86 The Higher Usefulness of Science 



ethically and religiously, almost the complete antithesis 

 of Confucianism. I mean Mohammedanism. Moham- 

 med may be characterized as a man possessed of very 

 unusual endowments, among which the religious in- 

 stinct was the most powerful, and the moral instinct 

 about the least powerful; and who lived in an age and 

 environment which, because of these basal endowments, 

 developed him into a religious monomaniac whose 

 sensibilities to the rights and dignities of his fellow- 

 beings generally became reduced to almost nil. It is 

 impossible to appreciate Mohammed and his work 

 rightly without recognizing the true grandeur of the 

 prophet's proclamation of the singleness and unity of 

 God, and as a corollary, of the idolatrousness and 

 perversity of holding any other being or thing as on a 

 par with God; and at the same time his detestation of 

 unbelievers, which of course meant the vast majority 

 of mankind. "If God should punish men according 

 to what they deserve, he would not leave on the back 

 of the earth so much as a beast," we read in the Koran. 

 (The Creator, last sentence.) 



What about the synthesis that would include all 

 that is true of Confucianism and Mohammedism? Be- 

 fore giving my answer to this query, I would call atten- 

 tion to the fact that the teachings of Confucius and 

 Mohammed contain elements which adumbrate the 

 possibility of such a synthesis, that element being the 

 struggle of both men toward unity. "I seek unity, all 

 pervasive," said the great Chinese. "I teach the unity 



