214 HUXLEY 



Church," around whose story ecclesiastical historians 

 have cast a halo, was " no dogmatic dovecot pervaded 

 by the most loving unity and doctrinal harmony." 

 Nazarenism became " a damnable heresy, while the 

 younger doctrine throve and pushed out its shoots 

 into that endless variety of sects, of which the three 

 strongest survivors are the Roman and Greek 

 Churches and modern Protestantism." 1 



A masterly summary of the rise and development 

 of Christianity, of the foreign influences which shaped 

 it, and of the mythologies, the pagan rites and cere- 

 monies, themselves of barbaric origin, which it incor- 

 porated, is given in the essay on the u Evolution of 

 Theology." 2 This should be read in conjunction 

 with the prologue to the fifth volume of Collected 

 Essays (of which Huxley wrote to a friend : " It cost 

 me more time and pains than any equal number of 

 pages I have ever written " 3 ), in which the history of 

 the struggle between Naturalism and Supernaturalism 

 is outlined, and the evidence on which the doctrine 

 of Evolution rests, set forth. Both papers will help 

 to clear away the haze which hangs round questions 

 in the discussion of which the spirit of the advocate 

 rather than of the truth-seeker is present. Strauss 

 said that u the true criticism of dogma is its history," 

 because in this are to be found the indictment of hu- 



i Coll. Essays, v. p. 231. 2 lb., pp. 367-371. 3 II. 298. 



