I7O HUXLEY 



cares should find a moment's rest in the contempla- 

 tion of the higher life which is possible for all, though 

 attained by so few ; a place in which the man of strife 

 and of business should have time to think how small, 

 after all, are the rewards he covets compared with 

 peace and charity. Depend upon it, if such a Church 

 existed, no one would seek to disestablish it. l 



And he not only looked with no favour upon 

 criticism that is wholly destructive ; he demurred, 

 " both as a matter of principle and one of policy, to a 

 great deal of what appears as c free thought ' litera- 

 ture." 



Heterodox ribaldry disgusts me, I confess, rather 

 more than orthodox fanaticism. It is at once so 

 easy ; so stupid ; such a complete anachronism in 

 England, and so thoroughly calculated to disgust and 

 repel the very thoughtful and serious people whom it 

 ought to be the great aim to attract. Old Noll knew 

 what he was about when he said that it was of no use 

 to try to fight the gentlemen of England with tapsters 

 and serving-men. It is quite as hopeless to fight 

 Christianity with scurrility. We want a regiment of 

 Ironsides. 2 



The mode of attack thus rightly censured is well- 

 nigh obsolete. The okl fatuous alternatives, which 

 presented Jesus as a divine being or an impostor, and 

 the Bible as an inspired book or a forgery, rarely 

 enter into modern methods of controversy. The age 

 may not be very earnest, but it is not flippant, in 



1 lb., i. p. 284. sii. 321. 



