"The Nation" and the Religious Press.

One of the great causes of the decline of the influence of the religious press, both in the U.S. and in England--for it is only here and in England that it flourishes--one takes to be the amount of time and space it devotes to the medieval sport of scenting out heretics and infidels and running them to earth. When a religious newspaper calls persons of whose opinions it knows absolutely nothing "infidels," it simply "calls names," and it would be a waste of time to make any reply. Since then, "The Nation" has noticed mysterious allusions in other papers of the same character, hinting, rather than asserting, the presence in their office of "a disciple of Comte," engaged in the work of reviewing religious books.