252 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



sociological point of view this is the mission of art and preaching 

 of all kinds." 1 



Desire for social esteem is a fourth motive for productivity and 

 functions advantageously in proportion as society appreciates 

 and rewards the producer. 2 The dollar yard-stick so frequently 

 anathematized today by moralists, is after all an effective means 

 of securing the surplus so necessary for social good. 



Patriotism, when properly conceived, is a most potent force. 

 Every one who is interested in the success of the group must be 

 interested in doing that which will insure success. The highest 

 form of patriotism is not that which is awakened merely when the 

 nation faces a crisis, but the form that responds daily to the 

 nation's daily need. True patriotism calls for a willing subordina- 

 tion of individual to group welfare; and as the multiplication of 

 numbers and production of economic goods, or in other words, the 

 increase and economizing of human energy, are of prime impor- 

 tance, patriotism calls for the subordination of consumption to 

 production. Pleasure cannot be an end in itself according to 

 this philosophy, but on the one hand the sign board of health and 

 efficiency, and on the other, the means of securing increased 

 production. 



Finally, and in some respects most important of all, is religion. 

 Religion is defined as " such belief in or regard for supernatural 

 agents as to influence conduct." The only religion worth having 

 is the one which so energizes life as to make it most productive, 

 and the best religion is the one which is the most energizing. 

 " That is the best religion which (1) acts most powerfully as a 

 spur to energy, and (2) directs that energy most productively." 3 

 In discussing this he makes use of the biological formula and 

 concludes: " The religion worth having is the reb'gion which 

 brings the largest success in the final and ultimate sense to the 

 peoples and nations which adopt it and enables them to survive in 

 competition with peoples and nations possessing any other type 

 of religion. . . . The religion which enervates or subdues the 



1 Cf. Comte, Positive Philosophy, ii, p. 315; A General View, ch. VI. 



2 Cf. The Religion Worth Having, pp. 65 f. 



3 Ibid., p. 13. 



