COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



long-established association between religion and 

 ethics should be continued, — and to these the 

 following inquiry will perhaps seem uncalled 

 for. It is urged, with justice, that conduct is 

 not necessarily dependent on creed, that equal 

 uprightness may coexist with belief in doctrines 

 diametrically opposite; that, in point of fact, the 

 atheist usually leads quite as pure and holy a 

 life as the Christian ; and moreover, that it is 

 possible to construct, out of scientific materials 

 solely, an ethical code even more complete than 

 any of those now generally accepted and prac- 

 tised. It would be useless to deny the force 

 of these arguments. Not only is it true that 

 science can furnish the inquirer with adequate 

 principles of right action, but it is also true that, 

 even without any very elaborate or thoroughly 

 understood ethical code, the heterodox inquirer 

 is, on the average, quite as likely to live rightly 

 as the orthodox believer, since our characters 

 depend far more upon our feelings, which are 

 inherited, than upon the doctrines which are 

 taught us. But while admitting all this, it must 

 still be claimed that the time-honoured associa- 

 tion of religion with morality is not arbitrary 

 but founded in the nature of things, and that it 

 will accordingly continue in the future. The 

 arguments just stated present but one side of 

 the case. For while it is quite true that char- 

 acter is not a product of belief, it is no less true 

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