to be this: that, although in regard to his public career and the general outlines of his private life, what is known of Milton furnishes a contrast to our scanty information regarding Shakespeare, yet the details of his personal existence, of his loves and enmities, his likings and studies, must remain in the same tantalizing twilight under which we view the similar elements in the career of his great Florentine predecessor.-Is this accident, or is there always something about the Poet which eludes the insight of his contemporaries, and is, perhaps, unknown or irrecoverable even to himself? ART. V.-Christian Theology and Modern Scepticism. TH By the HIS ducal manifesto of unbelief demands a notice beyond the proportion of its magnitude, its ability, or any influence likely to be exerted by its powers of argument or eloquence. The substance of the essay may be described as almost flimsy. The Duke of Somerset has given to the vast subject set forth in his title a small volume of just 180 pages, as lightly printed as those of a novel; and within this compass he treats-without affecting to discuss, or rather, with an elaborate affectation of not discussing fully—no less than thirty-nine points of high moment in as many chapters. We know not whether there be an ironical purpose in the number; but the idea would be quite consistent with the whole spirit of the work. It is because that spirit is highly characteristic of the latest type of unbelief, that we feel called to notice it in a case where the rank and reputation of the writer might be mistaken for a sign that this is the spirit of the educated classes in relation to the Bible and Christianity. The time was when even sceptics approached the mysteries of 'Christian Theology with religious reverence, and deemed the evidences of Scripture worthy of refutation by serious argument, and by learning not picked up at random; when the triumph they sought to win, in however bad a cause, was at least a triumph of argument. But all this is now changed by a school which arrogates to itself the claim of uttering the conclusive sentence of modern thought,' the ipse dixit of an invisible and irresponsible judge, not simply rejecting all old religious authority, but assuming belief to be an exploded superstition. The very title of the volume before us expresses the spirit of this school by a double antithesis. Christian belief has always taken the form of 'theology,' but the Vol. 132.-No. 264. 2 F essence essence of science is 'scepticism': the former is old, the latter is 'modern,' an epithet equivalent, if not to perfection, at least to an ever growing improvement, the more sure and rapid in the measure of its rejecting whatever is old. But a closer scrutiny of this claim detects the true meaning of the term 'modern'—a mere fashion of the day, adopted by a school of half-educated, one-sided men, who boast of it as loudly and demand as unreasoning a submission, as do the equally qualified leaders of fashion in dress. 6 'WE, in this later age'-a phrase on which they ring round the same unvaried chimes,'-have come to the conclusion that 'the progress of civilization has not been favourable to faith.' There is scarcely one page of the volume in which we are not met by this offensive assumption. In the compass of a brief Introduction the writer reiterates on every single page such statements as the following:-'the opinions of educated society upon the most important questions that can occupy the human mind appear at the present time to be more unsettled than at any previous period of European history:'-'a change in religious thought has gradually forced its way through the cultivated classes of the community:'-'the whole system of modern education tends towards the same result:'-'scepticism has been naturalized in modern society,' 'pervades the whole atmosphere of thought, and leads the most learned societies,' and 'the mass of society is anxiously seeking a belief which shall not be at issue with the moral sense of educated men:'-' it is now obvious that the theology of former days cannot be permanently maintained' amidst the process of religious change, which is gradually permeating the Protestant world. These phrases occur in just a twentieth part of the whole work, and they are repeated nearly twenty times as often in the remaining chapters. 6 The complacency with which the writer regards this altered condition of belief' of 'the educated Protestant' (for the definite article is made to do yeoman's service in the cause of mere assertion) is matched by the cool scorn with which old beliefs are put aside as dead, and hardly worth burying. For this purpose the past tense is made as serviceable as the definite article. So long as Christians believed in the personification of evil' are the opening words of the first chapter, the whole of which is pitched to the same key-note. From the commencement of the Christian era until comparatively modern times the existence of evil spirits was appealed to in vindication of the Gospel history.' The 'scientific Barrow, and the learned Bishop Bull' are cited to prove to how late a period the belief in the intervention of the devil was regarded as an important bulwark of the the Christian faith.' Yet now-says the higher authority of the Duke of Somerset-'the worthy historians, the wise lawgivers, the vast concourse of witnesses are all equally unavailing; the spell is broken-the evil spirits have vanished, and these phantoms of discredited tradition will not again re-visit a more experienced and incredulous world-whence we may infer that incredulity is the choicest fruit of experience! The whole witness of the Gospels on this subject is rejected as merely showing that the first three Evangelists shared the superstitious notions of their countrymen ;' that these narratives belong to Jewish traditions, and are rejected as traditional:'-from which we learn the curious canon of criticism, that all traditions are to be rejected! By this easy method not only is a great and difficult question of doctrine summarily disposed of, but its settlement is made to react on the higher question of the credibility of the Gospels; and this is the author's whole gist and aim. Not, indeed, that he argues out his conclusion: that course, we suppose, would be unworthy of this period of mental activity.' The Duke of Somerset is content to adopt the obvious solution, that these Gospels are not exempt from human imperfection.' Using the rhetorical artifice of making a question do duty for an argument, he mentions the omission of demoniacs from the fourth Gospel, and asks, Was this silence a tacit repudiation of idle tales, which