THE CONTROVERSIALIST 205 



Encyclopedia, " no one of them is a primary document 

 in the sense of having been written in its present 

 form from direct personal knowledge ; and it is ob- 

 vious that each succeeding evangelist, in availing him- 

 self of the labours of his predecessors, did so with a 

 feeling of perfect freedom, not claiming for himself, 

 nor according to his fellows, nor expecting for either 

 from the church, any title to authority as infallible." 

 That authority was claimed for them by the framers 

 of the Canon, fallible men determining what is in- 

 fallible ; men whose critical capacity and materials for 

 decision are hardly v/arrant for the burden which they 

 have for centuries, unchallenged, laid upon more com- 

 petent judges. " The times of the first Church were 

 times of excitement ; when the appeal was not to the 

 questioning, thinking understanding, but to unheed- 

 ing, all-venturing emotion, to that lower class c from 

 whom faiths ascend ' ; not to the cultivated class by 

 whom they are criticised." ! Huxley's tribute to the 

 service rendered to human kind by the Bible (see ante, 

 p. 38) adds emphasis to his protest against the evil of 

 which the doctrine of its infallibility has been fruitful. 



The pretension to infallibility, bv whomsoever 

 made, has done endless mischief; with impartial ma- 

 lignity it has proved a curse alike to those who have 

 made it and those who have accepted it : and its most 



1 Literary Studies. By Walter Bagehot, ii. p. 46. 



