274 HUMANISM 



XV 



many recalcitrants against all authority, and an appreciable 

 number of philosophers who, though they insist on the 

 absolute authority of Reason, will admit no reason but 

 their own. It seems improbable, therefore, that this 

 doctrine of the infallibility of those who speak in the 

 name of absolute truth will make for social peace and 

 quiet. For all parties are in duty bound by their 

 allegiance to absolute truth to wage war unflinchingly 

 upon all views but their own, and wherever they can to 

 oppress, suppress, and persecute by all means in their 

 power. History, therefore, will repeat itself. Its blood 

 stained pages tell too eloquently how thoroughly man 

 has tried to live up to his supposed obligations, and the 

 psychological intolerance which has become so natural 

 in man shows how deeply the corollaries of his belief in 

 the absoluteness of truth have sunk into his soul. 



Is it not possible, therefore, to pay too high a price 

 even for absolute truth ? In modern times there is 

 probably a growing number of men to whom the price 

 to be paid will seem excessive and such consequences 

 seem repulsive. It is time, therefore, that for their benefit 

 we considered the alternative which, apprehended with 

 various degrees of clearness, underlies the modern revolt 

 against mere authority, the Modernist attitude towards 

 religion, and the extensive sympathy therewith. 



Let us return to the practical but illogical compromise 

 whereby Common Sense robbed the intolerant belief in 

 the absoluteness of Truth of all its terrors. A single 

 step beyond it in the same direction will take us into a 

 new world, a very paradise of freedom. Common Sense 

 was willing to admit that in point of fact absolute truth 

 was not in any man s possession, and that however 

 confident men might feel about the truth they had, they 

 were often, if not always, victims of an illusion, and 

 might as well allow for this possibility in their behaviour 

 towards their fellows. For its immediate purpose of 

 mitigating the acerbity of absolutist theory and securing 

 social intercourse this compromise is plainly adequate. 

 It works well enough in practice. Theoretically, however, 



