i88o.] 
Scientific or Natural System. 
577 
in the former paper on “ Natural Science and Morality” 
(“ Journal of Science,” July, 1880). 
It will be observed, on analysing the subject, that in prin- 
ciple the plan invariably adopted in the formation of sedts 
is to attempt to enchain the interests of mankind as power- 
fully as possible by asserting the existence of some great 
danger or overhanging calamity, to magnify which adequately 
no range or license is set. Thus, for instance, the asserted 
danger may be eternal punishment (in which case it may be 
observed that the range is made infinite, or the danger is mag- 
nified without limit). To adt upon the conceptions various 
similes are then used, of as terrifying a charadter as may 
be, by seledting well-known agencies which produce the most 
intense physical pain. [It is apparently forgotten that an 
infinite — or everlasting — punishment necessarily implies an 
infinite insult to a just Deity; the magnitude of the insult 
being, mathematically estimated, in diredt proportion to the 
magnitude of the violation of justice incurred.] After taking 
this primary step, the next procedure is to suggest a remedy 
or means of escape from the asserted danger, coupled with 
a certain amount of spurious mystery, as this (as a well- 
known fadt) tells most with the ignorant class. The unfor- 
tunate man whose terrors have been worked upon by the 
varied images used to pourtray the nature of the punishment 
then looks upon the leader of the sedt (or his emissary), 
who instrudts him as to the means of escape, in the light of 
a benefadtor and preserver. Certain conditions are then 
stated to be contingent on being saved from the asserted 
future punishment, the most important one being implicit 
and unquestioning belief in all the statements of the leader 
of the sedt (the validity of which are to be “justified by 
faith ” — which latter quality, so far from being reprobated, 
is extolled as the highest virtue) ; together with absolute 
subjedtion to whatever course of condudt the leader of the 
sedt (or his emissary) may please to command. Here we 
have the achievement of domination .* 
* It would surely be an insult to the general public to make them as a body 
responsible for the propaganda of the originators of seds, or to indulge the 
dream for one moment that such monstrosities of dodrine could ever have had 
their origin in unbiassed persons, whose sole aim was the attainment of truth, 
in harmony with right and justice, and apart from personal ideas of ambition 
and self-advancement. 
Precisely because such propaganda have been proteded by the absurdity of 
calling them “ religion,” and by the (if possible) greater absurdity of supposing 
them beneficial to society, so may they be expeded, when this spurious shield 
is removed, to crumble to pieces at the touch of a scientific analysis. The full 
amount of unhappiness caused in the world by the originators of such dodrines 
will only be adequately guaged by the science of the future. For just as the 
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