Three Ideals. 97 



did during the worst moments of the " Terror." Men 

 may have similar blindness to-day. 



We have seen how that support of our European 

 social organisation, which consisted in a widely diffused 

 belief in its divine ordination, has been gradually with- 

 drawn, and naturally and necessarily the support derived 

 from a simple acceptance of Christian morality is con- 

 comitantly weakened that morality being replaced by 

 other systems, and ultimately by the teaching which 

 now issues from our nationally supreme sources of cul- 

 ture, (i) That right is but another name for pleasure ; 

 (2) that temporal good is the only good to be sought 

 after or desired ; and (3) that no man has control over or 

 is responsible for his actions. 



It is difficult to think that the wide reception of these 

 doctrines amongst the lowest classes will not be attended 

 with very considerable transformations, and those are 

 certainly not altogether devoid of rational grounds of 

 apprehension, who fear that as the Graeco-Roman civili- 

 sation was ruined through the invasion of barbarians from 

 without, so existing civilisation may be destroyed through 

 an eruption of barbarians from below. And when we 

 consider the intimate relations existing between that 

 civilisation and Christianity, there can be little cause for 

 wonder either that Christianity itself should for a time 

 share in such unpopularity as our social system may 

 have acquired, or that that system itself should vanish 



H 



