IDEALIZATION AND RELIGION 301 



The process of idealization, directed by social utility, eventu- 

 ates in the worship of Humanity. " Towards Humanity, who is 

 for us the only true Great Being, we, the conscious elements of 

 whom she 1 is composed, shall henceforth direct every aspect of 

 our life, individual or collective. Our thoughts will be devoted to 

 the knowledge of Humanity, our affections to her love, our actions 

 to her service." 2 



The principle of adaptation is clearly manifested in this dis- 

 cussion for not only is the development of art dependent on social 

 utility, 3 but its influence is based on the doctrine of relativity or 

 " adaptability." The ideal must spring out of the real and in- 

 spire men to transform the real, gradually, in the line of perfec- 

 tionment. 



The ideal of humanity as a Great Being is a fiction of the mind, 

 according to Comte, but though an illusion is in a sense true 

 because this fiction and religious worship connected with it, are 

 necessary to progress. 



Idealization and Religion According to Ross 



Idealization according to Ross is the product of self-esteem 

 reacting reflectively in accordance with our mental and tempera- 

 mental make-up. The process is both personal and social. 

 Society, by a process of utility and selection, evolves certain 

 " types " of character and conduct. The individual accepts these, 

 with modification, as his personal ideals. The social type is 

 always above the average man so that " it is able to lift him once 

 he comes to live it and lay hold on it." 4 



Ross shows how each social class and calling has its type or 

 ideal, in each case developed by the principle of adaptation, as for 

 example, contempt of danger in the soldier type, harshness in the 

 jailor, tenderness in the nurse; and how these types are magni- 

 fied and glorified by literature, oratory, art and religion thus 



1 Feminine because the Great Being is a personification of those qualities that 

 find their highest expression in woman. 



2 A General View, p. 365. 



3 Ibid., p. 325. 



4 Social Control, p. 220. 



