20 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
how they may all become hallowed by religion, accepted as cus- tom, and enforced by law. Persons who are born under their various rules live under them without any objection. They are unconscious of their restrictions, as we are unaware of the ten- sion of the atmosphere. The subservience of civilized races to their several religious superstitions, customs, authority, and the rest is frequently as abject as that of barbarians. The same classes of motives that direct other races, direct ours; so a knowledge of their customs helps us to realize the wide range of what we may ourselves hereafter adopt, for reasons as satis- factory to us in those future times as theirs are or were to them at the time when they prevailed.
Reference has frequently been made to the probability of eugenics hereafter receiving the sanction of religion. It may be asked : How can it be shown that eugenics fall within the purview of our own? It cannot, any more than the duty of making provision for the future needs of oneself and family, which is a cardinal feature of modern civilization, can be deduced form the Sermon on the Mount. Religious precepts, founded on the ethics and practice of olden days, require to be reinter- preted to make them conform to the needs of progressive nations. Ours are already so far behind modern requirements that much of our practice and our profession cannot be reconciled without illegitimate casuistry. It seems to me that few things are more needed by us in England than a revision of our religion, to adapt it to the intelligence and needs of the present time. A form of it is wanted that shall be founded on reasonable bases, and enforced by reasonable hopes and fears, and that preaches honest morals in unambiguous language, which good men who take their part in the work of the world, and who know the dangers of sentimentalism, may pursue without reservation.
II. STUDIES IN NATIONAL EUGENICS
It was stated in the Times, January 26, 1905, that at a meeting of the Senate of the University of London, Mr. Edgar Schuster, M.A., of New College, Oxford, was appointed to the Francis Galton Research Fellowship in National Eugenics.
