THE ARTS AND RELIGION 279 



brought an old force newly into play the humani- 

 tarian sympathy that leads the strong to protect the 

 weak and that recognizes the infinite superiority of 

 the spiritual over the grossly material elements of 

 life. In battling for the ideal of human sympathy 

 he fought unconsciously for the development of the 

 refined manifestations of the sex and racial instinct as 

 opposed to the brutal tendencies of self-aggrandize- 

 ment. Despite the perversions it has suffered, this 

 Christian ideal has been kept alive by the nations 

 of Europe, especially by their poets and religious 

 teachers. The history of civilization in Christen- 

 dom has been a record of broadening sympathies, 

 moving hand in hand with rising intelligence. 

 Literature clearly reflects the growth of this humani- 

 tarian spirit. Now if we analyze from a biological 

 standpoint the underlying civilizing forces that have 

 been at work in Christian countries during the past 

 two thousand years, as they are revealed in the lit- 

 erature of the dominant modern countries (France, 

 Germany, England), we see that progress has been 

 attended by a growth in those qualities that spring 

 from increasingly intelligent affection, devotion, and 

 self-sacrifice between the sexes. The improvement 

 in relations between parents, and between parents 

 and children, has been attended by meliorations 

 between persons unrelated by blood, but related by 

 ties of temperament and sympathy, and finally also 

 by the betterment in the attitude of men and women 

 toward the unknown multitudes in other words, 



