29 
And this leads to a third point in which the scepticism 
of the present period has changed ground. We used to be 
told to disregard authority, even the very highest, to doubt 
everything and every one, to be satisfied with nothing that 
we had not examined and verified for ourselves ; but the tone 
is altered now, and the despiser of authority has been con- 
verted into its champion. “ Can you believe what the acute 
and judicial mind of Voltaire rejected ? Has not such and 
such a great thinker avowed his utter disbelief of Christianity, 
and can you dare still to plead for it ? Has not every true 
man of science now given up the Bible ; and after that can 
you venture to say a word in its favour ? Has not a great 
living authority expressed his astonishment at the clumsiness 
of much in Nature, and do you still talk of an infinitely 
intelligent Creator ? ” In a word, there is no one who uses 
more freely the argwnentum ad verecundiam than the sceptic 
of the present time. But it is only the old tale — “ Have any 
of the rulers, or the Pharisees, believed on Him ? but this 
people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed.” And surely, if 
we chose to retort the argument, we might have something 
to say : a Grote and a Mill have not done so very much more 
for their fellow-men, have not contributed so very much more 
to the advancement and well-being of humanity, than a 
Wilberforce or a Whewell; we may compare at no dis- 
advantage, as to intellect and general usefulness, Bossuet with 
Voltaire, Johnson with Plobbes, Filippo Neri with Machiavel, 
Manzoni with Mazzini. 
I cannot forbear alluding to another point which must 
be remarked in the scepticism of late years, and that is its 
extreme narrow-mindedness and illiberality. There was some- 
thing captivating in the openness and fairness of the unbeliever 
of a quarter of a century ago. He was as tolerant as an old 
Roman. You might worship Christ, provided you did not 
interfere with the Goddess of Reason ; you were free to go flic 
way that suited you, provided you did not try to drive others 
into it. Nay, you were free to proselytize, if you could, so 
that you said and did nothing in disparagement of his adora- 
tion of pure intellect : even Christianity was better than a 
vacuum. But this tolerant temper is fast vanishing, and a 
deadly enmity to all definite religion is taking its place. We 
have heard of the odium thcoiogicum, we know something of 
the odiuui sciontijicum : but I suspect we have yet to fathom 
the profundities of the odium athcisticum. 
