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Reverence.

I.

ITS DEFINITION.

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Do not know anything more difficult than to

give a satisfactory definition. And it is especially difficult to define a word which is constantly in everybody's mouth, but which is as constantly used in different senses. We have not only to say in what sense the word ought to be used, but also to explain how the illegitimate significations have come to be in vogue. Nor is this a mere question of words, a mere matter of terminology, that might be left to the dictionary makers. Not at all. The words which we use, especially in reference to morality and religion, and the way in which we use them,-all this is of the greatest

possible moment; for the words are expressive of our ideas, and our ideas to a great extent determine our conduct.1 There is perhaps nothing that will have a greater influence upon our welfare than the meaning which we attach to the word reverence. And yet the distinction between true and false reverence, between right and wrong reverence, has seldom, if ever, been drawn. We find acute and eminent writers who constantly mistake true reverence-that is to say, reverence properly so called for something altogether different.

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Take the following passage from Mr Lecky's 'History of European Morals.' 2 "There are several influences which, as civilisation advances, diminish the spirit of reverence among mankind. Reverence is one of those feelings which in rationalistic systems would occupy at best a very ambiguous position; for it is extremely questionable whether the great evils which have grown out of it, in the form of religious superstition and political servitude, have not made it a source of

1 In so far as they call forth emotion. See pp. 100, 111, 112. 2 Vol. i. p. 141.

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more unhappiness than happiness. Yet however doubtful may be its position if estimated by its bearing on happiness and on progress, there are few persons who are not conscious that no character can attain a supreme degree of excellence in which the reverential spirit is wanting. The habits of advancing civilisation are, if I mistake not, on the whole inimical to its growth. For reverence grows out of a sense of constant dependence. It is fostered by that condition of religious thought in which men believe that each incident that befalls them is directly and specially ordained, and every event is therefore fraught with moral import. It is fostered by that condition of scientific knowledge in which every portentous natural phenomenon is supposed to be the result of a direct divine interpretation, and awakens in consequence emotions of humility and awe. It is fostered in that stage of political life when loyalty and reverence for the sovereign is the dominating passion; when the aristocracy branching forth from the throne spreads habits of deference and subordination through every village; when a revolutionary, a democratic, and

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a sceptical spirit are alike unknown. Every great change, either of belief or of circumstances, brings with it a change of emotions. . . . Benevolence, uprightness, enterprise, intellectual honesty, a love of freedom and a hatred of superstition, are growing around us; but we look in vain for that most beautiful character of the past, so distrustful of self, so trustful of others, so simple, so modest, so devout, which, even when Ixion-like it bestowed its affections upon a cloud, made its very illusions the source of some of the purest virtues of our nature. In a few minds, the contemplation of the sublime order of nature produces a reverential feeling; but to the great majority of mankind, it is an incontestable though mournful fact, that the discovery of controlling and unchanging law deprives the phenomena of their moral significance; and nearly all the social and political spheres in which reverence was fostered have passed away. . . . A superstitious age, like every other phase of human history, has its distinctive virtues, which must necessarily decline before a new stage of progress can be attained."

This, it seems to me, represents fairly well the

common view in regard to reverence,—a view which I consider to be fundamentally erroneous and thoroughly mischievous. Mr Lecky, you will observe, asserts that the ages of superstition were pre-eminently the ages of reverence—that, in fact, reverence and superstition diminish and increase together. He asserts that reverence grows out of a sense of dependence; and that this sense of dependence, on the one hand, is fostered by a belief in the disorderliness and capriciousness of nature, and on the other hand leads to a tacit acquiescence in social degradation and political servitude. He asserts that, on the whole, it is more than likely reverence has a tendency to produce unhappiness rather than happiness; and yet at the same time he admits "no character can obtain the supreme degree of excellence in which a reverential spirit is wanting."

Now with all these assertions, except the last, I most entirely disagree; and I maintain that if the last assertion be true-" no character can obtain the supreme degree of excellence in which a reverential spirit is wanting "—if that

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