +destruction, and tends to fall to pieces when the work of demolition +(which may of course be a necessary task) is over. Democracy dissolves +communities into individuals and collects them again into mobs. It pulls +up by the roots the social order which civilisation has gradually +evolved, and leaves men _deracines_, as Bourget says in one of his best +novels, homeless and friendless, with no place ready for them to fill. +It is the opposite extreme to the caste system of India, which, with all +its faults, does not seem to breed the European type of _enrage_, the +enemy of society as such. + +6. The corruption of democracies proceeds directly from the fact that +one class imposes the taxes and another class pays them. The +constitutional principle, 'No taxation without representation,' is +utterly set at nought under a system which leaves certain classes +without any effective representation at all. At the present time it is +said that one-tenth of the population pays five-sixths of the taxes. The +class which imposes the taxes has refused to touch the burden of the war +with one of its fingers; and every month new doles at the public expense +are distributed under the camouflage of 'social reform.' At every +election the worldly goods of the minority are put up to auction. This +is far more immoral than the old-fashioned election bribery, which was a +comparatively honest deal between two persons; and in its effects it is +far more ruinous. Democracy is likely to perish, like the monarchy of +Louis XVI, through national bankruptcy. + +Besides these defects, the democracy has ethical standards of its own, +which differ widely from those of the educated classes. Among the poor, +'generosity ranks far before justice, sympathy before truth, love before +chastity, a pliant and obliging disposition before a rigidly honest one. +In brief, the less admixture of intellect required for the practice of +any virtue, the higher it stands in popular estimation.[3] In this +country, at any rate, democracy means a victory of sentiment over +reason. Some may prefer the softer type of character, and may hope that +it will make civilisation more humane and compassionate than it has been +in the past. Unfortunately, experience shows that none is so cruel as +the disillusioned sentimentalist. He thinks that he can break or ignore +nature's laws with impunity; and then, when he finds that nature has no +sentiment, he rages like a mad dog, and combines with his theoretical +objection to capital punishment a lust to murder all who disagree with +him. This is the genesis of Jacobinism and Bolshevism. + +But whether we think that the bad in democracy predominates over the +good, or the good over the bad, a question which I shall not attempt to +decide, the popular balderdash about it corresponds to no real +conviction. The upper class has never believed in it; the middle class +has the strongest reasons to hate and fear it. But how about the lower +class, in whose interests the whole machine is supposed to have been set +going? The working man has no respect for either democracy or liberty. +His whole interest is in transferring the wealth of the minority to his +own pocket. There was a time when he thought that universal suffrage +would get for him what he desires; but he has lost all faith in +constitutional methods. To levy blackmail on the community, under +threats of civil war, seems to him a more expeditious way of gaining his +object. Monopolies are to be established by pitiless coercion of those +who wish to keep their freedom. The trade unions are large capitalists; +they are well able to start factories for themselves and work them for +their own exclusive profit. But they find it more profitable to hold the +nation to ransom by blockading the supply of the necessaries of life. +The new labourer despises productivity for the same reason that the old +robber barons did: it is less trouble to take money than to make it. The +most outspoken popular leaders no longer conceal their contempt for and +rejection of democracy. The socialists perceive the irreconcilable +contradiction between the two ideas,[4] and they are right. Democracy +postulates community of interest or loyal patriotism. When these are +absent it cannot long exist. Syndicalism, which seems to be growing, is +the antipodes of socialism, but, like socialism, it can make no terms +with democracy. 'If syndicalism triumphs,' says its chief prophet Sorel, +'the parliamentary regime, so dear to the intellectuals, will be at an +end.' 'The syndicalist has a contempt for the vulgar idea of democracy; +the vast unconscious mass is not to be taken into account when the +minority wishes to act so as to benefit it.'[5] 'The effect of political +majorities,' says Mr. Levine, 'is to hinder advance,' Accordingly, +political methods are rejected with contempt. The anarchists go one step +further. Bakunin proclaims that 'we reject all legislation, all +authority, and all influence, even when it has proceeded from universal +suffrage.' These powerful movements, opposed as they are to each other, +agree in spurning the very idea of democracy, which Lord Morley defines +as government by public opinion, and which may be defined with more +precision as direct government by the votes of the majority among the +adult members of a nation. Even a political philosopher like Mr. Lowes +Dickinson says, 'For my part, I am no democrat.' + +Who then are the friends of this _curieux fetiche_, as Quinet called +democracy? It appears to have none, though it has been the subject of +fatuous laudation ever since the time of Rousseau. The Americans burn +incense before it, but they are themselves ruled by the Boss and the +Trust. + +The attempt to justify the labour movement as a legitimate development +of the old democratic Liberalism is futile. Freedom to form +combinations is no doubt a logical application of _laisser faire_; and +the anarchic possibilities latent in _laisser faire_ have been made +plain in the anti-democratic movements of labour. But Liberalism rested +on a too favourable estimate of human nature and on a belief in the law +of progress. As there is no law of progress, and as civilised society is +being destroyed by the evil passions of men, Liberalism is, for the +time, quite discredited. It would also be true to say that there is a +fundamental contradiction between the two dogmas of Liberalism. These +were, that unlimited competition is stimulating to the competitors and +good for the country, and that every individual is an end, not a means. +Both are anarchical; but the first logically issues in individualistic +anarchy, the last in communistic anarchy. The economic and the ethical +theory of Liberalism cannot be harmonised. The result--cruel competition +tempered by an artificial process of counter-selection in favour of the +unfittest--was by no means satisfactory. But it was better than what we +are now threatened with. + +That the labour movement is economically rotten it is easy to prove. In +the words of Professor Hearnshaw, 'the government has ceased to govern +in the world of labour, and has been compelled, instead of governing, to +bribe, to cajole, to beg, to grovel. It has purchased brief truces at +the cost of increasing levies of Danegeld drawn from the diminishing +resources of the patient community. It has embarked on a course of +payment of blackmail which must end either in national bankruptcy or in +the social revolution which the anarchists seek.' The powerful +trade-unions are now plundering both the owners of their 'plant,' and +the general public. It is easy to show that their members already get +much more than their share of the national wealth. Professor Bowley[6] +has estimated that an equal division of the national income would give +about L160 a year to each family, free of taxes. But even this estimate, +discouraging as it is, seems not to allow sufficiently for the fact that +under the present system much of the income of the richer classes is +counted twice or three times over. Abolish large incomes, and jewels, +pictures, wines, furs, special and rare skill like that of the operating +surgeon and fashionable portrait painter, lose all or most of their +money value. All the large professional incomes, except those of the low +comedian and his like, are made out of the rich, and are counted at +least twice for income-tax. It is certain that a large part of the +national income could not be 'redistributed,' and that in the attempt to +do so credit would be destroyed and wealth would melt like a snow man. +The miners, therefore, are not seeking justice; they are blackmailing +rich and poor alike by their monopoly of one of the necessaries of life. +And now they strike against paying income-tax! + +It is not necessary or just to bring railing accusations against any +class as a body. Power is always abused, and in this case there is much +honest ignorance, stimulated by agitators who are seldom honest. In a +recent number of the _Edinburgh Review_ Sir Lynden Macassey speaks of +the widespread, almost universal, fallacies to which the hand-worker has +fallen a victim. They believe that all their aspirations can be +satisfied out of present-day profits and production. They believe that +in restricting output they are performing a moral duty to their class. +They do not believe that the prosperity of the country depends upon its +production, and are opposed to all labour-saving devices. They refuse +co-operation because they desire the continuance of the class-war. Such +perversity would seem hardly credible if it were not attested by +overwhelming evidence. The Government remedy is first to create +unemployment and then to endow it--the shortest and maddest road to ruin +since the downfall of the Roman Empire. + +We may have a faint hope that some of these fallacies will be abandoned +by the workmen when their destructive results can no longer be +concealed. But sentimentalism seems to be incurable. It erects +irrationality into an act of religious faith, gives free rein to the +emotion of pity, and thinks that it is imitating the Good Samaritan by +robbing the Priest and Levite for the benefit of the man by the +road-side. The sentimentalist shows a bitter hatred against those who +wish to cure an evil by removing its causes. A good example is the +language of writers like Mr. Chesterton about eugenics and population. +If social maladies were treated scientifically, the trade of the +emotional rhetorician would be gone. + +We have seen that democracy--the rule of majorities--has been +discredited and abandoned in action, though officially we all bow down +before it. Another popular delusion is that the chief change in the last +fifty years has been a conversion of the world from individualism to +socialism. In the language of the Christian socialists, who wish to +combine the militant spirit and organisation of medieval Catholicism +with a bid for the popular vote, we have 'rediscovered the Corporate +Idea.' But if we take socialism, not in the narrower sense of +collectivism, which would be an economic experiment, but in the wider +sense of a keen consciousness of the solidarity of the community as an +organic whole, there is very little truth in the commonly held notion +that we have become more socialistic. It is easy to see how the idea has +arisen. It became necessary to find some theoretical justification for +raising taxes, no longer for national needs, but for the benefit of the +class which imposed them; and this justification was found in the theory +that all wealth belongs to 'the State,' and may be justly divided up as +'the State'--that is to say, the majority of the voters--may determine. +Whenever the question arises of voting new doles to the dominant section +of the people at the expense of the minority, our new political +philosophers profess themselves fervent socialists. But true socialism, +which is almost synonymous with patriotism, is as conspicuously absent +in those who call themselves socialists as it is strong in those who +repudiate the title. This paradox can be easily proved. The most +socialistic enterprise in which a nation ever engages is a great war. A +nation at war is conscious of its corporate unity and its common +interests, as it is at no other time. The nation then calls upon every +citizen to surrender all his personal rights and to offer his life and +limbs in the service of the community. And what has been the record of +the 'socialists' in the struggle for national existence in which we have +been engaged? In the years preceding the war they ridiculed the idea +that the country was in danger of being attacked, and used all their +power to prevent us from preparing against attack. They steadily opposed +the teaching of patriotism in the schools. When the war began, they +prevented the Government from introducing compulsory service until our +French Allies, who were left to bear the brunt, were on the point of +collapse; they, in very many cases, refused to serve themselves, thereby +avowing that, as far as they were concerned, they were willing to see +their country conquered by a horde of cruel barbarians; and they nearly +handed over our armies to destruction by fomenting strikes at the most +critical periods of the war. This attitude cannot be accounted for by +any conscientious objection to violence, which is in fact their +favourite weapon, except against the enemies of their country. Their +socialism is, in truth, individualism run mad; it is the very antithesis +to the consciousness of organic unity in a nation, which is the +spiritual basis of socialism. In this sense, the nation as a whole has +shown a fine socialistic temper; but the disgraceful exception has been +the socialist party. The intense and perverted individualism of the +so-called socialist is shown in another way. Whatever liberties a State +may permit to its citizens, it is certain that no nation can be in a +healthy condition unless the government keeps in its own hands the keys +of birth and of death. The State has the right of the farmer to decide +how many cows should be allowed to graze upon ten acres of grass; the +right of the forester to decide how many square feet are required for +each tree in a wood. It has also the right and the duty of the gardener +to pull up noxious weeds in his flower-beds. But the socialist +vehemently repudiates both these rights. Being an ultra-individualist, +he is in favour of _laisser faire_, where _laisser faire_ is most +indefensible and most disastrous. + +It would be easy to maintain that the organic idea was more potent, both +under medieval feudalism and under nineteenth-century industrialism, +than it is now. In former days, economic and social equality were not +even aimed at, because it was thought inevitable that in a social +organism there must be subordination and a hierarchy of functions. +Essentially, and in the sight of God, all are equal, or, rather, the +essential differences between man and man are absolutely independent of +social status. In a few years Lazarus may be in heaven and Dives in +hell. Beside this equality of moral opportunity and tremendous +inequality in self-chosen destiny, the status of master and servant +seemed of small importance; it was a temporary and trivial accident. +Accordingly, in feudal times, as to-day in really Catholic communities, +feelings of injustice and social bitterness were seldom aroused and +class differences take on a more genial colour. In spite of the +lawlessness and brutality of the Middle Ages it is probable that men +were happier then than they are now. + +The French Revolution, which was a disintegrating solvent, pulverised +society, and was impotent to reconstruct it. Yet under the industrial +regime which followed it in this country, the nation was conscious of +its unity. The system was the best that could have been devised for +increasing the population and aggregate wealth of the country; and even +those who suffered most under it were not without pride in its results. +The ill-paid workman of the last century would have thought it a poor +thing to do a deliberately bad day's work. + +I am not praising either the age of feudalism or the 'hungry forties' of +the nineteenth century. In the latter case especially the sacrifice +exacted from the poor was too great for the rather vulgar success of +which it was the condition. But to call that age the period of +individualism, and our own generation the period of socialism, is in my +opinion a profound mistake. In Germany, too, the real socialists are not +the 'Spartacist' scoundrels who have betrayed and ruined their country, +but the bureaucracy with their _Deutschland ueber Alles_. If I were a +little more of a socialist, I could almost admire them, in spite of all +their crimes. + +The landed gentry (and in honesty I must add the endowed clergy) are a +survival of feudalism, as the capitalist is a survival of industrialism. +Both have to a large extent survived their functions. The mailclad +baron, round whose fortified castle the peasants and others gathered for +protection, has become the country gentleman, against whom the +indictment is not so much that his only pursuit is pleasure, as that his +only pleasure is pursuit. 'The rich man in his castle, the poor man at +his gate' were intelligible while the rich man protected the poor man +from being plundered and killed by marauders; but in our times nobody +wants a castle or to live under the shadow of a castle. The clerical +profession was a necessity when most people could neither read nor +write. But to-day our best prophets and preachers are laymen. As at +ancient Athens, in the time of Aristophanes, 'the young learn from the +schoolmaster, the mature from the poets.' Similarly, the captain of +industry cannot hold the same autocratic position as formerly, in view +of the growing intelligence and capacity of the workmen; and the +capitalist who is not a captain of industry is a debtor to the community +to an extent which he does not always realise. This class is becoming +painfully conscious of its vulnerability. + +There are, therefore, irrational survivals in our social order; and +though it may be proved that they are not a severe burden on the +community, it is natural that popular bitterness and discontent should +fasten upon them and exaggerate their evil results. It cannot be +disputed that this bitterness and discontent were becoming very acute in +the years before the war. An increasing number of persons saw no meaning +and no value in our civilisation. This feeling was common in all +classes, including the so-called leisured class; and was so strong that +many welcomed with joy the clear call to a plain duty, though it was the +duty of facing all the horrors of war. What is the cause of this +discontent? There are few more important questions for us to answer. + +Those who find the cause in the existence of the survivals which we have +mentioned are certainly mistaken. It is no new thing that there should +be a small class more or less parasitic on the community. The whole +number of persons who pay income-tax on L5000 a year and upwards is +only 13,000 out of 46 millions, and their wealth, if it could be divided +up, would make no appreciable difference to the working man. The +wage-earners are better off than they have ever been before in our +history, and the danger of revolution comes not from the poor, but from +the privileged artisans who already have incomes above the family +average. We must look elsewhere for an explanation of social unrest. If +we consider what are the chief centres of discontent throughout the +civilised world, we shall find that they are the great aggregations of +population in wealthy industrial countries. Social unrest is a disease +of town-life. Wherever the conditions which create the great modern city +exist, we find revolutionary agitation. It has spread to Barcelona, to +Buenos Ayres, and to Osaka, in the wake of the factory. The inhabitants +of the large town do not envy the countryman and would not change with +him. But, unknown to themselves, they are leading an unnatural life, cut +off from the kindly and wholesome influences of nature, surrounded by +vulgarity and ugliness, with no traditions, no loyalties, no culture, +and no religion. We seldom reflect on the strangeness of the fact that +the modern working-man has few or no superstitions. At other times the +masses have evolved for themselves some picturesque nature-religion, +some pious ancestor-worship, some cult of saints or heroes, some stories +of fairies, ghosts, or demons, and a mass of quaint superstitions, +genial or frightening. The modern town-dweller has no God and no Devil; +he lives without awe, without admiration, without fear. Whatever we may +think about these beliefs, it is not natural for men and women to be +without them. The life of the town artisan who works in a factory is a +life to which the human organism has not adapted itself; it is an +unwholesome and unnatural condition. Hence, probably, comes the +_malaise_ which makes him think that any radical change must be for the +better. + +Whatever the cause of the disease may be (and I do not pretend that the +conditions of urban life are an adequate explanation) the malady is +there, and will probably prove fatal to our civilisation. I have given +my views on this subject in the essay called _The Future of the English +Race._ And yet there is a remedy within the reach of all if we would +only try it. + +The essence of the Christian revelation is the proclamation of a +standard of absolute values, which contradicts at every point the +estimates of good and evil current in 'the world.' It is not necessary, +in such an essay as this, to write out the Beatitudes, or the very +numerous passages in the Gospels and Epistles in which the same lessons +are enforced. It is not necessary to remind the reader that in +Christianity all the paraphernalia of life are valued very lightly; that +all the good and all the evil which exalt or defile a man have their +seat within him, in his own character; that we are sent into the world +to suffer and to conquer suffering; that it is more blessed to give than +to receive; that love is the great revealer of the mysteries of life; +that we have here no continuing city, and must therefore set our +affections and lay up our treasures in heaven; that the things that are +seen are temporal, and the things that are not seen are eternal. This is +the Christian religion. It is a form of idealism; and idealism means a +belief in absolute or spiritual values. + +When applied to human life, it introduces, as it were, a new currency, +which demonetises the old; or gives us a new scale of prices, in which +the cheapest things are the dearest, and the dearest the cheapest. The +world's standards are quantitative; those of Christianity are +qualitative. And being qualitative, spiritual goods are unlimited in +amount; they are increased by being shared; and we rob nobody by taking +them. + +Secularists ask impatiently what Christianity has done or proposes to do +to make mankind happier, by which they mean more comfortable. The answer +is (to put it in a form intelligible to the questioner) that +Christianity increases the wealth of the world by creating new values. +Wealth depends on human valuation. For example, if women were +sufficiently well educated not to care about diamonds, the Kimberley +mines would pay no dividends, and the rents in Park Lane would go down. +The prices of paintings by old masters would decline if millionaires +preferred to collect another kind of scalps to decorate their wigwams. +Bookmakers and company-promoters live on the widespread passion for +acquiring money without working for it. It is hardly possible to +estimate the increase of real wealth, and the stoppage of waste, which +would result from the adoption of a rational, still more of a Christian, +valuation of the good things of life. I have dealt with this subject in +the essay on _The Indictment against Christianity_, and have emphasised +the importance of taking into consideration, in all economic questions, +the _human costs_ of production, the factors which make work pleasant or +irksome, and especially the moral condition of the worker. Good-will +diminishes the toll which labour takes of the labourer; envy and hatred +vastly increase it while they diminish its product. It is, of course, +impossible that the worker should not resent having to devote his life +to making what is useless or mischievous, and to ministering to the +irrational wastefulness of luxury. Christianity, in condemning the +selfish and irresponsible use of money, seeks to remove one of the chief +causes of social bitterness. Senseless extravagance is the best friend +of revolution. + +The abuse poured upon 'the old political economy,' as it is called, is +only half deserved. As compared with the insane doctrines now in favour +with the working-man, the old political economy was sound and sensible. +Hard work, thrift, and economy in production are, in truth, as we used +to be told, the only ways to increase the national wealth, and the +contrary practices can only lead to economic ruin. There is not much +fault to find with the old economists so long as they recognised that +their science was an abstract science, which for its own purposes dealt +with an unreal abstraction--the 'economic man.' Every science is obliged +to isolate one aspect of reality in this way. But when political economy +was treated as a philosophy of life it began to be mischievous. A book +on 'the science of the stomach,' without knowledge of physiology or the +working of other organs, would not be of much use. Man has never been a +merely acquisitive being; for example, he is also a fighting and a +praying being. If our dominant motives were changed, the whole +conditions dealt with by political economy would change with them. There +have been civilisations in which the passion for accumulation was +comparatively weak; and notoriously there are many persons in whom it is +wholly absent. Devotion to art, to scientific investigation, and to +religion is strong enough, where it exists, to kill 'the economic man' +in human nature. A civilised nation honours its idealists, and +recognises the immense benefit which they confer on the community by +creating or revealing new and inexhaustible values; in an uncivilised +country they can hardly live. Ruskin and William Morris saw, and +doubtless exaggerated, the danger to which spiritual values were exposed +at the hands of the dominant economism. Our danger now is that neglect +of the simplest economic laws may plunge the nation into such misery +that the people will no longer be willing to support art, science, +learning, and philosophy. A large section of the labour party has the +same standard of values as the hated 'capitalist,' and detests those +whom it calls intellectuals and sky-pilots because they depreciate the +currency which their class, no less than the capitalist, believes to be +the only sound money. + +It may be asked whether there is any reason to think that there is now +less regard for the higher, the qualitative values of life, than at +other periods. My opinion is that ever since the time of Rousseau and +his contemporaries, we have been led astray by a will-of-the-wisp akin +to the apocalyptic dreams of the Jews in the last two centuries before +Christ, dreams which also filled the minds of the first generation of +Christians. The Greeks never made the mistake of throwing their ideals +into the future, a practice which, as Dr. Bosanquet has said, 'is the +death of all sane idealism.' The belief in 'a good time coming' is a +Jewish delusion. It nourished the Jews in their amazing obstinacy, and +led to the annihilation of their State which, to the very end, they saw +in their dreams bruising all other nations with a rod of iron, and +breaking them in pieces like a potter's vessel. But, as any idealism is +better than none, the Hebrew race has won remarkable triumphs, though of +a kind which it never desired. + +The myth of progress is our form of apocalyptism. In France it began +with sentimentalism, developing normally into homicidal mania. In +England it took the form of a kind of Deuteronomic religion. As a reward +for our national virtues, our population expanded, our exports and +imports went up by leaps and bounds, and our empire received additions +every decade. It was plain that when Christ said 'Blessed are the meek, +for they shall inherit the earth,' He was thinking of the British +Empire. The whole structure of our social order encouraged the +measurement of everything by quantitative standards. Everyone could +understand that a generation which travels sixty miles an hour must be +five times as civilised as one which only travelled twelve. Thus the +beneficent 'law of progress' was exemplified in that nation which had +best deserved to be its exponent. The myth in question is that there is +a natural law of improvement, manifested by greater complexity of +structure, by increase of wants and the means to satisfy them. A nation +advances in civilisation by increasing in wealth and population, and by +multiplying the accessories and paraphernalia of life. + +Belief in this alleged law has vitiated our natural science, our +political science, our history, our philosophy, and even our religion. +Science declared that 'the survival of the fittest' was a law of nature, +though nature has condemned to extinction the majestic animals of the +saurian era, and has carefully preserved the bug, the louse, and the +spirochaeta pallida. + + We dined as a rule on each other; + What matter? the toughest survived, + +is a fair parody of this doctrine. In political science, by a portentous +snobbery, the actual evolution of European government was assumed to be +in the line of upward progress. Our histories contrasted the benighted +condition of past ages with the high morality and general enlightenment +of the present. In philosophy, the problem of evil was met by the +theory that though the Deity is not omnipotent yet, He is on His way to +become so. He means well, and if we give Him time, He will make a real +success of His creation. Human beings, too, commonly make a very poor +thing of their lives here. But continue their training after they are +dead and they will all come to perfection. We have been living on this +secularised idealism for a hundred and fifty years. It has driven out +the true idealism, of which it is a caricature, and has made the deeper +and higher kind of religious faith abnormally difficult. Even the hope +of immortality has degenerated into a belief in apparitions and voices +from the dead. + +Nature knows nothing of this precious law. Her figure is not the +vertical line, nor even the spiral, but the circle--the vicious circle, +according to Samuel Butler. 'Men eat birds, birds eat worms, worms eat +men again.' Some stars are getting hotter, others cooler. Life appears +at a certain temperature and is extinguished at another temperature. +Evolution and involution balance each other and go on concurrently. The +normal condition of every species on this planet is not progress but +stationariness. 'Progress,' so-called, is an incident of adaptation to +new conditions. Bees and ants must have spent millennia in perfecting +their organisation; now that they have reached a stable equilibrium, no +more changes are perceptible. The 'progress' of humanity has consisted +almost entirely in the transformation of the wild man of the woods, not +into _homo sapiens_ but into _homo faber_, man the tool-maker, a process +of which nature expresses her partial disapproval by plaguing us with +diverse diseases and taking away our teeth and claws. It is not certain +that there has been much change in our intellectual and moral endowments +since pithecanthropus dropped the first half of his name. I should be +sorry to have to maintain that the Germans of to-day are morally +superior to the army which defeated Quintilius Varus, or that the modern +Turks are more humane than the hordes of Timour the Tartar. If there is +to be any improvement in human nature itself we must look to the infant +science of eugenics to help us. + +It is not easy to say how this myth of progress came to take hold of +the imagination, in the teeth of science and experience. Quinet speaks +of the 'fatalistic optimism' of historians, of which there have +certainly been some strange examples. We can only say that secularism, +like other religions, needs an eschatology, and has produced one. A more +energetic generation than ours looked forward to a gradual extension of +busy industrialism over the whole planet; the present ideal of the +masses seems to be the greatest idleness of the greatest number, or a +Fabian farm-yard of tame fowls, or (in America) an ice-water-drinking +gynaecocracy. But the superstition cannot flourish much longer. The +period of expansion is over, and we must adjust our view of earthly +providence to a state of decline. For no nation can flourish when it is +the ambition of the large majority to put in fourpence and take out +ninepence. The middle-class will be the first victims; then the +privileged aristocracy of labour will exploit the poor. But trade will +take wings and migrate to some other country where labour is good and +comparatively cheap. + +The dethronement of a fetish may give a sounder faith its chance. In the +time of decay and disintegration which lies before us, more persons will +seek consolation where it can be found. 'Happiness and unhappiness,' +says Spinoza, 'depend on the nature of the object which we love. When a +thing is not loved, no quarrels will arise concerning it, no sadness +will be felt if it perishes, no envy if it is possessed by another; no +fear, no hatred, no disturbance of the mind. All these things arise from +the love of the perishable. But love for a thing eternal and infinite +feeds the mind wholly with joy, and is itself untainted with any +sadness; wherefore it is greatly to be desired and sought for with our +whole strength.' It is well known that these noble words were not only +sincere, but the expression of the working faith of the philosopher; and +we may hope that many who are doomed to suffer hardship and spoliation +in the evil days that are coming will find the same path to a happiness +which cannot be taken from them. Spinoza's words, of course, do not +point only to religious exercises and meditation. The spiritual world +includes art and science in all their branches, when these are studied +with a genuine devotion to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful for +their own sakes. We shall need 'a remnant' to save Europe from relapsing +into barbarism; for the new forces are almost wholly cut off from the +precious traditions which link our civilisation with the great eras of +the past. The possibility of another dark age is not remote; but there +must be enough who value our best traditions to preserve them till the +next spring-time of civilisation. We must take long views, and think of +our great-grandchildren. + +It is tempting to dream of a new Renaissance, under which the life of +reason will at last be the life of mankind. Though there is little sign +of improvement in human nature, a favourable conjunction of +circumstances may bring about a civilisation very much better than ours +to-day. For a time, at any rate, war may be practically abolished, and +the military qualities may find another and a less pernicious outlet. +'Sport,' as Santayana says, 'is a liberal form of war stripped of its +compulsions and malignity; a rational art and the expression of a +civilised instinct.' The art of living may be taken in hand seriously. +Some of the ingenuity which has lately been lavished on engines of +destruction may be devoted to improvements in our houses, which should +be easily and cheaply put together and able to be carried about in +sections; on labour-saving devices which would make servants +unnecessary; and on international campaigns against diseases, some of +the worst of which could be extinguished for ever by twenty years of +concerted effort. A scientific civilisation is not impossible, though we +are not likely to live to see it. And, if science and humanism can work +together, it will be a great age for mankind. Such hopes as these must +be allowed to float before our minds: they are not unreasonable, and +they will help us to get through the twentieth century, which is not +likely to be a pleasant time to live in. + +Some writers, like Mr. H.G. Wells, recognising the danger which +threatens civilisation, have suggested the formation of a society for +mutual encouragement in the higher life. Mr. Wells developed this idea +in his 'Modern Utopia.' He contemplated a brotherhood, like the +Japanese Samurai, living by a Rule, a kind of lay monastic order, who +should endeavour to live in a perfectly rational and wholesome manner, +so as to be the nucleus of whatever was best in the society of the time. +The scheme is interesting to a Platonist, because of its resemblance to +the Order of Guardians in the 'Republic.' A very good case may be made +out for having an ascetic Order of moral and physical aristocrats, and +entrusting them with the government of the country. Plato forbade his +guardians to own wealth, and thus secured an uncorrupt administration, +one of the rarest and best of virtues in a government. But political +events are not moving in this direction at present; and the question for +us is whether those who believe in science and humanism should attempt +to form a society, not to rule the country, but to protect themselves +and the ideas which they wish to preserve. But I agree with Mr. Wells' +second thoughts, that the time is not ripe for such a scheme.[7] +Christianity, 'the greatest new beginning in the world's history,' +appeared, as he says, in an age of disintegration, and 'we are in a +synthetic rather than a disintegrating phase.... _Only a very vast and +terrible war-explosion can, I think, change this state of affairs.'_ The +vast explosion has occurred, and the stage of disintegration, which Mr. +Wells ought perhaps to have seen approaching even eleven years ago, has +clearly begun. But it will have to go further before the need of such a +society is felt. The time may come when the educated classes, and those +who desire freedom to live as they think right, will find themselves +oppressed, not only in their home-life by the tyranny of the +trade-unions, but in their souls by the pulpy and mawkish emotionalism +of herd-morality. Then a league for mutual protection may be formed. If +such a society ever comes into being, the following principles are, I +think, necessary for its success. First, it must be on a religious +basis, since religion has a cohesive force greater than any other bond. +The religious basis will be a blend of Christian Platonism and Christian +Stoicism, since it must be founded on that faith in absolute spiritual +values which is common to Christianity and Platonism, with that sturdy +defiance of tyranny and popular folly which was the strength of +Stoicism. Next, it must not be affiliated to any religious organisation; +otherwise it will certainly be exploited in denominational interests. +Thirdly, it must include some purely disciplinary asceticism, such as +abstinence from alcohol and tobacco for men, and from costly dresses and +jewellery for women. This is necessary, because it is more important to +keep out the half-hearted than to increase the number of members. +Fourthly, it must prescribe a simple life of duty and discipline, since +frugality will be a condition of enjoying self-respect and freedom. +Fifthly, it will enjoin the choice of an open-air life in the country, +where possible. A whole group of French writers, such as Proudhon, +Delacroix, Leconte de Lisle, Flaubert, Leblond, and Faguet agree in +attributing our social _malaise_ to life in great towns. The lower +death-rates of country districts are a hint from nature that they are +right. Sixthly, every member must pledge himself to give his best work. +As Dr. Jacks says, 'Producers of good articles respect each other; +producers of bad despise each other and hate their work.' It may be +necessary for those who recognise the right of the labourer to preserve +his self-respect, to combine in order to satisfy each other's needs in +resistance to the trade-unions. Seventhly, there must be provision for +community-life, like that of the old monasteries, for both sexes. The +members of the society should be encouraged to spend some part of their +lives in these institutions, without retiring from the world altogether. +Temporary 'retreats' might be of great value. Intellectual work, +including scientific research, could be carried on under very favourable +conditions in these lay monasteries and convents, which should contain +good libraries and laboratories. Lastly, a distinctive dress, not merely +a badge, would probably be essential for members of both sexes. + +This last provision tempts me to add that the Government would do well +to appoint at once a Royal Commission, or, rather, two Commissions, to +decide on a compulsory national uniform for both sexes. Experts should +recommend the most comfortable, becoming, and economical dress that +could be devised, with considerable variety for the different trades and +professions. Such a law would do more for social equality than any +readjustment of taxation. It has been often noticed that every man looks +a gentleman in khaki; and it is to be feared that many war brides have +suffered a painful surprise on seeing their husbands for the first time +in civilian garb. There need be no suggestion of militarism about the +new costume; but a man's calling might be recorded, like the name of his +regiment, on his shoulder-straps, and the absence of such a badge would +be regarded as a disgrace, whether the subject was a tramp or one of the +idle rich. This suggestion may seem trivial, or even ludicrous; and I +may be reminded of my dislike of meddling legislation; but the +importance of the philosophy of clothes has not diminished since 'Sartor +Resartus.' Clerical dignitaries might be trusted to vote for this +mitigation of their lot. + +Some may wonder why I have not expressed a hope that the guardianship of +our intellectual and spiritual birthright may pass into the hands of the +National Church. I heartily wish that I could cherish this hope. But +organised religion has been a failure ever since the first concordat +between Church and State under Constantine the Great. The Church of +England in its corporate capacity has never seemed to respect anything +but organised force. In the sixteenth century it proclaimed Henry VIII +the Supreme Head of the Church; in the seventeenth century it +passionately upheld the 'right divine of kings to govern wrong'; in the +eighteenth and nineteenth it was the obsequious supporter of the +squirearchy and plutocracy; and now it grovels before the working-man, +and supports every scheme of plundering the minority. In fact, we must +distinguish sharply between ecclesiasticism, theology, and religion. The +future of ecclesiasticism is a political question. In the opinion of +some good judges, the acute nationalism now dominant in Europe will +quickly pass away, and a duel will supervene between the 'Black +International' and the 'Red.' Catholicism, it is supposed, will shelter +all who dread revolution and all who value traditional civilisation; its +unrivalled organisation will make it the one possible centre of +resistance to anarchy and barbarism, and the conflict will go on till +one side or the other is overthrown. This prediction, which opens a +truly appalling prospect for civilisation, might be less terrible if the +Church were to open its arms to a new Renaissance, and become once more, +as in the beginning of the modern period, the home of learning and the +patroness of the arts. But we must not overlook the new and growing +power of science; and science can no more make terms with Catholic +ecclesiasticism than with the Revolution. The Jacobins guillotined +Lavoisier, 'having no need of chemists'; but the Church burnt Bruno and +imprisoned Galileo. Science, too strong to be victimised again, may come +between the two enemies of civilisation, the Bolshevik and the +Ultramontane; it is, I think, our best hope. + +I am conscious that I have spoken with too little sympathy in one or two +of these essays about the Ritualist party. I was more afraid of it a few +years ago than I am now. The Oxford movement began as a late wave of the +Romantic movement, with wistful eyes bent upon the past. But +Romanticism, which dotes on ruins, shrinks from real restoration. +Medievalism is attractive only when seen from a short distance. So the +movement is ceasing to be either medieval or Catholic or Anglican; it is +becoming definitely Latin. But a Latin Church in England which disowns +the Pope is an absurdity. Many of the shrewder High Churchmen are, as I +have said in this volume, throwing themselves into political agitation +and intrigue, for which Catholics always have a great aptitude; but this +involves them in another inconsistency. For Catholicism is essentially +hierarchical and undemocratic, though it keeps a 'career open to the +talents.' The spirit of Catholicism breathes in the Third Canto of the +'Paradiso,' where Dante asks the soul of a friend whom he finds in the +lowest circle of Paradise, whether he does not desire to go higher. The +friend replies: 'Brother, the force of charity quiets our will, making +us wish only for what we have and thirst for nothing more. If we +desired to be in a sublimer sphere, our desires would be discordant with +the will of Him who here allots us our diverse stations.... The manner +in which we are ranged from step to step in this kingdom pleases the +whole kingdom, as it does the King who gives us the power to will as He +wills.' Accordingly, these ecclesiastical votaries of democracy cut a +strange figure when they seek to legislate for the Church. The High +Church scheme (defeated the other day by a small majority) for drawing +up a constitution for the Church, consisted in disfranchising the large +majority of the electorate and reserving the initiative and veto for the +House of Lords (the Bishops). In fact, the constitution which our +Catholic democrats would like best for the Church closely resembles that +of Great Britain before the first Reform Bill. In the same way the +ritualistic clergy, while professing a superstitious reverence for the +episcopal office, make a point of flouting the authority of their own +bishop. The movement, in my opinion, is beginning to break up, and Rome +will be the chief gainer. But many of its leaders have been among the +glories of the Church of England, and I could never speak of them with +disrespect. + +Catholicism, whether Roman or Anglican, stands to lose heavily by the +decay of institutionalism as an article of faith. It is becoming +impossible for those who mix at all with their fellow-men to believe +that the grace of God is distributed denominationally. The Christian +virtues, so far as we can see, flower impartially in the souls of +Catholic and Protestant, of Churchman and Schismatic, of Orthodox and +Heretic. And the test, 'by their fruits ye shall know them,' cannot be +openly rejected by any Christian. But fanatical institutionalism has +been the driving force of Catholicism as a power in the world, from the +very first. The Church has lived by its monopolies and conquered by its +intolerance. The war has given a further impetus to the fall of this +belief, which, with its dogma, _Extra ecclesiam nulla salus_, was +tottering before the crisis came. + +The prospects of Christian theology are very difficult to estimate; and +I am so convinced myself of the superiority of the Catholic theology +based on Neoplatonism, that I cannot view the matter with impartial +detachment. We all tend to predict the triumph of our own opinions. But +miracles must, I am convinced, be relegated to the sphere of pious +opinion. It is not likely, perhaps, that the progress of science will +increase the difficulty of believing them; but it can never again be +possible to make the truths of religion depend on physical portents +having taken place as recorded. The Christian revelation can stand +without them, and the rulers of the Church will soon have to recognise +that in very many minds it does stand without them. + +I have already indicated what I believe to be the essential parts of +that revelation. Whether it will be believed by a larger number of +persons a hundred years hence than to-day depends, I suppose, on whether +the nation will be in a more healthy condition than it is now. The chief +rival to Christianity is secularism; and this creed has some bitter +disappointments in store for its worshippers. I cannot help hoping that +the human race, having taken in succession every path except the right +one, may pay more attention to the narrow way that leadeth unto life. In +morals, the Church will undoubtedly have a hard battle to fight. The +younger generation has discarded all _tabus_, and in matters of sex we +must be prepared for a period of unbridled license. But such lawlessness +brings about its own cure by arousing disgust and shame; and the +institution of marriage is far too deeply rooted to be in any danger +from the revolution. + +I have, I suppose, made it clear that I do not consider myself specially +fortunate in having been born in 1860, and that I look forward with +great anxiety to the journey through life which my children will have to +make. But, after all, we judge our generation mainly by its surface +currents. There may be in progress a storage of beneficent forces which +we cannot see. There are ages of sowing and ages of reaping: the +brilliant epochs may be those in which spiritual wealth is squandered, +the epochs of apparent decline may be those in which the race is +recuperating after an exhausting effort. To all appearance, man has +still a great part of his long lease before him, and there is no reason +to suppose that the future will be less productive of moral and +spiritual triumphs than the past. The source of all good is like an +inexhaustible river; the Creator pours forth new treasures of goodness, +truth, and beauty for all who will love them and take them. 'Nothing +that truly _is_ can ever perish,' as Plotinus says; whatever has value +in God's sight is safe for evermore. Our half-real world is the factory +of souls, in which we are tried, as in a furnace. We are not to set our +hopes upon it, but to learn such wisdom as it can teach us while we pass +through it. I will therefore end these thoughts on our present +discontents with two messages of courage and confidence, one from +Chaucer, the other from Blake. + + That thee is sent, receyve in buxomnesse, + The wrastling for this worlde axeth a fall. + Her is non hoom, her nis but wildernesse: + Forth, pilgrim, forth! Forth, beste, out of thy stall! + Know thy contree, look up, thank God of all: + Weyve thy lust, and let thy gost thee lede; + And trouthe shall delivere, it is no drede. + +And this:-- + + Joy and woe are woven fine, + A clothing for the soul divine; + Under every grief and pine + Runs a joy with silken twine. + It is right it should be so; + Man was made for joy and woe; + And when this we rightly know + Safely through the world we go. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] _Times Literary Supplement_, July 18, 1918. + + [2] Hearnshaw, _Democracy at the Crossroads_, p. 63. + + [3] Miss M. Loane. Mr. Stephen Reynolds has said the same. + + [4] Professor Hearnshaw quotes: 'Il y a opposition evidente + et irreductible entre les principes socialistes et les + principes democratiques. Il n'y a pas de conceptions + politiques qui soient separees par des abimes plus profonds + que la democratie et le socialisme' (Le Bon). 'Socialism + must be built on ideas and institutions totally different + from the ideas and institutions of democracy' (Levine). 'La + democratic tend a la conciliation des classes, tandis que le + socialisme organise la lutte de classe' (Lagardelle). + + [5] A.D. Lewis, _Syndicalism and the General Strike_. + + [6] _The Division of the Product of Industry_. + + [7] _First and Last Things_ (pp. 148-9. Published in 1908). + + + + +PATRIOTISM + +(1915) + + +The sentiment of patriotism has seemed to many to mark an arrest of +development in the psychical expansion of the individual, a half-way +house between mere self-centredness and full human sympathy. Some +moralists have condemned it as pure egoism, magnified and disguised. +'Patriotism,' says Ruskin, 'is an absurd prejudice founded on an +extended selfishness.' Mr. Grant Allen calls it 'a vulgar vice--the +national or collective form of the monopolist instinct.' Mr. Havelock +Ellis allows it to be 'a virtue--among barbarians.' For Herbert Spencer +it is 'reflex egoism--extended selfishness.' These critics have made the +very common mistake of judging human emotions and sentiments by their +roots instead of by their fruits. They have forgotten the Aristotelian +canon that the 'nature' of anything is its completed development (he +phusis telos estin). The human self, as we know it, is a transitional +form. It had a humble origin, and is capable of indefinite enhancement. +Ultimately, we are what we love and care for, and no limit has been set +to what we may become without ceasing to be ourselves. The case is the +same with our love of country. No limit has been set to what our country +may come to mean for us, without ceasing to be our country. Marcus +Aurelius exhorted himself--'The poet says, Dear city of Cecrops; shall +not I pay, Dear city of God?' But the city of God in which he wished to +be was a city in which he would still live as 'a Roman and an Antonine.' +The citizen of heaven knew that it was his duty to 'hunt Sarmatians' on +earth, though he was not obliged to imbrue his hands with 'Caesarism.' + +Patriotism has two roots, the love of clan and the love of home. In +migratory tribes the former alone counts; in settled communities +diversities of origin are often forgotten. But the love of home, as we +know it, is a gentler and more spiritual bond than clanship. The word +home is associated with all that makes life beautiful and sacred, with +tender memories of joy and sorrow, and especially with the first eager +outlook of the young mind upon a wonderful world. A man does not as a +rule feel much sentiment about his London house, still less about his +office or factory. It is for the home of his childhood, or of his +ancestors, that a man will fight most readily, because he is bound to it +by a spiritual and poetic tie. Expanding from this centre, the sentiment +of patriotism embraces one's country as a whole. + +Both forms of patriotism--the local and the racial, are frequently +alloyed with absurd, unworthy or barbarous motives. The local patriot +thinks that Peebles, and not Paris, is the place for pleasure, or asks +whether any good thing can come out of Nazareth. To the Chinaman all +aliens are 'outer barbarians' or 'foreign devils.' Admiration for +ourselves and our institutions is too often measured by our contempt and +dislike for foreigners. Our own nation has a peculiarly bad record in +this respect. In the reign of James I the Spanish ambassador was +frequently insulted by the London crowd, as was the Russian ambassador +in 1662; not, apparently, because we had a burning grievance against +either of those nations, but because Spaniards and Russians are very +unlike Englishmen. That at least is the opinion of the sagacious Pepys +on the later of these incidents. 'Lord! to see the absurd nature of +Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at anything that +looks strange.' Defoe says that the English are 'the most churlish +people alive' to foreigners, with the result that 'all men think an +Englishman the devil.' In the 17th and 18th centuries Scotland seems to +have ranked as a foreign country, and the presence of Scots in London +was much resented. Cleveland thought it witty to write:-- + + Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom; + Not forced him wander, but confined him home. + +And we all remember Dr. Johnson's gibes. + +British patriotic arrogance culminated in the 18th and in the first half +of the 19th century; in Lord Palmerston it found a champion at the head +of the government. Goldsmith describes the bearing of the Englishman of +his day:-- + + Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, + I see the lords of human kind pass by. + +Michelet found in England 'human pride personified in a people,' at a +time when the characteristic of Germany was 'a profound impersonality.' +It may be doubted whether even the arrogant brutality of the modern +Prussian is more offensive to foreigners than was the calm and haughty +assumption of superiority by our countrymen at this time. Our +grandfathers and great-grandfathers were quite of Milton's opinion, +that, when the Almighty wishes something unusually great and difficult +to be done, He entrusts it to His Englishmen. This unamiable +characteristic was probably much more the result of insular ignorance +than of a deep-seated pride. 'A generation or two ago,' said Mr. Asquith +lately, 'patriotism was largely fed and fostered upon reciprocal +ignorance and contempt.' The Englishman seriously believed that the +French subsisted mainly upon frogs, while the Frenchman was equally +convinced that the sale of wives at Smithfield was one of our national +institutions. This fruitful source of international misunderstanding has +become less dangerous since the facilities of foreign travel have been +increased. But in the relations of Europe with alien and independent +civilisations, such as that of China, we still see brutal arrogance and +vulgar ignorance producing their natural results. + +Another cause of perverted patriotism is the inborn pugnacity of the +_bete humaine_. Our species is the most cruel and destructive of all +that inhabit this planet. If the lower animals, as we call them, were +able to formulate a religion, they might differ greatly as to the shape +of the beneficent Creator, but they would nearly all agree that the +devil must be very like a big white man. Mr. McDougall[8] has lately +raised the question whether civilised man is less pugnacious than the +savage; and he answers it in the negative. The Europeans, he thinks, are +among the most combative of the human race. We are not allowed to knock +each other on the head during peace; but our civilisation is based on +cut-throat competition; our favourite games are mimic battles, which I +suppose effect for us a 'purgation of the emotions' similar to that +which Aristotle attributed to witnessing the performance of a tragedy: +and, when the fit seizes us, we are ready to engage in wars which cannot +fail to be disastrous to both combatants. Mr. McDougall does not regret +this disposition, irrational though it is. He thinks that it tends to +the survival of the fittest, and that, if we substitute emulation for +pugnacity, which on other grounds might seem an unmixed advantage, we +shall have to call in the science of eugenics to save us from becoming +as sheeplike as the Chinese. There is, however, another side to this +question, as we shall see presently. + +Another instinct which has supplied fuel to patriotism of the baser sort +is that of acquisitiveness. This tendency, without which even the most +rudimentary civilisation would be impossible, began when the female of +the species, instead of carrying her baby on her back and following the +male to his hunting-grounds, made some sort of a lair for herself and +her family, where primitive implements and stores of food could be kept. +There are still tribes in Brazil which have not reached this first step +towards humanisation. But the instinct of hoarding, like all other +instincts, tends to become hypertrophied and perverted; and with the +institution of private property comes another institution--that of +plunder and brigandage. In private life, no motive of action is at +present so powerful and so persistent as acquisitiveness, which, unlike +most other desires, knows no satiety. The average man is rich enough +when he has a little more than he has got, and not till then. The +acquisition and possession of land satisfies this desire in a high +degree, since land is a visible and indestructible form of property. +Consequently, as soon as the instincts of the individual are transferred +to the group, territorial aggrandisement becomes a main preoccupation of +the state. This desire was the chief cause of wars, while kings and +nobles regarded the territories over which they ruled as their private +estates. Wherever despotic or feudal conditions survive, such ideas are +likely still to be found, and to cause dangers to other states. The +greatest ambition of a modern emperor is still to be commemorated as a +'Mehrer des Reichs.' + +Capitalism, by separating the idea of property from any necessary +connection with landed estate, and democracy, by denying the whole +theory on which dynastic wars of conquest are based, have both +contributed to check this, perhaps the worst kind of war. It would, +however, be a great error to suppose that the instinct of +acquisitiveness, in its old and barbarous form, has lost its hold upon +even the most civilised nations. When an old-fashioned brigand appears, +and puts himself at the head of his nation, he becomes at once a popular +hero. By any rational standard of morality, few greater scoundrels have +lived than Frederick the Great and Napoleon I. But they are still names +to conjure with. Both were men of singularly lucid intellect and +entirely medieval ambitions. Their great achievement was to show how +under modern conditions aggressive war may be carried on without much +loss (except in human life) to the aggressor. They tore up all the +conventions which regulated the conduct of warfare, and reduced it to +sheer brigandage and terrorism. And now, after a hundred years, we see +these methods deliberately revived by the greatest military power in the +world, and applied with the same ruthlessness and with an added pedantry +which makes them more inhuman. The perpetrators of the crime calculated +quite correctly that they need fear no reluctance on the part of the +nation, no qualms of conscience, no compassionate shrinking, no remorse. +It must, indeed, be a bad cause that cannot count on the support of the +large majority of the people at the _beginning_ of a war. Pugnacity, +greed, mere excitement, the contagion of a crowd, will fill the streets +of almost any capital with a shouting and jubilant mob on the day after +a war has been declared. + +And yet the motives which we have enumerated are plainly atavistic and +pathological. They belong to a mental condition which would conduct an +individual to the prison or the gallows. We do not argue seriously +whether the career of the highwayman or burglar is legitimate and +desirable; and it is impossible to maintain that what is disgraceful for +the individual is creditable for the state. And apart from the +consideration that predatory patriotism deforms its own idol and makes +it hateful in the eyes of the world, subsequent history has fully +confirmed the moral instinct of the ancient Greeks, that national +insolence or injustice (hybrist) brings its own severe punishment. The +imaginary dialogue which Thucydides puts into the mouth of the Athenian +and Melian envoys, and the debate in the Athenian Assembly about the +punishment of revolted Mitylene, are intended to prepare the reader for +the tragic fate of the Sicilian expedition. The same writer describes +the break-up of all social morality during the civil war in words which +seem to herald the destruction not only of Athens but of Greek freedom. +Machiavelli's 'Prince' shows how history can repeat itself, reiterating +its lesson that a nation which gives itself to immoral aggrandisement is +far on the road to disintegration. Seneca's rebuke to his slave-holding +countrymen, 'Can you complain that you have been robbed of the liberty +which you have yourselves abolished in your own homes?' applies equally +to nations which have enslaved or exploited the inhabitants of subject +lands. If the Roman Empire had a long and glorious life, it was because +its methods were liberal, by the standard of ancient times. In so far as +Rome abused her power, she suffered the doom of all tyrants. + +The illusions of imperialism have been made clearer than ever by the +course of modern history. Attempts to destroy a nationality by +overthrowing its government, proscribing its language, and maltreating +its citizens, are never successful. The experiment has been tried with +great thoroughness in Poland; and the Poles are now more of a nation +than they were under the oppressive feudal system which existed before +the partitions. Our own empire would be a ludicrous failure if it were +any part of our ambition to Anglicise other races. The only English +parts of the empire were waste lands which we have peopled with our own +emigrants. We hauled down the French flag in Canada, with the result +that Eastern Canada is now the only flourishing French colony, and the +only part of the world where the French race increases rapidly. We have +helped the Dutch to multiply with almost equal rapidity in South Africa. +We have added several millions to the native population of Egypt, and +over a hundred millions to the population of India. Similarly, the +Americans have made Cuba for the first time a really Spanish island, by +driving out its incompetent Spanish governors and so attracting +immigrants from Spain. On the whole, in imperialism nothing fails like +success. If the conqueror oppresses his subjects, they will become +fanatical patriots, and sooner or later have their revenge; if he treats +them well, and 'governs them for their good,' they will multiply faster +than their rulers, till they claim their independence. The Englishman +now says, 'I am quite content to have it so'; but that is not the old +imperialism. + +The notion that frequent war is a healthy tonic for a nation is scarcely +tenable. Its dysgenic effect, by eliminating the strongest and +healthiest of the population, while leaving the weaklings at home to be +the fathers of the next generation, is no new discovery. It has been +supported by a succession of men, such as Tenon, Dufau, Foissac, de +Lapouge, and Richet in France; Tiedemann and Seeck in Germany; Guerrini +in Italy; Kellogg and Starr Jordan in America. The case is indeed +overwhelming. The lives destroyed in war are nearly all males, thus +disturbing the sex equilibrium of the population; they are in the prime +of life, at the age of greatest fecundity; and they are picked from a +list out of which from 20 to 30 per cent. have been rejected for +physical unfitness. It seems to be proved that the children born in +France during the Napoleonic wars were poor and undersized--30 +millimetres below the normal height. War combined with religious +celibacy to ruin Spain. 'Castile makes men and wastes them,' said a +Spanish writer. 'This sublime and terrible phrase sums up the whole of +Spanish history.' Schiller was right; 'Immer der Krieg verschlingt die +besten.' We in England have suffered from this drain in the past; we +shall suffer much more in the next generation. + + We have fed our sea for a thousand years, + And she calls us, still unfed, + Though there's never a wave of all her waves + But marks our English dead. + + We have strawed our best to the weed's unrest, + To the shark and the sheering gull, + If blood be the price of admiralty, + Lord God, we ha' paid in full. + +Aggressive patriotism is thus condemned by common sense and the verdict +of history no less than by morality. We are entitled to say to the +militarists what Socrates said to Polus: + + This doctrine of yours has now been examined and found + wanting. And this doctrine alone has stood the test--that we + ought to be more afraid of doing than of suffering wrong; + and that the prime business of every man [and nation] is not + to seem good, but to be good, in all private and public + dealings. + +If the nations would render something more than lip-service to this +principle, the abolition of war would be within sight; for, as Ruskin +says, echoing the judgment of the Epistle of St. James, 'The first +reason for all wars, and for the necessity of national defences, is that +the majority of persons, high and low, in all European countries, are +thieves.' But it must be remembered that, in spite of the proverb, it +takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep +to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains +of a different opinion. + +Our own conversion to pacificism, though sincere, is somewhat recent. +Our literature does not reflect it. Bacon is frankly militarist: + + Above all, for empire and greatness, it importeth most, that + a nation do profess arms, as their principal honour, study, + and occupation. For the things which we formerly have spoken + of are but habilitations towards arms; and what is + habitation without intention and act?... It is so plain that + a man profiteth in that he most intendeth, that it needeth + not to be stood upon. It is enough to point at it; that no + nation, which doth not directly profess arms, may look to + have greatness fall into their mouths. + +A state, therefore, 'ought to have those laws or customs, which may +reach forth unto them just occasions of war.' Shakespeare's 'Henry V' +has been not unreasonably recommended by the Germans as 'good +war-reading.' It would be easy to compile a _catena_ of bellicose maxims +from our literature, reaching down to the end of the 19th century. The +change is perhaps due less to progress in morality than to that +political good sense which has again and again steered our ship through +dangerous rocks. But there has been some real advance, in all civilised +countries. We do not find that men talked about the 'bankruptcy of +Christianity' during the Napoleonic campaigns. Even the Germans think it +necessary to tell each other that it was Belgium who began this war. + +But, though pugnacity and acquisitiveness have been the real foundation +of much miscalled patriotism, better motives are generally mingled with +these primitive instincts. It is the subtle blend of noble and ignoble +sentiment which makes patriotism such a difficult problem for the +moralist. The patriot nearly always believes, or thinks he believes, +that he desires the greatness of his country because his country stands +for something intrinsically great and valuable. Where this conviction is +absent we cannot speak of patriotism, but only of the cohesion of a +wolf-pack. The Greeks, who at last perished because they could not +combine, had nevertheless a consciousness that they were the trustees +of civilisation against barbarism; and in their day of triumph over the +Persians they were filled, for a time, with an almost Jewish awe in +presence of the righteous judgment of God. The 'Persae' of AEschylus is +one of the noblest of patriotic poems. The Romans, a harder and coarser +race, had their ideal of _virtus_ and _gravitas_, which included +simplicity of life, dignity and self-restraint, honesty and industry, +and devotion to the state. They rightly felt that these qualities +constituted a vocation to empire. There was much harshness and injustice +in Roman imperialism; but what nobler epitaph could even the British +empire desire than the tribute of Claudian, when the weary Titan was at +last stricken and dying: + + Haec est, in gremium victos quae sola recepit, + humanumque genus communi nomine fovit + matris non dominae ritu, civesque vocavit + quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit? + +Jewish patriotism was of a different kind. A federation of fierce +Bedouin tribes, encamped amid hostile populations, and set in the +cockpit of rival empires against which it was impossible to stand, the +Israelites were hammered by misfortune into the most indestructible of +all organisms, a theocracy. Their religion was to them what, in a minor +degree, Roman Catholicism has been to Ireland and Poland, a consecration +of patriotic faith and hope. Westphal says the Jews failed because they +hated foreigners more than they loved God. They have had good reason to +hate foreigners. But undoubtedly the effect of their hatred has been +that the great gifts which their nation had to give to humanity have +come through other hands, and so have evoked no gratitude. In the first +century of our era they were called to an almost superhuman abnegation +of their inveterate nationalism, and they could not rise to it. As +almost every other nation would have done, they chose the lower +patriotism instead of the higher; and it was against their will that the +religion of civilised humanity grew out of Hebrew soil. But they gained +this by their choice, tragic though it was, that they have stood by the +graves of all the empires that oppressed them, and have preserved their +racial integrity and traditions in the most adverse circumstances. The +history of the Jews also shows that oppression and persecution are far +more efficacious in binding a nation together than community of interest +and national prosperity. Increase of wealth divides rather than unites a +people; but suffering shared in common binds it together with hoops of +steel. + +The Jews were the only race whose spiritual independence was not crushed +by the Roman steam-roller. It would be unfair to say that Rome destroyed +nations; for her subjects in the West were barbarous tribes, and in the +East she displaced monarchies no less alien to their subjects than her +own rule. But she prevented the growth of nationalities, as it is to be +feared we have done in India; and the absence of sturdy independence in +the countries round the Mediterranean, especially in the Greek-speaking +provinces, made the final downfall inevitable. The lesson has its +warning for modern theorists who wish to obliterate the sentiment of +nationality, the revival of which, after a long eclipse, has been one of +the achievements of modern civilisation. For it was not till long after +the destruction of the Western Roman Empire that nationality began to +assume its present importance in Europe. + +The transition from medieval to modern history is most strongly marked +by the emergence of this principle, with all that it involves. At the +end of the Middle Ages Europe was at last compelled to admit that the +grand idea of an universal state and an universal church had definitely +broken down. Hitherto it had been assumed that behind all national +disputes lay a _ius gentium_ by which all were bound, and that behind +all religious questions lay the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, +from which there was no appeal. The modern period which certainly does +not represent the last word of civilisation, has witnessed the +abandonment of these ideas. The change took place gradually. France +became a nation when the English raids ceased in the middle of the 15th +century. Spain achieved unity a generation later by the union of Castile +and Aragon and the expulsion of the Moors from the peninsula. Holland +found herself in the heroic struggle against Spain in the 16th century. +But the practice of conducting wars by hiring foreign mercenaries, a +sure sign that the nationalist spirit is weak, continued till much +later. And the dynastic principle, which is the very negation of +nationalism, actually culminated in the 18th century; and this is the +true explanation of the feeble resistance which Europe offered to the +French revolutionary armies, until Napoleon stirred up the dormant +spirit of nationalism in the peoples whom he plundered. 