334 Social Evolution 



be established on a permanent basis, as they would 

 be according to Mr. Kidd's theory. 



Again, when Mr. Kidd rebukes science for its 

 failure to approach religion in a scientific spirit he 

 shows that he fails to grasp the full bearing of the 

 subject which he is considering. This failure comes 

 in part from the very large, not to say loose, way 

 in which he uses the words "science" and "religion." 

 There are many sciences and many religions, and 

 there are many different kinds of men who profess 

 the one or advocate the other. Where the intolerant 

 professors of a given religious belief endeavor by 

 any form of persecution to prevent scientific men 

 of any kind from seeking to find out and establish 

 the truth, then it is quite idle to blame these scientific 

 men for attacking with heat and acerbity the relig- 

 ious belief which prompts such persecution. The 

 exigencies of a life and death struggle unfit a man 

 for the coldness of a mere scientific inquiry. Even 

 the most enthusiastic naturalist, if attacked by a 

 man-eating shark, would be much more interested 

 in evading or repelling the attack than in determin- 

 ing the precise specific relations of the shark. A 

 less important but amusing feature of his argument 

 is that he speaks as if he himself had made an 

 entirely new discovery when he learned of the im- 

 portant part played in man's history by his religious 

 beliefs. But Mr. Kidd surely can not mean this. 

 He must be aware that all the great historians have 

 given their full importance to such religious move- 

 ments as the birth and growth of Christianity, the 



