ascribe to their gods not only ordinary human qualities. but excellences of various kinds, and among these may also be a strong desire to punish wickedness and to reward virtue. The gods of monotheistic religions in particular have such a multitude of the most elevated attributes that it would be highly astonishing if they had remained unconcerned about the morals of mankind. If flattery and admiration make the deity all-wise, all-powerful, allgood, they also make him the supreme judge of human conduct. And there is yet another reason for investing him with the moral government of the world. The claims of justice are not fully satisfied on this earth, where it only too often happens that virtue is left unrewarded and vice escapes unpunished, that right succumbs and wrong triumphs; hence persons with deep moral feelings and a religious or philosophical bent of mind are apt to look for a future adjustment through the intervention of the deity, who alone can repair the evils and injustices of the present. This demand of final retribution is sometimes so strongly developed that it even leads to the belief in a deity when no other proof of his existence is found convincing. Kant maintained that we must postulate a future life in which everybody's happiness is proportionate to his virtue, and that such a postulate involves the belief in a God of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness who governs the moral as well as the physical world.

Not even Voltaire

could rid himself of the notion of a rewarding and avenging deity, whom, if he did not exist, "it would be necessary to invent."

The belief in a god who acts as a guardian of worldly morality undoubtedly gives emphasis to its rules. To the social and legal sanctions a new one is added, which derives particular strength from the supernatural power and knowledge of the deity. The divine avenger can punish those who are beyond the reach of human justice and those whose secret wrongs even escape the censure of their fellow men. But on the other hand there are also certain circumstances which considerably detract from the influence

of the religious sanction when compared with other sanctions of morality. The supposed punishments and rewards of the future life have the disadvantage of being conceived as very remote; and fear and hope decrease in inverse ratio to the distance of their objects. Men commonly live in the happy illusion that death is far off, even though it in reality is very near, hence also the retribution after death appears distant and unreal and is comparatively little thought of by the majority of people who believe in it. Moreover, there seems always to be time left for penance and repentance. Manzoni himself admitted, in his defence of Roman Catholicism, that many people think it an easy matter to procure that feeling of contrition by which, according to the doctrine of the Church, sins may be cancelled, and therefore encourage themselves in the commission of crime through the facility of pardon. The frequent assumption that the moral law would hardly command obedience without the belief in retribution beyond the grave is contradicted by an overwhelming array of facts. We hear from trustworthy witnesses that unadulterated savages follow their own rules of morality no less strictly, or perhaps more strictly, than civilised people follow theirs. Nay, it is a common experience that contact with a higher civilisation exercises a deteriorating influence upon the conduct of uncultered races, although we may be sure that Christian missionaries do not fail to impart the doctrine of hell to their savage converts.

It has also been noticed that a high degree of religious devotion is frequently accompanied by great laxity of morals. Of the Bedouins Mr. Blunt writes that, with one or two exceptions, "the practice of religion may be taken as the sure index of low morality in a tribe." Wallin, who had an intimate and extensive knowledge of Muhammedan peoples, often found that those Muslims who attended to their prayers most regularly were the greatest scoundrels.2 "One of the most remarkable traits

