Our knowledge of him is very incomplete, but may be valid as far as it extends.  And it would seem to be valid, for it has been tested by ages of experiment.  The results of this grand experiment have been summed up in man’s fundamental religious beliefs.  And farther knowledge will be gained by more complete obedience to the requirements already known.  The evidence, that these fundamental religious beliefs will persist, is of the same character as that upon which rests our belief in the persistence of cells and tissues.  The one is rooted in the structure of our minds; the other, in the structure of our bodies.  But, after all, only will can act upon will, and personality upon personality.  It remains for us to examine how man was compelled by his very structure to develop a new element in his environment, conformed indeed to the laws of his old environment, but better fitted to draw out the moral and spiritual side of his nature.  And in connection with this study we may hope to gain some new light on the laws of conformity.

CHAPTER VII

CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT

We are too prone to think that soil and climate, hill-side or plain, mountain and shore, temperature and rainfall, constitute the sole or the most important elements in human environment.  Every one of these elements is doubtless important.  Frost, drought, or barrenness of soil may make a region a desert, or dwarf the development of its inhabitants.  Mountaineer, and the dweller on the plain, and the fisherman on the shore of the ocean develop different traits through the influence of their surroundings.  In too warm a climate the human race loses its mental and moral vigor and degenerates.  This is undeniable.

But, though one soil and climate and set of physical surroundings may be more conducive than another to the development of heroism, truthfulness, unselfishness, and righteousness, no one is essential to their production or sure to give rise to them.  Moral and religious character is a feature of man’s personality, and our personality is moulded mainly by the men and women with whom we associate.  A man is not only “known by the company which he keeps;” he is usually fashioned by and conforms to it.  As President Seelye has well said, “The only motive which can move a will is either a will itself, or something into which a will enters.  It is not a thought, but only a sentiment, a deed, or a person, by which we become truly inspired.  It is not the intellect, but the heart and will, through which and by which we are controlled.  It is not the precepts of life, but life itself, by which alone we are begotten and born unto life.

“Now, there are two ways in which living power, personal power, the power of a will, may enter a soul and give it life; the one is when God’s will works upon us, and the other when our wills work upon one another.  God’s will may directly penetrate ours, enabling us to will and to do of his good pleasure; and our own wills, thus inspired, may be the torch to kindle other wills with the same inspiration.  It is in only one of these two ways that a human soul can be truly inspired; and, without a true inspiration, no amount of instruction, whether in duty, or life, or anything else, will change a single moral propensity."[A]