The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-02

ence 30 tho influence Of ~rntionaltsSn on
English historians without u glance at Ia
eject on j. r. Green tho author Of a @SbOrt
History Of the English People" Neither
that book, which appeared In 1874, nor
any other Of his publications contained
any distinct avOwal Of theological unbelief
The opening of the ninth chapter OF the
work named, however. d~eecribee modern
England "a -an England whose chief forces
are industry and science, the love Of popu-
lar freedom and Of law; an England which
presses steadily forward to a larger social
justice and equality and which tends more
and more to bring every custom and tradi-
ton, religious, intellectual and political. TO
the test Of pure reason" Wenow know from
his privately expressed opinions how much
the phrase here quoted implies. Writing to
a friend In 1880, he made the Judgment In
the Voysey case, by which, for denying
openly the doctrine Of the Trinity a clergy
man was deprived OF his living, a reason for
throwing over all theologies as effete. THE
fact is," he says, that there are but two
Churches In the ~world-the Church OF the
Priest and the Church Of the Schoolmaster,
the Church Of Dogma and the Church Of
Science. Bodies like the Church Of England
may try to oonCiliate the two movements
at least portions Of them may-but every
day makes the task more impossible"
Writing a little later (ISTi) to the lady who
is now Mrs. Humphry Ward he described
his life as without any real faith in a here
after In his view Darwin's Descent Of
Man contains the true gospel OF our age,
and we must look to scientists like Hux-
ley and Tyndall for authoritative exposition
OF il. -
v.
IE we turn now from the historians TO
the novelists and poets of Britain in the
nineteenth century We shall find dis
cernible in most OF them, though naturally
with less d~istinctness, some evidences OF
the i~nfiue1c OF contemporary ~rationalism.
Sir Walter Scott seems at first sight a strik-
ing exception TO the rule. Unquestionably
he was a sincere believer in Christianity.
Yet he ridicules religious ministers of all
denominations, and experimentation finds
no more favor in his eyes han &C.
clesiasticism or pietism. In his view OF
human existence Scott, though standing
at the opposite pole Of politics and popu-
larity, agreed with his stern countryman
and contemporary. James Mill. in think
ing and saying that life is a poor thing at
the best adding that il is poorest for the
best. Our author points out that such
sentiments are, on their face, removed
widely from evangelicalism and even
from any sincere form Of Christianity, and
the fact that they were SCOTS enables
us to understand how George Eliot, when
asked in her later years what influence
had unsettled her orthodoxy, could reply
Walter Scott's.' We can also see with
how little relevancy Cardinal Newman
could quote the great poet Of the North az
contributing by his work in prose and
verse to prepare men for some closer, more
practical approximation TO Catholic truth
1t is acknowledged by Mr.. Bonn that
Thackeray. with his unsystematic intellect,
felt little interest in theology and none in
philosophy, yet "Pendennis' offers a re-
markable instance Of plain speaking which
would hardly have been ventured on before
1850, il. as seems likely, the following
boutade. put into the mouth OF Arthur
Pendennis, expresses the novelist's own
opinion: Il see. the truth in this man who
worships by Act OF Parliament and is re-
warded with a silk apron and five thousand
aryear, in hat man who, driven fatally
by the remOrseless logic Of his creed, gives
up everything, friends, fame, dearest ties,
closest vanities, the respect Of an army
OF churchmen, the recognized position Of a
leader, and passes over, truth impelled,
to the enemy, in whose ranks he lie ready
to serve h~enceforth as a nameless private
soldier. l see the truth in that man, as l
do in his brother, whose logic drives him
to quite a different conclusion and who,
after having passeda life in vain, endeavors
to reconcile an irreconcilable book, filings
it at last down in despair. and declares
with fearful eyes and hands up to heaven
his revolt and recantation.'
II is well known that Marian Evans's
Evangelicalism, which, as she said, had
been already undermined by SCOTS novels,
came down with a rush on reading Charles
Hennell's Inquiry Concerning the Origin
Of Christianity" leaving the way open for
Strauss and Comte to enter in and take
possession OF her capacious intellect. In
1852 she became the editor Of the West
|. min ster Reriep, the organ of the philo-
sophical radicals. Ultimately her studies
led her to recognize an indestructible ele-
ment Of good in religion. To associate
this element from its Theological husk
seems to rave been one OF her permanent
objects as a novelist and a rare combination
Of moral sincerity with literary skill enabled
her to do this without either the false as
sumption Of religious belief or the scandal
OF its direct negation. Her first novel,
Scenes Of Clerical Life" first appeared in
Bydckvood's Magazine in 1887, the year
which witnessed the publication Of Thorn
dale" throughout which book the author,
William Smith, steadily ignored Christianity
as a coenicient in the future progress Of
mankind. Had the feeling of the British
people at large, or the power OF the
churches still been what it had been In 1880,
when Millman's History OF the Jews
excited such a storm, the career OF George
Eliot might have been abruptly checked.
But, as Mr.. Benn reminds us. "a public
grown more heterodox or more Indifferent
was determined that no such consideration
should interfere with their enjoyment OF
the new found treasure, deliberately shut
ting their Eyes to any snares that il might
contain, and the great Comtist novelist
continued to publish every year some new
version Of the same gospel. with ever in
creasing success"
The fact is recalled that John Henry
S~horthouse, whose John Inglesant,' when
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