his is the conception at the base of all theocracies, forms of
government whose statutes are identified with the precepts of religion.
Instead of a constitution there is the Law, given and sanctioned by God
as a rule of action.

The Law is at first the Myth applied. Its object is as much to
propitiate the gods as to preserve social order. It is absolute because
it is inspired. Many of its ordinances as drawn from the myth are
inapplicable to man, and are unjust or frivolous. Yet such as it is, it
rules the conduct of the commonwealth and expresses the ideal of its
perfected condition.

All the oldest codes of laws are religious, and are alleged revelations.
The Pentateuch, the Avesta, the Laws of Manu, the Twelve Tables, the
Laws of Seleucus, all carry the endorsement, "And God said." Their real
intention is to teach the relation of man to God, rather than the
relations of man to man. On practical points--on the rights of property,
on succession and wills, on contracts, on the adoption of neighbors, and
on the treatment of enemies--they often violate the plainest dictates of
natural justice, of common humanity, even of family affection. Their
precepts are frequently frivolous, sometimes grossly immoral. But if
these laws are compared with the earliest myths and cults, and the
opinions then entertained of the gods, and how to propitiate them, it
becomes easy to see how the precepts of the law flowed from these
inchoate imaginings of the religious sentiment.[249-1]

The improvement of civil statutes did not come through religion.
Experience, observation and free thought taught man justice, and his
kindlier emotions were educated by the desire to cherish and preserve
which arose from family and social ties. As these came to be recognized
as necessary relations of society, religion appropriated them,
incorporated them into her ideal, and even claimed them as her
revelations. History largely invalidates this claim. The moral progress
of mankind has been mainly apart from dogmatic teachings, often in
conflict with them. An established rule of faith may enforce obedience
to its statutes, but can never develop morals. "True virtue is
independent of every religion, and incompatible with any which is
accepted on authority."[249-2]

Yet thinkers, even the best of them, appear to have had difficulty in
discerning any nobler arena for the religious sentiment than the social
one. "Religion," says Matthew Arnold, "is conduct." It