494 EDUCATION 



the Mahdi. Great men in fields of labour other than religion are 

 invariably thinkers of new thoughts ; and if, by chance, such a one 

 appears in an orthodox environment, he is apt to be treated with 

 derision or dislike as insane or wicked, and so to perish unrecognized, 

 ineffective, and inglorious. The children of the orthodox, on the 

 other hand, are quick and receptive, for, given the opportunity, 

 they are easily trained to recognize new truth. Plainly, then, the 

 adult has been made incapable of learning. He has acquired a 

 stupidity which is inborn in the lower animal and the congenital 

 imbecile. Contemporary Mohammedanism and Hindooism afford 

 examples of religions that cover and, since they are taught dog- 

 matically, colour so large a portion of the intellectual field, that 

 a habit of mind is created which is carried into every relation of 

 life. Hence the stagnation of their adherents. 



809. As compared to the lower animal and the imbecile, the 

 normal human being is distinguished by his control over his 

 instincts and passions, which prompt him as strongly and less 

 imperiously. What is true of the normal man as compared to lower 

 types is true of the more reflective as compared to the less reflective 

 man. If only because the former is more far seeing, he tends, on 

 the average, to be more * reasonable,' more orderly and law-abiding. 

 Therefore, open-minded and progressive communities not only 

 tend to secure improved governments, but they are also more easy 

 to govern. Among them individual freedom, mild laws, and a 

 civil unarmed police tend to replace tyranny, savage laws, and a 

 military government. Compare the social states and the govern- 

 ments of Morocco, Turkey, Persia, Thibet and China, with the 

 domestic peace of many Christian communities, and of Japan 

 since its type of mental training changed. Compare modern 

 * orthodox ' Christian communities with those in which a greater play 

 of the reflective faculties is permitted by the religious teaching. 

 Note the comparative statistics of murder and other crimes of 

 violence, the acts of brigandage and dacoity, the rebellions, civil 

 wars, and conspiracies against the established government, and the 

 acts of tyranny committed by the government. 1 Note, also, the 



1 All sorts of hypotheses have been formulated to account for the relative 

 prevalence of crime. Here is a curious example from a particularly sane book 

 (Recollections, by David Christie Murray, p. 247). " My sympathies are with 

 the old exploded prize-ring. Rightly or wrongly I trace the growth of crimes 

 of violence to the abolition of that glorious institution. I want to see it back 

 again, with its rules of fair-play, and its contempt for pain, and its excellent 

 tuition in temper and forbearance." Students of the question should study 

 statistics. But they should not, as is so very common when it is desired to 



