OF THE SPIRIT. 353 



in fact, be what Carlyle called " a great heaven-high Un- 

 questionability, encompassing, interpenetrating the whole 

 of Life." ^ Moreover, the various teachings of Ration- 

 alistic Thought, be they popular or metaphysical, in 

 prose or in poetry, have not succeeded in bringing 

 out any important point which is not to be found 

 incorporated already in Christian doctrine. And a 

 reasonable suspicion exists that the various elevating 

 ideas which are to be found in this extensive class of 

 literature have been imported, consciously or uncon- 

 sciously, from out of the body of beliefs contained in 

 the existing historical religions. 



In fact, it may be held that no one who nowadays 

 thinks or speculates on such subjects can escape the 

 influence of the surrounding intellectual and spiritual 

 atmosphere in which he or his teachers have been 

 brought up, and that the elaboration of any creed what- 

 ever, without bias and preconceptions, is a sheer impos- 

 sibility. But admitting even that there exist certain 

 ideals — such as Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, and the 

 doctrine of universal brotherhood or Love — which, how- 

 ever they may have been discovered, exist and are upheld 

 by a general consensus and incorporated in all civilised 

 speech ; it seems, nevertheless, impossible that they can, 

 without some higher command or sanction, become 

 sufficiently real and powerful to keep in subjection 

 and ultimately conquer the Spirit of Evil. It may 

 indeed be possible for individual persons living in 

 seclusion and apart from the ways and interests of the 



^ See 'Past and Present,' Car- I vol. xiii. p. 76. 

 lyle's Works, Library Edition, ' 



VOL. IV. Z 



