Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/200



study of the effects of different religious systems on the human mind lends powerful support to the doctrine that nations and races differ mentally not so much in that which is inborn, as in that which is acquired. Obviously all that arises in the developing mind of a young human being in consequence of the inculcation by his progenitors of the beliefs, the morals, the ways of thinking, the motives for acting, &c., peculiar to any religious system, is acquired, not inborn; and therefore if the individuals of a group of nations which have a religion in common are mentally alike to one another, but mentally different from the individuals of another group of nations, which profess a different religion, the presumption is that their mental similarity to the individuals of the same group is due to the community in religion—i.e. in acquired traits—and their mental dissimilarity from the individuals of a different group to the difference in religion, especially when individuals of different religious groups are circumstanced more alike as regards the rest of the environment, than the individuals of the same group; or when individuals of the same race, but of a different religion, resemble mentally their co-religionists more than their compatriots. For instance, the presumption is, that the mental likenesses to one another, and mental unlikenesses to peoples of other religions which Mahomedans display, are due to the influence of their