396 THE FUTURE OF RELIGION AND MORALS. 



that some new ones might be now required by our 

 changed and changing modern society. It is more than 

 possible that, by our new moral teachers, certain old and 

 now useless practices will cease to be regarded as virtues, 

 while others, hardly now esteemed as such, or at least 

 placed low down in the scale of virtuous excellence, will 

 receive more honourable recognition. It is not likely 

 that asceticism, or fasting, or supplication will be as 

 highly esteemed as heretofore. The merit of uninquiring 

 faith, or of assent without due grounds, will be rated 

 much less, though that the many should repose faith in 

 the more carefully verified conclusions of their superiors 

 in wisdom and knowledge will be always requisite. 

 The wickedness of doubt, as such, will itself be greatly 

 doubted ; as doubt will be held a meritorious mental 

 state, or the reverse, according to the mind in which it 

 appears, and according to the subject to which it refers. 

 Even sacrifice, although it must always occupy the 

 highest rank in the virtues, since it will be always called 

 for more or less in the discharge of our appointed func- 

 tion or duty, will be less highly rated outside that 

 sphere, unless for great and worthy ends, to which only 

 the few are called. On the other hand, the old virtues 

 which respect self will be as much required as ever; 

 possibly more : courage will be as much needed, though 

 not so much of the merely physical sort; temperance 

 will be more required in the front of greater temptations, 

 and with our nerves more excitable ; while prudence, 

 implying judgment, will be more necessary in the midst 

 of the more complex conditions of life ; above all, the old 

 stoical spirit of combined fortitude and resignation will 

 require cultivation to support the shocks of fortune and 

 the defeat of cherished hopes, which must continue to 

 be frequent, though brain and nerves are now less firm 