'In the old +European system,' says Lord Acton, 'the rights of nationalities were +neither recognised by governments nor asserted by the people. The +interests of the reigning families, not those of the nations, regulated +the frontiers; and the administration was conducted generally without +any reference to popular desires.' Marriage or conquest might unite the +most diverse nations under one sovereign, such as Charles V. + +While such ideas prevailed, the suppression of a nation did not seem +hateful; the partition of Poland evoked few protests at the time, though +perhaps few acts of injustice have recoiled with greater force on the +heads of their perpetrators than this is likely to do. Poles have been +and are among the bitterest enemies of autocracy, and the strongest +advocates of republicanism and racialism, in all parts of the world. The +French Revolution opened a new era for nationalism, both directly and +indirectly. The deposition of the Bourbons was a national act which +might be a precedent for other oppressed peoples. And when the +Revolution itself began to trample on the rights of other nations, an +uprising took place, first in Spain and then in Prussia, which proved +too strong for the tyrant. The apostasy of France from her own ideals of +liberty proved the futility of mere doctrines, like those of Rousseau, +and compelled the peoples to arm themselves and win their freedom by the +sword. The national militarism of Prussia was the direct consequence of +her humiliation at Jena and Auerstaedt, and of the harsh terms imposed +upon her at Tilsit. It is true that the Congress of Vienna attempted to +revive the old dynastic system. But for the steady opposition of +England, the clique of despots might have reimposed the old yoke upon +their subjects. The settlement of 1815 also left the entire centre of +Europe in a state of chaos; and it was only by slow degrees that Italy +and Germany attained national unity. Poland, the Austrian Empire, and +the Balkan States still remain in a condition to trouble the peace of +the world. In Austria-Hungary the clash of the dynastic and the +nationalist ideas is strident; and every citizen of that empire has to +choose between a wider and a narrower allegiance. + +Europeans are, in fact, far from having made up their minds as to what +is the organic whole towards which patriotic sentiment ought to be +directed. Socialism agrees with despotism in saying, 'It is the +political aggregate, the state,' however much they may differ as to how +the state should be administered. For this reason militarism and +state-socialism might at any time come to terms. They are at one in +exaggerating the 'organic' unity of a political or geographical +_enclave_; and they are at one in depreciating the value of individual +liberty. Loyalty to 'the state' instead of to 'king and country' is not +an easy or a natural emotion. The state is a bloodless abstraction, +which as a rule only materialises as a drill-sergeant or a +tax-collector. Enthusiasm for it, and not only for what can be got out +of it, does not extend much beyond the Fabian Society. Caesarism has the +great advantage of a visible head, as well as of its appeal to very old +and strong thought-habits; and accordingly, in any national crisis, +loyalty to the War-lord is likely to show unexpected strength, and +doctrinaire socialism unexpected weakness. + +But devotion to the head of the state in his representative capacity is +a different thing from the old feudal loyalty. It is far more +impersonal; the ruler, whether an individual or a council, is reverenced +as a non-human and non-moral embodiment of the national power, a sort of +Platonic idea of coercive authority. This kind of loyalty may very +easily be carried too far. In reality, we are members of a great many +'social organisms,' each of which has indefeasible claims upon us. Our +family, our circle of acquaintance, our business or profession, our +church, our country, the comity of civilised nations, humanity at large, +are all social organisms; and some of the chief problems of ethics are +concerned with the adjustment of their conflicting claims. To make any +one of these absolute is destructive of morality. But militarism and +socialism deliberately make the state absolute. In internal affairs this +may lead to the ruthless oppression of individuals or whole classes; in +external relations it produces wars waged with 'methods of barbarism.' +The whole idea of the state as an organism, which has been emphasised by +social reformers as a theoretical refutation of selfish individualism, +rests on the abuse of a metaphor. The bond between the dwellers in the +same political area is far less close than that between the organs of a +living body. Every man has a life of his own, and some purely personal +rights; he has, moreover, moral links with other human associations, +outside his own country, and important moral duties towards them. No one +who reflects on the solidarity of interests among capitalists, among +hand-workers, or, in a different way, among scholars and artists, all +over the world, can fail to see that the apotheosis of the state, +whether in the interest of war or of revolution, is an anachronism and +an absurdity. + +A very different basis for patriotic sentiment is furnished by the +scientific or pseudo-scientific theories about race, which have become +very popular in our time. When the history of ideas in the 20th century +comes to be written, it is certain that among the causes of this great +war will be named the belief of the Germans in the superiority of their +own race, based on certain historical and ethnological theories which +have acted like a heady wine in stimulating the spirit of aggression +among them. The theory, stated briefly, is that the shores of the Baltic +are the home of the finest human type that has yet existed, a type +distinguished by blond hair, great physical strength, unequalled mental +vigour and ability, superior morality, and an innate aptitude for +governing and improving inferior races. Unfortunately for the world, +this noble stock cannot flourish for very long in climates unlike its +own; but from the earliest historical times it has 'swarmed' +periodically, subjugating the feebler peoples of the south, and +elevating them for a time above the level which they were naturally +fitted to reach. Wherever we find marked energy and nobleness of +character, we may suspect Aryan blood; and history will usually support +our surmise. Among the great men who were certainly or probably Germans +were Agamemnon, Julius Caesar, the Founder of Christianity, Dante, and +Shakespeare. The blond Nordic giant is fulfilling his mission by +conquering and imposing his culture upon other races. They ought to be +grateful to him for the service, especially as it has a sacrificial +aspect, the lower types having, at least in their own climates, greater +power of survival. + +This fantastic theory has been defended in a large number of German +books, of which the 'Foundations of the Nineteenth Century,' by the +renegade Englishman Houston Chamberlain, is the most widely known. The +objections to it are numerous. It is notorious that until the invention +of gunpowder the settled and civilised peoples of Europe were in +frequent danger from bands of hardier mountaineers, forest-dwellers, or +pastoral nomads, who generally came from the north. But the formidable +fighting powers of these marauders were no proof of intrinsic +superiority. In fact, the most successful of these conquerors, if +success is measured by the amount of territory overrun and subdued, were +not the 'great blond beasts' of Nietzsche, but yellow monsters with +black hair, the Huns and Tartars.[9] The causes of Tartar ascendancy had +not the remotest connection with any moral or intellectual qualities +which we can be expected to admire. Nor can the Nordic race, well +endowed by nature as it undoubtedly is, prove such a superiority as this +theory claims for it. Some of the largest brains yet measured have been +those of Japanese; and the Jews have probably a higher average of +ability than the Teutons. Again, the Germans are not descended from a +pure Nordic stock. The Northern type can be best studied in Scandinavia, +where the people share with the Irish the distinction of being the +handsomest race in the world. The German is a mixture of various +anatomical types, including, in some parts, distinct traces of Mongolian +blood, which indicate that the raiding Huns meddled, according to their +custom, with the German women, and bequeathed to a section of the nation +the Turanian cheek-bones, as well as certain moral characteristics. +Lastly, the German race has never shown much aptitude for governing and +assimilating other peoples. The French, by virtue of their greater +sympathy, are far more successful. + +The French have their own form of this pseudo-science in their doctrine +of the persistence of national characteristics. Each nation may be +summed up in a formula: England, for example, is 'the country of will.' +A few instances may, no doubt, be quoted in support of this theory. +Julius Caesar said: 'Duas res plerasque Gallia industriosissime +prosequitur, rem militarem et argute loqui'; and these are still the +characteristics of our gallant allies. And Madame de Stael may be +thought to have hit off the German character very cleverly about the +time when Bismarck first saw the light. 'The Germans are vigorously +submissive. They employ philosophical reasonings to explain what is the +least philosophic thing in the world, respect for force and the fear +which transforms that respect into admiration.' But the fact remains +that the characters of nations frequently change, or rather that what we +call national character is usually only the policy of the governing +class, forced upon it by circumstances, or the manner of living which +climate, geographical position, and other external causes have made +necessary for the inhabitants of a country. + +To found patriotism on homogeneity of race is no wiser than to bound it +by frontier lines. As the Abbe Noel has lately written about his own +country, Belgium, + + the race is not the nation. The nation is not a + physiological fact; it is a moral fact. What constitutes a + nation is the community of sentiments and ideals which + results from a common history and education. The variations + of the cephalic index are here of no great importance. The + essential factor of the national consciousness resides in a + certain common mode of conceiving the conditions of the + social life. + +Belgium, the Abbe maintains, has found this national consciousness amid +her sufferings; there are no longer any distinctions between +French-speaking Belgians and Walloons or Flemings. This is in truth the +real base of patriotism. It is the basis of our own love for our +country. What Britain stands for is what Britain is. We have long known +in our hearts what Britain stands for; but we have now been driven to +search our thoughts and make our ideals explicit to ourselves and +others. The Englishman has become a philosopher _malgre lui_, 'Whatever +the world thinks,' writes Bishop Berkeley. 'he who hath not much +meditated upon God, the human soul, and the _summum bonum_, may possibly +make a thriving earthworm, but will most indubitably make a sorry +patriot and a sorry statesman.' These words, which were quoted by Mr. +Arthur Balfour a few years ago, may seem to make a large demand on the +average citizen; but in our quiet way we have all been meditating on +these things since last August, and we know pretty well what our _summum +bonum_ is for our country. We believe in chivalry and fair play and +kindliness--these things first and foremost; and we believe, if not +exactly in democracy, yet in a government under which a man may think +and speak the thing he wills. We do not believe in war, and we do not +believe in bullying. We do not flatter ourselves that we are the +supermen; but we are convinced that the ideas which we stand for, and +which we have on the whole tried to carry out, are essential to the +peaceful progress and happiness of humanity; and for these ideas we have +drawn the sword. The great words of Abraham Lincoln have been on the +lips of many and in the hearts of all since the beginning of the great +contest: 'With malice towards none; with charity for all: with firmness +in the right as God gives us to see the right--let us strive on to +finish the work we are in.' + +Patriotism thus spiritualised and moralised is the true patriotism. +When the emotion is once set in its right relations to the whole of +human life and to all that makes human life worth living, it cannot +become an immoral obsession. It is certain to become an immoral +obsession if it is isolated and made absolute. We have seen the +appalling perversion--the methodical diabolism--which this obsession has +produced in Germany. It has startled us because we thought that the +civilised world had got beyond such insanity; but it is of course no new +thing. Machiavelli said, 'I prefer my country to the salvation of my +soul'--a sentiment which sounds noble but is not; it has only a +superficial resemblance to St. Paul's willingness to be 'accursed' for +the sake of his countrymen. Devil-worship remains what it was, even when +the idol is draped in the national flag. This obsession may be in part a +survival from savage conditions, when all was at stake in every feud; +but chiefly it is an example of the idealising and universalising power +of the imagination, which turns every unchecked passion into a +monomania. The only remedy is, as Lowell's Hosea Biglow reminds us, to +bear in mind that + + our true country is that ideal realm which we represent to + ourselves under the names of religion, duty, and the like. + Our terrestrial organisations are but far-off approaches to + so fair a model; and all they are verily traitors who resist + not any attempt to divert them from this their original + intendment. Our true country is bounded on the north and the + south, on the east and west, by Justice, and when she + oversteps that invisible boundary-line by so much as a + hair's breadth, she ceases to be our mother, and chooses + rather to be looked upon _quasi noverca_. + +So Socrates said that the wise man will be a citizen of his true city, +of which the type is laid up in heaven, and only conditionally of his +earthly country. + +The obsession of patriotism is not the only evil which we have to +consider. We may err by defect as well as by excess. Herbert Spencer +speaks of an 'anti-patriotic bias'; and it can hardly be disputed that +many Englishmen who pride themselves on their lofty morality are +suffering from this mental twist. The malady seems to belong to the +Anglo-Saxon constitution, for it is rarely encountered in other +countries, while we had a noisy pro-Napoleonic faction a hundred years +ago, and the Americans had their 'Copperheads' in the Northern States +during the civil war. In our own day, every enemy of England, from the +mad Mullah to the mad Kaiser, has had his advocates at home; and the +champions of Boer and Boxer, of Afridi and Afrikander, of the Mahdi and +the Matabele, have been usually the same persons. The English, it would +appear, differ from other misguided rascals in never being right even by +accident. But the idiosyncrasy of a few persons is far less important +than the comparative insensibility of whole classes to the patriotic +appeal, except when war is actually raging. This is not specially +characteristic of our own country. The German Emperor has complained of +his Social Democrats as 'people without a fatherland'; and the cry 'A +bas la patrie' has been heard in France. + +It is usual to explain this attitude by the fact that the manual workers +'have no stake in the country,' and might not find their condition +altered for the worse by subjection to a foreign power. A few of our +working-men have given colour to this charge by exclaiming petulantly +that they could not be worse off under the Germans; but in this they +have done themselves and their class less than justice. The +anti-militarism and cosmopolitanism of the masses in every country is a +profoundly interesting fact, a problem which demands no superficial +investigation. It is one result of that emancipation from traditional +ideas, which makes the most important difference between the upper and +middle classes on the one side and the lower on the other. We lament +that the working-man takes but little interest in Christianity, and rack +our brains to discover what we have done to discredit our religion in +his eyes. The truth is that Christianity, as a dogmatic and +ecclesiastical system, is unintelligible without a very considerable +knowledge of the conditions under which it took shape. But what are the +ancient Hebrews, and the Greeks and Romans, to the working-man? He is +simply cut off from the means of reading intelligently any book of the +Bible, or of understanding how the institution called the Catholic +Church, and its offshoots, came to exist. As our staple education +becomes more 'modern' and less literary, the custodians of organised +religion will find their difficulties increasing. But the same is true +about patriotism. Love of country means pride in the past and ambition +for the future. Those who live only in the present are incapable of it. +But our working-man knows next to nothing about the past history of +England; he has scarcely heard of our great men, and has read few of our +great books. It is not surprising that the appeal to patriotism leaves +him cold. This is an evil that has its proper remedy. There is no reason +why a sane and elevated love of country should not be stimulated by +appropriate teaching in our schools. In America this is done--rather +hysterically; and in Germany--rather brutally. The Jews have always made +their national history a large part of their education, and even of +their religion. Nothing has helped them more to retain their +self-consciousness as a nation. Ignorance of the past and indifference +to the future usually go together. Those who most value our historical +heritage will be most desirous to transmit it unimpaired. + +But the absence of traditional ideas is by no means an unmixed evil. The +working-man sees more clearly than the majority of educated persons the +absurdity of international hatred and jealousy. He is conscious of +greater solidarity with his own class in other European countries than +with the wealthier class in his own; and as he approaches the whole +question without prejudice, he cannot fail to realise how large a part +of the product of labour is diverted from useful purposes by modern +militarism. International rivalry is in his eyes one of the most serious +obstacles to the abolition of want and misery. Tolstoy hardly +exaggerates when he says: 'Patriotism to the peoples represents only a +frightful future; the fraternity of nations seems an ideal more and more +accessible to humanity, and one which humanity desires.' Military glory +has very little attraction for the working-man. His humanitarian +instincts appear to be actually stronger than those of the sheltered +classes. To take life in any circumstances seems to him a shocking +thing; and the harsh procedure of martial law and military custom is +abhorrent to him. He sees no advantage and no credit in territorial +aggrandisement, which he suspects to be prompted mainly by the desire to +make money unjustly. He is therefore a convinced pacificist; though his +doctrine of human brotherhood breaks down ignominiously when he finds +his economic position threatened by the competition of cheap foreign +labour. If an armed struggle ever takes place between the nations of +Europe (or their colonists) and the yellow races, it will be a +working-man's war. But on the whole, the best hope of getting rid of +militarism may lie in the growing power of the working class. The poor, +being intensely gregarious and very susceptible to all collective +emotions, are still liable to fits of warlike excitement. But their real +minds are at present set against an aggressive foreign policy, without +being shut against the appeals of a higher patriotism. + +And yet the irritation which is felt against preachers of the +brotherhood of man is not without justification. Some persons who +condemn patriotism are simply lacking in public spirit, or their loyalty +is monopolised by some fad or 'cause,' which is a poor substitute for +love of country. The man who has no prejudices in favour of his own +family and his own country is generally an unamiable creature. So we +need not condemn Moliere for saying, 'L'ami du genre humain n'est pas du +tout mon fait,' nor Brunetiere for declaring that 'Ni la nature ni +l'histoire n'ont en effet voulu que les hommes fussent tous freres.' But +French Neo-catholicism, a bourgeois movement directed against all the +'ideas of 1789,' seems to have adopted the most ferocious kind of +chauvinism. M. Paul Bourget wrote the other day in the _Echo de Paris_, +'This war must be the first of many, since we cannot exterminate +sixty-five million Germans in a single campaign!' The women and children +too! This is not the way to revive the religion of Christ in France. + +The practical question for the future is whether there is any prospect +of returning, under more favourable auspices, to the unrealised ideal +of the Middle Ages--an agreement among the nations of Europe to live +amicably under one system of international law and right, binding upon +all, and with the consciousness of an intellectual and spiritual unity +deeper than political divisions. 'The nations are the citizens of +humanity,' said Mazzini; and so they ought to be. Some of the omens are +favourable. Militarism has dug its own grave. The great powers increased +their armaments till the burden became insupportable, and have now +rushed into bankruptcy in the hope of shaking it off. In prehistoric +times the lords of creation were certain gigantic lizards, protected by +massive armour-plates which could only be carried by a creature thirty +to sixty feet long. Then they died, when neither earth, air, nor water +could support them any longer. Such must be the end of the European +nations, unless they learn wisdom. The lesson will be brought home to +them by Transatlantic competition. The United States of America had +already, before this war, an initial advantage over the disunited states +of Europe, amounting to at least 10 per cent. on every contract; after +the war this advantage will be doubled. It remains to be seen whether +the next generation will honour the debts which we are piling up. +Disraeli used to complain of what he called 'Dutch finance,' which +consists in 'mortgaging the industry of the future to protect property +in the present.' Pitt paid for the great war of a hundred years ago in +this manner; after a century we are still groaning under the burden of +his loans. We may hear more of the iniquity of 'Dutch finance' when the +democracies of the next generation have a chance of repudiating +obligations which, as they will say, they did not contract. However that +may be, international rivalry is plainly very bad business; and there +are great possibilities in the Hague Tribunal, if, and only if, the +signatories to the conference bind themselves to use force against a +recalcitrant member. The conduct of Germany in this war has shown that +public opinion is powerless to restrain a nation which feels strong +enough to defy it. + +Another cause which may give patriots leisure to turn their thoughts +away from war's alarms is that the 'swarming' period of the European +races is coming to an end. The unparalleled increase of population in +the first three quarters of the 19th century has been followed by a +progressive decrease in the birth-rate, which will begin to tell upon +social conditions when the reduction in the death-rate, which has +hitherto kept pace with it, shall have reached its natural limit. Europe +with a stationary population will be in a much happier condition; and +problems of social reform can then be tackled with some hope of success. +Honourable emulation in the arts of life may then take the place of +desperate competition and antagonism. Human lives will begin to have a +positive value, and we may even think it fair to honour our saviours +more than our destroyers. The effects of past follies will then soon be +effaced; for nations recover much more quickly from wars than from +internal disorders. External injuries are rapidly cured; but 'those +wounds heal ill that men do give themselves.' The greatest obstacle to +progress is not man's inherited pugnacity, but his incorrigible tendency +to parasitism. The true patriot will keep his eye fixed on this, and +will dread as the state's worst enemies those citizens who at the top +and bottom of the social scale have no other ambition than to hang on +and suck the life-blood of the nation. Great things may be hoped from +the new science of eugenics, when it has passed out of its tentative and +experimental stage. + +In the distant future we may reasonably hope that patriotism will be a +sentiment like the loyalty which binds a man to his public school and +university, an affection purged of all rancour and jealousy, a stimulus +to all honourable conduct and noble effort, a part of the poetry of +life. It is so already to many of us, and has been so to the noblest +Englishmen since we have had a literature. If Henry V's speech at +Agincourt is the splendid gasconade of a royal freebooter, there is no +false ring in the scene where John of Gaunt takes leave of his banished +son; nor in Sir Walter Scott's 'Breathes there a man with soul so dead,' +etc. 'If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her +cunning.' We cannot quite manage to substitute London for Zion in +singing psalms, though there are some in England--Eton, Winchester, +Oxford, Cambridge--which do evoke these feelings. These emotions of +loyalty and devotion are by no means to be checked or despised. They +have an infinite potency for good. In spiritual things there is no +conflict between intensity and expansion. The deepest sympathy is, +potentially, also the widest. He who loves not his home and country +which he has seen, how shall he love humanity in general which he has +not seen? There are, after all, few emotions of which one has less +reason to be ashamed than the little lump in the throat which the +Englishman feels when he first catches sight of the white cliffs of +Dover. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [8] In his _Introduction to Social Psychology_. + + [9] The reasons of their irresistible strength have been + explained in a most brilliant manner by Dr. Peisker in the + first volume of the 'Cambridge Medieval History.' + + + + +THE BIRTH-RATE + +(1917) + + +The numbers of every species are determined, not by the procreative +power of its members, which always greatly exceeds the capacity of the +earth to support a progeny increasing in geometrical progression, but by +two factors, the activity of its enemies and the available supply of +food. Those species which survive owe their success in the struggle for +existence mainly to one of two qualities, enormous fertility or parental +care. The female cod spawns about 6,000,000 eggs at a time, of which at +most one-third--perhaps much less--are afterwards fertilised. An +infinitesimal proportion of these escapes being devoured by fish or +fowl. An insect-eating bird is said to require for its support about +250,000 insects a year, and the number of such birds must amount to +thousands of millions. As a rule there is a kind of equilibrium between +the forces of destruction and of reproduction. If a species is nearly +exterminated by its enemies, those enemies lose their food-supply and +perish themselves. In some sheltered spot the survivors of the victims +remain and increase till they begin to send out colonies again. In some +species, such as the mice in La Plata, and the beasts and birds which +devour them, there is an alternation of increase and decrease, to be +accounted for in this way. But permanent disturbances of equilibrium +sometimes occur. The rabbit in Australia, having found a virgin soil, +multiplied for some time almost up to the limit of its natural fertility +and is firmly established on that continent. The brown rat (some say) +has exterminated our black rat and the Maori rat in New Zealand. The +microbe of the terrible disease which the crews of Columbus brought back +to Europe, after causing a devastating epidemic at the end of the +fifteenth century, established a kind of _modus vivendi_ with its hosts, +and has remained as a permanent scourge in Europe. Other microbes, like +those of cholera and plague, emigrate from the lands where they are +endemic, like a horde of Tartars, and after slaying all who are +susceptible disappear from inanition. The draining of the fens has +driven the anopheles mosquito from England, and our countrymen no longer +suffer from 'ague.' Cleanlier habits are banishing the louse and its +accompaniment typhus fever. + +Fertility and care for offspring seem as a rule to vary inversely. The +latter is the path of biological progress, and is characteristic of all +viviparous animals. That any degree of parental attention is +incompatible with the immense fecundity of the lower organisms needs no +demonstration. Such fertility is not necessary to keep up the numbers of +the higher species, which find abundant food in the swarming progeny of +the lower types, and are not themselves exposed to wholesale slaughter. +Speaking of fishes, Sutherland says: + + Of species that exhibit no sort of parental care, the + average of forty-nine gives 1,040,000 eggs to a female each + year; while among those which make nests or any apology for + nests the number is only about 10,000. Among those which + have any protective tricks, such as carrying the eggs in + pouches or attached to the body, or in the mouth, the + average number is under 1000; while among those whose care + takes the form of uterine or quasi-uterine gestation which + brings the young into the world alive, an average of 56 eggs + is quite sufficient. + +Man is no exception to these laws. His evolution has been steadily in +the direction of diminishing fertility and increasing parental care. +This does not necessarily imply that the modern European loves his +children better than the savage loves his. It is grim necessity, not +want of affection, which determines the treatment of children by their +parents over a great part of the world, and through the greater part of +human history. The homeless hunters, who represent the lowest stage of +savagery, are now almost extinct. In these tribes the woman has to +follow the man carrying her baby. Under such conditions the chances of +rearing a large family are small indeed. Very different is the life of +the grassland nomads, who roam over the Arabian plateau and the steppes +of Central Asia. These tribes, who really live as the parasites of their +flocks and herds, depending on them entirely for subsistence, often +multiply rapidly. Their typical unit is the great patriarchal family, in +which the _sheikh_ may have scores of children by different mothers. +These children soon begin to earn their keep, and are taken care of. If, +however, the patriarch so chooses, Hagar with her child is cast adrift, +to find her way back to her own people, if she can. The grasslands are +usually almost as full as they can hold. A period of drought, or +pressure by rivals, in former times sent a horde of these hardy +shepherds on a raid into the nearest settled province; and if, like the +Tartars, they were mounted, they usually killed, plundered, and +conquered wherever they went, until the discovery of gunpowder saved +civilisation from the recurrent peril of barbarian inroads. Barbarians +of another type, hunters with fixed homes, seldom increase rapidly, +partly because the dangers of forest-life for young children are much +greater than on the steppe. + +In the primitive river-valley civilisations, such as Egypt and +Babylonia, the conditions of increase were so favourable that a dense +population soon began to press upon the means of subsistence. In Egypt +the remedy was a centralised government which could undertake great +irrigation works and intensive cultivation. In Babylonia, for the first +time in history, foreign trade was made to support a larger population +than the land itself could maintain. There was little or no infanticide +in Babylonia, but the death-rate in these steaming alluvial plains has +always been very high. + +When we turn to poor and mountainous countries like Greece, the +conditions are very different. It was an old belief among the Hellenes +that in the days before the Trojan War 'the world was too full of +people.' The increase was doubtless made possible by the trade which +developed in the Minoan period, but the sources of food-supply were +liable to be interfered with. Hence came the necessity for active +colonisation, which lasted from the eighth to the sixth century B.C. +This period of expansion came to an end when all the available sites +were occupied. In the sixth century the Greeks found themselves headed +off, in the west by Phoenicians and Etruscans, in the east by the +Persian Empire. The problem of over-population was again pressing upon +them. Incessant civil wars between Hellenes kept the numbers down to +some extent; but Greek battles were not as a rule very bloody, and every +healthy nation has a surprising capacity of making good the losses +caused by war. The first effect of the check to emigration was that the +old ideal of the 'self-sufficient life,' which meant the practice of +mixed farming, had to be partially abandoned. The most flourishing +States, and especially Athens, had to take to manufactures, which they +exchanged for the food-products of the Balkan States and South Russia. +The result was an increasing urbanisation, and a new population of free +'resident aliens.' Conservatives hated this change and wished to revive +the old ideal of a small self-supporting State, with a maximum of 20,000 +or 30,000 citizens. Plato, in his latest work, the 'Laws,' wishes his +model city to be not too near the sea, the proximity of which 'fills the +streets with merchants and shopkeepers, and begets dishonesty in the +souls of men.' On the other side Isocrates, the most far-seeing of +Athenian politicians, realised that the day of small city-states was +over, and that the limited, 'self-sufficient' community would not long +maintain its independence. He urged his countrymen to pursue a policy of +peaceful penetration in Western Asia, as the Greeks were soon to do +under the successors of Alexander. But the prejudice against +industrialism was very strong. Greece in the fifth century remained a +poor country; her exports were not more than enough to pay for the food +of her existing population; and that population had to be artificially +restricted. The Greeks were an exceptionally healthy and long-lived +race; their great men for the most part lived to ages which have no +parallel until the nineteenth century. The infant death-rate from +natural causes may have been rather high, as it is in modern Greece, but +it was augmented by systematic infanticide. The Greek father had an +absolute right to decide whether a new-comer was to be admitted to the +family. In Ephesus alone of Greek cities a parent was compelled to prove +that he was too poor to rear a child before he was allowed to get rid of +it.[10] Even Hesiod, centuries earlier, advises a father not to bring up +more than one son, and daughters were sacrificed more frequently than +sons. The usual practice was to expose the infant in a jar; anyone who +thought it worth while might rescue the baby and bring it up as a slave. +But this was not often done. At Gela, in Sicily, there are 233 'potted' +burials in an excavated graveyard, out of a total of 570.[11] The +proportion of female infants exposed must have been very large. The +evidence of literature is supported by such letters as this from a +husband at Oxyrhynchus: 'When--good luck to you--your child is born, if +it is a male, let it live; if a female, expose it.'[12] Besides +infanticide, abortion was freely practised, and without blame.[13] The +Greek citizen married rather late; but as his bride was usually in her +'teens this would not affect the birth-rate. Nor need we attach much +importance, as a factor in checking population, to the characteristic +Greek vice, nor to prostitution, which throughout antiquity was +incredibly cheap and visited by no physical penalty. As for slaves, +Xenophon recommends that they should be allowed to have children as a +reward for good conduct.[14] + +A rapid decline in population set in under the successors of Alexander. +Polybius ascribes it to selfishness and a high standard of comfort, +which is doubtless true of the upper and middle classes;[15] but the +depopulation of rural Greece can hardly be so accounted for. Perhaps +the forests were cut down, and the rainfall diminished. It was the +general impression that the soil was far less productive than formerly. +The decay of the Hellenic race was accelerated after the Roman conquest, +until the old stock became almost extinct. This disappearance of the +most gifted race that ever inhabited our planet is one of the strangest +catastrophes of history, and is full of warnings for the modern +sociologist. Industrial slavery, indifference to parenthood, and +addiction to club-life were certainly three of the main causes, unless +we prefer to regard the two last as symptoms of hopelessness about the +future. + +The same disease fell upon Italy, and was coincident not with the +murderous war against Hannibal and the subsequent campaigns, costly +though they were, in Spain, Syria, and Macedonia, but with the +Hellenisation of social life. Lucan, under Nero, complains that the +towns have lost more than half their inhabitants, and that the +country-side lies waste. Under Titus it was estimated that, whereas +Italy under the Republic could raise nearly 800,000 soldiers, that +number was now reduced by one-half. Marcus Aurelius planted a large +tribe of Marcomanni on unoccupied land in Italy. In the fourth century +Bologna, Modena, Piacenza, and many other towns in North Italy were in +ruins. The land of the Volscians and Aequians, once densely populated, +was a desert even in Livy's time. Samnium remained the wilderness that +Sulla had left it; and Apulia was a lonely sheep-walk. + +The causes of this depopulation have been often discussed, both in +antiquity and in our own day. Slavery, infanticide, celibacy, wars and +massacres, large estates, and pestilence have all been named as causes; +but I am inclined to think that all these influences together are +insufficient to account for so rapid a decline. The toll of war was +lighter by far than in periods when the population was rising; +infectious disease (unless we suppose, as some have suggested, that +malaria became for the first time endemic under the Roman domination) +invaded the empire in occasional and destructive epidemics, but a +healthy population recovers from pestilence, as from war, with great +rapidity. The large grazing ranches displaced farms because corn-growing +in Italy was unprofitable, but there was a large supply of grain from +Sicily, Africa, and other districts. Slavery undoubtedly accounts for a +great deal. This institution is excessively wasteful of human life; it +is never possible to keep up the numbers of slaves without slave-hunting +in the countries from which they come. And we must remember that ancient +civilisation was almost entirely urban. The barbarians found ample waste +lands between the towns, which they did not as a rule care to visit, +probably because those who did so soon fell victims to microbic +diseases. The sanitary condition of ancient cities was better than in +the Middle Ages; but the death-rate was probably too high to permit of +any increase in the population. But after admitting that all these +causes were operative, it may be that we shall be obliged to acknowledge +also a psychological factor. If a nation has no hopes for the future, if +it is even doubtful whether life is worth living, if it is disposed to +withdraw from the struggle for existence and to meet the problems of +life in a temper of passive resignation, it will not regard children as +a heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord, but rather as an +encumbrance. That such was the temper of the later Roman Empire may be +gathered not only from the literature, which is singularly devoid of +hopefulness and enterprise, but from the rapid spread of monasticism and +eremitism in this period. The prevalence of this world-weariness of +course needs explanation, and the cause is rather obscure. It does not +seem to be connected with unfavourable external conditions, but rather +with a racial exhaustion akin to senile decay in the individual. But +there is no real analogy between the life of an individual and that of a +nation, and it would be very rash to insist on the hypothesis of racial +decay, which perhaps has no biological basis. + +The influence of Christianity on population is very difficult to +estimate. Nothing is more unscientific than to collect the ethical +precepts and practices of nations which profess the Christian religion, +and to label them as 'the results of Christianity.' The historian of +religion would indeed be faced by a strange task if he were compelled to +trace the moral ideals of Simeon Stylites and of Howard the +philanthropist, of Francis of Assisi and Oliver Cromwell, of Thomas +Aquinas and Thomas a Becket, to a common source. The only ethical and +social principles which can properly be called Christian are those which +can be proved to have their root in the teaching and example of the +Founder of Christianity. But the Gospel of Christ was a product of +Jewish soil. It is historically connected with the Jewish prophetic +tradition, which it carried to its fullest development and presented in +an universalised and spiritualised form. Its social teaching consists +chiefly of general principles which have to be applied to conditions +unlike those contemplated by its first disciples, who were under the +influence of the apocalyptic expectations prevalent at the time. Jewish +morality was in its origin the morality of a tribe of nomad Bedouins; +and we have seen that infant life is held sacred by these peoples. +Marriage is regarded as a duty, and childlessness as a misfortune or a +disgrace. The forward look, characteristic of the Hebrews from the +first, made every Jew desirous to leave descendants who might witness +happier times, and one of whom might even be the promised Deliverer of +his people. No Hebrew of either sex was allowed to be a servant of vice; +abnormal practices, though screened by Canaanite religion, were far less +common than in Greece or Italy. To this wholesome morality Christianity +added the doctrines of the value, in the sight of God, of every human +life, and of the sanctity of the body as the 'temple of God.' To the +Pagans, the continence of the Christians was, next to their affection +for each other, their most remarkable characteristic. From the first, +the new religion set itself firmly against infanticide and abortion, and +won one of its most signal moral triumphs in driving underground and +greatly diminishing homosexual vice. Its encouragement of celibacy, +especially for those who followed the 'religious' vocation, was an +offset to its healthy influence on family life, and ultimately, as +Galton has shown, worked great mischief by sterilising for centuries +many of the gentlest and noblest in each generation; but this tendency +was adventitious to Christianity, and would never have taken root on +Palestinian soil. The cult of virginity has lasted on, with much else +that belongs to the later Hellenistic age, in Catholicism. + +In the Middle Ages the population question slumbered. The miserable +chaos into which the old civilisation sank after the barbarian +invasions, the orgies of massacre and plunder, the almost total oblivion +of medical science, and the pestiferous condition of the medieval walled +town, which could be smelt miles away, averted any risk of +over-population. Families were very large, but the majority of the +children died. Millions were swept away by the Black Death; millions +more by the Crusades. Such books as that of Luchaire, on France in the +reign of Philip Augustus, bring vividly before us the horrible condition +of society in feudal times, and explain amply the sparsity of the +population. + +The early modern period contains another notable example of a sudden and +unaccountable decline in population. The scene is Spain, which, after +playing an active and very prominent part in the world's history, sank +quickly into the lethargy from which it has never recovered. It may be +noted that here, as in the case of Rome, the decay of population and +energy followed a great influx of plundered wealth. On the other hand, +the increase of population in our newly-planted North American colonies +must have been extremely rapid for two or three generations. + +The enormous multiplication of the European races since the middle of +the eighteenth century is a phenomenon quite unique in history, and +never likely to be repeated.[16] It was rendered possible by the new +labour-saving inventions which immensely increased the exports which +could be exchanged for food, and by the opening up of vast new +food-producing areas. The chief method by which the increase was +effected, especially in the later period, has been the lengthening of +human life by improved sanitation and medical science.[17] Since 1865 +the average duration of life in England and Wales has been raised by a +little more than one-third. Other European countries show the same ratio +of improvement. This astonishing result, so little known and so seldom +referred to, was bound to have a great effect on the birth-rate. So long +as the swarming period continued at its height, a net annual increase of +15 or even 20 per thousand could be sustained; but the expansion of the +European peoples has now passed its zenith, and a tendency to revert to +more normal conditions is almost everywhere observable. One of the most +advanced nations, France, has already reached the equilibrium towards +which other civilised nations are moving. The old-established families +in the United States are believed to be actually dwindling. + +The student of international vital statistics will be struck first by +the very wide differences in the birth-rate of different countries. He +will then notice that the more backward countries have on the whole a +considerably higher birth-rate than the more advanced. Thirdly, he will +observe the parallelism between the birth-rate and death-rate, which +makes the net increase in countries with a high birth-rate very little +larger than that of countries with a low birth-rate. The following +figures will illustrate these points; they are taken from the +Registrar-General's Blue Book for 1912. + + + Birth-rate Death-rate Net rate of + increase +United Kingdom 23.9 13.8 10.1 +Australia 28.7 11.2 17.5 +Austria 31.3 20.5 10.8 +Belgium 22.9 16.4 6.5 +France 19.0 17.5 1.5 +Germany 28.6 17.3 11.3 +Italy 32.4 18.2 14.2 +New Zealand 26.5 8.9 17.6 +Norway 25.4 13.4 12.0 +Roumania 43.4 22.9 20.5 +Russia 44.0 28.9 15.1 + +It will be seen that Australia and New Zealand, with low birth-rates and +the lowest death-rates in the world increase more rapidly than Russia +with an enormous birth-rate and proportionately high death-rate. No one +can doubt that our colonies achieve their increase with far less +friction and misery than the prolific but short-lived Slavs. +Civilisation in a high form is incompatible with such conditions as +these figures disclose in Russia. The figures for Egypt and India are +similar to the Russian, but in India, which is overfull, the mortality +is greater than even in Russia, and the same is true of China, in which +we are told that seven out of ten children die in infancy. It has been +suggested that the fairest measure of a country's well-being, as regards +its actual vitality, is the square of the death-rate divided by the +birth-rate. + +It is well known that a decline in the birth-rate set in about forty +years ago in this country, and has gone on steadily ever since, till the +fall now amounts to about one-third of the total births. It thus +corresponds very nearly to the fall in the death-rate during the same +period. It is also well known that this decline is not evenly +distributed among different classes of the people. Until the decline +began, large families were the rule in all classes, and the slightly +larger families of the poor were compensated by their somewhat higher +mortality. But since 1877 large families have become increasingly rare +in the upper and middle classes, and among the skilled artisans. They +are frequent in the thriftless ranks of unskilled labour, and in one +section of well-paid workmen--the miners. The highest birth-rates at +present are in the mining districts and in the slums. The lowest are in +some of the learned professions. In the Rhondda Valley the birth-rate is +still about forty, which is double the rate in the prosperous +residential suburbs of London. In the seats of the textile industry the +decline has been very severe, although wages are fairly good; among the +agricultural labourers the rate is also low. It will be found that in +all trades where the women work for wages the birth-rate has fallen +sharply; the miner's wife does not earn money, and has therefore less +inducement to restrict her family. In agricultural districts the housing +difficulty is mainly responsible; in the upper and middle classes the +heavy expense of education and the burden of rates and taxes are +probably the main reasons why larger families are not desired. We may +add that in almost all the professions old men are overpaid and young +men under-paid. Mr. and Mrs. Whetham[18] have found that, before 1870, +143 marriages of men whose names appear in 'Who's Who' resulted in 743 +children, an average of 5.2 each; after 1870 the average is only 3.08. +Celibacy also is commoner among the educated. 'From the reports issued +by two Women's Colleges, it appears that, excluding those who have left +college within three years or less, out of 3000 women only 22 per cent. +have married, and the number of children born to each marriage is +undoubtedly very small.' The writers consider that this state of things +is extremely dangerous for the country, inasmuch as we are now breeding +mainly from our worst stocks (the feeble-minded are very prolific), +while our best families are stationary or dwindling. Without denying the +general truth of this pessimistic conclusion,[19] it may be pointed out +that the miners are, physically at least, above the average of the whole +population, and that the very low birth-rate of residential districts is +partly due to the presence in large numbers of unmarried domestic +servants. The death-rate of the slums is also very high. + +The fears of the eugenist about the quality of the population are far +more reasonable than the invectives of the fanatic about its defective +quantity. Of the latter class we may say with Havelock Ellis that 'those +who seek to restore the birth-rate of half a century ago are engaged in +a task which would be criminal if it were not based on ignorance, and +which is in any case fatuous.' And yet I hope to show before the close +of this article that for two or three generations the British Empire +could absorb a considerable increase, and that the Government might with +advantage stimulate this by schemes of colonisation. The lament of the +eugenist resounds in all countries alike. The German complains that the +Poles, whom he considers an inferior race, breed like rabbits, while the +gifted exponents of _Kultur_ only breed like hares. The American is +nervous about the numbers of the negro; he has more reason to be nervous +about the fecundity of the Slav and South Italian immigrant. Everywhere +the tendency is for the superior stock to dwindle till it becomes a +small aristocracy. The Americans of British descent are threatened with +this fate. Pride and a high standard of living are not biological +virtues. The man who needs and spends little is the ultimate inheritor +of the earth. I know of no instance in history in which a ruling race +has not ultimately been ousted or absorbed by its subjects. Complete +extermination or expropriation is the only successful method of +conquest. The Anglo-Saxon race has thus established itself in the +greater part of Britain, and in Australasia. In North America it has +destroyed the Indian hunter, who could not be used for industrial +purposes; but the temptation to exploit the negro and the cheaper +European races was too strong to be resisted, and Nature's heaviest +penalty is now being exacted against the descendants of our sturdy +colonists. We did not lose America in the eighteenth century; we are +losing it now. As for South Africa, the Kaffir can live like a gentleman +(according to his own ideas) on six months' ill-paid work every year; +the Englishman finds an income of L200 too small. There is only one end +to this kind of colonisation. The danger at home is that the larger part +of the population is now beginning to insist upon a scale of +remuneration and a standard of comfort which are incompatible with any +survival-value. We all wish to be privileged aristocrats, with no serfs +to work for us. Dame Nature cares nothing for the babble of politicians +and trade-union regulations. She says to us what Plotinus, in a +remarkable passage, makes her say: 'You should not ask questions; you +should try to understand. _I am not in the habit of talking._' In +Nature's school it is a word and a blow, and the blow first. Before the +close of this article I will return to the eugenic problem, and will +consider whether anything can be done to solve it. + +At the present time, when an apparently internecine conflict is raging +between the British Empire and Germany, a more detailed comparison of +the vital statistics of the two countries will be read with interest. In +England and Wales the birth-rate culminated in 1876 at a little over 36, +after slowly rising from 33 in 1850. From 1876 the line of decline is +almost straight, down to the ante-war figure of about 24. In Prussia, +owing partly to wars, the fluctuations have been violent. In 1850 the +figure (omitting decimals) was 39; in 1855, 34; in 1859, 40; in 1871, +34; in 1875, nearly 41. From this date, as in England, the steady +decline began. In 1907 the rate had fallen to 33; in 1913 (German +Empire) to 27.5. Here we may notice the abnormally high rate in the +years following the great war of 1870, a phenomenon which was marked +also throughout Europe after the Napoleonic wars. We may also notice +that the decline has been of late slightly more rapid in Germany, +falling from a high birth-rate, than in England, where the maximum was +never so high. Another fact which comes out when the German figures are +more carefully examined is that urbanisation in Germany has a +sterilising effect which is not operative in England. Prinzing gives the +comparative figures of _legitimate_ fertility for Prussia as follows: + + 1879-1882 1894-1897 + +Berlin 23.8 16.9[20] +Other great towns 26.7 23.5 +Towns of 20,000 to 100,000 26.8 25.7 +Small towns 27.8 25.9 +Country districts 28.8 29.0 + +Now urbanisation is going on even more rapidly in Germany than in +England. The death-rate in England and Wales rose from 21 in 1850 to +23.5 in 1854; after sharp fluctuations it reached 23.7 in 1864; since +then it has declined to its present figure (in normal times) of 14. In +Prussia after the war of 1870 and the small-pox epidemic of 1871, there +has been a steady fall from 26 to 17.3 (German Empire in 1911). The net +increase is only slightly larger (in proportion to the population) in +Germany than in England; and the increase in our great colonies, +especially in Australasia, is much higher than in Germany. There is +therefore no reason to suppose that a rapid alteration is going on to +our disadvantage. + +It is widely believed that the Roman Catholic Church, by sternly +forbidding the artificial limitation of families, is increasing its +numbers at the expense of the non-Catholic populations. To some extent +this is true. The Prussian figures for 1895-1900 give the number of +children per marriage as: + +Both parents Catholic 5 +Both parents Protestant 4 +Both parents Jews 3.7 + +An examination of the entries in 'Who's Who' gives about the same +proportion for well-to-do families in England. The Catholic birth-rate +of the Irish is nearly 40.[21] The French-Canadians are among the most +prolific races in the world. On the other hand, their infant mortality +is very high, and it is said that French-Canadian parents take these +losses philosophically. It is quite a different question whether it is +ultimately to the advantage of a nation which desires to increase its +numbers to profess the Roman Catholic religion. The high birth-rates are +all in unprogressive Catholic populations. When a Catholic people begins +to be educated, the priests apparently lose their influence upon the +habits of the laity, and a rapid decline in the births at once sets in. +The most advanced countries which did not accept the Reformation, France +and Belgium, are precisely those in which parental prudence has been +carried almost to excess. We must also remember that the Dutch Boers, +who are Protestants, but who live under simple conditions not unlike +those of the French-Canadians, are equally prolific, as were our own +colonists in the United States before that country was industrialised. +The advantages in numbers gained by Roman Catholicism are likely to be +confined to half-empty countries, where there is really room for more +citizens, and where social ambition and the love of comfort are the +chief motives for restricting the family. + +The population of a settled country cannot be increased at will; it +depends on the supply of food. The choice is between a high birth-rate +combined with a high death-rate, and a low birth-rate with a low +death-rate. The great saving of life which has been effected during the +last fifty years carries with it the necessity of restricting the +births. The next question to be considered is how this restriction is to +be brought about. The oldest methods are deliberate neglect and +infanticide. In China, where authorities differ as to the extent to +which female infants are exposed, the practice certainly prevails of +feeding infants whom their mothers are unable to suckle on rice and +water, which soon terminates their existence. Such methods would happily +find no advocates in Europe. The very ancient art of procuring +miscarriage is a criminal act in most civilised countries, but it is +practised to an appalling extent. Hirsch, who quotes his authorities, +estimates that 2,000,000 births are so prevented annually in the United +States, 400,000 in Germany, 50,000 in Paris, and 19,000 in Lyons. In our +own country it is exceedingly common in the northern towns, and attempts +are now being made to prohibit the sale of certain preparations of lead +which are used for this purpose. Alike on grounds of public health and +of morality, it is most desirable that this mischievous practice should +be checked. Its great prevalence in the United States is to be +attributed mainly to the drastic legislation in that country against the +sale and use of preventives, to which many persons take objection on +moral or aesthetic grounds, but which is surely on an entirely different +level from the destruction of life that has already begun. The +'Comstock' legislation in America has done unmixed harm. It is worse +than useless to try to put down by law a practice which a very large +number of people believes to be innocent, and which must be left to the +taste and conscience of the individual. To the present writer it seems a +_pis aller_ which high-minded married persons should avoid if they can +practise self-restraint. Whatever injures the feeling of +'sanctification and honour' with which St. Paul bids us to regard these +intimacies of life, whatever tends to profane or degrade the sacraments +of wedded love, is so far an evil. But this is emphatically a matter in +which every man and woman must judge for themselves, and must refrain +from judging others. + +In every modern civilised country population is restricted partly by the +deliberate postponement of marriage. In many cases this does no harm +whatever; but in many others it gravely diminishes the happiness of +young people, and may even cause minor disturbances of health. Moreover, +it would not be so widely adopted but for the tolerance, on the part of +society, of the 'great social evil,' the opprobrium of our civilisation. +In spite of the failure hitherto of priests, moralists, and legislators +to root it out, and in spite of the acceptance of it as inevitable by +the majority of Continental opinion, I believe that this abomination +will not long be tolerated by the conscience of the free and progressive +nations. It is notorious that the whole body of women deeply resents the +wrong and contumely done by it to their sex, and that, if democracy is +to be a reality, the immolation of a considerable section of women drawn +from the poorer classes cannot be suffered to continue. It is also plain +to all who have examined the subject that the campaign against certain +diseases, the malignity and wide diffusion of which are being more fully +realised every year, cannot be successful through medical methods alone. +If the institution in question were abolished, medical science would +soon reduce these scourges to manageable limits, and might at last +exterminate them altogether; but while it continues there is no hope of +doing this. I believe then that the time will come when the trade in +vice will cease; and if I am right, early marriages will become the rule +in all classes. This will render the population question more acute, +especially as the diseases which we hope to extirpate are the commonest +cause both of sterility and of infant mortality. Under this pressure, we +must expect to see preventive methods widely accepted as the least of +unavoidable evils. + +When we reflect on the whole problem in its widest aspects, we see that +civilised humanity is confronted by a Choice of Hercules. On the one +side, biological law seems to urge us forward to the struggle for +existence and expansion. The nation in that case will have to be +organised on the lines of greatest efficiency. A strong centralised +government will occupy itself largely in preventing waste. All the +resources of the nation must be used to the uttermost. Parks must be cut +up into allotments; the unproductive labours of the scholar and thinker +must be jealously controlled and limited. Inefficient citizens must be +weeded out; wages must be low and hours of work long. Moreover, the +State must be organised for war; for its neighbours, we must suppose, +are following the same policy. Then the fierce extra-group competition +must come to its logical arbitrament in a life and death struggle. And +war between two over-peopled countries, for both of which more +elbow-room is a vital necessity, must be a war of complete expropriation +or extermination. It must be so, for no other kind of war can achieve +its object. The horrors of the present conflict will be as nothing +compared with a struggle between two highly-organised State socialisms, +each of which knows that it must either colonise the territory of the +other or starve. It is idle to pretend that such a necessity will never +arise. Another century of increase in Europe like that of the nineteenth +century would bring it very near. If this policy is adopted, we shall +see all the principal States organising themselves with a perfection far +greater than that of Germany to-day, but taking German methods as their +model; and the end will be the extermination of the smaller or looser +organisations. Such a prospect may well fill us with horror; and it is +terrible to find some of the ablest thinkers of Germany, such as Ernst +Troeltsch, writing calm elegies over 'the death of Liberalism' and +predicting the advent of an era of cut-throat international competition. +Juvenal speaks of the folly of _propter vitam vivendi perdere causas_; +and who would care to live in such a world? But does Nature care whether +we enjoy our lives or not? + +The other choice is that which France has made for herself; it is on the +lines of Plato's ideal State. Each country is to be, as far as +possible, self-sufficing. If it cannot grow sufficient food for itself, +it must of course export its coal or its gold, or the products of its +industry and ingenuity. But it must know approximately what 'the number +of the State' (as Plato said) should be. It must limit its population to +that number, and the limit will be fixed, not at the maximum number who +can live there anyhow, but at the maximum number who can 'live well.' +The object aimed at will not be constant expansion, but well-being. The +energies liberated from the pitiless struggle for existence will be +devoted to making social life wiser, happier, more harmonious and more +beautiful. Have we any reason to hope that this policy is not contrary +to the hard laws which Nature imposes on every species in the world? + +In the first place, would such a State escape being devoured by some +brutal 'expanding' neighbour? What would have happened to France if she +had stood alone in this war? The danger is real; but we may answer that +France, as a matter of fact, did not stand alone, because other nations +thought her too precious to be sacrificed. And the completely organised +competitive State which I have imagined would be a far more unlovely +place than Germany, and more unpleasant to live in. The spectacle of a +saner and happier polity next door would break up the purely competitive +State from within; the strain would be too great for human nature. We +cannot argue confidently from the struggle for existence among the lower +animals to our own species. For a long time past, human evolution has +been directed, not to living anyhow, but to living in a certain way. We +are guided by ideals for the future, by purposes winch we clearly set +before ourselves, in a way which is impossible to the brutes. These +purposes are common to the large majority of men. No State can long +maintain a rigid and oppressive organisation, except under the threat of +danger; and a nation which aims only at perfecting its own culture is +not dangerous to its neighbours. It is probable that without the +supposed menace of another military Power on its eastern flank German +militarism would have begun to crumble. + +In the second place, would the absence of sharp competition within the +group lead to racial degeneration? This is a difficult question to +answer. Perhaps a diminution of pugnacity and of the means to gratify +this instinct would not be a misfortune. But it is certainly true that, +if the operation of natural selection is suspended, rational selection +must take its place. Failing this, reversion to a lower type is +inevitable. The infant science of eugenics will have much to say on this +subject hereafter; at present we are only discovering how complex and +obscure the laws of heredity are. The State of the future will have to +step in to prevent the propagation of undesirable variations, whether +physical or mental, and will doubtless find means to encourage the +increase of families that are well endowed by Nature. + +Assuming that a nation as a whole prefers a policy of this kind, and +aims at such an equilibrium of births and deaths as will set free the +energies of the people for the higher objects of civilised life, how +will it escape the cacogenic effects of family restriction in the better +classes combined with reckless multiplication among the refuse which +always exists in a large community? This is a problem which has not yet +been solved. Public opinion is not ready for legislation against the +multiplication of the unfit, and it is not easy to see what form such +legislation could take. Many of the very poor are not undesirable +parents; we must not confound economic prosperity with biological +fitness. The 'submerged tenth' should be raised, where it is possible, +into a condition of self-respect and responsibility; but they must not +be allowed to be a burden upon the efficient; and the upper and middle +classes should simplify their habits so far as to make marriage and +parenthood possible for the young professional man. Special care should +be taken that taxation is so adjusted as not to penalise parenthood in +the socially valuable middle class. + +For some time to come we are likely to see, in all the leading nations, +a restricted birth-rate, prompted by desire for social betterment, +combined, however, with concessions to the rival policy of commercial +expansion, growing numbers, and military preparation. The nations will +not cease to fear and suspect each other in the twentieth century, and +any one nation which chooses to be a nuisance to Europe will keep back +the progress and happiness of the rest. The prospect is not very bright; +a too generous confidence might betray some nation into irretrievable +disaster. But the bracing influence of national danger may perhaps be +beneficial. For we have to remember the pitiable decay of the ancient +classical civilisation, which was partly due, as we have found, to a +desire for comfortable and easy living. There have been signs that many +of our countrymen no longer think the strenuous life worth while; part +of our resentment against Germany resembles the annoyance of an +old-fashioned firm, disturbed in its comfortable security by the +competition of a young and more vigorous rival. It is even suggested +that after the war we should protect ourselves against German +competition by tariff walls. This abandonment of the free trade policy +on which our prosperity is built would soon bring our over-populated +island to ruin. + +In conclusion, if we leave the distant future to fend for itself when +the time comes, what should be our policy with regard to population for +the next fifty years? I am led to an opinion which may seem to run +counter to the general purport of this article. For though the British +Isles are even dangerously full, so that we are liable to be starved out +if we lose the command of the sea, the British Empire is very far from +being over-populated. In Canada and Australasia there is probably room +for nearly 200,000,000 people. These countries are remarkably healthy +for Northern Europeans; there is no reason why they should not be as +rich and powerful as the United States are now. We hope that we have +saved the Empire from German cupidity--for the time; but we cannot tell +how long we may be undisturbed. It would be criminal folly not to make +the most of the respite granted us, by peopling our Dominions with our +own stock, while yet there is time. This, however, cannot be done by +casual and undirected emigration of the old kind. We need an Imperial +Board of Emigration, the officials of which will work in co-operation +with the Governments of our Dominions. These Governments, it may be +presumed, will be anxious, after the war, to strengthen the colonies by +increasing their population and developing their resources. They, like +ourselves, have had a severe fright, and know that prompt action is +necessary. Systematic plans of colonisation should be worked out, and +emigrants drafted off to the Dominions as work can be found for them. +Young women should be sent out in sufficient numbers to keep the sexes +equal. We know now that our young people who emigrate are by no means +lost to the Empire. The Dominions have shown that in time of need they +are able and willing to defend the mother country with their full +strength. Indeed, a young couple who emigrate are likely to be of more +value to the Empire than if they had stayed at home; and their chances +of happiness are much increased if they find a home in a part of the +world where more human beings are wanted. But without official advice +and help emigration is difficult. Parents do not know where to send +their sons, nor what training to give them. Mistakes are made, money is +wasted, and bitter disappointment caused. All this may be obviated if +the Government will take the matter up seriously. The real issue of this +war is whether our great colonies are to continue British; and the +question will be decided not only on the field of battle, but by the +action of our Government and people after peace is declared. The next +fifty years will decide for all time whether those magnificent and still +empty countries are to be the home of great nations speaking our +language, carrying on our institutions, and valuing our traditions. When +the future of our Dominions is secure, the part of England as a +World-Power will have been played to a successful issue, and we may be +content with a position more consonant with the small area of these +islands. + +I believe, then, that if facilities for migration are given by +Government action, it will be not only possible but desirable for the +increase in the population of the Empire, taken as a whole, to be +maintained during the twentieth century. It is, of course, possible that +chemical discoveries and other scientific improvements may greatly +increase the yield of food from the soil, and that in this way the final +limit to the population of the earth may be further off than now seems +probable. But within a few centuries, at most, this limit must be +reached; and after that we may hope that the world will agree to +maintain an equilibrium between births and deaths, that being the most +stable and the happiest condition in which human beings can live +together.