But they have been thinking all the time,
and the outgrowth of their thought is now visible.
English Rationalism consists of three departments: Philosophical,
Literary, and Critical Rationalism. Whenever infidelity has arisen,
whether within or without the Church, it has usually developed these
forms. Philosophy has furnished undevout reason with a fund of
speculative objections to revelation; literature has dazzled and
bewildered the young and all lovers of romance; and criticism has seized
the deductions of science, language, and ethnology, and by their
combined aid aimed at the overthrow of the historical and inspired basis
of faith. Each of these three agents is in constant danger of arrogance
and error. The first, by a single false assumption, may lose its way;
the second, by making too free use of the imagination, can easily forget
when it is dealing with faith and facts; and the third, by one act of
over-reaching, is liable to become puerile, fanciful, and unreliable.
The philosopher, the _litterateur_, and the exegete need to be less
observant of the surrounding world than of the purity of their own inner
life and the teachings of the Holy Spirit.
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