sts of all
religions have been, throughout all the phases of history, the most
potent allies of the ruling classes in keeping the masses pliant and
submissive under the yoke by means of the enchantment of religion, just
as the tamer keeps wild beasts submissive by the terrors of the cracks
of his whip.

And this is so true that the most clear-sighted conservatives, even
though they are atheists, regret that the religious sentiment--that
precious narcotic--is diminishing among the masses, because they see in
it, though their pharisaism does not permit them to say it openly, an
instrument of political domination.[34]

Unfortunately, or fortunately, the religious sentiment cannot be
re-established by royal decree. If it is disappearing, the blame for
this cannot be laid at the door of any particular individual, and there
is no need of a special propaganda against it, because its antidote
impregnates the air we breathe--saturated with the inductions of
experimental science--and religion no longer meets with conditions
favorable to its development as it did amid the superstitious ignorance
of past centuries.

I have thus shown the direct influence of modern science, science based
on observation and experiment,--which has substituted the idea of
natural causality for the ideas of miracle and divinity,--on the
extremely rapid development and on the experimental foundation of
contemporary socialism.

Democratic socialism does not look with unfriendly eyes upon "Catholic
Socialism" (the Christian Socialism of Southern Europe), since it has
nothing to fear from it.

Catholic socialism, in fact, aids in the propagation of socialist ideas,
especially in the rural districts where religious faith and practices
are still very vigorous, but it will not win and wear the palm of
victory _ad majorem dei gloriam_. As I have shown, there is a growing
antagonism between science and religion, and the socialist varnish
cannot preserve Catholicism. The "earthly" socialism has, moreover, a
much greater attractive power.

When the peasants shall have become familiar with the views of Catholic
socialism, it will be very easy for democratic socialism to rally them
under its own flag--they will, indeed, convert themselves.

Socialism occupies an analogous position with regard to republicanism.
Just as atheism is a private affair which concerns the individual
conscience, so a republican form of government is a private affair which
interests