THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 125 



One of the most eminent preachers 

 of the 19th century, the celebrated 

 ROBERT HALL, in striking contrast to 

 Professor Huxley, the author of Lay 

 Sermons, has forcibly described in his 

 own powerful language the difference 

 between the bold Atheism of the French 

 Revolutionists and the cultured infidelity 

 of sceptical savans who appeared in the 

 19th century. After mentioning that 

 Hume, Bolinbroke and Gibbon addressed 

 themselves exclusively to the higher 

 classes, he adds " Infidelity has lately 

 grown condescending; bred in the spe- 

 culations of a daring philosophy, immured 

 at first in the cloisters of the learned, 

 and afterwards nursed in the lap of 

 voluptuousness and of courts, having at 

 length reached its full maturity, it boldly 

 ventures to challenge the suffrages of 

 the people, and solicits the acquaintance 

 of peasants and mechanics, and seeks 

 to draw whole nations to its standard. 

 But infidelity is an evil of short duration. 

 It has no individual subsistence given it 



