xv INFALLIBILITY AND TOLERATION 279 



impersonal support of pure reason ; nor can it be kept 

 from moving with the times by chains of rusty syllogisms. 

 For the truth is that dogmas are essentially secondary 

 expressions of the vital value of a religion, the by-products 

 of a spiritual life that was never nourished on pure 

 intellect. They are, as it were, the lifeless fossils of a 

 living faith, and remain unmeaning marvels unless they 

 are re-enveloped in the life which grew them. That life, 

 moreover, is primarily an individual attitude of soul : 

 however closely it is wrapped in a spiritual environment, 

 each soul must nourish itself and grow in its own con 

 genial fashion. 



The chief paradox of the situation is that these facts 

 of the spiritual life should have been so intensely perceived 

 in the Roman Church. For at first sight they look such 

 a supreme vindication of Protestantism, such a sanctioning 

 by psychologic science of the evangelical or mystic. But 

 it must never be forgotten that, like all science, psychology 

 is catholic and impartial. Every religion may be vindi 

 cated by the psychologic tests in so far as it is genuine, 

 i.e. really nourishes the spiritual life. It speaks well for 

 the intelligence of the Catholic Modernists that they 

 should have discovered this. But they had discovered 

 also that the idea of a Church, of an historical association 

 with a corporate confidence in the truth of its position, 

 has very great religious value. They were probably not 

 wrong in thinking that the Roman Church could flourish 

 exceedingly on Modernist lines. 



But will it ever prefer to do so ? It is very hard to 

 say. It must be a very hard question to decide for the 

 astute directors of Papal policy. Superficially, no doubt 

 the present indications are that this bold and novel policy 

 will not be adopted. Ancient institutions, whether they 

 are called Churches, bureaucracies, or universities, never 

 do adopt a bold and novel policy : they are always under 

 the control of men too old to run the risk of such a policy. 

 Modernism, therefore, will be crushed, and Medievalism 

 will prevail ; a mechanical uniformity will be enforced, 

 even at the cost of schism. But appearances are no- 