[22] + +FOOTNOTES: + + [10] Myres, _Eugenics Review_, April, 1915. + + [11] Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Kultur der Gegenwart_, 2, 4, 1. + + [12] Cimon, Pericles, and Socrates all had three sons, and + apparently no daughters.--Zimmern, _The Greek Commonwealth_, + p. 331. + + [13] _Cf. (e.g.)_ Plato, _Theaetetus_, 149. + + [14] We may suppose that the disproportion of the sexes, + caused by female infanticide, was about rectified by the + deaths of males in battle and civic strife. We do not hear + that the Greek had any difficulty in finding a wife. + + [15] Families, he says, were limited to one or two 'in order + to leave these rich.' + + [16] The population of England and Wales is said to have + been 4,800,000 in 1600, and 6,500,000 in 1750. It was + 8,890,000 in 1801, 32,530,000 in 1901, and approximately + 37,000,000 in 1914. + + [17] Statistics are wanting for the early part of the + industrial revolution, but my study of pedigrees leads me to + think that the average duration of life was considerably + increased in the eighteenth century. + + [18] _The Family and the Nation_, p. 143. + + [19] The births per 1000 married men under fifty-five in the + different classes are:--Upper and middle class, 119; + Intermediate, 132; Skilled workmen, 153; Intermediate, 158; + Unskilled workmen, 213. + + [20] It must be remembered that the illegitimate birth-rate + in Berlin is scandalously high. + + [21] The crude birth-rate of Ireland is wholly misleading, + because so many young couples emigrate before the birth of + their first child. + + [22] The possible effect of the labour movement in + diminishing the population is considered in the next Essay. + The last two years have, in my opinion, made the outlook + less favourable. + + + + +THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH RACE + +(THE GALTON LECTURE, 1919) + + +In the year 1890 Sir Charles Dilke ended his survey of 'Greater Britain' +and its problems with the prediction that 'the world's future belongs to +the Anglo-Saxon, the Russian, and the Chinese races.' This was in the +heyday of British imperialism, which was inaugurated by Seeley's +'Expansion of England' and Froude's 'Oceana,' and which inspired Mr. +Chamberlain to proclaim at Toronto in 1887 that the 'Anglo-Saxon stock +is infallibly destined to be the predominant force in the history and +civilisation of the world.' It was an arrogant, but not truculent, mood, +which reached its climax at the 1897 Jubilee, and rapidly declined +during and after the Boer war. These writers and statesmen were utterly +blind to the German peril, though the disciples of Treitschke were +already working out a theory about the future destinies of the world, in +which neither Great Britain nor Russia nor China counted for very much. +There were illusions on both sides of the North Sea, which had to be +paid for in blood. In both countries imperialism was a sentiment +curiously compounded of idealism and bombast, and supported by very +doubtful science. In the case of Germany the distortion of facts was +deliberate and monstrous. Not only was every schoolboy brought up on +cooked population statistics and falsified geography, but the thick-set, +brachycephalous Central European persuaded himself that he belonged to +the pure Nordic race, the great blond beasts of Nietzsche, which, as he +was taught, had already produced nearly all the great men in history, +and was now about to claim its proper place as master of the world. +Political anthropology is no genuine science. Race and nationality are +catchwords for which rulers find that their subjects are willing to +fight, as they fought for what they called religion four hundred years +ago. In reality, if we want to find a pure race, we must visit the +Esquimaux, or the Fuegians, or the Pygmies; we shall certainly not find +one in Europe. Our own imperialists had their illusions too, and we are +not rid of them yet, because we do not realise that the fate of races is +decided, not in the council-chamber or on the battle-field, but by the +same laws of nature which determine the distribution of the various +plants and animals of the world. It may be that by approaching our +subject from this side we shall arrive at a more scientific, if a more +chastened, anticipation of our national future than was acceptable to +the enthusiasts of expansion in the last twenty years of Queen +Victoria's reign. + +The history of the world shows us that there have been three great human +reservoirs which from time to time have burst their banks and flooded +neighbouring countries. These are the Arabian peninsula, the steppes of +Central Asia, and the lands round the Baltic, the original home of the +Germanic and Anglo-Saxon peoples. The invaders in each case were +pastoral folk, who were driven from their homes by over-population, or +drought and famine, or the pressure of enemies behind them. It is easy +for nomads to 'trek,' even for great distances; and till the discovery +of gunpowder they were the most formidable of foes. The Arabs and +Northern Europeans have founded great civilisations; the Mongol hordes +have been an unmitigated curse to humanity. The invaders never kept +their blood pure. The famous Jewish nose is probably Hittite, and +certainly not Bedouin. There are no pure Turks in Europe, and the +Hungarians have lost all resemblance to Mongols. The modern Germans seem +to belong mainly to the round-headed Alpine race, which migrated into +Europe in early times from the Asiatic highlands. In England there is a +larger proportion of Nordic blood, because the Anglo-Saxons partially +exterminated the natives; but the old Mediterranean race, which had +made its way up the warm western coasts, still holds its own in +Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, and the Western Highlands; and within the last +hundred years, owing to frequent migrations, has mixed so thoroughly +with the Anglo-Saxon stock that the English are becoming darker in each +generation. This is not the result of a racial decay of the blonds, as +the American, Dr. Charles Woodruff, supposes, but is to be accounted for +by the fact that dark eyes seem to be a Mendelian dominant, and dark +hair a more potent character than light. The inhabitants of these +islands are nearly all long-headed, this being a characteristic of both +the Nordic and Mediterranean races. The round-headed invaders, who +perhaps brought with them the so-called Celtic languages at a remote +period, and imposed them upon the inhabitants, seem to have left no +other mark upon the population, though their type of head is prevalent +over a great part of France. + +The ability of races to flourish in climates other than their own is a +question of supreme importance to historians and statesmen, and, it need +not be said, to emigrants. But it is only lately that it has been +studied scientifically, and the results are still tentative. German +ethnologists, of what we may call the _aedicephalous_ school, already +referred to, regard it as one of the tragedies of nature that the noble +Nordic race, to which they think they belong, dies out when it +penetrates southwards. In accordance with this law, the yellow-haired +Achaeans decayed in Greece, the Lombards in North Italy, the Vandals in +Spain and Africa. After a few generations of life in a warm climate the +Aryan stock invariably disappears. We shall show reasons for thinking +that this theory is much exaggerated; but there is undoubtedly some +truth in it. It has been found to be impossible for white men to +colonise India, Burma, tropical America, and West Africa. It has been +said that 'there is in India no third generation of pure English blood.' +It is notoriously difficult to bring up even one generation of white +children in India. The French cannot maintain themselves without race +admixture in Martinique and Guadaloupe, nor the Dutch in Java, though +it is said that the expectation of life for a European in Java is as +good as in his own country. It seems to be also true that the blond race +suffers most in a hot climate. In the Philippines it was observed that +the fair-haired soldiers in the American army succumbed most readily to +disease. In Queensland the Italian colonists are said to stand the heat +better than the English, and Mr. Roosevelt, among other items of good +advice which he bestowed so liberally on the European nations, advised +us to populate the torrid parts of Australia with immigrants from the +Latin races. In Natal the English families who are settled in the +country are said to be enervated by the climate; and on the high +plateaux of the interior our countrymen find it necessary to pay +periodical visits to the coast, to be unbraced. The early deaths and not +infrequent suicides of Rand magnates may indicate that the air of the +Transvaal is too stimulating for a life of high tension and excitement. +There are even signs that the same may be true in a minor degree of the +United States of America. Both the capitalist and the working man, if +they come of English stock, seem to wear out more quickly than at home; +and the sterility of marriages among the long settled American families +is so pronounced that it can hardly be due entirely to voluntary +restriction of parentage. The effects of an unsuitable climate are +especially shown in nervous disorders, and are therefore likely to tell +most heavily on those who engage in intellectual pursuits, and perhaps +on women rather more than on men. The sterilising effects of women's +higher education in America are incontrovertible, though this inference +is hotly denied in England. At Holyoake College it was found that only +half the lady graduates afterwards married, and the average family of +those who did marry was less than two children. At Bryn Mawr only 43 per +cent, married, and had 0.84 children each; the average family per +graduate was therefore 0.37. If it be objected that new immigrants and +their children are healthy and vigorous in America, it may be truly +answered that the effects of an unfavourable climate are manifested +fully only in the third and later generations. The argument may be +further supported by the fate of black men who try to settle in Europe. +Their strongly pigmented skin, which seems to protect them from the +actinic rays of the tropical sun, so noxious to Europeans, and their +broad nostrils, which inhale a larger number of tubercle bacilli than +the narrow nose-slits of the Northerner, are disadvantages in a +temperate climate. In any case, of the many thousands of negro servants +who lived in England in the eighteenth century, it would be difficult to +find a single descendant. + +But there are other factors in the problem which should make us beware +of hasty generalisations. It is obvious that since the American Republic +contains many climates in its vast area, there may be parts of it which +are perfectly healthy for Anglo-Saxons, and other parts where they +cannot live without degenerating. Very few athletes, we are told, come +from south of the fortieth parallel of latitude. But the decline in the +birth-rate is most marked in the older colonies, the New England States, +where for a long period the English colonists, living mainly on the +land, not only throve and developed a singularly virile type of +humanity, but multiplied with almost unexampled rapidity. The same is +true not only of the French Canadian farmers, but of the South African +Boers, who rear enormous families in a climate very different from that +of Holland. The inference is that Europeans living on the land may +flourish in any tolerably healthy climate which is not tropical. + +There are, in fact, two other causes besides climate which may prevent +immigrants from multiplying in a new country. The first of these is the +presence of microbic diseases to which the old inhabitants are wholly or +partially immune, but which find a virgin soil in the bodies of the +newcomers. The strongest example is the West Coast of Africa, of which +Miss Mary Kingsley writes: 'Yet remember, before you elect to cast your +lot with the West Coasters, that 85 per cent, of them die of fever, or +return home with their health permanently wrecked. Also remember that +there is no getting acclimatised to the Coast. There are, it is true, a +few men out there who, although they have been resident in West Africa +for years, have never had fever, but you can count them on the fingers +of one hand.' There can be no acclimatisation where the weeding out is +as drastic as this. Either the anopheles mosquito or the European must +quit. There are parts of tropical America where the natives have +actually been protected by the malaria, which keeps the white man at +arm's length. But more often the microbe is on the side of the civilised +race, killing off the natives who have not run the gauntlet of +town-life. The extreme reluctance of the barbarians who overran the +Roman Empire to settle in the towns is easily accounted for if, as is +probable, the towns killed them off whenever they attempted to live in +them. The difference is remarkable between the fate of a conquered race +which has become accustomed to town-life, and that of one which has not. +There are no 'native quarters' in the towns of any country where the +aborigines were nomads or tillers of the soil. To the North American +Indian, residence in a town is a sentence of death. The American Indians +were accustomed to none of our zymotic diseases except malaria. In the +north they were destroyed wholesale by tuberculosis; in Mexico and Peru, +where large towns existed before the conquest, they fared better. Fiji +was devastated by measles; other barbarians by small-pox. Negroes have +acquired, through severe natural selection, a certain degree of +immunisation in America; but even now it is said that 'every other negro +dies of consumption.' There are, however, two races, both long +accustomed to town-life under horribly insanitary conditions, which have +shown that they can live in almost any climate. These are the Jews and +the Chinese. The medieval Ghetto exterminated all who were not naturally +resistant to every form of microbic disease; the modern Jew, though +often of poor physique, is hard to kill. The same may be said of the +Chinaman, who, when at home, lives under conditions which would kill +most Europeans. + +The other factor, which is really promoting the gradual disappearance of +the Anglo-Saxons from the United States, is of a very different +character. The descendants of the old immigrants are on the whole the +aristocracy of the country. Now it is a law which hardly admits of +exceptions, that aristocracies do not maintain their numbers. The ruling +race rules itself out; nothing fails like success. Gibbon has called +attention to the extreme respect paid to long descent in the Roman +Empire, and to the strange fact that, in the fourth century, no +ingenuity of pedigree makers could deny that all the great families of +the Republic were extinct, so that the second-rate plebeian family of +the Anicii, whose name did appear in the Fasti, enjoyed a prestige far +greater than that of the Howards and Stanleys in this country. Our own +peerage consists chiefly of parvenus. Only six of our noble families, it +is said, can trace their descent in the male line without a break to the +fifteenth century. The peerage of Sweden tells the same tale. According +to Gallon, the custom or law of primogeniture, combined with the habit +of marrying heiresses who, as the last representatives of dwindling +families, tend to be barren, is mainly responsible for this. Additional +causes may be the greater danger which the officer-class incurs in war, +and, in former times, the executioner's axe. In our own day the +reluctance of rich and self-indulgent women to bear children is +undoubtedly a factor in the infertility of the leisured class. + +This brings us naturally to the second part of our discussion--the +consideration of the causes which lead to the increase or decrease of +population. It is the most important part of our inquiry; for it is +usually assumed that the British Isles will continue to send out +colonists in large numbers, as it did in the last century, and the hopes +of the imperialist that a large part of the world will speak English for +all time depend on the untested assurance that the swarming-time of our +race is not yet over. Our starting-point must be that the pressure of +population upon the means of subsistence is a constant fact in the human +race, as in every other species of animals and plants. There is no +species in which the numbers are not kept down, far below the natural +capacity for increase, by the limitation of available food. It may not +always be easy to trace the connection between the appearance of new +lives and the passing away of old, nor to say whether it is the +birth-rate which determines the death-rate, or the death-rate the +birth-rate. But it is well known that, wherever statistics are kept, the +numbers of births and of deaths rise and fall in nearly parallel lines, +so that the net rate of increase hardly alters at all, unless some +change, which can easily be traced, occurs in the habits of the people +or in the amount of the food supply. In civilised countries the greater +care taken of human life, and its consequent prolongation, has reduced +the birth-rate, just as in the higher mammals we find a greatly +diminished fertility as compared with the lower, and a much higher +survival-rate among the offspring born. The average duration of life in +this country has increased by about one-third in the last sixty years, +and the birth-rate has fallen in almost exactly the same proportion. The +position of a nation in the scale of civilisation may almost be gauged +by its births and deaths. The order in Europe, beginning with the lowest +birth-rate, is France, Belgium, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, +Norway, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Spain, Austria, Italy, Hungary, the +Balkan States, Russia. The order of death-rates, again beginning at the +bottom, is Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United +Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Serbia, Spain, +Bulgaria, Hungary, Roumania, Russia. These two lists, as will be seen, +correspond very nearly with the scale of descending civilisation, the +only notable exception being the low position of France in the second +list. This anomaly is explained by the fact that France having a +stationary population, the death-rate in that country corresponds nearly +with the mean expectation of life, whereas in countries where the +population is increasing rapidly, either by excess of births over deaths +or by immigration, the preponderance of young lives brings the +death-rate down. We must, therefore, be on our guard against supposing +that countries with the lowest death-rates are necessarily the most +healthy. In New Zealand, for example, the death-rate is under 10 per +1000, the lowest in the world; and though that country is undoubtedly +healthy, no one supposes that the average duration of life in New +Zealand is a hundred years. To ascertain whether a nation is long-lived, +we must correct the crude death-rate by taking into account the average +age of the population. When this correction has been made, a low +death-rate, and the low birth-rate which necessarily accompanies it, is +a sign that the doctors are doing their duty by keeping their patients +alive. If our physicians desire more maternity cases, they must make +more work for the undertaker. Large families almost always mean a high +infant mortality; and it is significant that a twelfth child has a very +much poorer chance of survival than a first or second. The agitation for +the endowment of motherhood and the reduction of infant mortality is +therefore futile, because, while other conditions remain the same, every +baby 'saved' sends another baby out of the world or prevents him from +coming into it. The number of the people is not determined by +philanthropists or even by parents. Children will come somehow whenever +there is room for them, and go when there is none. But other conditions +do not remain the same, and it is in these other conditions that we must +seek the causes of expansion or contraction in the numbers of a +community. + +At the end of the sixteenth century the population of England and Wales +amounted to about five millions, and a hundred years later to about six. +There is no reason to think that under the conditions then existing the +country could have supported a larger number. The birth-rate was kept +high by the pestilential state of the towns, and thus the pressure of +numbers was less felt than it is now, since it was possible to have, +though not to rear, unlimited families. Occasionally, from accidental +circumstances, England was for a short time under-populated, and these +were the periods when, according to Professor Thorold Rogers, Archdeacon +Cunningham, and other authorities, the labourer was well off. The most +striking example was in the half-century after the Black Death, which +carried off nearly half the population. Wages increased threefold, and +the Government tried in vain to protect employers by enforcing +pre-plague rates. Not only were wages high, but food was so abundant +that farmers often gave their men a square meal which was not in the +contract. The other period of prosperity for the working man, according +to our authorities, was the second quarter of the eighteenth century. It +has not, we think, been noticed that this also followed a temporary +set-back in the population. In 1688 the population of England and Wales +was 5,500,520; in 1710 it was more than a quarter of a million less. The +cause of this decline is obscure, but its effects soon showed themselves +in easier conditions of life, especially for the poor. Such periods of +under-saturation, which some new countries are still enjoying, are +necessarily short. Population flows in as naturally as water finds its +level. + +It was not till the accession of George III that the increase in our +numbers became rapid. No one until then would have thought of singling +out the Englishman as the embodiment of the good apprentice. Meteren, in +the sixteenth century, found our countrymen 'as lazy as Spaniards'; most +foreigners were struck by our fondness for solid food and strong drink. +The industrial revolution came upon us suddenly; it changed the whole +face of the country and the apparent character of the people. In the far +future our descendants may look back upon the period in which we are +living as a strange episode which disturbed the natural habits of our +race. The first impetus was given by the plunder of Bengal, which, after +the victories of Clive, flowed into the country in a broad stream for +about thirty years. This ill-gotten wealth played the same part in +stimulating English industries as the 'five milliards,' extorted from +France, did for Germany after 1870. The half-century which followed was +marked by a series of inventions, which made England the workshop of the +world. But the basis of our industrial supremacy was, and is, our coal. +Those who are in the habit of comparing the progressiveness of the +North-Western European with the stagnation or decadence of the Latin +races, forget the fact, which is obvious when it has once been pointed +out, that the progressive nations are those which happen to have +valuable coal fields. Countries which have no coal are obliged to +import it paying the freight, or to smelt their iron with charcoal This +process makes excellent steel--the superiority of Swedish razors is due +to wood-smelting--but it is so wasteful of wood that the Mediterranean +peoples very early in history injured their climate by cutting down +their scanty forests, thereby diminishing their rainfall, and allowing +the soil to be washed off the hillsides. The coasts of the Mediterranean +are, in consequence, far less productive than they were two thousand +years ago. But in England, when the start was once made, all +circumstances conspired to turn our once beautiful island into a chaos +of factories and mean streets, reeking of smoke, millionaires, and +paupers. We were no longer able to grow our own food; but we made masses +of goods which the manufacturers ware eager to exchange for it; and the +population grew like crops on a newly-irrigated desert. During the +nineteenth century the numbers were nearly quadrupled. Let those who +think that the population of a country can be increased at will, reflect +whether it is likely that any physical, moral, or psychological change +came over the nation coincidently with the inventions of the +spinning-jenny and the steam-engine. It is too obvious for dispute that +it was the possession of capital wanting employment, and of natural +advantages for using it, that called these multitudes of human beings +into existence, to eat the food which they paid for by their labour. And +it should be equally obvious that the existence of forty-six millions of +people upon 121,000 square miles of territory depends entirely upon our +finding a market for our manufactures abroad, for so only are we able to +pay for the food of the people. It is most unfortunate that these +exports must, with our present population, include coal, which, if we +had any thought for posterity, we should guard jealously and use +sparingly; for in five hundred years at the outside our stock will be +gone, and we shall sink to a third-rate Power at once. We are +sacrificing the future in order to provide for an excessive and +discontented population in the present. During the present century we +have begun to be conscious that our foreign trade is threatened; and so +sensitive is the birth-rate to economic conditions that it has begun to +curve very slightly downward in relation to the death-rate, instead of +descending with it in parallel lines.[23] This may be partly due to the +curtailment of facilities for emigration, owing to the filling up of the +new countries. For emigration does not diminish the population of the +country which the emigrants leave; it only increases its birth-rate. + +We are now in a position to enumerate the causes which actually lead to +an increase in the population of a country. The first is an increase in +the amount of food produced in the country itself. If the parks and +gardens of the gentry were ploughed up or turned into allotments, a few +hundred thousands would be added to the population of the United +Kingdom, at the cost of one of the few remaining beauties which make our +country attractive to the eye. The introduction of the potato into +Ireland added several millions of squalid inhabitants to that +ill-conditioned island, and when the crop failed, large numbers of them +inflicted themselves on the United States, to the detriment of that +country. The richest countries to-day are those which produce more food +than they require, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, +Roumania, and the Argentine. (We need hardly say that throughout this +survey we are using the statistics of the years immediately before the +war.) But this state of things cannot last long, for the net increase in +such countries is invariably high, either by reason of a very high +birth-rate, as in Roumania, or because newcomers flock in to enjoy a +land of plenty. Another condition which leads to abnormally rapid +increase is found when a civilised nation conquers and administers a +backward country, introducing better methods of agriculture, and +especially irrigation and the reclamation of waste lands. The alien +Government also gives greater security, without raising the standard of +living among the natives, since the dominant race usually monopolises +the lucrative careers. In this way we are directly responsible for +increasing the population of Egypt from seven millions in 1883 to nine +and three-quarter millions in 1899, an augmentation which, in the +absence of immigration, illustrates the great natural fertility of the +human race in the rare circumstances when unchecked increase is +possible. Still more remarkable is the rise in the population of Java +from five millions in 1825 to twenty-eight and a half millions in the +first decade of this century. The cause of this increase is the +augmented supply of food combined with a very low standard of living, a +combination which is specially characteristic of Asia, where extreme +supersaturation exists in India and China. A third cause is production +of goods which can be exchanged for food grown abroad. This exchange, as +we have seen, is stimulated by the presence of capital seeking +employment. Our large towns are the creation of the capitalist, much +more than if he had populated their depressing streets with his own +children. Fourthly, a reduction in the standard of living of course +makes a larger population possible. The misery of the working class in +the generation after the Napoleonic Wars was a condition of the +prosperity of our export trade at this period; and conversely, the +prosperity of our export trade was necessary to the existence of the new +inhabitants. Capitalism is the cause of our dense population; and the +proletariat would infallibly cut their own throats by destroying it. + +It is an important question whether a crowded population adds to the +security of a nation or not. Numbers are undoubtedly of great importance +in modern warfare. The French would have been less able to resist the +Germans without allies in 1914 than they were in 1870. But we must not +suppose that France could support a much larger population without +reducing her standard of living to the point of under-deeding; and an +under-fed nation is incapable of the endurance required of first-class +soldiers. A nation may be so much weakened in physique by under-feeding +as to be impotent from a military point of view, in spite of great +numbers; this is the case in India and China. Deficient nourishment also +diminishes the day's work. If European and American capital goes to +China, and provides proper food for the workmen, we may have an early +opportunity of discovering whether the supporters of the League of +Nations have any real conscientious objection to violence and bloodshed. +We may surmise that the European man, the fiercest of all beasts of +prey, is not likely to abandon the weapons which have made him the lord +and the bully of the planet. He has no other superiority to the races +which he arrogantly despises. Under a regime of peace the Asiatic would +probably be his master. To return from a short digression, we must note +further that a nation with a low standard has no reserve to fall back +upon; it lives on the margin of subsistence, which may easily fail in +war-time, especially if much food is imported when conditions are +normal. It can hardly be an accident that in this war the nations with a +high birth-rate broke up in the order of their fecundity, while France +stood like a rock. The sacrifice of comfort to numbers, which we have +seen to be possible by maintaining a low standard of living, not only +diminishes the happiness of a nation, and keeps it low in the scale of +civilisation; it may easily prove to be a source of weakness in war. + +The expedients often advocated to encourage denser population--which +those who urge them thoughtlessly assume to be a good thing--such as +endowment of parenthood, and better housing at the expense of the +taxpayer--have no effect except to penalise and sterilise those who pay +the doles, for the benefit of those who receive them. They are intensely +dysgenic in their operation, for they cripple and at last eliminate just +those stocks which have shown themselves to be above the average in +ability. The process has already advanced a long way, even without the +reckless legislation which is now advocated. The lowest birth-rates, +less than half that of the unskilled labourers, are those of the +doctors, the teaching profession, and ministers of religion. The +position of this class, intellectually and often physically the finest +in the kingdom, is rapidly becoming intolerable, and it is the wastrels +who mainly benefit by their spoliation. + +The causes of shrinkage in population are the opposites of those which +we have found to promote its increase. The production of food may be +diminished by the exhaustion of the soil, or by the progressive aridity +caused by cutting down woods. The manufacture of goods to be exchanged +for food may fall off owing to foreign competition, a result which is +likely to follow from a rise in the standard of living, for the labourer +then demands higher wages, and consumes more food per head, which of +itself must check fertility, since the same amount of food will now +support a smaller number. The delusion shared by the whole working class +that they can make work for each other, at wages fixed by themselves, is +ludicrous; a community cannot subsist 'by taking in each other's +washing.' Or the supply of importable food may fail by the peopling up +of the countries which grow it. Any conditions which make it no longer +worth while to invest capital in business, or which destroy credit, have +the same effect. One of the causes of the decay of the Roman Empire was +the drain of specie to the East in exchange for perishable commodities. +When trade is declining a general listlessness comes over the industrial +world, and the output falls still further. There have been alleged +instances of peoples which have dwindled and even disappeared from +_taedium vitae_. This is said to have been the cause of the extinction +of the Guanches of the Canary Islands; but the symptoms described rather +suggest an outbreak of sleeping-sickness. + +Paradoxical as it may seem, neither voluntary restriction of births, nor +famine, nor pestilence, nor war, has much effect in reducing numbers. +Birth-control instead of diminishing the population, may only lower the +death-rate. France in 1781, with a birth-rate of 39, had much the same +net increase as in the years before the war with a birth-rate of 20. The +parallel lines of the births and deaths in this country have already +been mentioned. Famine and pestilence are followed at once by an +increased number of births. India and China, though frequently ravaged +by both these scourges, remain super-saturated. Of course, if the famine +is chronic, the population must fall to the point where the food is +sufficient; and a zymotic disease which has become endemic may be too +strong for the natural fertility of the nation attacked, as has happened +to several barbarous races; but an invasion of plague, cholera, or +influenza has no permanent effect on the numbers of Europeans. War +resembles plague in its action upon population. When, as in the late +war, nearly the whole of the able-bodied men are on active service, the +loss of population caused by cessation of births is greater than all the +fatal casualties of the battle-field. A rough calculation gives the +result that twelve million lives have been lost to the belligerent +nations by the separation of husbands and wives during the war. And yet +it may be predicted that these losses, added to the eight millions or so +who have been killed, would be made good in a very few years but for the +destruction of capital and credit which the war has caused. If we study +the vital statistics of a country like Germany, which has engaged in +several severe wars since births and deaths began to be registered, we +shall find that the contour-line representing the fluctuations of the +birth-rate indicates a steep ravine in the year or years while the war +lasted, followed by a hump or high table-land for several years after. +In a short time, as far as numbers are concerned, the war is as if it +had never been. When we remember that the number of possible fathers is +much reduced by casualties, this rise in the birth-rate after a war +offers a strong confirmation of the thesis which we have been +maintaining, that the ebb and flow of population are not affected by +conscious intention, but by increased or diminished pressure of numbers +upon subsistence. If the German people, who before the war consumed more +food than was good for them, have been habituated by our blockade to a +reasonable abstemiousness, we shall have contributed to the eventual +increase of the German people, in spite of all their soldiers whom we +killed in France, and the civilians whom we starved in Germany. And if +our success leads to a greater consumption by our working class, our +population will show a corresponding decline. Emigration, as we have +seen, does not diminish the home population by a single unit; and so, +while there are empty lands available for colonisation, it is by far the +best method of adding to the numbers of our race. + +It should now be possible to form a judgment on the prospects of the +Anglo-Saxon race in various parts of the world. In India, Burma, New +Guinea, the West Indian Islands, and tropical Africa there is no +possibility of ever planting a healthy European population. These +dependencies may grow food for us, or send us articles which we can +exchange for food, but they are not, and never can be, colonies of +Anglo-Saxons. The prospects of South Africa are very dubious. The white +man is there an aristocrat, directing semi-servile labour. The white +population of the gold and diamond fields will stay there till the mines +give out, and no longer. Large tracts of the country may at last be +occupied only by Kaffirs. The United States of America are becoming less +Anglo-Saxon every year, and this process is likely to continue, since in +unskilled labour the Italian and the Pole seem to give better value for +their wages than the Englishman or born American, with his high standard +of comfort. In Canada, the temperate part of Australia, New Zealand, and +Tasmania the chances for a large and flourishing English-speaking +population seem to be very favourable, though in these dominions the +high standard of living is a check to population, and in the case of +Australasia the possibility of foreign conquest, while these priceless +lands are still half empty, cannot be altogether excluded. + +Even more interesting to most of us is the future of our race at home. +As regards quality, the outlook for the present is bad. We have seen +that the destruction of the upper and professional classes by taxation +directed expressly against them has already begun, and this +victimisation is certain to become more and more acute, till these +classes are practically extinguished. The old aristocracy showed a +tendency to decay even when they were unduly favoured by legislation, +and a little more pressure will drive them to voluntary sterility and +extermination. Even more to be regretted is the doom of the professional +aristocracy, a caste almost peculiar to our country. These families can +often show longer, and usually much better pedigrees than the peerage; +the persistence of marked ability in many of them, for several +generations, is the delight of the eugenist. They are perhaps the best +specimens of humanity to be found in any country of the world. Yet they +have no prospects except to be gradually harassed out of existence, like +the _curiales_ of the later Roman Empire. The power will apparently be +grasped by a new highly privileged class, the aristocracy of labour. +This class, being intelligent, energetic, and intensely selfish, may +retain its domination for a considerable time. It is a matter of course +that, having won its privilege of exploiting the community, it will use +all its efforts to preserve that privilege and to prevent others from +sharing it. In other words, it will become an exclusive and strongly +conservative class, on a broader basis than the territorial and +commercial aristocracies which preceded it. It will probably be strong +enough to discontinue the system of State doles which encourages the +wastrel to multiply, as he does multiply, much faster than the valuable +part of the population. We are at present breeding a large parasitic +class subsisting on the taxes and hampering the Government. The +comparative fertility of the lowest class as compared with the better +stocks has greatly increased, and is still increasing. The competent +working-class families, as well as the rich, are far less fertile than +the waste products of our civilisation. Dr. Tredgold found that 43 +couples of the parasitic class averaged 7.4 children per family, while +91 respectable couples from the working class averaged only 3.7 per +family. Mr. Sidney Webb examined the statistics of the Hearts of Oak +Benefit Society, which is patronised by the best type of mechanic, and +found that the birth-rate among its members has fallen 46 per cent, +between 1881 and 1901; or, taking the whole period between 1880 and +1904, the falling off is 52 per cent. This decline proves that the +period of industrial expansion in England is nearly over. It would be +far better if our birth-rate were as low as that of France, as it would +be but for the reckless propagation of the 'submerged tenth,' England +being now a paradise for human refuse, the offscourings of Europe +(170,000 in 1908) take the place of the better stocks, whose position is +made artificially unfavourable. These doles are at present paid by the +minority, and this method may be expected to continue until the looting +of the propertied classes comes to an enforced end. This will not take +long, for it is certain that the amount of wealth available for plunder +is very much smaller than is usually supposed. It is easy to destroy +capital values, but very difficult to distribute them. The time will +soon arrive when the patient sheep will be found to have lost not only +his fleece but his skin, and the privileged workman will then have to +choose between taxing himself and abandoning socialism. There is little +doubt which he will prefer. The result will be that the festering sore +of our slum-population will dry up, and the gradual disappearance of +this element will be some compensation, from the eugenic point of view, +for the destruction of the intellectual class. This process will +considerably, and beneficially, diminish the population: and there are +several other factors which will operate in the same direction. High +wage industry can only maintain itself against the competition of +cheaper labour abroad by introducing every kind of labour-saving device. +The number of hands employed in a factory must progressively diminish. +And as, in spite of all that ingenuity can do, the competition of the +cheaper races is certain to cripple our foreign trade, the trade unions +will be obliged to provide for a shrinkage in their numbers. We may +expect that every unionist will be allowed to place one son, and only +one, in the privileged corporation. A man will become a miner or a +railwayman 'by patrimony,' and it will be difficult to gain admission to +a union in any other way. The position of those who cannot find a place +within the privileged circle will be so unhappy that most unionists will +take care to have one son only. Another change which will tend to +discourage families will be the increased employment of women as +bread-winners. Nothing is more remarkable in the study of vital +statistics than the comparative birth-rates of those districts in which +women earn wages, and of those in which they do not. The rate of +increase among the miners is as great as that of the reckless casual +labourers, and the obvious reason is that the miner's wife loses nothing +by having children, since she does not earn wages. Contrast with these +high figures (running up to 40 per thousand) the very low birth-rates of +towns like Bradford, where the women are engaged in the textile industry +and earn regular wages in support of the family budget. If the time +comes when the majority of women are wage-earners, we may even see the +pressure of population entirely withdrawn. Thus in every class of the +nation influences are at work tending to a progressive decrease in our +national fertility. It must be remembered, however, that at present the +annual increase, in peace time, is 9 or 10 per thousand, so that it may +be some time before an equilibrium is reached. But if our predictions +are sound, a positive decrease, and probably a rapid one, is likely to +follow. For our ability to exchange our manufactures for food will grow +steadily less, as the self-indulgent and 'work-shy' labourer succeeds in +gaining his wishes. If the coal begins to give out, the retreat will +become a rout. + +We are witnessing the decline and fall of the social order which began +with the industrial revolution 160 years ago. The cancer of +industrialism has begun to mortify, and the end is in sight. Within 200 +years, it may be--for we must allow for backwashes and cross-currents +which will retard the flow of the stream--the hideous new towns which +disfigure our landscape may have disappeared, and their sites may have +been reclaimed for the plough. Humanitarian legislation, so far from +arresting this movement, is more likely to accelerate it, and the same +may be said of the insatiate greed of our new masters. It is indeed +instructive to observe how cupidity and sentiment, which (with +pugnacity) are the only passions which the practical politician needs to +consider, usually defeat their own ends. The working man is sawing at +the branch on which he is seated. He may benefit for a time a minority +of his own class, but only by sealing the doom of the rest. A densely +populated country, which is unable to feed itself, can never be a +working-man's paradise, a land of short hours and high wages. And the +sentimentalist, kind only to be cruel, unwittingly promotes precisely +the results which he most deprecates, though they are often much more +beneficial than his own aims. The evil that he would he does not; and +the good that he would not, that he sometimes does. + +For, much as we must regret the apparently inevitable ruin of the upper +and upper middle classes, to which England in the past has owed the +major part of her greatness, we cannot regard the trend of events as an +unmixed misfortune. The industrial revolution has no doubt had some +beneficial results. It has founded the British Empire, the most +interesting and perhaps the most successful experiment in government on +a large scale that the world has yet seen. It has foiled two formidable +attempts to place Europe under the heel of military monarchies. It has +brought order and material civilisation to many parts of the world which +before were barbarous. But these achievements have been counterbalanced +by many evils, and in any case they have done their work. The +aggregation of mankind in large towns is itself a misfortune; the life +of great cities is wholesome neither for body nor for mind. The +separation of classes has become more complete; the country may even be +divided into the picturesque counties where money is spent, and the ugly +counties where it is made. Except London and the sea-ports, the whole of +the South of England is more or less parasitic. We must add that in the +early days of the movement the workman and his children were exploited +ruthlessly. It is true that if they had not been exploited they would +not have existed; but a root of bitterness was planted which, according +to what seems to be the law in such cases, sprang up and bore its +poisonous fruit about two generations later. It is a sinister fact that +the worst trouble is now made by the youngest men. The large fortunes +which were made by the manufacturers were not, on the whole, well spent. +Their luxury was not of a refined type; literature and art were not +intelligently encouraged; and even science was most inadequately +supported. The great achievements of the nineteenth century in science +and letters, and to a less degree in art, were independent of the +industrial world, and were chiefly the work of that class which is now +sinking helplessly under the blows of predatory taxation. Capitalism +itself has degenerated; the typical millionaire is no longer the captain +of industry, but the international banker and company promoter. It is +more difficult than ever to find any rational justification for the +accumulations which are in the hands of a few persons. It is not to be +expected that the working class should be less greedy and unscrupulous +than the educated; indeed it is plain that, now that it realises its +power, it will be even more so. In some ways the national character has +stood the strain of these unnatural conditions very well. Those who +feared that the modern Englishman would make a poor soldier have had to +own that they were entirely wrong. But as long as industrialism +continues, we shall be in a state of thinly disguised civil war. There +can be no industrial peace while our urban population remains, because +the large towns are the creation of the system which their inhabitants +now want to destroy. They can and will destroy it, but only by +destroying themselves. When the suicidal war is over we shall have a +comparatively small population, living mainly in the country and +cultivating the fruits of the earth. It will be more like the England of +the eighteenth century than the England which we know. There will be no +very rich men; and if the birth-rate is regulated there should be no +paupers. It will be a far pleasanter age to live in than the present, +and more favourable to the production of great intellectual work, for +life will be more leisurely, and social conditions more stable. We may +hope that some of our best families will determine to survive, _coute +que coute_, until these better times arrive. We shall not attempt to +prophesy what the political constitution will be. Every existing form of +government is bad; and our democracy can hardly survive the two diseases +which generally kill democracies--reckless plunder of the national +wealth, and the impotence of the central government in face of +revolutionary and predatory sectionalism. + +Meanwhile, we must understand that although the consideration of mankind +in the mass, and the calculation of tendencies based on figures and +averages, must lead us to somewhat pessimistic and cynical views of +human nature, there is no reason why individuals, unless they wish to +make a career out of politics (since it is the sad fate of politicians +always to deal with human nature at its worst), should conform +themselves to the low standards of the world around them. It is only 'in +the loomp' that humanity, whether poor or rich, 'is bad.' There are +materials, though far less abundant than we could wish, for a spiritual +reformation, which would smooth the transition to a new social order, +and open to us unfailing sources of happiness and inspiration, which +would not only enable us to tide over the period of dissolution, but +might make the whole world our debtor. No nation is better endowed by +nature with a faculty for sane idealism than the English. We were never +intended to be a nation of shopkeepers, if a shopkeeper is doomed to be +merely a shopkeeper, which of course he is not. Our brutal commercialism +has been a temporary aberration; the quintessential Englishman is not +the hero of Smiles' 'Self-help'; he is Raleigh, Drake, Shakespeare, +Milton, Johnson, or Wordsworth, with a pleasant spice of Dickens. He is, +in a word, an idealist who has not quite forgotten that he is descended +from an independent race of sea-rovers, accustomed to think and act for +themselves. Mr. Havelock Ellis, one of the wisest and most fearless of +our prophets to-day, quotes from an anonymous journalist a prediction +which may come true: 'London may yet be the spiritual capital of the +world; while Asia--rich in all that gold can buy and guns can give, lord +of lands and bodies, builder of railways and promulgator of police +regulations, glorious in all material glories--postures, complacent and +obtuse, before a Europe content in the possession of all that matters.' +For, as the Greek poet says, 'the soul's wealth is the only real +wealth.' The spirit creates values, while the demagogue shrieks to +transfer the dead symbols of them. 'All that matters' is what the world +can neither give nor take away. The spiritual integration of society +which we desire and behold afar off must be illuminated by the dry light +of science, and warmed by the rays of idealism, a white light but not +cold. And idealism must be compacted as a religion, for it is the +function of religion to prevent the fruits of the flowering-times of the +spirit from being lost. Science has not yet come to its own in forming +the beliefs and practice of mankind, because it has been so much +excluded from higher education, and so much repressed by sentimentalism +under the wing of religion. The nation that first finds a practical +reconciliation between science and idealism is likely to take the front +place among the peoples of the world. In England we have to struggle not +only against ignorance, but against a deep-rooted intellectual +insincerity, which is our worst national fault. The Englishman hates an +idea which he has never met before, as he hates the disturber of his +privacy in a steam-ship cabin; and he takes opportunities of making +things unpleasant for those who utter indiscreet truths. As Samuel +Butler says: 'We hold it useful to have a certain number of melancholy +examples whose notorious failure shall serve as a warning to those who +do not cultivate a power of immoral self-control which shall prevent +them from saying, or even thinking, anything that shall not be to their +immediate and palpable advantage.' To do our countrymen justice, it is +often not self-interest, but a tendency to deal with the concrete +instance, in disregard of the general law, that blinds them to the +larger aspects of great problems. Those who are able to trace causes and +effects further than the majority must expect to be unpopular, but they +will not mind it, if they can do good by speaking. The logic of events +will justify them, and science has a new weapon in official statistics +which will register at once the disastrous effects upon wealth and trade +which the insane theories of the demagogue will bring about. No agitator +can explain away ascertained figures; if we go down hill, we shall do it +with our eyes open. It may be that reactions will be set up which will +render the anticipations in this article erroneous. Things never turn +out either so well or so badly as they logically ought to do. Prophecy +is only an amusement; what does concern us all deeply is that we should +see in what direction we are now moving. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [23] In the small islands round our coast increase has + ceased for some decades. The vital statistics of these + islands furnish an excellent illustration of automatic + adjustment to a state of supersaturation. + + + + +BISHOP GORE AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND + +(1908) + + +The strength and the weakness of the Anglican Church lie in the fact +that it is not the best representative of any well-defined type of +Christianity. It is not strictly a Protestant body; for Protestantism is +the democracy of religion, and the Church of England retains a +hierarchical organisation, with an order of priests who claim a divine +commission not conferred upon them by the congregation. It is not a +State Church as the Russian Empire has[24] a State Church. That is a +position which it has neither the will nor the power to regain. Still +less could it ever justify a claim to separate existence as a purely +Catholic Church, independent of the Church of Rome. A community of +Catholics whose claim to be a Catholic and not a Protestant Church is +denied by all other Catholics, by all Protestants, and by all who are +neither Catholics nor Protestants, could not long retain sufficient +prestige to keep its adherents together. The destiny of such a body is +written in the history of the 'Old Catholics,' who seceded from Rome +because they would not accept the dogma of Papal infallibility. The +seceders included many men of high character and intellect, but in +numbers and influence they are quite insignificant. The Church of +England has only one title to exist, and it is a strong one. It may +claim to represent the religion of the English people as no other body +can represent it. 'No Church,' Doellinger wrote in 1872, 'is so national, +so deeply rooted in popular affection, so bound up with the institutions +and manners of the country, or so powerful in its influence on national +character.' These words are still partly true, though it is not possible +to make the assertion with so much confidence as when Doellinger wrote. +The English Church represents, on the religious side, the convictions, +tastes, and prejudices of the English gentleman, that truly national +ideal of character, which has long since lost its adventitious connexion +with heraldry and property in land. A love of order, seemliness, and +good taste has led the Anglican Church along a middle path between what +a seventeenth-century divine called 'the meretricious gaudiness of the +Church of Rome and the squalid sluttery of fanatic conventicles.' A keen +sense of honour and respect for personal uprightness, a hatred of +cruelty and treachery, created and long maintained in the English Church +an intense repugnance against the priestcraft of the Roman hierarchy, +feelings which have only died down because the bitter memories of the +sixteenth century have at last become dim. A jealous love of liberty, +combined with contempt for theories of equality, produced a system of +graduated ranks in Church government which left a large measure of +freedom, both in speech and thought, even to the clergy, and encouraged +no respect for what Catholics mean by authority. The Anglican Church is +also characteristically English in its dislike for logic and +intellectual consistency and in its distrust of undisciplined +emotionalism, which in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was +known and dreaded under the name of 'enthusiasm.' This type is not +essentially aristocratic. It does not traverse the higher ideals of the +working class, which respects and admires the qualities of the +'gentleman,' though it resents the privileges long connected with the +name. But it has no attraction for what may be impolitely called the +vulgar class, whose religious feelings find a natural vent in an +unctuous emotionalism and sentimental humanitarianism. This class, which +forms the backbone of Dissent and Liberalism, is instinctively +antipathetic to Anglicanism. Nor does the Anglican type of Christianity +appeal at all to the 'Celtic fringe,' whose temperament is curiously +opposite to that of the English, not only in religion but in most other +matters. The Irish and the Welsh are no more likely to become Anglicans +than the lowland Scotch are to adopt Roman Catholicism. Whether Dissent +is a permanent necessity in England is a more difficult question, in +spite of the class differences of temperament above mentioned. If the +Anglican organisation were elastic enough to permit the order of +lay-readers to be developed on strongly Evangelical lines, the lower +middle class might find within the Church the mental food which it now +seeks in Nonconformist chapels, and might gain in breadth and dignity by +belonging once more to a great historic body. + +The Church of England, then, can justify its existence as English +Christianity, and in no other way. It began its separate career with a +series of (doubtless) illogical compromises, in the belief that there is +an underlying unity, though not uniformity, in the religion as well as +in the character of the English people, which would be strong enough to +hold a national Church together. The dissenters from the Reformation +settlement were numerically insignificant, and their existence was not +regarded as a peril to the Church, for it was recognised that in a free +country absolute agreement cannot be secured. The Roman Catholics, after +some futile persecution, were allowed to remain loyal to their old +allegiance in spiritual matters, while the Independents and similar +bodies were anarchical on principle, and upheld the 'dissidence of +Dissent' as a thing desirable in itself. But the defection of the +Wesleyan Methodists was another matter. This was a blow to the Church of +England as irreparable as the loss of Northern Europe to the Papacy. It +finally upset the balance of parties in the Church, by detaching from it +the larger number of the Evangelicals, particularly in the tradesman +class. It gave a great stimulus to Nonconformity, which now became for +the first time an important factor in the national life. Till the +Wesleyan secession, the Nonconformists in England had been a feeble +folk. From a return made to the Crown in 1700, it appeared that the +Dissenters numbered about one in twenty of the population. Now they are +as numerous as the Anglicans. Their prestige has also been largely +augmented by their dominating position in the United States, where the +Episcopal Church, long viewed with disfavour as tainted with British +sympathies, has never recovered its lost ground, and is a comparatively +small, though wealthy and influential sect. Within the Anglican +communion, the inevitable religious revival of the nineteenth century +began on Evangelical lines, but soon took a form determined by other +influences than those which covered England with the ostentatiously +hideous chapels of the Wesleyans. The extent of the revival has indeed +been much exaggerated by the numerous apologists of the Catholic +movement. The undoubted increase of professional zeal, activity, and +efficiency among the clergy has been taken as proof of a corresponding +access of enthusiasm among the laity, for which there is not much +evidence. In spite of slovenly services and an easy standard of clerical +duty, the observances of religion held a larger place in the average +English home before the Oxford Movement than is often supposed, larger, +indeed, than they do now, when family prayers and Bible reading have +been abandoned in most households. + +The Oxford Movement claimed to be, and was, a revival of the principles +of Anglo-Catholicism, which had not been left without witness for any +long period since the Reformation. The continuity is certain, as is the +continuity of the Ritualism of our day with the Tractarianism of seventy +years ago; but the development has been rapid, especially in the last +thirty years. Those who can remember the High Churchmen of Pusey's +generation, or their disciples who in many country parsonages preserved +the faith of their Tractarian teachers whole and undefiled, must be +struck by the divergence between the principles which they then heard +passionately maintained, and those which the younger generation, who use +their name and enjoy their credit, avow to be their own. + +In the Tractarians the Nonjurors seemed to have come to life again, and +one might easily find enthusiastic Jacobites among them. Unlike their +successors, they showed no sympathy with political Radicalism. Their +love for and loyalty to the English Church, which found melodious +expression in Keble's poetry, were intense. They were not hostile to +Evangelicalism within the Church, until the ultra-Protestant party +declared war against them; but they viewed Dissent with scorn and +abhorrence. They would gladly have excluded Nonconformists from any +status in the Universities, and opposed any measures intended to +conciliate their prejudices or remove their disabilities. Archdeacon +Denison, in his sturdy opposition to the 'conscience clause' in Church +schools, was a typical representative of the old High Church party. But +still more bitter was their animosity against religious Liberalism. Even +after the feud with the Evangelicals had developed into open war, Pusey +was ready to join with Lord Shaftesbury and his party in united +anathemas against the authors of 'Essays and Reviews.' The beginnings of +Old Testament criticism evoked an outburst of fury almost unparalleled. +When Bishop Gray, of Cape Town, solemnly 'excommunicated' Bishop +Colenso, of Natal, and enjoined the faithful to 'treat him as a heathen +man and a publican,' for exposing the unhistorical character of portions +of the Pentateuch, he became a hero with the whole High Church party, +and even the more liberal among the bishops were cowed by the tempest of +feeling which the case aroused. In the same period, many Oxford men can +remember Bishop Wilberforce's attack upon Darwinism, and, somewhat +later, Dean Burgon's University sermon which ended with the stirring +peroration: Leave me my ancestors in Paradise, and I leave you yours in +the Zoological Gardens!' From the same pulpit Liddon, a little before +his death, uttered a pathetic remonstrance against the course which his +younger disciples were taking about inspiration and tradition. + +Reverence for tradition was a very prominent feature in the theology of +the older generation. They spent an immense amount of time, learning, +and ingenuity in establishing a _catena_ of patristic and orthodox +authority for their principles, reaching back to the earliest times, and +handed down in this country by a series of Anglo-Catholic divines. This +unbroken tradition was conceived of as purely static, a 'mechanical +unpacking,' as Father Tyrrell puts it, of the doctrine once delivered to +the Apostles. The Church, according to their theory, was supernaturally +guided by the Holy Ghost, and its decisions were consequently +infallible, as long as the Church remained undivided. Thus the earlier +General Councils, before the schism between East and West, may not be +appealed against, and the Creeds drawn up by them can never be revised. +Since the great schism, the infallible inspiration of the Church has +been in abeyance, like an old English peerage when a peer leaves two or +more daughters and no sons. This fantastic theory condemns all later +developments, and leaves the Church under the weight of the dead hand. +On the question of the Establishment the party was divided, some of its +members attaching great value to the union of Church and State, while +others made claims for the Church, in the matter of self-government, +which were hardly compatible with Establishment. Their bond of union was +their conviction of 'the necessity of impressing on people that the +Church was more than a merely human institution; that it had privileges, +sacraments, a ministry, ordained by Christ Himself; that it was a matter +of highest obligation to remain united to the Church.'