The Charges Against the Popular Science Monthly. 557 



And it is important here still further to observe that 

 Mr. Spencer is not a denier or antagonist of religion. He 

 holds it to be a reality, a great truth ; in short, nothing less 

 than an essential and indestructible element of human na- 

 ture. The religious institutions of the world, he maintains, 

 represent a genuine and universal feeling in the race just 

 as really as any other institutions. With the accessory 

 superstitions which in all ages of ignorance have overgrown 

 and perverted the religious sentiment, he is, of course, not 

 in agreement ; and he maintains that the confounding of 

 these with the religious sentiment itself is a mischievous 

 mistake of religionists and anti-religionists alike. And he 

 furthermore holds *that science, in clearing away these su- 

 perstitions, is bringing us ever nearer to the underlying 

 truth, and is therefore doing the highest religious work. 

 And, besides, in all his discussions of religious subjects, 

 though bold, he is reverent, respectful to sincerity, tolerant 

 of honest prejudice, and never wantonly irritating in the 

 treatment of what he regards as religious errors. 



A line is to be here drawn, clear and sharp, separating 

 this mode of regarding religion from that which proclaims 

 it to be a sham, an imposture, and a mere invention of 

 priestcraft to cheat credulous people. Between him who 

 believes that religion is a great and sacred reality, and him 

 who denounces it root and branch as a delusion originating 

 in fraud and knavery, there can be no common ground. 

 These are not the " same opinions," but diametrically op- 

 posite opinions. A criticism of religious errors, however 

 trenchant it may be, if it gives the subject sincere and re- 

 spectful consideration, is as different as any two things can 

 be, from a spiteful, ruthless, and exasperating assault upon 

 th religious sentiment of the community. And when 

 these opinions are published for no other reason than to 

 startle and shock the public by their audacity, and for no 

 other than a sordid purpose, the case is still further aggra- 



