400 LESSONS FEOM NATURE. [CHAP. XIII. 



something corresponding with the Holy Office &quot; in fact, a 

 Star-chamber of physically scientific inquisitors sitting in 

 judgment on, and condemning, parents who had dared in 

 private secretly to teach their children to worship God. 

 The naked avowal of the principle of thorough-going perse 

 cution by so prominent a &quot; liberal &quot; has surprised 



Atheism in- J 



w&quot;thtoTera- many, but, in truth, we think the Professor has 

 tion. j iere s hown himself to be both logical and rational. 



Except upon a basis of intuitive morality and the relation of 

 the conscience to God, there is and can be no solid basis on 

 which the rights of minorities can securely repose. The 

 natural and necessary alliance between atheism and the most 

 extreme and hardest form of despotism a despotism like 

 that of the Pagan empire, ignoring conscience altogether 

 was empirically manifested in France in 1793 and 1870 ; 

 and it is a characteristic circumstance that Professor Huxley 

 refers to and quotes the congenial authority of Hobbes, who, 

 &quot; with a true instinct, would have laid deep the foundations 

 of atheism and despotism together, resolving all right into 

 might, and not merely robbing men, if he could, of the power, 

 but denying to them the duty, of obeying God rather than 

 man.&quot; * Christianity and Judaism, by preferring martyrdom 

 to apostasy, first taught men the rights of conscience, and 

 may be destined to repeat the lesson a second time in opposi 

 tion to a revived paganism, and as a result, of a new tempo 

 rary persecution by it of the Christian Church. 



We may now turn to the consideration of the third set of 

 practical consequences, namely, the practical tendencies 

 ounces. resulting from the reception of a Non-theistic 

 Philosophy. 



But here the objection may be made that science and 

 philosophy have no concern for consequences. Professor 

 Huxley, at Belfast, has proclaimed that he does not care for 

 them ; and physical philosophers generally protest that they 

 care only for &quot; truth,&quot; which at all hazards must unhesitat- 



* Archbishop Trench: The Study of Words, p. 171. 



