THE astonishing revolution in thought and | guide than it would have been if no new elepractice which is taking place amongst the ment had intervened, and therefore so much intelligent Japanese, the throwing away of a less interesting for us. As an example of the traditional system of living in order to estab- inapplicability of past experience, I may menlish in its stead a system which, for an Asi- tion an argument against Republics which atic people, is nothing more than a vast ex- has been much used of late by the partisans periment, has its counterpart in many an in- of monarchy in France. They have fredividual life in Europe. We are like travel- quently told us that Republics had only suclers crossing an isthmus between two seas, ceeded in very small States, and this is true who have left one ship behind them, who of ancient democracies; but it is not less true have not yet seen the vessel that waits on the that railways, and telegraphs, and the newsdistant shore, and who experience to the full paper press have made great countries like all the discomforts and inconveniences of the France and the United States just as capable passage from one sea to the other. There is a of feeling and acting simultaneously as the break between the existence of our forefathers smallest Republics of antiquity. The parties and that of our posterity, and it is we who which rely on what are called the lessons of have the misfortune to be situated exactly history are continually exposed to great dewhere the break occurs. We are leaving be- ceptions. In France, what may be called the hind us the security, I do not say the safety, historical party would not believe in the posbut the feeling of tranquillity which belonged sibility of a united Germany, because fifty to the ages of tradition; we are entering upon years ago, with the imperfect means of comages whose spirit we foresee but dimly, whose munication which then existed, Germany institutions are the subject of guesses and was not and could not be united. The same conjectures. And yet this future, of which historical party refused to believe that the we know so little, attracts us more by the Italian kingdom could ever hold together. very vastness of its enigma than the rich his- In England, the historical party predicted tory of the past, so full of various incident, of the dismemberment of the United States, and powerful personages, of grandeur, and suffer- in some other countries it has been a favorite ing, and sorrow. Joubert already noticed article of faith that England could not keep this forward-looking of the modern mind. her possessions. But theories of this kind are "The ancients," he observed, "said, 'Our an- always of very doubtful applicability to the cestors;' we say, 'Posterity.' We do not present, and their applicability to the future love as they did la patrie, the country and is even more doubtful still. Steam and eleclaws of our forefathers; we love rather the tricity have made great modern States praclaws and the country of our children. It is tically like so many great cities, so that Manthe magic of the future, and not that of the chester is like a suburb of London, and past, which seduces us." Commenting on Havre the Piræus of Paris, whilst the most this thought of Joubert's, Saint-Marc Girardin trifling occasions bring the Sovereign of Italy said that we loved the future because we to any of the Italian capitals. loved ourselves, and fashioned the future in our own image; and he added, with partial but not complete injustice, that our ignorance of the past was a cause of this tendency in our minds, since it is shorter to despise the past than to study it. These critics and accusers of the modern spirit are not, however, altogether fair to it. If the modern spirit looks so much to the future, it is because the problems of the past are solved problems, whilst those of the future have the interest of a game that is only just begun. We know ecclesiastical authority must of necessity, in what became of feudalism, we know the the future, be followed by moral anarchy, work that it accomplished and the services since it is possible, and even probable, that that it rendered, but we do not yet know the other great influences upon public opinwhat will be the effects of modern democracy ion may gain strength as this declines. And and of the scientific and industrial spirit. It in point of fact we have already lived long is the novelty of this element, the scientific enough to witness a remarkable decline of ecspirit and the industrial development which clesiastical authority, which is proved by the is a part (but only a part) of its results, that avowed independence of scientific writers and makes the past so much less reliable as a thinkers, and by the open opposition of al

In the intellectual sphere the experience of the past is at least equally unreliable. If the power of the Catholic Church had been suddenly removed from the Europe of the fourteenth century, the consequence would have been a moral anarchy difficult to conceive; but in our own day the real regulator of morality is not the Church, but public opinion, in the formation of which the Church has a share, but only a share. It would therefore be unsafe to conclude that the weakening of

