ved that the middle class, commonly so called, is also
falling away in the cordiality of its support of the church, especially
so far as regards the adult male portion of that class. These are
currently recognized phenomena, and it might seem that a simple
reference to these facts should sufficiently substantiate the general
position outlined. Such an appeal to the general phenomena of popular
church attendance and church membership may be sufficiently convincing
for the proposition here advanced. But it will still be to the purpose
to trace in some detail the course of events and the particular forces
which have wrought this change in the spiritual attitude of the more
advanced industrial communities of today. It will serve to illustrate
the manner in which economic causes work towards a secularization of
men's habits of thought. In this respect the American community should
afford an exceptionally convincing illustration, since this community
has been the least trammelled by external circumstances of any equally
important industrial aggregate.

After making due allowance for exceptions and sporadic departures from
the normal, the situation here at the present time may be summarized
quite briefly. As a general rule the classes that are low in economic
efficiency, or in intelligence, or both, are peculiarly devout--as, for
instance, the Negro population of the South, much of the lower-class
foreign population, much of the rural population, especially in those
sections which are backward in education, in the stage of development of
their industry, or in respect of their industrial contact with the rest
of the community. So also such fragments as we possess of a specialized
or hereditary indigent class, or of a segregated criminal or dissolute
class; although among these latter the devout habit of mind is apt to
take the form of a naive animistic belief in luck and in the efficacy of
shamanistic practices perhaps more frequently than it takes the form of
a formal adherence to any accredited creed. The artisan class, on
the other hand, is notoriously falling away from the accredited
anthropomorphic creeds and from all devout observances. This class is
in an especial degree exposed to the characteristic intellectual and
spiritual stress of modern organized industry, which requires a constant
recognition of the undisguised phenomena of impersonal, matter-of-fact
sequence and an unreserved conformity to the law of cause and ef