the writer of that Gospel did not wish openly to` contradict?' This view'-he quietly sums up-if adopted, undoubtedly impairs the authority of the Gospel history. On this subject change of opinion is inevitable.' There are, it has been said'-such is his constant mixture of dogmatism and vagueness -'many other illusions which will be gradually cast out of the Protestant mind, although they may rend their victim as they come out of him, and leave him half dead at their departure :'a fit type of the mental and moral state to which this book might bring an unwary reader. We have been led on from the exposure of the Author's method of cool, confident assertion, to its illustration from his treatment of the first of the thirty-nine articles of his essay. But we cannot pass from this particular subject without noticing an animus which we have observed as a character of 'modern scepticism.' The doctrines of Christian theology' are not merely set aside as effete; they are travestied for the purpose of contemptuous insinuation. Thus we are told that 'Satan, whilst he was the terror of the multitude, was also the efficient ally of the priest. In some cases he became the guardian angel of the Church, strengthening her empire, and enabling her to repress the lawless violence of men, whom no human authority could control.' These words do, indeed, stand in connection with the claims of Roman Catholic priestcraft; but the Duke of Somerset is little careful to distinguish Romish superstitions from the doctrines of his own and other Protestant churches. He assumes that attitude of hostility to the clergy, as such, which is another special mark of modern scepticism': in fact, this antagonism forms his very starting-point. Our natural and wondering enquiry, how and why such a book as this came to be written, is anticipated in a Preface marked by the affectedly sententious brevity of the chapters that follow it, and striking the key-note of the whole essay. For many years past religious questions have incessantly interfered with the social and educational improvement of the community. Instead of gradually diminishing in their effects, these causes of disturbance seem to be increasing. A politician would gladly avoid touching these thorny subjects, but he observes that the religious teachers never cease from intermeddling with politics. The Church of Rome, as in olden times, pours imprecations on our heads; and the Roman Catholic clergy in the United Kingdom administer the same balm in a more inconvenient form. The Established Church distracts us with so many doctrinal disputes and perplexing doubts, that we almost wish she would slumber again, as she did during the greater part of the last century. The Non-conformists appear to be exasperated, and threaten to upset everything from the village-school to the cabinet, unless they are allowed to have their own way. All these convulsive movements are symptoms of mental disquietude, which forebodes a religious change. 'Meanwhile, every Protestant may exercise his private judgment; and since inquiry cannot easily make matters worse, let us again examine into the fountain-head of all these differences, and see whether there is any possible solution at least of the Protestant difficulties. We live in an age of free thinking and plain speaking, "rarâ temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quæ velis, et, quæ sentias dicere, licet."' The very first of these sentences has the true ring of modern scepticism. Religious questions are now to be regarded as an incessant interference with our social and educational improvement; an increasing cause of disturbance in a Christian State. Religious teachers are spoken of as if they had merely a professional interest in their doctrines and their work; and so throughout the book, all the most earnest and devoted defenders of Christian truth from Stephen the Hellenist, with his 'lamentably feeble vindication of Christianity,' and Paul the Pharisee, Pharisee, with his Judaizing theology and his Manichæan philosophy-are represented as either interested or self-deceiving persons, labouring in their vocation. Truly if religious teachers intermeddled with politics in the same manner and spirit as this 'politician' does in religion, the social and educational improvement of the country' would be in no small danger. But the Duke seems to grudge the clergy even their proper work of discussing the doctrinal disputes and perplexing doubts,' which are the very signs that life is stirring on the waters. And no wonder: for his own simpler method is to end the disputes by abolishing all doctrinal teaching, and to get free from the perplexity of doubt by almost universal scepticism. We forbear to characterize the contemptuous superiority with which the 'politician' would conjure back the Church into the spell of slumber out of which it is her happiness to have been roused. Whether the existing religious agitations are more violent than in other periods of mental and spiritual activity, is a question which it would be difficult to settle. Describing them as 'convulsive'—an epithet not inapplicable to their treatment in his own pages-the Duke discerns in them 'symptoms of mental disquiet, which forebodes a religious change:' that is to say, dissatisfaction with the generally accepted doctrines of Christianity is so general, at least in the educated mind,' that nothing remains for us but a religious revolution. Now we ask, first, Is this witness true? Or is it the utterance of a few shallow and conceited sceptics, who arrogate to themselves the name of 'thinkers,' prating to each other of the doubts, of which they are as vain as if they were new truths, and mistaking the echoes of the dark cave to which they have retreated for the voices of general assent? Their confidence of having the age with them seems belied by the very violence and dogmatism of their assertions: for the most vehement dogmatism is the dogmatism of unbelief. We turn for a moment from the book before us to cite another example of the same spirit. A few months since one of the school communicated to a public journal some of his experiences in search of a good sermon,' for all he could hear near home were a compound of 'humbug' and 'twaddle.' And yet he was not hard to satisfy, for (said he) 'I can listen with pleasure to anybody who speaks like an honest man, who has some moderate faculty of utterance, and who is not too great a fool!' In search of these moderate qualities, the wanderings of this 'stray sheep' (for so he called himself) led him to Mr. Voysey as his first experiment. Here he witnessed the rare and pleasant spectacle of one who has really |