The Theological Method. 267 



the main increase has been in the most recent times, the 

 application of machinery to labor and of steam-power to 

 machinery, the principal factors in the increase, a comment 

 on the threadbare fallacy tliat "all wealth is the product of 

 labor" that cannot be too carefully observed. There is 

 significance in the fact that the growth of industry and 

 wealth has been most remarkable in quarters least subject 

 to the control or influence of the Roman Catholic church, 

 in quarters where the Protestant virtues, as Cardinal 

 NeAvman calls them, personal independence and self- 

 respect, have had the fullest swing. The industrialism 

 and wealth of modern life have flourished not merely in 

 contempt of the original church, but in part because (no 

 thanks to her) of her fatuous opposition. The immense 

 development of mechanical skill is eldest daughter of that 

 scientific spirit with which the Mother Church had no com- 

 munity. It has come of an insatiable curiosity for which 

 she has had no favorable word or smile. The uttermost 

 dis-service done by that Church to industry and wealth and 

 labor and the general social stains of mankind was through 

 her monstrous opposition to its intellectual life. Had not 

 the Jew and the Mohammedan kept the flame of intellect- 

 ual life in Europe it seems as if it must have gone out in 

 smoke and stench forever. The Christian branch of the 

 Semitic stock was without flower or fruit when the Moham- 

 medan and Jewish branches of the same stock were all 

 abloom with promise or loaded doAvn with intellectual fruit. 

 "Persecution," says Lecky, "came to the Jewish nation in 

 its most horrible forms, . . . but above all this the grandeur 

 of that wonderful people rose supreme. While those 

 around were groveling in the darkness of besotted igno- 

 rance ; while juggling miracles and lying relics were the 

 themes on which almost all Europe was expatiating ; while 

 the intellect of Europe, enthralled by countless supersti- 

 tions, had sunk into a deadly torpor in which all love of 

 inquiry and all search for truth were abandoned, the Jews 

 were still pursuing the path of knowledge, amassing learn- 

 ing, and stimulating progress with the same unflinching 

 confidence they manifested in their faith. They were the 

 most skilful physicians, the ablest financiers, and among 

 the most profound philosophers ; Avhile they were second 

 only to the Moors in natural science," freely aj)propriating 

 their results and giving them such currency as tht^y could 



