142 AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY IV 



Churches ; and that, in this particular, it is 

 exerting an educational influence on mankind of 

 which the Churches have shown themselves 

 utterly incapable. 



Undoubtedly that varying compound of some 

 of the best and some of the worst elements of 

 Paganism and Judaism, moulded in practice by 

 the innate character of certain people of the 

 Western world, which, since the second century, 

 has assumed to itself -the title of orthodox 

 Christianity, " rests on miracles " and falls to the 

 ground, not "if miracles be impossible," but if 

 those to which it is committed prove themselves 

 unable to fulfil the conditions of honest belief. 

 That this Christianity is doomed to fall is, to my 

 mind, beyond a doubt ; but its fall will be neither 

 sudden nor speedy. The Church, with all the aid 

 lent it by the secular arm, took many centuries to 

 extirpate the open practice of pagan idolatry 

 within its own fold ; and those who have travelled 

 in southern Europe will be aware that it has not 

 extirpated the essence of such idolatry even yet. 

 Mutato nomine, it is probable that there is as much 

 sheer fetichism among the Roman populace now 

 as there was eighteen hundred years ago ; and if 

 Marcus Antoninus could descend from his horse and 

 ascend the steps of -the Ara Cceli church about 

 Twelfth Day, the only thing that need strike him 

 would be the extremely contemptible character of 

 the modern idols as works of art. 



