THE MODEEN SKEPTIC 101 



no longer credible. Indeed, there are but few great 

 names in literature, ia science or philosophy, for a 

 hundred years, that could not be convicted of some 

 shade of religious skepticism — skepticism about the 

 miracles, the sacraments, vicarious atonement, origi- 

 nal sin, or some other dogma. 



The lawyers are probably less inclined to skepti- 

 cism than the doctors, because the legal mind is 

 closer akin to the theological mind ; it has chiefly 

 to do with arbitrary and artificial questions and dis- 

 tinctions, and is brought less under the influence of 

 natural causes than that of the medical practitioner. 

 The lawyer falls into personal and ex parte views ; 

 he makes the cause of his client his own ; and his 

 whole tfaiaing is to beget a habit of mind quite the 

 opposite of the scientific. The physicians were the 

 first to discredit witchcraft and to write against it, 

 but the lawyers cherished and defended the belief 

 nearly as long as did the clergy. The legalism, too, 

 which has invaded Christianity, and which is such 

 a repulsive feature in certain of the creeds, espe- 

 cially that of Calvinism, is the work of the attorney 

 habit of mLad. 



The writer referred to is correct, however, in 

 saying that " faith is a living force mostly in active 

 temperaments." There is less skepticism among 

 the farmers and among the laboring classes generally 

 except maybe here and there in large cities, and 

 very little among the women. Women are slow to 

 reason, but quick to feel and to believe, and they 

 cannot face the chill of the great cosmic out of doors 



