326 GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



changing religious ideals, and in this field Christianity has 

 done more for improvement than any other religion. 

 Most primitive religious beliefs have arisen from a desire 

 for present help, retribution, or future life, and some races 

 have been particularly " susceptible " to religion. The 

 negroes, for example, in a savage state commonly believe 

 in magic, charms, and the like; and when civilized are often 

 religious enthusiasts. Semicivilized people generally be- 

 lieve in totems, charms, and transmigration. For example, 

 the Alaskan Indian thinks that by making a clay image of 

 his enemy and destroying it, he has injured the enemy; and 

 that by wearing a charm simulating some animal he acquires 

 certain of the qualities of that animal. What the outcome 

 of the " higher criticism" of modern religion will be is un- 

 certain, but one thing is sure no religion which is largely 

 form without high ideals and " service" can survive. 



Probably the greatest burden that civilization and knowl- 

 edge lays on man is responsibility. If man rules the earth, 

 he must do it with wisdom, kindness, and justice. He must 

 conserve natural resources; protect helpless and ignorant 

 nations. Through improvement in educational methods he 

 must find some means to make the great stores of knowledge 

 available as easily as possible. Education must more and 

 more pass from mere training in observing and memorizing 

 to training for the exercising of powers of generalization and 

 ingenuity. Education has as its object the power to con- 

 trol self to do more work and to do it better. Each 

 generation must excel the one before and we do not know 

 what the future of man will be. If he goes ahead as he has, 

 it is possible that finally the universal exchange of ideas 

 may bring about a ripe culture which will mean universal 

 cooperation, sacrifice, and toleration. If, however, a great 

 disaster wipes out the human race, some other animal will 

 have to struggle up through another long evolution and take 

 its place. In either event the manifest duty of man is to 

 do his best to struggle continually to improve. Great 

 nations must have great minds and spirits; these have 

 always come from people who work. 



