His real intention, I should
suppose, would be to say that every dogma includes some truth, or is
inseparably associated with true statements, and that I ought to be
careful not to destroy the wheat with the tares. The presumption
remains, at any rate, that a false doctrine is so far mischievous; and
its would-be protector is bound to show that it is impossible to assail
it without striking through its sides at something beyond. If Christ is
not God, the man who denies him to be God is certainly _prima facie_
right, though it may perhaps be possible to show that such a denial
cannot be made in practice without attacking a belief in morality. We
may, or it is possible to assert that we may, be under this miserable
necessity, that we cannot speak undiluted truth; truth and falsehood
are, it is perhaps maintainable, so intricately blended in the world
that discrimination is impossible. Still the man who argues thus is
bound to assign some grounds for his melancholy scepticism; and to show
further that the destruction of the figment is too dearly bought by the
assertion of the truth.
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