IDEALIZATION AND RELIGION 3 03 



for the sake of future gain and lures man to the supremest 

 sacrifices for the sake not of self, but of society at large. 1 



Closely related to idealization is illusion, — a device evolved to 

 control those who cannot be controlled by other devices, such 

 as the illusion of pseudo-consequences exploited in Sunday-school 

 literature; that of social solidarity which has no real basis of appeal 

 to the individual, and that of asceticism, — a symptom of bad 

 race temperament, depressing climate, low physical tone, or 

 the resource of a class desiring power. Another illusion is that 

 of the dicta of intuitional rather than social moralists who are 

 interested in abstract duty rather than in social welfare. 2 



Ross' use of the term illusion in some of these cases at least is 

 questionable. All are inductions from experience, perhaps exag- 

 gerated or mixed with error, or generalizations that are not 

 applicable in every individual case. 



Social valuations and the genesis of ethical elements are next dis- 

 cussed and large use is made of the principle of adaptation, 

 some of these valuations being derived from race experience, 

 others being the creation of genius. " The improvement in the 

 ethical standard of a civilization," he says, " is due to the survival 

 and ascendancy of those elements which are best adapted to an 

 orderly social life." 3 The principle of selection, he holds, explains 

 only the rise of the ethos of the clan. " We need invention to 

 explain the rise of a national or race ethos." 4 In this distinction 

 we have a contrast between passive and active adaptation. 



Ross' discussion of religion is unsatisfactory because unclear if 

 not contradictory. In one place he seems to accept the reality of 

 mysticism from which springs legal religion, 6 but in other places 

 this is held to be an illusion though necessary, 6 while the only true 

 religion is held to be social idealism based on sympathy, — very 

 like Comte's Religion of Humanity. 1 This social religion is 

 defined as " the conviction that there is a bond of ideal relation- 

 ship between the members of a society and the feelings that arise 

 in consequence of this connection." In one place he seems to 



1 Social Control, pp. 264 f. 5 Ibid., pp. 197, 207, 216. 



2 Ibid., ch. XXIII. 6 Ibid., pp. 209, 212, 441. 



3 Ibid., p. 342. 4 Ibid., p. 350. 7 Ibid., ch. XVI. 



