THE SOCIAL VALUE OP RELIGION 505 



conflict, interferes with the primordial conditions of Ufe, the 

 value of which it reduces by reducing its vitality. 



We are thus brought to the conclusion that the only factor 

 which responds in an adequate degree to our criterion is reHgion. 

 This conclusion may seem inconsistent with our admission that 

 Christianity, and the ethical influences with which it is associated, 

 are not universally necessary to the development of civiUsation ; 

 a fact which is nevertheless proved by the growth and develop- 

 ment of Japan. Or it may seem inconsistent with our combat- 

 ing of Mr. Ejdd's idea that Christianity is the elementary force 

 shaping the development of our Western civilisation. Yet, with 

 regard to the latter objection, we may reply that, though we 

 consider reHgion to be an essential factor in social development, 

 we do not consider the influence excited by Christian ethics in 

 the present age to be sufficiently great to warrant our ascribing 

 to that influence social phenomena which may be ascribed to 

 other causes. Neither does the fact that Christian ethics do 

 not exercise sufficient influence prove that they ought not to 

 exert a much greater influence than they actually do ; it only 

 proves that social evolution is not being directed into the channels 

 most conducive to the ultimate welfare of the race. In the 

 second place, it is an error to consider religion as necessarily 

 synonymous with Christianity ; even as it is an error to speak 

 of civihsation as necessarily conterminous with the " white race." 

 Thus, although reHgion may be an essential factor m social 

 evolution, that reHgion need not everywhere be Christianity, 

 although the latter is indispensable to Europe.^ 



1 Religion, m. so far as it is a natural phenomenon, obeys the two funda- 

 mental laws of aU development — those of evolution and adaptation. No 

 organic or superorganic phenomenon shows us more clearly the working 

 of the law of adaptation. C!hristianity is thoroughly adapted to the needs 

 of Western civilisation, just as Buddhism is adapted to the needs of the 

 populations of the East. It is regrettable that this great truth is not 

 understood by those who, doubtless with the best intentions, seek to pro- 

 pagate CJhristiamty among peoples whoUy unable to assimilate either 



