The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97,
November, 1865, by Various

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Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865

Author: Various

Release Date: December 11, 2006 [EBook #20088]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY ***

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THE

ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

_A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics._

VOL. XVI.--NOVEMBER, 1865.--NO. XCVII.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by TICKNOR AND
FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved
to the end of the article. Headings in large tables converted to letters
with a legend.

WHY THE PUTKAMMER CASTLE WAS DESTROYED.

There is a test of truth in popular creeds and in human opinions
generally which is prominently put forward by Herbert Spencer, and has
been more or less distinctly stated by other writers, long before our
time,--a very searching and trustworthy test.

It is, in substance, this:--Whatever doctrine or opinion has received,
throughout a long succession of centuries, the common assent of mankind,
may be properly set down as being, if not absolutely true in its usually
received form, yet founded on truth, and having, at least, a great,
undeniable verity that underlies it.

If, however, there be conflicting details as to any doctrine, varying in
form according to the sect or the nation that entertains it, then the
test is to be received as affirming the grand underlying truth, but not
as proving any of the conflicting varieties of investment in which
particular sects or nations may have chosen to clothe it.

Thus of the world's belief in the reality of another life, and in the
doctrine of future reward and punishment.

In some form or other, such a faith has existed in every age and among