Charles II

There are a great many bonds which still connect us with Charles II.,
one of the idlest men of one of the idlest epochs. Among other things
Charles II. represented one thing which is very rare and very
satisfying; he was a real and consistent sceptic. Scepticism both in its
advantages and disadvantages is greatly misunderstood in our time. There
is a curious idea abroad that scepticism has some connection with such
theories as materialism and atheism and secularism. This is of course a
mistake; the true sceptic has nothing to do with these theories simply
because they are theories. The true sceptic is as much a spiritualist as
he is a materialist. He thinks that the savage dancing round an African
idol stands quite as good a chance of being right as Darwin. He thinks
that mysticism is every bit as rational as rationalism. He has indeed
the most profound doubts as to whether St Matthew wrote his own gospel.
But he has quite equally profound doubts as to whether the tree he is
looking at is a tree and not a rhinoceros.

This is the real meaning of that mystery which appears so prominently in
the lives of great sceptics, which appears with especial prominence in
the life of Charles II. I mean their constant oscillation between
atheism and Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism is indeed a great and
fixed and formidable system, but so is atheism. Atheism is indeed the
most daring of all dogmas, more daring than the vision of a palpable day
of judgment. For it is the assertion of a universal negative; for a man
to say that there is no God in the universe is like saying that there
are no insects in any of the stars.

Thus it was with that wholesome and systematic sceptic, Charles II. When
he took the Sacrament according to the forms of the Roman Church in his
last hour he was acting consistently as a philosopher. The wafer might
not be God; similarly it might not be a wafer. To the genuine and
poetical sceptic the whole world is incredible, with its bulbous
mountains and its fantastic trees. The whole order of things is as
outrageous as any miracle which could presume to violate it.
Transubstantiation might be a dream, but if it was, it was assuredly a
dream within a dream. Charles II. sought to guard himself against hell
fire because he could not think hell itself more fantastic than the
world as it was revealed by science. The priest crept up the staircase,
the doors were closed, the few of the faithful who were present hushed
themselves respectfully, and so, with every circumstance of secrecy and
sanctity, with the cross uplifted and the prayers poured out, was
consummated the last great act of logical unbelief.

The problem of Charles II. consists in this, that he has scarcely a
moral virtue to his