The sun., 1901-04-14

who could imagine that man had been
happiest in the Roman Empire under the
Antonines was an apt partisan OF Lord
North. Gibbon no doubt imagined himself
rich patrician OF his golden era. Would ho
have liked TO be q Roman slave? Conyers
Middleton in his Free Inquiry" into the
ecclesiastical miracles glanced at the credi-
bility of the Gospel miracles and had thus
partly paved the way for Gibbon.
Among the dislntegrating forces may be
counted Unitarianism, which was growing
among thinkers. and probably before very
long became the mask for profounder
scephcism in Protestant Europe. as IL did
atterward In New England. We find 1t In
England on the eve Of the French Revolu-
ton. combined with science in Priestley and
with mathematics and philosophy in Price
Among the apologetio and defensive
forces may he numbered the practical vim
dication Of Christianity by certain revival
Of piety In the Anglican Church which
produced Wilberforce, Cowper. and tho
Evangelicals. and still more by the
religious crusade OF John Wesley. Wes-
leys achievements. however. were among
the poor and illiterate. and were conse-
quently demonstrations of the power OF
Christianity rather than Of its truth. His
Church had the advantage OF being born
not like other Protestant Churches in doc
trinal controversy. but In evangelical reac-
ton against the impiety and vice Of the age,
II was. however not undogmatc; besides
what might be called the dogma of sudden
conversion, IL implicitly accepted not only
the literal inspiration Of Scripture. but the
bulk Of the Anglican Articles. 10 which was
afterwards added a. an ordination test gem
eral agreement with the more important Il
Wesley's sermons.
The French Revolution brought on a
strong reaction against the free thought
which had been hdeously travestied in
the blasphemous follies. and sullied by the
crimes. Of the JaCobins. In England
the Tory mob, with true instinct. sacked
the library and laboratory Of Priesuey.
Colerldge, who, like other young men OF in
teuect. had hailed the revolutionary dawn
shared tho reaction, and combining in a
curious way German metaphysics with
English orthodoxy and Establishmentar-
ianism, produced a rellgious system which
perhaps entities him 10 high place among
English theologians in the proper sense Of
that term, as denoting a phllosophic in
qulrer into the nature Of the Deity and the
relations between the Deity and man,
though, RS his guiding light was philosophy;
not authority or tradition. he may in that
respect be numbered among the promoters
OF free thought and of the results to which IL
was ultimately 10 lead, Such free thinking
rs there was naturally took n turn an
swerinG In violence TO the repression. Tom
Paine assailed orthodoxy not with freedom
only but with enmity the most virulent.
Though far from an attractive. he is 10y no
means an unlmportant, figure. His criti-
Cisnls Of the Credibillty and morality Of
scripture, unlelrned and coarse IA they
were. went. not over the heads Of the 6co-
pie like the high-hying and metaphysical
speCulations. but straight TO their under
standings and their hearts. II was difii-
cult for apologetic fencers 10 parry such
home thrlists The same sort Of effect has
been produced by the rreverent frank
ness of lngersoll in our own day. Shelley
rushed from the religion OF Eldon into
| what he took for Satansm; though his Satan
is really the power of good whilo the God
| Of Eldon. "a viewed by him. il the Devil
Wrecked, body and soul by the Thirty
| Years War, and afterward stiled under
a group Of petty de-potlsms, Germany
was for a time lost 20 intellectual progress.
| Her churches and their clergy, the Iu-
| thcran clergy az least. were in very low
| condition. When her intellect began 10
work again. II was in recm,e and highly
| speculative way, the natural consequence
| OF its exclusion from politics and other
! fields Of action together with the COM
| plete severance Of the aCadcmcal element
| from the people. Hence, from Lcibnitz
| and Lessing onward. there was train Of
metaphysical PHILOSOPHERS, each OF them
! proir- .ins 10 tinl In our Consciousness n
key 20 the mystery of Being and an account
| Of God. OF Ills coun.els, and of the relation
| between Him ana man. In dcr,,ion Of
! such spccularions II was said that 10 the
| French belonged the land 70 the English
! the sea, 20 the Germans the air EsScn-
| TALLY incapable of ycriaca'ion, these the
| oTIes went on shifting in ncbuiOus success
sion and. with the exception OF that of
| Kant, may now be- said 20 have vanished.
leaving scarce a rack behind. Even oftho
great Hegcl little remains. Lcbn,,z. with
| his best Of all possible WORLDS hardly
survived Camille" Su.l, We must speak
with respect and gratitude of these efforts
| OF minds. powerful IL their way and do
voted 20 truth to solve for Va the great
mystery. Speculation 50 free could not
| fail 70 promote general freedom ~ thought
| and the treatmen, by these thinker, of the
| popular and established religion was n
| philosophic a. possible, though, with the
| exception Of Feuerhach. they were thcista,
| BY Lessng much was done for the recog-
nitlon Of all religions aad the promotion .!
universal toleration.
Presently, however, came direct crit
| iclsm Of the Bible. the way 20 which. long
| before, had been lighted by Spinoza. II
assumed a strange form In the work OF
| Paums, who applied 20 the Gospel miracles
solvent something like that which
Hiaemerus had applied To the Pagan
| Pantheon. reducing them 70 natural oc.
currence- turned into miracles by a Icvou'
! Imagination. The miraculou, fish with
| the coin IN its mouth was a fish which would
| .pll for the coin The rpiraru0u, feeding