[25] + +As compared with their successors, the Tractarians were academic and +learned; they preached thoughtful and carefully prepared sermons; they +cared little for ecclesiastical millinery, and often acquiesced in very +simple and 'backward' ceremonial. Their theory of the Church, their +personal piety and self-discipline, were of a thoroughly medieval type, +as may be seen from certain chapters in the life of Pusey. They fought +the battle of Anglo-Catholicism, at Oxford and elsewhere, with a +whole-hearted conviction that knew no misgivings or scruples. Oxford has +not forgotten the election, as late as 1862, of an orthodox naval +officer to a chair of history for which Freeman was a candidate. + +A change of tone was already noticeable, according to Dean Church, soon +after Newman's secession. Many High Churchmen, in speaking of the +English Church, became apologetic or patronising or lukewarm. +Progressive members of the party professed a distaste for the name +Anglican, and wished to be styled Catholics pure and simple. The same +men began to speak of their opponents in the Church as Protestants; no +longer as ultra-Protestants. Other changes soon manifested themselves. +The archaeological side of the movement lost its interest; the appeal to +antiquity became only a convenient argument to defend practices adopted +on quite other grounds. The _epigoni_ of the Catholic revival are not +learned; they know even less of the Fathers than of their Bibles. Their +chief literature consists of a weekly penny newspaper, which reflects +only too well their prejudices and aspirations. On the other hand, they +are far busier than the older generation. The movement has become +democratic; it has passed from the quadrangles of Oxford to the streets +and lanes of our great cities, where hundreds of devoted clergymen are +working zealously, without care for remuneration or thought of +recognition, among the poorest of the populace. Of late years, the more +energetic section of the party has not only abandoned the 'Church and +King' Toryism of the old High Church party, but has plunged into +socialism. The Mirfield community is said to be strongly imbued with +collectivist ideas; and the Christian Social Union, which is chiefly +supported by High Churchmen, tends to become more and more a Union of +Christian Socialists, instead of being, as was intended by its founders, +a non-political association for the study of social duties and problems +in the light of the Sermon on the Mount. This attitude is partly the +result of a close acquaintance with the sufferings of the urban +proletariat, which moves the priests who minister among them to a +generous sympathy with their lot; and, partly, it may be, to an unavowed +calculation that an alliance with the most rapidly growing political +party may in time to come be useful to the Church. Their methods of +teaching are also more democratic, though many of them make the fatal +mistake of despising preaching. They rely partly on what they call +'definite Catholic teaching,' including frequent exhortations to the +practice of confession; and partly on appeals to the eye, by symbolic +ritual and elaborate ceremonial. Their more ornate services are often +admirably performed from a spectacular point of view, and are far +superior to most Roman Catholic functions in reverence, beauty, and good +taste. The extreme section of the party is contemptuously lawless, not +only repudiating the authority of the Judicial Committee of the Privy +Council, but flouting the bishops with studied insolence. A glaring +instance is to be found in the correspondence between Mr. Athelstan +Riley and the Bishop of Oxford, which followed the Report of the Royal +Commission on ritual practices. + +Doctrinally, the modern Ritualist is prepared to surrender the old +theory of inspiration. He takes, indeed, but little interest in the +Bible; his oracle is not the Book, but 'the Church.' What he means by +the Church it is not easy to say. The old Anglican theory of the +infallible undivided Church is not repudiated by him, but does not +appeal to minds which look forward much more than backward; he is not +yet, except in a few instances, disposed to accept the modern Roman +Church as the arbiter of doctrine; and the English Church has no living +voice to which he pays the slightest respect. The 'tradition of Western +Catholicism' is a phrase which has a meaning for him, and he probably +hopes for a reunion, at some distant date, of the Anglican Church with a +reformed Rome. It is therefore essential, in his opinion, that no +alteration shall take place in the formularies which we share with Rome; +the Bible may be thrown to the critics, but the Creeds are inviolable. +The Thirty-nine Articles he passes by with silent disdain. They are, he +thinks not unjustly, a document to which no one, High, Low, or Broad, +can now subscribe without mental reservations. + +The theory of development in doctrine, which, in its latest application +by 'Modernists' like Loisy and Tyrell, is now agitating the Roman +Church, is exciting interest in a few of the more thoughtful +Anglo-Catholics; but the majority are blind to the difficulties for +which the theory of two kinds of truth is a desperate remedy. Nor is it +likely, perhaps, that the plain Englishman will ever allow that an +ostensibly historical proposition may be false as a matter of fact, but +true for faith. + +This party in the Church has a lay Pope, who represents the opinions of +the more enterprising among the rank and file, and is president of their +society, the English Church Union. It has the ably conducted weekly +newspaper above referred to, and it has the general sympathy and support +of the strongest man in the English Church, Charles Gore, Bishop of +Birmingham. This prelate, partly by his personal qualities--his +eloquence, high-minded disinterestedness, and splendid generosity, and +partly by knowing exactly what he wants, and having full courage of his +opinions, has at present an influence in the Anglican Church which is +probably far greater than that of any other man. It is therefore a +matter of public interest to ascertain what his views and intentions +are, as an ecclesiastical statesman and reformer, and as a theologian. + +Bishop Gore exercised a strong influence over the younger men at Oxford +before the publication of 'Lux Mundi.' But it was his editorship of this +book, and his contribution to it, which first brought his name into +prominence as a leader of religious thought. The religious public, with +rather more penetration than usual, fastened on the pages about +inspiration, and the limitations of Christ's human knowledge, which are +from the editor's own pen, as the most significant part of the book. The +authors are believed to have been annoyed by the disproportionate +attention paid to this short section. But in truth these pages indicated +a new departure among the High Church party, a change more important +than the acceptance of the doctrine of evolution, which was being made +smoother for the religious public by the brilliant writings of Aubrey +Moore. The acceptance of the verdict of modern criticism as to the +authorship of the 110th Psalm, in the face of the recorded testimony of +Christ that it was written by David, was a concession to 'Modernism' +which staggered the old-fashioned High Churchman. Liddon did not conceal +his distress that such doctrine should have come out of the Pusey House. +But the manifesto was well timed; it enabled the younger men to go +forward more freely, and sacrificed nothing that was in any way +essential to the Anglo-Catholic position. Since the appearance of 'Lux +Mundi,' the High Church clergy have been able without fear to avow their +belief in the scientific theories associated with Darwin's name, and +their rejection of the rigid doctrine of verbal inspiration, while the +Evangelicals, who have not been emancipated by their leaders, labour +under the reproach of extreme obscurantism in their attitude towards +Biblical studies. + +As Canon of Westminster, and then as Bishop of Worcester, and of +Birmingham, Dr. Gore has written and spoken much, and has defined his +position more closely in relation to Anglo-Catholicism, to Church +Reform, and to the social question. It will be convenient to take these +three heads separately. + +This Bishop regards the excesses of the Ritualists as a deplorable but +probably inevitable incident in a great movement. He quotes Newman's +remonstrance against some hot-headed members of his adopted Church, who, +'having done their best to set the house on fire, leave to others the +task of extinguishing the flames.'[26] But he reminds us that there has +always been 'intemperate zeal' in the Church, from the time of St. +Paul's letters to the Church at Corinth to our own day. 'It must needs +be that offences come,' wherever persons of limited wisdom are very much +in earnest. The remedy for extravagance is to give fair scope for the +legitimate principle. In the case of the so-called Ritualist movement, +the inspiring principle or motive is easily found. It is the idea of a +visible Church, exercising lawful authority over its members. + +This is the key to Bishop Gore's whole position. It rests on the +conviction that Jesus Christ founded, and meant to found, a visible +Church, an organised society. It is reasonable, the Bishop says, to +suppose that He did intend this, for it is only by becoming embodied in +the convictions of a society, and informing its actions, that ideas have +reality and power. Christianity could never have lived if there had been +no Christian Church. And, from the first, Christians believed that this +society, the Catholic Church, was not left to organise itself on any +model which from time to time might seem to promise the best results, +but was instituted from above, as a Divine ordinance, by the authority +of Christ Himself.[27] The witness of the early Christian writers is +unanimous that the conception of a visible Church was a prominent +feature in the Christianity of the sub-apostolic age, and it is plain +that the civil power suspected the Christians just because they were so +well organised. The Roman Empire was accustomed to tolerate +superstitions, but it was part of her policy to repress _collegia +illicita_. The witness of the New Testament points in the same +direction. Jesus Christ committed His message, not to writing, but to a +'little flock' of devoted adherents. He instituted the two great +sacraments (Bishop Gore will admit no uncertainty on this point) to be a +token of membership and a bond of brotherhood. He instituted a _civitas +Dei_ which was to be wide enough to embrace all, but which makes for +itself an exclusive claim. The 'heaven' of the first century was a city, +a new Jerusalem; Christians are spoken of by St. Paul as citizens of a +heavenly commonwealth. The distinction between the universal invisible +Church and particular visible Churches is 'utterly unscriptural,' and +was overthrown long ago by William Law in his controversy with Hoadly. + +As for the 'Apostolical Succession,' Dr. Gore thinks that its principle +is more important than the form in which it is embodied. The succession +would not be broken if all the presbyters in the Church governed as a +college of bishops; and if something of this kind actually happened for +a time in the early Church no argument against the Apostolical +Succession can be based thereon.[28] The principle is that no ministry +is valid which is assumed, which a man takes upon himself, or which is +delegated to him from below. That this theory is Sacerdotalism in a +sense may be admitted. But it does not imply a _vicarious_ priesthood, +only a representative one. It does not deny the priesthood which belongs +to the Church as a whole. The true sacerdotalism means that Christianity +is the life of an organised society, in which a graduated body of +ordained ministers is made the instrument of unity. It is no doubt true +that in such a Church unspiritual men are made to mediate spiritual +gifts, but happily we may distinguish character and office. Nor must we +be deterred from asserting our convictions by the indignant protests +which we are sure to hear, that we are 'unchurching' the non-episcopal +bodies,[29] We do not assert that God is tied to His covenant, but only +that we are so. + +Dr. Gore has no difficulty in proving that the sacerdotal theory of the +Christian ministry took shape at an early date, and has been +consistently maintained in the Catholic Church from ancient times to our +own day. It is much more difficult to trace it back to the Apostolic +age, even if, with Dr. Gore, we accept as certain the Pauline authorship +of the Pastoral Epistles, which is still _sub judice_. The 'Didache' is +a stumbling-block to those who wish to find Catholic practice in the +century after our Lord's death; but that document is dismissed as +composed by a Jewish Christian for a Jewish Christian community. After +the second century, the apologists for the priesthood are in smooth +waters. + +The conclusion is that 'the various presbyterian and congregationalist +organisations, in dispensing with the episcopal succession, violated a +fundamental law of the Church's life.'[30] 'A ministry not episcopally +received is invalid, that is to say, it falls outside the conditions of +covenanted security, and cannot justify its existence in terms of the +covenant.'[31] The Anglican Church is not asking for the cause to be +decided all her own way; for she has much to do to recall herself to her +true principles. 'God's promise to Judah was that she should remember +her ways and should be ashamed, when she should receive her sisters +Samaria and Sodom, and that He would give them to her for daughters, but +not by her covenant.'[32] The 'covenant' which the Church is to be +content to forgo in order to recover Samaria and _Sodom_ (the 'Free +Churches' can hardly be expected to relish this method of opening +negotiations) is apparently the covenant between Church and State. 'In +the future the Anglican Church must be content to act as, first of all, +part and parcel of the Catholic Church, ruled by her laws, empowered by +her spirit.' The bishops are to be ready to maintain, at all cost, the +inherent spiritual independence which belongs to their office. + +Such a theory of the essentials of a true Church necessarily requires, +as a corollary, a refutation of the Roman Catholic theory of orders, +which reduces the Anglican clergy to the same level as the ministers of +schismatical sects. Bishop Gore answers the objection that the Roman +Church is the logical expression of his theory of the ministry, by +saying that Roman Catholicism is not the development of the whole of the +Church, but only of a part of it; and moreover, that spiritually it does +not represent the whole of Christianity as it finds expression in the +first Christian age or in the New Testament.[33] The Roman Church is a +one-sided outgrowth of the religion of Christ--a development of those +qualities in Christianity with which the Latin genius has special +affinity. It has committed itself to unhistorical doctrines, involving a +deficient appreciation of the intellectual and moral claim of truth to +be valued for its own sake no less than for its results. Much of its +teaching can only be explained as the result of an 'over-reckless +accommodation to the unregenerate natural instincts in religion.'[34] +The fact that the largest section of Christendom has become what Rome +now is, is no proof that theirs is the line of true development. We can +see this clearly enough if we consider the case of Buddhism. The main +existing developments of Buddhism are a mere travesty of the spirit of +Sakya Muni.[35] In this way Dr. Gore anticipates and rejects the +argument since then put forward by Loisy, and other Liberal Catholic +apologists, that history has proved Roman Catholicism to be the proper +development of Christ's religion. In short, the Anglican Church, which +indisputably possesses the Apostolic Succession, has no reason to go +humbly to Borne to obtain recognition of her Orders. + +So far, in reviewing Bishop Gore's published opinions, we are on +familiar High Anglican ground. But what is the Bishop's seat of +authority in doctrine? He has shown himself willing, within limits, to +apply critical methods to Holy Scripture. He has very little respect for +the infallible Pope. And he would be the last to trust to private +judgment--the _testimonium Spiritus Sancti_ as understood by some +Protestants. Where, then, is the ultimate Court of Appeal? Bishop Gore +finds it in the two earliest of the three Creeds, 'in which Catholic +consent is especially expressed;' and in a half apologetic manner he +adds that this Catholic basis has been 'generally understood' to imply +'an unrealisable but not therefore unreal appeal to a General +Council.'[36] No revision, therefore, of the Church's doctrinal +formularies can be made except by the authority of a court which can +never, by any possibility, be summoned! The unique sanctity and +obligation which Bishop Gore considers to attach to the Creeds have been +asserted by him again and again with a vehemence which proves that he +regards the matter as of vital importance. 'There must be no compromise +as regards the Creeds.... If those who live in an atmosphere of +intellectual criticism become incapable of such sincere public +profession of belief as the Creed contains, the Church must look to +recruit her ministry from classes still capable of a more simple and +unhesitating faith.'[37] And, again, in his most recent book: 'I have +taken occasion before now to make it evident that, as far as I can +secure it, I will admit no one into this diocese, or into Holy Orders, +to minister for the congregation, who does not _ex animo_ believe the +Creeds.'[38] Dr. Gore has not spared to stigmatise as morally dishonest +those who desire to serve the Church as its ministers while harbouring +doubts about the physical miracle known as the Virgin Birth, and one of +his clergy was a few years ago induced to resign his living by an +aspersion of this kind, to which the Bishop gave publicity in the daily +press. + +Now it has been generally supposed that the Anglican clergy are bound to +declare their adhesion not only to the Creeds, but to the Thirty-nine +Articles, and to the infallible truth of Holy Scripture. Bishop Gore, +however, holds that when a new deacon, on the day of his ordination, +solemnly declares that he 'assents to the Thirty-nine Articles,' and +that he 'believes the doctrine therein set forth to be agreeable to the +word of God,' he 'can no longer fairly be regarded as bound to +particular phrases or expressions in the Articles.'[39] And further, +when the same new deacon expresses his 'unfeigned belief in all the +canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments,' 'that expression of +belief can be fairly and justly made by anyone who believes heartily +that the Bible, as a whole, records and contains the message of God to +man in all its stages of delivery and that each one of the books +contains some element or aspect of this revelation.'[40] + +The Bishop himself has affirmed his personal belief that some narratives +in the Old Testament are probably not historical. It may fairly be asked +on what principle he is prepared to evade the plain sense and intention +of a doctrinal test in two cases while stigmatising as morally +flagitious any attempts to do the same in a third. For it is +unquestionable that a general assent to the Articles does not mean that +the man who gives that assent is free to repudiate any 'particular +phrases or expressions' which do not please him. A witness who admitted +having signed an affidavit with this intention would cut a poor figure +in a law court. And it is difficult to see how adhesion to the +antiquated theory of inspiration could be demanded more stringently than +by the form of words which was drawn up, as none can doubt, to secure +it. These things being so, either the accusation of bad faith applies to +the treatment which the Bishop justifies in the case of the Articles and +the Bible, or it should not be brought against those who apply to one +clause in their vows the principle which is admitted and used in two +others. + +There are some honourable men who have abstained from entering the +service of the Church on account of these requirements. But there are +many others who recognise that knowledge grows and opinions change, +while formularies for the most part remain unaltered; and who consider +that, so long as their general position is understood by those among +whom they work, it would be overscrupulous to refuse an inward call to +the ministry because they know that they will be asked to give a formal +assent to unsuitably worded tests drawn up three centuries ago. Dr. Gore +himself would probably have been refused ordination fifty years ago on +the ground of his lax views on inspiration; and the Bishops who approved +of the condemnation of Colenso, who condemned 'Essays and Reviews,' and +who would have condemned 'Lux Mundi,' were more 'honest' to the tests +than their successors. But an obstinate persistence in that kind of +honesty would have excluded from the ministry all except fools, liars, +and bigots. Again, it might have been supposed that the laity also, who +at their baptism and confirmation made the same declaration of belief in +'all the articles' of the Apostles' Creed, and who are bidden by the +Church to repeat the same Creed every week, are in the same position as +the clergy. But the Bishop again attempts to draw a distinction. 'The +responsibility of joining in the Creed is left to the conscience of the +layman,' but not to the conscience of the clergyman, nor, we suppose, of +the choir.[41] This plea seems to us a very lame one. The Church of +England has never thought of imposing severer doctrinal tests on the +clergy than on the laity, and assent to the Creeds is as integral a part +of the baptismal as of the ordination vows. + +No loyal Christian wishes to impugn a doctrine which touches so closely +the life of the Redeemer as the account of His miraculous conception, +which appears, in our texts, in two books of the New Testament. If the +tradition is as old as the Church, which is very doubtful, it must, from +the nature of the case, rest on the unsupported assertion of Mary, the +mother of Jesus; for Joseph could only testify that the child was not +his. It is therefore useless to reinforce the Gospel narrative by +appealing to 'Catholic tradition,'[42] as if it could add anything to +the evidence. It is significant, however, of the Bishop's own feelings +about tradition, that he quietly sets aside the plain statement of the +Synoptic Gospels that Joseph and Mary had a large family of four sons +and more than one daughter by their marriage. This statement, which is +doubtless historical, became intolerable to the conscience of the Church +during the long frenzy of asceticism, when marital relations were +regarded as impure and degrading; and in consequence the perpetual +virginity of Mary, though contradicted in the New Testament, became as +much an article of faith as her conception of Jesus by the Holy Ghost. +We have no wish to criticise the arguments for the Virgin Birth which +Dr. Gore has collected in his 'Dissertations.' But when a strenuous +effort is made to exclude from the ministry of the Church all who cannot +declare _ex animo_ that they believe it to be a certain historical fact, +it becomes a duty to point out that, on ordinary principles of evidence, +the story must share the uncertainty which hangs over other strange and +unsupported narratives. The Bishop expresses his doubt whether those who +regard this miracle as unproven can be convinced of the Divinity of +Christ. This only shows how difficult it is for an ecclesiastic in his +high position to induce either clergy or laity to talk frankly to him. +To most educated men there would be no difficulty in believing that the +Son of God became incarnate through the agency of two earthly parents. +The analogy of hybrids in the animal world is not felt to apply to the +union of the human and divine natures, except by persons of very low +intelligence. We should have preferred to be silent on this delicate +subject, but for the fact that some men whom the Church can ill spare +have been advised officially not to apply for ordination, on account of +their views about this miracle. Fortunately, the practice of demanding +more specific declarations than the law requires has not been adopted +in most dioceses. + +The question of the miraculous element in religious truth has indeed +reached an acute stage. The Catholic doctrine is and always has been +that there are two 'orders'--the natural and the supernatural--on the +same plane, and distinguishable from each other. The Catholic theologian +is prepared to define what occurrences in the lives of the Saints are +natural, and what supernatural. Miracles are of frequent occurrence, and +are established by ordinary evidence. Three miracles have to be placed +to the credit of each candidate for canonisation before he or she is +entitled to bear the title of saint, and the evidence for these miracles +is sifted by a commission. This theory has been practically abandoned in +the English Church. There are few among our ecclesiastics and +theologians who would spend five minutes in investigating any alleged +supernatural occurrence in our own time. It would be assumed that, if +true, it must be ascribed to some obscure natural cause. The result is +that the miracles in the Creeds, or in the New Testament, are isolated +as they have never been before. They seem to form an order by +themselves, a class of fact belonging neither to the world of phenomena +as we know it, nor to the world of spirit as we know it. From this +situation has arisen the tendency, increasingly prevalent both in the +Roman Church and in Protestant Germany, to distinguish 'truths of faith' +from 'truths of fact,' The former, it is said, have a representative, +symbolic character, and are only degraded by being placed in the same +category as physical phenomena. This contention is open to very serious +objections, but it at least indicates the actual state of the problem, +viz. that to most educated men the miraculous element in Christianity +seems to float between earth and heaven, no longer essentially connected +with either, while on the other hand the majority of religious people, +including a few men of high intelligence, find it difficult to realise +their faith without the help of the miraculous. Supernaturalism, which +from the scientific point of view is the most unsatisfactory of all +theories, traversing as it does the first article in the creed of +science--the uniformity of nature--gives, after all, a kind of crude +synthesis of the natural and the spiritual, by which it is possible to +live; it is, for many persons, an indispensable bridge between the world +of phenomena and the world of spirit. But when the heavy-handed +dogmatist requires a categorical assent to the literal truth of the +miraculous, in exactly the same sense in which physical facts are true, +a tension between faith and reason cannot be avoided. And it is in this +literal sense that Bishop Gore requires all his clergy to assent to the +miracles in the Creeds. + +The fact is that the Catholic party in the Church are in a hopeless +_impasse_ with regard to dogma. They cannot take any step which would +divide them from 'the whole Church,' and the whole Church no longer +exists except as an ideal--it has long ago been shivered into fragments. +The Roman Church is in a much better position. The Pope may at any time +'interpret' tradition in such a manner as to change it completely--there +is no appeal from his authoritative pronouncements; but for the High +Anglican there is no living authority, only the dead hand, and a Council +which can never meet. It is much as if no important legislation could be +passed in this country without a joint session of our Parliament and the +American Congress. It is difficult to see any way of escape, except by +accepting the principle of development in a sense which would repudiate +the time-honoured 'appeal to antiquity.' + +We have next to consider Bishop Gore as a Church Reformer. We have seen +that he desires an autonomous Church, which can legislate for itself. +The dead hand, which weighs so lightly upon him when it forbids any +attempt to revise the formularies of the faith, seems to him intolerably +heavy when it obliges the Church to conform to 'the laws, canons, and +rubrics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which it cannot +alter or add to.'[43] The only remedy, he thinks, is a really +representative assembly, of bishops, presbyters, and laymen. In the +early Church, as he points out, the laity were always recognised as +constituent members of the government of the Church. In a democratic +age, the laity as a body should exercise the powers which in the Middle +Ages were delegated to, or usurped by, 'emperors, kings, chiefs and +lords.' The parish ought to have the real control of the Church +buildings, except the chancel; the Church servants ought to be appointed +and removed by the parish meeting. It would be a step forward if these +parish councils could be organised under diocesan regulation, and +invested with the control of the parish finances, except the vicar's +stipend; the right to object to the appointment of an unfit pastor; and +some power of determining the ceremonial at the Church services. The +diocesan synod should become a reality; there should also be provincial +synods, which could become national by fusion. But in the last resort +the declaration of the mind of the Church on matters of doctrine and +morals ought to belong to the bishops.[44] + +But who are the laity? 'By a layman,' he says, 'I mean one who fulfils +the duties of Church membership--one who is baptised into the Church, +who has been confirmed if he has reached years of discretion, and who is +a communicant.' A roll of Church members, he suggests, should be kept in +each parish, on which should be entered the name of each confirmed +person, male or female. The names of those who had passed (say) two +years without communicating should be struck off the roll. Further, +names should be removable for any scandalous offences.[45] + +It is easy to see that the 'communicant franchise' would work entirely +in favour of that party in the Church which attaches the greatest +importance to that Sacrament. It would exclude a large number of +Protestant laymen who subscribe to Church funds, and who on any other +franchise would have a share in its government. But we need not suspect +Dr. Gore of any _arriere pensee_ of this kind. His ideal of parochial +life is one which must appeal to all who wish well to the Church. We +will quote a few characteristic sentences: + + 'Are we to set to work to revive St. Paul's ideal of the + life of a Church? If so, what we need is not more + Christians, but better Christians. We want to make the moral + meaning of Church membership understood and its conditions + appreciated. We want to make men understand that it costs + something to be a Christian; that to be a Christian, that + is, a Churchman, is to be an intelligent participator in a + corporate life consecrated to God, and to concern oneself, + therefore, as a matter of course, in all that touches the + corporate life, its external as well as its spiritual + conditions.... We Christians are fellow-citizens together in + the commonwealth that is consecrated to God, a commonwealth + of mortal men with bodies as well as souls.'[46] + +With regard to ritual, he will not allow that the disputes are +unimportant. The vital question of self-government is at stake. From +this point of view, a 'mere ceremony' may mean a great deal. St. Paul, +who said 'Circumcision is nothing,' also said, 'If ye be circumcised +Christ shall profit you nothing,'[47] This is quite consistent with his +hearty disapproval of the introduction of purely Roman ceremonial. + +Does this ideal of a free Church in a free State involve +disestablishment? Not necessarily, Dr. Gore thinks. Why should not legal +authority be entrusted to diocesan courts, with a right of appeal to a +court of bishops, abolishing the jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee +in spiritual cases? It is the paralysis of spiritual authority, in his +opinion, which pushes into prominence all extravagances, and conceals +the vast amount of agreement which exists in essentials. 'We are weary +of debating societies; we want the healthy discipline of co-operative +government.'[48] The policy of this self-governing Church is to be +'Liberal-Catholic,' a type which 'responds to the moral needs of our +great race.' + +Such is the scheme of Church reform towards which the Bishop is working; +and he has told us, in the sentence last quoted, what kind of Church he +looks forward to see. But what kind of Church would it actually be, if +his designs were carried out? It would not be a national Church; for +his belief that Catholicism 'responds to the moral needs of our race' is +contradicted by the whole history of modern England. The laity of +England may not be quite 'as Protestant as ever they were, though we +often hear that they are so; but they show no disposition to become +Catholics. Catholicism as we know it is Latin Christianity, and even in +the Latin countries it is now a hothouse plant, dependent on a special +education in Catholic schools and seminaries, with an _index librorum +prohibitorum_. Such a system is impossible in England. Seminaries for +the early training of future clergymen may indeed be established; but +beds of exotics cannot be raised by keeping the gardeners in greenhouses +while the young plants are in the open air. The 'Liberal Catholic' +Church, accordingly, would shed, by degrees, the very large number of +Churchmen who still call themselves Protestant. Nor would the adjective +'Liberal' secure the adhesion of the 'intellectuals.' Bishop Gore's +Liberalism would exclude most of them as effectually as the most rigid +Conservatism. It would also be a disestablished and disendowed Church; +for surely it is building castles in the air to think of episcopal +courts recognised by law. The prospect of disestablishment does not +alarm the Bishop. Some of his utterances suggest that he would almost +welcome it. Indeed, disestablishment is viewed with complacency by an +increasing number of High Church clergy. They feel that they can never +carry out their plans for de-Protestantising the Church while the Crown +has the appointment of the bishops. For even if, as has lately been the +case, their party gets more than its due share of preferment, there will +always, under the existing system, be a sufficient number of Liberal and +Evangelical bishops on the bench to make a consistent policy of +Catholicising impossible. And the Catholic party are so admirably +organised that they are confident in their power to carry their schemes +under any form of self-government, even though the mass of the laity are +untouched by their views. Moreover, the town clergy, among whom are to +be found advocates of disestablishment, find in many places that the +parochial idea has completely broken down. The unit is the congregation, +no longer the parish, and the clergy are supported by pew-rents and +voluntary offerings, not by endowments. In such parishes, +disestablishment might, they think, give them greater liberty, and would +make little difference to them in other ways. But in the country +districts the case is very different. Thirty years after +disestablishment, the quiet country rectory, nestling in its bower of +trees and shrubs, with all that it has meant for centuries in English +rural life, would in most villages be a thing of the past. + +For these reasons, the Bishop's policy of reconstructing the Church of +England as a self-governing body, professing definitely Catholic +principles and enjoining Catholic practices, seems to us an impossible +one. The chief gainer by it would be the Church of Rome, which would +gather in the most consistent and energetic of the Anglo-Catholics, who +would be dissatisfied at the contrast between the pretensions of their +own Church and its isolated position. The non-episcopal bodies would +also gain numerous recruits from among the ruins of the Evangelical and +Liberal parties in the Church. + +But, it may be said, this dismal forecast may be falsified if the +Anglican Church can win the masses. The English populace are at present +neither Protestant nor Catholic; they are, if we count heads, mainly +heathen. May not the working man, who has no leaning to dissent, unless +it be the 'corybantic Christianity' of the Salvation Army, be brought +into the Church? + +Bishop Gore has always shown an earnest sympathy with the aspirations of +the working class to improve their material condition. He is also +profoundly impressed by the apparent discrepancy between the teachings +of Christ about wealth and the principles which His professed disciples +wholly follow and in part avow. These anxious questionings form the +subject of a fine sermon which he preached at the Church Congress of +1906, on the text about the camel and the needle's eye. Jesus Christ +chose to be born of poor and humble parents, in a land remote from the +centre of political or intellectual influence, and in the circle of +labouring men. He chose to belong to the class of the respectable +artisan, and most of the twelve Apostles came from the same social +level. In His teaching He plainly associated blessedness with the lot of +poverty, and extreme danger with the lot of wealth. All through the New +Testament the assumption is that God is on the side of the poor against +the rich. As Jowett once said, there is more in the New Testament +against being rich, and in favour of being poor, than we like to +recognise. And is not this the cause of our failure to win the masses? +Is it not because we are the Church of capital rather than of labour? +The Church ought to be a community in which religion works upward from +below. The Church of England expresses that point of view which is +precisely not that which Christ chose for His Church. The incomes of the +bishops range them with the wealthier classes; the clergy associate with +the gentry and not with the artisans. We must acknowledge with deep +penitence that we are on wrong lines. For himself, the Bishop admits +that he has 'a permanently troubled conscience' in the matter. Then, +with that admirable courage and practicality which is the secret of much +of his influence, he proceeds to indicate four 'lines of hopeful +recovery.' First, the Church must get rid of the administration of poor +relief. Where the charity of the Church is understood to mean the +patronage of the rich, it can do nothing without disaster. All will be +in vain till it has ceased to be a plausible taunt that a man or woman +goes to church for what can be got. Secondly, we must give the artisans +their true place in Church management, and must consult their tastes in +all non-essentials. Thirdly, the clergy should 'concentrate themselves +upon bringing out the social meaning of the sacraments,' and giving +voice to the spirit of Christian brotherhood. Lastly, we ought to free +the clerical profession entirely from any association of class. + +The Bishop is not a Collectivist, but he has great sympathy with some of +the aims of Socialism. In a 'Pan-Anglican Paper' just issued, he +discusses the attitude of the Church towards Socialism. Christianity, he +says, must remain independent of State-Socialism, as of other +organisations of society. Socialism would make a far deeper demand on +character than most of its adherents realise. 'An experiment in +State-Socialism, based on the average level of human character as it +exists at present, would be doomed to disastrous failure.' (Bishop +Creighton said the same thing more epigrammatically. 'Socialism will +only be possible when we are all perfect, and then it will not be +needed.') But what we have is no Socialistic State, but a great body of +aspiration, based on a great demand for justice in human life. The +indictment of our present social organisation is indeed overwhelming, +and with this indictment Christianity ought to have the profoundest +sympathy, for it is substantially the indictment of the Old Testament +prophets. The prophets were on the side of the poor; and so was our +Lord. Where is the prophetic spirit in the Church to-day? We need 'a +tremendous act of penitence.' Our charities have been mere +ambulance-work; but 'the Christian Church was not created to be an +ambulance-corps.' We have followed the old school of political economy +instead of the prophets and Christ. Broadly, we may contrast two ideals +of society: individualism, which means in the long run the right of the +strong; and socialism, which means that the society is supreme over the +individual. 'On the whole, Christianity is with Socialism.' + +This 'Pan-Anglican Paper' is a fair representation of the views which +are spreading rapidly among the High Church clergy. The party is in fact +making a determined effort to enlist the sympathies of the working man +with the Church, by offering him in return its sympathy and countenance +in his struggle against capitalism. This is a phase of the movement +which it is very difficult to judge fairly. Dr. Gore's sermon was +calculated to give any Christian who heard it, whether Conservative or +Liberal, 'a troubled conscience;' and his practical suggestions are as +convincing as any suggestions that are not platitudes are likely to be. +But in weaker hands this sympathy with the cause of Labour is in great +danger of becoming one of the most insidious temptations that can attack +a religious body. The Church of England has been freely accused of too +great complaisance to the powers that be, when those powers were +oligarchic. Some of the clergy are now trying to repeat, rather than +redress, this error, by an obsequious attitude to King Working-man. But +the Church ought to be equally proof against the _vultus instantis +tyranni_ and the _civium ardor prava iubentium_. The position of a +Church which should sell itself to the Labour party would be truly +ignominious. It would be used so long as the politicians of the party +needed moral support and eloquent advocacy, and spurned as soon as its +services were no longer necessary. The taunt of Helen to Aphrodite in +the third book of the 'Iliad' sounds very apposite when we read the +speeches of some clerical 'Christian Socialists,' who find it more +exciting to organise processions of the unemployed than to attend to +their professional duties. + + heso par' ahython hiohysa, thehon d' haphoeike kelehythoy, + med' heti sohisi phodessin hypostrhepseiast 'Holympon, + hall' ahiehi perhi kehinon hohizye kahi he phylasse, + ehist ho khe s' he halochon poihesetai, he ho ge dohylen.[49] + +It is as a slave, not as an honoured help-mate, that the Social +Democrats would treat any Christian body that helped them to overthrow +our present civilisation. And rightly; for Christ's only injunction in +the sphere of economics was, 'Take heed and beware of all covetousness,' +He refused pointedly to have anything to do with disputes about the +distribution of property; and in the parable of the Prodigal Son the +demand, 'Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me,' is the +prelude to a journey in that 'far country' which is forgetfulness of God +(_terra longinqua est oblivio Dei_). Christ unquestionably meant His +followers to think but little of the accessories of life. He believed +that if men could be induced to adopt the true standard of values, +economic relations would adjust themselves. He promised His disciples +that they should not want the necessaries of subsistence, and for the +rest, He held that the freedom from anxiety, covetousness, and envy, +which He enjoined as a duty, would also make their life happy. This is +a very different spirit from that which makes Socialism a force in +politics. + +Bishop Gore, we may be sure, will not willingly allow the High Church +party to be entangled in corrupt alliances. When he handles what may be +called applied Christianity, he does so in a manner which makes us +rejoice at the popularity of his books. The little commentaries on the +Sermon on the Mount, and on the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians, +are admirable. They are simple, practical, and profound. We subjoin a +short analysis of the notes on the first part of the Sermon on the +Mount, as an illustration of the teaching which runs all through the +three commentaries. + + The Sermon on the Mount is not the whole of Christianity. It + is the climax of law, of the letter that killeth. The Divine + requirement is pressed home with unequalled force upon the + conscience; yet not in the form of mere laws of conduct, but + as a type of character. It is promulgated not by an + inaccessible God, but by the Divine Love manifested in + manhood. The hard demand of the letter is closely connected + with the promise of the Spirit. We are told that many of the + precepts in the sermon were anticipated by Pagan and Jewish + writers. But this we might have expected, since all men are + rational and moral through fellowship with the Word, who is + also the Reason of God. Christ is the light which in + conscience and reason lightens every man throughout the + history of the race. But the Sermon is comprehensive where + other summaries are fragmentary, it is pure where they are + mixed. It is teaching for grown men, who require principles, + not rules. And it is authoritative, reinforced by the + mysterious Person of the speaker. The Beatitudes are a + description of character. Christ requires us, not to do such + and such things, but to be such and such people. ... True + blessedness consists in membership of the kingdom of heaven, + which is a life of perfect relationship with man and nature + based on perfect fellowship with God.... The Beatitudes + describe the Christian character in detail; in particular, + they describe it as contrasted with the character of the + world, which, in the religious sense, may be defined as + human society as it organises itself apart from God. The + first Beatitude enjoins detachment, such as His who emptied + Himself, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. We + are all to be detached; there are some whom our Lord + counsels to be literally poor. 'Blessed are they that + mourn' means that we are not to screen ourselves from the + common lot of pain. We must distinguish 'godly sorrow' from + the peevish discontent and slothfulness which St. Paul calls + the sorrow of the world, and which in medieval casuistry is + named acedia. 'Blessed are the meek' means that we are not + to assert ourselves unless it is our duty to do so. The true + Christian is a man who in his private capacity cannot be + provoked. On a general view of life, though not always in + particular cases, we must allow that we are not treated + worse than we deserve. The fourth Beatitude tells us that if + we want righteousness seriously, we can have it. The fifth + proclaims the reward of mercy, that is, compassion in + action. Pity which does nothing is only hypocrisy or + emotional self-indulgence. On the whole, we can determine + men's attitude to us by our attitude to them; the merciful + do obtain mercy. 'Purity of heart' means singleness of + purpose; but in the narrower sense of purity it is worth + while to say that those who profess to find it 'impossible' + to lead a pure life might overcome their fault if they would + try to be Christlike altogether, instead of struggling with + that one fault separately. 'Sincerum est nisi vas, + quodcunque infundis acescit.' On the seventh--there are many + kinds of false peace, which Christ came to break up; but + fierce, relentless competition is an offence in a Christian + nation. The last shows what our reward is likely to be in + this world, if we follow these counsels. Where the + Christ-character is not welcomed, it is hated. + +From the later sections a few characteristic comments may be given in an +abridged form. + + We are apt to have rather free and easy notions of the + Divine fatherhood. To call God our Father, we must ourselves + be sons; and it is only those who are led by the Spirit of + God who are the sons of God.... Ask for great things, and + small things will be given to you. This is exactly the + spirit of the Lord's Prayer.... Act for God. Direct your + thoughts and intentions Godward, and your intelligence and + affections will gradually follow along the line of your + action.... You must put God first, or nowhere.... It is a + perilous error to say that we have only to follow our + conscience; we have to enlighten our conscience and keep it + enlightened.... There is no greater plague of our generation + than the nervous anxiety which characterises all its + efforts. We ought to be reasonably careful, and then go + boldly forward in the peace of God.... Our Lord did not + mean to make of His disciples a new kind of Pharisee. + ....'Judge not,' means, Do not be critical. The condemnation + of one who is always finding fault carries no moral weight. + It is those who have the lowest and vaguest standards of + what is right who are often the most critical in judgment of + other people.... We ought so to limit our desires that what + we want for ourselves we can reasonably expect also for + others.... A man who wants to do his duty must always be + prepared to stand alone.... Christianity is not so much a + statement of the true end or ideal of human life, as a great + spiritual instrument for realising the end. + +These extracts will be sufficient to show what are the characteristics +of these little commentaries. They exhibit extreme honesty of purpose, +fearless acceptance of Christ's teaching honestly interpreted, scorn of +unreality and empty words, and a determination never to allow preaching +to be divorced from practice. No more stimulating Christian teaching has +been given in our generation. + +The valuable treatise on the Holy Communion, called 'The Body of +Christ,' is too theological for detailed discussion in these pages. The +points in which the Roman Church has perverted and degraded the really +Catholic sacramental doctrine are forcibly exposed, and the true nature +of the sacrament is unfolded in a masterly and beautiful manner. + +A study of the whole body of theological writings from the pen of this +remarkable man leaves us with the conviction that he is one of the most +powerful spiritual forces in our generation. It is the more to be +regretted that in certain points he seems to be hampered by false +presuppositions and misled by unattainable ideals. His loyalty to +'Catholic truth,' as understood by the party in the Church to which he +consents to belong, prevents him from understanding where the shoe +really pinches among those of the younger generation who are both +thoughtful and devout. He makes a fetish of the Creeds, documents which +only represent the opinions of a majority at a meeting; and what manner +of meetings Church Councils sometimes were, is known to history. He is +still impressed with the grandeur of the Catholic idea, as embodied in +the Roman Church, and will do nothing to preclude reunion, should a +more enlightened policy ever prevail at the Vatican. But this country +has done with the Roman Empire, in its spiritual as well as its temporal +form. The dimensions of that proud dominion have shrunk with the +expansion of knowledge; new worlds have been opened out, geographical +and mental, which never owned its sway; the _caput orbis_ has become +provincial, and her authority is spurned even within her own borders. +There is no likelihood of the English people ever again accepting +'Catholicism,' if Catholicism is the thing which history calls by that +name. The movement which the Bishop hopes to lead to victory will +remain, as it has been hitherto, a theory of the ministry rather than of +the Church, and its strength will be confined, as it is now, mainly to +clerical circles. + +Catholicism and Protestantism (in so far as they are more than names for +institutionalism and mysticism, which are permanent types) are both +obsolescent phases in the evolution of the Christian religion. 'The time +cometh when neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem shall men +worship the Father.' + +A profound reconstruction is demanded, and for those who have eyes to +see has been already for some time in progress. The new type of +Christianity will be more Christian than the old, because it will be +more moral. A number of unworthy beliefs about God are being tacitly +dropped, and they are so treated because they are unworthy of Him. The +realm of nature is being claimed for Him once more; the distinction +between natural and supernatural is repudiated; we hear less frequent +complaints that God 'does nothing' because He does not assert Himself by +breaking one of His own laws. The divinity of Christ implies--one might +almost say it means--the eternal supremacy of those moral qualities +which He exhibited in their perfection. 'Conversio fit ad Dominum ut +Spiritum,' as Bengel said. The visible or Catholic Church is not the +name of an institution which has the privilege of being governed by +bishops. It is 'dispersed throughout the whole world,' under many +banners and many disguises. Its political reunion is (Plato would say) +an hen mhytho ehyche, and is at present neither to be expected nor +desired. Among those who are by right citizens of the spiritual kingdom, +those only are in danger of exclusion from it who entrench themselves in +a little fort of their own and erect barriers, which may make them their +own prisoners, but which will not hinder the great commonwealth of +seekers after truth from working out modern problems by modern lights, +until the whole of our new and rich inheritance, intellectual, moral, +and aesthetic, shall be brought again under the obedience of Christ. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [24] In 1908. + + [25] Palmer's _Narrative_, p 20. + + [26] _Contemporary Review_, April 1899. + + [27] _The Church and the Ministry_, pp. 9, 10. + + [28] _Ibid_., p. 74. + + [29] _The Church and the Ministry_, p. 110. + + [30] _Ibid_., p. 344. + + [31] _Ibid_., p. 345. + + [32] _Ibid_., p. 348. + + [33] _The Mission of the Church_, p. 32. + + [34] _Church Congress Report_, 1896, p. 143. + + [35] _Ibid_., p. 142. + + [36] _Church Congress Report_, 1903, p. 15. + + [37] _Ibid_., p. 17. + + [38] _The New Theology and the Old Religion_, p. 162. + + [39] _Church Congress Report_, 1903, p. 16. + + [40] _Ibid_. + + [41] _The New Theology and the Old Religion_, p. 163. + + [42] _Dissertations_, pp. 41-49. + + [43] _Church Congress Report_, 1899, p. 63. + + [44] _Church Congress Report_, 1899, pp. 65-67. + + [45] _Ibid_., 1896, pp. 342-346. + + [46] _Epistle to the Ephesians_, pp. 113, 114. + + [47] _Contemporary Review_, April 1899. + + [48] _Ibid_. + + [49] 'Go and sit thou by his side, and depart from the way + of the gods; neither let thy feet ever bear thee back to + Olympus; but still be vexed for his sake and guard him, till + he make thee his wife--or rather his slave.' + + + + +ROMAN CATHOLIC MODERNISM + +(1909) + + +The Liberal movement in the Roman Church is viewed by most Protestants +with much the same mixture of sympathy and misgiving with which +Englishmen regard the ambition of Russian reformers to establish a +constitutional government in their country. Freedom of thought and +freedom of speech are almost always desirable; but how, without a +violent revolution, can they be established in a State which exists only +as a centralised autocracy, held together by authority and obedience? +This sympathy, and these fears, are likely to be strongest in those who +have studied the history of Western Catholicism with most intelligence. +From the Edict of Milan to the Encyclical of Pius X, the evolution which +ended in papal absolutism has proceeded in accordance with what looks +like an inner necessity of growth and decay. The task of predicting the +policy of the Vatican is surely not so difficult as M. Renan suggested, +when he remarked to a friend of the present writer, 'The Church is a +woman; it is impossible to say what she will do next.' For where is the +evidence of caprice in the history of the Roman Church? If any State has +been guided by a fixed policy, which has imposed itself inexorably on +its successive rulers, in spite of the utmost divergences in their +personal characters and aims, that State is the Papacy. + +Beneath all the eddies which have broken the surface, the great stream +has flowed on, and has flowed in one direction. The same logic of events +which transformed the constitutional principate of Augustus into the +sultanate of Diocletian and Valentinian, has brought about a parallel +development in the Church which inherited the traditions, the policy, +and the territorial sphere of the dead Empire. The second World-State +which had its seat on the Seven Hills has followed closely in the +footsteps of the first. It is not too fanciful to trace, as Harnack has +done, the resemblance in detail--Peter and Paul in the place of Romulus +and Remus; the bishops and arch-bishops instead of the proconsuls; the +troops of priests and monks as the legionaries; while the Jesuits are +the Imperial bodyguard, the protectors and sometimes the masters of the +sovereign. One might carry the parallel further by comparing the schism +between the Eastern and Western Churches, and the later defection of +northern Europe, with the disruption of the Roman Empire in the fourth +century; and in the sphere of thought, by comparing the scholastic +philosophy and casuistry with the _Summa_ of Roman law in the +Digest.[50] + +The fundamental principles of such a government are imposed upon it by +necessity. In the first place, progressive centralisation, and the +substitution of a graduated hierarchy for popular government, came about +as inevitably in the Catholic Church as in the Mediterranean Empire of +the Caesars. The primitive colleges of presbyters soon fell under the +rule of the bishops, the bishops under the patriarchs; and then Rome +suffered her first great defeat in losing the Eastern patriarchates, +which she could not subjugate. The truncated Church, no longer +'universal,' found itself obliged to continue the same policy of +centralisation, and with such success that, under Innocent III, the +triumph of the theocracy seemed complete. The Papacy dominated Europe +_de facto_, and claimed to rule the world _de jure_. Boniface VIII, when +the clouds were already gathering, issued the famous Bull 'Unam +sanctam,' in which he said: 'Subesse Romano pontifici omnes humanas +creaturas declaramus, definimus, et pronuntiamus omnino esse de +necessitate salutis.' The claim is logical. A theocracy (when religion +is truly monotheistic)[51] must claim to be universal _de jure_; and its +ruler must be the infallibly inspired and autocratic vicegerent of the +Almighty. He is the rightful lord of the world, whether he gives a +continent to the King of Spain by a stroke of the pen, or whether his +secular jurisdiction is limited by the walls of his palace. In the +fourteenth century the Pope is already called 'dominus deus +noster'--precisely the style in which Martial adulates Domitian. In the +Bull of Pius V (1570) the claim of universal dominion is reiterated; it +is asserted that the Almighty, + + 'cui data est omnis in caelo et in terra potestas, unam + sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam, extra quam + nulla est salus, uni soli in terris, videlicet apostolorum + principi Petro Petrique successori Romano pontifici in + potestatis plenitudine tradidit gubernandam.' + +But the final victory of infallibilism was the achievement of the +nineteenth-century Jesuits, who completed the dogmatic apotheosis of the +Pope at the moment when the last vestiges of his temporal power were +being snatched from him. + +Now a government of this type is always in want of money. The spiritual +Roman Empire was as costly an institution as the court and the +bureaucracy of Diocletian and his successors. The same necessity which +suppressed democracy in the Church drove it to elaborate an oppressive +system of taxation, in which every weakness of human nature was +systematically exploited for gain, and every morsel of divine grace +placed on a tariff. But this method of raising revenue is only possible +while the priests can persuade the people that they really control a +treasury of grace, from which they can make or withhold grants at their +pleasure. It stands or falls with a non-ethical and magical view of the +divine economy which is hardly compatible with a high level of culture +or morality. The Catholic Church has thus been obliged, for purely +fiscal reasons, to discourage secular education, particularly of a +scientific kind, and to keep the people, so far as possible, in the +mental and moral condition most favourable to such transactions as the +purchase of indulgences and the payment of various insurances against +hell and purgatory. + +Another necessity of absolute government is the repression of free +criticism directed against itself. Heresy and schism in an autocratic +Church take the place of treason against the sovereign. Cyprian, in the +third century, had already laid down the principles by which alone the +central authority could be maintained. + + 'Ab arbore frange ramum; fractus germinare non poterit. A + fonte praecide rivum; praecisus arescit.... Quisquis ab + ecclesia separatus adulterae iungitur, a promissis ecclesiae + separatur. Alienus est, hostis est. Habere non potest Deum + patrem, qui ecclesiam non habet matrem.' + +Schismatics are therefore rebels, whose lives are forfeit under the laws +of treason. Heretics are in no better case; for the Church is the only +infallible interpreter both of Scripture and of tradition; and to differ +from her teaching is as disloyal as to secede from her jurisdiction. +Even Augustine could say, 'I should not believe the Gospel, if the +authority of the Church did not determine me to do so'; a statement +which a modern ultra-montane has capped by saying, 'Without the +authority of the Pope, I should not place the Bible higher than the +Koran.' Bellarmine claims an absolute monopoly of inspiration for the +Roman Church on the ground that Rome alone has preserved the apostolic +succession beyond dispute.[52] As for the treatment which heretics +deserve, the same authority is very explicit. + + 'In the first place, heretics do more mischief than any + pirate or brigand, because they slay souls; nay more, they + subvert the foundations of all good and fill the + commonwealth with the disturbances which necessarily follow + religious differences. In the second place, capital + punishment inflicted on them has a good effect on very many + persons. Many whom impunity was making indifferent are + roused by these executions to consider what is the nature of + the heresy which attracts them, and to take care not to end + their earthly lives in misery and lose their future + happiness. Thirdly, it is a kindness to obstinate heretics + to remove them from this life. For the longer they live, the + more errors they devise, the more men they pervert, and the + greater damnation they acquire for themselves.'[53] + +In all matters which are not essential for the safety of the +autocracy, an absolutist Church will consult the average tastes of its +subjects. If the populace are at heart pagan, and hanker after +sensuous ritual, dramatic magic, and a rich mythology, these must be +provided. The 'intellectuals,' being few and weak, may be safely +rebuffed or disregarded until their discoveries are thoroughly +popularised. The pronouncements of the Roman Inquisition in the case +of Galileo are typical. + + 'The theory that the sun is in the centre of the world, and + stationary, is absurd, false in philosophy, and formally + heretical, because it is contrary to the express language of + Holy Scripture. The theory that the earth is not the centre + of the world, nor stationary, but that it moves with a daily + motion, is also absurd and false in philosophy, and, + theologically considered, it is, to say the least, erroneous + in faith.' + +The exigencies of despotic government thus supply the key to the whole +policy and history of the Papacy. 'The worst form of State' can only be +bolstered up by the worst form of government. There should therefore be +no difficulty in distinguishing between the official policy of the Roman +See--which has been almost uniformly odious--and the history of the +Christian religion in the Latin countries, which has added new lustre to +human nature. The Catholic saints did not fly through the air, nor were +their hearts pierced with supernatural darts, as the mendacious +hagiology of their Church would have us believe; but they have a better +title to be remembered by mankind, as the best examples of a beautiful +and precious kind of human excellence. + +The papal autocracy has now reached its Byzantine period of decadence. +During the Middle Ages Catholicism suited the Latin races very well on +the whole. Their ancestral paganism was allowed to remain substantially +unchanged--the _nomina_, but not the _numina_ were altered; their awe +and reverence for the _caput orbis_, ingrained in the populations of +Europe by the history of a thousand years, made submission to Rome +natural and easy; a host of myths 'abounding in points of attachment to +human experience and in genial interpretations of life, yet lifted +beyond visible nature and filling a reported world believed in on +faith,'[54] adorned religion with an artistic and poetical embroidery +very congenial to the nations of the South. But a monarchy essentially +Oriental in its constitution is unsuited to modern Europe. Its whole +scheme is based on keeping the laity in contented ignorance and +subservience; and the laity have emancipated themselves The Teutonic +nations broke the yoke as soon as they attained a national +self-consciousness. They escaped from a system which had educated, but +never suited them. Nor has the shrinkage been merely territorial. The +Pyrrhic victories over Gallicanism, Jansenism, Catholic democracy +(Lamennais), historical theology (Doellinger and the Old Catholics), each +alienated a section of thinking men in the Catholic countries. The Roman +Church can no longer be called Catholic, except in the sense in which +the kingdom of Francis II remained the Holy Roman Empire. It is an +exclusive sect, which preserves much more political power than its +numbers entitle it to exert, by means of its excellent discipline, and +by the sinister policy of fomenting political disaffection. Examples of +this last are furnished by the contemporary history of Ireland, of +France, and of Poland. + +These considerations are of primary importance when we try to answer the +questions: To what extent is the Roman Church fettered by her own past? +Is there any insuperable obstacle to a modification of policy which +might give her a new lease of life? We have seen how much importance is +attached to the Church's title-deeds. Is tradition a fatal obstacle to +reform? Theoretically, the tradition which she traces back to the +apostles gives her a fixed constitution. So the Catholic Church has +always maintained. 'Regula quidem fidei una omnino est, sola immobilis +et irreformabilis.'[55] The rule of faith may be better understood by a +later age than an earlier, but there can be no additions, only a sort of +unpacking of a treasure which was given whole and entire in the first +century. In reality, of course, there has been a steady evolution in +conformity to type, the type being not the 'little flock' of Christ or +the Church of the Apostles, but the absolute monarchy above described. +It has long been the _crux_ of Catholic apologetics to reconcile the +theoretical immobility of dogma with the actual facts. + +The older method was to rewrite history. It was convenient, for example, +to forget that Pope Honorius I had been anathematised by three +ecumenical councils. The forged Decretals gave a more positive sanction +to absolutist claims; and interpolations in the Greek Fathers deceived +St. Thomas Aquinas into giving his powerful authority to infallibilism. +This method cannot be called obsolete, for the present Pope recently +informed the faithful that 'the Hebrew patriarchs were familiar with the +doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and found consolation in the +thought of Mary in the solemn moments of their life.'[56] But such +simple devices are hardly practicable in an age when history is +scientifically studied. Moreover, other considerations, besides +controversial straits, have suggested a new theory of tradition. A Caesar +who, like the kings of the Medes and Persians, is bound by the laws of +his predecessors, is not absolute. Acceptance of the theory of +development in dogma would relieve the Pope from the weight of the dead +hand. + +The new apologetic is generally said to have been inaugurated by +Cardinal Newman. His work 'The Development of Christian Doctrine,' is +no doubt an epoch-making book, though the idea of tradition as the +product of the living spirit of a religious society, preserving its +moral identity while expressing itself, from time to time, in new forms, +was already familiar to readers of Schleiermacher. Newman gives us +several 'tests' of true development. These are--preservation of type; +continuity of principles; power of assimilation; logical sequence; +anticipation of results; tendency to conserve the old; chronic vigour. +These tests, he considered, differentiate the Roman Church from all +other Christian bodies, and prove its superiority. The Church has its +own genius, which yes and works in it. This is indeed the Holy Spirit of +God, promised by Jesus Christ. Through the operation of this spirit, old +things become new, and fresh light is shed from the sacred pages of +Scripture. Catholic tradition is, in fact, the glorified but +ever-present Christ Himself, reincarnating Himself, generation after +generation, in the historical Church. It is unnecessary to enquire +whether there is apostolic authority for every new dogma, for the Church +is the mouthpiece of the living Christ. + +This theory marks, on one side, the complete and final apotheosis of the +Pope and the hierarchy, who are thereby made independent even of the +past history of the Church. Pius IX was not slow to realise that the +only court of appeal against his decisions was closed in 1870. 'La +tradizione sono io,' he said, in the manner of Louis XIV. The Pope is +henceforth not the interpreter of a closed cycle of tradition, but the +pilot who guides its course always in the direction of the truth. This +is to destroy the old doctrine of tradition. The Church becomes the +source of revelation instead of its custodian. On the other side, it is +a perilous concession to modern ideas. There is an obvious danger that, +as the result of this doctrine, the dogmas of the Church may seem to +have only a relative and provisional truth; for, if each pronouncement +were absolutely true, there would be no real development, and the +appearance of it in history would become inexplicable. + +This new and, in appearance, more liberal attitude towards modern ideas +of progress has raised the hopes of many in the Roman Church whose +minds and consciences are troubled by the ever-widening chasm which +separates traditional dogma from secular knowledge. While dogma was +stationary--_immobilis et irreformabilis_--there seemed to be no +prospect except that the progress of human knowledge would leave +theology further and further behind, till the rupture between +Catholicism and civilisation became absolute. The idea that the Church +would ever modify her teaching to bring it into harmony with modern +science seemed utterly chimerical. But if the static theory of +revelation is abandoned, and a dynamic theory substituted for it; if the +divine part of Christianity resides, not in the theoretical formulations +of revealed fact, but in the living and energising spirit of the Church; +why should not dogmatic theology become elastic, changing periodically +in correspondence with the development of human knowledge, and no longer +stand in irreconcilable contradiction with the ascertained laws of +nature? + +Thus the dethronement of tradition by the Pope contributed to make the +Modernist movement possible. The Modernists have even claimed Newman as +on their side. This appeal cannot be sustained. 'The Development of +Christian Doctrine' is mainly a polemic against the high Anglican +position, and an answer to attacks upon Roman Catholicism from this +side. Anglicanism at that time had committed itself to a thoroughly +stationary view of revelation. Its 'appeal to antiquity'--a period +which, in accordance with a convenient theory, it limited to the +councils of the 'undivided Church'--was intended to prove the +catholicity and orthodoxy of the English Church, as the faithful +guardian of apostolic tradition, and to condemn the medieval and modern +accretions sanctioned by the Church of Rome. The earlier theory of +tradition left the Roman Church open to damaging criticism on this side; +no ingenuity could prove that all her doctrines were 'primitive.' Even +in those early days of historical criticism, it must have been plain to +any candid student of Christian 'origins' that the Pauline Churches were +far more Protestant than Catholic in type. But Newman had set himself to +prove that 'the Christianity of history is not Protestantism; if ever +there were a safe truth, it is this,' Accordingly, he argues that +'Christianity came into the world as an idea rather than an institution, +and had to fit itself with armour of its own providing.' Such +expressions sound very like the arguments of the Modernists; but Newman +assuredly never contemplated that they would be turned against the +policy of his own Church, in the interests of the critical rationalism +which he abhorred. His attitude towards dogma is after all not very +different from that of the older school. 'Time was needed' (he says) +'for the elucidation of doctrines communicated once for all through +inspired persons'; his examples are purgatory and the papal supremacy. +He insists that his 'tests' of true development are only controversial, +'instruments rather than warrants of right decisions.' The only real +'warrant' is the authority of the infallible Church. It is highly +significant that one of the features in Roman Catholicism to which he +appeals as proving its unblemished descent from antiquity is its +exclusiveness and intolerance. + + 'The Fathers (he says complacently) anathematised doctrines, + not because they were old, but because they were new; for + the very characteristic of heresy is novelty and originality + of manifestation. Such was the exclusiveness of the + Christianity of old. I need not insist on the steadiness + with which that principle has been maintained ever since.' + +The Cardinal is right; it is quite unnecessary to insist upon it; but, +when the Modernists claim Newman as their prophet, it is fair to reply +that, if we may judge from his writings, he would gladly have sent some +of them to the stake. + +The Modernist movement, properly so called, belongs to the last twenty +years, and most of the literature dates from the present century. It +began in the region of ecclesiastical history, and soon passed to +biblical exegesis, where the new heresy was at first called +'concessionism,' The scope of the debate was enlarged with the stir +produced by Loisy's 'L'Evangile et l'Eglise' and 'Autour d'un Petit +Livre'; it spread over the field of Christian origins generally, and +problems connected with them, such as the growth of ecclesiastical power +and the evolution of dogma. For a few years the orthodox in France +generally spoke of the new tendency as _loisysme_. It was not till 1905 +that Edouard Le Roy published his 'Qu'est-ce qu'un dogme?' which carried +the discussion into the domain of pure philosophy, though the studies of +Blondel and Laberthonniere in the psychology of religion may be said to +involve a metaphysic closely resembling that of Le Roy. Mr. Tyrrell's +able works have a very similar philosophical basis, which is also +assumed by the group of Italian priests who have remonstrated with the +Pope.