Principles of western civilisation

VII THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE 231

State, dimly but rightly recognised that a religion by which there was opened in the human mind an overruling sense of responsibility to principles which transcended all the interests of the State, and all the ends for which the State existed, carried men entirely out of that epoch in which they had hitherto lived, and struck at the very roots of the system of social life around them. It was, therefore, we see, on no mere cause of disrespect to the gods, or of impiety to the emperor, that the accusations against the adherents of the new movement in the last resort rested. Profoundly, but clearly, the general mind must have felt the difference between the spirit of that movement and those developments of the ancient philosophy which, to superficial observation, even still appear to run in the same direction. “The philosophers,” said Tertullian, “destroy your gods openly, and write against your superstitions ; but with your approbation. Nay, many of them not only snarl, but bark aloud against the emperors; and you not only bear it very contentedly, but give them statues and pensions in return.” It is only us, he adds, you throw to the beasts for so doing.’

As the antithesis continues to develop in the human mind, we follow it under a multitude of forms. Crude, coarse, and even repellent, as may be some of these, we may still distinguish beneath the surface that they are all reducible to terms of the same principle.

How widely removed are the terms involved in the antinomy, how world-embracing is the character of the struggle inherent in its very nature, the

1 Apology, xivi.