EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



cution, while losing much of its old cruel inten- 

 sity, became also discredited and disavowed. It 

 was during this interval that Lessing's theory 

 of the relative truth of opinions, which de- 

 stroyed the logical basis of persecution, began 

 to make its way among cultivated minds. 

 Though the persecuting spirit has not yet 

 ceased to influence men's actions, it is no longer 

 regarded as a trait to be proud of, but seeks to 

 hide itself under specious disguises. Its mani- 

 festations, too, have become correspondingly 

 feeble. The heretic who once would have been 

 racked, thumb-screwed, and burned for writing 

 an obnoxious life of Jesus is now only requested 

 to resign his professorship in the College de 

 France, while nobody thinks of such a thing as 

 confiscating the book or cutting off from the 

 author his share of the proceeds of its immense 

 sale. The decline of persecution is in these re- 

 spects analogous to the simultaneous decline in 

 the warlike spirit. Warfare, once regarded as 

 the only fitting occupation for well-bred men, 

 has come to be regarded not only as an intoler- 

 able nuisance, but even as a criminal business, 

 save when justified on the ground of self-defence. 

 And along with this change in the moral esti- 

 mate of warfare, we observe that whereas the 

 capture of a town not long ago was invariably 

 followed by a carnival of red-handed slaughter 

 and bestial lust, it is now thought unfair to kill 

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