The name is absent

IV

RELIGION

At first sight it may seem strange to include religion in the
factors which go to the making of the citizen on this conti-
nent. In the United States there is no official recognition by
the State of any Church or Churches. The Law acknowl-
edges their right to frame and modify their creed and to
hold property on that basis, but the process of seculariza-
tion has gone so far that in state schools and universities
even rudimentary instruction in subjects dealing with re-
ligion is not permitted. There are curious inconsistencies,
as, for example, that official gatherings of state institutions
are often opened with prayer, though their youth are kept
insulated from official religious influence. On the other
hand it might be maintained with some reason that organ-
ized religion is actually more potent in America than in
Europe, and that except in a few countries secularization has
gone further there than here. That religion has always
been and still is a strong factor in the life of the American
people cannot be denied, especially in the sections deriving
from the original stocks, though many of the descendants
of later immigrations also have remained as true to the
religions which their fathers brought with them as have
those left behind in Europe.

Reviewing civilization as a whole it may be concluded that
Religion, if not an essential element in it, has been a very
common one ; and that hitherto it has almost always entered
into the culture of any people that has been profound and

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