Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/165

 by the use of his conscious faculties may contribute, such a religion is gradually but certainly growing, not only among the sensitive and intellectual minorities of each people, but as a pervasive and as yet half-conscious motive in the minds of the many. This may seem a doubtful statement and perhaps inconsistent with the dominance attributed to the lighter interests, but I hold it to be supported by the widespread and various aspects of the humanist movement. Though this movement may appear to be eclipsed temporarily by a brutalitarian movement in some European countries, a wider survey of the past few centuries will show a remarkable development of man’s concern for his neighbours’ welfare and an expansion of the term neighbour, checked but not lastingly defeated by the appeals of Nationalism.

Although the more definitely philosophic aspect of religion concerned with man’s place in the Universe may not seem to be making a corresponding advance, that is because of the too conventional view of philosophy. Popular education to-day, not so much in the schools as in the general experiences of life, is rapidly transforming the ordinary man’s view of man, both in relation to other animals and to his general physical and moral environment. Man no longer stands alone, separate in structure and in vital qualities from his surroundings: he is simply the highest present product of powers which permeate the universe and inspire in various combinations and