ETHICS AND RELIGION. 741 



a noteworthy fact that many great ethical teachers have been at 

 the same time religious reformers ; such were Zoroaster, Buddha, 

 Jesus, and Mohammed. In other cases, as in the codes of the 

 Egyptian Ptah-hotep and of Socrates, though there is no religious 

 revolution, a religious atmosphere is present. Where religion 

 seems to be lacking, as in the case of Confucius, still it may be 

 said that the ethical system has arisen in a community permeated 

 with religious ideas. From these facts it might be supposed that 

 religion has been the most powerful influence in the world in the 

 elaboration of moral codes. But it must be borne in mind that at 

 a period when religion was bound up with common life much 

 more closely than now, a practical thinker (and such the great 

 religious reformers were) could not separate the two. In Semitic 

 nations not only morals but government also was bound up with 

 religion. Ethics and religion were so intertwined in human de- 

 velopment that, though their origins and laws of growth may 

 have been different, they had come together into a substantial 

 unity. 



In thus associating itself with ethics, religion supports it by 

 supernatural sanctions. It is a question of serious import, which 

 doubtless now occupies many minds, whether the moral status of 

 society could be maintained without this external aid. It is a 

 question to which no decided answer can be given, because the 

 experiment has never been tried. The probability is that, if the 

 religious element of thought were now abruptly eliminated from 

 our society, the moral life would suffer enormously if it did not 

 perish outright. Such a sudden withdrawal is, however, impossi- 

 ble, and need not enter into our calculations. The elimination of 

 religion, if it can be conceived of as possible, could be effected 

 only by a very gradual process, during which men would be little 

 by little trained under other influences. The vanishing of reli- 

 gion, indeed, out of human life is hardly conceivable ; but we may 

 suppose that the conception of its sanctions may change the 

 physical-supernatural form of them may give way to the moral. 

 This change has actually begun : a not inconsiderable section of 

 the Christian world now believes that the rewards and punish- 

 ments which attach to well-doing and ill-doing are determined by 

 natural law, whether in the physical or in the moral life. Nor 

 can we see that the effect of this change on the ethical status of 

 society is bad. If the bodily rewards and punishments have van- 

 ished, new and strong ethical motives have been introduced ; there 

 is a deeper sense of personal responsibility, and there are higher 

 ideals. 



A still more fundamental inquiry is how far the practical 

 ethical life of the world is affected by the belief in future rewards 

 and punishments. But to discuss this point properly would 



