DIFFERENCES OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 217 



between natural temperament and the religious attach- 

 ments of the man. Professional experience, especially 

 during the last twenty years, has strikingly illustrated 

 this to my own knowledge, and often by cases forming 

 in themselves a little romance of struggles between 

 native temperament and the conditions of life pressing 

 harshly upon it. History and biography abound in 

 curious and painful examples to the same effect. 



In discussing the subject of religious belief it must 

 ever be kept in mind how vague and changeable in 

 meaning this word belief is ; a phantom without sub- 

 stance to the world at large ; and even with those who 

 bring thought and feeling to the subject, only to be 

 interpreted by the individual character of each. This 

 may seem a harsh judgment on a word of popular and 

 needful use, but it will be justified to anyone who 

 cares to examine its actual application in the case 

 before us. 1 



Admitting these various premises, one conclusion 

 to be drawn from them is, that all creeds, to form 

 truly and effectively a basis and bond of religious 

 unity, should be large and lenient in their scope, 

 simple and humble in their phraseology. It is a hard 

 thing, and worse than useless, to subject the con- 

 sciences of men now living to the dogmas of Councils 

 assembled in dark ages, and dishonouring even those 

 ages by their bigoted and violent conflicts. Hilary, 

 living and acting himself amidst Councils and creeds, 



1 Neander, in his treatise ' Das eine und mannigfaltige des Christ- 

 lichen Lebens/ dwells much on the adaptations of Christianity to the 

 idiosyncrasies of men. 



