370 
That struck me both as novel and startling ; for we must all admit that 
almost all the persecution that ever happened.in the world, has been done most 
strictly “ for conscience’ sake,” and yet it would be difficult to find what good 
it has been productive of. With regard to the Crusades, it was new to me to 
learn that the spirit of chivalry which was, no doubt, developed in those Cru- 
sades, was in any way due to Christianity, because I have always understood 
that that spirit of chivalry was imbibed from the Moors and Saracens, with 
whom we then came in contact, and it was in the Crusades, and in consequence 
of that contact, that “ the gentil knyght,” so far as he had any existence at all, 
first came into existence. W e know that civilization and the arts and sciences 
had left Christendom, and were only to be found among the Arabs, princi- 
pally in Spain, and when the Spaniards began to get back their country from 
the Moors, they began to learn from them their knowledge, and to be imbued 
with their spirit, and, as I have always understood, what we call chivalry 
then came into existence in Europe. For instance, Saladin was a fine speci- 
men of the perfect “ gentil knyght,” although he was a Moslem. Then, in 
the 11th paragraph of the paper, we have a very beautiful description of the 
state of the world as it is now, but it is one which, if we read some chapters 
of contemporary history, we should hardly recognize. For instance, we are 
told that “ drunkenness is ^banished, at least from the upper and middle 
classes.” However that may be, it certainly is not banished from those who 
are below them. Then Professor Lias says that war is very much mitigated in 
its horrors, and that it is never now produced “ by the ambition of one king 
or the jealousy or irritability of another.” But my mind goes back at once 
to the war of 1870, which I think it is right to say was caused by no conflict 
of principle, but simply by ambition. As to the improvement in our prisons 
and workhouses, no doubt that is very marked, but it is difficult to say that 
that is due to Christianity, because, as Professor Lias himself says, Chris- 
tianity lias been operating in the world for eighteen centuries, and it is only 
during the last fifty years that our prisons and workhouses have been in that 
improved condition. It may well be asked, “ How is it that it is only so 
lately that Christianity has begun to tell upon these particular features of 
society ?” Then, in his 13th paragraph, Professor Lias seems to draw a dis- 
tinction between what Christianity has done, and what China, Japan, India, 
or Turkey would do. Well, look at the atrocities which have been perpe- 
trated by us in India, and Russia in Turkey in the name of advancing 
Christianity. In the general scope of his paper, Professor Litis has shown 
very eloquently how some things have improved, and how gross immorality 
is much less than it was before Christianity was introduced, but there are de- 
velopments of immorality which are peculiar to, or which are much aggravated 
in the days in which we live. There are forms of vice with which, particu- 
larly in the profession to which I belong, we are brought in daily contact, 
and it is impossible to deny that these forms of vice aro lamentably on the 
increase. I allude especially to commercial fraud and bad faith. Then, in 
