xi SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS 215 



animal in their most perfect condition, and the synthetic 

 production of foodstuffs is a further result which it is not 

 unreasonable to anticipate. From the use of the overt, 

 massive forces of 'phenomena' we are passing to the 

 control of the underlying and elementary conditions of 

 movement and life. 



3 . The control of the environment is one of the two great i / 

 channels through which the influence of Mental Develop-* / 



ments affects the entire social structure. The other great ^ 

 channel is that of the ethico-religious outlook. In ethical 

 development we have distinguished the stage of primeval 

 custom, of the moral common sense, of ethical idealism 

 and of realistic humanitarianism. The centre of the 

 development is the idea of humanity in its two meanings y 

 the humanity which is in each of us, and the humanity 

 which is all of us. In the first two stages this principle 

 is operative but unconscious. In the third it is explicitly 

 affirmed in various forms of idealistic teaching. In the 

 fourth it is correlated with the conditions of development, 

 personal and social. Now religious development is a web , 

 of which knowledge and ethics are the warp and the woof. 

 It is the progressive apprehension of the spiritual element 

 in the world. Its leading moments, as here conceived, 

 have been shortly stated or implied in the account of intel- 

 lectual and ethical development, and the results may be 

 summarised in a few sentences. In its lowest phase the 

 spiritual, while gradually emerging as an idea out of primi- 

 tive emotions and quasi-instinctive practices, remains as an 

 idea wholly confused with the material, the unintelligent 

 and even the bestial. It is the stage of animism, of stone 

 worship, beast worship, of the binding of spirits by magic 

 incantations and charms, of cajolements and threats inter- 

 mingled with petitions. In the second stage the spirit 

 stands out as a clearly recognised personality. It is anthro- 

 pomorphic, human and even superhuman. In the third 

 stage it embodies the ethical and intellectual ideal. Ethi- 

 cally it is the Perfect God, all righteousness, all love, the 

 source and fountain of human ethics. Intellectually it is 

 the Absolute, the Infinite, even the whole of Reality. 



