f abasement,
like most of the other ideas that are general in the world, is obviously
the invention of small and ignoble men. It is the pollution of theology
by the _sklavmoral_.

XLV

THE MASK

Ritual is to religion what the music of an opera is to the libretto:
ostensibly a means of interpretation, but actually a means of
concealment. The Presbyterians made the mistake of keeping the doctrine
of infant damnation in plain words. As enlightenment grew in the
world, intelligence and prudery revolted against it, and so it had
to be abandoned. Had it been set to music it would have
survived--uncomprehended, unsuspected and unchallenged.

XLVI

PIA VENEZIANI, POI CRISTIANI

I have spoken of the possibility that God, too, may suffer from a finite
intelligence, and so know the bitter sting of disappointment and defeat.
Here I yielded something to politeness; the thing is not only possible,
but obvious. Like man, God is deceived by appearances and probabilities;
He makes calculations that do not work out; He falls into specious
assumptions. For example, He assumed that Adam and Eve would obey the
law in the Garden. Again, He assumed that the appalling lesson of the
Flood would make men better. Yet again, He assumed that men would always
put religion in first place among their concerns--that it would be
eternally possible to reach and influence them through it. This last
assumption was the most erroneous of them all. The truth is that the
generality of men have long since ceased to take religion seriously.
When we encounter one who still does so, he seems eccentric, almost
feeble-minded--or, more commonly, a rogue who has been deluded by his
own hypocrisy. Even men who are professionally religious, and who thus
have far more incentive to stick to religion than the rest of us, nearly
always throw it overboard at the first serious temptation. During the
past four years, for example, Christianity has been in combat with
patriotism all over Christendom. Which has prevailed? How many gentlemen
of God, having to choose between Christ and Patrie, have actually chosen
Christ?

XLVII

OFF AGAIN, ON AGAIN

The ostensible object of the Reformation, which lately reached its
fourth centenary, was to purge the Church of imbecilities. That object
was accomplished; the Church shook them off. But imbecilities make an
irresistible appeal to man; he inevitably tries to preserve them by
cloaking them with reli