The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-18
RATIONAL INTOLERANCE.

We have frequently pointed out, and in
sisted upon the fact, that some of the princi-
pies which are usually regarded as the most
brilliant discoveries of modern times are in
reality suitable only for very peculiar circum-
stances, and are therefore likely to become
superannuated and to cease to have any ef-
feet at all, after the lapse of comparatively
short time. The most glaring instance of
this is to be found in the doctrines of which
the federation or rather the recognition of the
civil equality of all religions may be regarded
as the centre, and the growing popularity and
probable ultimate establishment of the volun-
tary system in most parts of the civilized
world as the most striking practical develop
ment. Most people now regard
these doctrines as established
beyond the reach Of controversy They are
among the very FIRST articles of the political
and social creed of the great bulk of educated
men; yet they are far from being absolutely
true-they are compromise which is destined
sooner or later to be broken up, and we can
not doubt that the time will come when they
will be as much exploded as their opposites
are at present supposed to be. We have
more than once given our reasons for this
opinion. Those reasons are that liberation
and the voluntary system can be justified
upon one supposition ouly-namely, that ra-
tional certainty upon religious questions is
unattainable, that we must be content with
probabilities, that probabilities differ in force
according to the constitution of the mind
which contemplates them, that society can be
constituted independently of religion, and
that there is practically no limit to the extent
to which religious theory, and that
amount of practice which is in
volved in its sincere adoption, can be
permitted The practical inference from this
view is the state of things as to all the moral
raI IInIn fI1n of tubi inl,
see around us. More and more the State in
nearly every part of the world ceases to make
any claim on what we may Call the spiritual
allegiance of its members. More and more
decisively does it restrict itself, or appear
to try to restrict itself, to what are substan-
TALLY police functions. and to abandon the
whole spiritual side of things, religion in all
its forms, education in most of It's forms,
charitable efforts in nearly all their forms,
to voluntary associations, standing to the
State in all sorts of relatlons-some of
them in relation Of independence,
allied or defiant, as the case may be, and
others in an attitude of dependence for some
purposes and independence for others, like
that of a joint bank or a railway COM
pany, which promote the private objects of
their shareholders bject to rules and con-
tracts which are sanctioned and if necessary
enforced by the law of the land. AS this state
of things has lasted for what in relation to
the length of individual life must be called for
long time-say, as regards this country, that
it has lasted for the best part of a century, and
has been gradually coming to maturity for
nearly two centurles-it is not perhaps un-
natural that people should regard it as per-
manent condition of human society. We
think, however, closer observation will show
that this is not the case; that the doctrine is
false in itself and unsuited to human nature,
and that though great length of time will
probably elepse before it is seriously in
fringed to any extent, signs are plentiful in
all directions of the fact that it is in reality
lame and impotent, and that the unqualified
admission of its truth would in the course of
time break up human society and transfer the
allegiance of mankind from States to Churches
and other bodies armed not with the legal but
with the religious and popular sanctions.
Any one who will glance over the subjects
on which any great State is called upon to
legislate, and which are part of the undis-
puted province of jurisprudence, will readily
perceive that legislation without moral
basis is simply impossible. The three great
heads of legislation, in whatever shape, are
the law of Grimes, the Law of Personal Re-
lations, and the Law of Government. Every
one of these branches of law rests upon
morals; and though it is undoubtedly true
that law exercises an all but irresistible intiu-
ence over the growth and development of
moral ideas, it is no less true that the laws
which given body of legislators make will
always depend upon the standard of morals
which they acknowledge as being of autho-
rity, and on the religious beliefs which they
are accustomed to accept as being true. The
whole law of crime, everything, for instance,
which relates to liability to punishment to