VII 



AGNOSTICISM 241 



doctrine on which all the Churches have insisted, 

 that honest disbelief in their more or less astonish- 

 ing creeds is a moral offence, indeed a sin of the 

 deepest dye, deserving and involving the same 

 future retribution as murder and robbery. If we 

 could only see, in one view, the torrents of hypoc- 

 risy and cruelty, the lies, the slaughter, the viola- 

 tions of every obligation of humanity, which have 

 flowed from this source along the course of the 

 history of Christian nations, our worst imaginations 

 of Hell would pale beside the vision. 



A thousand times, no ! It ought not to be un- 

 pleasant to say that which one honestly believes or 

 disbelieves. That it so constantly is painful to do 

 so, is quite enough obstacle to the progress of man- 

 kind in that most valuable of all qualities, honesty 

 of word or of deed, without erecting a sad con- 

 comitant of human weakness into something to be 

 admired and cherished. The bravest of soldiers 

 often, and very naturally, " feel it unpleasant " to 

 go into action ; but a court-martial which did its 

 duty would make short work of the officer who 

 promulgated the doctrine that his men ought to feel 

 their duty unpleasant. 



I am very well aware, as I suppose most 

 thoughtful people are in these times, that the 

 process of breaking away from old beliefs is ex- 

 tremely unpleasant ; and I am much disposed to 

 think that the encouragement, the consolation, and 

 the peace afforded to earnest believers in even the 



