84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ligion sliould be either first established or afterward preserved 

 and maintained in that estate. For it is this that contains and 

 holds together all human society and is its main prop and stay." 

 Hegel expressed the same idea when he asserted that " the idea of 

 God forms the general foundation of a people." Herbart calls 

 attention to the pedagogical and disciplinary value of religion in 

 the early stages of man's development, since it teaches him to 

 subordinate present desires to future welfare, to look to the re- 

 mote results of his conduct, and to sacrifice momentary pleasures 

 here to permanent advantages hereafter. 



But the ordinary experiences of life, especially in a cold 

 climate, are quite as effective in inculcating thrift and enforcing 

 the first elementary principle of domestic and political economy 

 that a man can not eat his pudding and keep it too. Stress of 

 hunger emphasizes the necessity of laying up stores of provisions 

 against time of need, and teaches foresight and forehand more 

 directly and more forcibly than any hypothetical relation of man 

 to the gods could do. 



Originally the tie of religion must have been identical with 

 the tie of relationship, and the brotherhood of belief coextensive 

 with the brotherhood of blood, since all members of the same 

 family or tribe would naturally adore the same domestic or tribal 

 deities. Without this acceptance of the tribal theology and tra- 

 ditions by every individual of the tribe, the public peace would 

 be constantly disturbed and the very existence of primitive so- 

 ciety imperiled. 



With the lapse of time and the increase of intelligence, how- 

 ever, vague wonder and ignorant worship would give place in 

 more thoughtful minds to obstinate questionings, blank misgiv- 

 ings, and stubborn skepticisms, leading logically and inevitably 

 to open schisms, and resulting in the formation of new communi- 

 ties of faith, crystallizing around the nucleus of a vital religious 

 conviction. It was then proved, what all later history confirms, 

 that spiritual affinities have a stronger cohesive attraction than 

 natural affinities, and that, in every case of tension, the latter are 

 sure to yield and be rent asunder. 



Even the founder of Christianity, who professed to proclaim a 

 gospel of peace on earth and good will to man, foresaw and did 

 not hesitate to declare that this sundering of the closest consan- 

 guineous connections and division of families into hostile factions 

 would be the necessary consequence of his teachings. He spoke 

 of his doctrines as a sword destined to sever the nearest ties of 

 natural affection and affinity, setting the son at variance against 

 the father, and the daughter against the mother, and converting 

 the members of a man's household into his bitterest foes. 



The center of cohesive attraction, which binds the new com- 



