BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCE OF RELIGION 49 



forward a man in his desire to understand and enter 

 upon " right relations to the Power manifesting itself in 

 the Universe." It is not education in the sense that it 

 will assist a race in the formation of ideals and incline 

 its members either to understand, or to obey without 

 understanding, those customs and restrictions which 

 are necessary for the wellbeing of the community to 

 which they belong. 



Cosmopolitan and most receptive in matters per- 

 taining to training, the persistence of the unity of their 

 religion and education is one of the striking features 

 in the history of the Jewish people. No system less 

 organically sound from the biological point of view 

 could have made it possible for a nation, insignificant 

 in numbers, bereft of a fixed habitation, to survive so 

 many of its oppressors. Truly there is always a future 

 for a nation that can adjust itself to the eternal purpose 

 which governs the Universe. 



Even the harshness of treatment so often meted out 

 to the Jews, by ensuring the survival of the hardiest and 

 most tenacious only, increased in the long run their 

 chances of continued corporate existence. It will be 

 very curious if the Jewish nation ceases to maintain its 

 individuality in the face of an equality of treatment, 

 such as it now receives in many countries killed, in fact, 

 by kindness when centuries of oppression have failed 

 to destroy it. 



It is more difficult to analyse the causes of the failure 

 of the Greek and Roman religions than to justify the 

 success of that of the Jews, from whom we learn that 

 a people need not survive politically in order to obtain 



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