SOCIAL EVOLUTION 273 



be wiser for the clergy to take the initiative ? l It 

 is the duty of every man to help the clergy to do 

 so. 2 Or will the clergy remain stubborn and resist 

 mental progress until the superior mental power 



a life which is a lie. What a state of society is this in which free- 

 thinker is a term of abuse, and in which doubt is regarded as a sin. 

 Men have a Bluebeard's chamber in their minds which they dare 

 not open ; they have a faith which they dare not examine lest they 

 should be forced to cast it from them in contempt. Worship is a 

 conventionality, churches are bonnet shows, places of assignation, 

 shabby-genteel salons where the parochial At Home is given, and 

 respectable tradesmen exhibit their daughters in the wooden stalls. 

 O wondrous, awful, and divine Religion ! You elevate our hearts 

 from the cares of common life, you transport us into the unseen 

 world, you bear us upwards to that sublime temple of the skies 

 where dwells the Veiled God, whom mortal eye can never view, 

 whom mortal mind can never comprehend. How art thou fallen ! 

 How art thou degraded ! But it will be only for a time. We are 

 now in the dreary desert which separates two ages of Belief. A new 

 era is at hand." (" The Martyrdom of Man," Win wood Reade, 

 1890, p. 541.) 



1 Mr. Kidd says they will do it. Let us hope he is right. He 

 states : 



" The great process is proceeding as a natural and orderly develop- 

 ment we are adapting the old institutions to the new wants. This 

 is the real secret of that political genius the Anglo-Saxon peoples are 

 now displaying, and there is scarcely any other quality which pro- 

 mises to stand them in such good stead in that great social revolution 

 with which the history of the twentieth century will be filled." 

 (" Social Evolution," Benjamin Kidd, 1895, p. 324.) 



2 The fundamental text of the priests in the near future must be : 

 to learn and to teach " the lesson of a large toleration and of charity 

 in thought and deed, towards those who, from inherited constitution 

 or unfortunate conditions of education and outward circumstances, 

 fall under the sway of the principle of evil, and lead bad, useless, and 

 unlovely lives. Had you and I, reader, been in their place, should 

 we have done better? " (" A Modern Zoroastrian," S. Laing, 1895, 

 p. 196.) 



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