1 Mr. Blunt, in Lady Anne Blunt's Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, ii. 217.

2 Wallin, Reseanteckningar från Orienten, iii. 166.

4

3

in the character of the Copts," says Lane, "is their bigotry"; and at the same time they are represented as deceitful, faithless, and abandoned to the pursuit of worldly gain, and to indulgence in sensual pleasure." Among two hundred Italian murderers Ferri did not find one who was irreligious; and Naples, which has the worst record of any European city for crimes against the person, is also the most religious city in Europe." On the other hand, according to Dr. Havelock Ellis, "it seems extremely rare to find intelligently irreligious men in prison" and Laing, who himself was anything but sceptical, observed that there was no country in Europe where there was so much morality and so little religion as Switzerland. Most religions contain an element which constitutes a real peril to the morality of their votaries. They have introduced a new kind of duties duties towards gods; and, as we have noticed above, even where religion has entered into close union with worldly morality, much greater importance has been attached to ceremonies or worship or the niceties of belief than to good behaviour towards fellow men. People think that they may make up for lack of the latter by orthodoxy or pious performances. A Christian bishop of the seventh century, who was canonised by the Church of Rome, described a good Christian as a man "who comes frequently to church; who presents the oblation which is offered to God upon the altar; who doth not taste of the fruits of his own industry until he has consecrated a part of them to God; who, when the holy festivals approach, lives chastely even with his own wife during several days, that with a safe conscience he may draw near the altar of God; and who, in the last place, can repeat the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. A scrupulous observance of external ceremonies that is all which in this description is required

95

1 Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, p. 551.

2 Havelock Ellis, The Criminal, p. 156.

3 Ibid. p. 159.

Laing, Notes of a Traveller, pp. 323, 324, 333.

Robertson, History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V. i. 282 sq.

of a good Christian And since then popular ideas on the subject have undergone but little change. Smollett observes in his Travels into Italy' that it is held more infamous to transgress the slightest ceremonial institution of the Church of Rome than to transgress any moral duty; that a murderer or adulterer will be easily absolved by the Church, and even maintain his character in society; but that a man who eats a pigeon on a Saturday is abhorred as a monster of reprobation. In the nineteenth century Simonde de Sismondi could write:-"Plus chaque homme. vicieux a été régulier à observer les commandemens de l'Eglise, plus il se sent dans son cœur dispensé de l'observation de cette morale céleste, à laquelle il faudroit sacrifier ses penchans dépravés."2 And how many a Protestant does not imagine that by going to church on Sundays he can sin more freely on the six days between.

It should also be remembered that the religious sanction of moral rules only too often leads to an external observance of these rules from purely selfish motives. Christianity itself has, essentially, been regarded as a means of gaining a blessed hereafter. As for its influence upon the moral life of its adherents I agree with Professor Hobhouse that its chief strength lies not. in its abstract doctrines but in the simple personal following of Christ.3 In moral education example plays a more important part than precept. But even in this respect Christianity has unfortunately little reason to boast of its achievements.

3

in the character of the Copts," says Lane, "is their bigotry"; and at the same time they are represented as deceitful, faithless, and abandoned to the pursuit of worldly gain, and to indulgence in sensual pleasure." Among two hundred Italian murderers Ferri did not find one who was irreligious; and Naples, which has the worst record of any European city for crimes against the person, is also the most religious city in Europe. On the other hand, according to Dr. Havelock Ellis, "it seems extremely rare to find intelligently irreligious men in prison": and Laing, who himself was anything but sceptical, observed that there was no country in Europe where there was so much morality and so little religion as Switzerland. 4 Most religions contain an element which constitutes a real peril to the morality of their votaries. They have introduced a new kind of duties duties towards gods; and, as we have noticed above, even where religion has entered into close union with worldly morality, much greater importance has been attached to ceremonies or worship or the niceties of belief than to good behaviour towards fellow men. People think that they may make up for lack of the latter by orthodoxy or pious performances. A Christian bishop of the seventh century, who was canonised by the Church of Rome, described a good Christian as a man "who comes frequently to church; who presents the oblation which is offered to God upon the altar; who doth not taste of the fruits of his own industry until he has consecrated a part of them to God; who, when the holy festivals approach, lives chastely even with his own wife during several days, that with a safe conscience he may draw near the altar of God; and who, in the last place, can repeat the Creed and the Lord's Prayer.". A scrupulous observance of external ceremonies-that is all which in this description is required

1 Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, p. 551.

2 Havelock Ellis, The Criminal, p. 156.

3 Ibid. p. 159.

Laing, Notes of a Traveller, pp. 323, 324, 333.

5 Robertson, History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V. i. 282 sq.