586 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



with concurrent endowment is the order of the day. 

 Those among the educated classes who have abandoned 

 the traditional belief of their forefathers — and they 

 form a large number — still cling to that ideal interpre- 

 tation of nature and life which found such an original 

 expression in the classical literature and in the creations 

 of the great composers of their country. In fact, they 

 live to a large extent on reminiscences. Only a small 

 number of thinkers realise the absolute necessity of 

 giving to their ideal conception a better defined expres- 

 sion in the shape of a reasoned creed which is at once 

 elevating and fairly consistent, and which could — per- 

 haps not at present but in the near future — be made 

 the subject of instruction in the popular and higher 

 schools of the country. 



In England things are differently situated. The num- 

 ber of thinkers, and among them even of natural phil- 

 osophers, who still embrace the main Articles of Christian 

 Faith is considerable. To the greater part of the nation, 

 be they members of the Established or of the Noncon- 

 formist Churches, the Bible forms still the foundation of 

 all religious instruction. The necessity of constructing 

 a reasoned creed has only recently made itself felt, and 

 this principally only among a small number of advanced 

 thinkers. The difference between believers and un- 

 believers does not come out so strongly as in Germany, 

 nor is it sharpened into the contrast of clericals and 

 anti-clericals as in France. There is, moreover, a strong 

 feeling among the educated classes against any painful 

 and laboured definition of, or minute inquiry into, per- 

 sonal beliefs. These are considered to be, if not a 



