The name is absent

74 Making of the Complete Citizen

England. It transmits a boundless store of conservative
tradition, in which approximately half the nation has re-
ceived its impression as it has moved within it from the days
of childhood, and as a dominant social influence it has
created an ethos distinctive of itself. It is very easy in Eng-
land to distinguish the Anglican type of citizen from the
Nonconformist. It is not that they differ in their funda-
mental religious beliefs; in respect of these large sections
of both types are not far apart : but the individuals move in
different circles of society in which different outlooks on life
open on different ways of conduct. In politics the Anglican
is as a rule conservative, the Nonconformist liberal, radical,
or labor; in morals the code of the Anglican is a well de-
fined “good form”; that of dissent with a puritan tradition
was once called “the Nonconformist conscience.” Essential
Christian principles are so differently emphasized in both
that they often issue in antagonisms. Also on this continent
similar results prevail. Baptists, Episcopalians, Meth-
odists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics differ greatly in
thought and conduct. There is no universal ethical opinion
pervading all the ranks and classes of the churches. They
do not speak with one voice. During the decades that pre-
ceded the Civil War in the United States, the clergy of the
South were able to furnish arguments out of Scripture for
the defence of slavery in support of the slave-owners with
whom they associated, and of a system on which they
thought the welfare of their society depended. In the ex-
ercise of private judgment it has never been difficult to
justify practices and beliefs out of Holy Writ. Conserva-
tive clergy will continue to preach quiescence and acceptance
of the status quo; liberal clergy will advise a gradual modi-
fication of hampering conditions; radical clergy will urge
drastic and speedy reforms. On the relations of capital and

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