is, what truth they contain, a crisis is at once brought
on, and--such is the course of events--in the catastrophe that ensues
they are commonly all absolutely destroyed. It was doubtless their
foresight of such consequences that inspired the Italian statesmen of
the Middle Ages with a resolute purpose of crushing in the bud every
encroachment on ecclesiastical authority, and every attempt at
individual interpretation of religious doctrines. For it is not to be
supposed that men of clear intellect should be insensible to the obvious
unreasonableness of many of the dogmas that had been consecrated by
authority. But if once permission were accorded to human criticism and
human interpretation, what other issue could there be than that doctrine
upon doctrine, and sect upon sect should arise; that theological
principles should undergo a total decomposition, until two men could
scarcely be found whose views coincided; nay, even more than that, that
the same man should change his opinion with the changing incidents of
the different periods of his life. No matter what might be the plausible
guise of the beginning, and the ostensibly cogent arguments for its
necessity, once let the decomposition commence, and no human power could
arrest it until it had become thorough and complete. Considering the
prestige, the authority, and the mass of fact to be dealt with, it might
take many centuries for this process to be finished, but that that
result would at length be accomplished no enlightened man could doubt.
The experience of the ancient European world had shown that in the act
of such decompositions there is but little danger, since, for the time
being, each sect, and, indeed, each individual, has a guiding rule of
life. But as soon as the period of secondary analysis is reached a
crisis must inevitably ensue, in all probability involving not only
religion, but also the social contract. And though, by the exercise of
force on the part of the interests that are disturbed, aided by that
popular sentiment which is abhorrent of anarchy, the crisis might, for a
time, be put off, it could not be otherwise than that Europe should be
left in that deplorable state which must result when the intellect of a
people has outgrown its formulas of faith. A fearful condition to
contemplate, for such a dislocation must also affect political
relations, and necessarily implies revolt against existing law. Nations
plunged in the abyss of irreligion must