AN INTERPRETATION OF RUDOLF EUCKEN'S PHILOSOPHY By W. TUDOR JONES, Ph. D. (Jena) LONDON 1912 * * * * * [Greek: Hara ohyn, hadelphoi, hopheiletai hesmen, ou tê sarki tou kata sarka zên, ei gar kata sarka zête meggete hapothnêskein, ehi de pneumati tas praxeis tou sômatos thanatoute zêsesthe. Hosoi gar pneumati theou hagontai, outoi uioi theou ehisin. ]--St. Paul (Romans, viii. 12-14). * * * * * PREFACE [p. 7] The personality and works of Professor Rudolf Eucken are at the presentday exercising such a deep influence the world over that a volume by oneof his old pupils, which attempts to interpret his teaching, shouldprove of assistance. It is hoped that the essentials of Eucken'steaching are presented in this book, in a form which is as simple as thesubject-matter allows, and which will not necessitate the readerunlearning anything when he comes to the author's most important works. The whole of the work is expository; and an attempt has been made in thefoot-notes to point out aspects similar to those of Eucken's in Englishand German Philosophy. It is encouraging to find at the present day so much interest inreligious idealism, and it is proved by Eucken beyond the possibility ofdoubt that without some form of such idealism no individual or nationcan realise its deepest potencies. But with the presence of suchidealism as a conviction in the mind and life, history teaches us thatthe seemingly impossible [p. 8] is partially realised, and that a newdepth of life is reached. All this does not mean that the individual isto slacken his interests or to lose his affection for the materialaspects of life; but it does mean that the things which appertain tolife have different values, and that it is of the utmost importance tojudge them all from the highest conceivable standpoint--the standpointof spiritual life. This is Eucken's distinctive message to-day. Themessage shows that an actual evolution of spirit is taking place in thelife of the individual and of human society; and that this evolution canbe guided by means of the concentration of the whole being upon thereality of the norms and standards which present themselves in the livesof individuals and of nations. No one particular science or philosophyis able to grant us this central standpoint for viewing the field ofknowledge and the meaning of life. The answer to the complexity of theproblem of existence is to be found in something which gathers up undera larger and more significant meaning the results of knowledge and life. This volume will attempt to elucidate this all-important point ofview--a point of view which is so needful in our days of specialisationand of material interests. It may be, and Eucken and his followersbelieve it is, that the destiny of the nations of the world depends inthe last resort upon a conception and conviction of [p. 9] the reality ofa life deeper than that of sense or intellect, although both these maybecome tributaries (and not hindrances) to such a spiritual life. I have to thank Professor Eucken himself for allowing me access tomaterial hitherto unpublished, and for encouraging me in the work. I ambold enough to be confident that could I say half of what our reveredteacher has meant for me and for hundreds of others of his old pupils, this volume would be the means of helping many who are drifting fromtheir old moorings to find an anchorage in a spiritual world. W. TUDOR JONES. Highbury, London, N. , _November_ 1, 1912. * * * * * CONTENTS Preface 7 1. Introduction 13 2. Religion and Evolution 26 3. Religion and Natural Science 57 4. Religion and History 70 5. Religion and Psychology 87 6. Religion and Society 108 7. Religion and Art 119 8. Universal Religion 128 9. Characteristic Religion 151 10. The Historical Religions 166 11. Christianity 180 12. Present-Day Aspects of Philosophy and Religion 206 13. Eucken's Personality and Influence 227 14. Conclusion 236 List of Eucken's Works 245 Index 249 * * * * * AN INTERPRETATION OF RUDOLF EUCKEN'S PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION [p. 13] Rudolf Eucken was born at Aurich, East Frisia, on the 5th of January1846. He lost his father when quite a child. His mother, the daughter ofa Liberal clergyman, was a woman of deep religious experience and ofrich intellectual gifts. When quite a boy he came at school under theinfluence of the theologian Reuter, a man of wonderful fascination toyoung men. The questions of religion and the need of religiousexperience interested Eucken early, and these have never parted from himduring the long years which have since passed away. At an early age he entered the University of Göttingen and attended thephilosophical classes of Hermann Lotze. Lotze interested him inphilosophical problems, but did not [p. 14] satisfy the burning desirefor religious experience which was in the young man's soul. Lotze lookedat religion and all else from the intellectual point of view. His mainbusiness was to discover proofs for the things of the spirit, and thevalue of his work in this direction cannot be over-estimated. HermannLotze's works are with us to-day; and he has probably made moreimportant contributions to philosophy and religion from the scientificside than any other writer of the latter half of the nineteenth century. But he seems to have been a man who was inclined to conceive of realityas something which had value only in so far as it was _known_, and leftvery largely out of account the inchoate stirrings and aspirations whichare found at a deeper level within the human soul than the _knowing_level. Life is larger and deeper than logic, and is something, despiteall our efforts, which resists being reduced to logical propositions. Itis quite easy to understand how a young man of Eucken's temperament andtraining should acquiesce in all the logical treatment of Lotze'sphilosophy, and still find that _more_ was to be obtained from othersources which had quenched the thirst of the great men of the past. When Eucken entered the University of Berlin he came into contact with ateacher who helped him immensely in the quest for religion, and in theinterpretation of religion as the [p. 15] issue of that quest. AdolfTrendelenburg was a great teacher as well as a noble idealist, and hisinfluence upon young Eucken was very great. Indeed, it seems thatTrendelenburg's influence was great on the life of every young man whowas fortunate enough to come into contact with him. The late ProfessorPaulsen, in his beautiful autobiography, _Aus meinem Leben_ (1909), presents us with a vivid picture of Trendelenburg and his work. Underhim the pupils came into close touch not only with the _meaning_ butalso with the _spirit_ of Plato and Aristotle. The pupils were made tosee the ideal life in all its charm and glory. The great Professor hadall his lifetime lived and meditated in this pure atmosphere, andpossessed the gift of infusing something of his own enthusiasm into theminds and spirits of his hearers. Eucken has stated on several occasionshis indebtedness to Trendelenburg. The young student entered the templeof philosophy through the gateways of philology and history. This was agreat gain, for the barricading of these two gateways against philosophyhas produced untold mischief in the past. At present men are beginningto see this mistake, and we are witnessing to-day the phenomenon of theindissoluble connection of language and history with philosophy. Infact, the new meanings given to language and history are meanings ofthings which happened in the [p. 16] culture and civilisations ofindividuals and of nations, and such a material casts light on theprocesses, meaning, and significance of the human mind and spirit. Eucken learnt this truth in Berlin at a very early age, and his life andteaching ever since have been a further development of it. This fact hasto be borne in mind in order that we may understand the prominence hegives to religion, religious idealism, spiritual life, and other similarconcepts--concepts which are largely foreign to ordinary philosophy andwhich are only to be found in that mysterious, all-important borderlandof philosophy and religion. After graduating as Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Göttingen, we find him preparing himself as a High School teacher, in whichposition he remained for five years. In 1871 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy in the University ofBasel. In 1874 he received a "call" to succeed the late Kuno Fischer asProfessor of Philosophy in the renowned University of Jena. It is here, in the "little nest" of Goethe and Schiller, that Eucken has remained inspite of "calls" to universities situated in larger towns and carryingwith them larger salaries. It is fortunate for Jena that Eucken has thusdecided. He, along with his late colleague Otto Liebmann, has kept upthe philosophical tradition of Jena. In spite of modern developments andthe presence of [p. 17] new university buildings, Jena still remains anold-world place. To read the tablets on the walls of the old houses hasa fascination, and brings home the fact that in this small out-of-the-waytown large numbers of the most creative minds of Europe have studied andtaught. The traditions of Goethe and Schiller still linger around theold buildings and in the historical consciousness of the people. HereFichte taught his great idealism--an idealism which has meant so much inthe evolution of the Germany of the nineteenth century; here Hegel wasengaged on his great _Phenomenology of Spirit_ when Napoleon's armyentered the town; here Schopenhauer sent his great dissertation andreceived his doctor's degree _in absentia_; here too, the Kantianphilosophy found friends who started it on its "grand triumphantmarch"--a philosophy which raised new problems which have been with usever since, and which gave a new method of approaching philosophicalquestions; here Schelling revived modern mysticism and attempted theconstruction of a great _Weltanschauung. _ But only a small portion ofthe greatness of Jena can be touched on. Eucken has nobly upheld thegreat traditions of the place, not only as a philosophical thinker butalso as a personality. What is the secret of Eucken's influence? It is due greatly, it is true, to his writings and their original contents, for it is not possible for[p. 18] a man to hide his inner being when he writes on the deepestquestions concerning life and death. A great deal of Eucken'spersonality may be discovered in his writings. Opening any page of hisbooks, one sees something unique, passionate, and somehow always deeperthan what may be confined within the limits of the understanding, andsomething which has to be lived in order to be understood. And to knowthe man is to realise this in a fuller measure than his writings canever show. He has to be seen and heard before the real significance ofhis message becomes clear. His personality attracts men and women of allschools of thought, from all parts of the world, and they all feel thathis message of a reality which is beyond knowledge--though knowledgeforms an integral part of it--is a new revelation of the meaning of lifeand existence. Professor Windelband, in his _History of Philosophy_ andelsewhere, describes Eucken as the creator of a new Metaphysic--ametaphysic not of the Schools but of Life. This aspect will be discussedat fuller length in later pages, so that it may be passed over for thepresent. Eucken believes in the reality and necessity of his message. He is awarethat that message is contrary to the current terminology and meaning ofthe philosophy of our day. Some of his great constructive books werewritten as far back as 1888, and have remained, almost until our ownday, in a large measure unnoticed. [p. 19] The _Einheit des Geisteslebensin Bewusstsein und Tat der Menschheit_ is a case in point. It is one ofhis greatest books, and its value was not seen until the last few years. But the philosophy of the present day in Germany is tending more andmore in the direction of Eucken's. Writers such as the late Class andDilthey, Siebeck, Windelband, Münsterberg, Rickert, Volkelt, Troeltsch--naming but a small number of the idealistic thinkers of the present--are tending in the direction of the new Metaphysic presented by Euckenin the book already referred to as well as in the _Kampf um einengeistigen Lebensinhalt_. The philosophy of Germany at the present day is making several attemptsat a metaphysic of the universe. Much critical and constructive work hasbeen done during the past quarter of a century and is being done to-day. The attempts to construct systems of metaphysics may be witnessed on thesides of natural science and of philosophy. Haeckel, Ostwald, and Machhave each given the world a constructive system of thought. But thesethree systems have not, except in a secondary way, attempted ametaphysic of human life. Haeckel's system is mainly poetico-mythical, chiefly on the lines of some of the pre-Socratic philosophers. Ostwald'sattempt is to show the unity of nature and life through his principle ofEnergetics; and Mach's may be described as an inverted kind [p. 20] ofKantianism in regard to the problem of subject and object. None of these has attempted a reconstruction of philosophy from the sideof the content of consciousness; in fact, they all find theirexplanation of consciousness in connection with physical and organicphenomena observed on planes below those of the mental and ideal life ofman. Such work is necessary; but if it comes forward as a _complete_explanation of man, it is, as Eucken points out again and again, awretched caricature of life. To know the connection of consciousnesswith the organic and inorganic world is not to know consciousness inanything more than its history. It may have been similar to, or evenidentical with, physical manifestations of life, but it is not so _now_. Eucken admits entirely this fact of the history of mind; but the meaningof mind is to be discovered not so much in its _Whence_ as in itspresent potency and its _Whither_. [1] A philosophy of science is boundto recognise this difference, or else all its constructions canrepresent no more than a torso. Physical impressions enter intoconsciousness, [p. 21] and doubtless in important ways condition it, but they are _not physical_ once man becomes _conscious_ of them. A unionof subject and object has now taken place, and consequently a new beginning--a beginning which cannot be interpreted in terms of the things ofsense--starts on its course. This is Eucken's standpoint, and it is noother than the carrying farther of some of the important results Kantarrived at. This difference between the natural and the mental sciences has beenemphasised, at various times, since the time of Plato. But thedifference tended to become obliterated through the discoveries ofnatural science and its great influence during the latter half of thenineteenth century. The key of evolution had come at last into the handsof men, and it fitted so many closed doors; it provided an entrance to anew kind of world, and gave new methods for knowing that world. But, asalready stated, evolution is capable of dealing with what _is_ in thelight of what _was_, and the _Is_ and the _Was_ are the physicalcharacteristics of things. In all this, mind and morals, as they are intheir own intrinsic nature operating in the world, are left out ofaccount. A striking example of this is found in the late ProfessorHuxley's Romanes Lecture--_Evolution and Ethics_. In this remarkablelecture it is shown that the cosmic order does not answer all ourquestions, and is indifferent [p. 22] and even antagonistic to ourethical needs and ideals. Huxley's conclusion may be justly designatedas a failure of science to interpret the greatest things of life. Beforeculture, civilisation, and morality become possible, a new point ofdeparture has to take place within human consciousness, and the attemptto move in an ethical direction is as much hindered as helped by thenatural course of the physical universe. This lecture of Huxley's runsparallel in many ways with Eucken's differentiation of Nature andSpirit, and Huxley's "ethical life" has practically the same meaning asEucken's "spiritual life" on its lower levels. Numerous instances are to be found in the present-day philosophy ofGermany of the need of a Metaphysic of Life, and of the impossibility ofconstructing such from the standpoint of the results of the naturalsciences either singly or combined. Professor Rickert's investigations are having important effects in thisrespect. In his works he has made abundantly clear the differencebetween the methods and results of the sciences of Nature and thesciences of Mind. And even amongst the mental sciences themselves, all-important aspects of different subject-matters present themselves, and render themselves as of different _values_. Professor Münsterberg has worked on a similar path, and has insistedonce more on the nature of reality as this expresses itself in [p. 23] ameaning which is over-individual. Professor Windelband's writings (_cf. Präludien, Die Philosophie im XX. Jahrhundert_, etc. ) have emphasisedvery clearly the need of the presence and acknowledgment of norms inlife, and of the meaning of life realising itself in the fulfilment ofthese norms. [2] When we turn to the great neo-Kantian movement, we find alongside ofdiscussions concerning psychological questions important ethical aspectspresenting themselves. The works of the late Professor Otto Liebmann ofJena (_cf_ the last part of his _Analysis der Wirklichkeit_) and of thelate Professor Dilthey and Dr. G. Simmel point in the same direction. Professors Husserl, Lipps, and Vaihinger, as their most recent importantbooks show, work on lines which insist on bringing life as it is and asit ought to be into their systems. The same may be said of ProfessorWundt's works in so far as they present a constructive system. But the ground was fallow twenty-five years ago when some of Eucken'simportant works made their appearance. Even as late as 1896 he complainsof this in the preface of his _Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt_:"I am aware that the explanations offered in this [p. 24] volume will provethemselves to be in direct antagonism to the mental currents whichprevail to-day. "[3] He states that his standpoint is different from thatof the conventional and official idealism then in vogue. By this hemeans, on the one hand, the "absolute idealism" which constructedsystems entirely unconnected with science or experience--systems whoseAbsolute had no direct relationship with man, or which made no appeal toanything of a similar nature to itself in the deeper experience of thesoul; and, on the other hand, the degeneration of the neo-Kantianmovement to a mere description of the relations of bodily and mentalprocesses. Probably enough has been said to show that the idealistic systems ofGermany are tending more and more in the direction of a philosophy whichattempts to take into account not only the results of the physicalsciences and psychology, but also those of the norms of history and ofthe over-individual contents of consciousness. It has been stated by several critics in England, Germany, and America, that Eucken has ignored the results of physical science and psychology. This was partially true in the past, when his main object was to presenthis [p. 25] own metaphysic of life. The problems of science andpsychology had to take a secondary place, but it is incorrect to statethat these problems were ignored. It is remarkable how Eucken has kepthimself abreast of these results which are outside his own province. [4]But he has been all along conscious of the limitations of these resultsof natural science and psychology. The results fail to connote thephenomena of consciousness and its meaning. While Eucken has acceptedthese results, I have not seen any evidence