EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



men, and publicly eulogized Herbert Spencer, 

 and went so far one day as to take part in the 

 dedication of a Jewish synagogue. The quaint 

 and shrewd reply was : " I don't see why the 

 Unitarians should monopolize all the free-think- 

 ing; I prefer to carry my candle where it is 

 darkest ! " It is only four or five years since a 

 learned English bishop completed his volumi- 

 nous commentary on the Pentateuch, in which 

 the sacred text is handled with as much freedom 

 as Mr. Paley shows in dealing with the Homeric 

 poems, or Mr. Grote in expounding the dia- 

 logues of Plato. And the history of this, as of 

 other less conspicuous acts of heresy, has been 

 held to show that practically an Anglican divine 

 may preach whatever doctrine he likes pro- 

 vided, doubtless, that he avoid certain obnox- 

 ious catch-words. Among Unitarians this doc- 

 trinal latitude is too well known to require any 

 illustration. Yet it is well not to forget that, 

 forty years ago, Theodore Parker was virtually 

 driven out of the Unitarian Church for saying 

 the same sort of things which may be heard 

 to-day from half the Unitarian pulpits in New 

 England. 



In view of all this, it is not strange if we are 

 sometimes led to ask, What is to be the final 

 outcome of this decomposition of orthodoxies ? 

 The total destruction of religious creeds was 

 long ago predicted by Catholic controversialists 

 246 



