ion, then every creed ought to be tolerated which tolerates other
creeds, so long as it contains nothing contrary to the duties of the
citizen. But whoever dares to say, _Out of the church, no salvation_,
ought to be banished from the state." The reason for which Henry IV.
embraced the Roman religion--namely, that in that he might be saved,
in the opinion alike of Protestants and Catholics, whereas in the
reformed faith, though he was saved according to Protestants, yet
according to Catholics he was necessarily damned,--ought to have made
every honest man, and especially every prince, reject it. It was the
more curious that Rousseau did not see the futility of drawing the
line of tolerance at any given set of dogmas, however simple and
slight and acceptable to himself they might be, because he invited
special admiration for D'Argenson's excellent maxim that "in the
republic everybody is perfectly free in what does not hurt
others."[258] Surely this maxim has very little significance or value,
unless we interpret it as giving entire liberty of opinion, because no
opinion whatever can hurt others, until it manifests itself in act,
including of course speech, which is a kind of act. Rousseau admitted
that over and above the profession of civil faith, a citizen might
hold what opinions he pleased, in entire freedom from the sovereign's
cognisance or jurisdiction; "for as the sovereign has no competence in
the other world, the fate of subjects in that other world is not his
affair, provided they are good citizens in this." But good citizenship
consists in doing or forbearing from certain actions, and to punish
men on the inference that forbidden action is likely to follow from
the rejection of a set of opinions, or to exact a test oath of
adherence to such opinions on the same principle, is to concede the
whole theory of civil intolerance, however little Rousseau may have
realised the perfectly legitimate applications of his doctrine. It was
an unconscious compromise. He was thinking of Calvin in practice and
Hobbes in theory, and he was at the same time influenced by the
moderate spirit of his time, and the comparatively reasonable
character of his personal belief. He praised Hobbes as the only author
who had seen the right remedy for the conflict of the spiritual and
temporal jurisdictions, by proposing to unite the two heads of the
eagle, and reducing all to political unity, without which never will
either state or governm