When an architect in the present day has to restore some venerable church, he endeavors to do so in harmony with the design of the first builder; but such humility as this was utterly foreign to the medieval mind, which often destroyed the most lovely and necessary details to replace them with erections in the fashion of the day, but artistically unsuitable.

most all the European Governments. The or scorn of its predecessors. We have been secular power resists the ecclesiastical in Ger- told that we scorn our forefathers because old many and Spain. In France it establishes a buildings are removed to suit modern conform of government which the Church de- veniences, because the walls of old York have tests. In Ireland it disestablishes and disen- been pierced for the railway, and a tower of dows a hierarchy. In Switzerland it resists Conway Castle has been undermined that the the whole power of the Papacy. In Italy it Holyhead mail may pass. But the truth is, seizes the sacred territory and plants itself that whilst we care a little for our predeceswithin the very walls of Rome. And yet the sors, they cared still less for theirs. The time which has witnessed this unprecedented mediæval builders not only used as quarries self-assertion of the laity has witnessed a any Roman remains that happened to come positive increase in the morality of public in their way, but they spoiled the work of sentiment, especially in the love of justice their own fathers and grandfathers by inand the willingness to hear truth, even when truding their new fashions on buildings origitruth is not altogether agreeable to the listen-nally designed in a different style of art. er, and in the respect paid by opponents to able and sincere men, merely for their ability and sincerity. This love of justice, this patient and tolerant hearing of new truth, in which our age immeasurably exceeds all the ages that have preceded it, are the direct results of the scientific spirit, and are not only in themselves eminently moral, but conducive to moral health generally. And this advancement may be observed in countries which were least supposed to be capable of it. Even the French, of whose immorality we have heard so much, have a public opinion which is gradually gaining a salutary strength, an increasing dislike for barbarity and injustice, and a more earnest desire that no citizen, except by his own fault, should be excluded from the benefits of civilization. The throne which has lately fallen was undermined by the currents of this public opinion To conclude. It seems to me that tradition before it sank in military disaster. Aussi has much less influence of an authoritative me contenterai-je,” says Littré, 'd'appeler kind than it had formerly, and that the aul'attention sur la guerre, dont l'opinion pub-thority which it still possesses is everywhere lique ne tolère plus les antiques barbaries; steadily declining; that as a guide to the fusur la magistrature, qui répudie avec hor-ture of the world it is more likely to mislead reur les tortures et la question; sur la tolér- than to enlighten us, and still that all intelance, qui a banni les persécutions religieuses; lectual and educated people must always take sur l'équite, qui soumet tout le monde aux a great interest in tradition, and have a certain charges communes; sur le sentiment de soli- sentiment of respect for it. Consider what darité qui du sort des classes pauvres fait le our feelings are towards the Church of Rome, plus pressant et le plus noble problème du the living embodiment of tradition. No welltemps présent. Pour moi, je ne sais carac-informed person can forget the immense servtériser ce spectacle si hautement moral qu'en ices that in former ages she has rendered to disant que l'humanité, améliorée, accepte de European civilization, and yet at the same plus en plus le devoir et la tâche d'étendre le domaine de la justice et de la bonté."

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The same disdain for the labors of other ages has prevailed until within the memory of living men, and our age is really the first that has made any attempt to conform itself, in these things, to the intentions of the dead. I may also observe, that although history is less relied upon as a guide to the future than it was formerly, it is more carefully and thoroughly investigated from an intellectual interest in itself.

time such a person would scarcely wish to place modern thought under her direction, nor would he consult the Pope about the tendencies of the modern world. When in 1829 the city of Warsaw erected a monument to

Yet this partial and comparative satisfaction that we find in the present, and our larger hopes for the future, are quite compatible with gratitude to all who in the past Copernicus, a scientific society there waited have rendered such improvement possible for in the Church of the Holy Cross for a service us, and the higher improvement that we hope that was to have added solemnity to their for possible to those who will come after us. commemoration. They waited vainly. Not I cannot think that the present age may be a single priest appeared. The clergy did not accused with justice of exceptional ignorance feel authorized to countenance a scientific dis

LETTER III.

covery which, in a former age, had been condemned by the authority of the Church. This incident is delicately and accurately typ- TO A LADY WHO LAMENTED THAT HER SON HAD ical of the relation between the modern and

the traditional spirit. The modern spirit is

INTELLECTUAL DOUBTS CONCERNING THE DOG-
MAS OF THE CHURCH.

not hostile to tradition, and would not object The situation of mother and son a very common one-Painful

to receive any consecration which tradition might be able to confer, but there are difficulties in bringing the two elements together.

