urch and the State,
and which is squarely affirmed in the proposition above mentioned, is
this: Men and Women do not wish nor do they need a Spiritual Society to
teach them what to believe, nor a Political Society to teach them what
to do. If they are simply left alone, they will thrive well enough. An
Ecclesiastical Organization is not only useless, but positively
injurious; it is a decided hinderance to the progress of humanity; and
the same is true of a Civil Organization, except in so far as it serves
the purpose of protection to person and property.

It is intended to show in this article the erroneousness of this
doctrine; to point out that Religious and Political Institutions have,
in the past, been great aids to human advancement; that they are still
so; and will be in the future. In this manner we shall meet the
arguments of those who regard such institutions as having always been
unnecessary and a hinderance; and of those who, while considering them
as essential in the past, believe that they are now becoming obsolete,
are detrimental to the cause of human progress, and in the future to be
wholly dispensed with.

Mankind in its entirety resembles a pyramid. At the base are the
ignorant and superstitious nations of the earth, comprising the great
majority of its inhabitants. A step higher includes the next greatest
number of nations, in which the people are less ignorant and less
degraded, but still very low as respects organization and culture. So,
as we rise in the scale of national development, the lines of inclusion
continually narrow, until we reach the apex, occupied by the most
advanced nation or nations.

That which is true of nations is so of classes and of individuals
composing classes. Every community has its natural aristocracy, its
superior men and women. These constitute the top of the pyramid of
Society; and comprise those in whom intellectual powers, moral purposes,
and practical capacities are most highly developed and combined. Below
them comes the somewhat larger body of persons who are less endowed in
respect to the qualities just enumerated. Below these comes, in turn,
the still greater congregation who are still less gifted; and so on, the
number increasing as the range of general capacity decreases, until we
reach the layer which embodies the great mass of Society; who, though
measurably affectionate, well-intentioned, and docile, are ignorant,
superstitious, and simple minded, wanting