cognised. And behind this
eclectic school were grouped others who had voted for all novelties up to
a certain day, but after _that_ had refused to go further with a movement
party whose tendencies they had begun to distrust. In this last case,
therefore, the divisional line fell upon no principle, but upon the
accident of having, at that particular moment, first seen grounds of
conscientious alarm. The principles upon which men had divided were
various, and these various principles were variously combined. But, on the
other hand, those who have gone out were the men who approved totally, not
partially--unconditionally, not within limits--up to the end, and not to a
given day. Consequently those who stayed in comprehended all the shades
and degrees which the men of violence excluded. The Seceders were
unanimous to a man, and of necessity; for he who approves the last act,
the extreme act, which is naturally the most violent act, _a fortiori_
approves all lesser acts. But the establishment, by parity of reason,
retained upon its rolls all the degrees, all the modifications, all who
had exercised a wise discretion, who, in so great a cause, had thought it
a point of religion to be cautious; whose casuistry had moved in the
harness of peace, and who had preferred an interest of conscience to a
triumph of partisanship. We honour them for that policy; but we cannot
hide from ourselves, that the very principle which makes such a policy
honourable at the moment, makes it dangerous in reversion. For he who
avows that, upon public motives, he once resisted a temptation to schism,
makes known by that avowal that he still harbours in his mind the germ of
such a temptation; and to that scruple, which once he resisted, hereafter
he may see reason for yielding. The principles of schism, which for the
moment were suppressed, are still latent in the church. It is urged that,
in quest of unity, many of these men _succeeded_ in resisting the
instincts of dissension at the moment of crisis. True: But this might be
because they presumed on winning from their own party equal concessions by
means less violent than schism; or because they attached less weight to
the principle concerned, than they may see cause for attaching upon future
considerations; or because they would not allow themselves to sanction the
cause of the late Secession, by going out in company with men whose
principles they adopted only in part, or whose manner of supporting tho