The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-14


main theist, and in the midst of the Ter
| ror held it's Feast of the Supreme Being,
! with Robespierre for high priest. Athe-
ism, in the persons of Chaumette and
| Anacharsis CIootz, went to the guillotine.
One hardly knows what to say about
the last will and testament of Jean Mes
lier the priest who after thirty years
| service AS a country cure bequeathed to
his practitioners q profession of atheism.
! The work appears to have passed through
the hands of Voltaire. 1t urges the argu-
ments against natural theology in very
| forcible as well as thorough-going way.
| But it seems, when it appeared, TO have
! made little impression and can be men,
! toned historically only as indication
of the masked ferment of the time.
England had a series of deists, Toland.
Tindal Collins. Chubb, and the rest, not
men of much mark, though seekers of
truth after their measure and in their
day. The ecclesiastical poity of England
was comparatively mild, and there was
nothing to provoke indignant resistance
to clerical tyranny like that which was
provoked by the cases of CALAIS and La
| Barre. Shaftesbury, deist of a higher
stamp. was. with his moral taste a
| philosopher for men of taste. and could
! little stir the common world. In defence
! of orthodoxy came forth Bishop Butler,
/ with work which will be memorable
| forever as a model of earnest and solemn
| enquiry into the deepest questions. though
its fundamental assumption is unwarrant-
able, since we should expect the difficult
| ties of natural theology not to be repro
duced but to be dispelled by revelation.
Buffers tone in discussion was an effect
i've rebuke to those who had treated
Christianity with levity az an obsolete
interference with the pleasures Of the
world. His profound analysis of the moral
nature of man In like manner rebuked
the shallow and cynical theories which
resolved everything into self-love; though
here again his assumption of the au-
thority of conscience as a divinely i'm
planted monitor has by modern investiga-
ton been swept away. Butler, however.
with all his piety and his orthodox con-
illusions, must essentially be reckoned
among rationalists. He frankly admits
that the use OF our reason is the only
means we have of arriving at truth, never
appealing from it TO Church authority.
He who recognizes reason as supreme
reason lead him or mislead him as it may.
This is the vital line of cleavage which
runs through the whole religious history
and divides the religious world at the
present day.
Butler had popular shield-bearer in
Paley. an extremely acute and effective
though not profound writer. PaIey's sup
posed proof of the existence OF an inteIli-
gent Creator from the design visible in
creation told greatly at the time and long
continued to tell; though we now see that
the universe. unlike the watch, presents
terrible proofs OF undesign as well as ap-
parent proofs OF design; not TO mention
that In the case of the universe. though
adaptation is visible, the aim is not re-
vealed. Paley's "Hoae Paulinae," how
ever, is about the only piece of historical
apolOgetics which has in any degree sur
viyed the destructive influence Of modern
criticism.
Narburton hardly calls for mention. In
his Divine Legation he is right enough
in saying that Moses did not teach the
Immortality Of the soul; but the notion
that the Mosaic dispensation must have
had divine support because it could afford
to dispense with that doctrine would now
only provoke a smile
Among literary apologists we can
scarcely reckon Johnson. Yet he was a
living defence, intellectual as well as
moral. of his religion. That he specu-
lated. we cannot doubt, and we know that
he was not satisfied with the proofs of
the Immortality Of the soul; but he sun
pressed doubt IN himself and frowned It
down in others. He was well justified in
treating with contempt the posthumous
works Of Bolingbroke, which have not
the slightest force or value beyond their
literary form. Bolingbrokes skepticism,
however. had a certain effect If it inspired
Pope's Universal Prayer"
In Hume, on the other hand. we have
the mightiest of all skeptics In the literal
sense Of the term, inasmuch as he was
purely doubter and seems hardly TO
have felt the desire of arriving OF any
positive result. He who has given rise 70
so much controversy was himself uncon-
troyersial His writings. considered as
the vehicle Of his opinions, are the per-
lection Of literary art over common
minds the teacher who merely suspends
judgment, seeming not to be in quest of
positive truth, can never have much in
fiuence; but Hume had great influence
over cultivated men OF the world.
His argument against the crediblity of
miracles. though it became as standard
on one side as Paley's apologize of the
watch upon the other. will hardly bear
examination Assuming the existence of
God and his care for man as his work
which Hume does not openly deny, there
is no presumption against his revelation
of himself in the only conceivable way
which is by an interruption Of the gen
eral course Of things; there is rather
presumption that he would so reveal
himself. Nor can ii be maintained that
no degree of evidence, save that of a null
titudc OF scientific men, after providing
all possible safeguards against deception.
would satisfy us Of the fact.
Gibbons great work is instinct with
the tendency Of men of the world in the
generation OF Voltaire. Horace Walpoie,
aud Hume. It's spirit is identical with
that Of Hume's philosophy and history.
1t is Of frst-rate Importance In the re-
ligious controversy as having opened the
trenches historically against revealed re-
iigion in undertaking to account for the
success of Christianity by natural causes
But it's cynical treatment of that which
on any hypothesis was the prevailing and
formative force is unphilosophical and
detracts largely from the value Of the
had been haDpiest in the Roman Empire