[57] M. Loisy protests against the classification made in the papal +Encyclical which connects biblical critics, metaphysicians, +psychologists, and Church reformers, as if they were all partners in the +same enterprise. But in reality the same presuppositions, the same +philosophical principles, are found in all the writers named; and the +differences which may easily be detected in their writings are +comparatively superficial. The movement appears to be strongest in +France, where the policy of the Vatican has been uniformly unfortunate +of recent years, and has brought many humiliations upon French +Catholics. Italy has also been moved, though from slightly different +causes. In the protests from that country we find a tone of disgust at +the constitution of the Roman hierarchy and the character of the papal +_entourage_, about which Italians are in a position to know more than +other Catholics. Catholic Germany has been almost silent; and Mr. +Tyrrell is the only Englishman whose name has come prominently forward. + +It will be convenient to consider the position of the Modernists under +three heads: their attitude towards New Testament criticism, especially +in relation to the life of Christ; their philosophy; and their position +in the Roman Catholic Church. + +The Modernists themselves desire, for the most part, that criticism +rather than philosophy should be regarded as the starting-point of the +movement. 'So far from our philosophy dictating our critical method, it +is the critical method that has of its own accord forced us to a very +tentative and uncertain formulation of various philosophical +conclusions.... This independence of our criticism is evident in many +ways.'[58] The writers of this manifesto, and M. Loisy himself, appear +not to perceive that their critical position rests on certain very +important philosophical presuppositions; nor indeed is any criticism of +religious origins possible without presuppositions which involve +metaphysics. The results of their critical studies, as bearing on the +life of Christ, we shall proceed to summarise, departing as little as +possible from the actual language of the writers, and giving references +in all cases. It must, however, be remembered that some of the group, +such as Mr. Tyrrell, have not committed themselves to the more extreme +critical views, while others, such as the Abbe Laberthonniere, the most +brilliant and attractive writer of them all, hold a moderate position on +the historical side. It is perhaps significant that those who are +specialists in biblical criticism are the most radical members of the +school. + +The Gospels, says M. Loisy, are for Christianity what the Pentateuch is +for Judaism. Like the Pentateuch, they are a patchwork and a compound of +history and legend. The differences between them amount in many cases to +unmistakable contradictions. In Mark the life of Jesus follows a +progressive development. The first to infer His Messiahship is Simon +Peter at Caesarea Philippi; and Jesus Himself first declares it openly in +His trial before the Sanhedrin. In Matthew and Luke, on the contrary, +Jesus is presented to the public as the Son of God from the beginning of +His ministry; He comes forward at once as the supreme Lawgiver, the +Judge, the anointed of God. The Fourth Gospel goes much further still. +His heavenly origin, His priority to the world, His co-operation in the +work of creation and salvation, are ideas which are foreign to the other +Gospels, but which the author of the Fourth Gospel has set forth in his +prologue, and, in part, put into the mouth of John the Baptist.[59] The +difference between the Christ of the Synoptic Gospels and the Christ of +John may be summed up by saying that 'the Christ of the Synoptics is +historical, but is not God; the Johannine Christ is divine, but not +historical.'[60] But even Mark (according to M. Loisy) probably only +incorporates the document of an eye-witness; his Gospel betrays Pauline +influence.[61] The Gospel which bears his name is later than the +destruction of Jerusalem, and was issued, probably about A.D. 75, by an +unknown Christian, not a native of Palestine, who wished to write a book +of evangelical instruction in conformity with the ideas of the +Hellenic-Christian community to which he belonged.[62] The tradition +connecting it with Peter may indicate that it was composed at Rome, but +has no other historical value.[63] + +The Gospel of Matthew was probably written about the beginning of the +second century by a non-Palestinian Jew residing in Asia Minor or Syria. +He is before all things a Catholic ecclesiastic, and may well have been +one of the presbyters or bishops of the churches in which the +institution of a monarchical episcopate took root.[64] The narratives +peculiar to Matthew have the character rather of legendary developments +than of genuine reminiscences. The historical value of these additions +is _nil_. As a witness to fact, Matthew ranks below Mark, and even below +Luke.[65] In particular, the chapters about the birth of Christ seem not +to have the slightest historical foundation. The fictitious character of +the genealogy is proved by the fact that Jesus seems not to have known +of His descent [from David]. The story of the virgin birth turns on a +text from Isaiah. Of this part of the Gospel, Loisy says, 'rien n'est +plus arbitraire comme exegese, ni plus faible comme narration +fictive.'[66] Luke has taken more pains to compose a literary treatise +than Mark or Matthew. The authorities which he follows seem to be--the +source of our Mark, the so-called Matthew _logia_, and some other source +or sources. But he treats his material more freely than Matthew. 'The +lament of Christ over the holy city, His words to the women of +Jerusalem, His prayer for His executioners, His promise to the penitent +thief, His last words, are very touching traits, which may be in +conformity with the spirit of Jesus, but which have no traditional +basis.'[67] 'The fictitious character of the narratives of the infancy +is less apparent in the Third Gospel than in the First, because the +stories are much better constructed as legend, and do not resemble a +_midrash_ upon Messianic prophecies. "Le merveilleux en est moins banal +et moins enfantin. II parait cependant impossible de leur reconnaitre +une plus grande valeur de fond."'[68] + +The Gospel of Luke was probably written (not by a disciple of St. Paul) +between 90 and 100 A.D.; but the earliest redaction, which traced the +descent of Jesus from David through Joseph, has been interpolated in the +interests of the later idea of a virgin birth. The first two chapters +are interesting for the history of Christian beliefs, not for the +history of Christ. As for the Fourth Gospel, it is enough to say that +the author had nothing to do with the son of Zebedee, and that he is in +no sense a biographer of Christ, but the first and greatest of the +Christian mystics.[69] + +The result of this drastic treatment of the sources may be realised by +perusing chapter vii of Loisy's 'Les Evangiles Synoptiques,' The +following is a brief analysis of this chapter, entitled 'La Carriere de +Jesus.' Jesus was born at Nazareth about four years before the Christian +era. His family were certainly pious, but none of His relatives seems to +have accepted the Gospel during His lifetime. Like many others, the +young Jesus was attracted by the terrifying preaching of John the +Baptist, from whom He received Baptism. When John was imprisoned He at +once attempted to take his place. He began to preach round the lake of +Galilee, and was compelled by the persistent demands of the crowd to +'work miracles.' This mission only lasted a few months; but it was long +enough for Jesus to enrol twelve auxiliaries, who prepared the villages +of Galilee for His coming, travelling two and two through the north of +Palestine. Jesus found His audience rather among the _declasses_ of +Judaism than among the Puritans. The staple of His teaching was the +advent of the 'kingdom of God'--the sudden and speedy coming of the +promised Messiah. This teaching was acceptable neither to Herod Antipas +nor to the Pharisees; and their hostility obliged Jesus to fly for a +short time to the Phoenician territory north of Galilee. But a +conference between the Master and His disciples at Caesarea Philippi +ended in a determination to visit the capital and there proclaim Jesus +as the promised Messiah. As they approached Jerusalem, even the ignorant +disciples were frightened at the risks they were running, but Jesus +calmed their fears by promising that they should soon be set on twelve +thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 'Jesus n'allait pas a +Jerusalem pour y mourir.'[70] + +The doomed prophet made his public entry into Jerusalem as Messiah, and, +as a first act of authority, cleared the temple courts by an act of +violence, in which He was doubtless assisted by His disciples. For some +days after this He preached daily about the coming of the kingdom, and +foiled with great dexterity the traps which His enemies laid for Him. +'But the situation could only end in a miracle or a catastrophe, and it +was the catastrophe which happened.'[71] Jesus was arrested, after a +brief scuffle between the satellites of the High Priest and the +disciples; and the latter, without waiting to see the end, fled +northwards towards their homes. When brought before Pilate, Jesus +probably answered 'Yes' to the question whether He claimed to be a king; +but 'la parole du Christ johannique, Mon royaume n'est pas de ce monde, +n'aurait jamais pu etre dite par le Christ d'histoire.' This confession +led naturally to His immediate execution; after which + + 'on peut supposer que les soldats detacherent le corps de la + croix avant le soir et le mirent dans quelque fosse commune, + ou l'on jetait pele-mele les restes des supplicies. Les + conditions de sepulture furent telles qu'au bout de quelques + jours il aurait ete impossible de reconnaitre la depouille + du Sauveur, quand meme on l'aurait cherchee.'[72] + +The disciples, however, had been too profoundly stirred by hope to +accept defeat. None of them had seen Jesus die; and though they knew +that He was dead, they hardly realised it. Besides, they were +fellow-countrymen of those who had asked whether Jesus was not Elijah, +or even John the Baptist, come to life again. What more natural than +that Peter should see the Master one day while fishing on the lake? 'The +impulse once given, this belief grew by the very need which it had to +strengthen itself.' Christ 'appeared also to the eleven,' So it was that +their faith brought them back to Jerusalem, and Christianity was born. + +'The supernatural life of Christ in the faithful and in the Church has +been clothed in an historical form, which has given birth to what we +might somewhat loosely call the Christ of legend.' So the Italian +manifesto sums up the result of this reconstruction or denudation of the +Gospel history.[73] 'Such a criticism,' say the authors not less frankly +than truly, 'does away with the possibility of finding in Christ's +teaching even the embryonic form of the Church's later theological +teaching.'[74] + +Readers unfamiliar with Modernist literature will probably have read the +foregoing extracts with utter amazement. It seems hardly credible that +such views should be propounded by Catholic priests, who claim to remain +in the Catholic Church, to repeat her creeds, minister at her altars, +and share her faith. What more, it may well be asked, have rationalist +opponents of Christianity ever said, in their efforts to tear up the +Christian religion by the roots, than we find here admitted by Catholic +apologists? What is left of the object of the Church's worship if the +Christ of history was but an enthusiastic Jewish peasant whose pathetic +ignorance of the forces opposed to Him led Him to the absurd enterprise +of attempting a _coup d'etat_ at Jerusalem? Is not Jesus reduced by this +criticism to the same level as Theudas or Judas of Galilee? and, if this +is the true account, what sentiment can we feel, when we read His tragic +story, but compassion tinged with contempt? + +And on what principles are such liberties taken with our authorities? +What is the criterion by which it is decided that Christ said, 'I am a +king,' but not 'My kingdom is not of this world'? Why must the +resurrection have been only a subjective hallucination in the minds of +the disciples? To these questions there is a plain answer. The +non-intervention of God in history is an axiom with the Modernists. +'L'historien,' says M. Loisy, 'n'a pas a s'inspirer de l'agnosticisme +pour ecarter Dieu de l'histoire; il ne l'y rencontre jamais.'[75] It +would be more accurate to say that, whenever the meeting takes place, +'the historian' gives the Other the cut direct. + +But now comes in the peculiar philosophy by which the Modernists claim +to rehabilitate themselves as loyal and orthodox Catholics, and to turn +the flank of the rationalist position, which they have seemed to occupy +themselves. The reaction against Absolutism in philosophy has long since +established itself in Germany and France. In England and Scotland the +battle still rages; in America the rebound has been so violent that an +extreme form of anti-intellectualism is now the dominant fashion in +philosophy. It would have been easy to predict--and in fact the +prediction was made--that the new world-construction in terms of will +and action, which disparages speculative or theoretical truth and gives +the primacy to what Kant called the practical reason, would be eagerly +welcomed by Christian apologists, hard-pressed by the discoveries of +science and biblical criticism. Protestants, in fact, had recourse to +this method of apologetic before the Modernist movement arose. The +Ritschlian theology in Germany (in spite of its 'static' view of +revelation), and the _Symbolo-fideisme_ of Sabatier and Menegoz, have +many affinities with the position of Tyrrell, Laberthonniere, and Le +Roy. + +It is exceedingly difficult to compress into a few pages a fair and +intelligible statement of a _Weltansicht_ which affects the whole +conception of reality, and which has many ramifications. There is an +additional difficulty in the fact that few of the Modernists are more +than amateurs in philosophy. They are quick to see the strategic +possibilities of a theory which separates faith and knowledge, and +declares that truths of faith can never come into collision with truths +of fact, because they 'belong to different orders.' It suits them to +follow the pragmatists in talking about 'freely chosen beliefs,' and +'voluntary certainty '; Mr. Tyrrell even maintains that 'the great mass +of our beliefs are reversible, and depend for their stability on the +action or permission of the will.' But philosophy is for them mainly a +controversial weapon. It gives them the means of justifying their +position as Catholics who wish to remain loyal to their Church and her +formularies, but no longer believe in the miracles which the Church has +always regarded as matters of fact. Nevertheless, an attempt must be +made to explain a point of view which, to the plain man, is very strange +and unfamiliar. + +Two words are constantly in the mouth of Modernist controversialists in +speaking of their opponents. The adherents of the traditional theology +are 'intellectualists,' and their conception of reality is 'static.' The +meaning of the latter charge may perhaps be best explained from +Laberthonniere's brilliantly written essay, 'Le Realisme Chretien et +l'Idealisme Grec.' The Greeks, he says, were insatiable in their desire +to _see_, like children. Blessedness, for them, consisted in a complete +vision of reality; and, since thought is the highest kind of vision, +salvation was conceived of by them as the unbroken contemplation of the +perfectly true, good, and beautiful. Hence arose the philosophy of +'concepts'; they idealised nature by considering it _sub specie +aeternitatis_. Reality resided in the unchanging ideas; the mutable, the +particular, the individual was for them an embarrassment, a 'scandal of +thought.' The sage always tries to escape from the moving world of +becoming into the static world of being. But an ideal world, so +conceived, can only be an abstraction, an impoverishment of reality. +Such an idealism gives us neither a science of origins nor a science of +ends. Greek wisdom sought eternity and forgot time; it sought that which +never dies, and found that which never lives. + + 'An abstract doctrine, like that of Greek philosophy or of + Spinoza, consists always in substituting for reality, by + simplification, ideas or concepts which they think + statically in their logical relations, regarding them at the + same time as adequate representations and as essences + immovably defined.'[76] + +Hellenised Christianity, proceeds our critic, regarded the incarnation +statically, as a fact in past history. But the real Christ is an object +of faith. 'He introduces into us the principles of that which we ought +to be. That which He reveals, He makes in revealing it.' In other words, +Christ, and the God whom He reveals, are a power or force rather than a +fact. 'A God who has nothing to become has nothing to do.' God is not +the idea of ideas, but the being of beings and the life of our life. He +is not a supreme notion, but a supreme life and an immanent action. He +is not the 'unmoved mover,' but He is in the movement itself as its +principle and end. While the Greeks conceived the world _sub specie +aeternitatis_, God is conceived by modern thought _sub specie temporis_. +God's eternity is not a sort of arrested time in which there is no more +life; it is, on the contrary, the maximum of life. + +It is plain that we have here a one-sided emphasis on the dynamic aspect +of reality no less fatal to sound philosophy than the exclusively static +view which has been falsely attributed to the Greeks. A little clear +thinking ought to be enough to convince anyone that the two aspects of +reality which the Greeks called sthasist and khinesist are correlative +and necessary to each other. A God who is merely the principle of +movement and change is an absurdity. Time is always hurling its own +products into nothingness. Unless there is a being who can say, 'I am +the Lord, I change not,' the 'sons of Jacob' cannot flatter themselves +that they are 'not consumed.'[77] But Laberthonniere and his friends are +not much concerned with the ultimate problems of metaphysics; what they +desire is to shake themselves free from 'brute facts' in the past, to be +at liberty to deny them as facts, while retaining them as representative +ideas of faith. If reality is defined to consist only in life and +action, it is a meaningless abstraction to snip off a moment in the +process, and ask, 'Did it ever really take place?' This awkward question +may therefore be ignored as meaningless and irrelevant, except from the +'abstract' standpoint of physical science. + +The crusade against 'intellectualism' serves the same end. M. Le Roy and +the other Christian pragmatists have returned to the Nominalism of Duns +Scotus. The following words of Frassen, one of Scotus' disciples, might +serve as a motto for the whole school: + + 'Theologia nostra non est scientia. Nullatenus speculativa + est, sed simpliciter practica. Theologiae obiectum non est + speculabile, sed operabile. Quidquid in Deo est practicum + est respectu nostri.' + +M. Le Roy also seems to know only these two categories. Whatever is not +'practical'--having an immediate and obvious bearing on conduct--is +stigmatised as 'theoretical' or 'speculative.' But the whole field of +scientific study lies outside this classification, which pretends to be +exhaustive. Science has no 'practical' aim, in the narrow sense of that +which may serve as a guide to moral action; nor does it deal with +'theoretical' or 'speculative' ideas, except provisionally, until they +can be verified. The aim of science is to determine the laws which +prevail in the physical universe; and its motive is that purely +disinterested curiosity which is such an embarrassing phenomenon to +pragmatists. And since the faith which lies behind natural science is at +least as strong as any other faith now active in the world, it is +useless to frame categories in such a way as to exclude the question, +'Did this or that occurrence, which is presented as an event in the +physical order, actually happen, or not?' The question has a very +definite meaning for the man of science, as it has for the man in the +street. To call it 'theoretical' is ridiculous. + +What M. Le Roy means by 'interpreting dogmas in the language of +practical action' may be gathered from his own illustrations. The dogma, +'God is our Father,' does not define a 'theoretical relation' between +Him and us. It signifies that we are to behave to Him as sons behave to +their father. 'God is personal' means that we are to behave to Him as if +He were a human person. 'Jesus is risen' means that we are to think of +Him as if He were our contemporary. The dogma of the Real Presence means +that we ought to have, in the presence of the consecrated Host, the same +feelings which we should have had in the presence of the visible Christ. +'Let the dogmas be interpreted in this way, and no one will dispute +them.'[78] + +The same treatment of dogma is advocated in Mr. Tyrrell's very able book +'Lex Orandi.' The test of truth for a dogma is not its correspondence +with phenomenal fact, but its 'prayer-value.' This writer, at any rate +before his suspension by the Society of Jesus, to which he belonged, is +less subversive in his treatment of history than the French critics whom +we have quoted. Although in apologetics the criterion for the acceptance +of dogmas must, he thinks, be a moral and practical one, he sometimes +speaks as if the 'prayer-value' of an ostensibly historical proposition +carried with it the necessity of its truth as matter of fact. + + 'Between the inward and the outward, the world of reality + and the world of appearances, the relation is not merely one + of symbolic correspondence. The distinction that is demanded + by the dualism of our mind implies and presupposes a causal + and dynamic unity of the two. We should look upon the + outward world as being an effectual symbol of the inward, in + consequence of its natural and causal connection + therewith.'[79] + +But Mr. Tyrrell does not seem to mean all that these sentences might +imply. He speaks repeatedly, in the 'Lex Orandi,' of the 'will-world' as +the only real world. + + 'The will (he says) cannot make that true which in itself is + not true. But it can make that a fact relatively to our mind + and action which is not a fact relative to our + understanding.... It rests with each of us by an act of will + to create the sort of world to which we shall accommodate + our thought and action. ....It does not follow that harmony + of faith with the truths of reason and facts of experience + is the best or essential condition of its credibility.... + Abstractions (he refers to the world as known to science) + are simple only because they are barren forms created by the + mind itself. Faith and doubt have a common element in the + deep sense of the insufficiency of the human mind to grasp + ultimate truths.... The world given to our outward senses is + shadowy and dreamy, except so far as we ascribe to it some + of the characteristics of will and spirit.... The world of + appearance is simply subordinate to the real world of our + will and affections.' + +Because the 'abstract' sciences cannot and do not attempt to reach +ultimate truth, it is assumed that they are altogether 'barren forms,' +This is the error of much Oriental mysticism, which denies all value to +what it regards as the lower categories. In his later writings Mr. +Tyrrell objects to being classed with the American and English +pragmatists--the school of Mr. William James. But the doctrine of these +passages is ultra-pragmatist. The will, which is illegitimately +stretched to include feeling,[80] is treated as the creator as well as +the discerner of reality. The 'world of appearance' is plastic in its +grasp. It is this metaphysical pragmatism which is really serviceable to +Modernism. If the categories of the understanding can be so disparaged +as to be allowed no independent truth, value, or importance, all +collisions between faith and fact may be avoided by discrediting in +advance any conclusions at which science may arrive. Assertions about +'brute fact' which are scientifically false may thus not be untrue when +taken out of the scientific plane, because outside that plane they are +harmless word-pictures, soap-bubbles blown off by the poetical +creativeness of faith Any assertion about fact which commends itself to +the will and affections and which is proved by experience to furnish +nutriment to the spiritual life, may be adhered to without scruple. It +is not only useful, but true, in the only sense in which truth can be +predicated of anything in the higher sphere. + +The obvious criticism on this notion of religious truth as purely moral +and practical is that it is itself abstract and one-sided. The universe +as it appears to discursive thought, with its vast system of seemingly +uniform laws, which operate without much consideration for our wishes or +feelings, must be at least an image of the real universe. We cannot +accept the irreconcilable dualism between the will-world and the world +of phenomena which the philosophical Modernists assume. The dualism, or +rather the contradiction, is not in the nature of things, nor in the +constitution of our minds, but in the consciousness of the unhappy men +who are trying to combine two wholly incompatible theories. On the +critical side they are pure rationalists, much as they dislike the name. +They claim, as we have seen, to have advanced to philosophy through +criticism. But the Modernist critics start with very well-defined +presuppositions. They ridicule the notion that 'God is a personage in +history'; they assume that for the historian 'He cannot be found +anywhere'; that He is as though He did not exist. On the strength of +this presupposition, and for no other reason, they proceed to rule out, +without further investigation, all alleged instances of divine +intervention in history. Unhampered by any of the misgivings which +predispose the ordinary believer to conservatism, they follow the +rationalist argument to its logical conclusions with startling +ruthlessness. And then, when the whole edifice of historical religion +seems to have been overthrown to the very foundations, they turn round +suddenly and say that all their critical labours mean nothing for faith, +and that we may go on repeating the old formulas as if nothing had +happened. The Modernists pour scorn on the scholastic +'faculty-psychology,' which resolves human personality into a syndicate +of partially independent agents; but, in truth, their attempt to blow +hot and cold with the same mouth seems to have involved them in a more +disastrous self-disruption than has been witnessed in the history of +thought since the fall of the Nominalists. In a sceptical and +disillusioned age their disparagement of 'intellectualism' or rather of +discursive thought in all its operations, might find a response. But in +the twentieth century the science which, as critics, they follow so +unswervingly will not submit to be bowed out of the room as soon as +matters of faith come into question. Our contemporaries believe that +matters of fact are important, and they insist, with ever-increasing +emphasis, that they shall not be called upon to believe, as part of +their religious faith, anything which as a matter of fact, is not true. +The Modernist critic, when pressed on this side, says that it is natural +for faith to represent its ideas in the form of historical facts, and +that it is this inevitable tendency which causes the difficulties +between religion and science. A sane criticism will allow that this is +very largely true, but will not, we are convinced, be constrained to +believe with M. Loisy that the historical original of the Christian +Redeemer was the poor deluded enthusiast whom he portrays in 'Les +Evangiles Synoptiques.' + +However this may be--and it must remain a matter of opinion--the very +serious question arises, whether it is really natural for faith to +represent its ideas in the form of historical facts when it knows that +these facts have no historical basis. The writers with whom we are +dealing evidently think it is natural and inevitable, and we must assume +that they speak from their own spiritual experience. But this state of +mind does not seem to be a very common one. Those who believe in the +divinity of Christ, but not in His supernatural birth and bodily +resurrection, do not, as a rule, make those miracles the subject of +their meditations, but find their spiritual sustenance in communion with +the 'Christ who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Those who +regard Jesus only as a prophet sent by God to reveal the Father, +generally pray only to the God whom He revealed, and cherish the memory +of Jesus with no other feelings than supreme gratitude and veneration. +Those, lastly, who worship in God only the Great Unknown who makes for +righteousness, find myths and anthropomorphic symbols merely disturbing +in such devotions as they are still able to practise. In dealing with +convinced Voluntarists it is perhaps not disrespectful to suggest that +the difficult position in which they find themselves has produced a +peculiar activity of the will, such as is seldom found under normal +conditions. + +We pass to the position of the Modernists in the Roman Catholic Church. +It is well known that the advisers of Pius X have committed the Papacy +to a wholesale condemnation of the new movement. The reasons for this +condemnation are thus summed up by a distinguished ecclesiastic of that +Church[81]: + + 'Why has the Pope condemned the Modernists? (1) Because the + Modernists have denied that the divine facts related in the + Gospel are historically true. (2) Because they have denied + that Christ for most of His life knew that He was God, and + that He ever knew that He was the Saviour of the world. (3) + Because they have denied the divine sanction and the + perpetuity of the great dogmas which enter into the + Christian creed. (4) Because they have denied that Christ + Himself personally ever founded the Church or instituted the + Sacraments. (5) Because they deny and subvert the divine + constitution of the Church, by teaching that the Pope and + the bishops derive their powers, not directly from Christ + and His Apostles, but from the Christian people.' + + +The official condemnation is contained in two documents--the decree of +the Holy Inquisition, 'Lamentabili sane exitu,' July 3, 1907, and the +Encyclical, 'Pascendi dominici gregis,' September 8, 1907. These +pronouncements are intended for Catholics; and their tone is that of +authoritative denunciation rather than of argument. In the main, the +summary which they give of Modernist doctrines is as fair as could be +expected from a judge who is passing sentence; but the papal theologians +have not always resisted the temptation to arouse prejudice by +misrepresenting the views which they condemn. We have not space to +analyse these documents, nor is it necessary to do so. It will be more +to the purpose to consider whether, in spite of their official +condemnation, the Modernists are likely in the future to make good their +footing in the Roman Church. + +Even before the Encyclical the Modernists had used very bold language +about the authority of the Church. + + 'The visible Church (writes Mr. Tyrrell in his "Much-abused + Letter") is but a means, a way, a creature, to be used where + it helps, to be left where it hinders.... Who have taught us + that the consensus of theologians cannot err, but the + theologians themselves? Mortal, fallible, ignorant men like + ourselves! ... Their present domination is but a passing + episode in the Church's history.... May not history repeat + itself? [as in the transition from Judaism to Christianity]. + Is God's arm shortened that He should not again out of the + very stones raise up seed to Abraham? May not Catholicism, + like Judaism, have to die in order that it may live again in + a greater and grander form? Has not every organism got its + limits of development, after which it must decay and be + content to survive in its progeny? Wine-skins stretch, but + only within measure; for there comes at last a + bursting-point when new ones must be provided.' + +In a note he explains: 'The Church of the Catacombs became the Church of +the Vatican; who can tell what the Church of the Vatican may not turn +into?' + +It is thus on a very elastic theory of development that the Modernists +rely. 'The differences between the larval and final stages of many an +insect are often far greater than those which separate kind from kind.' +And so this Proteus of a Church, which has changed its form so +completely since the Gospel was first preached in the subterranean +galleries of Rome, may undergo another equally startling metamorphosis +and come to believe in a God who never intervenes in history. We may +here remind our readers of Newman's tests of true development, and mark +the enormous difference. + +Mr. Tyrrell's 'Much-abused Letter' reaches, perhaps, the high-water mark +of Modernist claims. Not all the writers whom we have quoted would view +with complacency the prospect of the Catholic Church dying to live +again, or being content to live only in its progeny. The proverb about +the new wine-skins is one of sinister augury in such a connection. If +the Catholic Church is really in such an advanced stage of decay that it +must die before it can live, why do those who grasp the situation wish +to keep it alive? Are they not precisely pouring their new wine into old +bottles? Mr. Tyrrell himself draws the parallel with Judaism in the +first century. Paul, he says, 'did not feel that he had broken with +Judaism,' But the Synagogue did feel that he had done so, and history +proved that the Synagogue was right. + +Development, however great the changes which it exhibits, can only +follow certain laws; and the development of the Church of Rome has +steadily followed a direction opposite to that which the Modernists +demand that it shall take. Newman might plausibly claim that the +doctrines of purgatory and of the papal supremacy are logically involved +in the early claims of the Roman Church. The claim is true at least in +this sense, that, given a political Church organised as an autocracy, +these useful doctrines were sure, in the interests of the government, to +be promulgated sooner or later. But there is not the slightest reason +to suppose that the next development will be in the direction of that +peculiar kind of Liberalism favoured by the Modernists. It is difficult +to see how the Vatican could even meet the reformers half-way without +making ruinous concessions.' This supernatural mechanism,' M. Loisy says +in his last book, 'Modernism tends to ruin completely,' Just so; but the +Roman Church lives entirely on the faith in supernatural mechanism. Her +sacramental and sacerdotal system is based on supernatural mechanism--on +divine interventions in the physical world conditioned by human agency; +her theology and books of devotion are full of supernatural mechanism; +the lives of her saints, her relics and holy places, the whole +literature of Catholic mysticism, the living piety and devotion of the +faithful, wherever it is still to be found, are based entirely on that +very theory of supernaturalistic dualism which the Modernist, when he +acts as critic, begins by ruling out as devoid of any historical or +scientific actuality. The attractiveness of Catholicism as a cult +depends almost wholly on its frank admission of the miraculous as a +matter of daily occurrence. To rationalise even contemporary history as +M. Loisy has rationalised the Gospels would be suicide for Catholicism. + +It is tempting to give a concrete instance by way of illustrating the +impassable chasm which divides Catholicism as a working system from the +academic scheme of transformation which we have been considering. + + 'The French Catholics (writes the _Times_ correspondent in + Paris on June 25, 1908) are awaiting with concern the report + of a special commission on a mysterious affair known as the + Miraculous Hailstones of Remiremont. On Sunday, May 26, + 1907, during a violent storm that swept over that region of + the Vosges, among the great quantity of hailstones that fell + at the time a certain number were found split in two. On the + inner face of each of the halves, according to the local + papers that appeared the next day, was the image of the + Madonna venerated at Remiremont and known as Notre Dame du + Tresor. The local Catholics regarded it as a reply to the + municipal council's veto of the procession in honour of the + Virgin. So many people testified to having seen the + miraculous hailstones that the bishop of Saint-Die + instituted an inquiry; 107 men, women, and children were + heard by the parish priest, and certain well-known men of + science [names given] were consulted. The report has just + been published in the _Semaine Religieuse_, and concludes in + favour of the absolute authenticity of the fact under + inquiry. ....The last word rests with the bishop, who will + decide according to the conclusions of the report of the + special commission.' + +This is Catholicism in practice. Those who think to reform it by their +contention that supernatural interventions can never be matters of fact, +are liable to the reproach which they most dislike--that of scholastic +intellectualism, and neglect of concrete experience. + +This denial of the supernatural as a factor in the physical world seems +to us alone sufficient to make the position of the Modernists in the +Roman Church untenable. That form of Christianity stands or falls with +belief in miracles. It has always sought to bring the divine into human +life by intercalating acts of God among facts of nature. Its whole +sacred literature, as we have said, is penetrated through and through by +the belief that God continually intervenes to change the course of +events. What would become of the cult of Mary and the saints if it were +recognised that God does not so interfere, and that the saints, if +criticism allows that they ever existed, can do nothing by their +intercessions to avert calamity or bring blessing? The Modernist priest, +it appears, can still say 'Ora pro nobis' to a Mary whose biography he +believes to be purely mythical. At any rate, he can tell his consultants +with a good conscience that if they pray to Mary for grace they will +receive it. But what is the good of this make-believe? And, if it is +part of a transaction in which the worshipper pays money for assistance +which he believes to be miraculous and only obtainable through the good +offices of the Church, is it even morally honest? The worshipper may be +helped by his subjective conviction that his cheque on the treasury of +merit has been honoured; but if, apart from the natural effects of +suggestion, nothing has been given him but a mere _placebo_, is the +sacerdotal office one which an honourable man would wish to fill? + +We have no wish whatever to make any imputation against the motives of +the brave men who have withstood the thunders of the Vatican, and who in +some cases have been professionally ruined by their courageous avowal of +their opinions. Perhaps none but a Catholic priest can understand how +great the sacrifice is when one in his position breaks away from the +authority of those who speak in the name of the Church, and deliberately +incurs the charge, still so terrible in Catholic ears, of being a +heretic and a teacher of heresy. Not one man in twenty would dare to +face the storm of obloquy, hatred, and calumny which is always ready to +fall on the head of a heretical priest. The Encyclical indicates the +measures which are to be taken officially against Modernists. Pius X +ordains that all the young professors suspected of Modernism are to be +driven from their chairs in the seminaries; that infected books are to +be condemned indiscriminately, even though they may have received an +_imprimatur_; that a committee of censors is to be established in every +diocese for the revision of books; that meetings of liberal priests or +laymen are to be forbidden; that every diocese is to have a vigilance +committee to discover and inform against Modernists; and that young +clerical Modernists are to be put 'in the lowest places,' and held up to +the contempt of their more orthodox or obsequious comrades. But this +persecution is as nothing compared with the crushing condemnation with +which the religious world, which is his only world, visits this kind of +contumacy; the loss of friendships, the grief and shame of loved +relatives, and the haunting dread that an authority so august as that +which has condemned him cannot have spoken in vain. Assuredly all lovers +of truth must do homage to the courage and self-sacrifice of these men. +The doubt which may be reasonably felt and expressed as to the +consistency of their attitude reflects no discredit on them personally. +Nevertheless, the alternative must be faced, that a 'modernised' +Catholicism must either descend to deliberate quackery, or proclaim that +the bank from which the main part of her revenues is derived has stopped +payment. + +What will be the end of the struggle, and in what condition will it +leave the greatest Church in Christendom? There are some who think that +the Church will grow tired of the attitude of Canute, and will retreat +to the chair which Modernism proffers, well above high-water mark. But +the policy of Rome has never been concession, but repression, even at +the cost of alienating large bodies of her supporters; and we believe +that in the present instance, as on former occasions, the Vatican will +continue to proscribe Modernism until the movement within her body is +crushed. She can hardly do otherwise, for the alternative offered is not +a gradual reform of her dogmas, but a sweeping revolution. This we have +made abundantly clear by quotations from the Modernists themselves. If +the Vatican once proclaimed that such views about supernaturalism as +those which we have quoted are permissible, a deadly wound would be +inflicted on the faith of simple Catholics all over the world. The Vicar +of Christ would seem to them to have apostatised. The whole machinery of +piety, as practised in Catholic countries, would be thrown out of gear. +Nor is there any strong body of educated laymen, such as exists in the +Protestant Churches, who could influence the Papacy in the direction of +Liberalism. Not only are the laity taught that their province is to +obey, and never to call in question the decisions of ecclesiastics, but +the large majority of thoughtful laymen have already severed their +connection with the Church, and take no interest in projects for its +reform. Everything points to a complete victory for the Jesuits and the +orthodox party; and, much as we may regret the stifling of free +discussion, and the expulsion of earnest and conscientious thinkers from +the Church which they love, it is difficult to see how any other policy +could be adopted. + +Of the Modernists, a few will secede, others will remain in the Church, +though in open revolt against the Vatican; but the majority will be +silenced, and will make a lip-submission to authority. The disastrous +results of the rebellion, and of the means taken to crush it, will be +apparent in the deterioration of the priesthood. Modern thought, it will +be said, has now been definitely condemned by the Church; war has been +openly declared against progress. Many who, before the crisis of the +last few years, believed it possible to enter the Roman Catholic +priesthood without any sacrifice of intellectual honesty, will in the +future find it impossible to do so. We may expect to see this result +most palpable in France, where men think logically, and are but little +influenced by custom and prejudice. Unless the Republican Government +blows the dying embers into a blaze by unjust persecution, it is to be +feared that Catholicism in that country may soon become 'une quantite +negligeable.' The prospects of the Church in Italy and Spain do not seem +very much better. In fact the only comfort which we can suggest to those +who regret the decline of an august institution, is that decadent +autocracies have often shown an astonishing toughness. But as head of +the universal Church, in any true sense of the word, Rome has finished +her life. + +A more vital question, for those at least who are Christians, but not +Roman Catholics, is in what shape the Christian religion will emerge +from the assaults upon traditional beliefs which science and historical +criticism are pressing home. We have given our reasons for rejecting the +Modernist attempt at reconstruction. In the first place, we do not feel +that we are required by sane criticism to surrender nearly all that M. +Loisy has surrendered. We believe that the kingdom of God which Christ +preached was something much more than a patriotic dream. We believe that +He did speak as never man spake, so that those who heard Him were +convinced that He was more than man. We believe, in short, that the +object of our worship was a historical figure. Nothing has yet come to +light, or is likely to come to light, which prevents us from identifying +the Christ of history with the Christ of faith, or the Christ of +experience. + +But, if too much is surrendered on one side, too much is taken back on +the other. The contention that the progress of knowledge has left the +traditional beliefs and cultus of Catholics untouched is untenable. It +is not too much to say that the whole edifice of supernaturalistic +dualism under which Catholic piety has sheltered itself for fifteen +hundred years has fallen in ruins to the ground. There is still enough +superstition left to win a certain vogue for miraculous cures at +Lourdes, and split hailstones at Remiremont. But that kind of religion +is doomed, and will not survive three generations of sound secular +education given equally to both sexes. The craving for signs and +wonders--that broad road which attracts so many converts and wins so +rapid a success--leads religion at last to its destruction, as Christ +seems to have warned His own disciples. Science has been the slowly +advancing Nemesis which has overtaken a barbarised and paganised +Christianity. She has come with a winnowing fan in her hand, and she +will not stop till she has thoroughly purged her floor. She has left us +the divine Christ, whatever may be the truth about certain mysterious +events in His human life. But assuredly she has not left us the right to +offer wheedling prayers to a mythical Queen of Heaven; she has not left +us the right to believe in such puerile stories as the Madonna-stamp on +hailstones, in order to induce a comfortably pious state of mind. + +The dualism alleged to exist between faith and knowledge will not serve. +Man is one, and reality is one; there can no more be two 'orders of +reality' not affecting each other than there can be two faculties in the +human mind working independently of each other. The universe which is +interpreted to us by our understanding is not unreal, nor are its laws +pliant to our wills, as the pragmatists do vainly talk. It is a divinely +ordered system, which includes man, the roof and crown of things, and +Christ, in whom is revealed to us its inner character and meaning. It is +not the province of faith either to flout scientific knowledge, or to +contaminate the material on which science works by intercalating what M. +Le Roy calls 'transhistorical symbols'--myths in fact--which do not +become true by being recognised as false, as the new apologetic seems to +suggest. Faith is not the born storyteller of Modernist theology. Faith +is, on the practical side, just the resolution to stand or fall by the +noblest hypothesis; and, on the intellectual side, it is a progressive +initiation, by experiment which ends in experience, into the unity of +the good, the true, and the beautiful, founded on the inner assurance +that these three attributes of the divine nature have one source and +conduct to one goal. + +The Modernists are right in finding the primary principle of faith in +the depths of our undivided personality. They are right in teaching that +faith develops and comes into its own only through the activity of the +whole man. They are right in denying the name of faith to correct +opinion, which may leave the character untouched. As Hartley Coleridge +says: + + 'Think not the faith by which the just shall live + Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven, + Far less a feeling fond and fugitive, + A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given. + It is an affirmation and an act + That bids eternal truth be present fact.' + +For all this we are grateful to them. But we maintain that the future of +Christianity is in the hands of those who insist that faith and +knowledge must be confronted with each other till they have made up +their quarrel. The crisis of faith cannot be dealt with by establishing +a _modus vivendi_ between scepticism and superstition. That is all that +Modernism offers us; and it will not do. Rather we will believe, with +Clement of Alexandria, that piste he gnhosist, gnosthe de he phistist. + +If this confidence in the reality of things hoped for and the +hopefulness of things real be well-founded, we must wait in patience for +the coming of the wise master-builders who will construct a more truly +Catholic Church out of the fragments of the old, with the help of the +material now being collected by philosophers, psychologists, historians, +and scientists of all creeds and countries. When the time comes for this +building to rise, the contributions of the Modernists will not be +described as wood, hay, or stubble. They have done valuable service to +biblical criticism, and in other branches, which will be always +recognised. But the building will not (we venture to prophesy) be +erected on their plan, nor by their Church. History shows few examples +of the rejuvenescence of decayed autocracies. Nor is our generation +likely to see much of the reconstruction. The churches, as institutions, +will continue for some time to show apparent weakness; and other +moralising and civilising agencies will do much of their work. But, +since there never has been a time when the character of Christ and the +ethics which he taught have been held in higher honour than the present, +there is every reason to expect that the next 'Age of Faith,' when it +comes, will be of a more genuinely Christian type than the last. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [50] Bishop Creighton always emphasised this view of Roman + Catholicism. 'The Roman Church,' he wrote, 'is the most + complete expression of Erastianism, for it is not a Church + at all, but a state in its organisation; and the worst form + of state--an autocracy.' (_Life and Letters_, ii. 375.) + + [51] In contrast with 'henotheism' or 'monolatry,' such as + the worship of the early Hebrews. + + [52] 'Nunc defecit certa successio in omnibus ecclesiis + apostolicis, praeterquam in Romana, et ideo ex testimonio + huius solius ecclesiae sumi potest certum argumentum ad + probandas apostolicas traditiones.' Bellarmine, _De Verbo + Dei scripto et non scripto_, IV, ix, 10. + + [53] Bellarmine, _De Laicis_, III, xxi, 22. + + [54]: Santayana, _Return in Religion_, p. 108. + + [55] Tertullian, _De Virg. Vel_., 1. + + [56] Encyclical of October 27, 1901. + + [57] In _The Programme of Modernism_, and _Quello che + vogliamo_. + + [58] _The Programme of Modernism_, p. 16. + + [59] _The Programme of Modernism_, pp. 50-54. + + [60] Loisy, _Simples Reflexions_, p. 168. + + [61] _Ibid. L'Evangile et l'Eglise_, pp. 3-5. + + [62] _Ibid. Les Evangiles Synoptiques_, p. 119. + + [63] _Ibid_. + + [64] _Ibid_. p. 143. + + [65] _Ibid_. pp. 138, 139. + + [66] _Ibid_. p. 104. + + [67] Loisy, _Les Evangiles Synoptiques_, p. 166. + + [68] _Ibid_. p. 169. + + [69] _Ibid. Le Quatrieme Evangile_, passim. + + [70] Loisy, _Les Evangiles Synoptiques_, p. 214. + + [71] _Ibid_. p. 218. + + [72] Loisy, _Les Evangiles Synoptiques_, p. 223. + + [73] _The Programme of Modernism_, pp. 82, 83. + + [74] _Ibid_. p. 90. + + [75] Loisy, _Simples Reflexions_, p. 211. + + [76] Laberthonniere, _Le Realisme Chretien et l'Idealisme + Grec,_ pp. 44, 45. + + [77] _Malachi_, ii. 6. + + [78] Le Roy, _Dogme et Critique_, p. 26. + + [79] _Lex Orandi_, p. 165 (abridged). + + [80] This is not carelessness on the part of the writer. + Paulsen also says (_Introduction to Philosophy_, p. 112), 4 + It is impossible to separate feeling and willing from each + other.... Only in the highest stage of psychical life, in + man, does a partial separation of feeling from willing + occur.' But it is the highest stage of psychical life, the + human, with which we are alone concerned; and in this stage + it is both possible and necessary to distinguish between + feeling and willing. Some Voluntarists, hard pressed by + facts, try to make 'will' cover the whole of conscious and + subconscious life, with the exception of logical reasoning, + which is excluded as a sort of pariah! + + [81] Mgr. Moyes, in _The Nineteenth Century_, December, + 1907. + + + + +CARDINAL NEWMAN + +(1912) + + +The life of Newman was divided into two nearly equal portions by his +change of religion in October 1845. For the earlier half of his career +we have long had his own narrative; and Newman is a prince of +autobiographers. It was his wish that the 'Apologia' should be the final +and authoritative account of his life in the Church of England, and of +the steps by which he was led to transfer his allegiance to another +communion. The voluminous literature of the Tractarian movement, which +includes large collections of Newman's own letters, has confirmed the +accuracy of his narrative, and has made any further description of that +strange episode in English University life superfluous. With the +'Apologia' and Dean Church's 'Oxford Movement' before him, the reader +needs no more. Mr. Wilfrid Ward has therefore been well advised to +adhere loyally to the Cardinal's wishes, by confining himself to the +last half of Newman's life, after a brief summary of his childhood, +youth, and middle age till 1845. Nevertheless, it is misleading to give +the title 'The Life of Cardinal Newman' to a work which is only, as it +were, the second volume of a biography. There are very few men, however +long-lived, who have not done much of their best work before the age of +forty-five, and Newman was certainly not one of the exceptions. From +every point of view, except that of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical +historian, Newman's Anglican career was far more interesting and +important than his residence at Birmingham. He will live in history, not +as the recluse of Edgbaston, nor as the wearer of the Cardinal's hat +which fell to his lot, almost too late to save the credit of the +Vatican, when he had passed the normal limit of human life, but as the +real founder and leader of nineteenth century Anglo-Catholicism, the +movement which he created and then tried in vain to destroy. The +projects and failures and successes of his later life seem very pale and +almost petty when compared with the activities of the years while he was +making a chapter of English history. His greatest book, though it was +written many years after his secession, is the record of a drama which +ended in the interview with Father Dominic the Passionist. It is 'The +History of my Religious Opinions'; and after 1845 his religious opinions +had, as he says himself, no further history. The incomparable style +which will give him a permanent place among the masters of English prose +was the product of his life at Oxford, where he lived in a society of +highly cultivated men, whose writings show many of the same excellences +as his own. Newman's English is only the Oriel manner at its best. Such +an instrument could hardly have been forged at the Birmingham Oratory, +where his associates, who had followed him from Littlemore, were of such +an inferior type that Mark Pattison, who knew them, was surprised that +he could be satisfied with their company. His best sermons and his best +poetry belong to his Anglican period. 'The Dream of Gerontius,' with all +its tender grace, is far less virile than 'Lead, kindly Light,' and +other short poems of his youth. Moreover, his record as a Roman +ecclesiastic is one of almost unrelieved failure. If he had died +eighteen years after his secession, when he already looked upon himself +as an old man whose course was nearly run, he would have been regarded +as one who had sacrificed a great career in the Church of England for +neglect and obscurity. From the first he was distrusted by the 'Old +Catholics' (the old Roman Catholic families in England), and suspected +at the Vatican, where Talbot assiduously represented him as 'the most +dangerous man in England.' When Manning, Archdeacon of Chichester, +followed his example and joined the Roman Church, Newman was confronted +with a still more subtle and relentless opponent, whose hostility was +never relaxed till the accession of a Liberal Pope made it no longer +possible to resist the bestowal of tardy honours upon a feeble +octogenarian. The recognition came in time to soothe his decline, but +too late to enable him to leave his mark upon the administration of the +Roman Church. + +The main events in a very uneventful career are narrated at length in +Mr. Ward's volumes. After his 'conversion' Newman first resided in a +small community at Maryvale (Oscott) but soon left it on a journey to +Rome, where he spent some time at the Collegio di Propaganda, and had a +foretaste of the distrust with which Pius IX and his advisers always +regarded him. His plan at this time was to found a theological seminary +at Maryvale; and in this scheme he had the support of Wiseman, the +ablest Roman ecclesiastic in the United Kingdom. But the 'Essay on +Development,' with its unscholastic language and unfamiliar line of +apologetic, seriously alarmed the theologians at Rome; and Newman, +accepting the first of many rebuffs, abandoned this project in favour of +another. He resolved to join the Oratorians, an order founded by St. +Philip Neri, and obtained permission to modify, in his projected +establishment, the rules of the Order, which, among other things, +prescribed frequent floggings in public. He visited Naples, and came +back a believer in the liquefaction of the saint's blood. The amazing +letter to Henry Wilberforce, writter from Santa Croce, shows that he was +the most docile and credulous of converts. Even the Holy House at Loreto +caused him no difficulty. 'He who floated the ark on the surges of a +world-wide sea, and inclosed in it all living things, who has hidden the +terrestrial paradise, who said that faith might remove mountains ... +could do this wonder also.' It 'may have been'; 'everybody believes it +in Rome'; therefore Newman 'has no doubt'! + +The new Oratory was placed by Papal brief at Birmingham. The first +members of it were his friends who had left the English Church with him. +Recruits soon came in, and branch houses were talked of. But for many +years Newman had reason to complain of neglect and want of sympathy. He +even found empty churches when he preached in London. In conjunction +with Faber, he next started a series of 'Lives of the Saints,' in which +the most absurd 'miracles' were accepted without question as true. The +'Old Catholics,' who had no stomach for such food, protested; and +Newman, this time thoroughly irritated, had to admit another failure. +The Oratory, however, and its London offshoot under Faber were +prosperous, and the churches where Newman preached were not long empty. +In 1850 we find him in better spirits. He employed his energies in a +series of clever lectures on 'Anglican Difficulties,' in which he +ridiculed the Church of his earlier vows with all the refined cruelty of +which he was a master. But he was soon in trouble again. One Dr. +Giacinto Achilli, formerly a Dominican friar, gave lectures in London +upon the scandals of the Roman Inquisition, which had imprisoned him for +attacking the Catholic faith and fomenting sedition. The temper of the +British public at this time made it ready to believe anything to the +discredit of the Roman Church, and Achilli became a popular hero. +Wiseman published a libellous article upon him in the _Dublin Review_, +which passed unnoticed. But when Newman repeated the charges of +profligacy in a public lecture, Achilli brought an action for libel, +which in costs and expenses cost Newman L12,000. The money however was +paid, and much more than paid, by his co-religionists. This trial was +quickly followed by the inauguration of a scheme for founding a Catholic +University in Ireland, the avowed object of which was to withdraw young +Catholics from the liberalising influences of mixed education. This +scheme was sure to appeal strongly to Newman. Liberalism had come in +with a rush at Oxford, after the dissipation of the 'long nightmare' (as +Mark Pattison calls it) while the University was dominated by religious +medievalism. The Oxford of Newman had become the Oxford of Jowett. The +ablest of Newman's young friends and disciples, such as Mark Pattison +and J.A. Froude, were now in the opposite camp, full of anger and +disgust at the seductive influences from which they had just escaped. +Newman, as might be expected, was anxious to protect Catholic students +from similar dangers, and accepted the post of Rector of the proposed +Catholic University. He intended it to provide 'philosophical defences +of Catholicity and Revelation, and create a Catholic literature.' The +lectures in which he expounded his ideals at Dublin were a great +success, and he returned to England full of hope. With a curious +inability to read the character of one who was to be his worst enemy, he +offered Manning the post of Vice-Rector. Manning's refusal was followed +by his failure to obtain the support of Ward, Henry Wilberforce, and +others; and Catholic opinion in Ireland was much divided. For three or +four years Newman was engaged in ineffectual efforts to push his scheme +forward. At last, in 1855, he was installed as Rector, and began his +work at Dublin. A fine church was built at St. Stephen's Green with the +surplus of the Achilli subscriptions, and Newman produced some excellent +literary work in the form of University lectures and sermons. But the +whole movement was viewed with distrust by the Irish ecclesiastics, who, +as he said in a moment of impatience, 'regard any intellectual man as +being on the road to perdition.' There was a cloud over his work from +first to last. He had been promised a bishopric, without which he was +made to feel himself in an inferior position by the Irish prelates; but +the promise was not fulfilled. The Irish objected to one or two English +professors on his staff, because they were English. Dr. Cullen, the +ruling spirit in the Irish hierarchy, was a narrow conservative, who +wished to use Newman merely as an instrument against progressive +tendencies in Church and State. In 1857 he resigned an impossible task, +and returned to Birmingham. + +New undertakings followed, no more successful than the abortive +university scheme. There was to be a new translation of the Bible, and a +new Catholic magazine called the _Rambler_. The former enterprise was +already well advanced when the general indifference of the Catholic +public caused it to be abandoned. The _Rambler_, the contributors to +which used a freedom of discussion unpalatable to Roman ecclesiastics, +struggled on amid a storm of criticism till 1859, when Newman, who was +then himself editor, resigned, and one more humiliating failure was +registered. The management of the magazine passed into other hands. The +Oratory School at Birmingham, a much less contentious undertaking, was +successfully launched in the same year. + +In 1860 came the emancipation of the States of the Church by Cavour and +Victor Emmanuel. Newman referred to the Piedmontese as 'sacrilegious +robbers,' but his advocacy of the temporal power was not strong enough +to please the Vatican, while the strength of Manning's language left +nothing to be desired. Newman became more unpopular than ever. His +reputation suffered by his former connection with the _Rambler_ and his +supposed connection with the _Home and Foreign Review_, which Acton +intended to represent the views of progressive Catholics, till it also +was snuffed out by the hierarchy. The five years from 1859 to 1864 are +considered by Mr. Ward to have been the saddest in Newman's life. He +felt, truly enough, that the dominant party had no sympathy with his +aims, and that he was treated as 'some wild incomprehensible beast, a +spectacle for Dr. Wiseman to exhibit to strangers, as himself being the +hunter who captured it.' 'All through my life I have been plucked,' he +writes to an old Oxford friend. There was even in his mind at this time +a wistful yearning after the friends and the Church that he had left--a +feeling, doubtless transient, but significant, which his biographer has +allowed to show itself in a few pages of his book. After reminding +himself, in his diary, of the warning against those who, after putting +their hand to the plough, 'look back,' he proceeds to look back, because +he cannot help it. + + 'I live more and more in the past, and in hopes that the + past may revive in the future.... I think, as death comes + on, his cold breath is felt on soul as on body, and that, + viewed naturally, my soul is half dead now, whereas then [in + his Protestant days] it was in the freshness and fervour of + youth.... I say the same of my state of mind from 1834 to + 1845, when I became a Catholic. It is a time past and + gone--it relates to a work done and over. "Quis mihi + tribuat, ut sim iuxta menses pristinos, secundum dies, + quibus Deus custodiebat me? Quando splendebat lucerna eius + super caput meum, et ad lumen eius ambulabam in tenebris?" + ... I have no friend at Rome; I have laboured in England, to + be misrepresented, backbitten and scorned. I have laboured + in Ireland, with a door ever shut in my face.... + Contemporaneously with this neglect on the part of those for + whom I laboured, there has been a drawing towards me on the + part of Protestants. Those very books and labours which + Catholics did not understand, Protestants did. I am under + the temptation of looking out for, if not courting, + Protestant praise.... What I wrote as a Protestant has had + far greater power, force, meaning, success, than my Catholic + works.' + +Such reflections might seem to indicate a disposition to return to the +Anglican fold. But a man must have vanquished pride in its most +insidious form before he can leave the Church of Rome for any other. The +aristocratic _hauteur_ of the _civis Romanus_ among barbarians lives on +in the sentiment of the Roman Catholic towards Protestants. When Newman +was publicly charged with intending to return to Anglicanism, this +spirit broke out in a disagreeable and insulting manner. + +The bitterness of these five years of neglect, in which he had been +eating his heart in silence, must be remembered in connexion with the +famous Kingsley controversy, which in 1864 roused him to put on his +armour and fight for his reputation. There had always been an element of +combativeness in Newman's disposition. '_Nescio quo pacto_, my spirits +most happily rise at the prospect of danger,' he wrote early in life. +And when he could persuade himself that not only his honour but that of +the Church was at stake, he could feel and show the true Catholic +ferocity, the cruellest spirit on earth. 'A heresiarch,' he had written +even in his Anglican days, 'should meet with no mercy. He must be dealt +with by the competent authority as if he were embodied evil. To spare +him is a false and dangerous pity. It is to endanger the souls of +thousands, and it is uncharitable towards himself'! This was the temper, +soured by defeat and not mellowed by age, which Charles Kingsley in an +evil moment for himself chose wantonly to provoke. At Christmas 1863 +there appeared in _Macmillan's Magazine_ a review of Froude's 'History +of England,' in which Kingsley wrote 'Truth for its own sake has never +been a virtue with the Roman clergy. Father Newman informs us that it +need not be, and on the whole ought not to be--that cunning is the +weapon which Heaven has given to the saints wherewith to withstand the +brute male force of the wicked world.' This charge was in fact based on +a careless reading, or an imperfect recollection, of the twentieth +discourse in 'Sermons on Subjects of the Day.' The discourse in question +is a somewhat nauseous glorification of the servile temper, but it only +says that the meekness of the saints is (by Divine providence) so +successful that it is always mistaken for craft. The _imputation_ of +cunning is therefore a note of sanctity in its victim. Kingsley ought to +have read the sermon again, and withdrawn unreservedly from an untenable +position. But he thought that something less than a complete apology +would serve; and so gave Newman the opportunity of his life. When the +withdrawal which he offered was rejected, Kingsley made matters ten +times worse for himself by an ill-considered pamphlet called 'What then +does Dr. Newman mean?' In this effusion he vents all his scorn and +hatred for Catholicism--for its tortuous tactics, its monstrous +credulity and appetite for miracles, which must proceed, according to +him, either from infantile folly or from deliberate imposture. +Forgetting altogether that he has to defend himself against a specific +charge of slander, he offers his great opponent the choice between +writing himself down a knave or a fool--a knave if he pretends to +believe in the Holy Coat and the blood of St. Januarius, a fool if he +does believe in them. + +The coarseness of this attack upon an elderly man of saintly character +and acknowledged intellectual eminence, who had to all appearance +blighted a great career by honestly obeying his conscience, offended the +British public, which was now fully disposed to give a respectful and +favourable hearing to whatever Newman might care to say in reply. In a +Catholic country it would have been useless for a Protestant, however +falsely attacked, to appeal to Catholic public opinion for justice; but +Newman understood the English character, and saw his splendid chance. + +The famous defence was, from every point of view except the highest, a +complete triumph. And although Hort was strictly accurate in describing +the treatment of Kingsley as 'horribly unchristian,' it is demanding too +much of human nature to expect a master of fence, when wantonly attacked +with a bludgeon, to abstain from the pleasure of pricking his adversary +scientifically in the tender parts of his body. The bitterest passages +were excised in later editions; and the 'Apologia' remains a masterpiece +of autobiography, and a powerful defence of Catholicism. To Newman this +appeared to be the turning-point in his fortunes. He felt strong enough +to administer a severe snub to Monsignor Talbot, his old enemy, who, +hearing of the success the 'Apologia,' invited him to preach at Rome. +Then at once he threw himself into a great scheme for founding an +Oratory at Oxford. Eight and a half acres were bought between Worcester +College, the Clarendon Press, the Observatory, and Beaumont Street, a +magnificent site, which the Oratorians acquired for only L8400. But here +again he was thwarted. W.G. Ward opposed the scheme with all his might, +insisting on the necessity of 'preserving the purity of a Catholic +atmosphere throughout the whole course of education.' The whole tendency +of the Ultramontane movement was to secure, before all other things, a +body of militant young Catholics to fight the battles of the Church. +Newman was willing to support the English Church in its warfare against +unbelief; to the Ultramontane a Protestant is as certainly damned as an +atheist, and is more mischievous as being less amenable to Catholic +influence. Manning and Talbot seem to have given the project its _coup +de grace_ at Rome, and Newman sold the land which he had bought. He was +bitterly disappointed; but the growth of public esteem had given him +self-confidence, and he did not again fall into despondency, though he +had a strange presentiment of approaching death, which prompted his last +famous poem, 'The Dream of Gerontius.' A second attempt to go to Oxford +was thwarted by enemies at Home and in England in 1866-7. The extreme +party, with Manning, now Archbishop, at their head, seemed to be +victorious all along the line. They were able to proceed to their +supreme triumph in the Vatican Council which issued the dogma of Papal +Infallibility. Newman, while others were intriguing and haranguing, was +quietly engaged in preparing his subtlest and (on one side) his most +characteristic work, 'The Grammar of Assent,' an attempt at a Catholic +apologetic on a 'personalist,' as opposed to an 'intellectualist' basis. +He declined to take an active part in the theological conferences about +infallibility, being by this time well aware how little weight such +arguments as he could bring were likely to have at Rome. He was +disgusted at the insolent aggressiveness of the Ultramontanes, but he +had no wish to combat it. The situation was hopeless, and he knew it. +The death of several friends increased the sense of isolation, and +during the years 1875 to 1879 his silence and depression were very +noticeable to those who lived with him. His dearest friend, Ambrose St. +John, was one of several who died about this time. But Trinity College, +Oxford, made him an honorary fellow in 1877, an honour which seemed to +prognosticate the far higher distinction which was soon to be conferred +upon him. + +The death of Pius IX in 1878 brought to an end the long reign of +obscurantism at the Vatican, and with the election of Leo XIII Newman +emerged from the cloud under which he had remained for more than a +generation. The new Pope lost no time in making him a Cardinal, though +even now the prize seemed to be on the point of slipping through his +fingers. He valued the honour immensely as setting the official seal of +approbation on his life's work, and the last ten years of his life were +quietly happy. He was able to mingle actively in affairs of public +interest, and to write long letters, till near the end. He died on +August 11, 1890, in his ninetieth year, and was buried, by his own +request, in the same grave with his friend Ambrose St. John. + +Why is it that this sad, isolated, broken life, in which the young man +renounces the creed of the boy, and the elder man pours scorn upon the +loyalties of his prime; which found its last haven in a society which +wished to make a tool of him but distrusted him too much for even this +pitiful service, has still an absorbing interest for our generation? For +it is not only in England that Newman's fame lives and grows. In France +there is a cult of Newman, which has produced biographies by Bremond and +Faure, as well as a history of the Catholic Revival in England by +Thureau-Dangin. In England, besides Dean Church's 'Oxford Movement,' we +have biographies by R.H. Hutton and W. Barry, and appreciations or +depreciations by E. Abbott, Leslie Stephen, Froude, Mark Pattison, and +several others. + +The interest is mainly personal and psychological. Newman's writings, +and his life, are a 'human document' in a very peculiar degree. Bremond +is right in calling attention to the _autocentrism_ of Newman. 