The coming of tolerance between any two groups, then, means that these two have been included, in the minds of their own members, as parts of a larger, more inclusive body to which they both owe loyalty. Such a tolerance between the nations of the world, now so ready to make war at the slightest provocation, would imply an international or a supernational loyalty, a genuine brotherhood of man, and a real fatherhood of God. Tolerance means that intelligence has made inroads into the old habit of following the group custom blindly through thick and thin. It means that sympathy has succeeded hatred, that suspicion has given way to brotherhood and love. Tolerance is the supreme challenge to the authority of the group to master the thinking man. Treachery to one’s own nation or faith is no such challenge, for that simply means that the traitor preferred another rule and another standard to the one in which he was born. But tolerance is the challenge; it serves notice that no absolute authority, no ancient usage of hatred or bigotry, no instinct to fear the stranger, can forever dominate. There is a fine summary of this whole question in “The Group Mind” by Professor William MacDougall of Harvard. Dr. MacDougall says of the modern world:[59] Instead of maintaining universal intolerance, we have made great strides toward universal tolerance.... The religious tolerance and liberty of the modern era are features of the general increase of tolerance and liberty, and must be ascribed to the same causes as this wider fact. For long ages men have felt sympathy and given considerate and just treatment to those who have been nearest to them; at first, to the members of their own immediate family; later to the fellow-members of their own small society; and then, as societies expanded into complex caste societies, to the members of their own caste; later, as castes were broken down, to all their fellow citizens; and later still in some degree to all men. And he concludes the examination of the subject by saying: The coming of religious toleration was due to the application of the spirit of inquiry to religious systems; these inquiries produced irreconcilable sects, whose strife prepared the way for compromise and toleration. 5.