that any of his conceptionsconcerning the main core of his teaching--the spiritual life--aredisproved by any of them. He shows us, as will be elucidated later, thatas sensations point in the direction of percepts, and percepts in thedirection of concepts, so concepts point in the direction of somethingwhich is beyond themselves. And as the meaning of reality reveals itselfthe more we pass along the mysterious transition from sensation toconcept, so a further meaning of reality is revealed when conceptssearch for a depth beyond themselves. This is the clue to Eucken'steaching in regard to spiritual life. It is a further development of thenature of man--a development beyond the empirical and the mental. Andthe object of the following chapters will be to show this from variouspoints of view. * * * * * CHAPTER II [p. 26] RELIGION AND EVOLUTION Eucken accepts gladly the theory of descent in Darwinism, but insiststhat the theory of selection must be clearly distinguished from it. He agrees with Edward von Hartmann that the doctrine of selection isinadequate to explain the phenomena of life. But, as he points out, there is much which is true and helpful in the theory of selectioneven in regard to human life. "In all quarters there is a widespreadinclination to go back to the simplest possible beginnings, whichexhibit man closely related to the animal world, to trace back theupward movement not to an inner impulse, but to a gradual forwardthrust produced by outward necessities, and to understand it as a mereadaptation to environment and the conditions of life. It seems to be amere question of natural existence, of victory in the struggle againstrivals. "[5] But he is not satisfied that such an explanation covers the[p. 27] phenomena of consciousness. If there were no more than this atwork in the higher forms of life, the things of value--the things whichhave meant so much in the upward development of humanity--would bereduced to mere adjuncts of physical existence. If mental and moralvalues mean no more than this, they are simply annihilated. But thevalues of life are something quite other than any physical manifestation;and however much they are conditioned by physical changes it isinconceivable that what is purely physical should be the sole cause ofthem. Man would never have risen so far above Nature, and become able tobe conscious of his own personality and of the meaning of the world, hadthere not been present from the very beginning some spiritual potencywhich could receive the impressions of the external world and bind themtogether into some kind of connected Whole. This connected Whole may beno more in the beginning than a potency without any content, and itsroots may be discerned in the world below man; but without such apotency, different in its nature from physical things, the whole meaningof the evolution of mind and spirit is utterly unintelligible. But whatcan this potency mean but something which includes within itself thegerm of that which later comes out in the form of the values which havebeen gained in the life of the individual and of the race? [p. 28] In order to understand Eucken's conceptions concerning Spirit, Whole, Totality, and other similar terms, this fact has to be borne inmind. The capacity for _more_ is present in man's nature. It may remaindormant in a large measure, but it is not entirely so, as witnessed bythe fact that men have scaled heights far above Nature and the ordinarylife of the day. And humanity, on the whole, has climbed to a height togive some degree of meaning to the life of the day--a meaning superiorto physical impressions, and which is able to see somewhat behind, around, and beyond itself. Wherever this happens, it comes about throughthe presence and activity of the life of the spirit within man. Thespiritual life is, then, a possession of man, but it is a possessiononly in so far as it is used. It is subject to helps and hindrances fromthe world; it is not freed from its own content; it can never say, "So far and no further according to the bond and the duty"; it has toundergo a toilsome struggle before it can ever become the possessor ofthe new kind of world to which it has a right. In all this we notice something in the _new world of consciousness_similar to what happens within the physical world. In the world ofnature no animate (and probably no inanimate) thing has received a_donum_ which it may preserve as its own without effort. Everything thathas value has to be preserved through [p. 29] struggles necessitated bythe changing conditions of the impinging environment as well asstruggles between contrary characteristics within the nature of thething itself. Otherwise nothing could maintain its identity andindividuality at all. There must be some core in everything which existsas an individual thing. This individuality is seen more clearly as thescale of existence is mounted. In the organic world each thing lives ina more or less degree its own life, however much that life isconditioned and even hindered by the environment. What is it, then, thatkeeps the thing together? It is some point of union of elementsotherwise scattered. When we come to man we see this more clearly thanin the world below him. This core is a kind of Whole made up of isolatedimpressions mingling with a potency different in nature from themselves, and transmuting them to its own nature in the forms of self-consciousness, meanings, values. This potency--this Whole--although present from thevery beginning as the condition of becoming conscious of anything, yetremains in constant change. Impressions pour in through the senses, enter the Whole that is already present; they drop their content intothat Whole by means of the senses, and the miracle of transmutation, entirely mysterious, takes place. This point is not new. It is a fact well [p. 30] known in the history ofpsychology, and played a very prominent part in the psychology of Kant. But Eucken has deepened the conception in such a way as to be able torid himself of the postulates of Kant concerning God, Freedom, andImmortality. The germs of these, according to the meaning of Eucken, are within the spiritual life itself, and not transcendent in the formpresented by Kant or external as presented by Hegel. There is, then, within consciousness a process in many respects analogous to the naturalprocess. And as the meaning of the physical universe has become clearerthrough the conception of evolution, so the meaning of consciousness, originating in a higher world than Nature, will become clearer if viewedin a similar manner. Let us then turn to one of the most importantaspects of Eucken's work, Evolution and Religion. Eucken's deepest, and consequently the most difficult, account of themeaning of religion is to be found in his _Truth of Religion_ and his_Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt. _ It is important to deal withthe concept of the spiritual life at this stage of our inquiry, for itis the pivot around which the whole of Eucken's philosophy turns. The essence of religion is conceived by him as the possession by man ofan eternal existence in the midst of time; of the presence of anover-world in the midst of this world [p. 31]--guiding man to therevelation of a Divine Will. This is Eucken's main thesis, and connected with this thesis is the factthat religion can come to birth in the soul of man only through aconquest of the ordinary, natural world which surrounds him. The worldwhich surrounds him hinders more than it helps the birth of religion inthe soul. The aim of religion is therefore not the perfecting of man ina natural sense, but the bringing about of a union of human nature andthe Divine. Religion must therefore include a "world-denial and aworld-renewal. " There is not enough for man's deeper nature either inthe physical world or in the ordinary life of the hour. The naturalworld knows of no complete self-subsistence, for everything is connectedwith its environment, and it is in this connection with its environmentthat life below man largely obtains its existence. But in man wediscover a transition stage from the sensuous to the non-sensuous, andit is in the latter that the meaning of the former can be obtained. Thehistory of civilisation and culture is a history of this all-importantfact. The meaning of man is, therefore, not to be found in hisrelationship to the physical world, but in his own consciousness. Although we may not be aware of it, consciousness is the power which, inthe long and slow progress of the ages, has overcome the sensuous andmade it subservient to the [p. 32] meaning and value which its owncontent of experience has presented. The necessity and proof of religionare not then discovered in anything in the external world, but in therealisation of the fact that we are meant to be citizens of a worldhigher in its nature, the birthright of which is to be found within ourown nature. The conquest of nature and the growth of culture are proofsto man of his superiority to the world of sense impressions. This denialof the sufficiency of the world of sense in the evolution of the humansoul, on the one hand, and the affirmation of the potentiality of ahigher world of spirit on the other hand, constitute the nucleus of theChristian religion. Its superiority consists in giving their rights toboth worlds, and also in showing that they do not possess the samevalue. This essential nature of Christianity will be demonstrated later. We must return, then, to consciousness itself and see what may bediscovered within it concerning the meaning of religion. The greatthinkers of the ages have all been agreed as to the impossibility offinding sufficient proofs and meanings of religion either from Nature orfrom some supernatural source flowing in a miraculous manner towards ourearth. The growth and interpretation of natural science in modern timeshave rendered it impossible to find proofs of religion in any externalmode. Yet the problems of man's [p. 33] Whence and Whither raisethemselves with energy and even tragedy in our own day. These, as Euckenpoints out, are "problems concerning our Whence and Whither, ourdependence upon strange powers, the painful antitheses within our ownsoul, the stubborn barriers to our spiritual potencies, the flaws inlove and righteousness, in Nature and in human nature; in a word, theapparent total loss of what we dare not renounce--our best and most realtreasures. "[6] The loss takes place because we have been looking outwardinstead of inward for support, and prop after prop has given way. Thisis the situation to-day, and it has been brought about by no evil power, but by the gradual dawning of the meaning of things. Still, it is notthe whole meaning of things, for, as Eucken points out: "But we are nowexperiencing what mankind has so often experienced, viz. That at thevery point where the negation reaches its climax and the danger reachesthe very brink of a precipice, the conviction dawns with axiomaticcertainty that there lives and stirs within us something which noobstacle or enmity can ever destroy, and which signifies against allopposition a kernel of our nature that can never get lost. "[7] The religio-philosophical problem is, then, a return to _the Whole ofLife_. It is here that any satisfactory answer can be found if found[p. 34] at all. It is necessary to investigate the final grounds as wellas the most complete structure of Life; it is further necessary todiscover whether the movement of Life necessarily leads to religion. As Eucken invariably presents the truth of religion, the meaning andsignificance of religion are to be found through self-consciousness. This meaning of consciousness is twofold in nature. On the one hand, it is something that may be _known_, and, on the other hand, it issomething that is _active_ through its own inherent energy. Here we finda difference between what we may _know_ we are and what we _are_. Ourknowledge of what we are, the conditions of what we are, the history ofwhat we are--all these are a help for us to be what we are capable ofbecoming. But all these are not the very movement of the becomingitself. That movement is the resultant of the spiritual potency afterexperiences in the form of cognition have marked out the path forconation. This conation is an inheritance; it is present in the form ofdissatisfaction with the present situation; it moves in the direction ofa goal which is marked out by intellect. Now, however much this conationmay be analysed, it resists being decomposed into a number of elementswhich make it up, for any such number, except in the very manner theyare united, could not produce the situation. In other words, whateverthe history of this conation may be, it is now a unity or whole. [p. 35]Conditioned as it is by the surrounding world and by its own history, inso far as it is this, it is _determined_; but it is still _free_ in sofar as it is capable of becoming a new point of departure for life andof proceeding on its way in a world of spirit. Unless man's naturecontained within itself some unity or whole of the kind already referredto, it would mean no more than a receptacle of momentary impressionswhich would vanish as soon as their physical effects had passed away. But man is in reality more than all this. In the form of memory andexperience he is able to hold together in a core of his being the_meaning_ of these impressions after they have filtered into hisconsciousness. That is what we find, in however obscure a way, as thevery beginning of every human life. This unity or whole, as alreadystated, may be no more than a potency in the beginning of life, but itgains in content and depth as it passes from impression to impression, and from experience to experience. And all further impressions andexperiences have to be referred to this nucleus of the nature in orderthat they may be used and may prove themselves helpful. It is in thisnucleus of the nature that everything obtains its meaning and value. The _Whole_ consequently grows, and gradually man becomes conscious ofhis personality as over against the environing world and even his ownbody. This consciousness of [p. 36] _inwardness_ is of slow growth, because the natural tendency of life is to give a primary place to theworld from which we have emerged--the world of physical existence, andalso because much of that physical world reigns powerfully within ournature. But when reflection turns into itself, it becomes aware that theinwardness constitutes the kernel of a reality higher in its nature thananything either in the physical world or in the physical life which theman has to lead. Two modes of reality now present themselves to the life, neither ofwhich allows itself to be conceived of as an illusion. On the one hand, we find the physical world and our own physical nature. We discover thatwe cannot jump out of these without destroying all we possess; we haveto come to some kind of understanding with the physical world and ourown physical existence. Yet, on the other hand, the consciousness of akernel of our being, non-sensuous and spiritual in its nature, has forever broken our satisfaction with the physical world and our ownphysical existence. There are only two alternatives on which we can act. Either we are to conceive of our spiritual personality as somethingsecondary and subsidiary to the natural world, or we are to insist onits independence, and acknowledge it as the beginning of _a new mode ofexistence. _ If the former alternative is chosen, the personality cannever pass to a state of self-subsistence, [p. 37] but will conceive ofreality as something which is mainly physical. The consequence is thatthe personality will suffer seriously in its evolution, for such anevolution is brought about through the recognition and willingacknowledgment of the breaking forth of _a new kind of reality_ withinthe spiritual nucleus of life. If the latter alternative is chosen, thisnucleus of life is now seen as something quite other than a qualityentirely dependent upon the physical or than a mere flowering of thephysical; it is seen as a reality higher in its nature than the physicalor even than the ordinary life of the individual. Such a situation isforced on man when once he reflects upon the inward meaning of thecontent of his consciousness. It is true that such questions may bethrust into the background, and consequently inhibited from presentingus with their full value and significance. And it is this which happensonly too often in daily life. The constant need of attention to externalthings, the absorption of the mind in conventionality and custom asthese present themselves in the form of a ready-made inheritance--allthese occupy so much of the attention as to prevent man from knowing andexperiencing what _his own life_ is or what it is capable of becoming. Man has penetrated into the secrets of Nature as well as into the pastof human society through close and constant attention to externalthings. [p. 38] He has been able to gather fragments together, piece theminto each other, and through this frame laws concerning them. It is thusthat the external world and society have come to mean more to a humanbeing than to an animal. The animal is probably almost entirely thecreature of its instincts and of the percepts which present themselvesto it from moment to moment, and which largely disappear. But man risesabove this situation. The external world and everything that has everhappened on its face are not merely objects external to himself, whichcontain all their qualities in themselves. Somebody has to experienceall this, and that somebody that experiences all this is _mental_ in hisnature, however much this nature has been conditioned by _physical_things in the past or present. Eucken emphasises this fundamental fact in all his books. Wherever abeing is capable of _experiencing_ impressions and of giving _meanings_to these, we are bound to conclude that the power which does this issomething quite other than physical in its nature. It may be that sucha power has never been known except in connection with what is physical;it may be that various chemical changes give the truer and clearerexplanation of its origin, as far as its origin can be known at all;it may be that there was nothing of the _mental_ visible in the earlystages of its development; but all this is very different from statingthat [p. 39] no potentiality for mental evolution was there. And it isthis potentiality which is the issue at stake. We have no warrant forstating that it does not exist because it does not lend itself to beverified by the senses. Where does _mind_ manifest itself to the senses?It is something which does not exist in space as a horse or a tree. Itmay be that consciousness has emanated from simple chemical beginningsand combinations, but it is not a simple or a chemical thing _now_. Wedivide worlds into inorganic and organic. The main principle of divisionis necessitated on account of the fact that some characteristics arepresent in the former which are absent in the latter. It is preciselythe same between Body and Mind, with one difference. Body and Mind areindissolubly connected, but one cannot be reduced into the other. However much the connection on one side may influence the other side, the difference between a _meaning_ and a _thing_ remains. And it is thisfundamental difference which makes it absolutely necessary toacknowledge _a world_ of consciousness in contradistinction to a worldof matter and its behaviour, whether such matter is to be found in thehuman body with its mechanical and chemical changes and transformationsor in the physical universe outside our body. It is only when the mind becomes aware of its own existence--anexistence not to be established as being in Space (or entirely in [p. 40]Time) but as a reality subsisting in itself and in will-relations--thatthe