'Although +(he says) the words "I" and "me" are relatively rare in Newman's +writings, whether as preacher, novelist, controversialist, philosopher, +or poet, he always reveals and always describes himself.' Even his +historical portraits are reconstructed from his inner consciousness; +hence their historical falsity--all ages are mixed in his histories--and +their philosophical truth. In a sense he was the most reserved of men. +We do not know whether he had any ordinary temptations; we do not know +whether he ever fell in love. But the texture of his mind and the growth +of his opinions have been laid bare to us with the candour of a saint +and the accuracy of a dissector or analyst. He reminds us of De Quincey, +who also could tell the story of his own life, but no other, and whose +style, like his own, was modelled on the literary traditions of the +eighteenth century. + +He has left us, in the 'Apologia,' a picture of his precocious and +dreamy boyhood, when he lived in a world of his own, peopled by angels +and spirits, a world in which the supernatural was the only nature. He +was lonely and reserved, then as always. It is not for nothing that in +his sermons he expatiates so often on the impenetrability of the human +soul. A nature so self-centred has always something hard and inhuman +about it; he was loved, but loved little in return. And yet he craved +for more affection than he could reciprocate. 'I cannot ever realise to +myself,' he wrote once, 'that anyone loves me.' It is a common feeling +in imaginative, withdrawn characters. Deepseated in his nature was a +reverence for the hidden springs of thought, action, and belief. When he +spoke of 'conscience,' as he did continually, he meant, not the faculty +which decides ethical problems, but the undivided soul-nature which +underlies the separate activities of thought, will, and feeling. In this +sense the epigrammatist was right who said that 'to Newman his own +nature was a revelation which he called conscience.' He 'followed the +gleam,' uncertain whither it would lead him. The poem 'Lead, kindly +Light' is the most intimate self-revelation that he ever made. This +mental attitude, which he took early in life, became the foundation of +his 'personalist' philosophy, and of the anti-intellectualism which was +the negative side of it. But this reliance on the inner light, which +nearly made a mystic of him, was clouded by a haunting fear of God's +wrath, which imparts a gloomy tinge to his Anglican sermons, and which, +while he was halting between the English Church and Rome, plied him with +the very unmystical question 'Where shall I be most _safe_?' an argument +which he had used repeatedly and without scruple in his parochial +sermons.[82] + +It is nevertheless true that this self-centred spirit was, at least in +early life, impressionable and open to the influence of others. His +friendship with Hurrell Froude and Keble affected his opinions +considerably: and still more potent was the pervading intangible +influence of Oxford--the academic atmosphere. It cannot indeed be said +that the University was at this time in a healthy condition. Mark +Pattison has described with caustic contempt the intellectual lethargy +of the place, and the miserable quality of the lectures. Oxford was +still _de facto_ a close clerical corporation, and in most colleges +'clubbable men' rather than scholars were chosen for the fellowships. +Oriel won its unique position by breaking through this tradition, and +also by making originality rather than success in the university +examinations the main qualification for election. But even at Oriel, and +among the ablest men, there was great ignorance of much that was being +thought and written elsewhere. Knowledge of German was rare. Even the +classics were not read in a humanistic spirit. 'Of the world of wisdom +and sentiment--of poetry and philosophy, of social and political +experience, contained in the Latin and Greek classics, and of the true +relation of the degenerate and semi-barbarous Christian writers of the +fourth century to that world--Oxford, in 1830, had never dreamt.[83] +Theological prejudice in fact distorted the whole outlook of the +resident fellows, and confounded all estimation of relative values. +Newman never, all through his life, took a step towards overcoming this +early prejudice. He imagined a golden age of the Church, or several +golden ages, and found them in 'the first three centuries,' in the time +of Alfred the Great or of Edward the Confessor, or in the seventeenth +century. He was only sure that the sixteenth century was made of much +baser metal. This unhistorical idealisation of the past, even of a +barbarous past, was very characteristic of Newman and his friends. They +bequeathed to the Anglican Church the strange legend of an age of pure +doctrine and heroic practice, to which it should be our aim to 'return.' +The real strength of this legend lies in the fact that it has no +historical foundation. The ideal which is presented as a return or a +revival is nothing of the kind, but a creation of our own time, +projected by the imagination into the past, from which it comes back +with a halo of authority. Newman had his full share of these illusions. +In his youth and prime he was more of an Englishman than an Anglican. He +despised foreigners, unless they were Catholic saints, could not bear +the sight of the _tricolor_, and hated all the 'ideas of the +Revolution.' His dictum, 'Luther is dead, but Hildebrand and Loyola are +alive,' throws a flood of light upon the contents of his mind, as does +the truly British prejudice which caused him to be horrified at the +sight of ships coaling at Malta 'on a holy day.' His range of ideas was +so much restricted that Bremond, a sincere admirer, says that his +imagination lived on 'une poignee de souvenirs d'enfant.' How tragic was +the fate which caught this loyal Englishman and more than loyal Oxonian +in the meshes of a cosmopolitan institution in which England counted for +little and Oxford for nothing at all! + +The Reform of 1832 seemed to threaten the English Church with +destruction. Arnold in this year wrote 'The Church, as it now stands, no +human power can save.' The bishops were stunned and bewildered by the +unexpected outbreak of popular hostility. Old methods of defence were +plainly useless; some new plan of campaign must be devised against the +double assault of political radicalism and theological liberalism. To +Newman both alike were of the devil; theological liberalism especially +was only specious infidelity. He never had the slightest inkling that a +deep religious earnestness and love of truth underlay the revolt against +orthodox tradition. His fighting instincts were aroused. When Keble +attributed the scheme for suppressing some Irish bishopries to 'national +apostasy,' he rushed to arms in defence of Church privileges and +property. In the first Tract (1833) he says: + + 'A notion has gone abroad that the people can take away your + power. They think they have given it and can take it away. + They have been deluded into a notion that present palpable + usefulness, produceable results, acceptableness to your + flocks--that these and such-like are the tests of your + Divine commission. Enlighten them in this matter. Exalt our + holy fathers the Bishops, as the representatives of the + Apostles, and the Angels of the Churches, and magnify your + office, as being ordained by them to take part in their + ministry.' + +That was the keynote of the whole Tractarian movement. A weapon was +needed to smite liberalism. Nothing but a compact and powerful +organisation could repel the foe. God must have provided such an +organisation: a Divine society, certain of ultimate victory, must exist +somewhere. Newman and his friends hoped to find it in the Anglican +Church; and such was the power of their contagious zeal and confident +enthusiasm, that the immediate danger was actually staved off, and the +Establishment was allowed a new lease of life. But the national Church +of England was not constituted to resist the national will, and the +attempt to reorganise it on Catholic lines was fore-doomed to failure. +And so, since the assumption that a great institutional fighting Church +_must_ exist was never even questioned, when Anglicanism failed him +there was no other refuge but Rome. + +He was certainly more logical than his friends who remained behind. +Anglo-Catholicism has its theoretical basis in a definition of +Catholicity which is repudiated by all other Catholics; its traditions +are largely legendary. But it is an eclectic system well suited to the +English character, and the distorted view of history which Newman +bequeathed to the party has enabled it to borrow much that is good from +different sides, without any sense of inconsistency. The idea of a +Divine society has been and is the inspiration of thousands of ardent +workers in the Anglican Church. It lifted the religion of many +Englishmen from the somewhat gross and bourgeois condition in which the +movement found it, to a pure and unworldly idealism. And, unlike most +other religious revivals, especially in this country, it has remained +remarkably free from unhealthy emotionalism and hysterics. The social +atmosphere of Oxford, always alien to mawkish sentiment, penetrated the +whole movement, and maintained in it for many years a certain sanity and +dignity which, while they doubtless prevented it from spreading widely +in the middle class, made the Tractarians respected by men of taste and +education. But these influences could not be permanent. The goodwill of +the Tractarian firm (if we may so express it) has now been acquired by +men with very different aims and methods. The ablest members of the +party are plunging violently into social politics, while the rank and +file in increasing numbers are fluttering round the Roman candle, into +which many of them must ultimately fall. + +The progress of the movement between 1833 and 1845 was almost entirely +in the direction of teaching the clergy to 'magnify their office.' The +other part of the scheme, the combat against theological liberalism, +fell quite into the background. The main reason for this was that during +those strange years the theologians so completely dominated Oxford that +liberalism could hardly raise its head, and was despised as well as +hated. Only after Newman's secession could the regeneration of the +University begin. Then indeed liberalism came in like a flood, though it +was a very shallow flood in some cases. This was the day of the +self-satisfied young rationalist, 'ecarte par une plaisanterie des +croyances dont la raison d'un Pascal ne reussit pas a se degager,' as +Renan says--an orgy of facile free thought which after a generation was +chastised by another clerical reaction. + +If Newman could have foreseen the victory of his party in the English +Church, he might perhaps have been content to remain in it. We cannot +tell. But it is doubtful whether he would have taken Pusey's place as +leader of the party. Newman's influence was disturbing and subtly +disintegrating to every cause for which he laboured. His startling +candour often seemed like treachery. He could not work with others, and +broke with nearly all his friends, retaining only his disciples. He +confessed himself a bad judge of character. It is doubtful, after all, +whether he was much injured by the jealousy and almost instinctive fear +which he inspired among the Roman Catholic hierarchy. If he had been +allowed to take the place due to his abilities, his character, and his +reputation, what could he have done that he was unable to do at +Edgbaston? We cannot fancy him plunged in crooked ecclesiastical +intrigue, like that _Inglese italianato_, Cardinal Manning. Still less +can we fancy him haranguing strikers, and stealing the credit of +composing a trade dispute. No doubt he suffered under the sense of +injury; but probably he did what was in him to do. If the Roman Church +would not use him as a tool, it was probably because he would not have +been a good tool. There are some mistakes which that Church seldom +makes; it knows how to choose its men. + +What will be the verdict of history on the type of Catholicism which +Newman represented? He was kept out in the cold by a conservative Pope, +and honoured by a liberal Pope. Which was right, from the point of view +of Catholic interests and policy? This is perhaps the most important +question which the life of Newman raises; for it affects our +anticipations of the future even more than our judgments of the past. Is +Newman a safe or a possible guide for Catholics in the twentieth +century? + +Newman was no metaphysician; he confesses it himself. 'My turn of +mind,' he says, 'has never led me towards metaphysics; rather it has +been logical, ethical, practical.'[84] For metaphysics requires an +initial act of faith in human reason, and Newman had not this faith. +Even in his Anglican days he uttered many astonishing things in contempt +of reason. 'What is intellect itself (he asks) but a fruit of the Fall, +not found in paradise or in heaven, more than in little children, and at +the utmost but tolerated by the Church, and only not incompatible with +the regenerate mind?... Reason is God's gift, but so are the +passions.... Eve was tempted to follow passion and reason, and she +fell.'[85] 'Faith does not regard degrees of evidence.'[86] 'Faith and +humility consist, not in going about to prove, but in the outset +confiding in the testimony of others.' 'The more you set yourself to +argue and prove, in order to discover truth, the less likely you are to +reason correctly.'[87] The amazing crudity of this avowed obscurantism +is likely to make the orthodox apologist writhe, and to move the +rationalist to contemptuous laughter. In this and many other cases, +Newman seems to love to caricature himself, and to put his beliefs in +that form in which they outrage common sense most completely. We can +imagine nothing more calculated to drive a young and ingenuous mind into +flippant scepticism than a course of Newman's sermons. The _reductio ad +absurdum_ of his arguments is not left to the reader to make; it is +innocently provided by the preacher. + +And yet Newman's central position is not absurd, or only becomes absurd +when it is applied to justify belief in gross superstition. He holds +that what he calls 'reasoning' deals only with abstractions, and is not +the faculty on which we rely in forming 'judgments.' These judgments, to +which we give our 'assent,' and by which we regulate our conduct, are +affirmations of the basal personality. And these have an authority far +greater than can ever arise out of the logical manipulation of concepts. +'There is no ultimate test of truth besides the testimony borne to the +truth by the mind itself.' The 'mind itself,' the concrete personality, +is concerned with realities, while the intellect, which for him +corresponds very nearly with the discursive reason (dihanoia) of the +Greek philosophers, is at home only in mathematics and, up to a certain +point, in logic. The concepts of the intellect have no existence outside +it. 'The mind has the gift, by an act of creation, of bringing before it +abstractions and generalisations which have no counterpart, no +existence, out of it.'[88] Parenthetically, we may remark that passages +like this show how wide of the truth Mr. Barry is when he speaks of +Newman as a 'thorough Alexandrine.' To deny the existence of universals, +to regard them as mere creations of the mind, is rank blasphemy to a +Platonist; and the Alexandrines were Christian Platonists. No more +misleading statement could be made about Newman's philosophy than to +associate him with Platonism of any kind, whether Pagan or Christian. +Newman adopts the sensationalist (Lockian) theory of knowledge. Ideas +are copies or modifications of the data presented by the senses; 'first +principles are abstractions from facts, not elementary truths prior to +reasoning.' This is pure nominalism, in its crudest form. It makes all +arguments in favour of the great truths of religion valueless; for if +there are no universals, rational theism is impossible. It follows that +the famous scholastic 'proofs of God's existence' have for Newman no +cogency whatever; indeed it is difficult to see how he can have escaped +condemning the whole philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas as a juggling with +bloodless concepts. Newman himself pleaded that he had no wish to oppose +the official dogmatics of his Church. But protestations are of no avail +where the facts are so clear. 'The natural theology of our schools,' +says a writer in the _Tablet_, quoted by Dr. Caldecott in his +'Philosophy of Religion,' 'is based frankly and wholly on the appeal to +reason.' This is notoriously true; and what Newman thought of reason we +have already seen. His extreme disparagement of the intellect seems to +preclude what he calls 'real assent' to the creeds and dogmas of +Catholicism; for these clearly consist of 'notional' propositions. But +Newman would answer that the Church is a concrete fact, to which 'real +assent' can be given; and the Church has guaranteed the truth of the +notional propositions in question. But since reason is put out of court +as a witness to truth, on what faculty, or on what evidence, does Newman +rely? Feeling he distrusts; that side of mysticism, at any rate, finds +no sympathy from him. Nor does he, like many Kantians and others, make +the will supreme over the other faculties. Rather, as we have seen, he +bases his reliance on the verdicts of the undivided personality, which +he often calls conscience. This line of apologetic was at this very time +being ably developed by Julius Hare. It is in itself an argument which +has no necessary connexion with obscurantism. 'Personalism,' as it is +technically called, reminds us that we do actually base our judgments on +grounds which are nob purely rational; that the intellect, in forming +concepts, has to be content with an approximate resemblance to concrete +reality; and that the will and feelings have their rights and claims +which cannot be ignored in a philosophy of religion. But while it is +compatible with a robust faith in the powers of the constructive +intellect, personalism is beyond question a self-sufficient, +independent, individualistic doctrine. When it is combined with a +nominalist theory of knowledge, it naturally suggests that every man may +and should live by the creed which bests suits his idiosyncrasies. Now +there was much in Newman's temperament which made him turn in this +direction. 'Lead, kindly Light' has been the favourite hymn of many an +independent thinker, to whom the authority of the Church is less than +nothing. But on another side Newman was all his life a fierce upholder +of the principle of authority. His reason for accepting the dogmas of +the Church, and for wishing to destroy heresiarchs like wild beasts, was +certainly not that his basal personality testified to the truth and +value of all ecclesiastical dogmas. He believed them 'by confiding in +the testimony of others'--in other words, on the authority of the +Catholic Church. If we push back the enquiry one step further, and ask +on what grounds he chooses to prefer the authority of the Catholic +Church to other authorities, such as natural science or philosophy, we +are driven again to lay great stress on the almost political necessity +which he felt that such a Divine society should exist. In accepting the +authority of the Church, he accepted the authority of all that the +Church teaches, in complete independence of human reason. But the Roman +Church never professes to be independent of human reason. The official +scholastic philosophy claims to be a demonstrative proof of theism. + +Newman, then, was only half a Catholic. He accepted with all the fervour +of a neophyte the principle of submission to Holy Church. But in place +of the official intellectualist apologetic, which an Englishman may +study to great advantage in the remarkably able series of manuals issued +by the Jesuits of Stonyhurst, he substituted a philosophy of experience +which is certainly not Catholic. The authority claimed by the Roman +Church rests on one side upon revelation, on the other upon an elaborate +structure of demonstrative reasoning, which the simple folk are allowed +to 'take as read,' only because they cannot be expected to understand +it, but which is declared to be of irresistible cogency to any properly +instructed mind. To deny the validity of reasoning upon Divine things is +to withdraw one of the supports on which Catholicism rests. +Subjectivism, based on vital experience, mixes no better with this +system than oil with water. Scholasticism prides itself on clear-cut +definitions, on irrefragable logic, on using words always in the same +sense. For Newman, as for his disciples the Modernists, theological +terms are only symbols for varying values, and he holds that the moment +they are treated as having any fixed connotation, error begins. It is no +wonder if learned Catholics thought that Newman did not play the game. +Father Perrone, in spite of his friendship for the object of his +criticism, declared that 'Newman miscet et confundit omnia.' + +The accusation of scepticism, which was not unnaturally brought against +him, was hotly resented by Newman, and with some justice. Of the +intensity of his personal conviction there can be no doubt whatever. +Indeed, it was just because his faith was in no danger that he cared so +little for any intellectual defence of it. He might have made his own +the lines of Wordsworth: + + 'Here then we rest; not fearing for our creed + The worst that human reasoning can achieve + To unsettle or perplex it.' + +Wordsworth too, it may be remembered, speaks of 'reason' with hardly +more respect than Newman himself as: + + 'The inferior faculty that moulds + With her minute and speculative pains + Opinion, ever changing.' + +Robert Browning also, especially in his later years, uses +anti-intellectualist language equally uncompromising. 'Wholly distrust +thy reason,' he says in 'La Saisiaz.' Coleridge's distinction between +'understanding' and 'reason,' or Westcott's distinction between 'reason' +and 'reasoning,' might have saved these great writers from the +appearance, and perhaps more than the appearance, of blaspheming against +the highest and most divine faculty of human nature. For the reason is +something much higher than logic-chopping; it can provide, from its own +resources, a remedy for the intellectual error which is just now +miscalled intellectualism; it is the activity of the whole personality +under the guidance of its highest part; and because it is a real +unification of our disordered nature, it can bring us into real contact +with the higher world of Spirit. Newman's scepticism was not +doubtfulness about matters of faith; it was only a wholly unjustifiable +contempt and distrust for the unaided activity of the human mind. This +activity, as far as he could see, produced only various forms of +'liberalism,' which he strangely enough regarded as a kind of +scepticism. Thus he retorted, with equal injustice, the unjust charge +brought against himself. + +Newman has often been suspected or accused of quibbling and intellectual +dishonesty. Kingsley, whose healthy but somewhat rough English morality +and common sense were revolted by Newman's whole attitude to life and +conduct, was unable to conceive how any educated man could believe in +winking Virgins and liquefying blood, and thought that Newman must be +dishonest. More recently Dr. Abbott has accused him of being a +_philomythus_. Judged by ordinary standards, Newman's criteria of belief +do seem incompatible with intellectual honesty. Locke, whom Newman +resembles in his theory of knowledge, lays down a canon which condemns +absolutely the Cardinal's doctrine of assent. 'There is one unerring +mark,' he says, 'by which a man may know whether he is a lover of truth +in earnest, namely, the not entertaining any proposition with greater +assurance than the proofs it is built on will warrant.' Newman himself +quotes this dictum, and argues against it that men do, as a matter of +fact, form their judgments in a very different fashion. To most people, +however, the fact that opinions _are_ so manufactured is no proof that +they _ought_ to be so. To most people it seems plain that the practical +necessity of making unverified assumptions, and the habit of clinging to +them because we have made them, even after their falsity has been +exposed, is a satisfactory explanation of the prevalence of error, but +not a reason for acquiescing in it. It is useful, they hold, to point +out how assumption has a perilous tendency to pass for proof, not that +we may contentedly confuse assumption with proof, but that we may be on +our guard against doing so. But such is Newman's dislike of 'reason' +that he rejoices to find that the majority of mankind are, in fact, not +guided by it. And then, having made this discovery, he is quite ready to +'reason' himself, but not in the manner of an earnest seeker after +truth. Reason, for him, is a serviceable weapon of attack or defence, +but he is like a man fighting with magic impenetrable armour. He enjoys +a bout of logical fence; but it will decide nothing for him: his +'certitude' is independent of it. It is easy to see that such an +attitude must appear profoundly dishonest to any man who accepts Locke's +maxim about truth-seeking. It is equally easy to see that Newman would +spurn the charge of dishonesty as hotly as the charge of scepticism. His +principles made it easy for him to adopt the characteristic Catholic +habit of 'believing' anything that is pleasing to the religious +imagination. His sermons are full of such phrases as 'Scripture _seems_ +to show us'; 'why should we not believe ...'; 'who knows whether ...,' +and the like, all introducing some fantastic superstition. He +deliberately accepts the insidious and deadly doctrine that 'no man is +convinced of a thing who can endure the thought of its contradictory +being true.' To which we may rejoin that, on the contrary, no man has a +right to be convinced of anything until he has fairly faced the +hypothesis of its contradictory being true. So long as Newman's method +prevailed in Europe, every branch of practical knowledge was condemned +to barrenness. + +For what kind of knowledge is it which is acquired, not by the exercise +of the discursive intellect, or by the evidence of our senses, but by +the affirmations of our basal personality? Surely the legitimate +province of 'personalism' lies in the region of general ideas, or rather +in the _Weltanschauung_ as a whole. Our undivided personality protests +against any philosophy which makes life irrational, or base, or +incurably evil. It claims that those pictures of reality which are +provided by the intellect, by the aesthetic sense, and by the moral +sense, shall all have justice done to them in any attempted synthesis. +It rejects materialism, metaphysical dualism, solipsism, and pessimism, +on one or other of these grounds. Such a final interpretation of +existence as any of these offers, leaves out some fundamental and +essential factor of experience, and is therefore untenable. If no +metaphysical scheme can be constructed which is at once comprehensive +and inwardly consistent, personalism insists that we must acknowledge +defeat for the time, rather than take refuge in a logical system which +may be free from inner contradictions but which does not satisfy the +whole man as a living and active spiritual being. This is a sound +argument. But it is absurd to suppose that our personality, acting as an +undivided whole, can decide whether the institutional Church, or one +branch of it, is the Body of Christ and the receptacle of infallible +revelation; whether Christ was born at Bethlehem or Nazareth; or whether +Nestorius was a heretic. We have no magical sword for cutting these +knots, and no miraculous guide to tell us that authority A is to be +believed implicitly, while the possibility of authority B being right is +not to be entertained even in thought. Newman as usual supplies us with +the best weapons against himself. It startles us to find, even in 1852, +such a sentence as this: 'Revealed religion furnishes facts to other +sciences, which those sciences, left to themselves, would never reach. +Thus, in the science of history, the preservation of our race in Noah's +ark is an historical fact, which history never would arrive at without +revelation.' The transition from belief on the purely internal ground of +personal assent to belief on the purely external ground of Church +authority is certainly abrupt and hard to explain; but Newman makes it +habitually, without any consciousness of a _salto mortale_. In the +'Apologia' he even says that the argument from personality is 'one form +of the argument from authority.' The argument seems to be--'There is no +third alternative besides Catholicism or Rationalism. But "personality" +will not accept the dictation of reason; therefore it must accept the +authority of the Church.' It is a strange argument. All through his life +he enormously exaggerated the moral and intellectual weight which should +be attached to Church tradition. 'Securus judicat orbis terrarum' were +the words which rang in his ears at the supreme moment of his great +decision. His 'orbis terrarum' was the Latin empire. And when even in +those countries the authority of the Pope is rejected, he condemns +modern civilisation as an aberration. This however is a complete +abandonment of his own test. He first says 'The judgment of the great +world is final'; and then 'If the world decides against Rome, so much +the worse for the world.' After all, Newman had no right to complain if +his opponents found his reasoning disingenuous. To make up our minds +first, and to argue in favour of the decision afterwards, is in truth to +make the reason a hewer of wood and drawer of water to the irrational +part of our nature. + +It is precisely his sympathy with Catholicism on the religious side, and +his alienation from its intellectual method, which makes Newman's +apologetic such a two-edged weapon. In attempting to defend Catholicism, +he has gone far to explain it. To the historian, there is no great +mystery about the growth and success of the Western Catholic Church. +Christianity was already a syncretistic religion in the second century. +Like the other forms of worship with which it competed for the popular +favour, it contained the necessary elements of mystery-cult, of ethical +rule, of social brotherhood, and of personal devotion. But besides many +genuine points of superiority, it had a decisive advantage over the +religions of Isis and Mithra in the exclusiveness and intolerance which +it derived from the Jewish tradition. When the failure of the last +persecution forced the Empire to make a concordat with the Church, the +transformation of the federated but autonomous Christian communities +into a centralised theocratic despotism, claiming secular as well as +spiritual sovereignty, was only a matter of time. It was inevitable, +just as the principate of Augustus and the sultanate of Diocletian were +inevitable; but there is nothing specially divine or glorious about any +of these phases of human evolution. The revolt of Northern Europe in the +sixteenth century was equally inevitable; and so is the alienation of +enlightened minds from the Roman Church at the present day. Newman shows +with great force and ingenuity that all the developments in the Roman +system which Protestantism rejects as later accretions were natural and +necessary. But this only means that the Catholic Church, in order to +live, was compelled to adapt itself to the prevailing conditions of +human culture in the countries where it desired to be supreme. The +argument, so far as it goes, tells against rather than in favour of any +special supernatural character belonging to that institution. And if the +'orbis terrarum,' which once gave its verdict in favour of Latin +Catholicism, is now disposed to reverse its decision, how, on Newman's +principle, can its right to do so be denied? The true reasons for the +strength and vitality which the Roman Church still retains are not +difficult to find. Its system possesses an inner consistency, which is +dearly purchased by neglecting much that should enter into a large and +true view of the world, but which guarantees to those who have once +accepted it an untroubled calm and assurance very acceptable to those +who have been tossed upon a sea of doubt. It surrounds itself with an +impenetrable armour by persuading its adherents that all moral and +intellectual scruples, in matters where Holy Church has pronounced its +verdict, are suggestions of the Evil One, to be spurned like the +prickings of sensuality. It has succeeded, by long experience, in +providing satisfaction for nearly all the needs of the average man, and +for all the needs of the average woman. In particular, the aesthetic +tastes which, in Southern Europe at any rate, are closely connected with +religious feeling, are fully catered for; and those superstitions which +the majority of mankind still love in their hearts, though they are +somewhat ashamed of them, are allowed to luxuriate unchecked. Further, +Catholicism encourages and blesses that _esprit de corps_ which has +produced the brightest triumphs of self-abnegation as well as the +darkest crimes of cruel bigotry in human history. A Church which unites +these advantages is in no danger of falling into insignificance, even if +the best intellect and morality of the age are estranged from it. It may +even have a great future as the nucleus of a conservative resistance to +the social revolution. It is doubtful whether those who wish to preserve +the traditions and civilisation of the past will be able to find +anywhere, except in the Latin Church, an organisation sufficiently +coherent and universal to provide a rallying ground for defence against +the new barbarian invasion--proceeding this time not from the rude +nations of the North, but from the crowded alleys of our great +towns--which threatens to plunge us into a new Dark Age. The menace of +the Red Peril will secure, for a long time to come, the survival of the +Black. + +But the Roman Catholicism which has a future is probably that of +Manning, and not that of Newman. A Church which depends for its strength +and prestige on the iron discipline of a centralised autocracy, and on +the fanatical devotion of soldiers who know no duty except obedience, no +cause except the interests of their society, can make no terms with the +disintegrating nominalism, the uncertain subjectivism, of a mind like +Newman's. It has been the strange fate of this great man, after driving +a wedge deep into the Anglican Church, which at this day is threatened +with disruption through the movement which he helped to originate, to +have nearly succeeded in doing the same to the far more compact +structure of Roman Catholicism. The Modernist movement has from the +first appealed to Newman as its founder, and has sought to protect +itself under his authority. It is necessary to consider, as the last +topic of this article, whether this affiliation can be allowed to be +true. No one who has read any of Newman's works can doubt that he would +have recoiled with horror from the destructive criticism of Loisy, the +contempt for scholastic authority of Tyrrell, and the defiance hurled at +the Papacy in the manifesto of the Italian Modernists. Newman's doctrine +of Development was far removed from that of Bergson's 'L'Evolution +Creatrice.' He defended the fact of development against the staticism of +contemporary Anglicanism; but his notion of development was more like +the unrolling of a scroll than the growth of a tree or the expansion and +change of a human character. 'Every Catholic holds,' he says, 'that the +Christian dogmas were in the Church from the time of the Apostles; that +they were ever in their substance what they are now.' Compare this with +the following words from the Italian manifesto: 'The supernatural life +of Christ in the faithful and in the Church has been clothed in an +historical form, which has given birth to what we might somewhat loosely +call the Christ of legend.... Such a criticism does away with the +possibility of finding in Christ's ministry even the embryonic form of +the Church's later theological teaching.' 'A dogma,' says Le Roy, one of +the ablest philosophers of the school, 'proclaims, above all, a +prescription of practical order; it is the formula of a rule of +practical conduct. Why then should we not bring theory into harmony with +practice?' + +These extracts mark a much later phase of the revolt against Catholic +dogma and scholastic theology than can be found in Newman's writings. +They are contemporary with the Pragmatism of James and Schiller, and the +Activism of Bergson. So bold a defiance of tradition would have been +impossible thirty years earlier. And yet, when Newman pours scorn upon +human reason, and when he enthrones the 'conscience' as the supreme +arbiter of truth, is he not, in fact, preparing the way for these +startling declarations, which imply a complete rupture with Catholic +authority? Dogmas are indisputably 'notional' propositions; that is to +say, they belong to that class of truths to which Newman ascribes only a +very subordinate importance. We cannot, in his sense,'assent' to an +historical proposition as such, but only to the authority which has +ordered us to believe it. And is there any justification for Newman's +confidence that this authority may make apparent innovations, such as he +admits to have been made throughout the history of the Church, but no +real changes? If he had been able to think out the implications of his +doctrine of development with the help of such arguments as those of +Bergson, would he not have seen that without change and real innovation +there can be no true evolution? Do not the fluidity and pragmatic +character of dogma, so much insisted on by Sabatier and Le Roy, follow +from the anti-intellectualist personalism which we have seen to be the +foundation of Newman's philosophy of religion? The Modernist might argue +that he is only extending to the history of the Church the doctrine of +education by experience which Newman found to be true in the +life-history of the individual. Life itself, with its experiences and +its needs, is the revealer of truth. We cannot anticipate the wisdom of +the future. + + 'I do not ask to see + The distant scene; one step enough for me.' + +The kindly light leads a man on step by step; it conducts him from +experience to experience, not without lapses into error; it reproves him +if he desires to 'choose and see his path.' If this is true in the +history of the individual, is it not probably also true in the history +of the Church? And if it is true in the history of the Church, are not +the dogmatists wrong who have tried to legislate not only for the +present but the future, and to bind the Church for all time to the +formulations which appeared satisfactory to themselves? If Providence is +leading the Church through varied experiences in order to teach it +greater wisdom, is it not clear that we must not rashly preclude the +possibility of future revelation by stereotyping the results of some +earlier stage of experience? Thus the empiricism of Newman leads +logically to consequences which he would have been among the first to +reject. + +Some rather shallow thinkers in this country have expressed their +surprise and regret that the Vatican has refused to make any terms with +Modernism. They have supposed that the fault lies with an ignorant and +reactionary Pope. But there are many reasons why this dangerous and +disintegrating tendency must be rigorously excluded from Roman +Catholicism. In the first place, Modernism destroys the historical basis +of Christianity, and converts the Incarnation and Atonement into myths +like those of other dying and rising saviour-gods, which hardly pretend +to be historical. But it was this foundation in history which helped +largely to secure the triumph of Christianity over its rivals. In the +place of the historical God-Man, Modernism gives us the history of the +Church as an object of reverence. We are bidden to contemplate an +institution of amazingly tough vitality but great adaptability, which in +its determination to survive has not only changed colour like a +chameleon but has from time to time put forth new organs and discovered +new weapons of offence and defence. We ask for evidence that the Church +has regenerated the world; and we are shown how, by hook or by crook, it +has succeeded in safeguarding its own interests. Ecclesiastical +historians are ingenious and unscrupulous; but it is impossible even for +them to exhibit Church history as the record of a continuous +intervention of the Spirit of Christ in human affairs. If any Spirit has +presided over the councils of popes, cardinals, and inquisitors it is +not that of the Founder of Christianity. + +Further, the religious philosophy of Modernism is bad, much worse than +the scholasticism which it derides. It is in essentials a revival of the +sophistry of Protagoras. And if it were metaphysically more respectable +than it is, it is so widely opposed to the whole system of Catholic +apologetics, that if it were accepted, it would necessitate a complete +reconstruction of Catholic dogma. Let any man read the Stonyhurst +manuals, and say whether the radical empiricism of the Modernists could +find a lodgment anywhere in such a system without disturbing the +stability of the whole. Catholicism is one of the most compact +structures in the world, and it rests on presuppositions which are far +removed from those of Modernism. It is one thing to admit that dogmas in +many cases have a pragmatic origin, and quite another to say that they +may be invented or rejected with a pragmatic purpose. The healthy human +intellect will never believe that the same proposition may be true for +faith and untrue in fact; but this is the Modernist contention. + +Lastly, the subjectivism of Newman and the Modernists is fatal to that +exclusiveness which is the corner-stone of Catholic policy. The analogy +between the individual and the Church suggests that God may 'fulfil +Himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world.' As +there are many individuals, each of whom is being guided separately by +the 'kindly light,' so there may be many churches. The pragmatic proof +of the truth of a religion, from the fact of its survival and successful +working, does not justify the Roman claim to monopoly. The Protestant +churches also display vitality, and their members seem to exhibit the +fruits of the Spirit. The condemnations of Modernism published by the +Vatican show that the Papal court is quite alive to this danger. To the +outsider, indeed, it might seem a happy solution of a long controversy +if the Roman Church would be content to claim the gifts of grace which +are really hers, without denying the validity of the Orders and +Sacraments of other bodies, and the genuineness of the Christian graces +which they exhibit. It would then be admitted on all hands that some +temperaments are more suited to Catholicism, others to Protestantism, +and that the character of each man develops most satisfactorily under +the discipline which suits his nature. But we must not expect any such +concession from Rome; and in truth such an admission would be the +beginning of the end for Catholicism in its present form. + +Our conclusion then is that although Newman was not a Modernist, but an +exceedingly stiff conservative, he did introduce into the Roman Church a +very dangerous and essentially alien habit of thought, which has since +developed into Modernism. Perhaps Monsignor Talbot was not far wrong, +from his own point of view, when he called him 'the most dangerous man +in England.' One side of his religion was based on principles which, +when logically drawn out, must lead away from Catholicism in the +direction of an individualistic religion of experience, and a +substitution of history for dogma which makes all truth relative and all +values fluid. Newman's writings have always made genuine Catholics +uneasy, though they hardly know why. It is probable that here is the +solution. + +The character of Newman--for with this we must end--may seem to have +been more admirable than lovable. He was more apt to make disciples than +friends. Yet he was loved and honoured by men whose love is an honour, +and he is admired by all who can appreciate a consistently unworldly +life. The Roman Church has been less unpopular in England since Newman +received from it the highest honour which it can bestow. Throughout his +career he was a steadfast witness against tepid and insincere +professions of religion, and against any compromise with the shifting +currents of popular opinion. All cultivated readers, who have formed +their tastes on the masterpieces of good literature, are attracted, +sometimes against their will, by the dignity and reserve of his style, +qualities which belong to the man, and not only to the writer. Like +Goethe, he disdains the facile arts which make the commonplace reader +laugh and weep. 'Ach die zaertlichen Herzen! ein Pfuscher vermag sie zu +ruehren!' Like Wordsworth, he might say 'To stir the blood I have no +cunning art.' There are no cheap effects in any of Newman's writings. He +is the most undemocratic of teachers. Such men do what can be done to +save a nation from itself, its natural enemy. They are not indifferent +to fame, because they desire influence; but they will do nothing to +advertise themselves. The public must come to them; they will not go to +the public. There have been other great men who have been as indifferent +as Newman to the applause of the vulgar. But they have been generally +either pure intellectualists or pure artists, in whom + + 'The intellectual power through words and things + Went sounding on a dim and perilous way.' + +Newman's 'confidence towards God' was of a still nobler kind. It rested +on an unclouded faith in the Divine guidance, and on a very just +estimate of the worthlessness of contemporary praise and blame. There +have been very few men who have been able to combine so strong a faith +with a thorough distrust of both logic-chopping and emotional +excitement, and who, while denying themselves these aids to conviction, +have been able to say, calmly and without petulance, that with them it +is a very small thing to be judged of man's judgment. + + 'What (he asks) can increase their peace who believe and + trust in the Son of God? Shall we add a drop to the ocean, + or grains to the sand of the sea? We pay indeed our + superiors full reverence, and with cheerfulness as unto the + Lord; and we honour eminent talents as deserving admiration + and reward; and the more readily act we thus, because these + are little things to pay.'[89] + +Such unworldliness as this, in the well-chosen words of R.H. Hutton, +'stands out in strange and almost majestic contrast to the eager turmoil +of confused passions, hesitating ideals, tentative virtues, and groping +philanthropies, amidst which it was lived.' + +Another mark of greatness is unbroken consistency and unity of aim in a +long life. There are few parallels to the neglect of his own literary +reputation by Newman. Higher interests, he thought, were at stake; and +so he had no dream of building for himself 'a monument more durable than +brass,' and of claiming a pedestal among the great writers of English +prose and verse. He accepted long years of literary barrenness; he wrote +historical essays for which he had no special aptitude, and dogmatic +disquisitions which even his genius could not save from dulness; he even +descended into mere journalism. The 'Apologia' would probably not have +been written but for the accident of Kingsley's attack. It has, no +doubt, been said with truth that Newman showed great dexterity in +choosing opponents with whom to cross swords--Kingsley, Pusey, +Gladstone, and his old Anglican self. But this does not alter the fact +that a man who must have been conscious of rare literary gifts made no +attempt to immortalise himself by them. It was for the Church, and not +for himself, that he wrote as well as lived. + +That his life is for the most part a record of sadness and failure is no +indication that he was not one of the great men of his time. +Independence is no passport to success in a world where, as Swift said, +climbing and crawling are performed in much the same attitude. And if we +are right in our view that there was something in the composition of his +mind which prevented him from being either a complete Catholic or a +complete Protestant, this too is no obstacle to our recognition of his +greatness. He has left an indelible mark upon two great religious +bodies. He has stirred movements which still agitate the Church of +England and the Church of Rome, and the end of which is not yet in +sight. Anglo-Catholicism and Modernism are alien growths, perhaps, in +the institutions where they have found a place; but the man who beyond +all others is responsible for grafting them upon the old stems is secure +of his place in history. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [82] Cf. e. _Parochial and Plain Sermons_, vi. 259. + + [83] Mark Pattison, _Memoirs_, p. 97. + + [84] _Stray Essays_, p. 94. + + [85] _Parochial and Plain Sermons_, v. 112. + + [86] _Ibid_. vi. 259. + + [87] _Ibid_. vi. 340. + + [88] _Grammar of Assent_, part i. c. 1 and 2. + + [89] _Parochial and Plain Sermons_, vii. 73. + + + + +ST. PAUL + +(1914) + + +Among all the great men of antiquity there is none, with the exception +of Cicero, whom we may know so intimately as Saul of Tarsus. The main +facts of his career have been recorded by a contemporary, who was +probably his friend and travelling companion. A collection of letters, +addressed to the little religious communities which he founded, reveals +the character of the writer no less than the nature of his work. Alone +among the first preachers of Christianity, he stands before us as a +living man. Ohiost phepnytai, toi de skiai hahissoysi. We know very +little in reality of Peter and James and John, of Apollos and Barnabas. +And of our divine Master no biography can ever be written. + +With St. Paul it is quite different. He is a saint without a luminous +halo. His personal characteristics are too distinct and too human to +make idealisation easy. For this reason he has never been the object of +popular devotion. Shadowy figures like St. Joseph and St. Anne have been +divinised and surrounded with picturesque legends; but St. Paul has been +spared the honour or the ignominy of being coaxed and wheedled by the +piety of paganised Christianity. No tender fairy-tales are attached to +his cult; he remains for us what he was in the flesh. It is even +possible to feel an active dislike for him. Lagarde ('Deutsche +Schriften,' p. 71) abuses him as a politician might vilify an opponent. +'It is monstrous' (says he) 'that men of any historical training should +attach any importance to this Paul. This outsider was a Pharisee from +top to toe even after he became a Christian'--and much more to the same +effect. Nietzsche describes him as 'one of the most ambitious of men, +whose superstition was only equalled by his cunning. A much tortured, +much to be pitied man, an exceedingly unpleasant person both to himself +and to others.... He had a great deal on his conscience. He alludes to +enmity, murder, sorcery, idolatry, impurity, drunkenness, and the love +of carousing.' Renan, who could never have made himself ridiculous by +such ebullitions as these, does not disguise his repugnance for the +'ugly little Jew' whose character he can neither understand nor admire. +These outbursts of personal animosity, so strange in modern critics +dealing with a personage of ancient history, show how vividly his figure +stands out from the canvas. There are very few historical characters who +are alive enough to be hated. + +It is, however, only in our own day that the personal characteristics of +St. Paul have been intelligently studied; and the most valuable books +about him are later than the unbalanced tirades of Lagarde and +Nietzsche, and the carping estimate of Renan. In the nineteenth century, +Paul was obscured behind Paulinism. His letters were studied as +treatises on systematic theology. Elaborate theories of atonement, +justification, and grace were expounded on his authority, as if he had +been a religious philosopher or theological professor like Origen and +Thomas Aquinas. The name of the apostle came to be associated with +angular and frigid disquisitions which were rapidly losing their +connexion with vital religion. It has been left for the scholars of the +present century to give us a picture of St. Paul as he really was--a man +much nearer to George Fox or John Wesley than to Origen or Calvin; the +greatest of missionaries and pioneers, and only incidentally a great +theologian. The critical study of the New Testament has opened our eyes +to see this and many other things. Much new light has also been thrown +by studies in the historical geography of Asia Minor, a work in which +British scholars have characteristically taken a prominent part. The +delightful books of Sir W.M. Ramsay have now been supplemented by the +equally attractive volume of another travelling scholar, Professor +Deissmann. A third source of new information is the mass of inscriptions +and papyri which have been discovered in the last twenty years. The +social life of the middle and lower classes in the Levant, their +religious beliefs and practices, and the language which they spoke, are +now partially known to us, as they never were before. The human interest +of the Pauline Epistles, and of the Acts, is largely increased by these +accessions to knowledge. + +The Epistles are real letters, not treatises by a theological professor, +nor literary productions like the Epistles of Seneca. Each was written +with reference to a definite situation; they are messages which would +have been delivered orally had the Apostle been present. Several letters +have certainly been lost; and St. Paul would probably not have cared +much to preserve them. There is no evidence that he ever thought of +adding to the Canon of Scripture by his correspondence. The Author of +Acts seems not to have read any of the letters. This view of the +Epistles has rehabilitated some of them, which were regarded as spurious +by the Tuebingen school and their successors. The question which we now +ask when the authenticity of an Epistle is doubted is, Do we find the +same man? not, Do we find the same system? There is, properly speaking, +no system in St. Paul's theology, and there is a singularly rapid +development of thought. The 'Pastoral Epistles' are probably not +genuine, though the defence of them is not quite a desperate +undertaking. Of the rest, the weight of evidence is slightly against the +Pauline authorship of Ephesians, the vocabulary of which differs +considerably from that of the undoubted Epistles; and the short letter +called 2 Thessalonians is open to some suspicion. The genuineness of +Ephesians is not of great importance to the student of Pauline theology, +unless the closely allied Epistle to the Colossians is also rejected; +and there has been a remarkable return of confidence in the Pauline +authorship of this letter. All the other Epistles seem to be firmly +established. + +The other source of information about St. Paul's life is the Acts of +the Apostles, the value of which as a historical document is very +variously estimated. The doubts refer mainly to the earlier chapters, +before St. Paul appears on the scene. Sane criticism can hardly dispute +that the 'we-passages,' in which the writer speaks of St. Paul and +himself in the first person plural, are the work of an eye-witness, and +that most of the important facts in the later chapters are from the same +source. The difficult problem is concerned with the relation of this +writer to the editor, who is responsible for the 'Petrine' part of the +book. There is very much to be said in favour of the tradition that this +editor, who also compiled the Third Gospel, was Lucas or Lucanus, the +physician and friend of St. Paul. It does not necessarily follow that he +was the fellow-traveller who in a few places speaks of himself in the +first person. Luke (if we may decide the question for ourselves by +giving him this name) must have been a man of very attractive character; +full of kindness, loyalty, and Christian charity. He is the most +feminine (not effeminate) writer in the New Testament, and shows a +marked partiality for the tender aspects of Christianity. He is +attracted by miracles, and by all that makes history picturesque and +romantic. His social sympathies are so keen that his gospel furnishes +the Christian socialist with nearly all his favourite texts. Above all, +he is a Greek man of letters, dominated by the conventions of Greek +historical composition. For the Greek, history was a work of art, +written for edification, and not merely a bald record of facts. The +Greek historian invented speeches for his principal characters; this was +a conventional way of elucidating the situation for the benefit of his +readers. Everyone knows how Thucydides, the most conscientious historian +in antiquity, habitually uses this device, and how candidly he explains +his method. We can hardly doubt that the author of Acts has used a +similar freedom, though the report of the address to the elders of +Ephesus reads like a summary of an actual speech. The narrative is +coloured in places by the historian's love for the miraculous. Critics +have also suspected an eirenical purpose in his treatment of the +relations between St. Paul and the Jerusalem Church. + +Saul of Tarsus was a Benjamite of pure Israelite descent, but also a +Roman citizen by birth. His famous old Jewish name was Latinised or +Graecised as Paulos (Sahylost means 'waddling,' and would have been a +ridiculous name); he doubtless bore both names from boyhood. Tarsus is +situated in the plain of Cilicia, and is now about ten miles from the +sea. It is backed by a range of hills, on which the wealthier residents +had villas, while the high glens of Taurus, nine or ten miles further +inland, provided a summer residence for those who could afford it, and a +fortified acropolis in time of war. The town on the plain must have been +almost intolerable in the fierce Anatolian summer-heat. The harbour was +a lake formed by the Cydnus, five or six miles below Tarsus; but light +ships could sail up the river into the heart of the city. Thus Tarsus +had the advantages of a maritime town, though far enough from the sea to +be safe from pirates. The famous pass called the 'Cilician Gates' was +traversed by a high-road through the gorge into Cappadocia. Ionian +colonists came to Tarsus in very early times; and Ramsay is confident +that Tarshish, 'the son of Javan,' in Gen. x. 4, is none other than +Tarsus. The Greek settlers, of course, mixed with the natives, and the +Oriental element gradually swamped the Hellenic. The coins of Tarsus +show Greek figures and Aramaic lettering. The principal deity was +Baal-Tarz, whose effigy appears on most of the coins. Under the +successors of Alexander, Greek influence revived, but the administration +continued to be of the Oriental type; and Tarsus never became a Greek +city, until in the first half of the second century B.C. it proclaimed +its own autonomy, and renamed itself Antioch-on-Cydnus. Great privileges +were granted it by Antiochus Epiphanes, and it rapidly grew in wealth +and importance. Besides the Greeks, there was a large colony of Jews, +who always established themselves on the highways of the world's +commerce. Since St. Paul was a 'citizen' of Tarsus, i.e. a member of +one of the 'Tribes' into which the citizens were divided, it is probable +(so Ramsay argues) that there was a large 'Tribe' of Jews at Tarsus; for +no Jew would have been admitted into, or would have consented to join, a +Greek Tribe, with its pagan cult. + +So matters stood when Cilicia became a Roman Province in 104 B.C. The +city fell into the hands of the barbarian Tigranes twenty years later, +but Gnaeus Pompeius re-established the Roman power, and with it the +dominance of Hellenism, in 63. Augustus turned Cilicia into a mere +adjunct of Syria; and the pride of Tarsus received a check. +Nevertheless, the Emperor showed great favour to the Tarsians, who had +sided with Julius and himself in the civil wars. Tarsus was made a +'libera civitas,' with the right to live under its own laws. The leading +citizens were doubtless given the Roman citizenship, or allowed to +purchase it. Among these would naturally be a number of Jews, for that +nation loved Julius Caesar and detested Pompeius. But Hellenism could not +retain its hold on Tarsus. Dion Chrysostom, who visited it at the +beginning of the second century A.D., found it a thoroughly Oriental +town, and notes that the women were closely veiled in Eastern fashion. +Possibly this accounts for St. Paul's prejudice against unveiled women +in church. One Greek institution, however, survived and flourished--a +university under municipal patronage. Strabo speaks with high admiration +of the zeal for learning displayed by the Tarsians, who formed the +entire audience at the professors' lectures, since no students came from +outside. This last fact shows, perhaps, that the lecturers were not men +of wide reputation; indeed, it is not likely that Tarsus was able to +compete with Athens and Alexandria in attracting famous teachers. The +most eminent Tarsians, such as Antipater the Stoic, went to Europe and +taught there. What distinguished Tarsus was its love of learning, widely +diffused in all classes of the population. + +St. Paul did not belong to the upper class. He was a working artisan, a +'tent-maker,' who followed one of the regular trades of the place. +Perhaps, as Deissmann thinks, the 'large letters' of Gal. vi. 11 imply +that he wrote clumsily, like a working man and not like a scribe. The +words indicate that he usually dictated his letters. The 'Acts of Paul +and Thekla' describe him as short and bald, with a hook-nose and +beetling brows; there is nothing improbable in this description. But he +was far better educated than the modern artisan. Not that a single +quotation from Menander (1 Cor. xv. 33) shows him to be a good Greek +scholar; an Englishman may quote 'One touch of nature makes the whole +world kin' without being a Shakespearean. But he was well educated +because he was the son of a strict Jew. A child in such a home would +learn by heart large pieces of the Old Testament, and, at the Synagogue +school, all the _minutiae_ of the Jewish Law. The pupil was not allowed +to write anything down; all was committed to the memory, which in +consequence became extremely retentive. The perfect pupil 'lost not a +drop from his teacher's cistern.' At the age of about fourteen the boy +would be sent to Jerusalem, to study under one of the great Rabbis; in +St. Paul's case it was Gamaliel. Under his tuition the young Pharisee +would learn to be a 'strong Churchman.' The Rabbis viewed everything +from an ecclesiastical standpoint. The interests of the Priesthood, the +Altar, and the Temple overshadowed everything else. The Priestly Code, +says Mr. Cohu, practically resolves itself into one idea: Everything in +Israel belongs to God; all places, all times, all persons, and all +property are His. But God accepts a part of His due; and, if this part +is scrupulously paid, He will send His blessing upon the remainder. +Besides the written law, the Pharisee had to take on himself the still +heavier burden of the oral law, which was equally binding. It was a +seminary education of the most rigorous kind. St Paul cannot reproach +himself with any slackness during his novitiate. He threw himself into +the system with characteristic ardour. Probably he meant to be a +Jerusalem Rabbi himself, still practising his trade, as the Rabbis +usually did. For he was unmarried; and every Jew except a Rabbi was +expected to marry at or before the age of twenty-one. + +He suffered from some obscure physical trouble, the nature of which we +can only guess. It was probably epilepsy, a disease which is compatible +with great powers of endurance and great mental energy, as is proved by +the cases of Julius Caesar and Napoleon. He was liable to mystical +trances, in which some have found a confirmation of the supposition that +he was epileptic. But these abnormal states were rare with him; in +writing to the Galatians he has to go back fourteen years to the date +when he was 'caught up into the third heaven,' The visions and voices +which attended his active ministry prove nothing about his health. At +that time anyone who underwent a psychical experience for which he could +not account believed that he was possessed by a spirit, good or bad. It +is significant that Tertullian, at the end of the second century, says +that 'almost the majority of mankind derive their knowledge of God from +visions.' The impression that St. Paul makes upon us is that of a man +full of nervous energy and able to endure an exceptional amount of +privation and hardship. A curious indication, which has not been +noticed, is that, as he tells us himself, he five times received the +maximum number of lashes from Jewish tribunals. These floggings in the +Synagogues were very severe, the operator being required to lay on with +his full strength. There is evidence that in most cases a much smaller +number of strokes than the full thirty-nine was inflicted, so as not to +endanger the life of the culprit. The other trials which he +mentions--three Roman scourgings, one stoning, a day and night spent in +battling with the waves after shipwreck, would have worn out any +constitution not exceptionally tough. + +We must bear in mind this terrible record of suffering if we wish to +estimate fairly the character of the man. During his whole life after +his conversion he was exposed not only to the hardships of travel, +sometimes in half-civilised districts, but to 'all the cruelty of the +fanaticism which rages like a consuming fire through the religious +history of the East from the slaughter of Baal's priests to the +slaughter of St. Stephen, and from the butcheries of Jews at Alexandria +under Caligula to the massacres of Christians at Adana, Tarsus, and +Antioch in the year 1909'--(Deissmann). It is one evil result of such +furious bigotry that it kindles hatred and resentment in its victims, +and tempts them to reprisals. St. Paul does speak bitterly of his +opponents, though chiefly when he finds that they have injured his +converts, as in the letter to the Galatians. Modern critics have +exaggerated this element in a character which does not seem to have been +fierce or implacable. He writes like a man engaged in a stern conflict +against enemies who will give no quarter, and who shrink from no +treachery. But the sharpest expression that can be laid to his charge is +the impatient, perhaps half humorous wish that the Judaisers who want to +circumcise the Galatians might be subjected to a severer operation +themselves (Gal. v. 12). The dominant impression that he makes upon us +is that he was cast in a heroic mould. He is serenely indifferent to +criticism and calumny; no power on earth can turn him from his purpose. +He has made once for all a complete sacrifice of all earthly joys and +all earthly ties; he has broken (he, the devout Jewish Catholic) with +his Church and braved her thunders; he has faced the opprobrium of being +called traitor, heretic, and apostate; he has 'withstood to the face' +the Palestinian apostles who were chosen by Jesus and held His +commission; he has set his face to achieve, almost single-handed, the +conquest of the Roman Empire, a thing never dreamed of by the Jerusalem +Church; he is absolutely indifferent whether his mission will cost him +his life, or only involve a continuation of almost intolerable hardship. +It is this indomitable courage, complete self-sacrifice, and +single-minded devotion to a magnificently audacious but not +impracticable idea, which constitute the greatness of St. Paul's +character. He was, with all this, a warm-hearted and affectionate man, +as he proves abundantly by the tone of his letters. His personal +religion was, in essence, a pure mysticism; one worships a Christ whom +he has experienced as a living presence in his soul. The mystic who is +also a man of action, and a man of action because he is a mystic, wields +a tremendous power over other men. He is like an invulnerable knight, +fighting in magic armour. + +It is an interesting and difficult question whether we should regard the +intense moral dualism of the Epistle to the Romans as a confession that +the writer has had an unusually severe personal battle with temptation. +The moral struggle certainly assumes a more tragic aspect in these +passages than in the experience of many saintly characters. We find +something like it in Augustine, and again in Luther; it may even be +suggested that these great men have stamped upon the Christian tradition +the idea of a harsher 'clash of yes and no' than the normal experience +of the moral life can justify. But it is not certain that the first +person singular in such verses as 'O wretched man that I am! who shall +deliver me from this body of death?' is a personal confession at all. It +may be for human nature generally that he is speaking, when he gives +utterance to that consciousness of sin which was one of the most +distinctive parts of the Christian religion from the first. It does not +seem likely that a man of so lofty and heroic a character was ever +seriously troubled with ignominious temptations. That he yielded to +them, as Nietzsche and others have suggested, is in the highest degree +improbable. Even if the self-reproaches were uttered in his own person, +we have many other instances of saints who have blamed themselves +passionately for what ordinary men would consider slight transgressions. +Of all the Epistles, the Second to the Corinthians is the one which +contains the most intimate self-revelations, and few can read it without +loving as well as honouring its author. + +We know nothing of the Apostle's residence at Jerusalem except the name +of his teacher. But it was at this time that he became steeped in the +Pharisaic doctrines which loamed the framework in which his earlier +Christian beliefs were set. It is now recognised that Pharisaism, far +from being the antipodes of Christianity, was rather the quarter where +the Gospel found its best recruits. The Pharisaic school contained the +greater part of whatever faith, loyalty and piety remained among the +Jewish people; and its dogmatic system passed almost entire into the +earliest Christian Church, with the momentous addition that Jesus was +the Messiah. A few words on the Pharisaic teaching which St. Paul must +have imbibed from Gamaliel are indispensable even in an article which +deals with Paul, and not with Paulinism. + +The distinctive feature of the Jewish religion is not, as is often +supposed, its monotheism, Hebrew religion in its golden age was +monolatry rather than monotheism; and when Jahveh became more strictly +'the only God,' the cult of intermediate beings came in, and restored a +quasi-polytheism. The distinctive feature in Jewish faith is its +historical and teleological character. The God of the Jew is not natural +law. If the idea of necessary causation ever forced itself upon his +mind, he at once gave it the form of predestination. The whole of +history is an unfolding of the divine purpose; and so history as a whole +has for the Jew an importance which it never had for a Greek thinker, +nor for the Hellenised Jew Philo. The Hebrew idea of God is dynamic and +ethical; it is therefore rooted in the idea of Time. The Pharisaic +school modified this prophetic teaching in two ways. It became more +spiritual; anthropomorphisms were removed, and the transcendence of God +above the world was more strictly maintained. On the other hand, the +religious relationship became in their hands narrower and more external. +The notion of a covenant was defined more rigorously; the Law was +practically exalted above God, so that the Rabbis even represent the +Deity as studying the Law. With this legalism went a spirit of intense +exclusiveness and narrow ecclesiasticism. As God was raised above direct +contact with men, the old animistic belief in angels and demons, which +had lasted on in the popular mind by the side of the worship of Jahveh, +was extended in a new way. A celestial hierarchy was invented, with +names, and an infernal hierarchy too; the malevolent ghosts of animism +became fallen angels. Satan, who in Job is the crown-prosecutor, one of +God's retinue, becomes God's adversary; and the angels, formerly +manifestations of God Himself, are now quite separated from Him. A +supramundane physics or cosmology was evolved at the same time. Above +Zion, the centre of the earth, rise seven heavens, in the highest of +which the Deity has His throne. The underworld is now first divided into +Paradise and Gehenna. The doctrine of the fall of man, through his +participation in the representative guilt of his first parents, is +Pharisaic; as is the strange legend, which St. Paul seems to have +believed (2 Cor. xi. 3), that the Serpent carnally seduced Eve, and so +infected the race with spiritual poison. Justification, in Pharisaism as +for St. Paul, means the verdict of acquittal. The bad receive in this +life the reward for any small merits which they may possess; the sins of +the good must be atoned for; but merits, as in Roman Catholicism, may be +stored and transferred. Martyrdoms especially augment the spiritual +bank-balance of the whole nation. There was no official Messianic +doctrine, only a mass of vague fancies and beliefs, grouped round the +central idea of the appearance on earth of a supernatural Being, who +should establish a theocracy of some kind at Jerusalem. The righteous +dead will be raised to take part in this kingdom. The course of the +world is thus divided into two epochs--'this age' and 'the age to come.' +A catastrophe will end the former and inaugurate the latter. The +promised deliverer is now waiting in heaven with God, until his hour +comes; and it will come very soon. All this St. Paul must have learned +from Gamaliel. It formed the framework of his theology as a Christian +for many years after his conversion, and was only partially thrown off, +under the influence of mystical experience and of Greek ideas, during +the period covered by the letters. The lore of good and bad spirits (the +latter are 'the princes of this world' in I Cor. ii. 6, 8) pervades the +Epistles more than modern readers are willing to admit. It is part of +the heritage of the Pharisaic school. + +It is very unlikely (in spite of Johannes Weiss) that St. Paul ever saw +Jesus in the flesh. But he did come in contact with the little Christian +community at Jerusalem. These disciples at first attempted to live as +strict members of the Jewish Church. They knew that the coming Messiah +was their crucified Master, but this belief involved no rupture with +Judaism. So at least they thought themselves; the Sanhedrin saw more +clearly what the new movement meant. The crisis came when numerous +'Hellenists' attached themselves to the Church--Jews of the Dispersion, +from Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere. A threatened rupture between these and +the Palestinian Christians was averted by the appointment of seven +deacons or charity commissioners, among whom Stephen soon became +prominent by the dangerously 'liberal' character of his teaching. Philo +gives important testimony to the existence of a 'liberal' school among +the Jews of the Dispersion, who, under pretext of spiritualising the +traditional law, left off keeping the Sabbath and the great festivals, +and even dispensed with the rite of circumcision. Thus the admission of +Gentiles on very easy terms into the Church was no new idea to the +Palestinian Jews; it was known to them as part of the shocking laxity +which prevailed among their brethren of the Dispersion. With Stephen, +this kind of liberalism seemed to have entered the group of 'disciples.' +He was accused of saying that Jesus was to destroy the temple and change +the customs of Moses. In his bold defence he admitted that in his view +the Law was valid only for a limited period, which would expire so soon +as Jesus returned as Messiah. This was quite enough for the Sanhedrin. +They stoned Stephen, and compelled the 'disciples' to disperse and fly +for their lives. Only the Apostles, whose devotion to the Law was well +known, were allowed to remain. This last fact, briefly recorded in Acts, +is important as an indication that the persecution was directed only +against the liberalising Christians, and that these were the great +majority. Saul, it seems, had no quarrel with the Twelve; his hatred and +fanaticism were aroused against a sect of Hellenist Jews who openly +proclaimed that the Law had been abrogated in advance by their Master, +who, as Saul observed with horror, had incurred the curse of the Law by +dying on a gibbet. All the Pharisee in him was revolted; and he led the +savage heretic-hunt which followed the execution of Stephen. + +What caused the sudden change which so astonished the survivors among +his victims? To suppose that nothing prepared for the vision near +Damascus, that the apparition in the sky was a mere 'bolt from the +blue,' is an impossible theory. The best explanation is furnished by a +study of the Apostle's character, which we really know very well. The +author of the Epistles was certainly not a man who could watch a young +saint being battered to death by howling fanatics, and feel no emotion. +Stephen's speech may have made him indignant; his heroic death, the very +ideal of a martyrdom, must have awakened very different feelings. An +undercurrent of dissatisfaction, almost of disgust, at the arid and +unspiritual seminary teaching of the Pharisees now surged up and came +very near the surface. His bigotry sustained him as a persecutor for a +few weeks more; but how if he could himself see what the dying Stephen +said that he saw? Would not that be a welcome liberation? The vision +came in the desert, where men see visions and hear voices to this day. +They were very common in the desert of Gobi when Marco Polo traversed +it. 