n the subject, and I remember putting to him a question to
this effect: Your legal argument may be triumphant; but how about the
moral argument? A clergyman may have a right to express certain
opinions; but can you hold that a clergyman who holds those opinions,
and holds also what they necessarily imply, can continue, as an honest
man, to discharge his functions? As often happens, I remember my share
in our talk much more clearly than I remember his; but he was, I know,
startled, and, as I fancied, had scarcely contemplated the very obvious
application of his principles. I have now seen, however, a very full and
confidential answer given about the same time to a friend who had
consulted him upon the same topic. As I have always found, his most
confidential utterances are identical in substance with all that he said
publicly, although they go into more personal applications.[84] The main
purpose of this paper is to convince a lady that she may rightfully
believe in the doctrines of the Church of England, although she does not
feel herself able to go into the various metaphysical and critical
problems involved. The argument shows the way in which his religious
beliefs were combined with his Benthamism. He proves, for example, that
we should believe the truth by the argument that true belief is
'useful.' Conversely the utility of a belief is a presumption that it
contains much truth. Hence the prolonged existence of a Church and its
admitted utility afford a presumption that its doctrines are true as the
success of a political constitution is a reason for believing the theory
upon which it is built. This is enough to justify the unlearned for
accepting the creed of the Church to which they belong, just as they
have to accept the opinions of a lawyer or of a physician in matters of
health and business. They must not, indeed, accept what shocks their
consciences, nor allow 'an intelligible absurdity' to be passed off as a
'sacred mystery.' The popular doctrines of hell and of the atonement
come under this head; but he still refers to Coleridge for an account of
such doctrines, which appears to him 'quite satisfactory.' The Church of
England, however, lays so little stress upon points of dogmatic theology
that its yoke will be tolerable. Combined with this argument is a very
strong profession of his own belief. The belief in a moral governor of
the universe seems to him as ennobling as all other beliefs 'put
together,' and 'mo