On Compromise

Design of this Essay

The question stated

Suggested by some existing tendencies in England

Comparison with other countries

Test of this comparison

The absent quality specifically defined

History and decay of some recent aspirations

Illustrations

Characteristics of one present mood

Analysis of its causes

(1) Influence of French examples

(2) Influence of the Historic Method

(3) Influence of the Newspaper Press

(4) Increase of material prosperity

(5) Transformation of the spiritual basis of thought

(6) Influence of a State Church

Questions of a dual doctrine lies at the outset of our inquiry

This doctrine formulated

Marks the triumph of status quo

Psychological vindication of such a doctrine

Answered by assertion of the dogmatic character of popular belief

And the pernicious social influence of its priests

The root idea of the defenders of a dual doctrine

Thesis of the present chapter, against that idea

Examination of some of the pleas for error

I. That a false opinion may be clothed with good associations

II. That all minds are not open to reason

III. That a false opinion, considered in relation to the general

mental attitude, may be less hurtful than its premature demolition

IV. That mere negative truth is not a guide

V. That error has been a stepping-stone to truth

We cannot tell how much truth has been missed

Inevitableness is not utility

The modern disciplina arcani

Hume's immoral advice

Evil intellectual effects of immoral compromise

Depravation that follows its grosser forms

The three provinces of compromise

Radical importance of their separation

Effects of their confusion in practical politics

Economy or management in the Formation of opinion

Its lawfulness turns on the claims of majority and minority over one another

Thesis of the present chapter

Its importance, owing to the supremacy of the political spirit in England

Effects of the predominance of this spirit

Contrasted with epochs of intellectual responsibility

A modern movement against the political spirit

An objection considered

Importance to character of rationalised conviction, and of ideals

The absence of them attenuates conduct

Illustrations in modern politics

Modern latitudinarianism

Illustration in two supreme issues

Pascal's remarks upon a state of Doubt

Dr. Newman on the same

Three ways of dealing with the issues

Another illustration of intellectual improbity

The Savoyard Vicar

Mischievousness of substituting spiritual self-indulgence for reason