The first common mistake to get rid of is that mankind consists of a
great mass of religious people and a few eccentric atheists. It consists
of a huge mass of worldly people, and a small percentage of persons
deeply interested in religion and concerned about their own souls
and other peoples'; and this section consists mostly of those who
are passionately affirming the established religion and those who are
passionately attacking it, the genuine philosophers being very few. Thus
you never have a nation of millions of Wesleys and one Tom Paine.
You have a million Mr. Worldly Wisemans, one Wesley, with his small
congregation, and one Tom Paine, with his smaller congregation.
The passionately religious are a people apart; and if they were not
hopelessly outnumbered by the worldly, they would turn the world upside
down, as St. Paul was reproached, quite justly, for wanting to do. Few
people can number among their personal acquaintances a single atheist or
a single Plymouth Brother. Unless a religious turn in ourselves has led
us to seek the little Societies to which these rare birds belong, we
pass our lives among people who, whatever creeds they may repeat, and
in whatever temples they may avouch their respectability and wear their
Sunday clothes, have robust consciences, and hunger and thirst, not for
righteousness, but for rich feeding and comfort and social position and
attractive mates and ease and pleasure and respect and consideration:
in short, for love and money. To these people one morality is as good
as another provided they are used to it and can put up with its
restrictions without unhappiness; and in the maintenance of this
morality they will fight and punish and coerce without scruple. They
may not be the salt of the earth, these Philistines; but they are the
substance of civilization; and they save society from ruin by criminals
and conquerors as well as by Savonarolas and Knipperdollings. And as
they know, very sensibly, that a little religion is good for children
and serves morality, keeping the poor in good humor or in awe by
promising rewards in heaven or threatening torments in hell, they
encourage the religious people up to a certain point: for instance, if
Savonarola only tells the ladies of Florence that they ought to tear
off their jewels and finery and sacrifice them to God, they offer him
a cardinal's hat, and praise him as a saint; but if he induces them to
actually do it, they burn him as a public nuisance.