CHAPTER XXV FUTURE OF THE ANGLO-SAXON THE NEED FOR A PHYSICIAN AN ulcer in the physical body is caused by the presence of some foreign matter in the flesh, and under the operation of the natural laws the body works, by means of suppuration, to expel the intruder and to cleanse the system of impurities. From what I have said in the previous chapters it would appear that the operation of the natural laws in the social body is of a somewhat similar character and that nature is striving, blindly but persistently, to eject the foreign matter which has effected a lodgment in our social system. In the case of the physical body, science has enabled our surgeons to aid the operations of nature by opening the sore with his scalpel and cleansing it by means of deodorants, antiseptics, or disinfectants. In the case of the social body the scientific physician is forbidden to interfere, and we still trust to charlatans and empirics. In morals and politics, in fact, we are still in the empirical stage which precedes true science as the astrology and alchemy of the ancients preceded the astronomy and the chemistry of our race. That this state of public opinion can be only temporary must, I think, be apparent to even the most casual of observers, and the wisdom of opposing the necessary reforms is not apparent on the surface. In the meantime the natural laws are working persistently, continuously; for there is no rest, no sabbath, for the Creator and His laws; and the result will probably be far more radical in the end in consequence of our rebellion against these laws than it would be, if our race had been allowed to develop gradually and steadily as its characteristics were evolved. In fact every stage of opposition to the laws of nature carries with it its punishment, and the nature of this punishment of the Anglo-Saxon for his sins against the laws of his Maker, at the behest of a foreign power, may be seen in the great social and political evils with which he is afflicted. And the greatest of all the evils, the basis of all those gigantic sores from which the social body is suffering, is the ignorance of the Anglo-Saxon of himself and his science. When the Anglo-Saxon knows himself he will be able to regulate his conduct not by the laws of the Latin, but by laws congenial to the spirit of his race, and then his religion instead of being opposed to his science will be in conformity with it, will rest securely upon it, and there will be no more complaints that science and religion are at war with each other. EVOLUTION OF RELIGION If we study religion we find that it has been evolved in very much the same manner as language and other attributes of humanity, and the religion of the older races is based on, nay it is the highest expression of the science of the race. It is by means of his religion that the Latin for instance understands himself. A true Latin, that is, one who accepts the Roman Catholic faith without doubt, knows precisely what any Roman Catholic would do or think in any part of the world if he was placed in certain conditions. The whole branch of the race is consolidated by its religion. It must be apparent that none of the sects into which the Anglo-Saxon is divided fulfils this character even to that section which professes to believe in it. To the Roman Catholic the voice of the Pope is as the voice of God. It represents the vox populi, and is, therefore, the highest authority which men and women of the Latin race can recognise. The utterances of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, the Chairman of the Wesleyan Conference, or the head of any other of the sects into which Protestant Christianity is divided, have no such value, because these do not represent the science of the race to which they speak. This does not necessarily mean that there is no truth in Christianity. It merely means that it does not embody all that is true. Each of the religions of the older races, being based on the science of the race which formulated it, necessarily has a basis of truth. But as the science of an older race is improved upon by the superior intelligence of a younger race, both the science and the religion of that older race necessarily become childish and immature to the man of the younger race sooner or later as he develops his superior intellectual power. The student of the evolution of religion will find that in all cases the younger race, when it has passed beyond the religion it accepted from an older and more matured race during its infancy, has nevertheless incorporated much of the older religion in its new religion. Thus the Greeks and Romans when they formulated Christianity retained very much of the ancient paganism. Possibly this may be a clue to what is repugnant to the AngloSaxon in this religion. RELIGION TOO ELABORATE AND ARTIFICIAL That the Christianity of the present day is not satisfactory to the Anglo-Saxon is conclusively shown by the number of antagonistic sects into which it is divided. If the religion was based on the racial characteristics, as the Roman Catholic religion is based on the racial characteristics of the Latin, there could be no such divergence, no such sectarian antagonism, no such scandals as we find within the pale of some of the sects even at the present time. It has been said that there is too much "Churchianity and not enough Christianity" in our religion, and this seems to indicate that this religion is too elaborate, too artificial to satisfy the earnest Anglo-Saxon. This view is in accordance with what I have said of the social, the political, and the military systems of the Latin. The tendency of this race is to go to extremes, and this is instanced in its Church as well as in its laws and other institutions. We find in all these institutions a similar tendency to extravagance, superstition, artificiality, and imagination, which the leaders of thought who formulated the racial religion relied on to replace their lack of scientific knowledge. Hence it is that this older form of the religion is so radically opposed to the laws of nature, and is, therefore, the basis of the evils with which the AngloSaxon is afflicted. Of course the religion is productive of similar evils among the Latins themselves, but being based on the racial characteristics of the people it provides safety-valves which tend to minimise these evils. These do not exist in the Protestant Churches. Nevertheless, we find that even in Italy and Spain, where the Latin is purest, society is honeycombed with secret societies more or less in revolt against the restrictions imposed on them by their Church. How far these secret societies are due to a revolt among the Latins themselves-similar to that which caused the evolution of the Thugs of India-or to the Teutonising of the people, must be left for further inquiry. SOME COMPLEMENTARY EVILS If it is true that the religion, the social system, the laws and politics of to-day are too artificial and elaborate, and therefore too unnatural, the tendency should be towards simplification, and this seems to be what is taking place in all Anglo-Saxon countries though the process has been carried further in some of these countries than in others. The tendency is to eliminate extremes, to wipe out the complementary evils of celibacy and prostitution, to abolish the hereditary landlord and the hereditary pauper, to level upwards by the extension of education and other civilising agencies. In this work England is far less advanced than the United States, Canada, or Australia. Hence we find that, while there are great evils in these countries, they are not so firmly rooted in public opinion as they are in England. The English, in fact, cling tenaciously to the relics of feudalism, the remains of institutions once valuable but now deadly, and hence there is more hypocrisy in England than in other Anglo-Saxon countries. This is the natural consequence of perpetuating the shams and pretences which now represent the valuable institutions of a bygone past. It is absurd to pretend to believe, for instance, in two contradictory theories of the Creation. A theory of the Creation has been the basis of all the older religions, and such a theory must be the basis of the religions of our race; but we can only have one theory as the basis of our religion, and must, therefore, reject one of those now more or less accepted, and adhere strictly to the other; and it depends in our case on which one we accept, whether we belong to the new and superior race or to the old and inferior one. It is a break which has come in the lives of all races which have preceded us as dominant races. The Bible records the evolution of the Jew from the ophiolatry of his parent races to the worship of the Most High. The various branches of the Melanochroi-the Greeks, Latins, Armenians, etc.,—as we know, passed through a similar crisis some ten hundred to eighteen hundred years ago. And when we realise how important the issues which now present themselves for consideration |