y, and one so intelligible to
the simple as well as profound to the wise, was of great value to the
world; but, experience being once systematised and codified, if higher
principles do not constrain us, society may safely be left to see morals
sufficiently observed. It is true that, notwithstanding its fluctuating
rules, morality has hitherto assumed the character of a Divine
institution, but its sway has not, in consequence, been more real than
it must be as the simple result of human wisdom and the outcome of
social experience. The choice of a noble life is no longer a theological
question, and ecclesiastical patents of truth and uprightness have
finally expired. Morality, which has ever changed its complexion and
modified its injunctions according to social requirements, will
necessarily be enforced as part of human evolution, and is not dependent
on religious terrorism or superstitious persuasion. If we are disposed
to say: _Cui bono?_ and only practise morality, or be ruled by right
principles, to gain a heaven or escape a hell, there is nothing lost,
for such grudging and calculated morality is merely a spurious imitation
which can as well be produced by social compulsion. But if we have ever
been really penetrated by the pure spirit of morality, if we have in any
degree attained that elevation of mind which instinctively turns to the
true and noble and shrinks from the baser level of thought and action,
we shall feel no need of the stimulus of a system of rewards and
punishments in a future state which has for so long been represented as
essential to Christianity.

As to the other reproach, let us ask what has actually been destroyed by
such an enquiry pressed to its logical conclusion. Can Truth by any
means be made less true? Can reality be melted into thin air? The
Revelation not being a reality, that which has been destroyed is only an
illusion, and that which is left is the Truth. Losing belief in it and
its contents, we have lost absolutely nothing but that which the
traveller loses when the mirage, which has displayed cool waters and
green shades before him, melts swiftly away. There were no cool
fountains really there to allay his thirst, no flowery meadows for his
wearied limbs; his pleasure was delusion, and the wilderness is blank.
Rather the mirage with its pleasant illusion, is the human cry, than the
desert with its barrenness. Not so, is the friendly warning; seek not
vainly in the desert that whic