8 4 4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



INTELLECTUAL LIBERTY. 



The recent prosecution of the Rev. 

 Howard MacQueary for heresy has 

 brought out in a striking manner the 

 fact that the sympathies of the public 

 in a case of this kind are, as a rule, 

 strongly with the defendant with the 

 man who is striving to obtain recogni- 

 tion for intellectual rights as against ar- 

 bitrarily imposed dogmas. We do not 

 say that the prosecutors in such a case 

 are to be blamed. Their motives may 

 be, and doubtless in general are, of the 

 purest, and their logical position may be 

 very strong. Still, they labor under the 

 disadvantage of administering and striv- 

 ing to enforce a system in which au- 

 thority takes the place which, in other 

 fields of thought, is only assigned to 

 proved and still provable results of in- 

 vestigation. Long ago men were led to 

 think and believe so and so : no other- 

 wise must they think and believe to- 

 day. Such is the principle that gov- 

 erns adhesion to theological standards 

 a principle that has had its uses in 

 past times by giving stability to insti- 

 tutions under which the forces of so- 

 ciety were being organized and the 

 sympathies of men developed. Mani- 

 festly, however, this principle is becom- 

 ing more and more out of harmony 

 with the spirit of the age. Men now 

 know that, apart from constant not re- 

 assertion, but reverification, the opin- 

 ions of their ancestors are not to be de- 

 pended on for guidance; and they do 

 not see why this should not apply as 

 much in the theological region as in any 

 other. The creeds may be all true, and 

 it is certainly no part of our business to 

 say they are not; only in these days it 

 is almost impossible for intelligent men 

 not to hold them subject to such veri- 

 fication as their nature and alleged 

 evidences admit of. Subjective impres- 

 sions, we all know, are just as liable 

 to error as objective ones; and because 

 a man, many centuries ago, held that 

 he had received a supernatural commu- 

 nication we can not feel absolutely cer- 



tain unless collateral proofs of consid- 

 erable cogency are forthcoming that 

 he really received such a communica- 

 tion and was not under the influence of 

 illusion. In saying this, our object is 

 not in any way to weaken the hold 

 which theological doctrines may have 

 upon any mind, but merely to explain 

 how it is that so much public sympathy 

 seems to be accorded to those who seek 

 to escape from what, to them, has be- 

 come the bondage of authority. In our 

 institutions of secular learning the put- 

 ting forward of a new theory or the dis- 

 carding of an old one, far from subject- 

 ing a man to forfeiture of office, gives 

 a certain additional interest to what he 

 has to say, and he is allowed the freest 

 possible scope for developing his thought 

 and his conclusions. Of course, he must 

 run the gantlet of criticism ; but this 

 is just what a man who thinks he has 

 discovered new truth desires. We do 

 not blame our ecclesiastical friends for 

 not acting at once on similar principles, 

 for we know they can not do so, and 

 we are very ready to believe that many 

 of them at least, if not most of them, 

 are doing the best they can in their sev- 

 eral positions, and acting fully up to 

 their lights. But none the less do we 

 maintain that verification is the only 

 charter on which beliefs of any kind 

 can be properly or safely held, and that 

 this truth must eventually be recognized 

 in every field of thought and speculation. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Socialism, New and Old. By William 

 Graham, M. A., Professor of Jurispru- 

 dence and Political Economy, Queen's 

 College, Belfast. International Scien- 

 tific Series. Vol. LXVIII. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. Pp. lv + 416. Price, 

 $1.75. 



The latest addition to the International 

 Scientific Series is a very timely one. The 

 subject of socialism or social reconstruction 

 is in the air ; and a competent thinker, who 

 has any well-matured views on the question, 

 is sure of an attentive hearing. Prof. Gra- 

 ham, in the work before us, deals with the 



