138 MA TERIALIST COMPLIMENTS. 



enthusiasts become lukewarm, and as they gain in years 

 not unfrequently degenerate into quietists or calm oppo- 

 nents. So philosophers must be formed in numbers by 

 force. All that intelligent persons had been taught in 

 their youth must be declared untrue, religious faith shown 

 to be null and void, founded upon fable and not upon fact, 

 and religious worship condemned as a sham a mere idle 

 form, handed down by the prejudiced, the vulgar, and the 

 ignorant ; useless, except for imposing upon the credulity 

 of the weak-minded, and frightening the timid who had no 

 intellect to appeal to. Such is the course that has been 

 adopted by a few philosophic intellects at intervals during 

 the past two thousand years. The old views are now again 

 put forward by a knot of energetic persons as if they had 

 been just discovered, and were entitled to respect as being 

 broad, advanced, and progressive, although they are well 

 known to be very ancient, untenable, narrow, and retro- 

 grade. There can, however, be little doubt that views of 

 the kind have made some way of late no doubt that they 

 will fail to spread, and scarcely any doubt that they have 

 exerted, or will exert, more than a mere transitory influ- 

 ence upon the real thought and true work of the England 

 of our time. 



The materialist invariably pays the compliment of ap- 

 pealing to the reason of his hearers. He endeavours to 

 persuade his " Memmius" to listen, and promises that from 

 him Memmius shall learn all truths great and good. Before, 

 however, much knowledge has been imparted, Memmius is 

 told that if he will escape from being classed with the many 

 stupid and weak-minded vulgar he must cease to be super- 

 stitious, and give up his belief in monotheism, as a neces- 