'The Spirit of Jesus,' as he came to call it, spoke to his heart, +and the form of Jesus flashed before his eyes. Stephen had been right; +the Crucified was indeed the Lord from heaven. So Saul became a +Christian; and it was to the Christianity of Stephen, not to that of +James the Lord's brother, that he was converted. The Pharisee in him was +killed. + +The travelling missionary was as familiar a figure in the Levant as the +travelling lecturer on philosophy. The Greek language brought all +nationalities together. The Hellenising of the East had gone on steadily +since the conquests of Alexander; and Greek was already as useful as +Latin in many parts of the West. A century later, Marcus Aurelius wrote +his Confessions in Greek; and even in the middle of the third century, +when the tide was beginning to turn in favour of Latin, Plotinus +lectured in Greek at Rome. Christianity, within a few years after the +Crucifixion, had allied itself definitely with the speech, and +therefore inevitably with the spirit, of Hellenism. At no time since +have travel and trade been so free between the West of Europe and the +West of Asia. A Phrygian merchant (according to the inscription on his +tomb) made seventy-two journeys to Rome in the course of his +business-life. The decomposition of nationalities, and the destruction +of civic exclusiveness, led naturally to the formation of voluntary +associations of all kinds, from religious sects to trade unions; +sometimes a single association combined these two functions. The +Oriental religions appealed strongly to the unprivileged classes, among +which genuine religious faith was growing, while the official cults of +the Roman Empire were unsatisfying in themselves and associated with +tyranny. The attempt of Augustus to resuscitate the old religion was +artificial and unfruitful. The living movement was towards a syncretism +of religious ideas and practices, all of which came from the Eastern +provinces and beyond them. The prominent features in this new devotion +were the removal of the supreme Godhead from the world to a +transcendental sphere; contempt for the world and ascetic abnegation of +'the flesh'; a longing for healing and redemption, and a close +identification of salvation with individual immortality; and, finally, +trust in sacraments ('mysteries,' in Greek) as indispensable means of +grace or redemption. This was the Paganism with which Christianity had +to reckon, as well as with the official cult and its guardians. The +established church it conquered and destroyed; the living syncretistic +beliefs it cleansed, simplified, and disciplined, but only absorbed by +becoming itself a syncretistic religion. But besides Christians and +Pagans, there were the Jews, dispersed over the whole Empire. There were +at least a million in Egypt, a country which St. Paul, for reasons +unknown to us, left severely alone; there were still more in Syria, and +perhaps five millions in the whole Empire. In spite of the fecundity of +Jewish women, so much emphasised by Seeck in his history of the Downfall +of the Ancient World, it is impossible that the Hebrew stock should have +multiplied to this extent. There must have been a very large number of +converts, who were admitted, sometimes without circumcision, on their +profession of monotheism and acceptance of the Jewish moral code. The +majority of these remained in the class technically called +'God-fearers,' who never took upon themselves the whole yoke of the Law. +These half-Jews were the most promising field for Christian +missionaries; and nothing exasperated the Jews more than to see St. Paul +fishing so successfully in their waters. The spirit of propagandism +almost disappeared from Judaism after the middle of the second century. +Judaism shrank again into a purely Eastern religion, and renounced the +dangerous compromise with Western ideas. The labours of St. Paul made an +all-important parting of the ways. Their result was that Christianity +became a European religion, while Judaism fell back upon its old +traditions. + +It is very unfortunate that we have no thoroughly trustworthy records of +the Apostle's earlier mission preaching. The Epistles only cover a +period of about ten years; and the rapid development of thought which +can be traced during this short time prevents us from assuming that his +earlier teaching closely resembled that which we find in the Letters. +But if, during the earlier period, he devoted his attention mainly to +those who were already under Jewish influence, we may be sure that he +spoke much of the Messiahship of Jesus, and of His approaching return, +these being the chief articles of faith in Judaic Christianity. This +was, however, only the framework. What attracted converts was really the +historical picture of the life of Jesus; his message of love and +brotherhood, which they found realised in the little communities of +believers; and the abolition of all external barriers between human +beings, such as social position, race, and sex, which had undoubtedly +been proclaimed by the Founder, and contained implicitly the promise of +an universal religion. We can infer what the manner of his preaching was +from the style of the letters, which were probably dictated like +extempore addresses, without much preparation. He was no trained orator, +and he thoroughly disdained the arts of the rhetorician. His Greek, +though vigorous and effective, is neither correct nor elegant. His +eloquence is of the kind which proceeds from intense conviction, and +from a thorough knowledge of Old Testament prophecy and psalmody--no bad +preparation for a religious teacher. If at times he argued like a Rabbi, +these frigid debates were as acceptable to ancient Jews as they are to +modern Scotsmen. And when he takes fire, as he deals with some vital +truth which he has lived as well as learned and taught, he establishes +his right to be called what he never aimed at being--a writer of genius. +Such passages as 1 Cor. xiii., Phil, ii., Rom. viii., rank among the +finest compositions in later Greek literature. Regarded merely as a +piece of poetical prose, 1 Cor. xiii. is finer than anything that had +been written in the Greek language since the great Attic prose-writers. +And if this was dictated impromptu, similar outbursts of splendid +eloquence were probably frequent in his mission-preaching. Their effect +must have been overwhelming, when reinforced by the flashing eye of the +speaker, and by the absolute sincerity which none could doubt who saw +his face and figure, furrowed by toil and scarred by torture. + +In addressing the Gentiles, we may assume that he followed the customary +Jewish line of apologetic, denouncing the folly of idolatry--an aid to +worship which is quite innocent and natural in some peoples, but which +the Jews never understood; that he spoke much of judgment to come; and +especially that he contrasted the pure and affectionate social life of +the Christian brotherhood with the licentiousness, cruelty, injustice, +oppression, and mutual suspicion of Pagan society. This argument +probably struck home in very many 'Gentile' hearts. The old +civilisation, with all the brilliant qualities which make many moderns +regret its destruction, rested on too narrow a base. The woman and the +slave were left out, the woman especially by the Greeks, and the slave +by the Romans. Acute social inequalities always create pride, brutality, +and widespread sexual immorality. And when the structure which +maintained these inequalities is itself tottering, the oppressed classes +begin to feel that they are unnecessary, and to hope for emancipation. +When St. Paul drew his lurid pictures of Pagan society steeped in +unnatural abominations, without hope for the future, 'hateful and hating +one another,' and then pointed to the little flock of Christians--among +whom no one was allowed to be idle and no one to starve, and where +family life was pure and mutual confidence full, frank and seldom +abused--the woman and the slave, of whom Aristotle had spoken so +contemptuously, flocked into his congregations, and began to organise +themselves for that victory which Nietzsche thought so deplorable. + +It is not necessary in this essay to traverse again the familiar field +of St. Paul's missionary journeys. The first epoch, which embraces about +fourteen years, had its scene in Syria and Cilicia, with the short tour +in Cyprus and other parts of Asia Minor. The second period, which ends +with the imprisonment in A.D. 58 or 59, is far more important. St. Paul +crosses into Europe; he works in Macedonia and Greece. Churches are +founded in two of the great towns of the ancient world, Corinth and +Ephesus. According to his letters, we must assume that he only once +returned to Jerusalem from the great tour in the West, undertaken after +the controversy with Peter; and that the object of this visit was to +deliver the money which he had promised to collect for the poor 'saints' +at Jerusalem. He intended after this to go to Rome, and thence to +Spain--a scheme worthy of the restless genius of an Alexander. He saw +Rome indeed, but as a prisoner. The rest of his life is lost in +obscurity. The writer of the Acts does not say that the two years' +imprisonment ended in his execution; and if it was so, it is difficult +to see why such a fact should be suppressed. If the charge against him +was at last dismissed, because the accusers did not think it worth while +to come to Rome to prosecute it, St. Luke's silence is more explicable. +In any case, we may regard it as almost certain that St. Paul ended his +life under a Roman axe during the reign of Nero. + +'There is hardly any fact' (says Harnack) 'which deserves to be turned +over and pondered so much as this, that the religion of Jesus has never +been able to root itself in Jewish or even upon Semitic soil.' This +extraordinary result is the judgment of history upon the life and work +of St. Paul. Jewish Christianity rapidly withered and died. According to +Justin, who must have known the facts, Jesus was rejected by the whole +Jewish nation 'with a few exceptions.' In Galilee especially, few, if +any, Christian Churches existed. There are other examples, of which +Buddhism is the most notable, of a religion gaining its widest +acceptance outside the borders of the country which gave it birth. But +history oilers no parallel to the complete vindication of St. Paul's +policy in carrying Christianity over into the Graeco-Roman world, where +alone, as the event proved, it could live. This is a complete answer to +those who maintain that Christ made no break with Judaism. Such a +statement is only tenable if it is made in the sense of Harnack's words, +that 'what Gentile Christianity did was to carry out a process which had +in fact commenced long before in Judaism itself, viz. the process by +which the Jewish religion was inwardly emancipated and turned into a +religion for the world.' But the true account would be that Judaism, +like other great ideas, had to 'die to live,' It died in its old form, +in giving birth to the religion of civilised humanity, as the Greek +nation perished in giving birth to Hellenism, and the Roman in creating +the Mediterranean empire of the Caesars and the Catholic Church of the +Popes. The Jewish people were unable to make so great a sacrifice of +their national hopes. With the matchless tenacity which characterises +their race they clung to their tribal God and their temporal and local +millennium. The disasters of A.D. 70 and of the revolt under Hadrian +destroyed a great part of the race, and at last uprooted it from the +soil of Palestine. But conservatism, as usual, has had its partial +justification. Judaism has refused to acknowledge the religion of the +civilised world as her legitimate child; but the nation has refused also +to surrender its life. There are no more Greeks and Romans; but the Jews +we have always with us. + +St. Paul saw that the Gospel was a far greater and more revolutionary +scheme than the Galilean apostles had dreamed of. In principle he +committed himself from the first to the complete emancipation of +Christianity from Judaism. But it was inevitable that he did not at +first realise all that he had undertaken. And, fortunately for us, the +most rapid evolution in his thought took place daring the ten years to +which his extant letters belong. It is exceedingly interesting to trace +his gradual progress away from Apocalyptic Messianism to a position very +near that of the fourth Gospel. The evangelist whom we call St. John is +the best commentator on Paulinism. This is one of the most important +discoveries of recent New Testament criticism. + +In the earliest Epistles--those to the Thessalonians--we have the naive +picture of Messiah coming on the clouds, which, as we now know, was part +of the Pharisaic tradition. In the central group the Christology is far +more complex. Besides the Pharisaic Messiah, and the records of the +historical Jesus of Nazareth, we have now to reckon with the +Jewish-Alexandrian idea of the generic, archetypal man, which is +unintelligible without reference to the Platonic philosophy. Philo is +here a great help towards understanding one of the most difficult parts +of the Apostle's teaching. We have also, fully developed, the mystical +doctrine of the Spirit of Christ immanent in the soul of the believer, a +conception which was the core of St. Paul's personal religion, and more +than anything else emancipated him from apocalyptic dreams of the +future. We have also a fourth conception, quite distinct from the three +which have been mentioned--that of Christ as a cosmic principle, the +instrument in creation and the sustainer of all his in the universe. We +must again have recourse to Philo and his doctrine of the Logos, to +understand the genesis of this idea, and to the Fourth Gospel to find it +stated in clear philosophical form. In this second period, these +theories about the Person of Christ are held concurrently, without any +attempt to reconcile or systematise them. The eschatology is being +seriously modified by the conception of a 'spiritual body,' which is +prepared for us so soon as our 'outward man' decays in death. The +resurrection of the flesh is explicitly denied (1 Cor. xv. 50); but a +new and incorruptible 'clothing' will be given to the soul in the future +state. Already the fundamental Pharisaic doctrine of the two ages--the +present age and that which is to come--is in danger. St. Paul can now, +like a true Greek, contrast the things that are seen, which are +temporal, with the things that are not seen, which are eternal. The +doctrine of the Spirit as a present possession of Christians brings down +heaven to earth and exalts earth to heaven; the 'Parousia' is now only +the end of the existing world-order, and has but little significance for +the individual. These ideas have not displaced the earlier apocalyptic +language; but it is easy to see that the one or the other must recede +into the background, and that the Pharisaic tradition will be the one to +fade. + +The third group of Epistles--Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians--are +steeped in ideas which belong to Greek philosophy and the Greek +mystery-religions. It would be impossible to translate them into any +Eastern language. The Rabbinical disputes with the Jews about +justification and election have disappeared; the danger ahead is now +from theosophy and the barbarised Platonism which was afterwards matured +in Gnosticism. The teaching is even more Christocentric than before; and +the Catholic doctrine of the Church as the body of Christ is more +prominent than individualistic mysticism. The cosmology is thoroughly +Johannine, and only awaits the name of the Logos. + +This receptiveness to new ideas is one of the most remarkable features +in St. Paul's mind. Few indeed are the religious prophets and preachers +whose convictions are still malleable after they have begun to govern +the minds of others. St. Paul had already proved that he was a man who +would 'follow the gleam,' even when it called him to a complete breach +with his past. And the further development of his thought was made much +easier by the fact that he was no systematic philosopher, but a great +missionary who was willing to be all things to all men, while his own +faith was unified by his strength of purpose, and by the steady glow of +the light within. + +It is difficult for us to realise the life of his little communities +without importing into the picture features which belong to a later +time. The organisation, such as it was, was democratic. The congregation +as a whole exercised a censorship over the morals of its members, and +penalties were inflicted 'by vote of the majority' (2 Cor. ii. 6). The +family formed a group for religious purposes, and remained the +recognised unit till the second century. In Ignatius and Hermas we find +the campaign against family churches in full swing. The meetings were +like those of modern revivalists, and sometimes became disorderly. But +of the moral beauty which pervaded the whole life of the brotherhoods +there can be no doubt. Many of the converts had formerly led +disreputable lives; but these were the most likely to appreciate the +gain of being no longer outlaws, but members of a true family. The +heathen were amazed at the kind of people whom the Christians admitted +and treated like brethren; but in the first century scandals do not seem +to have been frequent. Women, who were probably always the majority, +enjoyed a consideration unknown by them before. The extreme importance +attached by the early Church to sexual purity made it possible for them +to mix freely with Christian men; indeed, the strange and perilous +practice of a 'brother' and a virgin sharing the same house seems to +have already begun, if this is the meaning of the obscure passage in I +Cor. vii. 36. + +Chastity and indifference to death were the two qualities in Christians +which made the greatest impression on their neighbours. Galen is +especially interesting on the former topic. But we must add a third +characteristic--the cheerfulness and happiness which marked the early +Christian communities. 'Joy' as a moral quality is a Christian +invention, as a study of the usage of charha in Greek will show. Even in +Augustine's time the temper of the Christians, 'serena et non dissolute +hilaris' was one of the things which attracted him to the Church. The +secret of this happy social life was an intense realisation of +corporate unity among the members of the confraternity, which they +represented to themselves as a 'mystery'--a mystical union between the +Head and members of a 'body.' It is in this conception, and not in +ritual details, that we are justified in finding a real and deep +influence of the mystery-cults upon Christianity. The Catholic +conception of sacraments as bonds uniting religious communities, and as +channels of grace flowing from a corporate treasury, was as certainly +part of the Greek mystery-religion as it was foreign to Judaism. The +mysteries had their bad side, as might be expected in private and +half-secret societies; but their influence as a whole was certainly +good. The three chief characteristics of mystery-religion were, first, +rites of purification, both moral and ceremonial; second, the promise of +spiritual communion with some deity, who through them enters into his +worshippers; third, the hope of immortality, which the Greeks often +called 'deification,' and which was secured to those who were initiated. + +It is useless to deny that St. Paul regarded Christianity as, at least +on one side, a mystery-religion. Why else should he have used a number +of technical terms which his readers would recognise at once as +belonging to the mysteries? Why else should he repeatedly use the word +'mystery' itself, applying it to doctrines distinctive of Christianity, +such as the resurrection with a 'spiritual body,' the relation of the +Jewish people to God, and, above all, the mystical union between Christ +and Christians? The great' mystery' is 'Christ in you, the hope of +glory' (Col i. 27). It was as a mystery-religion that Europe accepted +Christianity. Just as the Jewish Christians took with them the whole +framework of apocalyptic Messianism, and set the figure of Jesus within +it, so the Greeks took with them the whole scheme of the mysteries, with +their sacraments, their purifications and fasts, their idea of a +mystical brotherhood, and their doctrine of 'salvation' (soterhia is +essentially a mystery word) through membership in a divine society, +worshipping Christ as the patronal deity of their mysteries. + +Historically, this type of Christianity was the origin of Catholicism, +both Western and Eastern; though it is only recently that this character +of the Pauline churches has been recognised. And students of the New +Testament have not yet realised the importance of the fact that St. +Paul, who was ready to fight to the death against the Judaising of +Christianity, was willing to take the first step, and a long one, +towards the Paganising of it. It does not appear that his personal +religion was of this type. He speaks with contempt of some doctrines and +practices of the Pagan mysteries, and will allow no _rapprochement_ with +what he regards as devil-worship. In this he remains a pure Hebrew. But +he does not appear to see any danger in allowing his Hellenistic +churches to assimilate the worship of Christ to the honours paid to the +gods of the mysteries, and to set their whole religion in this +framework, provided only that they have no part nor lot with those who +sit at 'the table of demons'--the sacramental love-feasts of the heathen +mysteries. The dangers which he does see, and against which he issues +warnings, are, besides Judaism, antinomianism and disorder on the one +hand, and dualistic asceticism on the other. He dislikes or mistrusts +'the speaking with tongues' (glossolalhia), which was the favourite +exhibition of religious enthusiasm at Corinth. (On this subject Prof. +Lake's excursus is the most instructive discussion that has yet +appeared. The 'Testament of Job' and the magical papyri show that +gibberish uttered in a state of spiritual excitement was supposed to be +the language of angels and spirits, understood by them and acting upon +them as a charm.) He urges his converts to do all things 'decently and +in order.' He is alarmed at signs of moral laxity on the part of +self-styled 'spiritual persons'--a great danger in all times of ecstatic +enthusiasm. He is also alive to the dangers connected with that kind of +asceticism which is based on theories of the impurity of the body--the +typical Oriental form of world-renunciation. But he does not appear to +have foreseen the unethical and polytheistic developments of sacramental +institutionalism. In this particular his Judaising opponents had a +little more justification than he is willing to allow them. + + +ST. PAUL + +There is something transitional about all St. Paul's teaching. We cannot +take him out of his historical setting, as so many of his commentators +in the nineteenth century tried to do. This is only another way of +saying that he was, to use his own expression, a wise master-builder, +not a detached thinker, an arm-chair philosopher. To the historian, +there must always be something astounding in the magnitude of the task +which he set himself, and in his enormous success. The future history of +the civilised world for two thousand years, perhaps for all time, was +determined by his missionary journeys and hurried writings. It is +impossible to guess what would have become of Christianity if he had +never lived; we cannot even be sure that the religion of Europe would be +called by the name of Christ. This stupendous achievement seems to have +been due to an almost unique practical insight into the essential +factors of a very difficult and complex situation. We watch him, with +breathless interest, steering the vessel which carried the Christian +Church and its fortunes through a narrow channel full of sunken rocks +and shoals. With unerring instinct he avoids them all, and brings the +ship, not into smooth water, but into the open sea, out of that perilous +strait. And so far was his masterly policy from mere opportunism, that +his correspondence has been 'Holy Scripture' for fifty generations of +Christians, and there has been no religious revival within Christianity +that has not been, on one side at least, a return to St. Paul. +Protestants have always felt their affinity with this institutionalist, +mystics with this disciplinarian. The reason, put shortly, is that St. +Paul understood what most Christians never realise, namely, that the +Gospel of Christ is not _a_ religion, but religion itself, in its most +universal and deepest significance. + + + + +INSTITUTIONALISM AND MYSTICISM + +(1914) + + +It happens sometimes that two opposite tendencies flourish together, +deriving strength from a sense of the danger with which each is +threatened by the popularity of the other. Where the antagonism is not +absolute, each may gain by being compelled to recognise the strong +points in the rival position. In a serious controversy the right is +seldom or never all on one side; and in the normal course of events both +theories undergo some modification through the influence of their +opponents, until a compromise, not always logically defensible, brings +to an end the acute stage of the controversy. Such a tension of rival +movements is very apparent in the religious thought of our day. The +quickening of spiritual life in our generation has taken two forms, +which appear to be, and to a large extent are, sharply opposed to each +other. On the one side, there has been a great revival of mysticism. +Mysticism means an immediate communion, real or supposed, between the +human soul and the Soul of the World or the Divine Spirit. The +hypothesis on which it rests is that there is a real affinity between +the individual soul and the great immanent Spirit, who in Christian +theology is identified with the Logos-Christ. He was the instrument in +creation, and through the Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit, +in which the Incarnation is continued, has entered into the most +intimate relation with the inner life of the believer. This revived +belief in the inspiration of the individual has immensely strengthened +the position of Christian apologists, who find their old fortifications +no longer tenable against the assaults of natural science and +historical criticism. It has given to faith a new independence, and has +vindicated for the spiritual life the right to stand on its own feet and +rest on its own evidence. Spiritual things, we now realise, are +spiritually discerned. The enlightened soul can see the invisible, and +live its true life in the suprasensible sphere. The primary evidence for +the truth of religion is religious experience, which in persons of +religious genius--those whom the Church calls saints and +prophets--includes a clear perception of an eternal world of truth, +beauty, and goodness, surrounding us and penetrating us at every point. +It is the unanimous testimony of these favoured spirits that the +obstacles in the way of realising this transcendental world are purely +subjective and to a large extent removable by the appropriate training +and discipline. Nor is there any serious discrepancy among them either +as to the nature of the vision which is the highest reward of human +effort, or as to the course of preparation which makes us able to +receive it. The Christian mystic must begin with the punctual and +conscientious discharge of his duties to society; he must next purify +his desires from all worldly and carnal lusts, for only the pure in +heart can see God; and he may thus fit himself for 'illumination'--the +stage in which the glory and beauty of the spiritual life, now clearly +discerned, are themselves the motive of action and the incentive to +contemplation; while the possibility of a yet more immediate and +ineffable vision of the Godhead is not denied, even in this life. There +is reason to think that this conception of religion appeals more and +more strongly to the younger generation to-day. It brings an intense +feeling of relief to many who have been distressed by being told that +religion is bound up with certain events in antiquity, the historicity +of which it is in some cases difficult to establish; with a cosmology +which has been definitely disproved; and with a philosophy which they +cannot make their own. It allows us what George Meredith calls 'the +rapture of the forward view.' It brings home to us the meaning of the +promise made by the Johannine Christ that there are many things as yet +hid from humanity which will in the future be revealed by the Spirit of +Truth. It encourages us to hope that for each individual who is trying +to live the right life the venture of faith will be progressively +justified in experience. It breaks down the denominational barriers +which divide men and women who worship the Father in spirit and in +truth--barriers which become more senseless in each generation, since +they no longer correspond even approximately with real differences of +belief or of religious temperament. It makes the whole world kin by +offering a pure religion which is substantially the same in all climates +and in all ages--a religion too divine to be fettered by any man-made +formulas, too nobly human to be readily acceptable to men in whom the +ape and tiger are still alive, but which finds a congenial home in the +purified spirit which is the 'throne of the Godhead.' Such is the type +of faith which is astir among us. It makes no imposing show in Church +conferences; it does not fill our churches and chapels; it has no +organisation, no propaganda; it is for the most part passively loyal, +without much enthusiasm, to the institutions among which it finds +itself. But in reality it has overleapt all barriers; it knows its true +spiritual kin; and amid the strifes and perplexities of a sad and +troublous time it can always recover its hope and confidence by +ascending in heart and mind to the heaven which is closer to it than +breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. + +But on the other side we see a tendency, even more manifest if we look +for external signs, to emphasise the institutional side of religion, +that which prompts men and women to combine in sacred societies, to +cherish enthusiastic loyalties for the Church of their early education +or of their later choice, to find their chief satisfaction in acts of +corporate worship, and to subordinate their individual tastes and +beliefs to the common tradition and discipline of a historical body. It +is now about eighty years since this tendency began to manifest itself +as a new phenomenon in the Anglican Church. Since then, it has spread to +other organisations. It has prompted a new degree of denominational +loyalty in several Protestant bodies on the Continent, in America, and +in our own country; and it has arrested the decline of the Roman +Catholic Church in countries where the outlook seemed least hopeful from +the ecclesiastical point of view. Such a movement, so widespread and so +powerful in its results, is clearly a thing to be reckoned with by all +who desire to estimate rightly the signs of the times. It is a current +running in the opposite direction to the mystical tendency, which +regards unity as a spiritual, not a political ideal. Fortunately, the +theory of institutionalism has lately been defended and expounded by +several able writers belonging to different denominations; so that we +may hope, by comparing their utterances, to understand the attractions +of the theory and its meaning for those who so highly value it. + +Aubrey Moore, writing in 1889, connected the Catholic revival with the +abandonment of atomism in natural philosophy and of Baconian +metaphysics. These were, he thought, the counterpart of individualism in +politics and Calvinism in religion. The adherents of mid-Victorian +science and philosophy were bewildered by the phenomenon of 'men in the +nineteenth century actually expressing a belief in a divine society and +a supernatural presence in our midst, a brotherhood in which men become +members of an organic whole by sharing in a common life, a service of +man which is the natural and spontaneous outcome of the service of +God.'[90] In the view of this learned and acute thinker, Catholicism, or +institutionalism, is destined to supplant Protestantism, as the organic +theory is destined to displace the atomic. + +More recently Troeltsch, writing as a Protestant, has emphasised the +institutional side of religion in the most uncompromising way. + + 'One of the clearest results of all religious history and + religious psychology is that the essence of all religion is + not dogma and idea, but cultus and communion, the living + intercourse with the Deity--an intercourse of the entire + community, having its vital roots in religion and deriving + its ultimate power of thus uniting individuals, from its + faith in God.... Whatever the future may bring us, we cannot + expect a certainty and force of the knowledge of God and of + His redemptive power to subsist without communion and + cultus. And so long as a Christianity of any kind shall + subsist at all, it will be united with a cultus, and with + Christ holding a central position in the cultus.'[91] + +From America, the last refuge of individualism, there has come a +pronouncement not less drastic. Professor Royce, the author of the +admirable metaphysical treatise entitled 'The World and the Individual,' +has recently published a double series of Hibbert Lectures on 'The +Problem of Christianity,' in which he affirms the institutionalist +theory with a surprising absence of qualification. The whole book is +dominated by one idea, advocated with a _naivete_ which would hardly +have been possible to a theologian--the idea that churchmanship is the +essential part of the Christian religion. + + 'The salvation of the individual man is determined by some + sort of membership in a certain spiritual community--a + religious community, and in its inmost nature a divine + community, in whose life the Christian virtues are to reach + their highest expression and the spirit of the Master is to + obtain its earthly fulfilment. In other words, there is a + certain universal and divine spiritual community. Membership + in that community is necessary to the salvation of man.... + Such a community exists, is needed, and is an indispensable + means of salvation for the individual man, and is the + fitting realm wherein alone the kingdom of heaven which the + Master preached can find its expression, and wherein alone + the Christian virtues can be effectively preached.'[92] + +These statements, which in vigour and rigour would satisfy the most +extreme curialist in the Society of Jesus, are not a little startling in +an American philosopher, who, as far as the present writer knows, does +not belong to any 'Catholic' Church. The thesis thus enunciated is the +argument of the whole book, in which 'loyalty to the beloved community' +is declared to be the characteristic Christian virtue. It is true that +the satisfaction of Professor Royce's Catholic readers is destined to be +damped in the second volume, where he forbids us to look for the ideal +divine community in any existing Church, and expresses his conviction +that great changes must come over the dogmatic teaching of Christianity. +But for our purpose the significant fact is that throughout the book he +insists that Christianity is essentially an institutional religion, the +most completely institutional of all religions. For Professor Royce to +be a Christian is to be a Churchman. + +Our last witness shall be the learned Roman Catholic layman, Baron +Friedrich von Huegel, the deepest thinker, perhaps, of all living +theologians in this country. 'It is now ever increasingly clear to all +deep impartial students that religion has ever primarily expressed and +formed itself in cultus, in social organisation, social worship, +intercourse between soul and soul and between soul and God; and in +symbols and sacraments, in contacts between spirit and matter.' He +proceeds to discuss the strength and weakness of institutionalism in a +perfectly candid spirit, but with too particular reference to the +present conditions within the Roman Church to help us much in our more +general survey. He mentions the drawbacks of an official philosophy, +prescribed by authority; 'only in 1835 did the Congregation of the Index +withdraw heliocentric books from its list.' He emphasises the necessity +of historical dogmas, but admits that orthodoxy cherishes, along with +them, 'fact-like historical pictures' which 'cannot be taken as +directly, simply factual.' He vindicates the orthodoxy of religious +toleration, and refuses to consign all non-Catholics to perdition, +lamenting the tendency to identify absolutely the visible and invisible +Church, which prevails among 'some of the (now dominant) Italian and +German Jesuit Canonists.' Lastly, he boldly recommends the frank +abandonment of the Papal claim to exercise temporal power in Italy. This +is not so much a critique of institutionalism as the plea of a Liberal +Catholic that the logic of institutionalism should not be allowed to +override all other considerations. The Baron is, indeed, himself a +mystic, though also a strong believer in the necessity of institutional +religion. + +We have then a considerable body of very competent opinion, that a man +cannot be a Christian unless he is a Churchman. To the mystic pure and +simple, such a statement seems monstrous. Did not even Augustine say, 'I +want to know God and my own soul; these two things, and no third +whatever'? What intermediary can there be, he will ask, between the soul +and God? What sacredness is there in an organisation? Is it not a matter +of common experience that the morality of an institution, a society, a +state, is inferior to that of the individuals who compose it? And is +organised Catholicism an exception to this rule? And yet we must admit +the glamour of the idea of a divine society. It arouses that _esprit de +corps_ which is the strongest appeal that can be made to some noble +minds. It calls for self-sacrifice and devoted labour in a cause which +is higher than private interest. It demands discipline and co-operation, +through which alone great things can be done on the field of history. It +holds out a prospect of really influencing the course of events. And if +there has been a historical Incarnation, it follows that God has +actually intervened on the stage of history, and that it is His will to +carry out some great and divine purpose in and by means of the course of +history. With this object, as the Catholic believes, He established an +institutional Church, pledged to the highest of all causes; and what +greater privilege can there be than to take part in this work, as a +soldier in the army of God in His long campaign against the spiritual +powers of evil? The Christian institutionalist is the servant of a grand +idea. + +There are, however, a few questions which we are bound to ask him. +First, is his idea of the Church Christian? Did the Founder of +Christianity contemplate or even implicitly sanction the establishment +of a semi-political international society, such as the Catholic Church +has actually been? Orthodox Catholicism maintains that He did. Modernism +admits that He did not, but adds that if He had known that the Messianic +expectation was illusory, and that the existing world-order was to +continue for thousands of years, He would certainly have wished that a +Catholic Church should exist. And, argues the Modernist, if it is a good +thing that a Catholic Church should exist, it is useless to quarrel with +the conditions under which alone it can maintain its existence. The +philosophical historian must admit that all the changes which the +Catholic Church has undergone--its concessions to Pagan superstition, +its secular power, its ruthless extirpation of rebels against its +authority, its steadily growing centralisation and autocracy--were +forced upon it in the struggle for existence. Those who wish that Church +history had been different are wishing the impossible, or wishing that +the Church had perished. But this argument is not valid as a defence of +a divine institution. It is rather a merciless exposure of what happens, +and must happen, to a great idea when it is enslaved by an institution +of its own creation. The political organisation which has grown up round +the idea ends by strangling it, and continues to fight for its own +preservation by the methods which govern the policy of all other +political organisations--force, fraud, and accommodation. There is +nothing in the political history of Catholicism which suggests in the +slightest degree that the spirit of Christ has been the guiding +principle in its councils. Its methods have, on the contrary, been more +cruel, more fraudulent, more unscrupulous, than those of most secular +powers. If the Founder of Christianity had appeared again on earth +during the so-called ages of faith, it is hardly possible to doubt that +He would, have been burnt alive or crucified again. What the Latin +Church preserved was not the religion of Christ, which lived on by its +inherent indestructibility, but parts of the Aristotelian and Platonic +philosophies, distorted and petrified by scholasticism, a vast quantity +of purely Pagan superstitions, and the _arcana imperii_ of Roman +Caesarism. The normal end of Scholasticism is a mummified philosophy of +authority, in which there are no problems to solve, but a great many +dead pundits to consult. The normal end of a policy which exploits the +superstitions of the peasant is a desperate warfare against education. +The normal end of Roman Imperialism is a sultanate like that of +Diocletian. It is difficult to find a proof of infallible and +supernatural wisdom in the evolution of which these are the last terms. +We read with the utmost sympathy and admiration Baron von Huegel's loyal +and reverent appeals to the authorities of his Church, that they may +draw out the strong and beneficent powers of institutionalism, and avoid +its insidious dangers. But it may be doubted whether such a policy is +possible. The future of Roman Catholicism is, I fear, with the +Ultramontanes. They, and not the Modernists, are in the line of +development which Catholicism as an institution has consistently +followed, and must continue to follow to the end. I can see no other +fate in store for the _soma_ of Catholicism; the germ-cells of true +Christianity live their own life within it, and are transmitted without +taint to those who are born of the Spirit. + +We must further ask the institutionalist what are his grounds for +identifying the Church of God with the particular institution to which +he belongs. On the institutionalist hypothesis, it might have been +expected either that there would have been no divisions in Christendom, +or that all seceding bodies would have shown such manifest inferiority +in wisdom, morality, and sanctity, that the exclusive claims of the +Great Church would have been ratified at the bar of history. This is, in +fact, the claim which Roman Catholics make. But it can only be upheld by +writing history in the spirit of an advocate, or by giving a preference, +not in accordance with modern ethical views, to certain types of +character which are produced by the monastic life of the Catholic +'religious,' It is increasingly difficult to find, in the lives of those +who belong to any one denomination, proofs of marked superiority over +other Christians. Of course, we know little of the real character of our +neighbours as they appear in the eyes of God; but in considering a +theory which lays so much stress on history as Catholic institutionalism +does, we are bound to make use of such evidence as we have. And the +evidence does not support the theory that we cannot be Christians unless +we are Catholics. Nor does it even countenance the view that we cannot +be Christians unless we are enthusiastic members of _some_ religious +corporation. Professor Royce seems to have been carried away by the idea +which prompted him to write his book; but a little thought about the +characters of his acquaintances might have given him pause. + +The mechanical theory of devolution which assumes so much importance in +some fashionable Anglican teaching about the Church need not detain us +long. The logical choice must ultimately be between the great +international Catholic Church and what Auguste Sabatier called the +religion of the Spirit. The religion of all Protestants, when it is not +secularised, as it too often is, belongs to this latter type, even when +they lay most stress on the idea of brotherhood and corporate action. +For with them institutions are never much more than associations for +mutual help and edification. The Protestant always hopes to be saved +_qua_ Christian, not _qua_ Churchman. + +A third question which must be asked is whether institutionalism in +practice makes for unity among Christians, or for division. Too often +the chief visible sign of the 'corporate idea' of which so much is said, +is the rigidity of the spikes which it erects round its own particular +fold. The obstacles to acts of reunion (which in no way carry with them +the necessity of formal amalgamation) are raised almost exclusively by +stiff institutionalists. The much-discussed Kikuyu case has brought this +home to everybody. But for these uncompromising Churchmen, Christians of +all denominations would be glad enough to meet together at the Lord's +table on special occasions like the service which gave rise to this +controversy. Anglicans are well aware that the differences of opinion +within their body are far greater than those which separate some of them +from Protestant Nonconformity, and others of them from Home. Allegiance +to this or that denomination is generally an accident of early +surroundings. To make these external classifications into barriers which +cannot be crossed is either an absurdity or a confession that a Church +is a political aggregate. A Roman Monsignor explained, _a propos_ of the +Kikuyu service, that no Roman Catholic could ever communicate in a +Protestant church, because in so doing he would be guilty of an act of +apostasy, and would be no longer a Roman Catholic. The attitude is +consistent with the Roman claim to universal jurisdiction; for any other +body it would be absurd. The stiff institutionalist is debarred by his +theory from fraternising with many who should be his friends, while he +is bound to others with whom he has no sympathy. His theory is once more +found to conflict with the facts. + +Lastly, we must ask whether institutionalism is really a spiritual and +moral force. Of the advantages of _esprit de corps_ I have spoken +already. No one can doubt that unity is strength, or that Catholicism +has an immense advantage over its rivals in the efficiency of its +organisation. But is not this advantage dearly purchased? Party loyalty +is notoriously unscrupulous. The idealised institution becomes itself +the object of worship, and it is entirely forgotten that a Christian +Church ought to have no 'interests' except the highest welfare of +humanity. The substitution of military for civil ethics has worked +disastrously on the conduct of Churchmen. Theoretically it is admitted +by Roman casuists that an immoral order ought not to be obeyed; but it +is not for a layman to pronounce immoral any order received from a +priest; if the order is really immoral, 'obedience' exonerates him who +executes it; in all other cases disobedience is a deadly sin. The result +of this submission of private judgment is that the voice of conscience +is often stifled, and unscrupulous policies are carried through by +Churchmen, which secular public opinion would have condemned decisively +and rejected. The persecution of Dreyfus is a recent and strong +instance. If all France had been Catholic, the victim of this shocking +injustice would certainly have died in prison. It is extremely doubtful +whether the presence of a highly organised Church is conducive to moral +and social reform in a country. The temptation to play a political game +seems to be always too strong. In Ireland the priesthood has probably +helped to maintain a comparatively high standard of sexual morality, but +it cannot be said that the Irish Catholic population is in other +respects a model of civilisation and good citizenship. In education +especially the influence of ecclesiasticism has been almost uniformly +pernicious, so that it seems impossible for any country where the +children are left under priestly influence to rise above a certain +rather low level of civilisation. The strongest claim of +institutionalism to our respect is probably the beneficial restraint +which it exercises upon many persons who need moral and intellectual +guidance. It is the fashion to disparage the scholastic theology, and it +has certainly suffered by being congealed, like everything else that +Rome touches, into a hard system; but it is immeasurably superior to the +theosophies and fancy religions which run riot in the superficially +cultivated classes of Protestant countries. The undisciplined mystic, in +his reliance on the inner light, may fall into various kinds of +_Schwaermerei_ and superstition. In some cases he may even lose his +sanity for want of a wise restraining influence. It is not an accident +that America, where institutionalism is weakest, is the happy +hunting-ground of religious quacks and cranks. Individualists are too +prone to undervalue the steadying influence of ancient and consecrated +tradition, which is kept up mainly by ecclesiastical institutions. These +probably prevent many rash experiments from being tried, especially in +the field of morals. Even writers like Dr. Frazer insist on the immense +services which consecrated tradition still renders to humanity. These +claims may be admitted; but they come very far short of the +glorification of institutionalism which we found in the authors quoted a +few pages back. + +The institutionalist, however, may reply that he by no means admits the +validity of Sabatier's antithesis between religions of authority and the +religion of the Spirit. His own religion, he believes, is quite as +spiritual as that of the Protestant individualist. He may quote the fine +saying of a medieval mystic that he who can see the inward in the +outward is more spiritual than he who can only see the inward in the +inward. We may, indeed, be thankful that we have not to choose between +two mutually exclusive types of religion. The Quaker, whom we may take +as the type of anti-institutional mysticism, has a brotherhood to which +he is proud to belong, and for which he feels loyalty and affection. And +Catholicism has been rich in contemplative saints who have lived in the +light of the Divine presence. The question raised in this essay is +rather of the relative importance of these two elements in the religious +life, than of choosing one and rejecting the other. I will conclude by +saying that our preference of one of these types to the other will be +largely determined by our attitude towards history. I am glad to see +that Professor Bosanquet, in his fine Gifford Lectures, has the courage +to expose the limitations of the 'historical method,' now so popular. He +protests against Professor Ward's dictum that 'the actual is wholly +historical,' as a view little better than naive realism. History, he +says, is a hybrid form of experience, incapable of any considerable +degree of being or trueness. It is a fragmentary diorama of finite +life-processes seen from the outside, and very imperfectly known. It +consists largely of assigning parts in some great world-experience to +particular actors--a highly speculative enterprise. To set these +contingent and dubious constructions above the operations of pure +thought and pure insight is indeed a return to the philosophy of the man +in the street. 'Social morality, art, philosophy, and religion take us +far beyond the spatio-temporal externality of history; these are +concrete and necessary living worlds, and in them the finite mind begins +to experience something of what individuality must ultimately mean.' Our +inquiry has thus led us to the threshold of one of the fundamental +problems of philosophy--the value and reality of time. For the +institutionalist, happenings in time have a meaning and importance far +greater than the mystic is willing to allow to them. Like most other +great philosophical problems, this question is largely one of +temperament. Christianity has found room for both types. I believe, +however, that the aberrations or exaggerations of institutionalism have +been, and are, more dangerous, and further removed from the spirit of +Christianity than those of mysticism, and that we must look to the +latter type, rather than to the former, to give life to the next +religious revival. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [90] Moore, _Science and the Faith_, Introduction. + + [91] Troeltsch, _Die Bedeutung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu + fuer den Glauben,_ pp. 25 _sq_. + + [92] Royce, _The Problem of Christianity_, vol. i. 39. + + + + +THE INDICTMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY + +(1917) + + +No thinking man can deny that this war has grievously stained the +reputation of Europe. Even if the verdict of history confirms the +opinion that the conspiracy which threw the torch into the +powder-magazine was laid by a few persons in one or two countries, and +that the unparalleled outrages which have accompanied the conflict were +ordered by a small coterie of brutal officers, we cannot forget that +these crimes have been committed by the responsible representatives of a +civilised European power, and that the nation which they represent has +shown no qualms of conscience. That such a calamity, the permanent +results of which include a holocaust of European wealth and credit, +accumulated during a century of unprecedented industry and ingenuity, +the loss of innumerable lives, and the destruction of all the old and +honourable conventions which have hitherto regulated the intercourse of +civilised nations with each other, in war as well as in peace, should +have been possible, is justly felt to be a reproach to the whole +continent, and especially to the nations which have taken the lead in +its civilisation and culture. The ancient races of Asia, which have +never admitted the moral superiority of the West, are keenly interested +spectators of our suicidal frenzy. A Japanese is reported to have said, +'We have only to wait a little longer, till Europe has completed her +_hara kiri_.' This is, indeed, what any intelligent observer must think +about the present struggle. Just as the feudal barons of England +destroyed each other and brought the feudal system to an end in the +Wars of the Roses, so the great industrial nations are rending to pieces +the whole fabric of modern industrialism, which can never be +reconstructed. Mr. Norman Angell was perfectly right in his argument +that a European war would be ruinous to both sides. The material objects +at stake, such as the control of the Turkish Empire and the African +continent, are not worth more than an insignificant fraction of the +war-bill. We are witnessing the suicide of a social order, and our +descendants will marvel at our madness, as we marvel at the senseless +wars of the past. + +There has, it is plain, been something fundamentally wrong with European +civilisation, and the disease appears to be a moral one. With this +conviction it is natural that men should turn upon the official +custodians of religion and morality, and ask them whether they have been +unfaithful to their trust, or whether it is not rather proved that the +faith which they profess is itself bankrupt and incapable of exerting +any salutary influence upon human character and action. Christianity +stands arraigned at the bar of public opinion. But it is not without +significance that the indictment should now be urged with a vehemence +which we do not find in the records of former convulsions. It was not +generally felt to be a scandal to Christianity that England was at war +for 69 years out of the 120 which preceded the battle of Waterloo. +Either our generation expected more from Christianity, or it was far +more shocked by the sudden outbreak of this fierce war than our +ancestors were by the almost chronic condition of desultory campaigning +to which they were accustomed. The latter is probably the true reason. +The belief in progress, which at the beginning of the industrial +revolution was an article of faith, had become a tacitly accepted +presupposition of all serious thought; and even those who were dubious +about the moral improvement of mankind in other directions, seldom +denied that we were more humane and peaceable than our forefathers. The +disillusion has struck our self-complacency in its most vital spot. +Nothing in our own experience had prepared us for the hideous savagery +and vandalism of German warfare, the first accounts of which we +received with blank amazement and incredulity. Then, when disbelief was +no longer possible, there awoke within us a sense of fear for our homes +and women and children--feeling to which modern civilised man had long +been a stranger. We had not supposed that the non-combatant population +of any European country would ever again be exposed to the horrors of +savage warfare. This, much more than the war itself, has made thousands +feel that the house of civilisation is built upon the sand, and that +Christianity has failed to subdue the most barbarous instincts of human +nature. Christians cannot regret that the flagrant contradiction between +the principles of their creed and the scenes that have been enacted +during the last three years is fully recognised. But the often repeated +statement that 'Christianity has failed' needs more examination than it +usually receives from those who utter it. + +History acquaints us with two kinds of religion, which, though they are +not entirely separate from each other, differ very widely in their +effects upon conduct and morality. The _religio_ which Lucretius hated, +and from which he strangely hoped that the atomistic materialism of +Epicurus had finally delivered mankind, has its roots in the sombre and +confused superstitions of the savage. Fear, as Statius and Petronius +tell us, created the gods of this religion. These deities are mysterious +and capricious powers, who exact vengeance for the transgression of +arbitrary laws which they have not revealed, and who must be propitiated +by public sacrifice, lest some collective punishment fall on the tribe, +blighting its crops and smiting its herds with murrain, or giving it +over into the hand of its enemies. This religion makes very little +attempt to correct the current standard of values. Its rewards are +wealth and prosperity; its punishments are calamity in this world and +perhaps torture in the next. It is not, however, incapable of +moralisation. The wrath of heaven may visit not the innocent violation +of some _tabu_, but cruelty and injustice. In the historical books of +the Old Testament, though Uzzah is stricken dead for touching the ark, +and the subjects of King David afflicted with pestilence because their +ruler took a census of his people, Jehovah is above all things a +righteous God, who punishes bloodshed, adultery, and social oppression. +So in Greece the Furies pursue the homicide and the perjurer, till the +name of his family is clean put out. Herodotus tells us how the family +of Glaucus was extinguished because he consulted the oracle of Delphi +about an act of embezzlement which he was meditating. + +International law was protected by the same fear of divine vengeance. +The murder of heralds must by all means be expiated. When the Romans +repudiate their 'scrap of paper' with the Samnites, they deliver up to +the enemy the officers who signed it, though (with characteristic +'slimness') not the army which the mountaineers had captured and +liberated under the agreement. To destroy the temples in an enemy's +country was an act of wanton impiety; Herodotus cannot understand the +religious intolerance which led the Persians to burn the shrines of +Greek gods. Thus religion had a restraining influence in war throughout +antiquity, and in the Middle Ages. The Pope, who was believed to hold +the keys of future bliss and torment, was frequently, though by no means +always, obeyed by the turbulent feudal lords, and often enforced the +sanctity of a contract by the threat or the imposition of +excommunication and interdict. In order to make these penalties more +terrible, the torments of those who died under the displeasure of the +Church were painted in the most vivid colours. But in the official and +popular Christian eschatology, as in the terrestrial theodicy of the Old +Testament, there is little or no moral idealism. The joys or pains of +the future life are made to depend, in part at least, on the observance +or violation of the moral law, but they are themselves of a kind which +the natural man would desire or dread. They are an enhanced, because a +deferred, retribution of the same kind which in more primitive religions +promises earthly prosperity to the righteous, and earthly calamities to +the wicked. Values, positive and negative, are taken nearly as they +stand in the estimation of the average man. + +But there is another religious tradition, which in Greece was almost +separated from the official and national cults, and among the Hebrews +was often in opposition to them. The Hebrew prophets certainly +proclaimed that 'the history of the world is the judgment of the world,' +and often assumed, too crudely as it seems to us, that national +calamities are a proof of national transgression; but the whole course +of development in prophecy was towards an autonomous morality based on a +spiritual valuation of life. Its quarrel with sacerdotalism was mainly +directed against the unethical _tabu_-morality of the priesthood; the +revolt was grounded in a lofty moral idealism, which found expression in +a half-symbolic vision of a coming state in which might and right should +coincide. The apocalyptic prophecies of post-exilic Judaism, which were +not based, like some political predictions of the earlier prophets, on a +statesmanlike view of the international situation, but on hopes of +supernatural intervention, had their roots in visions of a new and +better world-order. This aspiration, which had to disentangle itself by +degrees from the patriotic dreams of a stubborn and unfortunate race, +was projected into the near future, and was mixed with less worthy +political ambitions which had a different origin. The prophet always +foreshortens his revelation, and generally blends the city of God with a +vision of his own country transfigured. We see him doing this even +to-day, in his Utopian dreams of social reconstruction. + +And so it has always been. We remember Condorcet foretelling a reign of +truth and peace just before he was compelled to flee from the storm of +calumny to die in a damp cell at Bourg la Reine; and Kant hailing the +approach of a peaceful international republic while Napoleon was +preparing to drown Europe in blood. Apocalyptism is a compromise between +the religion of rewards and punishments and the religion of spiritual +deliverance. It calls a new world into existence to redress the balance +of the old; but its discontent with the old is mainly the result of a +moral and spiritual valuation of life. Greek philosophy has really much +in common with Hebrew prophecy, though the Greek envisaged his ideal +world as the eternal background of reality, and not under the form of +history. In its maturest form, it is a transvaluation of all values in +accordance with an absolute ideal standard--that of the Good, the True, +and the Beautiful. This idealism appears in a still more drastic form in +the religions of Asia, which preach deliverance by demonetising at a +stroke all the world's currency. Spiritual values are alone accepted; +man wins peace and freedom by renouncing in advance all of which fortune +may deprive him. + +We are apt to assume, in deference to our theories of human progress, +that the evolution of religion is normally from a lower to a higher +type. It would, indeed, be absurd to question that the religion of a +civilised people is usually more spiritual and more rational than that +of barbarians. But none the less, the history of religions is generally +a history of decline. In Judaism the prophets came before the Scribes +and the Pharisees. Brahmanism and Buddhism were both degraded by +superstitions and unethical rites. Christianity, which began as a +republication of the purest prophetic teaching, has suffered the same +fate. In each case, when the revelation has lost its freshness, and the +enthusiasm which it evoked has begun to cool, a reversion to older +habits of thought and customs takes place; and sometimes it may be said +that the old religion has really conquered the new. + +Christianity, as taught by its Founder, is based on a transvaluation of +values even more complete than that of Stoicism and the later Platonism, +because, while it regards the objects of ordinary ambition as a positive +hindrance to the higher life, it accepts and gives value to those pains +of sympathy which Greek thought dreaded, as detracting from the calm +enjoyment of the philosophic life. This acceptance of the world's +suffering, from which every other spiritual religion and philosophy +promise a way of escape, is perhaps the most distinctive feature of +Christian ethics. In practice, it thus achieves a more complete conquest +of evil than any other system; and by bringing sorrow and sympathy into +the Divine life, it not only presents the character and nature of the +Deity in a new light, but opens out a new ideal of moral perfection. +This is not the place for a discussion of the main characteristics of +the Gospel of Christ, and they are familiar to us all. But, since we are +now considering the charge of failure brought against Christianity in +connexion with the present world-war, it seems necessary to emphasise +two points which are not always remembered. + +The first is that there is no evidence that the historical Christ ever +intended to found a new institutional religion. He neither attempted to +make a schism in the Jewish Church nor to substitute a new system for +it. He placed Himself deliberately in the prophetic line, only claiming +to sum up the series in Himself. The whole manner of His life and +teaching was prophetic. The differences which undoubtedly may be found +between His style and that of the older prophets do not remove Him from +the company in which He clearly wished to stand. He treated the +institutional religion of His people with the independence and +indifference of the prophet and mystic; and the hierarchy, which, like +other hierarchies, had a sure instinct in discerning a dangerous enemy, +was not slow to declare war to the knife against Him. Such, He reminded +His enemies, was the treatment which all the prophets had met with from +the class to which those enemies belonged. This, then, is the first fact +to remember. Institutional Christianity may be a legitimate and +necessary historical development from the original Gospel, but it is +something alien to the Gospel itself. The first disciples believed that +they had the Master's authority for expecting the end of the existing +world-order in their own lifetime. They believed that He had come +forward with the cry of 'Hora novissima!' Whether they misunderstood Him +or not, they clearly could not have held this opinion if they had +received instructions for the constitution of a Church. + +The second point on which it is necessary to insist is that Christ never +expected, or taught His disciples to expect, that His teaching would +meet with wide acceptance, or exercise political influence. 