STRATIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE 51 



a very chequered existence was led by the highest types 

 of moral growth and culture, insomuch as direct and 

 drastic punishment were frequently meted out to * * erring 

 humanity." Nevertheless, during this long post-diluvian 

 and very slightly historical period there were elaborated 

 cults and systems of religions which served to keep the 

 minds of men informed of and in touch with ' ' the higher 

 things" belonging to human life and destiny, and above 

 all these cults and religious systems there ultimately arose 

 the great forward impulse and influence of the Jewish 

 religion, which gave a coherence and life to the principles 

 of the moral life and practice which continues to be felt 

 to the present. 



Contemporarily, no doubt, there have been in operation 

 throughout the various branches of the human race great 

 agencies and influences, each dependent for its success on 

 its adaptability to the requirements of its immediate and 

 more remote relationships and its powers to meet human 

 higher needs and the general moral advancement of the 

 highest human interests. Needless to say that the evolu- 

 tion of religious cults and systems has received its highest 

 pitch of attainment and its living and every-day applica- 

 tion to the ethical and moral requirements of the human 

 family, individual and communal ; with a fulness and 

 sublimity far outreaching local and temporary conditions, 

 and stretching forward to the times when the human race 

 will at last be made "perfect." 



All this is consistent with the system of knowledge 

 stratification adopted in the opening chapters of Holy 

 Writ, and, so far as we are able to anticipate, in accord- 

 ance with the immediate and remote " signs of the times" 

 and the requirements of the truth. 



A remarkable parallelism characterises the incidence and 

 development of moral faculty and religious disposition 

 and practice on the part of the individual and the com- 

 munity, thus the moral faculties are the latest in develop- 

 ment and the most uncertain in duration and result of 

 all psychological endowments of man in his individual 

 capacity, while in the community the same rule holds 

 good, with perhaps an even greater tendency to non- 

 development or lapse into failure. 



