made the wealth and the might of Spain melt away before their little
bands of heroes; but the same old faith, shining out in all their noblest
acts and words, that “the Lord _was_ King, and that the help that was
done upon earth, He did it all Himself?” So again, Bacon may have
fancied, and did fancy in his old age, that he might use his deep
knowledge of mankind for his own selfish ends—that he might indulge
himself in building himself up a name that might fill all the earth, that
he who had done so much for God and for mankind, might be allowed to do
at last somewhat for himself, and tempted, by a paltry bribe, fall for
awhile, as David did before him, that God, and not he, might have the
glory of all his wisdom. But then he was less than himself; then he had
but lost sight of his lode-star. Then he had forgotten, but only for
awhile, that he owed all to the teaching of that God who had given to the
young and obscure advocate the mission of affecting the destinies of
nations yet unborn.
And believe me, my friends, even as it has been with our forefathers, so
it will be with us. According to our faith will it be unto us, now as it
was of old. In proportion as we believe that wealth, science, and
civilisation are the work and property of man, in just that proportion we
shall be tempted to keep them selfishly and exclusively to ourselves.
The man of science will be tempted to hide his discoveries, though men
may be perishing for lack of them, till he can sell them to the highest
bidder; the rich man will be tempted to purchase them for himself, in
order that he may increase his own comfort and luxury, and feel
comparatively lazy and careless about their application to the welfare of
the masses; he will be tempted to pay an exorbitant price for anything
that can increase his personal convenience, and yet when the question is
about improving the supply of necessaries to the poor, stand haggling
about considerations of profitable investment, excuse himself from doing
the duty which lies nearest to him by visions of distant profit, of which
a thousand unexpected accidents may deprive him after all, and make his
boasted scientific care for the wealth of the nation an excuse for
leaving tens of thousands worse housed and worse fed than his own beasts
of burden. The poor man will be tempted franctically to oppose his
selfishness and unbelief to the selfishness and unbelief of the rich, and
clutch from him by force the comfort which really belong to neither of
them, in order that he may pride himself in them and misuse them in his
turn; and the clergy will be tempted, as they have too often been tempted
already, to fancy that reason is the enemy, and not the twin sister of
faith; to oppose revelation to science, as if God’s two messages could
contradict each other; to widen the Manichæan distinction between secular
and spiritual matters, so pleasant to the natural atheism of fallen man;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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