ory of Copernicus would
be reviled as an "Infidel." Let us suppose that the Astronomer Royal
claimed infallibility, not only in matters astronomical, but also
in politics and morals. Let us suppose that for a thousand years the
astrological-astronomical holy government had whipped, imprisoned,
tortured, burnt, hanged, and damned for everlasting every man, woman, or
child who dared to tell it any new truth, and that some of the noblest
men of genius of all ages had been roasted or impaled alive for being
rude to the equator. Let us suppose that millions of pounds were still
annually spent on casting nativities, and that thousands of expensive
observatories were still maintained at the public cost for astrological
rites. Let us suppose all this, and then I should say it would be quite
consistent and quite logical for me to turn my verbal artillery on
Greenwich Observatory.

Would the Christians listen to such a plea in any other case? Had
Socialists been guilty of tyranny, or war, of massacre, or torture, of
blind opposition to the truth of science, of cruel persecution of the
finest human spirits for fifteen centuries, can anyone believe for
a moment that Christians would heed the excuse that the founders of
Socialism had not preached the atrocious policy which the established
Socialist bodies and the recognised Socialist leaders had put in force
persistently during all those hundreds of cruel years?

Would the Christian hearken to such a defence from a Socialist, or
from a Mohammedan? Would a Liberal accept it from a Tory? Would a Roman
Catholic admit it from a Jew?

Neither is it right to claim credit for the good deeds, and to avoid
responsibility for the evil deeds of the divine religion.

And the fact must be insisted upon, that _all_ religion, in its very
nature, makes for persecution and oppression. It is the assumption that
it is wicked to doubt the accepted faith and the presumption that one
religion ought to revenge or justify its God upon another religion, that
leads to all the pious crimes the world groans and bleeds for.

This is seen in the Russian outrages on the Jews, and in the Moslem
outrages upon the Macedonians to-day. It is religious fanaticism that
lights and fans and feeds the fire. Were all the people in the world
of one, or of no, religion to-day, there would be no Jews murdered by
Christians and no Christians murdered by Moslems in the East. The cause
of the atrocities would be gone. The ca