are destined to disappear. It has taken this 

 attitude even though it knows that the absence, 

 or lessening, of the belief in God is one of the 

 most powerful factors in its extension, because 

 the priests of all religions have been, in all 

 phases of history, the most powerful allies of 

 the governing classes in keeping the masses 

 bent under the yoke, thanks to religious 

 fascination, as the tamer keeps wild beasts 

 under his whip. 



And that is so true that the most clear- 

 sighted conservatives, even if they are atheists, 

 regret that the religious sentiment this very 

 precious narcotic should continue to dimin- 

 ish among the masses, because they see in it, 

 if their pharisaism does not allow them to 

 say it openly, an instrument of political 

 domination.* 



Unhappily, or happily, the religious senti- 

 ment cannot be re-established by a royal 

 decree. If it disappear one cannot blame 

 either Titus or Caius, and there is no need of 

 a special propaganda against it, for that is in 

 the air we breathe saturated as it is with 

 scientific, experimental inductions and the 

 sentiment no longer finds conditions favour- 

 able to its development, as it found in the 

 mystic ignorance of past centuries. 



I have thus shown the direct influence of 

 modern positive science, which has substituted 



* As for the pretended influence of religion on personal 

 morality, I have shown what little foundation there is for 

 this opinion in my studies of criminal psychology, and 

 more especially in Omicidio nell' antropologia criminate. 



