THE ARREST OF INQUIRY. 39 



foundly instructive; while, to demand for it an ori- 

 gin and character different in kind from other reli- 

 gions, is to import confusion into the story of man- 

 kind, and to raise a swarm of artificial difficulties. 

 " If," as John Morley observes in his criticism of 

 Turgot's dissertation upon The Advantages that 

 the Establishment of Christianity has conferred upon 

 the Human Race (Miscell., vol. ii, p. 90), " there 

 had been in the Christian idea the mysterious self- 

 sowing quality so constantly claimed for it, how 

 came it that in the Eastern part of the Empire it was 

 as powerless for spiritual or moral regeneration as 

 it was for political health and vitality; while in the 

 Western part it became the organ of the most im- 

 portant of all the past transformations of the civilized 

 world? Is not the difference to be explained by the 

 difference in the surrounding medium, and what is 

 the effect of such an explanation upon the super- 

 natural claims of the Christian idea? " Its inclusion 

 as one of other modes, varying only in degree, by 

 which man has progressed from the " ape and tiger " 

 stage to the highest ideals of the race, makes clear 

 what concerns us here, namely, its attitude .toward 

 secular knowledge, and the consequent serious ar- 

 rest of that knowledge. That a religion which its 

 followers claim to be of supernatural origin, and se- 

 cured from error by the perpetual guidance of a 

 Holy Spirit, should have opposed inquiry into mat- 

 ters the faculty for investigating which lay within 

 human power and province; that it should actually 



