OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 151 



extended arms and almost prays to every passer-by 

 to enter its sanctuary. The public-house has no 

 missionaries travelling throughout the land, pleading 

 to men to enter and drink of its beer, to partake of 

 its coarse talk, and to inhale its noisome atmosphere. 

 The Church has sent forth its apostles into every 

 hamlet in the land, pleading with men to desert 

 the one path and to follow the other. But in spite 

 of it all the public-house has still its votaries. We 

 may destroy the drinking-house but its votaries 

 will not therefore go to Church, because their 

 inborn desires will soon convert their own homes into 

 a small type of public-house. 



These considerations lead us to a corollary. 

 Neither the Church nor the public-house create their 

 votaries. Both are merely centres whither men with 

 different inherent aspirations and tastes do congregate. 

 It is not the Church which makes people good, but 

 it is the assembling of the " good people " which 

 constitutes the Church. The inborn aspirations came 

 first, the -Church afterwards. Similarly with the 

 public-house. It does not produce the qualities which 

 make drunkards and loungers ; it simply does what 

 the Church does, and offers facilities for gratifying 

 certain inborn desires. It satisfies very different 

 desires, of course. The safety of the Church, therefore, 

 like that of the nation, depends not on its missionary 

 efforts but on the nature of the citizens whose birth 

 it encourages. The Roman Catholic Church, which is 

 making great attempts in this country to obtain 

 adherents among the children of the masses, is indeed 



