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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



onstrate to the world that the one was her 

 sphere quite as much as the other. It should 

 be needless to add that such has been the 

 conviction of all who have had any tincture 

 of social philosophy ever since the early years 

 of the present century, not to go further 

 back. 



But without entering too much into criti- 

 cism we must endeavor briefly to set forth a 

 few of Mr. Kidd's leading ideas. He finds 

 that science is strangely at a loss respecting 

 the meaning and function of systems of re- 

 ligion in man's life and history. Well, of 

 course science has much to learn, else it 

 would not be science, but theology, or some 

 such privileged branch of human knowledge ; 

 and, having much to learn, she is as willing 

 to learn from Mr. Kidd as from any one else. 

 Mr. Kidd has reflected deeply on this ques- 

 tion of the significance of religious systems, 

 and he finds that their main, if not only, 

 function is to supply the lack of a rational 

 sanction for the conditions of progress. His 

 third chapter has for title There is no Ra- 

 tional Sanction for the Conditions of Prog- 

 ress, by which he means that, when men 

 exercise the self-control or exhibit that re- 

 gard for the interests of others on which 

 social progress depends, they act foolishly 

 from the individual point of view their con- 

 duct has no rational sanction. Religion, how- 

 ever, steps in and supplies an " ultra-ration- 

 al" sanction, and the maintenance of that 

 sanction is of such importance to the life of 

 societies that Religion pushes Reasou aside 

 and condemns it to a position of inferiority 

 in order that her work may not be interfered 

 with. " There never can be," observes our 

 author, " such a thing as a rational religion " ; 

 seeing that " the essential element in all re- 

 ligious beliefs must apparently be the ultra- 

 rational sanction which they provide for so- 

 cial conduct." Or, as he puts it, with more 

 precision, " a rational religion is a scientific 

 impossibility, representing from the nature 

 of the case a contradiction in terms." Dif- 

 ferent civilizations are simply the varying 

 modes or systems of human life that have 

 formed around different types of religious 

 belief. When a religion dies the civilization 

 dies also. It may linger for a while by vir- 

 tue of the inertia of established forms, but 

 the soul has gone out of it, and it soon falls 

 into decay. Intellect the author speaks of 



as a " disintegrating principle " tearing asun- 

 der the fabrics which instinct has woven ; 

 but if we ask what useful function it per- 

 forms, we do not get from the work before 

 us which, however, doubtless owes its ori- 

 gin more or less to intellect any very satis- 

 factory answer. It has had something to do, 

 he seems to admit, with our progress in the 

 arts and sciences ; but its services are not 

 acknowledged in any very liberal fashion ; 

 nor are we furnished with any indication of 

 the limits which the author thinks should be 

 set to the exercise of the intellect. 



The author is emphatic in his assertion 

 that social progress can only be made through 

 the free action of natural selection, and he 

 states that "the avowed aim of socialism is 

 to suspend that personal rivalry and compe- 

 tition of life which not only is now, but has 

 been from the beginning of life, the funda- 

 mental impetus behind all progress." One 

 would suppose from this that he had no faith 

 in socialism ; and yet, in his chapter on 

 Modern Socialism and elsewhere, he seems 

 to anticipate great and beneficial results from 

 a vast extension of socialistic legislation. 

 The fact is that it is very difficult to fix with 

 any certainty the author's position on many 

 of the questions he discusses. The best 

 chapter in the book, to our mind, is the 

 one entitled Human Evolution not Primarily 

 Intellectual, in which he points out, we 

 think with truth, that " certain qualities, not 

 in themselves intellectual, but which con- 

 tribute to social efficiency, are apparently of 

 greater importance" than purely intellectual 

 ones in promoting civilization and strength- 

 ening the basis of national life. In a word, 

 the race, on the whole, is not to the smart, 

 but to the good, to those whose social in- 

 stincts are strongest and social habits the 

 best. The whole book is worth reading, but 

 it should be read in a critical spirit, other- 

 wise it will teach quite as much of error as 

 of truth. 



General Scott. Great Commanders Series. 

 By General Marcus J. Wright. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 349. 

 Price, $1.50. 



Born a few years after the close of the 

 Revolution, and living through the period of 

 the civil war, Winfield Scott was contempo- 

 rary with nearly all the important military 



