CHRISTIANITY AND EQUALITY.
[To TEE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."
Sin,—You have misapprehended two words of mine. The "plain fact" which I mentioned was not my view, but the fact that Christiats generally have believed my view. Otherwise, you have met me fair and square. May I hope to convince you that the scheme of the world does at least include the educa- tion of the strong in the service of the weak ?
It is wisest not to assume that we know why the world was created,—with one single exception. We do know that it was created to promote moral goodness ; and when we see any one moral virtue promoted by any one arrangement of the world, we have a right to say that that arrangement was designed to promote that virtue. And that is the meaning of the saying that "fools were made that wise men might take care of them." We know it, because we see the wise men doing it. Of course, that does not mean, and I never said, that this was the Creator's only reason for starting the world under a system of struggle for existence and survival of the fittest ; but supposing a moral Creator at all, this must have been one of his reasons.
I am quite aware that there is only a hair's-breadth between the statement that God makes men weak for the purpose (among other purposes) of training other men to be strong, and the statement that he makes men wicked for the purpose of training other men to be good. And I confess that I see no way of dis- proving this second statement ; all the phenomena point to it inevitably ; and yet it can never be true. But that belongs to the question of free-will, and that way madness lies.
I am not writing to defend any particular application of these principles. You may be right or wrong in saying that people are making mischievous claims for the suffering classes. All that I contend for is that their suffering is meant for the training of their neighbours as well as their own.—I am, Sir, T. C. SNOW. [Mr. Snow said in his first letter a great deal more.—ED. Spectator.]
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