incarnate; that G. Eliot, Huxley, Tyndall, Mill, &c. &c., were beyond all plea of invincible ignorance. If a modern 'Inferno' were written it would describe a brilliant literary circle.
So also the results of philosophical, historical, and scientific research are accommodated to pious purposes. For several years geology and palæontology suffered great torture at the hands of Genesiac interpreters; history and archæology and philology then achieved marvellously convenient results; ethnology was racked to support a Biblical chronology, now abandoned; even chemistry, embryology, psycho-physics, and a host of innocent sciences were pressed into service and pressed out of shape in the process.
Of another institution which the Church formerly used for the same high purpose of guarding its flock against intellectual wolves—the Inquisition—little need be said. If it were truly a dead and discarded proceeding, like persecution on the Protestant side, it would not merit notice; it seems unprofitable to continually reproach the Church of Rome with its many and dark sins of the past of which it has really repented. However, it is not at all clear that the Church has repented of this particular outrage upon morals and humanity. The principles on which the Inquisition was founded are still part of the Church's teaching; and if it were possible to conceive a return of the ecclesiastical supremacy of former days, there is little doubt that the same policy would be urged.
