THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



rected by the barbaric prejudices of the Middle Ages. 

 Great struggles are in progress between the central 

 government and the mass of the people. Both parties 

 spend themselves in fruitless conflicts ; yet reason in the 

 life of the state suffers more than its special political 

 complexion. "Whether the state shall be a monarchy 

 or a republic, aristocratic or democratic, are subordinate 

 questions. The great question is: Shall the modern 

 state be spiritual or secular? Shall it be governed 

 theocratically by irrational beliefs and clerical arbitrari- 

 ness, or nomocratically by rational laws and civic right?" 

 {Riddle, chapter i.). 



In the science of law, too, we find the prevalence of 

 the dualistic principles that have come down from the 

 Middle Ages and antiquity, and have acquired a certain 

 sacredness by blending with the teaching of the Church. 

 Kant's dualism is again found to be at work, influenc- 

 ing the ideas of jurists and statesmen. With it we find 

 in our codes many carefully preserved relics of mediaeval 

 superstition. A great deal of harm is done by this re- 

 ligious influence. Every day we read in the papers of 

 curious deliverances in the lower and higher courts at 

 which every thoughtful man can only shake his head. 

 Here also there will be no solid improvement until the 

 education of jurists includes a thorough training in 

 anthropology and psychology as well as in the code. 



Theology has stood at the head of the four venerable 

 "faculties" at our universities for centuries. It still 

 holds this place of honor, as the Church, the organ of 

 practical theology, continues to exercise a profound in- 

 fluence on life. In fact, most of the other branches of 

 applied science — especially jurisprudence, politics, ethics, 

 and pedagogics — are still more or less affected by re- 

 ligious prejudices. The chief of these is the idea of God 

 conceived in some form or other as the Supreme Being; 

 as Goethe says, "Every one calls the best he knows his 



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