CHAPTER V 



A COMPARATIVE study of the effects of different 

 religious systems on the human mind lends powerful 

 support to the doctrine that nations and races differ 

 mentally not so much in that which is inborn, as in 

 that which is acquired. Obviously all that arises in 

 the developing mind of a young human being in con- 

 sequence of the inculcation by his progenitors of the 

 beliefs, the morals, the ways of thinking, the motives 

 for acting, &c., peculiar to any religious system, is 

 acquired, not inborn; and therefore if the individuals 

 of a group of nations which have a religion in common 

 are mentally alike to one another, but mentally different 

 from the individuals of another group of nations, which 

 profess a different religion, the presumption is that their 

 mental similarity to the individuals of the same group 

 is due to the community in religion — i. e. in acquired 

 traits — and their mental dissimilarity from the indi- 

 viduals of a different group to the difference in religion, 

 especially when individuals of different religious groups 

 are circumstanced more alike as regards the rest of the 

 environment, than the individuals of the same group ; 

 or when individuals of the same race, but of a different 

 religion, resemble mentally their co-religionists more 

 than their compatriots. For instance, the presumption 

 is, that the mental likenesses to one another, and 

 mental unlikenesses to peoples of other religions which 



Mahomedans display, are due to the influence of their 



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