But there is this simple and tremendous
difference between the cases: that whereas no evil can
conceivably result from the total suppression of murder and
theft, and all communities prosper in direct proportion to such
suppression, the total suppression of immorality, especially
in matters of religion and sex, would stop enlightenment,
and produce what used to be called a Chinese civilization until
the Chinese lately took to immoral courses by permitting railway
contractors to desecrate the graves of their ancestors, and their
soldiers to wear clothes which indecently revealed the fact that
they had legs and waists and even posteriors. At about the same
moment a few bold Englishwomen ventured on the immorality of
riding astride their horses, a practice that has since
established itself so successfully that before another generation
has passed away there may not be a new side-saddle in England or
a woman who could use it if there was.
THE CASE FOR TOLERATION
Accordingly, there has risen among wise and far-sighted men a
perception of the need for setting certain departments of human
activity entirely free from legal interference. This has nothing
to do with any sympathy these liberators may themselves have with
immoral views. A man with the strongest conviction of the Divine
ordering of the universe and of the superiority of monarchy to
all forms of government may nevertheless quite consistently and
conscientiously be ready to lay down his life for the right of
every man to advocate Atheism or Republicanism if he believes in
them.
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