Modern Atheism: Its Attitude Toward Morality, within The Contemporary Review, vol. 29

Modern Atheism: Its Attitude Toward Morality, within The Contemporary Review, vol. 29

Mallock, William Hurrell

London: M'Corquodale & Co., 1877. The Contemporary Review, vol. 29, 1877-01, pp. 169-86

Internet Archive

1877

George Eliot to Mrs. Elma Stuart, 5 February 1877. “But what immediately urges me not to delay writing you just a few lines is your having told us that you have been troubled in mind by that article of W. H. Mallock's in the Contemp. Rev. -- an article which I must think unworthy of the respect implied in your perturbation. Only turn to the page (I think, 182) where he writes of virtue being rendered void and needless by perfect government, and your strong sense will surely guide you into further criticism of a writer who can vent such nonsense as the supposition that a perfect government can arise or be sustained through any other means than the growing virtues of mankind -- and who moreover throughout his article rests on the conception that apart from two doctrines there is nothing in the constitution of things to produce, to favour, or to demand a course of action called right. What kind of God can he boast himself to believe in, on that basis? -- I hope I do no injustice to his writing, which I have no time to give any particular attention to. And I wish I could say more to help you than my present troubled distraction of mind will let me. I can only suggest to you that you should put the words ‘cleanliness’ and ‘uncleanliness’ for ‘virtue’ and ‘vice,’ and consider fully how you have come not only to regard cleanliness as a duty, but to shudder at uncleanliness; and what are the doctrines which, if taken from you, would make you at once sink into uncleanly habits yourself, and think it indifferent to the health of mankind whether such a habit as that of cleanliness existed in the world or not.” GEL 6: 338-9

Mallock, William Hurrell, Modern Atheism: Its Attitude Toward Morality, within The Contemporary Review, vol. 29, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/56982

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/024f1364933e149b7677211601a27eb2.pdf