ons of man's making and get back to the simplicity of a
primitive age.' The man of nature is guileless, and his natural
instincts would preserve him in uncorrupted purity if they were not
perverted by the artificial usages of society. So profoundly did this
theory dominate the thoughts of men that its influence may be detected
not only in the political fanaticism which found expression in the French
Revolution, but also in the practical views of the Protestant Church
acting as a deterrent to missionary effort.[4] This view of human
nature, though not perhaps formally stated, finds expression in much of
the literature of the present day. Professor James cites Theodore Parker
and other leaders of the liberal movement in New England of last century
as representatives of the tendency.[5] These writers do not wholly
ignore moral effect, but they make light of sin, and regard it not as
something positive, but merely as a stage in the development of man.

{57}

2. The other theory of human nature goes to the opposite extreme. Man
by nature is _utterly depraved_, and his natural instincts are wholly
bad. Those who take this view also appeal to Scripture: 'Man is shapen
in iniquity and conceived in sin.' Many passages in the New Testament,
and especially in the writings of St. Paul, seem to emphasise the utter
degradation of man. It was not, however, until the time of Augustine
that this idea of innate depravity was formulated into a doctrine. The
Augustinean dogma has coloured all later theology. In the Roman Catholic
Church, even in such a writer as Pascal, and in Protestantism, under the
influence of Calvin, the complete corruption of man's nature has been
depicted in the blackest hues.

These theories of human nature represent aspects of truth, and are false
only in their isolation.

The doctrine that man is innocent by nature is not in agreement with
history. Nowhere is the noble savage to be found. The primitive man
exhibits the same tendencies as his more civilised neighbour, and his
animal passions are indulged without control of reason or consideration
for others. Indeed, Hobbes's view of early society as a state of war and
rapacity is much truer to fact than Rousseau's. The noble savage is
simply a fiction of the imagination, an abstraction obtained by
withdrawing him from all social environment. But even could we conceive
of a human being kept from infancy in isolation, he would not fulfil the
tru