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! 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,? 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 
' 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 Tbid., p. 325. 
4 Social Control, p. 220. 
