280 HUMANISM xv 



where more deceptive than in matters ecclesiastical, and 

 history does not confirm the view that the Pope always 

 knows his own business best. It is quite conceivable 

 that in due course, when the more cautious sympathizers 

 with modern thought have risen by dint of years to 

 the higher posts in the hierarchy, and the pressure of 

 circumstances has convinced the less fanatical conservatives 

 that something must be done, some successor of Pius X. 

 will be moved to issue another Encyclical which, after 

 splitting a vast number of hairs to prove that what is 

 now sanctioned is not identical with what was condemned 

 before, will define the sense in which a Modernist attitude 

 may be permitted, and concede the substance of what has 

 lately been denied. 



There would be both psychological and historical 

 warrant for this prophecy. The opposition to any novelty 

 of thought is always largely a matter of individual 

 psychology. The human mind becomes less open to 

 new impressions as it grows older, and in all institutions 

 the high authorities are always old, and often stupidly 

 conservative. Progressiveness and open-mindedness are 

 tender plants which must be carefully cultivated, and 

 often forced. Historical analogy points to the same 

 conclusion. The making of dogmas usually ends by 

 making orthodoxy a razor-edge between two opposite 

 heresies which have been successively condemned. It 

 is formulated so as to conceal the facts that when new 

 ideas arose the old men in authority conservatively 

 condemned them, and that when, nevertheless, they 

 triumphed, words had to be found that would not break 

 too abruptly with the old traditions. 



Such, however, are what may be regarded as the 

 normal psychological and political obstacles to the 

 progress of human thought, and they are in no wise 

 peculiar to the Roman Church. What complicates the 

 situation in her case is that there are other serious 

 objections to innovation which render her the least likely 

 of the Churches to modernize her basis. By so doing 

 she could probably purchase an ignoble peace and 



