Moral influence of dogma.

57

It would be easy to pursue these considerations into still minuter details. Patient investigation will shew that no doctrine can be without a bearing upon action. It is of course possible to petrify a doctrine into an outward formula: to change that into a mere cloke which ought to be an informing force: but this degradation of a Creed springs from the inability or unwillingness of men to treat it as a thing of life and not from the inherent character of the Creed itself. The influence of a dogma may be good or bad-that is an important criterion of dogma with which we are not now concerned-but if the dogma be truly maintained it will have a moral value of some kind. Every religion, and every sect of every religion, has its characteristic form of life, and if the peculiarities of these forms are smoothed away by time it is only because the type of belief to which they correspond has ceased to retain its integrity and sharpness. Or to go back to the point from which we started. As long as an opinion on any of the great mysteries of self, the world and GOD is a reality for those who entertain it, and not a conventional phrase, it will be a moral power.

And, as we have seen, we are so made that we must inquire into these mysteries or receive

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Dogma a necessity for us.

opinions on them from others. We cannot as a matter of fact avoid speculating or acting upon judgments as to the questions Whence? What? Whither? We cannot, without a forcible effort, acquiesce in the conclusion that the questions are insoluble enigmas. If we do acquiesce in it, our whole life will be modified by the confession of blank negation. On the other hand, it is at our peril that we rest in false or imperfect answers. Error and imperfection in such a case must issue in lives which are faulty or maimed where they might have been nobler and more complete. The opinions which a man holds are important positively and negatively: positively, if the opinions find their corresponding expression in action, negatively, if they be retained as a mere fashion of thought, and so be emptied of their natural power. Right Doctrine is an inexhaustible spring of strength if it be translated into deed: it is a paralysis if it be held as an intellectual notion. Nor can we conceive any impediment to the fulfilment of duty more fatal than the outward retention of a formal Creed under such conditions that each article in it is maintained deliberately in theory without regard to its moral realisation.

iii. It is, I repeat, a necessity of our nature and of our circumstances that we should deal in

Action not independent of opinion.

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some way with the great mysteries of being; and yet further it cannot but be that if we deal with them honestly and thoroughly our theories will influence our conduct.

It may however be said that whatever theory we hold, observation and experience will impose upon us the same general rules of action: that even if we maintain speculatively the extremest doctrine of necessity, we shall be treated by others, and ourselves treat others, as free in the sense of responsible: that if we regard the external world as being nothing but the shadow of our own minds, we shall still heed as carefully as other men every 'law' of nature: that whether we refer the order of the universe to a Supreme Lord or not, we shall give ourselves loyally to the fulfilment of those offices which appear to be marked out for us when we take a large view of the general course of things.

I have already touched upon some of these assertions; and I would again urge as a general reply to this form of argument that the average belief which modifies the application of speculative views to conduct is due to the presence or to the traditional influence of personal conviction; and that if there were any energetic and widespread denial of our freedom or of the uniformity

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Character moulded by belief.

of natural laws or of the Being of GOD, it is by no means clear that our actual conduct would be what it is.

But I do not wish to attempt now to point out the limitations to which such statements as I have supposed are subject. I am willing to let them for the moment pass without challenge as without acceptance. Yet even so, if they hold true in the widest possible sense, the results obtained do not cover the ground which belief occupies. Such practical rules touch only upon outward acts as subject to outward control. They leave out of consideration some of the most important elements which go to the formation of character. And our actions personally are of importance only in relation to character. It is indeed needless to insist at length upon the momentous consequences of character. constitution of society is such that under every form of government the moving power will be in the hands of few. For these few the final spring of power is conviction; and conviction is the practical realisation of belief. In other words the control of men-the capacity for guiding, and, if need be, for coercing the ignorant, the weak and the indifferent, for guiding that is at present the mass of men,—will depend upon opinion which cor

The

Power of character real if latent. 61

responds with a definite theory of things. And such opinion extends far beyond appreciable action. To take the first case supposed. A necessitarian and his adversary will do on the supposition exactly the same actions, and yet they will be wholly different men. Legislation again, to touch another point, cannot distinguish between the obedience of resignation and the obedience of enthusiasm; but it is obvious that there is an immeasurable difference between the citizen who accepts a burden from which he cannot escape and the citizen who believes that he is contributing of his own to the furtherance of a great cause.

The characters of two such men are practically incommensurable. Their power and their tendency to influence others are wholly different. In any great crisis they would be revealed, as being in fact what they are, whether the time of shewing them openly comes or not. Thus their potential difference with regard to society and to the future is enormous. Their actual difference in themselves with regard to the past is equally great. For the one repentance, remorse, thankfulness, devotion will be delusions to be extirpated, for the other they will be precious instruments of discipline and encouragement.