348 POPE. 



order. There was an unbelief that did not believe even in 

 itself. 



The difference between the leading minds of the former 

 age and that which was supplanting it went to the very 

 roots of the soul, Milton was willing to peril the success 

 of his crowning work by making the poetry of it a 

 stalking-horse for his theological convictions. What was 

 that Fame, 



&quot;Which the clear spirit doth raise 

 To scorn delights and live laborious days,&quot; 



to the crown of a good preacher who sets 



&quot; The hearts of men on fire 

 To scorn the sordid world and unto heaven aspire ? &quot; 



Dean Swift, who aspired to the mitre, could write a book 

 whose moral, if it had any, was that one religion was as 

 good as another, since all were political devices, and 

 accepted a cure of souls when it was more than doubtful 

 whether he believed that his follow-creatures had any souls 

 to be saved, or, if they had, whether they were worth saving. 

 The answer which Pulci s Margutte makes to Morgante, 

 when he asked if he believed in Christ or Mahomet, would 

 have expressed well enough the creed of the majority of that 

 generation : 



&quot; To tell thee truly, 



My faith in black s no greater than in azure, 

 But I believe in capons, roast-meat, bouilli, 



And in good wine my faith s beyond all measure.&quot;* 



It was a carnival of intellect without faith, when men 

 could be Protestant or Catholic, both at once, or by turns, 

 or neither, as suited their interest, when they could swear 

 one allegiance and keep on safe terms with the other, when 

 prime ministers and commanders-in-chief could be intel 

 ligencers of the Pretender, nay, when even Algernon Sidney 

 himself could be a pensioner of France. What morality there 

 was, was the morality of appearances, of the side that is 

 turned toward men and not toward God. The very shame- 

 lessness of Congreve is refreshing in that age of sham. 

 * Morgante xviii. 115. 