We need not, however, go so far as Warsaw, or back to the year 1829, for examples of an unwillingness on the part of the modern mind to break entirely with the traditional spirit. Our own country is remarkable both for the steadiness of its advance towards a future widely different from the past, and for an affectionate respect for the ideas and institutions that it gradually abandons, as it is forced out of them by new conditions of existence, I may mention, as one example out of very many, our feeling about the reconstruction of the navy. Here is a matter in which science has compelled us to break with tradition absolutely and irrevocably; we have done so, but we have done so with the greatest regret.

only when the parties are in earnest-The knowledge of the difference evidence of a deeper unity-Value of honesty-Evil of a splendid official religion not believed by men of culture-Diversity of belief an evidence of religious vitality-Criticism not to be ignored-Desire for the highest attainable truth-Letter from Lady Westmorland about her son, Julian Fane.

THE difference which you describe as having arisen between your son and you on the most grave and important subject which can occupy the thoughts of men, gives the outline of a situation painful to both the parties concerned, and which lays on each of them new and delicate obligations. You do not know how common this situation is, and how sadly it interferes with the happiness of the very best and most pure-minded souls alive. For such a situation produces pain only where both parties are earnest and sincere; and the more earnest both are, the more painful does the situation become. If you and your son thought of religion merely from the convenThe ships of the line that our hearts and tional point of view, as the world does only imaginations love are the ships of Nelson too easily, you would meet on a common and Collingwood and Cochrane. We think of ground, and might pass through life without the British fleets that bore down upon the ever becoming aware of any gulf of separaenemy with the breeze in their white sails; tion, even though the hollowness of your sevwe think of the fine qualities of seamanship eral professions were of widely different that were fostered in our Agamemnons, and kinds. But as it happens, unfortunately for Victories, and Téméraires. Will the navies your peace (yet would you have it otherof the future ever so clothe their dreadful wise?), that you are both in earnest, both powers with beauty, as did the ordered col-anxious to believe what is true and do what umns of Nelson, when they came with a fair wind and all sails set, at eleven o'clock in the morning into Trafalgar Bay? We see the smoke of their broadsides rising up to their sails like mists to the snowy Alps, and high above, against heaven's blue, the unconquered flag of England! Nor do we perceive now for the first time that there was poetry in those fleets of old; our forefathers felt it then, and expressed it in a thousand songs.*

* I had desired to say something about the uses of tradition in the industrial arts and in the fine arts, but the subject is a very large one, and I have not time or space to treat it properly here. I may observe, however, briefly, that the genuine spirit of tradition has almost entirely disappeared from English industry and art, where it has been replaced by a spirit

you believe to be right, you are likely to cause each other much suffering of a kind altogether unknown to less honorable and devoted natures. There are certain forms of suffering which affect only the tenderest and truest hearts; they have so many privileges, that this pain has been imposed upon them as the shadow of their sunshine.

Let me suggest, as some ground of consolation and of hope, that your very knowledge of the difference which pains you is in itself the evidence of a deeper unity. If your son has told you the full truth about the changes in his belief, it is probably because you yourself have educated him in the habit of truthfulness, which is as much a law of religion as scientific investigation and experiment. The true traditional spirit was still in full vigor in Japan a few years ago, it is of honor. Do you wish this part of his and it kept the industry and art of that country up to a re-education to be enfeebled or obliterated? markably high standard. The traditional spirit is most fa- Could the Church herself reasonably or conorable to professional skill, because, under its influence, the

apprentice learns thoroughly, whereas under other influences sistently blame him for practising the one be often learns very imperfectly. The inferiority of English virtue which, in a peaceful and luxurious sopainting to French (considered technically) has been due to the prevalence of a traditional spirit in the French school ciety, demands a certain exercise of courage? Our beliefs are independent of our will, but

which was almost entirely absent from our own.

