aft" led of itself to such a
result. But this sanguine rhetoric does contain or obscure a certain
truth. In plain human language, when you prevent a man from relying on
the old traditional inspirations, he may for a time be tempted to act
without inspiration. In the matter of his dealings with his fellows it
is an undeniable fact that, on the whole, he has not been thus tempted.
It is absurd to heap up all the contemporary instances of corruption in
trade and politics, looseness in domestic life, and so on, unless you
make a similar study of the vices and crimes of an earlier and more
Christian generation, and carefully compare the two. It is not a
question whether there is evil in our generation; it is a question
whether there is more or less evil than in earlier generations. I must
be pardoned for reiterating this, because, although this comparison is
essential for forming an accurate judgment on the moral effect of the
decay of Christianity, it is rarely instituted with the least pretence
of rigour. I have sufficiently studied it in earlier works (especially
_The Bible in Europe_), and will not repeat the facts. Cotter Morison,
whom I quoted on an early page, was wrong in his expectation. The change
from Christian to humanist inspiration is taking place without disorder
and with increasing advantage.

The solution of this apparent problem is really not obscure. If the
genuine basis of human conduct needed an elaborate search--if it had to
be revealed by a Deity or laboriously established by moral theologians
or moral philosophers--no doubt the age of transition would be an age of
disorder, and a very comprehensive educational organisation would be
needed. But the true basis of human conduct is simple. There are, of
course, Rationalists who feel that some very abstruse "science of
ethics" has to be constructed as the solid foundation of conduct; but
this has as little relation to the conduct of ordinary men as the
learned pedants of the science of prosody have to ordinary speakers of
prose. Experience is the real base and guide of conduct, and it forces
itself on every man and woman, even on the child. "Do unto others as you
would that they should do unto you" is the first principle of morals;
and to inculcate it you need neither the thunders of Jupiter nor the
impressive abstractions of a science of ethics: nor do you need any
moral genius or philosophical skill to discover it. It is a rule of life
that suggests itse