THE ATTITUDE OF PHILOSOPHY 



of error in belief, no longer in the light of here- 

 sies that we have the right to punish, or even 

 to despise, but only as the incomplete condition 

 that must of necessity belong to that which has 

 to ripen out of the lower state into the higher ; 

 and when we bethink ourselves that it is the 

 matter of our own most cherished aspiration 

 that our own condition, as presently occupied, 

 has to appear in the very same light to the sta- 

 tion to be attained hereafter; charity towards 

 the imperfection is so inevitable that indeed it 

 no longer requires to be insisted on as if it 

 required inculcation. Our sphere of religious 

 sympathy has been so much enlarged beyond 

 its former bounds, that the original matter of 

 duty has become matter of simple unquestion- 

 ing feeling.'* Now this admirably illustrates 

 what I have called the lower of the two lines of 

 thought which determine our position : it ex- 

 plains our refusal to attack Christianity. The 

 following deeply meditated passage illustrates 

 the higher Hne of thought, and shows why we 

 identify our position with that which is held by 

 Christianity. " Very slight ground of self-grat- 

 ulation should I have found,*' says Miss Hen- 

 nell, " in even the most palpable superiority of 

 present faith that might have been gained, if 

 the acquisition had really been made, as at first 

 it appeared to me to be made, and as it must 

 still appear to orthodox believers to be made, 



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