IXVi. INTRODUCTION. 



the general belief that he is an infallible authority, a preroga- 

 tive conceded only to nature herself is infinitely worse. 



The great bane of cultured progress in the present, if not in 

 all centuries, has been the worship of authority. If the Pope 

 says the sun goes round the earth, then Galileo must believe 

 him. If Sir Isaac Newton says gravitation is the universal law 

 of earth, then Herschell will not question the fact ; and strange 

 to say although many knew the discrepancies of that law, and 

 the many exhibitions of force which it was unable to explain, 

 no man up to the present time has had the manliness to speak 

 against gravitation. Scientific men seem to have gone on the 

 principle that a law, although defective, is better than no law 

 at all ; just as many nations to their cost have said that a bad 

 government is better than no government. But as a bloody 

 revolution is the inevitable destiny of such a people, and good 

 government, easily to have been obtained if sought for in 

 time, is at length only attained by a sacrifice of life which 

 blackens the page of history ; so it will be in science, for 

 the tree of knowledge has been so overgrown and entwined 

 with creepers, that its growth has been choked and stunted,- its 

 fair proportions destroyed, and its vitality threatened. In 

 order, therefore, that it may again branch out in all its beauty, 

 it will have to be severed at the roots. 



This worship of authority has poisoned the streams of other 

 branches of knowledge, for Architecture slept at the Reformation, 

 and until lately a blind copyism of Grecian, Roman, and in due 

 sequence all the types of the Gothic styles prevailed, so that 

 artistic feeling was almost quenched in the architect who would 

 be popular. So also was it in Painting, where Cupids, Venuses, 

 Madonnas, and artificial landscapes were the main staple of art 