'The +world'--organised human society--was the enemy and was to continue the +enemy. His message, He foresaw, would be scorned and rejected by the +majority; and those who preached it were to expect persecution. This +warning is repeated so often in the Gospels that it would be superfluous +to give quotations. He made it quite plain that the big battalions are +never likely to be gathered before the narrow gate. He declared that +only false prophets are well spoken of by the majority. When we consider +the revolutionary character of the Christian idealism, its indifference +to nearly all that passes for 'religion' with the vulgar, and its +reversal of all current valuations, it is plain that it is never likely +to be a popular creed. As surely as the presence of high spiritual +instincts in the human mind guarantees its indestructibility, so surely +the deeply-rooted prejudices which keep the majority on a lower level +must prevent the Gospel of Christ from dominating mundane politics or +social life. + +Moreover, the actual extent of its influence cannot be estimated. The +inwardness and individualism of its teaching make its apparent +effectiveness smaller than its real power, which works secretly and +unobserved. The vices which Christ regarded with abhorrence are +perversions of character--hypocrisy, hard-heartedness, and worldliness +or secularity; and who can say what degree of success the Gospel has +achieved in combating these? The method of Christianity is alien to all +externalism and machinery; it does not lend itself to those +accommodations and compromises without which nothing can be done in +politics. As Harnack says, the Gospel is not one of social improvement, +but of spiritual redemption. Its influence upon social and political +life is indirect and obscure, operating through a subtle modification of +current valuations, and curbing the competitive and acquisitive +instincts, which nearly correspond with what Christ called 'Mammon' and +St. Paul 'the flesh.' Christianity is a spiritual dynamic, which has +very little to do directly with the mechanism of social life. + +It is, therefore, certain that when we speak of Christianity as a +factor in human life, we must not identify it with the opinions or +actions of the multitudes who are nominally Christians. We must not even +identify it, without qualification, with the types of character +exhibited by those who try to frame their lives in accordance with its +precepts. For these types are very largely determined by the ideals +which belong to the stage through which the life of the race is passing; +and these differ so widely in different ages and countries that the +historian of religion might well despair if he was compelled to regard +them all as typical manifestations of the same idea. There are times +when the disciple of Christ seems to turn his back upon society; he is +occupied solely with the relation of the individual soul to God. These +are periods when the opportunities for social service are much +restricted by a faulty structure of the body politic; periods when +secular civilisation is so brutal, or so servile, that the religious +life can only be led in seclusion from it. At another time the typical +Christian seems to be the active and valiant soldier of a militant +corporation. At another, again, he is a philanthropist, who devotes his +life to the redress of some great wrong, such as slavery, or the +promotion of a more righteous system of production and distribution. In +all these types we can trace the operation of the genius of +Christianity, but they are partial manifestations of it, with much alien +admixture. The spirit of the age, as well as the spirit of Christ, has +moulded the various types of Christian piety. + +If there has ever been a time when organised Christianity was a concrete +embodiment of the pure principles of the Gospel, we must look for it in +the era of the persecutions, when the Church had already gained +coherence and discipline and a corporate self-consciousness, and was +still preserved from the corrupting influence of secularity by the +danger which attended the profession of an illicit creed. A vivid +picture of the Christian communities at this period has been given by +Dobschuetz, whose learning and impartiality are unimpeachable. The Church +at this time demanded from its followers an unreserved confession, even +when this meant death. It was a brotherhood within which there was no +privileged class. Men and women, the free and the slave, had an equal +share in it. It abolished the fundamental Greek distinction of civilised +and barbarian. It looked with contempt on none. Its great organisation +was spread by purely voluntary means, till it gained a firm footing +throughout the Empire and beyond it. To a large extent it was an +association for mutual aid. Wherever anyone was in need, help was at +hand. The tangible advantages of belonging to such a guild were so great +that the Church had to enforce labour on all who could work, as a +condition of sharing in the benefits of membership. Social distinctions, +such as those of rich and poor, master and slave, were not abolished, +but they had lost their sting, because genuine affection, loyalty and +sympathy neutralised these inequalities. Great importance was laid on +truth, integrity in business, and sexual purity. A complete rupture with +pagan standards of morality was insisted on from new members. The human +body must be kept holy, as the temple of God. Revenge was forbidden, and +injustice was endured with meekness and pardon. This is no imaginary +picture. In that brief golden age of the Church, such were indeed the +characteristics of the Christian society. In the opinion of Dobschuetz +the moral condition of the Church in the second century was much higher +than among St. Paul's converts in the first. The paucity of references +to sins of the flesh, and to fraud, is to be accounted for by the actual +rarity of such offences. For a short time, then, the artificial +selection effected by the persecutions kept the Church pure; and from +the happy pictures which we can reconstruct of this period we can judge +what a really Christian society would be like. + +The history of institutional Catholicism must be approached from a +different side. Troeltsch argues with much cogency that the Catholic +Church must be regarded rather as the last creative achievement of +classical antiquity than as the beginning of the Middle Ages. Its growth +belongs mainly to the political history of Europe; the strictly +religious element in it is quite subordinate. There is, as Modernist +critics have seen, a real break between the Palestinian Gospel and the +elaborate mystery-religion, with its graded hierarchy, its Roman +organisation, its Hellenistic speculative theology, which achieved the +conquest of the Empire in the fourth century. The Church, as Loisy says, +determined to survive and to conquer, and adapted itself to the demands +of the time. It has travelled far from the simple teaching of the +earthly Christ; though we may, if we choose, hold that His spirit +continued to direct the growing and changing institution which, as a +matter of history, had its source in the Galilean ministry. In truth, +however, the extremely efficient organisation of the Roman Church began +in self-defence and was continued for conquest. It is one of the +strongest of all human institutions, so that it was said before the war +that it is one of the 'three invincibles,' the other two being the +German Army and the Standard Oil Trust. + +But our admiration for the subtle and tenacious power of this +corporation must not blind us to its essentially political character. +Its policy has been always directed to self-preservation and +aggrandisement; it is an _imperium in imperio_, which has only checked +fanatical nationalism by the competing influence of a still more +fanatical partisanship. In the present war, the problem before the +Pope's councillors was whether the friendship of the Central Powers or +that of the Entente was best worth cultivating; and the unshaken loyalty +of Austria to the Church, together with a natural preference for German +methods of governing as compared with democracy, turned the scale +against us. In Ireland, in Canada and in Spain the Catholic priests have +been formidable enemies of our cause. As for the other Churches, they +have not the same power of arbitrating in national quarrels. The Russian +Church has never been independent of the secular government; and the +Anglican and Lutheran Churches can hardly be expected to be impartial +when the vital interests of England or Germany are at stake. Lovers of +peace have not much to hope for from organised religion. National +Christianity, as Mr. Bernard Shaw says, will only be possible when we +have a nation of Christs. + +The downfall of the medieval European system, though in truth it was a +theory rather than a fact, has removed some of the restraints upon war. +The determining principle of the medieval political theory was the +conception of a 'lex Dei,' which included the 'lex Mosis,' the 'lex +Christi,' and the 'lex ecclesiae,' but which also, as 'lex naturae,' +comprised the law, science, and ethics of antiquity. These laws were +super-national, and no nation dared explicitly to repudiate them. They +formed the basis of a real system of international law, resting, like +everything else in the Middle Ages, on supposed divine authority. + +This theory, with its sanctions, was shattered at the Renaissance; and +the Machiavellian doctrine of the absolute State, accepted by Bacon and +put into practice by Frederick the Great, has prevailed ever since, +though not without frequent protests. The rise of nationalities, each +with an intense self-consciousness, has facilitated the adoption of a +theory too grossly immoral to have found favour except in the peculiar +circumstances of modern civilisation. The emergence of nationalities was +often connected with a legitimate struggle for freedom; and at such +times _esprit de corps_ seems to be almost the sum of morality, the +substitute for all other virtues. Loyalty is one of the most attractive +of moral qualities, and it necessarily inhibits criticism of its own +objects, which has the appearance of treason. But, unless the aims of +the corporate body which claims our absolute allegiance are right and +reasonable, loyalty may be, and often has been, the parent of hideous +crimes, and a social evil of the first magnitude. The perversion of +_esprit de corps_ does incalculable harm in every direction, destroying +all sense of honour and justice, of chivalry and generosity, of sympathy +and humanity. It involves a complete repudiation of Christianity, which +breaks down all barriers by ignoring them, and insists on love and +justice towards all mankind without distinction. The worship of the +State has during the last half-century been sedulously and artificially +fostered in Germany, until it has produced a kind of moral insanity. +Even philosophical historians like Troeltsch seem unable to see the +monstrosity of a political doctrine which has caused his country to be +justly regarded as the enemy of the whole human race. Eucken, writing +some years before the war, in a rather gingerly manner deprecates +_Politismus_ as a national danger; but he does not dare to grasp the +nettle firmly. It is possible that this deification of the State in +Germany may be in part due to an unsatisfied instinct of worship. In +Roman Catholic countries, where there must be a divided allegiance, +patriotism never, perhaps, assumes such sinister and fanatical forms. + +But we shall not understand the attraction which this naked immoralism +in international affairs exercises over the minds of many who are not +otherwise ignoble, if we do not remember that the repudiation of the +Christian ethical standard has been equally thorough in commercial +competition. The German officer believes himself to have chosen a +morally nobler profession than that of the business-man; he serves (he +thinks) a larger cause, and he is content with much less personal +reward. Socialist assailants of our industrial system, much as they +dislike war, would probably agree with him. It is not necessary to +condemn all competition. The desire to excel others is not +reprehensible, when the rivalry is in rendering useful social service. +But it cannot be denied that the present condition of industry is such +that a heavy premium is offered to mere cupidity; that the fraternal +social life which Christianity enjoins is often literally impossible, +except at the cost of economic suicide; and that in a competitive system +a business man is, by the very force of circumstances, a warrior, though +war is an enemy of love and destructive of Christian society. When the +object of bargaining is to give as little and gain as much as possible, +the Christian standard of values has been rejected as completely as it +was by Machiavelli himself. The competition between two parties to a +bargain is often a competition in unserviceableness. Money is very +frequently made by creating a local and temporary monopoly, which +enables the vendor to squeeze the purchaser. In all such transactions +one man's gain is another man's loss. This state of things, the evils of +which are almost universally recognised and deplored, marks the end of +the glorification of productive industry which was one result of the +Reformation. + +Hardly anything distinguishes modern from medieval ethics more sharply +than the emphasis laid by Protestant morality on the duty of making and +producing something tangible. Theoretically the Protestant may hold that +'doing ends in death,' and he may sing these words on Sunday; but his +whole life on week days is occupied in strenuous 'doing.' We find in +Calvinism and Quakerism the genuinely religious basis of the modern +business life, which, however, has degenerated sadly, now that the +largest fortunes are made by dealing in money rather than in +commodities. In the books of Samuel Smiles, and in Clough's poem +beginning 'Hope ever more and believe, O Man,' we find the Gospel of +productive work preached with fervour. It is out of favour now in +England; but in America we still see quaint attempts to make business a +religion, as in the Middle Ages religion was a business. In these +circles, it is productive activity as such to which value is attached, +without much enquiry as to the utility of the product. The result has +been an immense accumulation of the apparatus of life, without any +corresponding elevation in moral standards. The mischiefs wrought by +modern commercialism are largely the fruit of the purely irrational +production which it encourages. There are, says Professor Santayana, +Nibelungen who toil underground over a gold which they will never use, +and in their obsession with production begrudge themselves all +inclinations to recreation, to merriment, to fancy. Visible signs of +such unreason appear in the relentless and hideous aspect which life +puts on; for those instruments which emancipate themselves from their +uses soon become hateful. 'A barbaric civilisation, built on blind +impulse and ambition, should fear to awaken a deeper detestation than +could ever be aroused by those more beautiful tyrannies, chivalrous or +religious, against which past revolutions have been directed.' We +cannot, indeed, be surprised that this ideal of productive work as a +means of grace, precious for its own sake, has no attraction for the +masses, and that independent thinkers like Edward Carpenter should write +books on 'Civilisation, its Cause and Cure.' + +This Puritan ideal is not so much unchristian as narrow and +unintelligent; but the money-making life has of late become more and +more frankly predatory and anti-social. The great trusts, and the arts +of the company-promoter, can hardly be said to perform any social +service; they exist to levy tribute on the public. We may say therefore +that, though war between the leading nations of the world had become a +strange idea and a far-off memory, we had by no means risen above the +principles and practices of war in our internal life. The immunity from +militarism hitherto enjoyed by Britain and the United States was a +fortunate accident, not a proof of higher morality. Our fleet protected +both ourselves and the Americans from the necessity of maintaining a +conscript army; but we had drifted into a condition in which civil war +seemed not to be far off, and in which violence and lawlessness were +increasing. By a strange inconsistency, many who on moral or religious +grounds condemned wars between nations were found to condone or justify +acts of war against the State, organised by discontented factions of its +citizens. Revolutionary strikes, prepared long in advance by forced +levies of money which were candidly called war-funds, had as their +avowed aim the paralysis of the industries of the country and the +reduction of the population to distress by withholding the necessaries +of life. These acts of civil war, and disgraceful outbreaks of criminal +anarchism, were justified by persons who professed a conscientious +objection to defending their homes and families against a foreign +invader. This state of mind proves how little essential connexion there +is between democracy and peace. It discloses a confusion of ideas even +greater than the antithesis between industrialism and militarism in the +writings of Herbert Spencer. On this latter fallacy it is enough to +quote the words of Admiral Mahan; 'As far as the advocacy of peace rests +on material motives like economy and prosperity, it is the service of +Mammon; and the bottom of the platform will drop out when Mammon thinks +that war will pay better.' This is notoriously what has happened in +Germany. A short war, with huge indemnities, seemed to German financiers +a promising speculation. If such were the rotten foundations upon which +anti-militarism in this country was based, the Churches cannot be blamed +for giving the peace-movement a rather lukewarm support. + +In Germany there was no internal anarchy, such as prevailed in England; +there was also no illusion about the imminence of war. Our politicians +ought to have read the signs of the times better; but they were too +intent on feeling the pulse of the electorate at home to attend to +disturbing and unwelcome symptoms abroad. The causes of the war are not +difficult to determine. War has long been a national industry of +Germany, and the idea of it evoked no moral repugnance. The military +virtues were extolled; the military profession enjoyed an astonishing +social prestige; the learned class proclaimed the biological necessity +of international conflicts. The army believed itself to be invincible, +and it had begun to control the policy of the country; where these two +conditions exist, no diplomacy can avert war. Professionalism always has +a selfish and anti-social element in its code, and the professionalism +of the soldier is always prone to override the rights and disdain the +scruples of civilians. + +The dominant classes in Germany also found that their power was being +undermined by the growing industrialisation. The steady increase in the +social-democratic vote was a portent not to be disregarded. A letter +from a German officer to a friend in Roumania, which found its way into +the newspapers, tells a great deal of truth in a few words. 'You cannot +conceive,' he wrote, 'what difficulty we had in persuading our Emperor +that it was necessary to let loose this war. But it has been done; and I +hope that for a long time to come we shall hear no more in Germany of +pacifism, internationalism, democracy, and similar pestilent doctrines.' +Sir Charles Walston, in his thoughtful book 'Aristodemocracy,' lays +great stress on this. 'It appeared to me,' he says, 'ever since 1905, +that in the immediate future it was all a question as to whether the +labour-men, the practical pacifists, would arrive at the realisation of +their power before the militarists had forced a war upon us, or whether +the military powers would anticipate this result, and within the next +few years force a war upon the world.' To the influence of the military +was added the cupidity of the commercial and financial class. The law of +diminishing returns was driving capital further and further afield; and +large profits, it was hoped, might be made by the exploitation of +backward countries and the reduction of their inhabitants to serfdom. To +a predatory and parasitic class war seems only a logical extension of +the principles upon which it habitually acts; and for this reason +privileged orders seldom feel much moral compunction about a war-policy. +Lastly, among the causes of the war must be reckoned one which has +received far too little attention from social and political +philosophers--the tenacious and half-unconscious memories of a race. +Injustice comes home to roost, sometimes after an astonishingly long +interval. The disaffection of Catholic Ireland would be quite +unintelligible without the massacres of the sixteenth century and the +unjust trade-legislation of the seventeenth and eighteenth. The +bitterness of the working class in England has its roots in the earlier +period of the industrial revolution (about 1760-1832), when the +labourer, with his wife and children, was treated as the 'cannon-fodder' +of industry. Similarly, the seeds of Prussian brutality and +aggressiveness were sown at Jena and in the raiding of Prussia for +recruits before the Moscow expedition. If such were the causes of the +great world-war, how little can be hoped from courts of international +arbitration! + +These considerations have, perhaps, made it clear that the main causes +of international conflicts are what the Epistle of St. James declares +them to be--'the lusts that war in your members,' the pugnacious and +acquisitive instincts which pervade our social life in times of peace, +and not least in those nations which pride themselves on having advanced +beyond the militant stage. There are some who accept this state of +things as natural and necessary, and who blame Christianity for carrying +on a futile campaign against human nature. This is a very different +indictment from that which condemns Christianity for tolerating a +preventible evil; and it is, in our opinion, even less justified. The +argument that, because war has always existed, it must always continue +to exist, is justly ridiculed by Mr. Norman Angell. 'It is commonly +asserted that old habits of thought can never be shaken; that, as men +have been, so they will be. That, of course, is why we now eat our +enemies, enslave their children, examine witnesses with the thumbscrew, +and burn those who do not attend the same church.' + +The long history of war as a racial habit explains why a ruinous and +insane anachronism shows such tenacity; for the conditions which +established the habit among primitive tribes demonstrably no longer +exist. It is probably true, as William James says, that 'militarist +writers without exception regard war as a biological or sociological +necessity'; lawyers might say the same about litigation. But laws of +nature 'are not efficient causes, and it is open to any one to prove +that they are not laws, if he can break them with impunity. It would be +the height of pessimistic fatalism to hold that men must always go on +doing that which they hate, and which brings them to misery and ruin. +Man is not bound for ever by habits contracted during his racial nonage; +his moral, rational, and spiritual instincts are as natural as his +physical appetites; and against them, as St. Paul says, 'there is no +law,' Huxley's Romanes Lecture gave an unfortunate support to the +mischievous notion that the 'cosmic process' is the enemy of morality. +The truth seems to be that Nature presents to us not a categorical +imperative, but a choice. Do we prefer to pay our way in the world, or +to be parasites? War, with very few exceptions, is a mode of parasitism. +Its object is to exploit the labour of other nations, to make them pay +tribute, or to plunder them openly, as the Germans have plundered the +cities of Belgium. War is a parasitic industry; and Christianity forbids +parasitism. Nature has her own penalties for the lower animals which +make this choice, and they strike with equal severity 'the peoples that +delight in war,' The bellicose nations have nearly all perished. + +There remains, however, a class of wars which escapes this +condemnation; and about them difficult moral problems may be raised. We +can hardly deny to a growing and civilised nation the right to expand at +the expense of barbarous hunters and nomads. No one would suggest that +the Americans ought to give back their country to the Indians, or that +Australia should be abandoned to the aborigines. But were the +Anglo-Saxons justified in expropriating the Britons, and the Spaniards +the Aztecs? There is room for differences of opinion in these cases; and +a very serious problem may arise in the future, as to whether the +European races are morally justified in using armed force to restrict +Asiatic competition. As a general principle, we must condemn the +expropriation of any nation which is in effective occupation of the +soil. The popular estimate of superior and inferior races is thoroughly +unchristian and unscientific, as is the prejudice against a dark skin. +The opinion that a nation which is increasing in population has a right +to expel the inhabitants of another country to make room for its own +emigrants is surely untenable. If it justifies war at all, it sanctions +a war of extermination, which would attain its objects most completely +by massacring girls and young women. The pressure of population is a +real cause of war; but the moral is, not that war is right, but that a +nation must cut its coat according to its cloth, and limit its numbers. + +Unless we justify wars of extermination, war has no biological sanction, +and Christianity is not flying in the face of nature by condemning it. +On the contrary, by condemning every form of parasitism, it indicates +the true path of evolution. It is equally right in rejecting the purely +economic valuation of human goods. The 'economic man' does not exist in +nature; he is a fictitious creature who is responsible for a great deal +of social injustice. Some modern economists, like Mr. Hobson, would +substitute for the old monetary standards of production and distribution +an attempt to estimate the 'human costs' of labour. Creative work +involving ingenuity and artistic qualities is not 'costly' at all, +unless the hours of labour, or the nervous strain, exceed the powers of +the worker. More monotonous work is not costly to the worker if the +day's labour is fairly short, or if some variety can be introduced. The +human cost is greatly increased if the worker thinks that his labour is +useless, or that it will only benefit those who do not deserve the +enjoyment of its fruits. Work which only produces frivolous luxuries is +and ought to be unwelcome to the producer, even if he is well paid. It +must also be emphasised that worry and anxiety take the heart out of a +man more than anything else. Security of employment greatly reduces the +'human cost' of labour. These considerations are comparatively new in +political economy. They change it from a highly abstract science into a +study of the conditions of human welfare as affected by social +organisation. The change is a victory for the ideas of Buskin and +Morris, though not necessarily for the practical remedies for social +maladjustments which they propounded. It brings political economy into +close relations with ethics and religion, and should induce economists +to consider carefully the contribution which Christianity makes to the +solution of the whole problem. For Christianity has its remedy to +propose, and it is a solution of the problem of war, not less than of +industrial evils. + +Christianity gives the world a new and characteristic standard of +values. It diminishes greatly the values which can accrue from +competition, and enhances immeasurably the non-competitive values. 'A +man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he +possesseth.' 'Is not the life more than meat, and the body than +raiment?' 'The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness +and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.' Passages like these are found in +every part of the New Testament. This Christian idealism has a direct +bearing on the doctrine of 'human costs.' Work is irksome, not only when +it is excessive or ill-paid, but when the worker is lazy, selfish, +envious or discontented. There is one thing which can make almost any +work welcome. If it is done from love or unselfish affection, the human +cost is almost _nil_, because it is not counted or consciously felt. +This is no exaggeration when it is applied to the devoted labour of the +mother and the nurse, or to that of the evangelist conscious of a divine +vocation. But in all useful work the keen desire to render social +service, or to do God's will, diminishes to an incalculable extent the +'human cost' of labour. This principle introduces a deep cleavage +between the Christian remedy and that of political socialism, which +fosters discontent and indignation as a lever for social amelioration. +Men are made unhappy in order that they may be urged to claim a larger +share of the world's wealth. Christianity considers that, measured by +human costs, the remedy is worse than the disease. The adoption of a +truer standard of value would tear up the lust of accumulation by the +roots, and would thus effect a real cure. It would also stop the +grudging and deliberately bad work which at present seriously diminishes +the national wealth. + +The Christian cure is the only real cure. It is the fashion to assume +that militarism and cupidity are vices of the privileged classes, and +that democracies may be trusted neither to plunder the minority at home +nor to seek foreign adventures by unjust wars. There is not the +slightest reason to accept either of these views. Political power is +always abused; an unrepresented class is always plundered. Nor are +democracies pacific, except by accident. At present they do not wish to +see the capital which they regard as their prospective prey dissipated +in war; and for this reason their influence in our time will probably be +on the side of peace. But, as soon as the competition of cheap Asiatic +labour becomes acute, we may expect to see the democracies bellicose and +the employing class pacific. This is not guess-work; we already see how +the democracies of California and Australia behave towards immigrants +from Asia. Readers of Anatole France will remember his description of +the economic wars decreed by the Senate of the great republic, at the +end of 'L'Ile des Pingouins.' It would, indeed, be difficult to prove +that the expansion of the United States has differed much, in methods +and morals, from that of the European monarchies; and the methods of +trade-unions are the methods of pitiless belligerency. Democracy and +socialism are broken reeds for the lover of peace to lean upon. + +In conclusion, our answer to the indictment against Christianity is +that institutional religion does not represent the Gospel of Christ, but +the opinions of a mass of nominal Christians. It cannot be expected to +do much more than look after its own interests and reflect the moral +ideas of its supporters. The real Gospel, if it were accepted, would +pull up by the roots not only militarism but its analogue in civil life, +the desire to exploit other people for private gain. But it is not +accepted. We have seen that the Founder of Christianity had no illusions +as to the reception which His message of redemption would meet with. The +'Prince of this World' is not Christ, but the Devil. Nevertheless, He +did speak of the 'whole lump' being gradually leavened, and we shall not +exceed the limits of a reasonable and justifiable optimism if we hope +that the accumulated experience of humanity, and perhaps a real though +very slow modification for the better of human nature itself, may at +last eliminate the wickedest and most insane of our maleficent +institutions. The human race has probably hundreds of thousands of years +to live, whereas our so-called civilisation cannot be traced back for +more than a few thousand years. The time when 'nation shall not lift up +sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,' will +probably come at last, though no one can predict what the conditions +will be which will make such a change possible. + +The signs are not very favourable at present for internationalism. The +great nations, bankrupt and honey-combed with social unrest, will be +obliged after the war to organise themselves as units, with governments +strong enough to put down revolutions, and directed by men of the +highest mercantile ability, whose main function will be to increase +productiveness and stop waste. We may even see Germany mobilised as one +gigantic trust for capturing markets and regulating prices. A +combination so formidable would compel other nations, and our own +certainly among the number, to adopt a similar organisation. This would, +of course, mean a complete victory for bureaucratic state-socialism, and +the defeat of democracy and trade-union syndicalism. Such a change, +which few would just now welcome, will occur if no other form of state +is able to survive; and this is what we may live to see. But there is +no finality about any experiments in government. A period of +internationalism may follow the intense nationalism which historical +critics foresee for the twentieth century. Or perhaps the international +labour-organisations may be too strong for the centralising forces. It +is just possible that Labour, by a concerted movement during the violent +reaction against militarism which will probably follow the war, will +forbid any further military or naval preparations to be made. + +Whatever forms reconstruction may take, Christianity will have its part +to play in making the new Europe. It will be able to point to the +terrible vindication of its doctrines in the misery and ruin which have +overtaken a world which has rejected its valuations and scorned its +precepts. It is not Christianity which has been judged and condemned at +the bar of civilisation; it is civilisation which has destroyed itself +because it has honoured Christ with its lips, while its heart has been +far from Him. But a spiritual religion can win a victory only within its +own sphere. It can promise no Deuteronomic catalogue of blessings and +cursings to those who obey or disobey its principles. Social happiness +and peace would certainly follow a whole-hearted acceptance of Christian +principles; but they would not certainly bring wealth or empire. +'Philosophy,' said Hegel, 'will bake no man's bread'; and it is only in +a spiritual sense that the meek-spirited can expect to possess the +earth. Nevertheless, it is a mistake to suppose that a Christian nation +would be unable to hold its own in the struggle for existence. A nation +in which every citizen endeavoured to pay his way and to help his +neighbour would be in no danger of servitude or extinction. The mills of +God grind slowly, but the future does not belong to lawless violence. In +the long run, the wisdom that is from above will be justified in her +children. + + + + +SURVIVAL AND IMMORTALITY + +(1917) + + +The recrudescence of superstition in England was plain to all observers +many years before the war; it was perhaps most noticeable among the +half-educated rich. Several causes contributed to this phenomenon. The +craving for the supernatural, a very ancient and deeply rooted +thought-habit, had been suppressed and driven underground by the +arrogant dominance of a materialistic philosophy, and by the absorption +of society in the pursuit of gain and pleasure. Modern miracles were +laughed out of court. But materialism has supernaturalism for its +nemesis. An abstract science, erecting itself into a false philosophy, +leaves half our nature unsatisfied, and becomes morally bankrupt before +its intellectual errors are exposed. Supernaturalism is the refuge of +the materialist who wishes to make room for ideal values without +abandoning the presuppositions of materialism. By dovetailing acts of +God into the order of nature, he materialises the spiritual, but brings +the Divine will into the world of experience, from which it had been +expelled, and produces a rough scheme of providential government, by +which he can live. + +The revolt against scientific materialism was made much easier by the +disintegration of the mechanical theory itself. Biology found itself +cramped by the categories of inorganic science, and claimed its +autonomy. The result was a fatal breach in the defences of materialism, +for biology is being driven to accept final causes, and would be glad to +adopt some theory of vitalism, if it could do so without falling back +into the old error of a mysterious 'vital force.' Biological truth, it +is plain, cannot be reduced to the purely quantitative categories of +mathematics and physics. Then psychology aspired to be a philosophy of +real existence, and attacked both absolutism and materialism. The +pretensions of psychology rehabilitated subjectivism and founded +pragmatism, till reactionary theology took heart of grace and defended +crude supernaturalism, with the whole apparatus of sacerdotal magic, as +the 'Gospel for human needs.' All protection against the grossest +superstitions was thus swept away. With no fixed standard of reference +to distinguish fact from fiction, it was possible to argue that +'whatever suits souls is true.' + +In this atmosphere many old habits of thought reasserted themselves. +While we enjoyed peace and prosperity, the credulity of the public found +its chief outlet in various systems of faith-healing and in the +time-honoured pretensions of priest-craft. But the devastation which the +war has brought into countless loving families has turned the current of +superstition strongly towards necromancy. The 'will to believe,' no +longer inhibited and suspected as a reason for doubt, has been allowed +to create its own logic. A few highly educated men, who have long been +playing with occultism and gratifying their intellectual curiosity by +exploring the dark places of perverted mysticism, have been swept off +their feet by it, and their authority, as 'men of science,' has +dispelled the hesitation of many more to accept what they dearly wished +to believe. The longing of the bereaved has created for itself a +spurious and dreary satisfaction. + +One cause of this strange movement cannot be emphasised too strongly. It +proves that the Christian hope of immortality burns very dimly among us. +Those who study the utterances of our religious guides must admit that +it is so. References to the future life had, before the war, become rare +even in the pulpit. The topic was mainly reserved for letters of +condolence, and was then handled gingerly, as if it would not bear much +pressure. Working-class audiences and congregations listened eagerly to +the wildest promises of an earthly utopia the day after tomorrow, but +cooled down at once when they were reminded that 'if in this life only +we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.' Accordingly, +the clerical demagogue showed more interest in the unemployed than in +the unconverted. Christianity, which began as a revolutionary idealism, +had sunk into heralding materialistic revolution. Such teachers have no +message of hope and comfort for those who have lost their dearest. And +they have, in fact, been deserted. Their secularised Christianity was +received with half-contemptuous approval by trade unions, but far deeper +hopes, fears, and longings have now been stirred, which concern all men +and women alike, and on the answers to which the whole value of +existence is now seen to depend. Christianity can answer them, but not +the Churches through the mouths of their accredited representatives. And +so, instead of 'the blessed hope of everlasting life,' the bereaved have +been driven to this pathetic and miserable substitute, the barbaric +belief in ghosts and daemons, which was old before Christianity was +young. And what a starveling hope it is that necromancy offers us! An +existence as poor and unsubstantial as that of Homer's Hades, which the +shade of Achilles would have been glad to exchange for serfdom to the +poorest farmer, and with no guarantee of permanence, even if the power +of comforting or terrifying surviving relations is supposed to persist +for a few years. Such a prospect would add a new terror to death; and +none would desire it for himself. It is plainly the dream of an aching +heart, which cannot bear to be left alone. + +But, it will be said, there is scientific evidence for survival. This +claim is now made. Cases are reported, with much parade of scientific +language and method, and those who reject the stories with contemptuous +incredulity are accused of mere prejudice. Nevertheless, I cannot help +being convinced that if communications between the dead and the living +were part of the nature of things, they would have been established long +ago beyond cavil. For there are few things which men have wished more +eagerly to believe. It is no doubt just possible that among the +vibrations of the fundamental ingredients of our world--those attenuated +forms of matter which are said to be not even 'material,' there may be +some which act as vehicles for psychical interchange. If such psychic +waves exist, the discovery is wholly in favour of materialism. It would +tend to rehabilitate those notions of spirit as the most rarefied form +of matter--an ultra-gaseous condition of it--which Stoicism and the +Christian Stoic Tertullian postulated. The meaning of 'God is Spirit' +could not be understood till this insidious residue of materialism had +been got rid of. It is a retrograde theory which we are asked to +re-examine and perhaps accept. The moment we are asked to accept +'scientific evidence' for spiritual truth, the alleged spiritual truth +becomes for us neither spiritual nor true. It is degraded into an event +in the phenomenal world, and when so degraded it cannot be +substantiated. Psychical research is trying to prove that eternal values +are temporal facts, which they can never be. + +The case for necromancy is no better if we leave 'scientific proof' +alone, and appeal to the relativist metaphysics of the psychological +school. Intercourse with the dead is, we are told, a real psychical +experience, and we need not worry ourselves with the question whether it +has any 'objective truth.' But we cannot allow psychology to have the +last word in determining the truth or falsehood of religious or +spiritual experience. The extravagant claims of this science to take the +place of philosophy must be abated. + +Psychology is the science which describes mental states, as physical +science describes the behaviour of matter in motion. Both are abstract +sciences. Physical science treats nature as the totality of things +conceived of as independent of any subject; psychology treats inner +experience as independent of any object. Both are outside any idea of +value, though it is needless to say that the votaries of both sciences +trespass habitually, and often unconsciously. Both are dualisms with one +side ignored or suppressed. When psychology meddles with ontological +problems--when, for instance it denies the existence of an Absolute, or +says that reality cannot be known--it is taking too much upon itself, +and has fallen into the same error as the materialism of the last +century. On such questions as the immortality of the soul it must remain +silent. + +Faith in human immortality stands or falls with the belief in _absolute +values_. The interest of consciousness, as Professor Pringle-Pattison +has said in his admirable Gifford Lectures, lies in the ideal values of +which it is the bearer, not in its mere existence as a more refined kind +of fact. Idealism is most satisfactorily defined as the interpretation +of the world according to a scale of value, or, in Plato's phrase, by +the Idea of the Good. The highest values in this scale are absolute, +eternal, and super-individual, and lower values are assigned their place +in virtue of their correspondence to or participation in these absolute +values. I agree with Muensterberg that the conditional and subjective +values of the pragmatist have no meaning unless we have acknowledged +beforehand the independent value of truth. If the proof of the merely +individual significance of truth has itself only individual importance, +it cannot claim any general meaning. If, on the other hand, it demands +to be taken as generally valid, the possibility of a general truth is +acknowledged from the start. If this one exception is granted, the whole +illusory universe of relativism is overthrown. To deny any thought which +is more than relative is to deprive even scepticism itself of the +presuppositions on which it rests. The logical sceptic has no _ego_ to +doubt with. 'Every doubt of absolute values destroys itself. As thought +it contradicts itself; as doubt it denies itself; as belief it despairs +of itself.' It is not necessary or desirable to follow Muensterberg in +identifying valuation with will. He talks of the will judging; but the +will cannot judge. In contemplating existence we use our will to fix our +attention, and then try conscientiously to prevent it from influencing +the verdict. But this illegitimate use of the word 'will' does not +impair the force of the argument for absolute values. + +Now, valuation arranges experience in a different manner from natural +science. The attributes of reality, in our world of values, are +Goodness, Truth, and Beauty. And we assert that we have as good reason +to claim objective reality for these Ideas as for anything in the world +revealed to our senses. 'All claims on man's behalf,' says Professor +Pringle-Pattison, 'must be based on the objectivity of the values +revealed in his experience, and brokenly realised there. Man does not +make values any more than he makes reality.' Our contention is that the +world of values, which forms the content of idealistic thought and +aspiration, is the real world; and in this world we find our own +immortality. + +But there could be no greater error than to leave the two worlds, or the +two 'judgments,' that of existence and that of value, contrasted with +each other, or treated as unrelated in our experience. A value-judgment +which is not also a judgment of existence is in the air; it is the +baseless fabric of a vision. Existence is itself a value, and an +ingredient in every valuation; that which has no existence has no value. +And, on the other side, it is a delusion to suppose that any science can +dispense with valuation. Even mathematics admits that there is a right +and a wrong way of solving a problem, though by confining itself to +quantitative measurements it can assert no more than a hypothetical +reality for its world. It is quite certain that we can think of no +existing world without valuation. + +'The ultimate identity of existence and value is the venture of faith to +which mysticism and speculative idealism are committed.'[93] It is +indeed the presupposition of all philosophy and all religion; without +this faith there can, properly speaking, be no belief in God. But the +difference between naturalism and idealism may, I think, be better +stated otherwise than by emphasising the contrast between existence and +value, which it is impossible for either side to maintain. Naturalism +seeks to interpret the world by investigation of origins; idealism by +investigation of ends. The one finds the explanation of evolution in +that from which it started, the other in that to which it tends. The one +explains the higher by the lower; the other the lower by the higher. +This is a plain issue; either the world shows a teleology or it does +not. If it does, the philosophy based on the inorganic sciences is +wrong. And the attempt to explain the higher by the lower becomes +mischievous or impossible when we pass from one _order_ to another. In +speaking of different 'orders,' we do not commit ourselves to any sudden +breaks or leaps in evolution. The organic may be linked to the +inorganic, soul to the lower forms of life, spirit to soul. But whether +the 'scale of perfection' is a ladder or an inclined plane, new +categories are necessary as we ascend it. And unless we admit an inner +teleology as a determining factor in growth, many facts even in +physiology are hard to explain. + +If the basis of our faith in the world-order is the conviction that the +Ideas of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful are fully real and fully +operative, we must try to form some clear notion of what these Ideas +mean, and how they are related to each other. The goal of Truth, as an +absolute value, is unity, which in the outer world means harmony, in the +intercourse of spirit with spirit, love; and in the inner world, peace +or happiness. The goal of Goodness as an absolute value is the +realisation of the ought-to-be in victorious moral effort. Beauty is the +self-recognition of creative Spirit in its own works; it is the +expression of Nature's own deepest character. Beauty gives neither +information nor advice; but it satisfies a part of our nature which is +not less Divine than that which pays homage to Truth and Goodness. + +Now, these absolute values are supra-temporal. If the soul were in time, +no value could arise; for time is always hurling its own products into +nothingness, and the present is an unextended point, dividing an unreal +past from an unreal future. The soul is not in time; time is rather in +the soul. Values are eternal and indestructible. When Plotinus says that +'nothing that really _is_ can ever perish' (hapolehitai ohyden thon +honton), and when Hoeffding says that 'no value perishes out of the +world,' they are saying the same thing. In so far as we can identify +ourselves in thought and mind with the absolute values, we are sure of +our immortality. + +But it will be said that in the first place this promise of immortality +carries with it no guarantee of survival in time, and in the second +place that it offers us, at last, only an impersonal immortality. Let us +take these two objections in turn, though they are in reality closely +connected. + +We must not regard time as an external, inhuman, unconscious process. +Time is the frame of soul-life; outside this it has no existence. The +entire cosmic process is the life-frame of the universal Soul, the +Divine Logos. With this life we are vitally connected, however brief and +unimportant the span and the task of an individual career may seem to +us. If my particular life-meaning passes out of activity, it will be +because the larger life, to which I belong, no longer needs that form of +expression. My death, like my birth, will have a teleological +justification, to which my supra-temporal self will consent. When a good +man's work in this world is done, when he is able to say, without +forgetting his many failures, 'I have finished the work that Thou gavest +me to do,' surely his last word will be, 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy +servant depart in peace'; not, 'Grant that I may flit for a while over +my former home, and hear what is happening to my country and my family.' +We may leave it to our misguided necromancers to describe the adventures +of the disembodied ghost-- + + 'Quo cursu deserta petiverit, et quibus ante + Infelix sua tecta supervolitaverit alis.' + +The most respectable motive which leads men to desire a continuance of +active participation in the affairs of time is that which Tennyson +expresses in the often-quoted line, 'Give her the wages of going on, and +not to die.' We may feel that we have it in us to do more for God and +our fellow-men than we shall be able to accomplish in this life, even if +it be prolonged to old age. Is not this a desire which we may prefer as +a claim? And in any case, it is admitted that time is the form of the +will. Are we to have no more will after death? Further, is our probation +over when we die? What is to be the fate of that large majority who, so +far as we can see, are equally undeserving of heaven and of hell? To +these questions no answer is possible, because we are confronted with a +blank wall of ignorance. We do not know whether there will be any future +probation. We do not know whether Robert Browning's expectation of +'other tasks in other lives, God willing,' will be fulfilled. + + 'And I shall thereupon + Take rest, ere I be gone + Once more on my adventure brave and new.' + +The question here raised is whether there is such a thing as +reincarnation. This belief, so widely held at all times by eminent +thinkers, and sanctioned by some of the higher religions, cannot be +dismissed as obsolete or impossible. But if it is put in the form, 'Will +the same self live again on earth under different conditions?' it may be +that no answer can be given, not only because we do not know, but +because the question itself is meaningless. The psycho-physical organism +which was born at a certain date and which will die on another date is +compacted of idiosyncrasies, inherited and acquired, which seem to be +inseparable from its history as born of certain parents and living under +certain conditions. It is not easy to say what part of such an organism +could be said to maintain its identity, if it were housed in another +body and set down in another time and place, when all recollection of a +previous state has been (as we must admit) cut off. The only continuity, +it seems to me, would be that of the racial self, if there is such a +thing, or of the directing intelligence and will of the higher Power +which sends human beings into the world to perform their allotted tasks. + +The second objection, which, as I have said, is closely connected with +the first, is that idealism offers us a merely impersonal immortality. +But what is personality? The notion of a world of spiritual atoms, +'_solida pollentia simplicitate_,' as Lucretius says, seems to be +attractive to some minds. There are thinkers of repute who even picture +the Deity as the constitutional President of a _collegium_ of souls. +This kind of pluralism is of course fundamentally incompatible with the +presuppositions of my paper. The idea of the 'self' seems to me to be an +arbitrary fixation of our average state of mind, a half-way house which +belongs to no order of real existence. The conception of an abstract ego +seems to involve three assumptions, none of which is true. The first is +that there is a sharp line separating subject from object and from other +subjects. The second is that the subject, thus sundered from the object, +remains identical through time. The third is that this indiscerptible +entity is in some mysterious way both myself and my property. In +opposition to the first, I maintain that the foci of consciousness flow +freely into each other even on the psychical plane, while in the eternal +world there are probably no barriers at all. In opposition to the +second, it is certain that the empirical self is by no means identical +throughout, and that the spiritual life, in which we may be said to +attain real personality for the first time, is only 'ours' potentially. +In opposition to the third, I repeat that the question whether it is +'my' soul that will live in the eternal world seems to have no meaning +at all. In philosophy as in religion, we had better follow the advice of +the Theologia Germanica and banish, as far as possible, the words 'me +and mine' from our vocabulary. For personality is not something given to +start with. It does not belong to the world of claims and counter-claims +in which we chiefly live. We must be willing to lose our soul on this +level of experience, before we can find it unto life eternal. +Personality is a teleological fact; it is here in the making, elsewhere +in fact and power. So in the case of our friends. The man whom we love +is not the changing psycho-physical organism; it is the Christ in him +that we love, the perfect man who is struggling into existence in his +life and growth. If we ask what a man is, the answer may be either, 'He +is what he loves,' or 'He is what he is worth.' The two are not very +different. Thus I cannot agree with Keyserling, who in criticising this +type of thought (with which, none the less, he has great sympathy) says +that 'mysticism, whether it likes it or not, ends in an impersonal +immortality.' For impersonality is a purely negative conception, like +timelessness. What is negated in 'timelessness' is not the reality of +the present, but the unreality of the past and future. So the +'impersonality' which is here (not without warrant from the mystics +themselves) said to belong to eternal life is really the liberation of +the idea of personality. Personality is allowed to expand as far as it +can, and only so can it come into its own. When Keyserling adds, 'The +instinct of immortality really affirms that the individual is not +ultimate,' I entirely agree with him. + +The question, however, is not whether in heaven the circumference of the +soul's life is indefinitely enlarged, but whether the centre remains. +These centres are centres of consciousness; and consciousness apparently +belongs to the world of will. It comes into existence when the will has +some work to do. It is not conterminous with life; there is a life which +is below consciousness, and there may be a life above consciousness, or +what we mean by consciousness. We must remind ourselves that we are +using a spatial metaphor when we speak of a centre of consciousness, and +a temporal one when we ask about a continuing state of consciousness; +and space and time do not belong to the eternal world. The question +therefore needs to be transformed before any answer can be given to it. +Spiritual life, we are justified in saying, must have a richness of +content; it is, potentially at least, all embracing. But this +enhancement of life is exhibited not only in extension but in intensity. +Eternal life is no diffusion or dilution of personality, but its +consummation. It seems certain that in such a state of existence +individuality must be maintained. If every life in this world represents +an unique purpose in the Divine mind, and if the end or meaning of +soul-life, though striven for in time, has both its source and its +achievement in eternity, this, the value and reality of the individual +life, must remain as a distinct fact in the spiritual world. + +We are sometimes inclined to think, with a natural regret, that the +conditions of life in the eternal world are so utterly unlike those of +the world which we know, that we must either leave our mental picture of +that life in the barest outline, or fill it in with the colours which we +know on earth, but which, as we are well aware, cannot portray truly the +life of blessed spirits. To some extent this is true; and whereas a bare +and colourless sketch of the richest of all facts is as far from the +truth as possible, we may allow ourselves to fill in the picture as best +we can, if we remember the risks which we run in doing so. There are, +it seems to me, two chief risks in allowing our imagination to create +images of the bliss of heaven. One is that the eternal world, thus drawn +and painted with the forms and colours of earth, takes substance in our +minds as a second physical world, either supposed to exist somewhere in +space, or expected to come into existence somewhen in time. This is the +heaven of popular religion; and being a geographical or historical +expression, it is open to attacks which cannot be met. Hence in the +minds of many persons the whole fact of human immortality seems to +belong to dreamland. The other danger is that, since a geographical and +historical heaven is found to have no actuality, the hope of eternal +life, with all that the spiritual world contains, should be relegated to +the sphere of the 'ideal.' This seems to be the position of Hoeffding, +and is quite clearly the view of thinkers like Santayana. They accept +the dualism of value and existence, and place the highest hopes of +humanity in a world which has value only and no existence. This seems to +me to be offering mankind a stone for bread. Martineau's protest against +this philosophy is surely justified: + + 'Amid all the sickly talk about "ideals," it is well to + remember that as long as they are a mere self-painting of + the yearning spirit, they have no more solidity than + floating air-bubbles, gay in the sunshine and broken by the + passing wind. You do not so much as touch the threshold of + religion, so long as you are detained by the phantoms of + your thought; the very gate of entrance to religion, the + moment of its new birth, is the discovery that your gleaming + ideal is the everlasting real.'[94] + +But though our knowledge of the eternal world is much less than we could +desire, it is much greater than many thinkers allow. We are by no means +shut off from realisation and possession of the eternal values while we +live here. We are not confined to local and temporal experience. We know +what Truth and Beauty mean, not only for ourselves but for all souls +throughout the universe, and for God Himself. Above all, we know what +Love means. Now Love, which is the realisation in experience of +spiritual existence, has an unique value as a hierophant of the highest +mysteries. And Love guarantees personality, for it needs what has been +called _otherness_. In all love there must be a subject and an object, +and a bond between them which transcends without annulling their +separateness. What this means for personal immortality has been seen by +many great minds. As an example I will quote from Plotinus' picture of +life in the spiritual world. This writer is certainly not inclined to +overestimate the claims of separate individuality, and he is under no +obligation to make his doctrine conform to the dogmas of any creed. + + 'Spirits yonder see themselves in others. For there all + things are transparent, and there is nothing dark or + resisting, but everyone is manifest to everyone internally, + and all things are manifest; for light is manifest to light. + For everyone has all things in himself and sees all things + in another, so that all things are everywhere and all is all + and each is all, and infinite the glory.'[95] + +This eternal world is about us and within us while we live here. 'Heaven +is nearer to our souls than the earth is to our bodies.' The world which +we ordinarily think of as real is an arbitrary selection from +experience, corresponding roughly to the average reaction of life upon +the average man. Some values, such as existence, persistence, and +rationality, are assumed to be 'real'; others are relegated to the +'ideal' Under the influence of natural science, special emphasis is laid +on those values with which that science is engaged. But our world +changes with us. It rises as we rise, and falls as we fall. It puts on +immortality as we do. 'Such as men themselves are, such will God appear +to them to be.'[96] Spinoza rightly says that all true knowledge takes +place _sub specie aeternitatis_. For the pneymatikost the whole of life +is spiritual, and, as Eucken says, he recognises the whole of the +spiritual life as his own life-being. He learns, as Plotinus declares in +a profound sentence, that 'all things that are Yonder are also Here +below.' + +Is it then the conclusion of the whole matter that eternal life is +merely the true reading of temporal life? Is earth, when seen with +purged vision, not merely the shadow of heaven, but heaven itself? If we +could fuse past, present, and future into a _totum simul_, an 'Eternal +Now,' would that be eternity? This I do not believe. A full +understanding of the values of our life in time would indeed give us a +good _picture_ of the eternal world; but that world itself, the abode of +God and of blessed spirits, is a state higher and purer than can be +fully expressed in the order of nature. The _perpetuity_ of natural laws +as they operate through endless ages is only a Platonic 'image' of +eternity. That all values are perpetual is true; but they are something +more than perpetual: they are eternal. These laws are the creative +forces which shape our lives from within; but all the creatures, as St. +Augustine says in a well-known passage, declare their inferiority to +their Creator. 'We are lower than He, for He made us.' Scholastic +theologians interposed an intermediary which they called _aevum_ between +time and eternity. _AEvum_ is perpetuity, which they rightly +distinguished from true eternity. Christianity is philosophically right +in insisting that our true home, our _patria_, is 'not here.' Nor is it +in any place: it is with God,'whose centre is everywhere and His +circumference nowhere.' There remaineth a rest for the people of God, +when their warfare on earth is accomplished. + +A Christian must feel that the absence of any clear revelation about a +_future_ state is an indication that we are not meant to make it a +principal subject of our thoughts. On the other hand, the more we think +about the eternal values the happier we shall be. As Spinoza says, 'Love +directed towards the eternal and infinite fills the mind with pure joy, +and is free from all sadness. Wherefore it is greatly to be desired, and +sought after with our whole might.' But he also says, and I think +wisely, that there are few subjects on which the 'free' man will ponder +less often, than on death. The end of life is as right and natural as +its beginning; we must not rebel against the common lot, either for +ourselves or for our friends. We are to live in the present though not +for the present. The two lines of Goethe which Lewis Nettleship was so +fond of quoting convey a valuable lesson: + + 'Nur we du bist, sei alles, immer kindlich: + So bist du alles, bist unueberwindlich.' + +'Death does not count,' as Nettleship used to say; and he met his own +fate on the Alps with a cheerfulness which showed that he believed it. +The craving for mere survival, no matter under what conditions, is +natural to some persons, and those who have it not must not claim any +superiority over those who shudder at the idea of resigning this +'pleasing, anxious being.' Some brave and loyal men, like Samuel +Johnson, have feared death all their lives long; while others, even when +fortune smiles upon them, 'have a desire to depart and to be with +Christ, which is far better.' But the longing for survival, and the +anxious search for evidence which may satisfy it, have undoubtedly the +effect of binding us to earth and earthly conditions; they come between +us and faith in true immortality. They cannot restore to us what death +takes away. They cannot lay the spectre which made Claudio a craven. + + 'Ay, but to die and go we know not where; + To lie in cold obstruction and to rot; + This sensible warm motion to become + A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit + To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside + In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; + To be imprisoned in the viewless winds, + And blown with restless violence round about + The pendent world; or to be worse than worst + Of those that lawless and uncertain thoughts + Imagine howling! 'tis too horrible! + The weariest and most loathed earthly life + That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment + Can lay on nature, is a paradise + To what we fear of death.' + +We know now, if we did not know it three years ago, that the average man +can face death, and does face it in the majority of cases, with a +serenity which would be incomprehensible if he did not know in his +heart of hearts that it does not matter much. He may have no articulated +faith in immortality, but, like Spinoza, he has 'felt and experienced +that he is eternal.' Perhaps he only says to himself, 'Who dies if +England lives?' But the England that lives is his own larger self, the +life that is more his own life than the beating of his heart, which a +bullet may still for ever. And if the exaltation of noble patriotism can +'abolish death, and bring life and immortality to light' for almost any +unthinking lad from our factories and hedgerows, should not religion be +able to do as much for us all? And may it not be that some touch of +heroic self-abnegation is necessary before we can have a soul which +death cannot touch? When Christ said that those who are willing to lose +their souls shall save them, is not this what He meant? We must accustom +ourselves to breathe the air of the eternal values, if we desire to live +for ever. And a strong faith is not curious about details. 'Beloved, now +are we sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we +know that when He is made manifest we shall be like Him, for we shall +see Him as He is.' + +FOOTNOTES: + + [93] Quoted by Professor Pringle-Pattison from an article by + me in the _Times_ Literary Supplement. + + [94] _Study of Religion_, vol. i. 12. + + [95] _Ennead_, v. 8, 4. + + [96] From John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Outspoken Essays, by William Ralph Inge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 15249.txt or 15249.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/4/15249/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, and the +PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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