378 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



of the tropics lead a miserable life, helplessly exposed to alter- 

 nate changes, and careless of the future. They support them- 

 selves in the most simple and uniform manner from what 

 nature voluntarily offers, or they cultivate the soil with the 

 rudest implements. Their preparation of food is defective, and 

 the aliments are frequently unwholesome. The protection 

 against climate by dress and habitation is neglected ; nor does 

 the savage take any measures to secure himself against any 

 external evils. 



" Knowledge is power." This is shown by the subjection of 

 nature to the aims of man, and by the application of its re- 

 sources to social wants. In proportion as man studies his own 

 nature, the scope and inclination of his desires and passions, 

 and the general interests of society, in the same proportion 

 can he succeed in establishing and developing a fixed social 

 condition. In order to overcome the difficulties and dangers 

 which beset social life, a knowledge of the means capable of 

 effecting it must be attained. Here, as everywhere, knowledge 

 must precede the power, unless the development of what 

 already exists is abandoned to mere chance. In order to 

 secure the basis of all social order, the institution of private 

 property, a certain self-control is requisite, which can only rest 

 upon the consciousness, that the limitation of arbitrary power 

 is better than general insecurity. 



It is the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge which 

 enables us to distinguish right from wrong, and which gives 

 tongue to conscience. Whether this knowledge be in many 

 cases merely traditional, and the conception of morality be 

 only acquired, it is not less true that conscience speaks ac- 

 cordingly. The crude or fine distinctions which conscience 

 makes, its perversity and defects, its singularities, have all their 

 source in the theoretical conception of the condition of man. 

 But on account of the reciprocal effect of all branches of human 

 knowledge, there is full reason to expect that the knowledge of 

 morality and its application will not lag behind where all others 

 become developed, there being a parallelism in the progress 

 of all. 



Hence religion experiences a decided reaction from the pro- 



