INTRODUCTION XXVli 



government, and the undisputed supremacy of the civil power 

 in all matters concerning the State. The sociologist must be 

 entirely at one with the government which seeks to safeguard 

 the legitimate interests of society against clerical aggression, and 

 which endeavours jealously to preserve intact the precious patri- 

 mony of free thought and inquiry bequeathed to us by our fore- 

 fathers. 



The sociologist considers the religious and metaphysical systems 

 of humanity, as also all codes of ethics, law, and jurisprudence, 

 all philosophical and political doctrines, as the products of social 

 life — in a word, as psychosocial phenomena. Every religion must 

 be considered as an instrument for effecting the adaptation of 

 society to its environment. Even as the unceasing perturba- 

 tions of intragerminal nutrition perpetually bring forth tiny 

 variations of the organism, so that, when a change of environ- 

 ment requires readaptation, natural selection finds, in 9,999 cases 

 out of 10,000, the necessary variation to select, thereby ensuring 

 the survival of the biological species ; so the unceasing activity 

 of intrasocial energy is perpetually producing new variations of 

 the social type, in order that here also selection may always find 

 at its disposal the necessary variant which, by being selected, 

 shall ensure the continuity of the social species. The necessities 

 of adaptation and readaptation call forth, in the one case as in 

 the other, a countless number of variations ; for otherwise the 

 organism, whether biological or social, would be exposed to too 

 great a risk of annihilation. Selection perpetuates those varia- 

 tions which are useful, and destroys those which are not. 



ReKgion may be regarded as a social variation which has been 

 selected, and subsequently maintained by the unceasing inter- 

 vention of selection, because it is indispensable to the social 

 species in the struggle for existence. Those tribes who possessed 

 no religious ideal must inevitably have been exterminated by 

 those who did possess one ; for the former were less adapted to 

 the requirements of the social environment ; they possessed less 



