it be to the development of any new thought, discovery,
invention, or principle that arises in the process of evolution toward
a freer atmosphere and a broader understanding of individual liberty and
dignity and life. William Kingdon Clifford, F. R. S., in his delightful
book on the "Scientific Basis of Morals," says:

"It is sometimes said that moral questions have been authoritatively
settled by other methods; that we ought to accept this decision, and
not to question it by any method of scientific inquiry; and that reason
should give way to revelation on such matters.

"I hope before I have done to show just cause why we should pronounce on
such teaching as this no light _sentence of moral condemnation_: first,
because it is our duty to form those beliefs which are to guide our
actions by the two scientific modes of inference, and by these alone;
and, secondly, because the proposed mode of settling ethical questions
by authority is contrary to the very nature of right and wrong.

"The worship of a deity who is represented as unfair or unfriendly to
any portion of the community is a wrong thing, however great may be
the threats and promises by which it is commended. And still worse, the
reference of right and wrong to his arbitrary will as a standard, _the
diversion of the allegiance of the moral sense from the community to
him, is the most insidious and fatal of social diseases_.

"_The first principle of natural ethics is the sole and supreme
allegiance of conscience to the community_.

"Secondly, veracity to the community depends upon faith in man. Surely I
ought to be talking platitudes when I say that it is not English to
tell a man a lie, or to suggest a lie by your silence or your actions,
because you are afraid that he is not prepared for the truth, because
you don't quite know what he will do when he knows it, because perhaps
after all this lie is a better thing _for him_ than the truth would be,
this same man being all the time an honest fellow-citizen whom you have
every reason to trust. Surely I have heard that this craven crookedness
is the object of our national detestation. _And yet it is constantly
whispered that it would be dangerous to divulge certain truths to the
masses_. 'I know the whole thing is untrue: but then it is so useful for
the people; you don't know what harm you might do by shaking their faith
in it.' Crooked ways are none the less crooked because they are meant
to deceive great m