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social cohesion, from Cato to the Westminster 

 Assembly, and from Samuel Johnson to Cardinal 

 Newman, should have distrusted scepticism even as 

 reserve of judgment, or indeed repelled it with fierce- 

 ness ; that priest, presbyter, magistrate and moralist 

 have tolerated irony, or even license, rather than 

 vigilant and radical criticism of doctrine, is intel- 

 ligible ; and within limits springs from a justifiable 

 apprehension. For the gay and indolent sceptic 

 veers to conformity, especially if he mistrust the 

 competence of reason ; while the active sceptic 

 endangers the theory of his society, and of the 

 sanctions upon which all moral conduct temporarily 

 depends. Hence the bitter condemnation of Galileo, 

 " Perish all physical science rather than one article 

 of the Faith be lost." Happily it is true that during 

 times of transition piety and good conduct survive 

 by virtue of "inertia," that is by tradition, social 

 pressure, custom and sense of fitness ; and it is 

 true that in times of transition, as in our own 

 times, halting thought is quickened for a while by 

 plenitude of emotion, and wealth of esthetic 

 impressions makes amends for poverty of ideas; 

 yet that morals are based on a theory of life is a 

 truth still deeper and more abiding, and this deeper 



