m. vi.l THE ATTITUDE OF PHILOSOPHY. 503 



of realizing more and more fully its own ideal, becomes more 

 and more fully identified with the faith which we are con- 

 scious of cherishing. Instead of the intolerant hostility of 

 the Infidel, or the indifferent neutrality of the Positivist, we 

 offer cordial aid and sympathy. I cannot better illustrate 

 the twofold source of this sympathy than by citing the words 

 of a lady who is fairly entitled to rank as one of the most 

 original and suggestive thinkers of our time. Speaking of 

 the lower of the two lines of thought which determine the 

 critical attitude of the evolutionist, Miss Hennell says : — 

 " When we see the various modes of error in belief, no longer 

 in the light of heresies 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 our- 

 selves 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 station 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 unques- 

 tioning feeling " Now this admirably illustrates what I have 

 called the lower of the two lines of thought which determine 

 our position : it explains our refusal to attack Christianity. 

 The following deeply-meditated passage illustrates the higher 

 line of thought, and shows why we identify our position with 

 that which is held by Christianity. " Very slight ground of 

 self-gratulation should I have found," says Miss Hennell, 

 " 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, at the expense 

 of the absolute subversal and denial of the faith that had 



