122 THE RECONCILIATION. 



followed by a reaction; so, if a creed full of dreadful ideal 

 penalties is all at once replaced by one presenting ideal pen- 

 alties that are comparatively gentle, there will inevitably 

 be a return to some modification of the old belief. The 



parallelism holds yet further. During those early stages in 

 which there is an extreme incongruity between the relative- 

 ly best and the absolutely best, both political and religious 

 changes, when at rare intervals they occur, are necessarily 

 violent; and necessarily entail violent retrogressions. But 

 as the incongruity between that which is and that which 

 should be, diminishes, the changes become more moderate, 

 and are succeeded by more moderate retrogressions; until, 

 as these movements and counter-movements decrease in 

 amount and increase in frequency, they merge into an ah 

 most continuous growth. That adhesion to old institutions 

 and beliefs, which, in primitive societies, opposes an iron 

 barrier to any advance, and which, after the barrier has been 

 at length burst through, brings back the institutions and be- 

 liefs from that too-forward position to which the momentum 

 of change had carried them, and so helps to re-adapt social 

 conditions to the popular character — this adhesion to old in- 

 stitution and beliefs, eventually becomes the constant check 

 by which the constant advance is prevented from being too 

 rapid. This holds true of religious creeds and forms, as of 

 civil ones. And so we learn that theological conservatism, 

 like political conservatism, has an ill-important function. 



§ 33. That spirit of toleration which is so marked a 

 characteristic of modern times, and is daily growing more 

 conspicuous, has thus a far deeper meaning than is supposed. 

 What we commonly regard simply as a due respect for the 

 right of private judgment, is really' a necessary condition to 

 the balancing of the progressive and conservative tendencies 

 — is a means of maintaining the adaptation between men's 

 beliefs and their natures. It is therefore a spirit to be fos- 

 tered; and it is a spirit which the catholic thinker, who per- 



