If we look at 'Supernatural Religion' in this way we shall see that its tendency is distinctly marked.

Its attack will fall chiefly upon the middle party in opinion.

And it will play into the hands of the two extreme parties on either side.

There can be little doubt that indirectly it will help the movement that is carrying so many into Ultramontanism, and directly it is of course intended to win converts to what may perhaps be called comprehensively Secularism.
Now it is certainly true that the argument from consequences is one that ought to be applied with great caution.

Yet I am not at all sure that it has not a real basis in philosophy as well as in nature.