Three Ideals. 81 



of a great nation led into a reactionary policy of re- 

 ligious oppression in the miserable interest of a " third 

 term," or even the spectacle of a large number of citizens 

 of a really free country persuaded to barter liberty and 

 conscience for the indulgence of sectarian animosity by 

 legislation directly counter to the whole process of social 

 evolution, as displayed in the history of the last six 

 centuries. Such a course of conduct would be the more 

 deplorable, seeing that the United States have reaped 

 the advantage of that evolutionary process without having 

 had to uproot or destroy systems previously established ; 

 so that the throwing away of the advantages they have 

 so peacefully gained would be a peculiarly gratuitous and 

 wanton act. The example of England, however, is telling 

 powerfully upon other nations, and happily the rapidity 

 with which the English-speaking races are multiplying 

 will tell yet more, since in a few centuries " English " will 

 be the language of the world. 



Nevertheless the action of the first (pagan or monistic) 

 tendency is to be feared as a powerful agent hostile 

 to freedom, existing concealed amongst those who are 

 now active in the destruction of the last relics of the 

 mediaeval theocracy in the name of liberty. Such agents 

 are seeking to destroy them, not in the interest of natural 

 freedom, but for the establishment of a revived paganism 

 and dominant and intolerant " naturalism " to which they 

 are passionately attached. They therefore seek to bind in 



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