ALTRUISM 277 



advantage that maukind of the future will receive if 

 each follows certain lines of actions. But such 

 arguments amount to little when the individual is 

 confronted with the question whether he himself 

 shall take a good thing that is within his grasp or 

 leave it to another. Logic alone never leads one to 

 follow conscience. The loss of religion deprives a 

 nation of the greatest centralizing factor which has 

 united it into a unit, and such loss will tend toward 

 disintegration. Intelligence furnishes logic, but 

 religion furnishes vitality to a nation, and a nation 

 must have vitality to hold the people together when- 

 ever there comes a strain of clashing interests. No 

 nation has hitherto succeeded in becoming great 

 unless its people were inspired by some kind of reli- 

 gious faith. Religion has been a mighty force in the 

 evolution of society, since it has furnished a vital 

 foundation for altruism, and altruism is the one 

 force which makes possible a continuation of organi- 

 zation. No one can predict the future, but, judging 

 from the past, the nations of the future are to be 

 those in which the religious faith remains in the 

 ascendancy. Religion has been the centripetal force 

 of society, and irreligion has always resulted in dis- 

 integration. Religion means organization and irre- 

 ligion disintegration. The anarchist can have no 

 religion, for he denies the cogency of the authority 

 of anything except his own inclinations, and this is 

 fatal to religion. Religion and civilization have ever 

 gone hand in hand. 



One must not infer from the foregoing that reli- 

 gion alone is sufficient to make a powerful civilized 

 nation, or to develop civilization. Evidence to the 

 contrary is abundant enough. Religious faith of the 



