INTRODUCTORY
THE SCEPTICAL SPIRIT OF MODERN TOLERATION
"The natural history of toleration is one of the most complex of all topics that engage either the reasoner or the ruler," writes Mr John Morley in his life of Oliver Cromwell. Contemporary thinkers, like Sir Leslie Stephen, Professor Ritchie and Sir Frederick Pollock, have appreciated the complexity of the problem—in so far as it involves manifold phases of human psychology and political science—but they have only touched on it occasionally and incidentally. Writers like Mr Lecky and Mr Andrew White have treated historically certain landmarks in the growth of free intellectual investigation, but have not dealt very adequately with the political side of the matter. A careful examination of the processes which have made toleration possible and practicable, may be of use in showing not only some still active tendencies of human thought and action, but also the permanency of some elements in human nature.
There are many points of view from which religious toleration may be regarded, and it is well, perhaps, to begin by considering the most important.
