50 



Christianity, notably its ardent faith in 

 the ideal which has finally deserted the arid 

 field of bourgeoise scepticism, and certain 

 learned men, not socialists, such as Messrs. 

 Wallace,* Laveleye, and Roberty, etc., admit 

 that socialism, by its humanitarian faith, can 

 perfectly replace the faith in the " something 

 beyond " of the old religions. 



The most direct and efficacious relations 

 are, however, those which exist between 

 socialism and the belief in God. 



It is true that Marxian socialism since the 

 Congress held at Erfurt (1891) has rightly 

 declared; that religious beliefs are a private 

 affair, and that consequently, the socialist 

 party will fight religious intolerance in all its 

 forms, whether it be directed against Catholics 

 or Jews, as I have indicated in an article 

 against Antisemitism.j" But this superiority 

 of view is, at the bottom, only a consequence 

 of confidence in a final victory. 



It is because socialism knows and foresees 

 that religious beliefs, whether we consider 

 them with M. SergiJ as pathological pheno- 

 mena of human psychology or as useless 

 phenomena of moral incrustation, must waste 

 away before the extension of even elementary 

 scientific culture ; it is for that reason that 

 socialism does not feel the necessity of fighting 

 specially these same religious beliefs which 



* Dr. Wallace has now become a Socialist. ED. 

 t Nuova Rassegna, August, 1894. 

 I Sergi, L'origine del fenomeni psichici e loro signifi- 

 cazione biologica, Milan, 1885, p. 334 and the following. 



