Made and Printed in Great Britain at _The Mayflower Press,
Plymouth_. William Brendan & Son, Ltd.
IN a former book, called Lord of the World, I attempted tosketch the kind of developments a hundred years hence which, Ithought, might reasonably be expected if the present lines ofwhat is called "modern thought" were only prolonged far enough;and I was informed repeatedly that the effect of the book wasexceedingly depressing and discouraging to optimistic Christians.In the present book I am attempting—also in parable form—not inthe least to withdraw anything that I said in the former, but tofollow up the other lines instead, and to sketch—again inparable—the kind of developments, about sixty years hence which,I think, may reasonably be expected should the opposite processbegin, and ancient thought (which has stood the test ofcenturies, and is, in a very remarkable manner, being"rediscovered" by persons even more modern than modernists) beprolonged instead. We are told occasionally by moralists that welive in very critical times, by which they mean that they are notsure whether their own side will win or not. In that sense notimes can ever be critical to Catholics, since Catholics arenever in any kind of doubt as to whether or no their side willwin. But from another point of view every period is a criticalperiod, since every period has within itself the conflict of twoirreconcilable forces. It has been for the sake of tracing outthe kind of effects that, it seemed to me, each side wouldexperience in turn, should the other, at any rate for a while,become dominant, that I have written these two books.
Finally if I may be allowed, I should wish to draw attention tomy endeavours to treat of the subject of "religious persecution,"since I strongly believe that in some such theory is to be foundthe explanation of such phenomena as those of Mary Tudor's reignin England, and of the Spanish Inquisition. In practically everysuch case, I think, it was the State and not the Church which wasresponsible for so unhappy a policy; and that the policy wasdirected not against unorthodoxy, as such, but against anunorthodoxy which, under the circumstances of those days, wasthought to threaten the civil stability of society in general,and which was punished as amounting to treasonable, rather thanto heretical, opinions.
ROME Lent 1911
Gradually memory and consciousness once more reassertedthemselves, and he became aware that he was lying in bed. Butthis was a slow process of intense mental effort, and was aslaboriously and logically built up of premises and deductions aswere his theological theses learned twenty years before in hisseminary. There was the sheet below his chin; there was a redcoverlet (seen at first as a blood-coloured landscape of hillsand valleys); there was a ceiling, overhead, at first as remoteas the vault of heaven. Then, little by little, the confusedroaring in his ears sank to a murmur. It had been just now as thesound of brazen hammers clanging in reverberating caves, therolling of wheels, the tramp of countless myriads of men. But ithad become now a soothing murmur, not unlike the coming in of atide at the foot of high cliffs—just one gentle continuous note,overlaid with light, shrill sounds. This too required longargument and reasoning before any conclusion could be reached;but it was attained at last, and he became certain that he laysomewhere within sound of busy streets. Then rashly he leapt tothe belief that he must be in his own lodgin