248 The Morality of Nature 



physical structure and organs and aptitudes which are in- 

 evitably inherited, and these limit the possible intellect by 

 their capacity, original and of growth; but they do not 

 transmit the intellectual heritage. This is imparted sepa- 

 rately by the process of education — the primary and funda- 

 mental elements being derived from the parents who are in 

 control of the tenderest and most impressionable years; and 

 the more complex and artificial being superimposed by the 

 community creating them, chiefly through its machinery 

 of public education. Thus the individual in maturity be- 

 comes heir to the accumulated store of selected knowledge, 

 first of his lineage, and next of his race ; and to that knowl- 

 edge he proceeds to add his own experiences, and to take 

 his place in the organized aggregation of his fellows. 



It is evident that in a democracy where patriarchal au- 

 thority is weakened, the teaching of the essential altruistic 

 morality must become a matter of public concern. And 

 even more is this apparent when a population born of for- 

 eign parents, often of very moderate education, is growing 

 up with the public schools as their only source of knowledge. 

 Under such circumstances it is undoubtedly incumbent upon 

 the government to undertake the duty of teaching morality 

 apart from religion. The supposition that morality is a 

 religious subject is incorrect. Religion is a relationship 

 toward the Supreme Being. Morality is a relationship of 

 a man towards his fellows and the material universe. The 

 ancient religions, notably the Hebrew, the Buddhist and the 

 Confucian, covered the subject of morality chiefly because 

 the wisdom which was competent to express one was also 

 needed for the other. They taught also sanitation which 



