510 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



only writer of eminence who does so. " We are preserved from 

 egoistic suicide," writes Professor Durkheim, " only in propor- 

 tion as we are socialised ; but the religions can socialise us only 

 in proportion as they withdraw from us the right to free inquiry. 

 However, they have no longer, and in all probability wiU never 

 have again, sufficient authority over us to be able to obtain such 

 a sacrifice on our part. We cannot, therefore, coimt on them 

 as a barrier against suicide."^ We thoroughly agree with Pro- 

 fessor Durkheim that, if the regeneration of society by reUgion 

 is possible only on condition that reUgion withdraws from us 

 the right of free thought and free inquiry, then all projects which 

 aim at such a regeneration are Utopian. It is not in vain that 

 Kant has hved ; and no Church or sect could hope to institute an 

 era of rehgious persecution since Kant wrote his Critique of Pure 

 Reason. Free thought is the most precious legacy in our inheri- 

 tance, and no power on earth can prevail against the spirit of 

 Uberty. But the question remains : Does the reorganisation of 

 society by rehgion imply a retrogression, an abandonment of the 

 right of free thought and of free inquiry 1 



Professor Durkheim appears here to have confused the spiritual 

 with the civil organisation of society, and to suppose that all 

 influence of religion on social Ufe necessarily imphes a theocracy. 

 Rehgion, says Professor Durkheim, can only hope to socialise 

 us in proportion as it deprives us of our right of free thought. 

 But, without interfering in any way with free thought, cannot 

 rehgion give a value to individual Ufe by conferring on the latter 

 an eternal sanction ? Does the Japanese rehgion, then, interfere 

 so gravely with the right to free thought in Japan ? We are 

 aware that it will be objected to us that the Japanese religion 

 is, strictly speaking, not a religion at all, since it has no deities ; 

 but, none the less, if there are no deities, there is a " hfe of the 

 dead " recognised by every " Bushi," and Hfe there is dignified by 

 a conception which is essentially supra-rational — ^that is to say 

 1 E. Durkheim, Le Suicide, p. 432. Paris, Alcan, 1897. 



