Such a study, so full of difficulties,
imperatively demands freedom for its condition. To tell a man to
study, and yet bid him, under heavy penalties, come to the same
conclusions with those who have not studied, is to mock him. If the
conclusions are prescribed, the study is precluded." And again,
what, as coming from a man who has since held two of the most
important bishoprics in the English Church, is of great importance:
"What can be a grosser superstition than the theory of literal
inspiration? But because that has a regular footing it is to be
treated as a good man's mistake, while the courage to speak the truth
about the first chapter of Genesis is a wanton piece of wickedness."
The storm howled on. In the Convocation of Canterbury it was
especially violent. In the Lower House Archdeacon Denison insisted
on the greatest severity, as he said, "for the sake of the young
who are tainted, and corrupted, and thrust almost to hell by the
action of this book." At another time the same eminent churchman
declared: "Of all books in any language which I ever laid my hands
on, this is incomparably the worst; it contains all the poison
which is to be found in Tom Paine's _Age of Reason_, while it has the
additional disadvantage of having been written by clergymen.
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