If the
world could conceivably be shunted at one coup from the one code of
morals to the other, the world would be greatly the better for the
change. But the change cannot be made all at once, and the transition
is most dangerous. On the other hand, it is no less dangerous to take
no steps in the direction of that transition. For though existing
religions may be a great power--the Pope ruling still over millions of
consciences if not over towns and States, the name of the Prophet being
still a word to conjure with in war, the forces of Brahmanical custom
holding countless millions in willing subjection--in spite of all this,
the old religions are sapped and past their prime. They are in process
of decay, for they are losing their hold on the educated minority; it
is still the case that in all countries the camps of orthodoxy include
large numbers of men distinguished by intellect and culture, but one by
one their numbers are diminishing. Five-and-twenty years only, in
Europe, have made a prodigious change. Books are written now that pass
almost as matters of course which would have been impossible no further
back than that.
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