"Idolatry does not consist, necessarily, in taking a statue, an animal, or a man, as the representative of God; to define it fully, we must say that every form of worship or code of law is idolatrous which takes as divine that which is not divine. It is not only idolatrous to treat a stone, or beast, or a mortal, as if it were God; we are also guilty of idolatry if we imagine that the words of that man, or the oracles pronounced through that statue are the very words and decrees of Deity. We are guilty of idolatry when we prefer speculations and mystical chimeras to reason and good sense; when we treat any legislative code as if it were dictated by the Almighty; when we endow with a divine character the servant of a theocracy; when we try to regulate the conduct of men here below by Laws suited only to Celestial beings; when we confuse heaven with earth; when we mistake our own position and pretend to be more than mortal; and when we forsake our own place as citizens of this world and subjects of the Civil Government, either to tyrannize over other men in the Name of God, or to live as recluses, despising or forgetting our fellow-men."
I have dwelt at length on Boulanger's charming little volume, because it affords a good example of the way in which rational views of the Scripture religion have occasionally been held throughout the ages, and have died out owing to the prevailing ignorance about the logical basis of the doctrine of progress by gradual Inspiration.
