proselytize.
True and spiritual religion, we are told, is as intimate and personal an
affair as the love between husband and wife; it is essentially private
and individual. "The religion of all sensible men," it has been said,
"is precisely that which they always keep to themselves." Tolerance,
therefore, is a mark of spirituality, for if I am truly religious I
shall have as much respect for the religion of my neighbour as for my
own. I shall no more seek to interfere in his relations with God than I
shall allow him to interfere with mine.

Now Catholics are notoriously intolerant. It is not merely that there
are intolerant Catholics, for intolerance is of course to be found in
all narrow-minded persons, but it is Catholic principles themselves that
are intolerant; and every Catholic who lives up to them is bound to be
so also. And we can see this illustrated every day.

First, there is the matter of Catholic missions to the heathen. There
are no missionaries, we are told, so untiring and so devoted as those of
the Church. Their zeal, of course, is a proof of their sincerity; but it
is also a proof of their intolerance: for why, after all, cannot they
leave the heathen alone, since religion is, in its essence, a private
and individual matter? Beautiful pictures, accordingly, are suggested to
us of the domestic peace and happiness reigning amongst the tribes of
Central Africa until the arrival of the Preaching Friar with his
destructive dogmas. We are bidden to observe the high doctrines and the
ascetic life of the Brahmin, the significant symbolism of the Hindu, and
the philosophical attitudes of the Confucian. All these various
relationships to God are, we are informed, entirely the private affairs
of those who live by them; and if Catholics were truly spiritual they
would understand that this was so and not seek to supplant by a system
which is now, at any rate, become an essentially European way of looking
at things, these ancient creeds and philosophies that are far better
suited to the Oriental temperament.

But the matter is worse, even, than this. It may conceivably be argued,
says the modern man of the world, that after all those Oriental
religions have not developed such virtues and graces as has
Christianity. It may perhaps be argued that in time the religion of the
West, if missionaries will persevere, will raise the Hindu higher than
his own obscenities have succeeded in doing, and that the civilization
p