and the casuistry
which multiplies cases of conscience and invents unreal and factitious
duties is apt to be rather an impediment than a furtherance to a noble
life.

It is probable that as the world goes on morals will move more and more
in the direction I have described. There will be at the same time a
steadily increasing tendency to judge moral qualities and courses of
conduct mainly by the degree in which they promote or diminish human
happiness. Enthusiasm and self-sacrifice for some object which has no
real bearing on the welfare of man will become rarer and will be less
respected, and the condemnation that is passed on acts that are
recognised as wrong will be much more proportioned than at present to
the injury they inflict. Some things, such as excessive luxury of
expenditure and the improvidence of bringing into the world children for
whom no provision has been made, which can now scarcely be said to enter
into the teaching of moralists, or at least of churches, may one day be
looked upon as graver offences than some that are in the penal code.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] St. Francis de Sales.

[12] St. Philip Neri.

[13] St. Teresa.

[14] 'Cum dictus Johannes Hus fidem orthodoxam pertinaciter impugnans,
se ab omni con ductu et privilegio reddiderit alienum, nec aliqua sibi
fides aut promissio de jure naturali divino vel humano, fuerit in
praejudicium Catholicae fidei observanda.' Declaration of the Council of
Constance. See Creighton's _History of the Papacy_, ii. 32.

[15] I have collected some illustrations of this in my _History of
European Morals_, ii. 235-242.

[16] See, e.g. his funeral oration on Marie Therese d'Autriche.

[17] See the enthusiastic eulogy of the persecution of the Huguenots in
his funeral oration on Michel le Tellier. It concludes: 'Epanchons nos
coeurs sur la piete de Louis; poussons jusqu'au ciel nos acclamations,
et disons a ce nouveau Constantin, a ce nouveau Theodose, a ce nouveau
Marcien, a ce nouveau Charlemagne ce que les six cent trente Peres
dirent autrefois dans le Concile de Chalcedoine: "Vous avez affermi la
foi; vous avez extermine les heretiques; c'est le digne ouvrage de votre
regne; c'en est le propre caractere. Par vous l'heresie n'est plus, Dieu
seul a pu faire cette merveille. Roi du ciel, conservez le roi de la
terre; c'est le voeu, des Eglises; c'est le voeu des Eveques."'

[18] See Migne, _Encyclopedie Theologique_, 'Dict. de Cas de
Conscience,' art. _Avorte