Sectarian Morality, &c. 
{September 
582 
Nature is only paralleled by their insensibility to errors of 
inconceivable magnitude (involving the most cruel violations 
of justice). If it were not for the fortunate fa 6i that such 
literature (all founded on the ethics of terrorism of the bar- 
barous Hebrew) fails to take root in the minds of the 
majority, the evil would be colossal.* As it is, the intelli- 
gent minority (or the young of exceptionally inquiring minds) 
are those most liable to be caught here. The known violent 
antagonism of the writers of such dodtrines to demonstrated 
scientific truth, itself proves the magnitude of the error. 
The development of this species of literature has proceeded 
in a groove (a known characteristic of evolution) until it has 
attained gigantic proportions, forming a special feature un- 
approached by any other civilised country. Its complete 
collapse — together with the barbarous system of Hebrew 
ethics which it represents — will illustrate the fortunate pro- 
perty of error to defeat itself by its own growth, until it 
becomes a forgotten feature in the ever-advancing tide of 
progress. Unfortunately this tendency to forget the evils of 
the past, and the fearful state of religious fanaticism which 
once existed, by which progress and healthy life were stran- 
gled, makes mankind oblivious of the benefits conferred by 
those who fought against error in spite of popular prejudice, 
and through which conflict alone the present blessfhgs of 
national prosperity and freedom have been won. Will it be 
supposed, however, for one moment that perfection is so 
nearly reached that more victories of the same kind have 
not yet to be achieved ? The new morality can only advance 
in triumph over the ruins of the old. 
* If it be supposed for a moment that people whose antipathy to demon- 
strated scientific truth is notorious, can be adive to the extent they are in the 
propagation of their ideas without doing harm, then one may be inclined to 
ask, What on earth could constitute an evil ? The ideas of some are so anti- 
thetical to natural truths that biame from them constitutes eulogy. What, for 
instance, could have been a more consistent eulogy of the great work of the 
Fiench philosopher, Helvetius, than its denunciation by the Jesuits as an 
“ oeuvre sat unique.” It is not denied that there may be some earnest people 
even among the Jesuits. But incapacity may be as fatal to the welfare of 
mankind as open hostility to right and justice. Having given in this essay 
every credit to good intentions, there is less reason for blinking the plain fads, 
which must be realised in the interests of truth. Nothing is more certain than 
that this world is not yet perfe d ; that errors tend to gravitate into fixed habits, 
the temporary pain caused in the eradication of which must be proportional to 
the permanent benefit secured ; and that future progress will certainly increase 
rather than diminish the estimate of past error. 
