WHAT IS RELIGION? 323
the eagerness with which those in authority retain con- trol of that motive power — by means of which the rulers lord it over the masses — and the advanced men will understand to what they must direct their efforts in order to friee the people from its slavery.
^V'hat does the Sultan of Turkey guard, and to what does he cling for support ? And why does the Russian Emperor, on arriving at a town, go first thing to kiss an icon or the relics of some saint ? And why, in spite of all the varnish of culture he so prides himself on, does the German Emperor in all his speeches — season- ably or unseasonably — speak of God, of Christ, of the sanctity of religion, of oaths, etc. ? Simply because they all know that their power rests on the army, and that the army — the very possibility of such a thing as an army existing — rests on religion. And if wealthy people are generally particularly devout : making a show of believing, going to Church, and observing the Sabbath — it is all done chiefly because an instinct of self-preservation warns them that their exceptionally advantageous position in the community is bound up with the religion they profess.
These people often do not know in what way their privileges rest on religious deception, but their instinct of self-preservation warns them of the weak spot in that on which their power rests, and they first of all defend that place. Within certain limits these people always allow, and have allowed, socialistic and even re- volutionary propaganda ; but the foundations of religion they never allow to be touched.
And therefore, if history and psychology do not suffice to enable the advanced men of to-day — the learned, the Liberals, the Socialists, the Revolutionists and Anarchists — to discover what it is that moves the people, this visible indication should suffice to convince them that the motive power lies, not in material con- ditions, but only in religion.
Yet, strange to say, the learned, advanced people of to-day, who understand and discuss the conditions of life of various nations very acutely, do not see wliat is
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