OF SOCIETY. 489 



mandments of the New Testament, " Love your Maker " 

 and " Love your Brother." Isolated thinkers may in 

 single instances have emancipated themselves from the 

 stricter interpretation of those precepts, theological 

 systems may have surrounded them with all kinds of 

 doctrinal and much irrelevant matter ; but it cannot 

 be held that any popular teaching or even any largely 

 influential system of philosophy of modern times and up 

 to the middle of the eighteenth century openly disre- 

 garded either or both of these simple but solemn in- 

 junctions. And this statement is not invalidated by 

 the admission that the existing practical morality 

 both of the Church and the World rarely upheld those 

 sacred injunctions in their purity but had frequent 

 recourse to awkward compromises. On these I need 

 not dwell at present. 



The eighteenth century for the first time produced in i5. 



^ -^ r Ethical aud 



France a widespread and influential school of thought «\eoioc;itai 



■■• ~ interests 



in which the first of those two supreme commandments f,i^France. 

 was discarded. What brought this about was probably, 

 in the first instance, the spirit of tyranny, intolerance, 

 and cruelty which stigmatised a large section of the 

 priesthood as one of the most unchristian organisations 

 that ever existed. Through its alliance with political 

 absolutism it brought about an impossible state of 

 society. It was against this that Voltaire raised the 

 battle-cry on behalf of freedom and humanity — i.e., of 

 those interests of which the Church and the State 

 should have been the supreme guardians. It was not 

 the spirit of purely intellectual rationalism and sceptic- 

 ism such as spread from this country under the leader- 



