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Reform, False and True
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venture to exercise even the function for which he has been chosen till he has made Atonement for his involuntary crime by rebuilding the Temple to which, in his rash young days, he set fire; and the Heathen priest who has heard of the lore of Judæa further instructs him that, if such reparation is to be accepted as true Atonement, the Temple must be dedicated, not to any partial Deity, but to the Unity who speaks through many messengers.


CHAPTER XVI
REFORM, FALSE AND TRUE

"The God of your fathers will bring you out of bondage."'

The difference between True Reform and mere fashionable quackery can be illustrated by example. In the beginning of the 19th century comparatively few English people learned foreign languages. At last some sensible people thought that it would be well if we in England knew more of the modes of thinking of our French and German neighbours. They made their children learn French and German, really for a reason—in order that the children should be able to converse with foreigners, and to read good books written abroad. That was a real Reform. Next it began to be the fashion to learn French and German. People who had neither the means nor the wish to procure foreign books took to neglecting all sound English education. Many country parents were satisfied with any sort of school in which a girl learned to repeat a few foreign phrases; they considered