another. Those upon whom Nature forces proof of the existence of a Supreme Being repose upon it; as much, too, when morally as when theoretically convinced. Even those who have racked their brains for fresh evidence have been brought to do so by a certain coercion which they could not quite explain. Instead of giving us their new proofs, they ought to have traced the motives that induced them to seek the same, that is, unless it was fear of consistories or governments that constrained them.
The study of the ancients is now beginning to be revived once more, bringing, as people suppose, salvation in its train, and reinstating the spirit of observation and the true language of Nature. There are a few whom this may help; but undoubtedly fashion has a great deal to do with the process, and the actual truth of things, and correspondence with human nature and reason, only very little. In chivalry there is much that is much that is congenial to the human temperament; but the actual practice of it was mere fashion, esprit de corps; as long as they were in the midst of it people thought it all indispensable. Just the same happens with the Christian religion. What a warring and quarrelling and scrambling about the worship of God it all is! At certain times people must almost have believed that man lived for the sole purpose of praying and worshipping the Deity. I am convinced that the greater part of it is mere excrescence. In the last resort there is no other way of worshipping God than by doing one’s duty and conducting oneself according
