You
must in honesty confess that if these things were
presented to us when we were, adults for the first
time, we should smile at them. It isn't true that the
Fountain of all common sense should punish a race for a
venial offence committed by a person long since dead, and
then should add to the crass injustice by heaping the
whole retribution upon a single innocent scapegoat. Can
you not see all the want of justice and logic, to say
nothing of the want of mercy, involved in such a
conception? Can you not see it, Bertie? How can you
blind yourself to it! Take your eyes away from the
details for a moment, and look at this root idea of the
predominant Faith. Is the general conception of it
consistent with infinite wisdom and mercy? If not, what
becomes of the dogmas, the sacraments, the whole scheme
which is founded upon this sand-bank? Courage, my
friend! At the right moment all will be laid aside, as
the man whose strength increases lays down the crutch
which has been a good friend to him in his weakness. But
his changes won't be over then. His hobble will become
a walk, and his walk a run. There is no finality--
CAN be none since the question concerns the infinite.
All this, which appears too advanced to you to-day,
will seem reactionary and conservative a thousand years
hence.
Since I am upon this topic, may I say just a little
more without boring you? You say that criticism such as
mine is merely destructive, and that I have nothing to
offer in place of what I pull down.
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