SCIENCE AND MAN 387 



virtue belonging to human nature in its purer forms I am 

 disposed to refer the excellence of both. 



Superstition may be defined as constructive religion 

 which has grown incongruous with intelligence. We may 

 admit, with Fichte, '*that superstition has unquestionably 

 constrained its subjects to abandon many pernicious prac- 

 tices and to adopt many useful ones"; the real loss accom- 

 panying its decay at the present day has been thus clearly 

 stated by the same philosopher: **In so far as these lamen- 

 tations do not proceed from the priests themselves — whose 

 grief at the loss of their dominion over the human mind 

 we can well understand — but from the politicians, the 

 whole matter resolves itself into this, that government has 

 thereby become more difficult and expensive. The judge 

 was spared the exercise of his own sagacity and penetra- 

 tion when, by threats of relentless damnation, he could 

 compel the accused to make confession. The evil spirit 

 formerly performed without reward services for which in 

 later times judges and policemen have to be paid." 



No man ever felt the need of a high and ennobling 

 religion more thoroughly than this powerful and fervid 

 teacher, who, by the way, did not escape the brand of 

 ** atheist." But Fichte asserted emphatically the power 

 and sufficiency of morality in its own sphere. "Let us 

 consider," he says, **the highest which man can possess 

 in the absence of religion — I mean pure morality. The 

 moral man obeys the law of duty in his breast absolutely, 

 because it is a law unto him; and he does whatever re- 

 veals itself to him as his duty simply because it is duty. 

 Let not the impudent assertion be repeated that such an 

 obedience, without regard for consequences, and without 

 desire for consequences, is in itself impossible and op- 