efforts and fruitions of the spirit of man become intelligible atall. But such an awareness has become a permanent possession in agreater or less degree within the life of man. Whenever he becomesconscious of the fact that in his own soul a new phenomenon has made itsappearance, he begins, after the willing acknowledgment of the realityof such a phenomenon, to exercise its potency over against the externalworld and over against much that is present in his own psychical life. AHigher and a Lower present themselves to him. The two alternatives forcethemselves, and there is no third: either this deeper kernel of his lifemust mean the possibility and, in a measure, the presence of _a new landof reality_; or, on the other hand, it means no more than a mereepiphenomenon and blossoming of the merely _natural_ life. If the latterview is adopted, the spiritual nucleus of man's nature obtains butslight attention except on the side of its connection with thesurrounding organic world, and consequently what this nucleus is initself as an experience recedes into the background, and descriptionsand explanations in scientific or philosophical form step into theforeground. But a contradiction is imbedded in this very account. Somekind of experience of life, apart from, and higher in its nature than, the connection of the spiritual nucleus with its [p. 41] physicalhistory, persists in the life. The man of science is generally a goodand worthy man. He believes in the moral life, and he does not throw thevalues of the centuries overboard. Such belief and valuation are notmade up of the content of the explanation of life from its physicalside, but are an unconscious acknowledgment of the presence of _truthsand values as experiences and as now subsisting in themselves_, howevermuch they are caused by physical things. If, on the other hand, an acknowledgment of the reality of thisspiritual life is made, new questions immediately arise. And the mostfundamental of these questions have always been those farther removedfrom any sensuous or physical domain. They are questions concerning thevalue and meaning of life. It is a deep conviction of the reality of thedeeper kernel of our being that alone constitutes the entrance to a _newkind of world_. But to acknowledge the presence of such a new world doesnot signify the possession of it simultaneously with the acknowledgment. The new world is discovered, but it is not yet possessed. There areterrible obstacles in the way; there are enemies without and within tobe conquered. It is of little use entering into this struggle without anacknowledgment--born of an inward necessity--of the spiritual nucleus ofour nature. Unless man has accustomed himself to hold fast to this"subtle thing termed spirit" [p. 42] he will soon be swamped in theregion of the natural life once more; and when this happens thespiritual nucleus loses the consciousness of its own real subsistence assomething higher in its nature than physical things or than the body andthe ordinary life of the day. If the enterprise is to issue in anythingthat is great and good--into a spiritual world with an ever-growingcontent here and now--an insistence upon the reality of this deeper lifecoupled with the highest end which presents itself to the life must bemade. Something is now seen in the distance as the meaning and value oflife--something which our deeper nature longs for, and which has createda cleft within the soul between the ordinary things of sense and timeand that which "never was on sea or land. " It is something of thisnature which Eucken discovers as the germ of all the spiritual ideas ofreligion as well as of the essence of religion itself. The Godhead, Eternity, Immortality, are concepts which arise within the soul througha consciousness of the inadequacy of all natural things and of evenmental descriptions and explanations to answer and to satisfy thepotency and longing of human nature. Most of the great thinkers of the ages have insisted on the necessity ofthe recognition and acknowledgment of this deeper life which is in direneed of a content. If man is not to be swamped by the external andbecome the [p. 43] mere sport of the "wind and wave" of the environment, he has to enter somehow into the very centre of his being and becomeconvinced that the dictates which proceed from that centre are the mostfundamental things in life. This has always formed the kernel ofreligion, however often men, failing to reach that kernel, have lived onthe husks. But even this very sham notifies some small attempt in theright direction. In modern times--in the various forms of Idealism andPragmatism--such a need of getting at the core of being and of beingconvinced that the effort is worth while, has been emphasised again andagain. "_Launch yourselves with as strong and decided an initiative aspossible_. Accumulate all the possible circumstances which shallre-enforce the right motives; put yourself assiduously in conditionsthat encourage the new way; make engagements incompatible with the old;take a public pledge, if the case allows; in short, envelop yourresolution with every aid you know. This will give your new beginningsuch a momentum that the temptation to break down will not occur as soonas it otherwise might; and every day during which a breakdown ispostponed adds to the chances of its not occurring at all. "[8] "The Stoic and Butler also said, 'Follow God. ' In each case you mustrealise that, whatever you do, you take your life in your [p. 44] hands;you enter on a grand enterprise, a search for the Holy Grail, which willbring you to strange lands and perilous seas. For you cannot say, interpreting, 'Thus far and no further, merely according to the bond andthe duty. ' In following God, you follow by what has been, what is ruledand accomplished, but you follow after what is not yet. 'It may be thatthe gulfs will wash us down'; it may be that the gods of the past willrain upon us brimstone and horrible tempest. But he that is with us ismore than all that are against us. Whoever keeps his ear ever open toduty, always forward, never attained, is not far from the kingdom. Thegods may be against him, the demi-gods may depart; but he, as saidPlotinus, 'if alone, is with the Alone. '"[9] It is impossible for us, as Eucken constantly insists, to stop short ofthis. Who can prescribe limits to the capability of consciousness whenit is focussed, in the form of a conviction, on the deepest problemswhich press themselves upon it? There is only one objection that theempiricist can bring forward, and that is that all such ideals can neverbe proved to exist as things exist in space. But, as already hinted, isexistence in space the only form of existence? Is it not necessary forsomething which is _not_ in space to make us aware of what is in space?"If not as men of science, yet as [p. 45] men, as human beings, we haveto put things together, to form some total estimate of the drift ofdevelopment, of the unity of nature. "[10] If the deepest core of consciousness is acknowledged and the vagueideals and ends which present themselves are attended to, _something newhappens_ in the life. Life now starts on the great enterprise referredto by William Wallace. It finds its highest reality in an experienceborn within itself and differentiated for ever from the natural and eventhe intellectual life. To such a conclusion man is forced; and if thesituation is evaded, something within his soul never comes to birth. Itis seen at once that in order to know the content of this _new world_, it is necessary for a long series of struggles to take place. And tothis point we now turn. The deeper consciousness has relegated the natural world to a secondaryplace, and has further shown man that the main object of life includesnot only finding a footing against the dangers of natural things, but toplant oneself within a spiritual world of meanings and values. Thiscannot be done without _an independent and decisive act of the soul_. Ameaning of life has now revealed itself beyond that of the "small self. "This meaning can be reached only through this decisive act of the soul. This meaning is _over-individual_ in its nature; [p. 46] it is a truth, goodness, or beauty, which presents itself as an idea and ideal formedby the experiences of many individuals, at different epochs and indifferent circumstances. Thus the individual, in order to realise hisown life, must work with material presented in the community. Suchmaterial has been found helpful in the life of the community. Itconsists of collective results made up of large numbers of singlefactors. These have been tied together in the form of various syntheses. Such various syntheses comprise a larger meaning than what ordinarilyhappens from moment to moment in connection with the relation of theindividual to the external world or, indeed, within the individual's ownordinary life. Many of the isolated, fragmentary experiences of theindividual have to give way when tested in the light of any largersynthesis. If this were not so, no commercial, social, civilised lifewould be possible at all. The more real life is now perceived to be thatof the larger meaning and value. The individual, solitary experiencesmay be legitimate, for they often express wants and needs of theindividual which have a certain right to obtain satisfaction. But theextent and limits of these rights have to be measured by some norm orstandard other than themselves, or else each individual will proceed onhis own course regardless of the rights of others. It is the presence ofvarious syntheses which express the [p. 47] collective life of thewhole--of each and every individual--that makes civilisation possible. Thus, in the very process of civilisation itself, as Eucken points out, there is present a factor which is termed Spiritual, and which is not tobe mistaken for a mere flow of cause and effect, or for one mere eventfollowing another. Eucken emphasises this all-important element of theover-individual qualities present in human history. There is here muchwhich resembles Hegel's Absolute. But there is a great differencebetween the two in the sense that Eucken shows the constant need ofspiritual activism on the part of individuals in order to realise andkeep alive the norms and standards which have carried our world so far;and there is also the need of contributing something to the values ofthese through the creation of new qualities within the souls of theindividuals themselves. But the problems of civilisation and morality are not the only, or thehighest, problems which present themselves. But even such problems havepartially been the means of drawing man outside himself, and of enablinghim to see that his self can only be realised in connection with thecommon good and demands of the community. He now feels the necessity ofliving up to that standard. This is an important step in the directionof the moral and religious life. It reveals the presence of a spiritualnucleus of our being obtaining a content beyond the needs [p. 48] of themoment; it shows life as realising itself in wide connections; and theindividual becomes the possessor of a certain degree of spiritualinwardness in the process. Even as far as this level we find the deeperlife--the spiritual life--insisting on the validity of its mental andmoral conclusions over against the objects of sense. Without thisinsistence no knowledge would progress and be valid. The macrocosm ismirrored and coloured in a mental and moral microcosm. A replica of theexternal world has a reality in consciousness, and this reality is not amere photograph of the external, but it is the external as it appears tothe meaning it has obtained in consciousness. The meaning of the worldis thus something beyond the world itself; it is more than appears atany one moment. If the world were less than this, if the percept couldnot somehow become a concept, all progress would come to a standstill, and we should be no more than creatures of sensations and percepts whichvanished as soon as they appeared. But these do not vanish; they persistin various ways, as after-images, concepts, memory. Thus, in the veryact of knowing anything at all, something greater than the physicalobject known is present. And Eucken would insist, therefore, that themental and spiritual are present from the very beginning and bring to amental focus the impressions of the senses. In the interpretation ofEucken's philosophy several writers [p. 49] have missed the author'smeaning here. They have, through the ambiguity of the term "spiritual"in English, conceived of "spiritual life" as something entirelydifferent from the mental life. It is different, but only in the sameway as the bud is different from the blossom; it means at the religiouslevel a greater unfolding of a life which has been present at everystage in the history of civilisation and culture. But, as already noticed, the mental life is passed when we enter thelife of a community. The norms and standards, already referred to, maketheir appearance and persist in demanding obedience to themselves evenat the expense of much within consciousness that points in anotherdirection. But even such a stage as this does not give satisfaction to man. Mucheffort and sacrifice are needed to live up to the life of the community. And such effort and sacrifice are often the best means of calling intoactivity a still deeper, reserved energy of the soul. The soul nowrecognises a value beyond the values of culture and civilisation. TheGood, the True, and the Beautiful appear as the sole realities by theside of which everything that preceded, if taken as complete in itself, appears as a great shadow or illusion. Here we are reminded of Eucken'saffinity with Plato's Doctrine of Ideas, as well as of his attachment tothe revival of Platonism by Plotinus. Values for life, subsisting inthemselves, become objects [p. 50] of meditation, of "browsing, " and ofthe deepest activity of the soul. Life is now viewed as consisting in agreat and constant quest after these religious ideals. It sees itsmeaning beyond and above the range of mentality or even morality, thoughit is well that it should pass as often as possible through the gate ofthe former, and is bound to pass always through the gate of the latter. A break takes place with the "natural self"; the mental life ofconcepts, though necessary, is now seen as insufficient; and life is nowviewed as having a "pearl of great price" before its gaze. Here the_stirb und werde_ of Paul and Goethe becomes necessary. The realeducation of man now begins. His life becomes guided and governed bynorms whose limits cannot be discovered, and which have never beenrealised in their wholeness on the face of our earth. What can thesemean? They cannot be delusions or illusions, for they answer too deep aneed of the soul to be reduced to that level. If we blot them out of ourexistence, we sink back to a mere natural or mechanical stage. When thesoul concentrates its deepest attention on these norms or ideals theyfascinate it, they draw hidden energies into activity, they giveinklings of immortality. Is it not far more conceivable that such avision of meaning, of beauty, and of enchantment is a new kind ofreality--cosmic in its nature and eternal in its duration? Man has to[p. 51] come to a decision concerning this. There is no half-way househere possible without the deepest potencies of human nature sufferingand failing to transform themselves from bud to blossom and fruit. At a later stage in our inquiry this question will recur in connectionwith the conception of the Godhead. But here it may be observed that todecide on the affirmative side that somehow such norms and ideals whichmean so much are cosmic realities, is simply to state no more than thatan evolutionary process is taking place towards a new kind of world aswell as a new kind of existence. No outsider is competent to pronouncejudgment on the validity of the proofs possessed within this spiritualrealm. The qualifications here are beyond the range of knowledge, although knowledge does not cease to act within such a realm. Theexperiences here cannot be measured or weighed; and that a certainobscurity is present in them is only what may be expected, consideringthat the spiritual nature is farther removed from the region of naturewith its physical existence than when it deals with problems on theintellectual level. But such spiritual proofs are found in the fact thatthese realities present themselves only at the height of spiritualdevelopment, and in the fact that they produce an _inversion_ of thenature of man, and change the centre of gravity of his life to a moreinward recess of his being [p. 52] than is open on the natural orintellectual side. Thus, once more, the soul is driven forward by its own necessities to areligious reality. What can it do but grant cosmic origin and validityto such ideals? If these ideals are not this, then, as Eucken pointsout, they are the most tragic illusions conceivable. When they are acknowledged as cosmic realities, man is in the midst of areligion of a _universal_ kind. But the acknowledgment of these ascosmic realities is something more than a concept. The men who have cometo this conclusion required something more than logical arguments inorder to establish this truth. The conclusions were based upon a_specific (characteristic)_ religious experience of their own. And sucha religious experience was larger and more real than anything that couldbe established in the form of concepts concerning it. As we shall noticein a later chapter, it is somewhat on this account that Euckendifferentiates between _universal_ and _specific (characteristic)_religion. It becomes evident that such contents of the new spiritual world cannotbe utilised by man without effort. These realities have to pass from theregion of ideas to the region of actual experiences. In other words, they must become man's own religion. Man has now become convinced of thereality of a universal spiritual life as constituting, in a measure, the[p. 53] foundation of the evolution of the soul, and as the goal towardswhich he must for ever move. Eucken is unwilling to speculate as to theorigin or the goal of this. The centre of gravity of life must be laidin what may be known and experienced between these two poles. There isa certainty which is _intermediate_ between man and the Godhead. It iswhen this certainty is realised as an actual portion of the soul thatman becomes competent to carry farther--backward and forward--theimplications of this certainty. And implications of a new kind of_Weltanschauung_ result from the spiritual experiences of the_Lebensanschauung_ of the spiritual life. On this matter we shall touchat a later stage in the inquiry. At present let us confine our attention to the _intermediate_ realitywhich presents itself in a form that is over-individual. It is only whenwe pass out of the psychology of the subject--a matter that deals withthe _history_ of mental processes--that we are able to view the meaningof the realities which are over-individual. As already pointed out, these realities are not the creations of man's fancy or imaginationafter reason has been switched off. They are non-sensuous realitieswhich have moulded and shaped the lives of individuals and nations invaried degrees. These ideals are not to remain merely objects ofknowledge; they are to become portions of the inmost experiences of thesoul. This they cannot become without the [p. 54] calling out of thedeepest energy of the individual. His fragmentary spiritual life--smallas it is--still calls for _more_ of its own nature, and this _more_ hasbeen seen in the distance as something of infinite value. [11] Amountain, as it were, has to be climbed; dark ravines have to be gonethrough; and rivers have to be swum across. The whole vision means noless