ideas which compose the bulk of Christian doctrine: “‘That dog is mine,’ say these poor children; ‘that place there is my place in the sun.’ Behold the beginning and the type of the usurpation of the earth.” When “these poor children” are men, they do not always view the usurpation of the earth with resignation; from the Middle Ages down they have, from time to time, risen in revolt and there have been resulting massacres. Men like Pastoureaux and Jacques in France and Wat Tyler in England, the anabaptists and John of Leyden in Germany, are examples of what we mean. But, these great explosions of popular clamour once at an end, the Christian priest had always at his disposal, to subdue the crowd, a robust doctrine of compensation in heaven for one’s sufferings on earth; all the beatitudes are summed up in “Blessed are the poor, for they shall see God.” In our days, owing to the progress of the natural sciences, anything like certitude on the subject of compensation in heaven has disappeared; even the Christian, less sure of Paradise, aspires to see the justice and compensations of heaven realized in this world. The most durable element in Christianity is, therefore, less the check that it imposes upon the masses than the contempt for the established order with which it inspires them. Religion is nowadays obliged to call in social science to aid it in its struggle against socialism. The true principle of private property as of social authority cannot be religious; it lies essentially in the sentiment of the rights of other people and in an increasingly scientific acquaintance with the conditions of social and political life. [74] _Acts_ ii. 44, 45; iv. 32, sqq. [75] Tertull. _Apolog._ c. 39, Justin., _Apolog._ I, 14. [Sidenote: Religion not necessary to morality.]