498 EDUCATION 



no doubt that, in proportion as the prevailing religious teaching 

 tends to create a habit of prejudiced thinking, races are stagnant 

 and turbulent. Must we suppose, then, that inferior races tend 

 ' naturally ' to follow ' orthodox ' religions ? But, if that is so, then, 

 once again, what was the origin of the astonishing germinal change 

 which caused the Pagan Greeks and Romans to embrace orthodox 

 Christianity and the progressive Protestant nations to abandon it ? 

 No one, not a fanatic, denies the sincerity of the great majority of 

 the ecclesiastics of every religion. How does it happen that 

 ecclesiastics, especially those of the more ' orthodox ' religions and 

 sects, have ever as a body resisted new truth more strenuously than 

 the laity ? They are of the same race, but they have been much 

 more carefully trained dogmatically. 1 Most people place a high 

 value on religious teaching and education generally, but of what 

 value is any sort of teaching if ' nature ' be so powerful as to be 

 the main source of racial and social differences ? Moreover, if the 

 human being is so mentally blocked out by ' nature/ in what par- 

 ticular does he differ from the lower animal mentally ? It cannot 

 be by reason of superior educability. 



813. Second, there is the hypothesis that the actual doctrines, 

 the actual ' facts/ taught by religions are the source of the mental 

 peculiarities of their adherents. Within limits, this is true, no 

 doubt. If a child be taught, for example, that the world is flat, he 

 will have, no matter how well trained, some difficulty, especially in 

 adult life when his receptive powers are beginning to wane, in 

 changing to a conviction that it is round. A man, who believes all 

 the fiction taught by Fetishism, cannot well be other than a 



1 The whole atmosphere of modern civilization, like that of Pagan Greece 

 and Rome, is antagonistic to rigid orthodoxy. The various sects now mingle j 

 freely, almost every one can read, and to every one who is able to read is accessible ! 

 a voluminous literature crowded with diverse opinions. Some freedom of thought : 

 is inevitable. Religion may flourish in this atmosphere, as witness the continual j 

 growth in England and America of ardent Nonconformist sects which, notwith- \ 

 standing their fervour, permit considerable latitude of belief. But orthodoxy 

 perishes, as witness the enormous secessions from the Roman church amongst j 

 the more enlightened peoples of the Continent, and the fact that, in spite of a 

 stream of immigration which has been flowing for many years, the Catholic 

 population of Great Britain and the United States does not increase proportionately. 

 The doctrines of Catholicism are not demonstrably less true than those of Pro- 

 testant sects. It seems evident, then, that the mental atmosphere created by 

 the method of teaching is the cause of the decay of the former ; and the fact that 

 the ecclesiastics of the more rigid churches persist in maintaining a mental environ- 

 ment which renders the prevalence of their own doctrines difficult, is a conspicuous 

 instance of incapacity to profit from experience. The Greek church, also, is 

 beginning to suffer. Christianity loses fewer adherents through Anglican teaching. 

 Nevertheless, Nonconformity has'gained largely from this comparatively rigid sect. 



