272 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



the incongruity of ancient Oriental customs 

 as compared with modern and European ideas 

 these and many other points, all of which 

 require a scholar to deal with them, may 

 furnish lines of investigation. But, indeed, the 

 modes of attack may be indefinitely varied. 

 On all sides, doctrinal religion has been, and 

 is daily, attacked; at all points it has been, 

 and is daily, defended to the full satisfaction 

 of the defenders. The assailants can never 

 perceive that they are beaten off at every 

 point ; the defenders can never be made to 

 understand that their stronghold has been 

 utterly demolished. 



The Religious Problem at the present 

 moment has been, in fact, so far advanced 

 that research, defence, or attack by persons 

 not qualified by special education in one or 

 other of these lines is absolutely futile. For 

 the greater number, dulness of perception, 

 ignorance, want of early training, self-conceit, 

 and that sheer incapacity either to perceive or 

 to tell the truth which seems to be a special 

 firmity of the age, make research impossible, 

 attack futile, and defence powerless. And 



