THE INDUSTRIAL TYPE OF SOCIETY. 641 



from the assassinations of and by kings down to the lyings and petty thefts of 

 slaves and serfs. Nor do the contrasts between our own conduct at the 

 present time and the conduct of these so-called savages, leave us in doubt con 

 cerning the right answer. When, after reading police reports, criminal assize 

 proceedings, accounts of fraudulent bankruptcies, &c., which in our journals 

 accompany advertisements of sermons and reports of religious meetings, 

 we learn that tho &quot; amiable &quot; Boclo and Dhimals, who are so &quot; honest and 

 truthful,&quot; &quot; have no word for God, for soul, for heaven, for hell&quot; (though 

 they have ancestor-worship and some derivative beliefs), we find ourselves 

 unable to recognize the alleged connexion. If, side by side with narratives of 

 bank-frauds, railway-jobbings, turf-chicaneries, &c., among people who are 

 anxious that the House of Commons should preserve its theism untainted, we 

 place descriptions of the &quot; fascinating &quot; Lepchas, who are so &quot; wonderfully 

 honest,&quot; but who &quot;profess no religion, though acknowledging the existence 

 of good and bad spirits &quot; (to the last of whom only they pay any attention), 

 we do not see our way to accepting the dogma which our theologians think so 

 obviously true ; nor will acceptance of it be made easier when we add the 

 description of the conscientious Santal, who &quot; never thinks of making money 

 by a stranger,&quot; and &quot; feels pained if payment is pressed upon him &quot; for food 

 offered ; but concerning whom we are told that &quot; of a supreme and beneficent 

 God the Santal has no conception.&quot; Admission of the doctrine that right 

 conduct depends on theological conviction, becomes difficult, on reading that 

 the Veddahs who are &quot;almost devoid of any sentiment of religion &quot; and have 

 no idea &quot; of a Supreme Being,&quot; nevcrthe^ss &quot; think it perfectly inconceivable 

 that any person should ever take that which does not belong to him, or 

 strike his fellow, or say anything that is untrue.&quot; After finding that among 

 the select of the select who profess our established creed, the standard of 

 truthfulness is such that the statement of a minister concerning cabinet 

 transactions is distinctly falsified by the statement of a seceding minister ; 

 end after then recalling the marvellous veracity of these godless Bodo and 

 Dhimals, Lepchas, and other peaceful tribes having kindred beliefs, going to 

 uch extent that an imputation of falsehood is enough to make one of the 

 Hos destroy himself ; we fail to see that in the absence of a theistic belief 

 there can be no regard for truth. When, in a weekly journal specially repre 

 senting the university culture shared in by our priests, we find a lament over 

 the moral degradation shown by our treatment of the Boers when we are 

 held degraded because we have not slaughtered them for successfully resist 

 ing our trespasses when we see that the &quot; sacred duty of blood revenge,&quot; 

 which the cannibal savage insists upon, is insisted upon by those to whora 

 the Christian religion was daily taught throughout their education ; and 

 when, from contemplating this fact, we pass to the fact that the unreligioua 

 Lepcnas &quot; are singularly forgiving of injuries,&quot; the assumed relation between 

 humanity and theism appears anything but congruous with the evidence. If, 

 with the ambitions of our church-going citizens, who (not always in very 

 honourable wnys) strive to get fortunes that they may make great displays, 

 and gratify themselves by thinking that at death they will &quot;cut up well,&quot; we 

 compare the ambitions of the Arafuras, among whom wealth is desired t!:at 