than an entrance into _a new kind of world_, the scaling to a newkind of existence, and a conquest which will make the pilgrim aparticipator in that which is Divine. A struggle has to take place, because so much that belongs to the life, on the level where it nowstands, belongs to a world _below_ it. Impulses and passions, the narrowoutlook, the timidity and hollowness of the "small self"--all these, which have previously remained at the centre of life, have to be thrustto the periphery of existence. So that an entrance into the highestspiritual world is not merely something to _know_, but far rathersomething to _do_ and to _be_. This is the meaning of Eucken's activism. It is not the busying of ourselves over trifles; there is no need ofencouragement in that direction. It is rather the inward glance on thenature of the over-individual ideals; it is a deep and constantconcentration upon their value and significance, in order that the soulmay plant itself on the shores of the _over-world_. It is in granting a[p. 55] higher mode of existence to these ideals, and in preserving themas the possession of the soul, that man finds the ever greater meaningof that spiritual life which was present within him from the verybeginning of his enterprise. The process of forcing an entrance intothis over-world has to be repeated time after time. There are no enemiesin front, but the man is surrounded by them from around and behind him. The indifference, in a large measure of the natural process, the rigidinstincts of mere self-preservation, the temptation to smugness andease, the cold conclusions of the understanding when satisfied withexplanations from the physical world, the hardness of the heart--theseand many other enemies fight for supremacy, and the soul is often tornin the struggle. The struggle continues for a great length of time; butthe history of the world testifies to an innumerable host of individualswho scaled and fell, who started again and again, until at last theirconceptions of the Highest Good became a permanent experience andpossession of their deepest being. And when the spiritual life creates an entrance into this _over-world_something happens which makes a fundamental difference in the life. Thelife may again and again sink back to its old level, but what hashappened will never allow it to remain satisfied on that level. "We fallto rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake" (Browning). Lifenow becomes [p. 56] alternately _a quest and a fruition_. [12] Theindividual has to gather his whole energies together because somethinggreat is at stake. This is nothing less than the possession of a newkind of reality. The struggle has yielded a conquest for the time being. He tastes and "eats his pot of honey on the grave" of enemies within andwithout. This fruition means no less than a taste of "eternal life inthe midst of time" (Harnack), and the relegating of the whole world ofphenomena to a subsidiary place. This is the kernel of Eucken's _Truth of Religion_. The book deals withthe most subtle psychological problems of the soul, and reaches theconclusion of an entrance by man into a divine world. All this is farremoved from the ordinary traditional conception either of God or ofreligion. Perhaps the majority of mankind is not as yet ready for such apresentation of religion. But I think it may be safely said that it isthrough some such mode of conceiving religion as this that the "greatand good ones" of the world found an entrance into a divine world andgrasped the conception of the evolution of the soul as a process whichbegins where organic evolution ends. * * * * * CHAPTER III [p. 57] RELIGION AND NATURAL SCIENCE In the previous chapter we have noticed how man is able to reach anover-world which will grant him a new kind of reality over against thewhole remaining domain of existence. But the evidence hitherto broughtforth has been that of the nature of man himself. We have in thischapter to inquire whether there is a warrant for such a conclusionwithin the realm of natural science. Does science give any hint of thepresence of spiritual life anywhere in the universe? Eucken answersdistinctly in the affirmative. [13] The conclusions of natural science have, in modern times, come intodirect conflict with religion. Traditional religion has grown up on aview of the universe which has been [p. 58] utterly discarded by modernknowledge. Religious leaders have often had to be dragged to see thetruth of this statement, and, as Eucken points out, many are still farfrom realising the seriousness of the cleft between knowledge andreligion. The theology of the Middle Ages has not yet disappeared, although fortunately there are some signs of a great reconstructiongoing on in our midst. Fortunately, this naive view of the universe is atheology and not a religion; but doubtless even the religion of the soulsuffers when its _knowing_ aspect is perpetually contradicted byscientific knowledge. There is such a close connection between "head"and "heart"--even closer than between body and mind--that the use ofdiscarded theories of the universe and of life cannot but proveinjurious to the deepest source of life. The mental conceptions of religion have, in the course of the ages, undergone many transformations, and there is no reason why anothertransformation should gradually not come about in the present. In Hebrewand Greek times we discover a polytheism, after a long course ofdevelopment, emerging into henotheism, and finally, here and there, intomonotheism. The old conceptions of gods and spirits present in trees andwells, mountains and air, are overcome. They are not so much destroyedas supplanted by higher conceptions. In pre-Socratic philosophy we findthe gods and [p. 59] spirits relegated to a secondary place, and Natureis conceived as a system of inner energies and strivings. In theseconceptions Man is drawn closer to Nature, and the connection of hislife is shown to be closely interwoven with the life of Nature. But theempirical aspect of this teaching was pushed into the background throughthe teachings of Socrates and Plato. The "myth" regained some of itspristine power in a new kind of way; and "God transcendent of the worldand immanent in the world" came prominently forward as a doctrine of theuniverse and of life. This is the kernel of the Christian theology, constructed through the blending of Hebrew and Greek philosophies. Sucha conception remained very largely the philosophy as well as thetheology of the Christian Church until the seventeenth century. Duringthis long interval hardly any progress was made in the investigation ofNature, so that such a theology proved rather a help than a hindrance tothe religion of those who understood it. But such a theology has beendestroyed, however unwilling many people are to acknowledge the fact. But until this fact is acknowledged, there is very little hope, inEucken's opinion, of the Christian religion gaining many adherents fromthe side of those who understand the modern meaning and significance ofnatural science. The physical universe has become a problem; and the oldsolution was a matter [p. 60] of speculation based upon scarcely anyobservation and experiment. Eucken marks the stages which have broughtabout a revolution in our conceptions of the universe as consisting ofthe change brought about in the science of astronomy through Copernicusin the sixteenth century, the founding of exact science through Galileoin the seventeenth century, and the theory of evolution propounded byDarwin and his followers in the nineteenth century. The whole tendencyhas been to describe and explain Nature in terms of mechanism, and toextend such mechanism into the life of man. Proof after proof has pouredupon us, and has been the means, on the whole, of establishing a kingdomof mechanism within the realm of Nature and of human nature. Theologyand speculative philosophy went on their courses unheedful of thesedevelopments of physical science, until in our day both have had toreconsider the tenableness of their position, and to see that Nature andits physical manifestations have to enter as all-important factors intotheir reconstructions. Miracle is now relegated to a secondary place intheology, and it has disappeared altogether from science; a SupremeBeing transcendent of, and immanent in, the world is not known toscience, however far it reaches into the secrets of Nature. Doubtlessthe loss to religion has been here incalculable; for although thenatural scientist was able to destroy the old building, [p. 61] he wasunable to construct a new one. And Eucken shows that the naturalscientist will remain unable to accomplish this, because the materialwith which he deals is physical in its nature and constitutes no morethan a part--a secondary part--of what is found in the world. The old mode of conceiving the universe, when driven from its citadel bythe new conceptions of physics and astronomy, turned for refuge to themystery of Life itself. Here it supposed itself to be safe. But thedevelopment of modern chemistry and biology shows how dangerous it is tobase a theological and religious superstructure on the unfilled cleftsof natural science. The lesson here during the past hundred years oughtto be a grave warning against its repetition in the future. These cleftshave been filled more and more by the investigations and results ofmodern chemistry and biology, so that the theologian is constantly keptin a state of panic, and has to shift his camp and run away when thetide of knowledge sweeps in with its newly discovered results. The wholesituation seems serious, but it is not so disastrous as it appears atfirst sight. Doubtless the gains of science have been numerous, and haveshaken and practically ruined the old theological and metaphysicalfoundations; but a halt has now been called on science itself, and itslimitations have become perceptible even to its own [p. 62] leaders. Itis not quite so certain that the problem of organic life can be settledin terms of chemical combinations and mechanism. Many scientists[14] areagreed on this point, although they repudiate the claims of neo-vitalistssuch as Driesch and Reinke. [15] No judgment can be pronounced on thissubject at the present day, and probably the problem will take a longtime before any important results will accrue. And even these resultswill not solve the problem of organic life, for the manifestations oflife, the higher we mount the scale of being, are not things visible tothe senses but express themselves in the forms of meanings andwill-relations. The limits of natural science become clearly perceptible when we enterinto the complex problem of the relation of subject and object, [p. 63]or of mind and body. The final tribunal in regard to the great questionsof life and religion is not natural science. This is not a matter of amere wish that it should be so on the part of religious teachers whoignore the findings of science, but is a conviction of the scientiststhemselves. Natural science has been so busy with the investigation of the physicalworld that it has had time to remember but little besides objects in theexternal world. And yet what are objects in the external world withouta subject to know them?[16] And what are the hypotheses which scienceframes in order to explain phenomena but syntheses of factors framed inconsciousness?[17] What are laws of Nature but mental constructionsframed concerning similar ways of behaviour on the part of a largenumber of objects? What are the fundamental conceptions which serve asthe very groundwork of the whole of science but concepts which areexplanations of phenomena and not themselves phenomena?[18] Wherever we look, we find that our view [p. 64] of Nature is in the firstplace a result as well as a conviction of the content of consciousness;that we do not perceive things and their qualities in a form ofimmediacy, but only after they have entered into consciousness are weable to know what external objects really are. The constructions ofscience in the form of hypotheses and laws are a proof that the realityof the physical world and its meaning are known only in so far as theyare known by mind, and in so far as the _universal_ (which is a mentalcontent) explains the _particular_ (which may or may not be an object inthe external world). Eucken emphasises this truth in several of his books, and whenever thetruth is borne in mind the scientist becomes aware of the existence of areality beyond that of the objects of sense. And even when the scientistis unaware of the mental qualities which operate in perceiving externalobjects and of the generalisations formed as the result of theimpressions left by the objects in the mind, he uses these all the same. Professor Haeckel (one of Professor Eucken's colleagues in Jena) startsout in _The Riddle of the Universe_ with the strong hope of reducing thewhole universe (including God) into a state of material substance, andends with a kind of peroration on the virtues of the new goddesses, theTrue, the Good, and the Beautiful. [p. 65] But an increasing number of scientists to-day are aware of thelimits of science. They know that the mental models which they have toframe in order to interpret phenomena are not material things, and existnowhere except in a world of mind and meaning. Eucken's conclusion thenis that what knows and interprets is a mental quality. He would rathercall it the life of the spirit of man, or the spiritual life. Anon-sensuous power has to operate in order that the physical world maybe known at all; that power has, further, in a manner unknown, to gatherthe fragmentary impressions of the senses, turn them into that which ismental, combine them into what is termed meaning. We are led back to the point made so clear by Descartes--to hisinsistence on the presence of a thinking subject as the starting-pointfor the knowledge of all existence. This truth was elucidated later byKant in a manner which the world can probably never get rid of. Therefore, if so much happens in the mind in connection with theknowledge and interpretation of the world, our view of the world _after_this happens in the mind is entirely different from the view whichexists _before_ it happens. Thought stands over against the sensuousobject, transforms the object into a logical construction of meaning. When one becomes aware of this, not only do the objects themselvesbecome most problematic [p. 66] in their relation to consciousness, butthe very tools with which the scientist works--_e. G. _ space andtime--become so puzzling that only by a return to a metaphysic do theybecome partially explainable. And thus we are landed in a region ofidealism in the very midst of the work of natural science. Naturalismhas arisen only because the subject was forgotten in the enchantment ofthe object. The attention has been turned so long on the object that thenature and the results of the attention itself are quite left out ofaccount. We can all believe in what naturalism has to say concerningorganic and inorganic objects; but it has not said enough when it leavesthe power that knows the meaning of what it says out of account. The conclusion Eucken arrives at is, then, that we must ascribe realityto the quality that knows and interprets as well as to the thing that isknown. He ascribes reality to the physical world, but this is not thewhole of reality. This cannot be so, simply because we could not knowthat the physical world was real had it not been that there wasimplanted in us a mental organisation to know all this. The otherreality is that of consciousness and the meanings it formulates. Thusnatural science itself announces the presence of _more_ than sensuousnature. This _more_ which knows the external world is the _more_ whichhas constructed civilisation, culture, and [p. 67] religion. This _more_has formed an independent inner life over against the natural world. Hadit not been for this power of the _more_ to construct its inner world, Life would have been no more than the life of sensuous nature--shiftingfrom point to point, and entirely at the mercy of a physicalenvironment. But the progress of mankind shows everywhere the growth ofa life higher in nature than that of physical or animal existence. Somekind of total-life has been formed in which the individual canparticipate; and in the participation of which he can be carried farbeyond physical things and beyond his own individual interests. Mankindhas striven after truth, and has discovered something that is beyond theopinions of individuals, that does not serve his own petty interests, but overcomes them and reaches out after truths which are valid and goodfor all. What is all this that has happened? What has brought it about? What isthe individual potency that knows the world and passes beyond it? Whatare the ideals and norms which revealed themselves in the co-operativemovements of humanity, and only revealed themselves when humanity was atits highest attainable level? Enough has been said to show that it is_more_ than Nature, that characteristics are found within it entirelyunknown in Nature. We are bound to take this _more_ into account, for ithas constructed all the gains of mankind. [p. 68] What can it be, in theindividual efforts of the soul and in the ideal constructions of scienceand the higher ethical and religious constructions of life, but areality higher than sense and outside the categories of space and time?What better name can be given to it than a Spiritual Life incontradistinction to the life of Nature? When this life of the mind and spirit of man is acknowledged, it is seento be the beginning of a new order of existence. There appears within ita new kind of reality. It is the standpoint from which natural scienceitself has arisen. Such an acknowledgment of life as a new kind ofreality alters in an essential manner the whole view of the world. Nature now signifies not the whole of things, but only a step beyondwhich the cosmic process progresses. Two worlds, instead of one world, now appear--one growing out of the other, but keeping a connection stillwith the other. Nature consequently gains a deeper significance ofmeaning when we recognise that it gives birth to mind and spirit--characteristics which merge into consciousness, values, and ideals. Nature is not discarded in our new view, but it takes a secondary place. The primary place must be given to the spiritual life--the life which isactive as an organisation in knowing and being and doing. And when thistruth is realised, this life of mental and spiritual activity becomesthe [p. 69] centre from which the new reality will obtain an ever greatercontent. The deepest aspect of reality is then discovered, not withoutbut within. This reality is now conceived as something which belongs toa new kind of world, and this new world stands above the physical world. Man, when he conceives of things in this manner, will be able to bearthe indifference of the physical course of existence towards thespiritual potencies of his being. The natural process may seem to harassand even destroy him; it matters not, for he has been led to aconviction of the possession of qualities which have not come intoactivity and power in any world _below_ him, and which have laws oftheir own and goals spiritual in their nature. But all this will notcome about as a shower of rain descends. The spiritual life has toinsist on its superiority to the natural process, and to construct, withthe deepest energy of its being, ever richer moral and spiritualcontents for itself; for it is these contents which constitute thegrowth of the meaning and value of the new world, as well as of itsindestructible reality beyond the process of Nature. * * * * * CHAPTER IV [p. 70] RELIGION AND HISTORY The subject of history has obtained a most prominent position in thewhole of Eucken's