As a matter of historical comparison the irreligion of our time is often exaggerated. Any reader of history may perceive that formalism, materialism and infidelity have flourished in all epochs, and as regards America we are assured by Mr. Bryce that Christianity influences conduct more here than in any other modern country, and far more than in the so-called ages of faith.[166] In fact it is just because this age is Christian in its aspirations that we hear so much of the inadequacy of the church. People are taking religion seriously and demanding true function in its instruments. The church is possibly moving toward a differentiated unity, in which the common element will be mainly sentiment—such sentiments as justice, kindness, liberty and service. These are sufficient for good-will and coöperation, and leave room for all the differentiation of ideas and methods that the diversity of life requires. With whatever faults the church is one of the great achievements of civilization. Like the body of science or our system of transportation and manufacture, it is the cumulative outcome of human invention and endeavor, and is probably in no more danger of perishing than these are. If certain parts of it break up we shall no doubt find that their sound materials are incorporated into new structures. FOOTNOTES: [162] Confessions, book i, chap. 16. [163] See his life by H. F. Brown, _passim_. [164] J. R. Lowell, The Cathedral. [165] _Ibid._ [166] The American Commonwealth, chap. 80. CHAPTER XXXIII DISORGANIZATION: OTHER TRADITIONS DISORDER IN THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM—IN EDUCATION—IN HIGHER CULTURE——IN THE FINE ARTS. This same idea, of confusion and inefficiency in social functions arising from the breaking up of old structures, might find illustration in almost any phase of life which one might choose to investigate. The economic system, for example, is in a state somewhat analogous to that of the family and the church, and indeed the “industrial revolution” is the chief seat of those phases of decay and reconstruction which most affect the daily life of the people. Location itself—to begin with man’s attachment to the soil—has been so widely disturbed that possibly a majority of the people of the civilized world are of recent migratory origin; they themselves or their parents having moved from one land to another or from country to city. With this goes a severing of traditions and a mixture of ideas and races.