red: "Then I think Professor Huxley is the best man I
have ever known."

XIII

MORALITY AND THE CHURCH

It is alike interesting and satisfactory to reflect that practical
morality in civilized life is much the same for all earnest men,
however they differ in their theories as to the origin of moral ideas
and the kind of motives and sanctions to be insisted on for right
action. It is true that the theologians and supernaturalists have
erected their scaffolding around the building of social and human
morality, vowing that it will not stand without. Yet it remains steady
when the scaffolding is warped by the winds of doctrine or uprooted
by advancing knowledge. The spirit that has built it is free from the
perverted enthusiasms which crusade against freedom, put thought in
fetters, and sanctify persecution. It lends no support to the other
spirit that would dominate minds and consciences by formulae that lie
outside the court of reason. These things are of clericalism, and it
was clericalism to which Huxley ever found himself in opposition, for
it "raises obstacles to scientific ways of thinking, which are even
more important than scientific discoveries." But all associations for
promoting that sympathy which is at the foundation of human society
need not be infected with clericalism. If such a step were otherwise
expedient, even the State might do something towards that end
indirectly:--

I can conceive the existence of an Established Church which
should be a blessing to the community. A Church in which, week
by week, services should be devoted, not to the iteration of
abstract propositions in theology, but to the setting before
men's minds of an ideal of true, just, and pure living; a
place in which those who are weary of the burden of daily
cares should find a moment's rest in the contemplation of the
higher life which is possible for all, though attained by so
few; a place in which the man of strife and of business should
have time to think how small, after all, are the rewards he
covets compared with peace and charity. Depend upon it, if
such a Church existed, no one would seek to disestablish it.

But, while sympathy is the basis of society and enthusiasm the
greatest motive power of humanity, there remains something more to
be considered. The man who could appreciate the value of the personal
consolations brought by the Bible-woman to the poor and do