own, many persons who nominally profess the current religion, have no real belief in it, owing to its being too high or too low for their stage of intellectual and moral culture; and therefore we must, in estimating the influence of Religion, leave their conduct and action out of account. Thirdly, we must allow for the very different modes in which religions, like other beliefs, show themselves in action; owing to the great diversity of individual temperament and disposition through which they have to pass. Fourthly, we must be prepared to discount largely the popular belief in the effect of Hell on men's conduct and action, when we consider, that, even in the days when it was a serious reality, it had, like death, little direct influence on daily life, owing to the balances that were thrown out against it; obviously, therefore, now that it is greatly discredited, it has little or none. And lastly, we must eliminate from the problem those wondrous transformations of individual character, those marvels of national achievement which religious enthusiasm has wrought, and which are popularly believed to be the effect of the religion, instead of being, as we have seen, the effect of the enthusiasm-quite a different matter. The leading misconceptions which obscure the effects of Religion on Action being thus removed, we are now sufficiently close to the main issue to grapple with it directly. From the drift of the foregoing pages, the reader will doubtless have surmised that I regard Religion, in its true sphere, as having no effect on action; and this, with proper modifications, I am prepared to admit. For, although I have shown that, in early stages of culture, Religion exercised a commanding influence over men's conduct and action, still that influence was due rather to its character as a Philosophy than as a Religion. When supernatural wills were believed to be the real causes of events, they, of course, influenced men's actions like other natural causes; that is to say, they influenced them as Science or knowledge would, not as Religion. When men, for example, believed that the lightning was the expression of the anger of a deity, they of course regarded that anger as they would any other natural cause, and took such means as they deemed most appropriate to avert it. When they believed that Heaven would rain calamities on them if they permitted heresy or false doctrine in their midst, to avert these calamities they took what appeared to them the most natural way of appeasing Heaven-persecution. It follows, therefore, that when supernatural wills shall cease to be regarded any longer as real causes of any event, Religion, as a positive agency, will cease to have any direct effect on action. To what, then, it will be asked, are those effects on conduct and action to be attributed, which were formerly attributed to Religion? In a former chapter, we saw that justice was done in this world by the pressure exerted over the individual conscience by the general feelings of the community, rather than by the force of the individual conscience itself. In the same way, we may say, that men's actions and conduct, in a positive sense-what they will do, not what they will refrain from doing-are determined by those ideals, aims, and ambitions, which are bred in a nation by the necessities of its situation and surroundings, and which are imposed on its individual members. That these, and not Religion, are the determining agencies in conduct and action will be seen when we consider how impotent Religion is when it has to run counter to them. War, for example, has been bred from the necessities of the circumstances and surroundings of the several European States, since the break-up of the Roman Empire. And although Christianity ran dead against it from the first, nevertheless, the necessities of the tough world proved too much for Religion; and War accordingly remains with us to this day; the commander and military man being held in the highest esteem. But, perhaps, no more pregnant instance could be adduced of the impotence of Religion, when it has to confront modes of conduct and action bred from the circumstances of the world, than the practice of duelling, which, indeed, was closely associated with the T military régime, and, like it, was practised in the very teeth of the Church. For, to have refused, on Christian grounds, to fight, would have been, until recently, to make oneself an outcast among those very Christians whose principles it outraged. Again, the ambition of each individual to acquire as much wealth as possible for himself, although running counter to the Christian ideal, is a necessity, if the industries of the world are to be worked to the utmost extent for the benefit of mankind; hence, the utter impotence of the Church when it preaches against it. The Caste-institution, too, of feudal aristocracy was a necessary result of the state of Europe after the barbarian invasions; and hence, in spite of the fact that it ran counter to the genius of Christianity, it has continued to flourish up to the present time, dominating men's aims and ideals and admirations, and supported, too, by the very Church whose fundamental principle-the native equality of souls-it despises and ignores. We might continue to multiply instances, but the above are of sufficient pregnancy to prove that men's actions are determined, not by Religion, but by that code of Public Opinion and Belief which is begotten of their circumstances and conditions. But is it possible to doubt, it may be asked, that men have defied all earthly opinions for the sake of their religion? I do not doubt it, but would remark only, that in these cases Religion has either become with them an enthusiasm, as in the Crusades, Puritanism, Monasticism, and the like, and so their actions are to be set down to the effect of Enthusiasm, rather than of Religion; or it has become, as in the antagonisms of sects, largely a matter of pride and other worldly passions, engaging men's interests and activities as any other worldly object might; or else, it is only one aspect of that general elevation and expansion of soul which is the heritage of the few born in every age who rise above the dull level of contemporary opinion—an elevation and expansion of soul which, disgusted with the coarse ideas, the narrow conceptions, and the false idolatries of the time, and demanding a more refined and elevated conception in which to rest, inaugurates new religions and ideals of life, new philosophies and sciences, new forms of beauty and art, and so draws on the torpid conservatism of the world to progress and civilization. To conclude, then, I may say that Religion, in its true and final form, will have no jurisdiction in the field of specific action, but will be restricted to giving that harmony and satisfaction to the intellectual, moral, and emotional sides of our nature, which is necessary to their balanced and healthy activity. PART V-GOVERNMENT. CHAPTER I. ARISTOCRACY-PRELIMINARY. THERE are many forms of government and social organization among men; but, in so far as they practically affect the elevation and expansion of the individuals living under them, they may all be reduced to two-the Aristocratic and the Democratic, the principle of inequality and the principle of equality-all despotisms and kingships being included under Aristocracy; and Socialism (which is only a finer working-out of the idea of equality) under Democracy. In the present chapter I propose to trace the effects of the aristocratic principle on mental and moral expansion; and, as these effects are nowhere better exemplified than in English social life, I shall endeavour so to exhibit the characteristics of the particular aristocratic organization under which we ourselves live, that the permanent and essential spirit of the aristocratic principle itself may be clearly seen. Before proceeding, however, I desire to make a few preliminary observations, in order to avoid misapprehension. In the first place, when I speak of the Aristocracy as such, I must be understood to regard them, not as so many independent units of every shade of disposition and culture, but as a body, an institution, an order in the State, the members of which are bound together by common traditions, sympathies, and habits of thought. In the next place, I shall assume that, like every other institution, organization, or association, their |