A MODERN "SYMPOSIUM." 



129 



a* to the nature of the Deity, apart from all idea 

 of rewards and punishments, upon personal mo- 

 rality. The lover of moral beauty, struggling 

 through a world full of sorrow and sin, is surely 

 as much the stronger for believing that sooner or 

 later a vision of perfect peace and goodness will 

 burst upon him, as the toiler up a mountain for 

 the belief that beyond crag and snow lie home 

 and rest. For the other side of the picture, who 

 shall exaggerate the deadly influence on personal 

 morality of those theologies which have repre- 

 sented the Deity as vainglorious, irritable, and 

 revengeful — as a sort of pedantic drill-sergeant 

 of mankind, to whom no valor, no long-tried 

 loyalty, could atone for the misplacement of a 

 button of the uniform, or the misunderstanding 

 of a paragraph of the " regulations and instruc- 

 tions ? " 



While no one can dare history, or even look 

 about him, without admitting the enormous influ- 

 ence of theology on morality, it would perhaps 

 be hard to say whether it has been greater or 

 less than the influence of morality on theology. 

 But the latter topic is not at present under dis- 

 cussion; and the only further remark I would 

 venture to add is this — that the intensity and 

 reality of the action of theological beliefs upon 

 morality are precisely measured by the convic- 

 tion of those who hold them that they are true. 

 That such and such a doctrine conduces to moral- 

 ity, and disbelief in it to immorality, may be de- 

 monstrated by an endless array of convincing 

 syllogisms ; but, unless the doctrine is true, the 

 practical result of this expenditure of logic is 

 not apparent. I have not the slightest doubt 

 that if mankind could be got to believe that every 

 socially immoral act would be instantly followed 

 by three months' severe toothache, such acts 

 would soon cease to be perpetrated. It would 

 be a faith charged with most beneficent works, 

 but unfortunately this faith can so easily be 

 shown to be disaccordant with fact that it is not 

 worth while to become its prophet. 



For my part I do not for one moment admit 

 that morality is not strong enough to hold its 

 own. But if it is demonstrated to me that I am 

 wrong, and that without this or that theological 

 dogma the human race will lapse into bipedal 

 cattle, more brutal than the beasts by the meas- 

 ure of their greater cleverness, my next question 

 is to ask for the proof of the truth of the dogma. 



If this proof is forthcoming, it is my convic- 

 tion that no drowning sailor ever clutched a hen- 

 coop more tenaciously than mankind will hold by 

 such dogma, whatever it may be. But if not, 

 9 



then I verily believe that the human race will go 

 its evil way ; and my only consolation lies in the 

 reflection that, however bad our posterity may 

 become, so long as they hold by the plain rule 

 of not pretending to believe what they have no 

 reason to believe because it may be to their ad- 

 vantage so to pretend, they will not have reached 

 the lowest depths of immorality. 



Mr. R. H. HUTTON.— That has happened to 

 us which happened to the disputants in that Attic 

 Symposium from which, I suppose, the name for 

 our discussion was taken. We have been inter- 

 rupted by a " great knocking at the door " and 

 the entrance of an unbidden guest, who, however, 

 shows no sign either of Alcibiades's intoxication, 

 or of that generous disposition to crown the most 

 deserving with garlands which may perhaps have 

 had some connection with the excesses of the 

 brilliant Athenian's potations. The Saturday 

 Reviewer, who, without dropping his mask, has 

 thrust upon us his own criticism on our dis- 

 cussion, 1 has certainly not conferred the most 

 meagre of wreaths on any one, unless indeed it 

 may be said that he grudgingly crowns the Dean 

 of St. Paul's and the Duke of Argyll with a with- 

 ered sprig or two of parsley, for pointing out 

 that our subject is much too vague, and for try- 

 ing to narrow a discussion so " abstract and ill- 

 defined." His general criticism is contained in 

 the harsh remark that " all the fine talk of the 

 chosen illuminati is a mass of words with very 

 little meaning," and that the deliberations of the 

 Symposium bear a very strong resemblance to 

 those of the diplomatists who have been lately 

 concocting protocols ; that is, they consist of 

 empty phrases to which all the parties can agree 

 because they do not touch any of the points on 

 which the co-signataries would be likely to dif- 

 fer." That is a much crueler interruption than 

 any caused by Alcibiades to the guests assembled 

 at the Symposium of Plato, nor do I think it is 

 quite just, though there is enough justice in it to 

 make me try to bring out what seem to me the 

 clearly-understood issues between us a little more 

 distinctly, in the few words I have to say. To 

 limit the subject as much as possible, I will speak 

 of nothing but the effect likely to be produced 

 on morality by any decline in the belief in a 

 righteous God independent of, and external to, 

 the human race — in one, that is, whose leading 

 purpose in relation to us is believed to be to 

 mould our motives and characters into the like- 

 ness of his own. Now it seems to me that all 



1 See Saturday Review for March 31st, article " A 

 Modern Symposium." 



