Everything is one thing at one time and in some respects, and
another at other times and in other respects. We want a new mode of
measurement altogether; at present we take what gaps we can find, set
up milestones, and declare them irremovable. We want a measure which
shall express, or at any rate recognise, the harmonics of resemblance
that lurk even in the most absolute differences and vice versa.
Attempts at Classification
are like nailing battens of our own flesh and blood upon ourselves as
an inclined plane that we may walk up ourselves more easily; and yet
it answers very sufficiently.
A Clergyman's Doubts
Under this heading a correspondence appeared in the Examiner, 15th
February to 14th June, 1879. Butler wrote all the letters under
various signatures except one or perhaps two. His first letter
purported to come from "An Earnest Clergyman" aged forty-five, with a
wife, five children, a country living worth 400 pounds a year, and a
house, but no private means. He had ceased to believe in the
doctrines he was called upon to teach. Ought he to continue to lead
a life that was a lie or ought he to throw up his orders and plunge
himself, his wife and children into poverty? The dilemma interested
Butler deeply: he might so easily have found himself in it if he had
not begun to doubt the efficacy of infant baptism when he did.
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