17 JANUARY 1903, Page 2

The Kaiser's interest in the "higher criticism," which he was

formerly understood to discourage, is attributed to his personal friendship with its most illustrious exponent in Germany, Dr. Harnaek ; and he has already publicly committed himself to the statement that there was need for a "further development of religion." We have every sympathy with the "higher criticism" when it is reverently and sincerely as well as fearlessly pursued, for the search after truth can never hurt true religion. We are not sure, however, that we care for the "higher criticism" in a Court suit. Such palace recreations remind us of the epigram used by Gibbon against the men "who usurp the forms without the substance of religion, who indulge the licence without the temper of philosophy."