philosophy. All his books deal with the subject, andin a manner resembling one another, whatever the particular subjectdealt with may be. But the most exhaustive treatment of historypresented in his volumes is to to be found in the chapter on history in_Systematische Philosophie_("Kultur der Gegenwart, " Teil I. , AbteilungVI. ), and in the latter half of _The Truth of Religion_. In the formervolume Eucken deals with history in its relation to civilisation andculture, and in the latter the place of history in the religions of theworld is strikingly expressed. We have already noticed in the previous chapter how he set out todiscover the presence of a mental or spiritual life in the very act ofknowing the physical world and in the constructions which form both thebasis and the apex of physical science. It was shown [p. 71] here that alife higher than the physical was present in order to be able to readthe meaning of the world. Such a life became a standpoint to viewNature, and is the possession, more or less, of each individual. Butalthough the possession of individuals and _above_ Nature, theconsciousness that knows Nature is still carried beyond its ownindividual life. The meaning of the physical world appears inconsciousness, through the syntheses it forms, as objective, although itis not an object of sense but of thought; and, further, this veryobjectivity subsists in the form of generalisations and meanings whichcreate standards for each individual in his relations with the physicalworld. Eucken then concludes that there is a trans-subjective aspectpresent in the conclusions of physical science itself. [19] And it is onthis fact that he bases the presence of a mental or spiritual life inthe very act of knowing at all. But it is evident that the whole ofman's potencies and relations are not confined to the knowing of Natureand framing interpretations concerning it. There are other provinces towhich man is related--other objects besides physical ones to which hisattention is called to frame interpretations concerning them also. History is one of these provinces. The subject-matter here is entirely[p. 72] different from the subject-matter of physical science. In thelatter the objects are physical; in the former the objects are notthings, but _will-relations. _[20] We are in history dealing with theeffects of heredity and physical environment upon all organic life--manincluded. But it has been already shown that man, though rooted in thenatural world and dependent upon it, is still the possessor of a worldwhich is above the physical. Man's roots in Nature have been unearthedin a large measure; and his dependence on the world from which he hasemerged is greater than was suspected, and probably it will bediscovered in the future that he is still more dependent on what isbelow him. But however deep his connection with Nature may prove itselfto be, he will still remain an unsolved problem if he is coolly strippedof all the qualities he has gained since he emerged from the bosom ofNature. We are consequently led to the higher aspects of history where thecentre of gravity of the matter lies in the _relations of wills_. By will-relations is meant the impact of individuals upon one anotherfrom the side of _meaning_. It is through the expressions of the meaningof our concepts that we are able to construct an intelligible world. Theindividual's [p. 73] deeper reality does not consist in the percept weobtain of him, but in the mental attitude he has expressed towards amental attitude of ours. The _clothing_ of meaning is certainlyphysical; there is our friend's physical body in front of us, and hisspeech is audible in a physical sense to physical ears. But neither bodynor speech is absolutely necessary for the expression of meaning toanother. We have neither seen nor heard many of the individuals who haveexercised great influence over our lives. Words have answered thepurpose. By this is not meant that we have not lost something of greatvalue in having to depend on print alone. Something of every individualreveals itself in his body and speech which is missed when we have todepend on paper and ink as mediums of meaning. But meaning is somethingother than its medium; it is a mental or spiritual content. This contenthas to be classified and interpreted. The interpretation forms hereagain, as on the level of natural science, syntheses and generalisationslarger than any one individual. These are the resultants of mind withmind and will with will. When human beings come into contact with eachother, there originates a state of things in which something is_thought_ and _done. _ What is thought and done deals with situationsoutside the situation of each individual. The interpretation of thesesituations is, therefore, an objective reality which becomes a [p. 74]norm for each individual. Mankind has thus created a reality which isbeyond that of the content of each individual's experience _as anindividual_. We thus see that there are presented in such norms two aspects of a verydifferent nature. On the one hand, we discover the contribution of eachindividual, and witness events dealing with situations which succeed oneanother with greater or less rapidity. This aspect is in constant flux. It constitutes the capability of meeting the needs of the moment. Allthis works well so long as the needs of the moment involve no greatcomplexities. But immediately the situation becomes complex there is aturn to something besides this mere flow of things. [21] To what? It is aturn to something whose nucleus of meaning and value has persisted inthe midst of all the flow. This is no other than one or other of thehighest of the ideal constructions which formed the basis of the life ofthe community. The community had been unconsciously garnering somethingover-individual and over-historical for its future use. Thus, in historyitself there is the presence of a reality higher than the individual, and higher than the ordinary meaning of the [p. 75] hour. This becomes thestandard by which everything has to be measured. Of course, this normdoes not remain static in regard to its own content. But its growth ofcontent depends upon the contributions made to it by individuals intheir will-relations. Something over-individual issues out of all theserelations, and this enters into the still higher over-individual normswhich are the heritage of society. Eucken consequently shows thathistory itself is dependent upon something which works withinit--interpreting its events, and absorbing into itself something that isof value. What other can this be but a spiritual life higher not onlythan physical things but even than the will-relations which accrue frommoment to moment? It has already been noticed that on these lower levelsthe spiritual life is ever present--present as a potency and experiencewhen viewed from the standpoint of the individual's creativeness, andpresent as norms and values when viewed as an object of thought broughtforth through general conclusions founded on situations beyond anysingle situation of the individual. Thus, we get in Eucken's teachingthe over-historical as the power which operates within the events ofhistory. It is what philosophy has termed the Ideal, and what religionhas termed the revelation of God. It is not correct, then, to say thatwe are dependent upon the content of the moment apart from the presenceof the [p. 76] content of the past in that moment in order to graspreality. The Past does not mean a mere series of events which occurredsome hundreds or thousands of years ago, and before which we bend andtowards which we try to turn back the world, for that would mean whatEucken terms "mere historism. " The Past has rolled its meaning down tothe Present: the Past mingled with the content of the Present is at eachpoint of its course something other than it was before. [22] But in anycase this aspect of the Past as presented by Eucken shows that humanlife requires a great span of time which has already run in order tocreate its ideals and to be raised from the triviality of the meremoment. Goethe perceived the importance of the same truth:-- "Wer nicht von drei tausend Jahren sich weiss Rechenschaft zu geben, Bleib' im Dunkeln unerfahren, mag von Tag Zu Tage leben!" At certain epochs in the history of the world great events havehappened. Often such epochs are followed by epochs of inertia. Men baskin the sunlight of the glory that was revealed to humanity; they receivehelp and strength from what had been. But the greater the intervalbetween the occurrence [p. 77] of that greatness and the contemplation ofit, the more difficult does it become to grasp and to possess somethingof the true meaning, value, and significance of such greatness. Thegreatness, as the interval grows, becomes something to be known, something which is believed to fall upon us in an external, miraculousmanner; and finally it often becomes an object of wordy dispute andstrife. Certain periods in the history of the Christian Church giveabundant evidence of the truth of this statement. Eucken points out inhis _Problem of Human Life_ how barren in creative power, for instance, was the fourth century. Why? An interval of nearly three centuries hadpassed away since the Master and his followers had proclaimed truths andexperiences which were the burning convictions of their deepest being. Gradually, and often unconsciously, men glided down an inclined plane, until at last the spiritual nucleus of Christianity had largelydisappeared and little more than the husks remained. At the close ofsuch intervals religion becomes a number of conflicting intellectualtheories, and the worst passions are called to its support. Dogmatismand intolerance prevail, and a blight comes over the choicest potenciesof the soul. All this happens because certain great events andexperiences of the past are conceived of as marking a terminus in thehistory of the moral and spiritual evolution of the world. The [p. 78]soul is not stirred to its depth to preserve such experiences and, ifpossible, enhance them. Thus the world leaves such a rich spiritualcontent largely behind itself; and when this happens, it becomes amatter of the greatest difficulty to recover it. And even when it isrecovered, something of infinite value has been for ever lost. Thepresent moment of the soul has to live on itself; and such a liferemains alien to depths of reality which have been plumbed by the greatpersonalities of history in the past. It is a want of conviction intruth and reality that makes us seek finality in the past. It may bethat the highest personalities of our day are not able to scale suchspiritual heights as were scaled by the Christians of the primitiveChurch; but unless they believe that the same power is present in theirsouls they will never have courage even to make the attempt. It is avision of the nature of the reality which was climbed by thepersonalities of the past, coupled with the consciousness of the samespiritual power in the present, that will enable Christianity to belived on such a "grand scale" in the present and the future. Thespiritual experiences of the past have become over-individual andover-historical norms for our lives; but such norms are no more thanideas until the will enters into a relation with them. When thishappens, the individual does not only observe a goal in the distance butalso starts to move towards such [p. 79] a goal with the whole spiritualenergy of his nature. And every individual who moves in the direction ofsuch norms brings some contribution of value from the present to beadded to the norms of the past. The spiritual life is thus individualand over-individual, historical and over-historical, transcendent andimmanent. Eucken has worked for many years at this difficult problem--a problem soimportant in the life of civilisation and religion. It has already beenhinted that the conception bears striking resemblances to aspects ofHegel's philosophy. But there are differences. One of these was pointedout long ago by Eucken: "The gist of religion is with Hegel nothing butthe absorption of the individual in the universal intellectual process. How such a conception can be identified with moral regeneration of theChristian type, with purification of the heart, is unintelligible tous. "[23] Eucken's philosophy, on the other hand, is pre-eminently aspiritual activism. The life-process is shaped by the collectiveactivity of individuals; and when this activity slackens the ideals ofthe over-world suffer. Man is thus called to be what he _ought to be_;and in the process he heightens something of the value of the Ought. AnOught and a Will are involved in the creativeness of the individual lifeand of the Life-process; so that it is a mistake to conceive [p. 80] ofEucken's activism as some stirring of the individual to realise merelyhis own needs as these present themselves to him from moment to moment. He is called and destined to do infinitely more; he is to be a creatorof the Life-process and a carrier in the making of a new world; but allthis can be done only from the standpoint of a vision of a spirituallife superior to history and to the individual himself. Vision andaction are to be ever present. In the light of the vision man becomesmore than he now is; through action the vision increases in depth andvalue. What relation this has to the conception of the Godhead will be dealtwith in a later chapter. It is enough at present to bear in mind that, as far as we have gone, a reality above sense, time, history, and thecontent of the individual life has become evident. And it is such areality which gives meaning to the events of history. It has to be borne in mind that much which is natural and of the earthenters into history. Such effects have become clearly discernible inmodern times. Physical conditions do exercise an influence, and hem thecourse of the spiritual life. The indifference of the physical order ofthings to the ethical values of history is a problem which constantlyperplexes every thinking mind. No solution to the puzzles of life is tobe found in Nature. What do we discover there? "We discover enchainments[p. 81] of phenomena which seem to conduct to the creation of greatmisery and which, with unmerciful callousness, drive man over the brinkof an abyss. The faintest hint would have sufficed to hold him back fromsuch a catastrophe; but this is not given, and consequently destructiontakes its course. Petty accidents destroy life and happiness; a momentannihilates the most toilsome work. Often, also, we discover a chaoticmedley, a sudden overthrow of all potency, a seeming indifferencetowards all human weal and woe, a blind groping in the dark; we discovergloomy possibilities constantly sweeping as dark clouds over man andoccasionally descending as a crashing tempest. "[24] Hundreds of similarexamples may be found in Eucken's books, and all point to theinsufficiency of the natural process for satisfying the deepest needs ofour being. But in spite of the fact that the natural process accompaniesLife everywhere, man has built a world beyond the world of sense. With the entrance of the spiritual life a new mode of history makes itsappearance. This fact is to be witnessed in the tools invented by man inorder to overcome physical barriers. The growth of technics in our ownday is a proof of Nature yielding here and there to the demands of lifeand intellect. This has all been brought about by mentality, and newmodes of living are the result. [p. 82] And when we enter the domain of human society the superiority ofthe spiritual life becomes evident here as well. It is true that we areas yet far from any ideals of human society which include the good ofall, and which bind all together in spite of radical differences thatwill continue to persist. Systems of various kinds are presented--oftenat variance with one another; but even these are evidence of a spirituallife far above the achievements of any single individuals. What must wedo? We must all work on in the direction of the highest: and the higherwe mount the nearer we are to a point of convergence of all thedifferent syntheses; and out of the union there will be born a synthesiswhich will include the whole family of man. We possess already such asynthesis partially realised here and there in the lives of the greatestpersonalities of history; but to the mass of mankind such a synthesis islittle more than a name, even though that name be God or Infinite Love. The content of the name has to be realised: and this can never comeabout except through a deep stirring and longing, through enormoussacrifices, painful and recurring failures, to issue finally in aconquest--a height attained by mankind on which the content of God andInfinite Love will be born in the soul as a living, personal, anddurable experience. When this comes to be--and every genuine effort inthe movement of our higher being brings us nearer to it--there issues[p. 83] an incomparably higher mode of life. Thus a new history is framedthrough the spiritual activities of individuals; and something of itsvery nature and of the mode by which such a reality can be reached willbecome an atmosphere into which future generations will be born, as wella higher condition than has ever previously existed to hail the entranceof human souls into the world. Eucken insists that it is not the movement of democracy towards bettersocial conditions that will be effective in bringing about such achange. Much, of course, can be effected by better social conditions. There are needs to-day in connection with labour which ought to be met. But at the best they can do no more than touch the periphery of humanexistence. A poverty in the "inward parts" will still exist in the midstof external plenty. But if men and women could be brought to theconsciousness of spiritual ideals and their efficacy, a disposition ofsoul and character would be created which would rapidly change the evilconditions of life and the perplexing problems of capital and labour. Several writers have gone astray when they have imagined that Eucken hasbut scant sympathy with the social needs of our times. It would bedifficult to find anywhere a man of a more tender heart. But he seesdeeper than the level of material and social needs and their fulfilment. He sees that it is only by a change [p. 84] of disposition and attitudeof the soul that permanent changes in the material well-being of theworld can come about. For it is in the soul's relation with itsover-individual and over-historical ideals that permanent qualities canbe created and preserved: it is in our own deepest being, through aconviction of the values of sympathy, sacrifice, and love that anygenuine history can find its birth and nurture. We require to pay noless attention to the things of the body; but the things of the spiritmust step into the foreground of life once again. Then we are working atthe heart of the Life-process--a Life-process which is the beginning ofa new cosmic process; and what will issue out of such a result willprobably be greater and better than anything we can dream of. Men arecalled to this work to-day. They understand but little its significanceand its trend; they must be willing to learn from those who have livedthrough these problems, and who see ramifications of the problems into asoil deeper than is perceptible by the masses. The masses must bewilling to be taught in the things of the spirit. Hence we see the needof great personalities who will combine in their own souls a penetratingknowledge and an intense enthusiasm for the real welfare of mankind. Atrue history can never be born outside this region; the world, withoutsuch a conviction, can only wander out of one morass into [p. 85]another; and failure after failure will be the inevitable result of allthe attempts. Movements will have value and duration only in so far