742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. ' 



require a collection of data which has not yet been made. It has 

 been said that men are deterred from wrong-doing much more by 

 the fear of immediate punishment than by the prospect of a retri- 

 bution which seems indefinitely remote.. Such, certainly, appears 

 to a superficial view to be the state of the case ; a keen observer of 

 human life long ago remarked that because sentence against an 

 evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons 

 of men is fully set in them to do evil. But who can read the 

 deeper-lying motives of men ? Who knows what profounder 

 ethical direction is given to life by the constant contemplation of 

 recompense beyond the grave ? The history of human virtue and 

 vice has unfolded itself, almost without exception, in the atmos- 

 phere of this belief. One noted exception there is the early 

 Semites, the Assyrians, and the Jews prior to B. c. 300, appear to 

 have lived practically without recognition of the future, and it 

 does not seem that their morality was inferior to that of other 

 nations ; we ourselves indeed must acknowledge that, so far as our 

 practical life is concerned, we have something to learn from the 

 codes of the prophets and the law. But it must be said, on the 

 other hand, that the Jews of that time had a powerful ethical 

 stimulus which is wanting in our time namely, a vivid belief in 

 the immediateness of divine interventions in human life, An ex- 

 periment of a morality supported only by human sanctions has 

 never been tried in modern times on a large scale. Nor can it be 

 doubted that the belief in future retribution exerts a powerful 

 influence on men's lives. Strictly speaking, however, this belief 

 does not belong to the domain of religion. Its precise origin is 

 doubtful, but it has arisen from man's reflection on his own life, 

 and not on his relation to the Deity. Its relations with both 

 religion and ethics are close, but it can 'not properly be said to 

 represent an influence of the former on the latter. 



It appears, then, that the real substance of man's ethical code 

 has not been affected by religion. The belief in supernatural re- 

 wards and punishments, though it influences men's conduct, is not 

 a moral force ; it has no power to change the heart. The true 

 salutary influence of religion on human life is found in the crea- 

 tion of divine ideals to be loved and imitated. Such an ideal is 

 the embodiment of man's own highest ethical conceptions. Vi- 

 talized into a person, ethical perfectness acquires an independent 

 power, attracting and stimulating us, lifting us up above the ordi- 

 nary low level of our lives, inspiring us by presenting a goal to 

 be reached, and encouraging us with the hope of divine aid. The 

 standard of human achievement is expressed in the exhortation 

 of Jesus to men to be perfect as God is perfect, and the proper 

 emotional attitude in the Old Testament declaration that men 

 are to love God with all the heart. Such a love toward God 



