CHAPTER II.
THE ANTINOMIANS.
Habit may be defined with enough accuracy for ordinary purposes as the
result of reflex action, or the immediate response of the nerves to a
stimulus, without the intervention of consciousness. Many bodily functions
are naturally reflex, and most movements may be made so by constant
repetition; they are then executed independently of the will. It is no
exaggeration to say that the social fabric rests on the control this
tendency exerts over the actions of men; and its strength is strikingly
exemplified in armies, which, when well organized, are machines, wherein
subjection to command is instinctive, and insubordination, therefore,
practically impossible.
An analogous phenomenon is presented by the church, whose priests have
intuitively exhausted their ingenuity in weaving webs of ceremonial, as
soldiers have directed their energies to perfecting manuals of arms; and
the evidence leads to the conclusion that increasing complexity of ritual
indicates a densening ignorance and a deepening despotism. The Hindoos,
the Spaniards, and the English are types of the progression.
Within the historic ages unnumbered methods of sacerdotal discipline have
been evolved, but whether the means used to compass the end has been the
bewildering maze of a Levitical code, or the rosary and the confessional
of Rome, the object has always been to reduce the devotee to the implicit
obedience of the trooper.
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