asthey are the outcome of a need of a spiritual life which includesdemands of intellect, morality, and religious idealism. Eucken shows at the close of his remarkable article in _Beiträge zurWeiterentwickelung der Religion_ that some form or other of the Eternalmust enter into time and its changes, and become a norm towards whichmankind will move. When this happens, mankind will not be content tolook merely beyond the grave for the redemption of the race and theannihilation of sin. The very world in which we live is surrounded by anover-world of ideal truth and goodness. Why should we live on "hope andtarrying" when there is so much to be done and gained? The energies ofmen run on such lines into "sickly sentimentalism" and "watery wishes, "and nothing great issues out of our activities on the surface of life. History becomes no more than a succession of changes of which the laterare of no more value than the earlier. All this happens, because thereis no Eternal--no over-world of over-individual and over-historicalvalues--present. In a large measure our very religion grants us here butlittle help. It is either a contemplation of certain events in the pastwhich were delivered for once and for all or an immersion in the socialenvironment. [p. 86] We remain aliens to the truth that these events canbe repeated to-day. We are not convinced as to the possibilities of ourown nature and of the realisation of the Divine in the making ofhistory. Our age is an age of stripping things of their connections andqualities and of finding their essence in what they _were_ and not inwhat they _are_ and _ought to be_. Even history is brought back to itsorigin from savagery; and its explanation is sought in its _beginnings_and not in its _ends_; the aspirations of the soul are supposed to beexplained in their totality when biological and psychological names aregiven them; enthusiasm and conviction, which leave the level of thedaily rut and the conventionalities of society, are branded as signs ofshallowness and even of insanity. We are in the midst of plenty, andfeed on husks. The situation will not be altered until we turn fromintellect to intuition--which is no other than a turn from the mere wayin which things are put together to what the things essentially are andought to be in their meaning and value. When this happens, a new meaningwill be given to history, and the events of the day will be illuminedand valued in the light of the standard of spiritual ideals. Can we thendoubt that there works in history a Divine element which isover-historical, and which alone gives their meanings and values to theevents of history itself? * * * * * CHAPTER V [p. 87] RELIGION AND PSYCHOLOGY It has been noticed in the two previous chapters how Eucken discoveredthe presence of a mental or spiritual life in the very act of knowingany object in the physical world. And the presence of such a lifeenables the percept to turn into a concept. Such a concept is somethingfar removed from the level of the sensuous object or of its mereperception. We are in this very act in a world of _meaning_. When such ameaning comes to be acknowledged, it forms a kind of standard whichinterprets any future facts that enter into it. The further the progressof the knowledge of physical objects advances the more the conceptsbecome removed from the level of the sensuous; as is witnessed, forinstance, in the forms of laws and hypotheses, which constitute the verygroundwork of physical science. The physical scientist, whether he isconscious of it or not, has constructed an ideal world of _meaning_which constitutes the explanation [p. 88] of the external world. This isa fact so familiar that it needs no further elucidation here. But thereis great need for calling attention to the power which _does_ all thisas well as to the reality of the interpretation which that power, in itscontact with physical phenomena, has brought forth. That such a power ofthe mind is connected with physical existence does not in the leastexplain its nature. It is not physical _now_; it is meaning and value, and there is no such thing as meaning or value in the nature of physicalobjects in themselves. Their meaning and value come into being when theyserve a purpose which the mind has framed concerning them. Euckeninsists that a reality must be ascribed to so much as all this--to thatwhich knows and interprets Nature. However much Nature and Spiritresemble one another, however much the latter is dependent on theformer, Nature must be conceived as exhibiting a lower grade of realitythan mind. Indeed, Nature could not exist for mind unless there were amind to know it; and this fact inevitably leads us to ask the question, whether Nature could exist at all. [25] Eucken maintains that the insufficient attention paid to this priorityof the subject is the [p. 89] defect of all the systems which havereduced life and all its values to their lowest denominator. A naiverealism is a relic of past ancestry; it is a failure to conceiveanything as reality unless it lends itself to the senses. Had men notgrasped a higher order of reality than that of the external object, noneof the mental and moral gains of the world would ever have beenrealised. Hence, man has to insist that the mental or spiritual life isthe possessor of a reality of its own, although much of the materialcomprising that reality has been drawn from the physical world throughthe senses. But the spiritual life has proceeded far beyond theseinitial stages of knowing the world. Material of a kind other than thephysical has presented itself to it. Thus, in will-relations we find thematerial itself belonging to a higher order of existence than thematerial of the physical world. It is then what might be expected whenthe spiritual life, within the domain of events of human history, formsa Life-system higher in its nature than the natural process. Eucken then concludes that Nature and History require for theirinterpretation the presence of a spiritual life. Nature involves thespiritual in the very power of mind in knowing external things. He wouldnot state that the physical course of things is enough in itself toprove the existence of spiritual life. We are uncertain of any workingtowards [p. 90] definite ends in Nature. The whole matter belongs to theregion of speculation; and speculation based on something other thanobservation and experiment has greatly retarded progress in connectionwith the truest interpretation of the highest things. Eucken wouldreally agree here with the physical scientist pure and simple that, however far back the investigations of the physical world are carried, the scientist does not seem to come to anything at the furthest pointwhich bears more affinity to what is mental than was to be discovered atthe point from which he set out. But in History it is different. We are here dealing with material whichis not in space, and which has not resulted through any mere successionin time. The material, in fact, is timeless, because it is a synthesisof factors which cannot be reckoned mechanically, and which requires agreat span of time in order to be constructed by the spirit of man. Atthis level the spiritual life has gained a reality which isover-personal as well as personal. It is true that this over-personalreality is in the _mind_ of the individual; but that does not mean thatthe reality is no more than a private experience. Its content is clearlynow higher and more significant than the individual's own life. That wecannot locate in space this over-personal aspect of the ideal isprobably a disadvantage. But this cannot be helped; and [p. 91] it cannotpossibly be otherwise, simply because the over-personal reality is not aspatial thing. The same may be said of the content of individualexperience, even when it does not for the time being hold before itselfany ideal. But such over-personal elements mean more than was to befound on the level of _knowing_ the world. A further development ofspiritual life has taken place; and reality has become _objective_ inits nature and _subjective_ in its apprehension and appropriation by theindividual. Reality has, through the over-personal which has evolved inhistory, obtained _a cosmic significance_; and it is out of this regionthat a _Lebensanschauung_ as well as a true _Weltanschauung_ havedeveloped. This digression from the subject of this chapter has probably preparedus to see that the potentiality of consciousness and the presence ofover-personal elements presenting themselves to consciousness are thetwo main elements in the construction of the several grades of realitywhich present themselves on the lower level of Nature and on the higherlevel of History. But our question now is, Does the nature of man himself confirm suchstatements as have already been made? And it is to man's own nature andits content we now turn, as these are presented in Eucken's teaching. It is probable that Eucken has done less justice to psychology from theside of the [p. 92] connection of consciousness with the external world. He is aware, and points out the fact in several of his books, of theclose connection between mind and body; but seems to think that the factis sufficiently brought out by text-books on psychology that some kindof dualism or parallelism is absolutely necessary to be held in order toaccount for the content of consciousness. What exact meaning andprovince should be assigned to psychology is to-day a matter of seriousdispute. Textbooks of the nature of William James's _Principles ofPsychology_ present a double aspect of the subject-matter as well as ofits mode of treatment. It is often difficult to differentiate in James'sworks where one aspect ends and another begins. Psychology is presentedby him as a natural science on one page, and on the opposite page wediscover ourselves in the region of ethics and even of metaphysics andreligion. On the one side, we find the _connection_ of consciousness andits mode of operation with the physical organism presented in termswhich emphasise the mechanical and chemical sides. On the other side, the _content_ of consciousness itself, _after_ the connection has takenplace, is presented as a psychology as well. So that several importantwriters on psychology have emphasised the need of differentiating oneaspect from the other, and of confining the meaning of psychology to thedescription and explanation of the _connection_ [p. 93] of mind andbody. [26] But when we pass to the content of consciousness, somethingmore than a mere connection of mind and body is discovered. The contentof consciousness includes the _Will_--the unrest of consciousness in itsactual situation, a dissatisfaction with its state of inertia, and amovement towards some End. When the Will operates with the content ofconsciousness we are in a realm which is beyond the physical--a realm, too, which is other than a passive, descriptive attitude of a spectatorof things. The realm of _values_ has now been reached; and a content, different in its nature from any account it is able to give of itself orof its connection with the physical, starts on its own independentcourse. The psychologist is "right in insisting that the atoms do notbuild up the whole universe of science. There are contents inconsciousness, sensations and perceptions, feelings and impulses, whichthe scientist must describe and explain too. But if the psychologist isthe real natural scientist of the soul, this whole interplay of ideasand emotions and volitions appears to him as a world of causallyconnected processes which he watches and studies as a spectator. Howeverrich the manifold of the inner experience, everything, seen from astrictly psychological standpoint, [p. 94] remains just as indifferentand valueless as the movement of the atoms in the outer experience. Pleasures are coming and going; but the onlooking subject ofconsciousness has simply to become aware of them, and has no right tosay that they are better or more valuable than pain, or that theemotions of enjoyment or the ideas of wisdom or the impulses of virtueare, psychologically considered, more valuable than grief or vice orfoolishness. In the system of physical and psychical objects, there isthus no room for any possible value; and even in the thought and idea ofvalue there is nothing but an indifferent mental state produced bycertain brain excitement. For as soon as we illuminate and shade andcolour the world of the scientist in reference to man's life and death, or to his happiness and pain, we have carelessly destroyed the puresystem of science, and given up the presupposition of the strictlynaturalistic work. "[27] Wundt presents a standpoint not quite sopronounced, but which looks in the same direction. [28] This fundamental difference has been recognised by Eucken, and forms animportant contribution on his part towards elucidating [p. 95] themeaning of spiritual life not only in the process of knowing but in itsnew beginning in its creation of an "inner world of values. " The contentpresent in the construction of this "new world" is other than a mentalcontent expressing connection of psychical and physical. Euckendifferentiates between the two aspects already referred to, anddesignates the difference by the terms _Noological and PsychologicalMethods_. These methods are most clearly presented in _The Truth ofReligion_. He says: "To explain _noologically_ means to arrange thewhole of spiritual life [including mental life] as a special spiritualactivity, to ascertain its position and problem, and through such anadaptation to illumine the whole and raise its potencies. To explain_psychologically, _ on the contrary, means to investigate _how_ manarrives at the apprehension and appropriation of a spiritual content andespecially of a spiritual life, with what psychic aids is the spiritualcontent worked out, how the interest of man for all this is to beraised, and how his energy for the enterprise is to be won. Here one hasto proceed from an initial point hardly discernible, and step by step, discover the way of ascent; thus the psychological method becomes at thesame time a psychogenetic method. The main condition is that bothmethods be held sufficiently apart in order that the conclusions of bothmay not flow together, and yet may form a fruitful completion. " [p. 96] "Such separation and union of both methods and theircorresponding realities make it possible to understand how to overcomeinwardly the old antithesis between Idealism and Realism. Thefundamental truth of Idealism is that the spiritual contents establishan independence and self-value over against the individual, that theytrain him with superior energy, and that they are not material for hispurely human welfare. In the _noological method_ this truth obtains afull recognition. Realism, however, has its rights in the forward sweepof the specifically human side of life with all its diversions, itsconstraints, and its preponderantly natural character. Viewed from thisstandpoint, the main fact is that life is raised out of the idle calm ofits initial stages, and is brought into a current; in order to bringthis about, much is urgently needful by man, which cannot originate, prior to the appearance of the spiritual estimation of values, but whichbecomes his when he is set in a strong current; then, on the one hand, anxiety for external existence, division into parties, ambition, etc. , and, on the other hand, the mechanism of the psychic life with itsassociation, reproduction, etc. , are all seen in a new light. Thesemotive powers would certainly never produce a spiritual content out ofman's own ability; such a content is only reachable if the movement oflife raises man out of and above the initial performances and theinitial motives. No mechanism, [p. 97] either of soul or of society, isable to accomplish this; it can be accomplished alone by an inwardspirituality in man. Through such a conception, Realism and Idealism areno longer irreconcilable opponents, but two sides of one encompassinglife; one may grow alongside the other, but not at the expense of theother. Indeed, the more the content of the spiritual life grows, themore becomes necessary on the side of psychic existence; the more wesubmerge ourselves in this psychic existence, the greater appears thesuperiority of the spiritual life. "[29] This difference between nöologyand psychology is pointed out by Eucken in his delineation of spirituallife along the whole course of its development. The insistence on thereality of life within the region of values, brought forth through theactivity of the Will, is shown to be absolutely necessary in order thatlife may not sink into the level of the mere physical object on the onehand, and into mere subjectivity and momentary changes of consciousnesson the other hand. It is a decision at this point which constitutes thegreat turn to a life of the spirit and to the granting to it of a_self-subsistence_ as real as objects in the external world; it is aturn which includes, further, a new beginning of a remove from thecontent of the moment and from the impinging of the environment upon thesubject; it is a realisation by the mind and [p. 98] soul that its owncontent is now on a path which has to be carved out, step by step, byits own spiritual potency. It is in the light of what is attempted andaccomplished in this respect that the external world and all itsramifications into the soul are in the last resort to be interpreted. When the foundation of life is thus placed upon a spiritual content ofmeaning and value, norm and end, the _first impressions_ of things areseen as nothing more than preparatory stages and conditions to a lifebeyond themselves. To come to a decision, insisted on again and again, in regard to the reality of life and its content is not possible withoutthe deepest act of the whole of the soul. Such a conviction concerningthe spiritual kernel of our being is not a mere matter either of thoughtor feeling or will. The three make their contribution towards the greataffirmation which takes place, but they are united at a depth inconsciousness which has no psychological name; they come to a kind offocus within the blending of the over-individual norms and the need andcapacity of the soul for such norms. When this happens, the individualhas created a cleft in his own nature which renders it foreverimpossible for him to be satisfied with the mere external aspectproduced by the first impressions of things. An inverted order of thingshas come about: the sensuous world is relegated to the circumference, and a spiritual world [p. 99] dawns within the content of the soul. Thisis the deepest meaning of religion; and, as we shall see at a laterstage, it constitutes the very nucleus of Christianity with itsannouncement of conversion, the regeneration of the soul, and the unionand communion of man with the Divine. Doubtless all this is difficult of apprehension, mainly on account ofthe fact that there is no proof for it in a manner that can be madeintelligible. But the question arises, What is the power that acts andbrings forth proofs concerning anything? It is evidently not the wholeof the potentialities of man's nature: it is no more than theunderstanding dealing with the evidence of impressions. But theunderstanding, when dealing with the content of the union of individualpotency and over-individual norms, is dealing with a content infinitelylarger and more complex than itself; the material is too great andintricate for the understanding to handle; it is a fruitless attempt ofthe Part to monopolise the meaning and value of the Whole. The proofrather lies within the domain of the soul itself, and is not somethingwhich may be tacked on to any kind of external, spatial existence; it isthe emergence of a _new kind_ of existence or _self-subsistence. _ Theproof (if we designate it by such an insufficient