mazes. If he could but have been persuaded to content himself with
sweet presentations of wholesome happy existence, with stories and
with history, how much better it would have been for him! He had had
no proper training whatever for anything more, he was ignorant of the
exact meaning of the proper terminology of science, and an unlucky
day it was for him when he picked up on a bookstall some very early
translation of some German book on philosophy. One reason, as may be
conjectured, for his mistakes was his education in dissenting
Calvinism, a religion which is entirely metaphysical, and encourages,
unhappily, in everybody a taste for tremendous problems. So long as
Calvinism is unshaken, the mischief is often not obvious, because a
ready solution taken on trust is provided; but when doubts arise, the
evil results become apparent, and the poor helpless victim, totally
at a loss, is torn first in this direction and then in the other, and
cannot let these questions alone. He has been taught to believe they
are connected with salvation, and he is compelled still to busy
himself with them, rather than with simple external piety.



CHAPTER VI--DRURY LANE THEOLOGY



Such were some of our disciples. I do not think that church or
chapel would have done them much good. Preachers are like unskilled
doctors with the same pill and draught for every complaint. They do
not know where the fatal spot lies on lung or heart or nerve which
robs us of life. If any of these persons just described had gone to
church or chapel they would have heard discourses on the usual set