THE GREATEST ILLUSION 49 



were hidden from the hearts of mankind, who first poured 

 the oil of pity upon the waters of strife, who discovered the 

 jewels of compassion and brotherly love in human clay. 

 And from this conception they proceed to make it "almost 

 a point of honour " to regard Christianity as having conferred 

 unprecedented blessings on the world. The Christian era is 

 much more to them than a calendar period ; it is the epoch 

 which opened when the harsh laws of the struggle for exist- 

 ence felt, for the first time, the power of perfect altruism. 



Now that a round dozen of Christian nations are engaged 

 in a war which surpasses any pagan struggle in its horrors 

 and its ferocity, this conception seems to demand revision. 

 On more than one battlefield there stands, untouched in the 

 midst of ruin, a crucifix. The caprice which spared the 

 image of Christ is alleged to be divine ; if it be so, then God 

 does not disdain irony. Place the Galilean once more upon 

 the cross, and he would see desolation and corruption more 

 awful than any he could have witnessed when he brought 

 peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Two thousand 

 years have passed since he spoke his saving message and 

 died to prove it valid ; do the corpses of millions of his 

 followers multiply the proof? 



The challenge which the war implies does not, however, 

 provide the best starting-point fora dispassionate examination 

 of the Greatest Illusion. It does serve to shake faith in Chris- 

 tianity as a Wonder Child, but the wider perspective which 

 history provides is likely to be more convincing than a single 

 argument which is mingled with the passions of war. The 

 claim which has to be met is briefly this : that Christ taught 

 an essentially new ethic which has been of incalculable benefit 

 to the human race. 



On this subject it is useless to appeal to the verdict of the 

 majority, or to the judgment of " accepted " authorities. Both 

 jury and judge are biassed. They have been trained from 

 childhood in the belief that Christianity was the first true 

 dawn of morality ; the intellectual atmosphere created for 

 them by generations of historians and moral philosophers is 

 transfused with this faith ; they see the past of humanity in 

 the mirage which the atmosphere creates. Everything per- 

 taining to Christian morality is magnified and touched with 

 divine brilliance ; paganism is a lurid background, and 

 heathenism a dark horizon. For the great majority of 

 writers and the majority of bookmakers have been Christians 

 the moral history of mankind has been contained in the Old 



