HELL AXD THE DIVINE VERACITY. 



493 



of advance and on that, and to be threatened with 

 a standstill. It is that we are trying to live on 

 with a social organization of which the day is over. 

 Certainly equality will never of itself alone give us 

 a perfect civilization. But, with such inequality as 

 ours, a perfect civilization is impossible. To that 

 conclusion, facts, and the stream itself of this dis- 

 course, do seem, I think, to carry us irresistibly. 

 We arrive at it because they so choose, not be- 

 cause we so choose. Our tendencies are all the 

 other way. We are most of us politicians, and in 

 one of two camps, the Liberal or the Conserva- 

 tive ; and Liberals tend to accept the middle class 

 as it is and to praise the nonconformists, while 

 the Conservatives tend to accept the upper class 

 as it is, aud to praise the aristocracy. And yet 

 here we are at the conclusion, that one of the 

 great obstacles to our civilization is British non- 

 conformity, and the other, British aristocracy ! — 

 and this while we are yet forced to recognize ex- 

 cellent special qualities, as well as the general 

 English energy and honesty, and a number of 

 emergent humane individuals, in both of them. 

 Clearly such a conclusion can be none of our own 

 seeking. Then, again, to remedy our inequality, 

 there must be a change in the law of bequest, as 

 in France ; and the faults and inconveniences of 

 the French law of bequest are obvious. It tends 

 to over-divide property ; it is unequal in opera- 

 tion, and can be eluded by people limiting their 

 families ; it makes the children, however ill they 

 choose to behave, independent of the parent. To 

 be sure, Mr. Mill and others have shown that a 



law of bequest, fixing the maximum, whether of 

 land or money, which any one individual may take 

 by bequest or inheritance, but in other respects 

 leaving the testator quite free, has none of the in- 

 conveniences of the French law, and is in every 

 way preferable. But evidently these are not ques- 

 tions of practical politics. Imagine Lord Hart- 

 ington going down to Glasgow, and meeting his 

 Scotch Liberals there, and saying to them : " You 

 are ill at ease, and you are calling for change, and 

 very justly. But the cause of your being ill at 

 ease is not what you suppose. The cause of your 

 being ill at ease is the profound imperfectness of 

 your social civilization. Your social civilization 

 is indeed such as I forbear to characterize. But 

 the remedy is not disestablishment. The remedy 

 is social equality. Let me direct your attention 

 to a reform in the law of bequest and entail." 

 One can hardly speak of such a thing without 

 laughing. No, the matter is one for the thoughts 

 of those who think. It is a thing to be turned 

 over in the minds of those who, on the one hand, 

 have the spirit of scientific inquirers, bent on see- 

 ing things as they really are ; and, on the other 

 hand, the spirit of friends of the humane life, 

 lovers of perfection. To your thoughts I commit 

 it. And, perhaps, the more you think of it, the 

 more you will be persuaded that Menander showed 

 his wisdom quite as much when he said, " Choose 

 equality" as when he assured us that "evil co7n- 

 munieations corrupt good manners." 



— Fortnightly Review. 



HELL AXD THE DIVINE VEEACITY. 



&j juii) Vti hpwvri rdpfios, ou5' tiros fo$u. — Sophocles, 0. T. 296. 

 Br LIONEL A. TOLLEMACHE. 



" Q UPPOSE," says Mr. Mill, "that certain un- 

 ^-^ known attributes are ascribed to the Deity 

 in a religion the external evidences of which are so 

 conclusive to my mind as effectually to convince 

 me that it comes from God. Unless I believe 

 God to possess the same moral attributes which I 

 find, in however inferior a degree, in a good man, 

 what ground of assurance have I of God's veraci- 

 ty ? " In other words, if God's justice and mercy 

 are not as our justice and mercy, what guarantee 

 have we that his truth is as our truth ? And, 

 conversely, are not orthodox reasoners, who start 

 with the assumption that God's truth is as our 



truth, likewise bound to assume that his justice 

 and mercy are as our justice and mercy ? We 

 propose to discuss this question at some length ; 

 for it seems to suggest the most easily stated and, 

 J so to say, handiest reply to the familiar platitude 

 that the only legitimate exercise of reason in these 

 matters is to convince us of the reality of the 

 Christian miracles, and that, being once convinced, 

 we ought straightway to accept any doctrines, 

 however seemingly immoral, which the recorders 

 of those miracles have preached. 



This subject has lately been brought under 

 my notice by Father Oxenham's work on " Catho- 



