evotional
life of the South is the lower industrial development of that section.
The industrial organization of the South is at present, and especially
it has been until quite recently, of a more primitive character than
that of the American community taken as a whole. It approaches nearer
to handicraft, in the paucity and rudeness of its mechanical appliances,
and there is more of the element of mastery and subservience. It may
also be noted that, owing to the peculiar economic circumstances of this
section, the greater devoutness of the Southern population, both white
and black, is correlated with a scheme of life which in many ways
recalls the barbarian stages of industrial development. Among this
population offenses of an archaic character also are and have been
relatively more prevalent and are less deprecated than they are
elsewhere; as, for example, duels, brawls, feuds, drunkenness,
horse-racing, cock-fighting, gambling, male sexual incontinence
(evidenced by the considerable number of mulattoes). There is also a
livelier sense of honor--an expression of sportsmanship and a derivative
of predatory life.

As regards the wealthier class of the North, the American leisure class
in the best sense of the term, it is, to begin with, scarcely possible
to speak of an hereditary devotional attitude. This class is of too
recent growth to be possessed of a well-formed transmitted habit in this
respect, or even of a special home-grown tradition. Still, it may be
noted in passing that there is a perceptible tendency among this class
to give in at least a nominal, and apparently something of a real,
adherence to some one of the accredited creeds. Also, weddings,
funerals, and the like honorific events among this class are
pretty uniformly solemnized with some especial degree of religious
circumstance. It is impossible to say how far this adherence to a creed
is a bona fide reversion to a devout habit of mind, and how far it is to
be classed as a case of protective mimicry assumed for the purpose of
an outward assimilation to canons of reputability borrowed from foreign
ideals. Something of a substantial devotional propensity seems to
be present, to judge especially by the somewhat peculiar degree of
ritualistic observance which is in process of development in the
upper-class cults. There is a tendency perceptible among the upper-class
worshippers to affiliate themselves with those cults which lay
relatively great stress on c