Life was the one fount and centre of it all, clad in the gorgeous robes of ancient worship.

Of course the thought had been Felsenburgh's, though a German name had been mentioned.
It was Positivism of a kind, Catholicism without Christianity, Humanity worship without its inadequacy.

It was not man that was worshipped but the Idea of man, deprived of his supernatural principle.

Sacrifice, too, was recognised--the instinct of oblation without the demand made by transcendent Holiness upon the blood-guiltiness of man....

In fact,--in fact, said Percy, it was exactly as clever as the devil, and as old as Cain.
The advice he had given to the Holy Father just now was a counsel of despair, or of hope; he really did not know which.