term) is _within_ theexperience and not _without_; it is the spiritual experience itself andnot merely an account, [p. 100] in the form of even valid logicalconcepts, concerning such experience. [30] The space devoted to this subject may be justified on account of thefact that Eucken's meaning of the evolution of spiritual life towardshigher levels cannot be understood without an understanding of thedistinction between _knowledge_ about experience and the _content_ ofexperience itself, as this latter reveals itself in the waysmentioned. [31] Eucken has lately paid great attention to this matter inthe new edition (1912) of _Hauptprobleme der Religionsphilosophie derGegenwart_, especially in the chapter on the "Philosophy of Religion andthe Psychology of Religion. "[32] The root of the matter here seems to be the ready acknowledgment of thecontent of [p. 101] spiritual life as well as of the fact that itpossesses a higher grade of existence than anything in the world withoutor even within the psychic life. This is granting the manifestation ofspiritual life a foundation deeper than nature, culture, civilisation, and even morality; for it is the norms of the over-world uniting withthe spiritual nature of man which have brought forth all these. Thiswilling acknowledgment becomes ever necessary, because something of _twoworlds_ is now present in the life of the man. On the one hand, thenatural world, with its material elements and its instincts andimpulses, is present in the soul. But, on the other hand, all thesecannot be torn away from the life. They constitute a great deal of thevitality and the pleasure which are the legitimate possessions of man. How cold and soulless would life be without these! But the danger ariseswhen there is not present a Standard sufficiently high and powerful togovern these, and to make them serve the higher interests of the soul. In other words, they must be melted in the contents and values of theover-individual ideals; they must be sanctified to subserve the higher, absolute ends and demands of the spirit. What can we say, then, of Lifewhen the natural assists the spiritual and when the individual passesout to the realm of the over-individual save that a real point ofdeparture into _a new kind of world_ has actually taken [p. 102] place?Even this interpretation is insufficient to explain what happens, although it happens within ourselves; far less, as we have seen, willany other interpretation which explains life in lowest terms suffice. We are then, says Eucken, driven to the conclusion that such a state iseither the breaking forth of a new kind of reality or the worst of allpossible illusions. And this great and inexorable _Either_--_Or_presents itself in every decision taken towards what is higher than thelevel we are standing on. The matter here does not belong to anyspeculative domain, and is not the result of fancy or imagination out ofwhich reason has taken its flight. The matter is concrete--tangiblethrough and through. The history of mankind bears witness to thevalidity of it; the experience of each individual in the deepest momentsof life echoes the experience of the race. The superiority of this _newbeginning in the over-world_ has to be established over and over againby each individual on account of the danger of sinking back to a lowerlevel where the main power of spiritual life is not in action. Acertainty is therefore requisite in the very beginning of theenterprise--an enterprise which is absolute and eternal. No limits areperceptible to the possibilities of spiritual life when the fullestconceivable content of the soul is seated at the centre of life, andwhen every outward is interpreted and governed by an inward. Thisexperience is [p. 103] far removed from all attempts to found religion onspeculation drawn either from the physical world or from thegeneralisations of logic. These have their value--they point to thepresence of some degree of spiritual life when the human mind has workedupon the material presented to it. But the matter at this highest leveldoes _not_ deal with the _relations_ of life but with _life itself_ inthe light of an over-world. Eucken is nowhere finer than when he detects the necessity for theacknowledgment of such a spiritual foundation of life. It is not a mereindividual need, but the union of an individual need with a realityobjective to the need. If the reality were already the possession ofman, no such need could arise. Still, the reality is present in his mindas an idea and ideal; it is present to the individual, but it is not asyet the possession of the individual except in a measure at the best. Sothat the certainty includes within itself a _realisation_ and a further_quest_. And the very nature of the quest involves a _struggle_ of thewhole nature. The certainty has gone so far as to show that the highestgood which presents itself to the soul is the "one thing needful, " andis possible of partial attainment. When all this burns within the soul, something of the norm or ideal gets fixed within it, and the individualstarts to conquer more and more the new world into which he is nowlanded. [p. 104] Often the life is driven out of its course by aliencurrents; a great deal of what the man has now left behind himself stillclings tenaciously to the new life, and the whole soul becomes an arenaoften of a terrible conflict. The spiritual life and its content of anew reality may be temporarily beaten in this warfare; but the battle isfinally won if ever the deepest within the soul has been touched by aconviction of the eternal value and significance of the new life. Theconquest is followed by periods of calm and fruition. Here the deeperenergies gather themselves together; they grant a peace which the worldcannot give and cannot take away; they create new certainties, newdemands, and new attempts for the possession of a reality which is stillhigher in its nature than anything that previously revealed itself. Gradually the soul is forced more than ever to the conviction that thewhole matter is too serious to be of less than of _cosmic_ significance. And it is out of this that the idea of the Godhead arises. It is not aspeculative dream but a conclusion forced upon the man by the actualsituation; the material for the conclusion is not anything whichdescends into the soul with a ready-made content. Eucken states thatsuch a view of revelation belongs to the past history of the race. It isnow no less than a revelation springing from the very nature of the soulat its highest possible level. [p. 105] It occurs only when a foundation, a struggle, and a conquest have been worked out by the soul in themanner already depicted. No close determinations, as we shall see later, are made concerning the meaning and nature of the Godhead. The man ishere at an altitude so rare and pure that it forbids any logical orpsychological analysis. God is not something to be explained, but to bepossessed. When the attempt is made to explain Him, He is very soonexplained away; when he is possessed, He becomes not something otherthan was present before, but _more_ than was present before; a cosmicsignificance is given to the universe and to man's struggle to scale theheights of the over-world with all its momentous values. Here, again, the spiritual life has landed us out of psychology into thedeepest experiences of religion and into the consciousness that the_intermediate_ realities which presented themselves as over-individualnorms and ideals are realities of cosmic significance. The Godhead isnow _possessed_. As Jacob Boehme presents it: "From my youth up I havesought only one thing: the salvation of my soul, the means of gainingpossession of the Kingdom of God. " Here, as Professor Boutroux[33]points out, "Jacob Boehme learnt from the mystics what it means topossess God. One must take care, so these masters [p. 106] teach, not toliken the possession of God to the possession of anything material. Godis spirit, _i. E. _ for the man who understands the meaning of the term, agenerating power previous to all essence, even the divine. God is spirit, _i. E. _ pure will, both infinite and free, with the realisation of its ownpersonality as its object. Henceforward, God cannot be accepted by anypassive operation. We possess Him only if He is created within us. Topossess God is to live the life of God. " This is on lines preciselythose of Eucken, and something of this nature seems to be gaining groundto-day in a strong idealistic school in Germany. We may soon discoverthat a true mysticism is the flowering of the bud of knowledge; thattrue knowledge constitutes a tributary which runs into the ocean of theInfinite Love of the Divine and becomes the most precious possession ofthe soul. [34] Eucken touches on this subject in an extremely interesting chapter inhis _Truth of Religion_. "This is a question of fact, and not ofargument. . . . Because we convinced ourselves that things were so, wegained the standpoint of spiritual experience over against a merelypsychological standpoint. For the [p. 107] latter standpoint occupiesitself with purely psychic processes, and in the province of religionespecially it occupies itself with the conditions of the stimulationsof will and feeling, which are not able to prove anything beyondthemselves. The spiritual experience, on the contrary, has to do withlife's contents and with the construction of reality; it need nottrouble itself concerning the connections of the world except in asubsidiary manner, because it stands in the midst of such connections, and without these it cannot possibly exist. Man never succeeds inreaching the Divine unless the Divine works and is acknowledged in hisown life; what is omitted here in the first step is never againrecovered and becomes more and more impossible as life proceeds on itsmerely natural course. If, however, the standpoint of spiritualexperience is gained, then religion succeeds in attaining entirecertainty and immediacy; then the struggles in which it was involvedturn into a similar result, and its own inner movements become atestimony to the reality of the new world which it represents. "[35] * * * * * CHAPTER VI [p. 108] RELIGION AND SOCIETY Eucken shows that the problems of history are closely allied with thoseof society. The best accounts of the meaning he attaches to humansociety are to be found in _The Main Currents of Modern Thought, DerKampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt_, and _Life Basis and Life Ideal_. The conclusions reached in these three books are the same--they are aninsistence on the need of spiritual life as a creative power in theutilisation of norms and ideals as well as in the creation of furthernorms and ideals. He points out the devious paths which human societyhas travelled over: all these, in the case of society and of theindividual, are shown to lead to disaster when they depend merely uponthe environment or upon the ideals of a utilitarian mode of ahistorico-social construction. Society has gained much through the necessity of emphasising someaspects of a Whole--of thinking and acting collectively--instead [p. 109]of emphasising merely the Parts. The history of human society, in a verylarge measure, is the history of shifting the centre of gravity of lifealternately from the Whole to the Parts and _vice versa_. When thecentre of gravity remains in some kind of Whole, a number of individualsmove towards the same goal, and much that is subjective has to beshifted to the background of life. Now, this is a gain, and it is theonly path on which a corporate life becomes possible. Men (and womentoo) stand shoulder to shoulder when some kind of Whole or Ideal seemsto them to be a necessity of their nature. But progress is brought aboutnot only through cementing human beings together in order to movetowards _any kind_ of ideal. The energy is in the right place, but thequestion has to arise as to the _nature_ of the over-personal idealitself. All over-personal ideals cannot connote the good of _all_, butthe good of all must be present as possessing a validity of its ownbefore any lower over-personal ideal can prevent landing men indisaster. The over-personal ideals which do not include the good of alloften represent the good of a section alone, and all other sections haveto become convinced that this is a good. Thus many Life-systems presentthemselves. Each of these includes a good. The problem is, How is eachsection to realise that there is a good present in what each othersection presents? [p. 110] There must be some common standard by whichthe ideal of each section of the community can be measured, for it is inthe light of such a standard alone that the lower good receives its trueplace, meaning, and value. There are, beyond all sectional over-personalideals, values which connote the highest welfare of everyone "whocarries a human face. " These values are the results of the partiallycollective experiences of the deepest in life, and have been gained inthe history of the race. They are the values which are the needs andrights of all. Justice, Sympathy, Love--these and others are the highestsyntheses. They have, as yet, been only partially reached; and thispartial realisation is the possession of a few, and has not yetsucceeded in becoming the necessary standard which shall pass judgmenton all lower ideals. "Rights are rights, " we are told. This may be true, but something higher has to interpret them, or else one set of rightscomes into conflict with other sets and stands but little chance ofrealisation. And even if realised, a whole series of complexitiesimmediately arises. This has been, in the main, the history of humansociety. And are we able to say that society has progressed much duringthe past century in this direction of illuminating lower needs in thelight of higher ones which include the good of all? Eucken doubtswhether the progress has been great. And here once more, [p. 111] inconnection with the deepest meaning of society and the individual, hesees the need of ideals which are universally true and universallyvalid. This means that the spiritual life as it presents itself in theuniversally true, good, and beautiful, must become the sun which willshine upon all that is below it; it is the Whole in which the Parts mustfind their function and meaning. If the life of society relates itselfto anything lower than this, the best within it cannot come to flowerand fruit. In other words, society will have to return to a conceptionand utilisation of an _absolute spiritual life_ before it can gain anynew territory of eternal value. Probably quite as much attention willhave to be devoted to the Parts--to the environment, the needs of thehour, the material comforts and happiness of life. But granting that thepossession of all these will come about, what then? We are stillwretchedly poor in the "inward parts. " What we have won has not withinitself sufficient spirituality to touch the deepest recesses of thesoul. Material plenty and pleasure are a good when they are used as theyought to be used. Where is that "something" that teaches us this? Whereis the Ought? The Ought is something outside and infinitely higher thanall the gains which the environment or the group is ever able to bringforth. "Life, " says Eucken, [36] "cannot be made simply [p. 112] aquestion of relationship to environment and of the development of mutualrelationships (as this tendency would have it) without the independenceof the isolated factor [spiritual life] being most seriously reduced. And it must not be forgotten that the individual is the sole source oforiginal spiritual life; corporate social life can do no more than uniteand utilise. The maintenance of the strength and freedom of thisoriginal life would be less important, and its limitation would be moreeasily endurable, if human life stood upon a firm foundation and neededonly to follow quietly in a naturally appointed direction. In reality, life is not only full of separate problems, but being situated (as itis) between the realm of mere Nature and the spiritual world, must beginby systematically directing itself aright and ascending from thesemi-spiritual to the truly spiritual construction of life. It is hencecalled upon to perform great tasks, which cannot be carried out withoutserious efforts and the mobilisation of all our spiritual forces. Thisnecessarily leads us back to the original sources of strength, and henceto the individual. " This passage represents well Eucken's main teaching in regard to oursocial problems. We shall ever fail in the highest sense if thespiritual content of life is no more than a _means_ to reach materialends, however necessary such ends may be. For in such a [p. 113] mannerspiritual life--the universally true and valid--is reduced to a lowerplane; it becomes entangled in lower stages, and thus ceases to be a"light on the hill" illumining the steep upward path. Convictions of aspiritual nature--the very forces which have moulded society--are absentfrom such a system of life which has no more than the day or the hour tolook forward to. Individual and society become the creatures of mereimpulses and passions, stimulated to activity by a "dead-level"environment. Something of value is gained when even this kind ofenvironment is a good; but the response is quite as readily given tothat which is injurious, simply because the "universally true and good"is absent as an inwardness and conviction in the soul. Without such an inwardness and its content the deeper energy of life isnot touched, and men drift with the tide of the environment. Without theideals or syntheses which are, in their very nature, universal andabsolute, progress comes to a standstill, and degeneration soon sets in. The ordinary situation, apart from the presence of the content of theover-world within the life of the soul, swings like a pendulum between ashallow optimism and a blind pessimism. There is no power present in thesoul to come to any fundamental decision, but life drifts on a riverbetween Yea and Nay; a failure to penetrate beneath the [p. 114] crust ofchance and circumstance becomes evident, and the deeper values andmeanings of life disappear. Eucken's only solution for our present-day troubles is a return to ourown deeper nature as this was depicted in previous chapters. The signsof the times, he tells us, are encouraging; the utilitarian mode of lifeis wearing itself out; the tastes of material comforts have been with uslong enough to experience the poverty of their quality; and the madgamble for the "things which perish" is gradually weeding out itsdevotees. Eucken's solution to the problems of society is a _religious_one. Where is the conception of religion as the solution of themomentous and intricate problems of our day to be found in the teachingsand writings of our economists? It is not to be found. These deal eitherwith petty details or with laws which have no spiritual content whateverin them. Society may proceed with various Life-systems--individualism, socialism, or any other, but until it gets into touch with its deepestsoul, each such system of life is hastening towards its own destructionand towards the injury of progress. The conception of the State is presented by Eucken in a similar manner. He points out how we stop short in our politics of dealing with theuniversally true and good. Party strives against party, and nationagainst nation. [p. 115] Groups of all hues and cries propound their ownparticular ideals as the all-important ones. Higher ideals are left outof account, so that we find the world to-day spending its energies inwarfare concerning many things of minor importance. How can we expectfruition and bliss to follow on such lines? Eucken presents in a convincing manner the danger of resting upon theexternal in Society and State. "We are experiencing to-day a remarkableentanglement. The