VI ADMINISTRATIVE NIHILISM 267 



persuasion of the mind." And since " such is the 

 nature of the understanding that it cannot be 

 compelled to the belief of anything by outward 

 force," it is absurd to attempt to make men 

 religious by compulsion. I cannot discover that 

 Locke fathers the pet doctrine of modern Liberal- 

 ism, that the toleration of error is a good thin" 



O O 



in itself, and to be reckoned among the cardinal 

 virtues ; on the contrary, in this very " Letter on 

 Toleration " he states in the clearest language that 

 " No opinion contrary to human society, or to 

 those moral rules which are necessary to the 

 preservation of civil society, are to be tolerated 

 by the magistrate." And the practical corollary 

 which he draws from this proposition is that 

 there ought to be np_tpleration JOT either Papists 

 or A.theists. 



After Locke's time the negative view of the 

 functions of Government gradually grew in 

 strength, until it obtained systematic and able 

 expression in Wilhelm von Humboldt^s " Ideen," l 

 the essence of which is the denial that the State 

 has a right to be anything more r than chief ]><ili< 

 man. And, of late years, the beljfiLin_the $flicacy 

 of doing nothing, thus formulated, has acquired 

 considerable popularity for several reasons.. In the 

 first place, men's speculative convictions have' 

 become lessjaml less real ; their tolerance is large 



1 An English translation has been published under the title of 

 Essay on the Sphere and Duties of G'occrnmcnt. 



