Pst/r/iofof/ical Inveit(!f/(ifionM 257 



but it is not chance, but mental inertia which leads many persons to retain 

 the religion of their childhood without further inciuiry. I cannot lay the 

 stress Oalton does on the danger of dogma or sentmients instilled in early 

 youth Imcouiiiig ingrained in the character, (^ne sees too many young people 

 now-a-days who have changed the religious and social faiths of their child- 

 hood, to lay exaggerated stress in this respect on nurture. It may have been 

 true 40 years ago that: 



"In subjects unconnected with Hentiment, the freest inquiry and the fullest delilieration 

 are required before it is tliought decorous to form a final opinion ; but whenevor sontiment is 

 involved, iiiui es|>ecially in ([ue.stions of religious do|i(nia, HlK)ut which is more sentiment and 

 more diffcrt^^ce of opinion ainon^ wise, virtuous and triitli-soeking men than altout any other 

 subject wiiatever, free inquiry is peremptorily discouraged The relij^ious instructor in every 

 creed is one who makes it his profession to saturate his pupils with prejudice." (p. 210.) 



Whatever the religious instructor of to-day may say or do, I think it 

 would have .small effect on the youth of to-day ! They have won their 

 freedom, or, j>erhaps, it were truer to say, it has been won for them, and in 

 my experience they think and choose for themselves both their .social and 

 their religious creeds. Those that do not, fail, not so much from prejudices 

 inculcated by parents and pastors, as from intellectual inertia, which the 

 careful observer will probably recognise as the really vital contribution of 

 the parents to their offspring'. Still we may well agree with Galton that 



"there are a vast number of foolish men and women in the world who marry and have 

 children, and l)ecause they deal lovingly with their children it does not at all follow that they 

 can instruct them wisely." (p. 210.) 



Galton points out that the wisest men of all ages may have led upright 

 and consistent lives and been honoured by a wide circle for their unselfish 

 furtherance of the public good, but that they have belonged to many races, 

 and have been claimed by many dogmatic faiths (pp. 211-13). 



Conscience is next dealt with and it is stated that it arises from two 

 sources (a) inheritance, and (6) early training. Ethnologists have shown that 

 conscience varies from race to race and age to age; it is partly transmitted 

 by inheritance in the way and under the conditions suggested by Darwin': 



"The value of iiilieritetl conscience lies in its being the organiseil result of the social ex- 

 perience of many generations, but it fails in so far as it expresses the experience of genera- 

 tions whose habits differed from our own. The doctrine of evolution shows that no race can 

 be in perfect harmony with its surroundings; the latter are continually changing while the 

 organism of the race hobbles after, vainly trying to overtake them. Therefore the inherited 

 part of conscience cannot be an infallible guide, and the acquired part of it may, under the 

 intluence of dogma, l)e a very bad one. The history of fanaticism shows too clearly that this is 

 not only a thtK)ry but a fact. Happy the child, especially in these inquiring days, who has 

 been taught a religion that mainly rests on the moral obligations between man and man in 

 domestic and national life, and which, so far as it is necessarily dogmatic, rests chiefly on the 

 propi-r interpretation of facts about which there is no dispute, — namely, on those habitual 

 occurrences which are always open to observation, and which form the basis of socalled 

 natural religion." (p. 212.) 



' Discussing recently with a friend whether Galton's views appliitl to the young people of 

 to-day, I mentiorie<l a number of them known to us both who had certainly thought for them- 

 selves. The reply came: "Yes, but t/ie>/ have minds," and not till the words were out of the 

 mouth did the speaker realise that the case had been given away. 



■' The Dtacetit of Man, 1871, Vol. i, p. 102, etc. 



p o n 33 