our honesty is not; and he who keeps his honesty keeps one of the most precious possessions of all true Christians and gentlemen.

lot; those who went before them had passed over very rough ground at the Reformation. For us, in our turn, comes the recurrent restlessness, though not in the same place. What state of society can be more repug- What we are going to, who can tell? What rant to high religious feeling than a state of we suffer just now, you and many others smooth external unanimity combined with know too accurately. There are gulfs of septhe indifference of the heart, a state in which aration in homes of the most perfect love. some splendid official religion performs its Our only hope of preserving what is best in daily ceremonies as the costliest functionary that purest of earthly felicities lies in the of the Governinent, whilst the men of culture practice of an immense charity, a wide tolertake a share in them out of conformity to the ance, a sincere respect for opinions that are customs of society, without either the assent not ours, and a deep trust that the loyal purof the intellect or the emotion of the soul? suit of truth cannot but be in perfect accordAll periods of great religious vitality have ance with the intentions of the Creator, who been marked by great and open diversity of endowed the noblest races of mankind with belief; and to this day those countries where the indefatigable curiosity of science. Not religion is most alive are the farthest removed to inquire was possible for our fore-fathers, from unanimity in the details of religious but it is not possible for us. With our indoctrine. If your son thinks these things of tellectual growth has come an irrepressible such importance to his conscience that he anxiety to possess the highest truth attainfeels compelled to inflict upon you the slight-able by us. This desire is not sinful, not est pain on their account, you may rest as-presumptuous, but really one of the best and sured that his religious fibre is still full of vi- purest of our instincts, being nothing else tality. If it were deadened, he would argue than the sterling honesty of the intellect, very much as follows. He would say: seeking the harmony of concordant truth "These old doctrines or the Church are not and utterly disinterested. of sufficient consequence for me to disturb I may quote, as an illustration of the ten my mother about them. What is the use of dencies prevalent amongst the noblest and alluding to them ever?" And then you most cultivated young men, a letter from would have no anxiety; and he himself would have the feeling of settled peace which comes over a battle-field when the dead are buried out of sight.

Lady Westmorland to Mr. Robert Lytton about her accomplished son, the now cele brated Julian Fane. "We had," she said

several conversations, during his last ill It is the peculiarity-some would say the ness, upon religious subjects, about which h evil, but I cannot think it an evil-of an had his own peculiar views. The dispute age of great intellectual activity to produce and animosities between High and Lov an amount of critical inquiry into religious Church, and all the feuds of religious sectar doctrine which is entirely unknown to times anism, caused him the deepest disgust. of simple tradition. And in these days think, indeed, that he carried this feeling to the critical tendency has received a novel far. He had a horror of cant, which I als stimulus from the successive suggestions think was exaggerated; for it gave him a re of scientific discovery. No one who, like pulsion for all outward show of religious of your son, fully shares in the intellectual servances. He often told me that he neve life of the times in which he lives, can missed the practice of prayer, at morning an live as if this criticism did not exist. If evening, and at other times. But his prayer he affected to ignore it, as an objection were his own: his own thoughts in his ow already answered, there would be disingenuousness in the affectation. Fifty years ago, even twenty or thirty years ago, a highly intellectual young man might have hardened into the fixed convictions of middle age without any external disturbance, except such as might have been easily avoided. The criti. cism existed then, in certain circles; but it was not in the air, as it is now. The life of mankind resembles that of a brook which has its times of tranquillity, but farther on its times of trouble and unrest. Our immediate forefathers had the peaceful time for their

words. He said that he could not pray in th set words of another; nor unless he was alon As to joining in family prayers, or prayin at church, he found it impossible. He cor stantly read the New Testament. He depre cated the indiscriminate reading of the Bible He firmly believed in the efficacy of sincer prayer; and was always pleased when I tol him I had prayed for him."

