Religions from the first are not the product of logical reflection or experiment, but of sentiment and aspiration.

They come into being as simple intuitions, and afterwards invade the province of the reason and assimilate the thought of centuries to their own conceptions.

This is the secret of their strength as well as the source of their weakness.

It is only a stronger enthusiasm, a new intuition, a fresh outburst of emotional vitality, that can supplant the old:-- 'Cotal rimedio ha questo aspro furore, Tale acqua suole spegner questo fuoco, Come d'asse si trae chiodo con chiodo.' Criticism from without, internal corruption, patent absurdity, are comparatively powerless to destroy those habits of belief which once have taken hold upon the fancy and the feeling of a nation.

The work of dissolution proceeds in silence and in secret.