CHAP, xix HYPER-DARWINISM IN SOCIOLOGY 265 



citizen accelerated progress ! The yielding of 

 Militarism to Industrialism, and the allied change 

 "from status to contract/' are earlier stages in the 

 same great development by which competition grows 

 ever more and more intense. 



Here then we have Comte's three appeals brought 

 into odd harmony with an apology for supernatural 

 or at least for " ultra-rational " religion. This is to 

 be heartily welcomed as an advance in the right 

 direction ; and the criticisms passed by Mr. Kidd, on 

 the contemptuous treatment of the origin of religion 

 by Mr. Spencer and his underlings, are well deserved 

 and well established. A saner view of history cer- 

 tainly does commend the opinion, so powerfully 

 advocated by Seeley, that religion is the great ani- 

 mating force in states and societies, the master- 

 builder of historic greatness. Nor can it be denied 

 that there was need of reaction from a one-sided 

 intellectualism, which had prevailed even in quarters 

 where we find but little faith in reason. 1 



Granting all this, and granting it gladly, one must 

 go on to express grave distrust of the process by 

 which Mr. Kidd reaches his conclusion ; of the terms 

 in which he formulates it; and of the affirmations 

 with which it is connected. 



First, even if we accepted the claim that biology 

 was to be the final judge, we must regard Mr. Kidd's 

 Weismannism as a very insecure foundation. We 

 have already noted in some detail how the denial of 

 use-inheritance had been qualified and weakened and 

 transformed by its author even before Mr. Kidd 

 applied to Weismannism for a social gospel. And 



1 E.g. Mill and Buckle. See below, in the closing paragraphs. 