To this it may be added, that many recen conversions to the Church of Rome, thoug apparently of an exactly opposite character have in reality also been brought about b

the scientific inquiries of the age. The relig-culty of so many intellectual men in these ious sentiment, alarmed at the prospect of a days, is to know where the intellectual quespossible taking away of that which it feeds tions end and the purely religious ones can be upon, has sought in many instances to pre- considered to begin. If you could once ascerserve it permanently under the guardianship tain that, in a manner definitely satisfactory, of the strongest ecclesiastical authority. In you would take your religious questions to a an age of less intellectual disturbance this clergyman and your intellectual ones to a anxiety would scarcely have been felt; and man of science, and so get each solved indethe degree of authority claimed by one of the pendently. reformed Churches would have been accepted as sufficient. Here again the agitations of the modern intellect have caused division in families; and as you are lamenting the heterodoxy of your son, so other parents regret the Roman orthodoxy of theirs.

LETTER IV.

Without presuming to offer a solution of so complex a difficulty as this, I may suggest to you that it is of some importance to your intellectual life to ascertain what religion is. A book was published many years ago by a very learned author, in which he endeavored to show that what is vulgarly called scepticism may be intellectual religion. Now, although nothing can be more distasteful to persons of culture than the bigotry which refuses the

TO THE SON OF THE LADY TO WHOM THE PRE- name of religion to other people's opinions,

CEDING LETTER WAS ADDRESSED.

ences between the intellectual and religious lives.

merely because they are other people's opinions, I suspect that the popular instinct is Difficulty of detaching intellectual from religious questions right in denying the name of religion to the -The sacerdotal system-Necessary to ascertain what inferences of the intellect. The description religion is-Intellectual religion really nothing but philosophy-The popular instinct-The test of belief-Public which the author just alluded to gave of what worship-The intellect moral, but not religious-Intellect he called intellectual religion was in fact ual activity sometimes in contradiction to dogma-Differ- simply a description of philosophy, and of that discipline which the best philosophy imposes upon the heart and the passions. On the other hand, Dr. Arnold, when he says that by religion he always understands Christianity, narrows the word as much as he would have narrowed the word "patriotism had he defined it to mean a devotion to the interests of England. I think the popular instinct, though of course quite unable to construct a definition of religion, is in its vague way very well aware of the peculiar nature of religious thought and feeling. The popular instinct would certainly never confound religion with philosophy on the one hand, nor, on the other, unless excited to opposition, would it be likely to refuse the name of religion to another worship, such as Mahometanism, for instance.

YOUR request is not so simple as it appears. You ask me for a frank opinion as to the course your mind is taking in reference to very important subjects; but you desire only intellectual, and not religious guidance. The difficulty is to effect any clear demarcation between the two. Certainly I should never take upon myself to offer religious advice to any one; it is difficult for those who have not qualified themselves for the priestly office to do that with force and effect. The manner in which a priest leads and manages a mind that has from the first been moulded in the beliefs and observances of his Church, cannot be imitated by a layman. A priest starts always from authority; his method, which has been in use from the earliest ages, consists first in claiming your unquestioning assent to certain doctrines, from which he immediately proceeds to deduce the inferences that may affect your conduct or regulate your thoughts. It is a method perfectly adapted to its own ends. It can deal with all humanity, and produce the most immediate practical results. So long as the assent to the doctrines is sincere, the sacerdotal system may contend successfully against some of the strongest forms of evil; but when the assent to the doctrines has ceased to be complete, when some of them are half-believed and others not believed at all, the system loses much of its primitive efficiency. It seems likely that your difficulty, the diffi

According to the popular instinct, then, which on a subject of this kind appears the safest of all guides, a religion involves first a belief and next a public practice. The nature of the belief is in these days wholly peculiar to religion; in other times it was not so, because then people believed other things much in the same way. But in these days the test of religious belief is that it should make men accept as certain truth what they would disbelieve on any other authority. For example, a true Roman Catholic believes that the consecrated host is the body of Christ, and so long as he lives in the purely religious spirit he continues to believe this, but so soon as