396 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



If the Pope could spare time to think about so insigni- 

 ficant a person, would he wish me to pretend such 

 beliefs or think better of me if I did pretend them ? 

 I should be sorry to see him turn suddenly round and 

 deny his own faith, and I am persuaded that, in like 

 manner, he would have me continue to hold my own in 

 peace ; nevertheless, the duty of subordinating private 

 judgment to the avoidance of schism is so obvious that, 

 if we could see a practicable way of bridging the gulf 

 between ourselves and Eome, we should be heartily 

 glad to bridge it. 



I speak as though the Church of Rome was the only 

 one we can look to. I do not see how it is easy to 

 dispute this. Protestantism has been tried and failed ; 

 it has long ceased to grow, but it has by no means 

 ceased to disintegrate. Note the manner in which 

 it is torn asunder by dissensions, and the rancour 

 which these dissensions engender a rancour which 

 finds its way into the political and social life of 

 Europe, with incalculable damage to the health 

 and well-being of the world. Who can doubt but 

 that there will be a split even in the C hurch of 

 England ere so many years are over ? Protestantism is 

 like one of those drops of glass which tend to split up 

 into minuter and minuter fragments the moment the 

 bond that united them has been removed. It is as 

 though the force of gravity had lost its hold, and a 

 universal power of repulsion taken the place of attrac- 

 tion. This may, perhaps, come about some day in the 

 material as well as in the spiritual and political world, 

 but the spirit of the age is as yet one of aggregation ; 



