er sort of people fight shy
of him, and he is not invited again; if he profess himself
a Buddhist, a Mahometan, it is assumed that he has not
adopted those beliefs on serious conviction but
rather in wilful levity and eccentricity which does not
deserve to be tolerated. Men have no right to make
themselves bores and nuisances; and the common sense
of mankind inflicts wholesome inconveniences on those
who carry their "right of private judgment" to any
such extremities. It is a check, the same in kind as
that which operates so wholesomely in the Sciences.
Mere folly is extinguished in contempt; objections
reasonably urged obtain a hearing and are reasonably
met. New truths, after encountering sufficient opposition
to test their value, make their way into general reception.

A further cause which has operated to prevent theology
from obtaining the benefit of free discussion is the
interpretation popularly placed upon the constitution of
the Church Establishment. For fifteen centuries of its
existence, the Christian Church was supposed to be
under the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit, which
miraculously controlled its decisions, and precluded the
possibility of error. This theory broke down at the
Reformation, but it left behind it a confused sense that
theological truth was in some way different from other
truth; and partly on grounds of public policy, partly
because it was supposed to have succeeded to the obligations
and the rights of the Papacy, the State took upon
itself to fix by statute the doctrines which should be
taught to the people. The distractions created by
divided opinions were then dangerous. Individuals did
not hesitate to ascribe to themselves the infallibility
which they denied to the Church. Everybody was
intolerant upon principle, and was ready to cut the throat
of an opponent whom his arguments had failed to
convince. The State, while it made no pretensions
to Divine guidance, was compelled to interfere in
self-protection; and to keep the peace of the realm, and
to prevent the nation from tearing itself in pieces, a
body of formulas was enacted, for the time broad and
comprehensive, within which opinion might be allowed
convenient latitude, while forbidden to pass beyond the
border.

It might have been thought that in abandoning for
itself, and formally denying to the Church its pretensions
to immunity from error, the State could not have
intended to bind the conscience. When this or t