Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/459

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SOCIAL CONTROL 445

it endures, will come to rest not on a special cosmogony, but rather on a transcendental interpretation of the course of things.

Such a shifting, if it comes, will close the warfare between religious philosophy and science. It is one thing to blur with legends and providential interferences the faithful picture of reality science is trying to achieve. It is quite another thing to let fall upon this picture the rose or violet light of religious idealism. The latter may call up an emotion-tone unknown to the white light of science, but it does not confuse proportions and relations.

In some such fashion may religion persist without getting in the way of truth. As its postulates become fewer in number and less concrete, they will cease to offer rivalry to the scien- tific account of the universe, and will become merely elements of a humanitarian faith. If the attenuation of belief proceeds still farther, control by religion passes over into control by ideals, which forms the subject of the next chapter.

EDWARD ALSWORTH Ross. STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA.