ech of this import
are used with good effect even in addressing the less warlike modern
audiences, made up of adherents of the blander variants of the creed.
This effective use of barbarian epithets and terms of comparison by
popular speakers argues that the modern generation has retained a lively
appreciation of the dignity and merit of the barbarian virtues; and
it argues also that there is a degree of congruity between the devout
attitude and the predatory habit of mind. It is only on second thought,
if at all, that the devout fancy of modern worshippers revolts at the
imputation of ferocious and vengeful emotions and actions to the object
of their adoration. It is a matter of common observation that sanguinary
epithets applied to the divinity have a high aesthetic and honorific
value in the popular apprehension. That is to say, suggestions
which these epithets carry are very acceptable to our unreflecting
apprehension.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

The guiding habits of thought of a devout person move on the plane of an
archaic scheme of life which has outlived much of its usefulness for the
economic exigencies of the collective life of today. In so far as the
economic organization fits the exigencies of the collective life of
today, it has outlived the regime of status, and has no use and no place
for a relation of personal subserviency. So far as concerns the economic
efficiency of the community, the sentiment of personal fealty, and the
general habit of mind of which that sentiment is an expression, are
survivals which cumber the ground and hinder an adequate adjustment of
human institutions to the existing situation. The habit of mind which
best lends itself to the purposes of a peaceable, industrial community,
is that matter-of-fact temper which recognizes the value of material
facts simply as opaque items in the mechanical sequence. It is
that frame of mind which does not instinctively impute an animistic
propensity to things, nor resort to preternatural intervention as an
explanation of perplexing phenomena, nor depend on an unseen hand to
shape the course of events to human use. To meet the requirements of the
highest economic efficiency under modern conditions, the world process
must habitually be apprehended