ed at birth
and brought ready into the world; a privilege, too, in a matter second
to none in importance. What is obnoxious and absurd in this doctrine may
be traced to the idea contained in the Old Testament, that man is the
creation of an external will, which called him into existence out of
nothing. It is quite true that genuine moral excellence is really
innate; but the meaning of the Christian doctrine is expressed in
another and more rational way by the theory of metempsychosis, common to
Brahmans and Buddhists. According to this theory, the qualities which
distinguish one man from another are received at birth, are brought,
that is to say, from another world and a former life; these qualities
are not an external gift of grace, but are the fruits of the acts
committed in that other world. But Augustine's dogma of Predestination
is connected with another dogma, namely, that the mass of humanity is
corrupt and doomed to eternal damnation, that very few will be found
righteous and attain salvation, and that only in consequence of the gift
of grace, and because they are predestined to be saved; whilst the
remainder will be overwhelmed by the perdition they have deserved, viz.,
eternal torment in hell. Taken in its ordinary meaning, the dogma is
revolting, for it comes to this: it condemns a man, who may be, perhaps,
scarcely twenty years of age, to expiate his errors, or even his
unbelief, in everlasting torment; nay, more, it makes this almost
universal damnation the natural effect of original sin, and therefore
the necessary consequence of the Fall. This is a result which must have
been foreseen by him who made mankind, and who, in the first place, made
them not better than they are, and secondly, set a trap for them into
which he must have known they would fall; for he made the whole world,
and nothing is hidden from him. According to this doctrine, then, God
created out of nothing a weak race prone to sin, in order to give them
over to endless torment. And, as a last characteristic, we are told that
this God, who prescribes forbearance and forgiveness of every fault,
exercises none himself, but does the exact opposite; for a punishment
which comes at the end of all things, when the world is over and done
with, cannot have for its object either to improve or deter, and is
therefore pure vengeance. So that, on this view, the whole race is
actually destined to eternal torture and damnation, and created
expressly for t