older forms of Life, which had hitherto governedhistory and its meaning, have become too narrow, petty, and subjectivefor human nature. Through emancipation from an easy-going subjectivityand through the positing of life upon external things and, indeed, uponthe whole of the great universe, Life, it was believed, would gain morebreadth and truth; and in a noteworthy manner man undertook a struggleagainst the pettiness of his own nature and for the drawing out of allthat was merely human and trivial. A great deal has been gained throughsuch a change and new tendency of life. In fact we have discovered farmore than we had hoped for. But, at the same time, we have lostsomething--a loss which at the outset occasions no anxiety, but which, however, through painful experience, proves itself to have been the 'onething needful. ' Through its own development the work has destroyed itsown vehicles; it has [p. 116] undermined the very ground upon which itstood; it has failed, notwithstanding its infinite expansion, throughits loss of a fundamental and unifying Life-process; and in the entireimmersion of man into activity his deepest being has been sacrificed. Indeed, the more exclusively Life transforms itself into external work, the more it ceases to be an inner personal experience, and the morealien we become to ourselves. And yet the fact that we can be consciousof such an alienation--an alienation that we cannot accept indifferently--is a proof that more is firmly implanted in us than the moderndirection of life is able to develop and satisfy. We acknowledgesimultaneously that we have gained much, but that the loss is a painfulone. We have gained the world, but we have lost the soul; and, alongwith this, the world threatens to bring us to nought, and to take awayour one secure foothold in the midst of the roaring torrent of materialwork. "[37] Eucken shows that the individual will obtain his true place in Societyand the State only when spiritual ideals have become fixed norms--normswhich form the highest synthesis to be conceived of. And Society and theState will discover their vocations in precisely the same manner. It isimpossible to shut our eyes to the fact that things are not well withthe world to-day. The growth of the material [p. 117] interests of theworld and of life has become a menace on a scale unknown in the previoushistory of civilisation. There is only one refuge in the midst of allthis welter and chaos. That indestructible refuge is "an inner synthesisand spiritual elevation of life. " It is this alone which can prevent thedisintegration that is bound to follow in its absence. The petty humanelement cannot be eliminated from this; and the mere life of thehour--the life that has no substance of duration within itself--cannotbe stopped on its reckless career without the presence of spiritualideals within and without. If the world proceeds in its denial of thereality and need of spiritual life and its over-world, the negation, when it reaches its climax of disaster and despair, will "turn againhome"--to the necessity of spiritual values--and out of the ruins a newhumanity will emerge. Thus, once more we are landed into the province of a religion ofspiritual life as a necessity in the affairs of the world and of theState. Eucken's great plea is that the civilised nations of the worldshould become aware of all this before it is too late to turnback--before the boat has reached too near the rapids to avoid disaster. The remedy is in our own hands. How to create the consciousness of thesituation is the problem of problems, and all individuals are called tobring the whole of their energies to its solution. [p. 118] It is evident that some kind of uneasiness has to take place inthe deepest recess of the human soul, but the best ways and means ofdoing this are not yet quite evident. [38] We know what we need and whatprevents decadence of individuals and nations. "If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye _do_ them" (Gospel of John). The bridge between aknowledge of the Ought and its possession is difficult to construct, butits importance is necessary to be brought constantly before the people. The majority of the people have thought fit to leave almost the onlyplace where such an obligation was presented--_i. E. _ the ChristianChurch. Until they return, or some other institution higher than theChurch is brought into existence, the peril will remain. No individualconviction, based on anything less than spiritual ideals, will suffice. What we are looking for is in our midst; it is and has been from thevery beginning, in spite of an "existential form, " largely archaic, present in the spiritual nucleus of the Christian religion. * * * * * CHAPTER VII [p. 119] RELIGION AND ART Eucken has written less on this subject than on any of those whichconstitute the headings of the chapters of this book. But he has treatedart in precisely the same manner as he has treated all other importantproblems: he has shown that no great art is possible unless it is rootedin a creativeness which is _spiritual_. In his _Main Currents of ModernThought_ we get an instructive account of art and its relation tomorality. His account of the development of art in modern times, fromthe Renaissance to the present day, shows the ebb and flow of theconception of the Beautiful. The check which the Renaissance receivedthrough the Reformation in relation to art had its good as well as itsevil side. Intense scorn arose in the Protestant world for every kind ofimage and decoration, because these were supposed to posit life on whatwas purely sensuous and natural, and so bar the way to the Divine. Still, the obstruction [p. 120] created by Protestantism in thisdirection opened a door in quite another direction. Art of a higher kindthan picture or statue arose, which was far removed from the sensuouslevel and which emerged from a deeper soil within the soul. The wholeseries of musical composers produced by Germany is a proof of this. Theperiod of the _Aufklärung_ viewed art with scant favour, but with therise of the New Humanism a change in favour of art took place. The origin of this change is to be found where one might least expectit--in the soul of the sage of Königsberg. Kant's _Critique of Judgment_is unanimously allowed to be the greatest book ever produced on thesubject. Goethe and Schiller were influenced by it--the latter in aremarkable manner. We find in these writers an effort to unite the Goodand the Beautiful. It is impossible to read the poetry of Goethe withoutfinding that great moral problems are imbedded in his conceptions of theBeautiful. His poetry is an attempt to bridge the chasm between theexternal world and the soul. His nature was too deep to remain satisfiedwith the mere impressions of the senses. The union of the world_without_ with the world _within_ gave him a view of the universe and ofhuman life full of originality and suggestiveness. Schiller worked in practically the same direction. A moral standpoint ofa high order [p. 121] is to be discovered in his writings, and hebelieved this standard to be possible of preservation alongside of alegitimate "freedom granted in the phenomenon. " "Then the two tendenciesagain became divided. Romanticism gave a peculiar definite andself-conscious expression to the priority of art and the aestheticalview of life, while Fichte and the other leaders of the nationalmovement exerted a powerful influence in the direction of strengtheningmorality. The social and industrial type of civilisation, which becamemore and more powerful during the course of the nineteenth century, wasinclined, with its tendency towards social welfare and utility, toassign a subordinate part to art. Modern art arises in protest againstthis and is ambitious to influence the whole of life; in opposition tomorality it holds up an aesthetic view of life as being alonejustifiable. Hence at the present time the two spheres stand wideapart. "[39] Eucken shows how such an antithesis between morality and art haspartially existed for thousands of years. But whenever a cleavage takesplace both morality and art suffer. On the one hand, morality tends tobecome a system of rules for the performance of which a reward ispromised either in this world or in the world to come. On the otherhand, art is stripped of the distinction between the values of sensuousthings as these express [p. 122] themselves in their relation to humanlife. In the former case, insistence on morality (even on moralityalone) has deepened human life; it has given it a more strenuous tone;and it has created a scale of values which alters the whole meaning oflife. But morality conceived as a system of regulations and laws hasalways the tendency to harden and narrow the life, and to posit theindividual too much upon himself. Any justification from without--fromthe physical side--consequently fails to give any help or satisfaction. And man needs this help. As it is impossible for him to fly out of theworld to some region where mind or spirit alone reigns, he has to do thebest he can with the physical world in the midst of which he exists. Itis within such a world that he has to cultivate the spiritual potenciesof his own being. It is true that the spiritual potencies of his ownbeing are higher and of more value than anything in Nature. Still, thatdoes not mean that Nature has to be discarded or condemned before thepotencies of his own being can develop. Nature is not a mere blindmachine; it has produced all--including man and his potencies--that isto be found on the face of it. It is therefore not entirely meaningless, and the meaning it possesses is a necessary element in the evolution ofpersonal spiritual life. Man must enter into some relation with Nature. But such a relation produces even more than all this. When viewed in afriendly mood, [p. 123] Nature herself wears an aspect higher than amaterialistic or intellectual one. It calls forth the best inimagination; it enables us to feel that something of the power thatdwells within the soul dwells also in all the manifestations ofphenomena. [40] This fact is evident in all the poetry of the world, andwithout the perpetual presence of Nature to the soul in the form ofwonder, reverence, and admiration, no poetry worthy of the name ispossible. Nature thus is of value in the fact that when its phenomenapresent themselves to a consciousness aware not only of its _knowing_aspect but also of its _feeling_ aspect, the union of Nature and soulproduces a feeling of reality which creates an ideal nature. "The lightthat never was on sea or land" becomes now on sea and land; itilluminates the whole scene with a "halo and glory" which was concealedbefore. But there must be present "an eye of the soul" united with thephysical impressions before all this is possible. Indeed, the effect ofall this is nothing less than an ideal creation of a world consisting ofNature and the spiritual potencies of man. It is evident that if the_internal_ [p. 124] factor, which represents itself in the form ofmorality or value, is absent, the picture of Nature is quite different. And this is Eucken's complaint in regard to much of the art of thepresent day: the internal factor is absent. Seriousness is not blendedwith freedom in it; or, in other words, the _inward_ has no power topass its quality into the _outward_. But when the _inward_ is present inthe form of morality or value, then art becomes joyous, serious, helpful, and disinterested. This last aspect of the disinterestedness ofart was perceived clearly by Kant, and has formed an importantcontribution to the philosophy and even to the religion of thenineteenth century. When a potency of the soul, gained in a provinceoutside art (as is the case with morality or value), operates, there isno danger of art degenerating into mere subjectivism; otherwise there isa very grave danger. Loosened from morality it becomes a mere play ofdecoration and fancy--a mere superficial embroidery of an empty life; itcan look on the human world and all its struggles with an indifferentand often cynical mood. Why has all this happened? Because the inwardfactor of the "strenuous mood" has been replaced by a sentimental factorbased on nothing deeper than the satisfaction of the senses; and theresult of this is found in feelings which are more psychical thanspiritual in their nature. But that art is necessary for any completion [p. 125] of life is seen bythe fact that its contribution to the soul is more than a _thought_contribution. For the deeper life of the spirit of man is more thanthought, although thought forms an essential element of it; this deeperlife has wider demands than can be expressed in the form of logicalpropositions. Eucken shows how true art is therefore indissolublyconnected with spiritual life. "Without the presence of a spiritualworld [the resultant of the union of the spiritual potencies andexternal objects], art has no soul and no secure fundamentalrelationship to reality, and in no way can it develop a fixed style. We hear to-day of a 'new style, ' and are in the saddle after such aconception. But shall we find it so long as the whole of life does notfasten itself upon simple fundamental lines and does not follow the mainpath in the midst of all the tangle of effort? How is it possible toattain to a unity of interpretation where our life itself fails in thepossession of a governing unity? We discover ourselves in the midst ofthe most fundamental transformations of life; old ideals are vanishing, and new ones are dawning on the horizon. But as yet they are all full ofunrest and unreadiness; and the situation of man in the All of things isso full of uncertainty that he has to struggle anew for the meaning andvalue of his life. If art has nothing to say to him and no help tooffer--if it relegates these questions far from itself--then art itselfmust sink to the level of a [p. 126] subsidiary play the more theseproblems win the mind and spirit of man. But if art is capable ofbringing a furtherance of values to man in his needs and sorrows, itwill have to recognise and acknowledge the problems of spiritual life aswell as participate in the struggle for the vindication and formation ofa spiritual world. When art does this, these questions which engage ourattention are also its questions. "[41] In spite of the contradictions of life, in spite of much which seemsindifferent to human weal and woe within the physical universe, thecontradictions may be surmounted by the union of man's spirit with otheraspects of existence which look in an opposite direction. The idealworld of art is not to be discovered by ignoring these contradictions, but by acknowledging them to the full, and by seeing that Nature issupplemented by man and his soul. Such a union, as has already beenpointed out, will create an earnestness and joyousness of life; it willenable man, when any teleology of Nature herself fails to give himsatisfaction, to realise a teleology within the _substance_ of his ownlife--spiritual in its essence, infinite in its duration, and theflowering of a bud which has grown with the help of the natural cosmos. When Nature is thus viewed as a preparatory stage for spirit, it willwear an aspect very different from the mechanical one. Its realteleology [p. 127] will be seen: there can be no dispute about it; it hasactually produced man, and man has now to carry farther the evolutionaryprocess. Eucken has presented this aspect in a fine manner in hisarticle on Schiller in _Kantstudien_[42] (Band X. , Heft 3), _Festschriftzu Schillers hundertstem Todestage_. No one in modern times discoveredthe contradictions of the world in regard to the needs of man more thanSchiller. And yet no one led a more joyous life than this "half-poet, half-thinker. " Pressed from within and without by many alien elements, he overcame them all and found, despite his physical weakness, what agift life is. It is in the direction of a great synthesis of spirituallife and natural phenomena that true art will discover the qualities fora permanent duration. Such a synthesis will enrich the spiritual life, and will grant it something of higher construction concerning themeaning and value of the union of Nature and Man. So Eucken has oncemore landed us into the spiritual life as the source and goal of alltrue Art. "Only the rooted knowledge to high sense Of heavenly can mount, and feel the spur For fruitfullest achievement, eye a mark Beyond the path with grain on either hand, Help to the steering of our social Ark Over the barbarous waters unto land. "[43] * * * * * CHAPTER VIII [p. 128] UNIVERSAL RELIGION We have followed Eucken's system developing step by step from the stageof knowing the world up through the evolution of spiritual life inhistory, in the soul, in art, and in society. Everywhere theinvestigation has revealed a progressive autonomy and duration ofspiritual life in the midst of all the kaleidoscopic aspects of theobjects which presented themselves to consciousness. Something spiritualhas persisted and evolved in the midst of all the changes, and thechanges have been utilised by this deeper potency of the soul. Throughthe evolution of this spiritual potency changes have been brought aboutin the external world, in human society, and in the individual soul. This spiritual potency has bent things to subserve its own inherentdemands. The union of conation and cognition within the soul has broughtforth everything that has happened outside the natural process of thephysical world, and much even of that world [p. 129] has been madesubservient to man. When the attention is turned to this "fact of facts"concerning the work of spiritual life, individually and collectively, itis impossible to consider it as a mere addendum to the natural process, however closely connected it may be with that process. Sufficient hasbeen said to prove the superiority of spiritual life over the wholeaspects and manifestations of Nature. The question, then, cannot be laidaside concerning the nature of the life of the spirit in itself. What isit now? What is it capable of becoming? Why should its evolution snap atits highest point? Why cannot the power that has accomplished so much inthe history of our world, and has always done this the more efficientlythe more a remove from the realm of the sensuous took place--why cannotsuch a power proceed farther on its course? And what limits can be setto it? The pertinency of such and other questions cannot be doubted. Thespiritual life has ascended too high and accomplished too much to betreated with indifference. And yet that is the way it is being treatedonly too widely to-day. Men hesitate to grant to it a reality of its ownbecause of its close connection with mechanical and chemical elements. They half affirm and half deny its reality. The question arises, What isreality? Eucken agrees with the great idealists of the world thatreality in its highest manifestation is [p. 130] something that pertainsto spirit and meaning rather than to matter and its behaviour. [44] Ourrigid clinging to a meaning of reality from the side of its physicalhistory is doubtless a remnant of a race--memory which may be largelyphysical in its nature. We find a difficulty in conceiving as yet areality existing in itself--existing in itself though material elementshave helped it on its upward course. But even here it is not at allcertain that nothing but material elements have operated in thisfundamental process. Men have by now known enough of the connection ofmind with lower processes in order to be aware of a mystery present inthe whole operation--a mystery which does not yield itself to thesenses. But even such a past history of the spiritual life is not all that canbe said concerning it. It is _now_ in process of evolution, and itsgreatest work is always accomplished not by looking backward butforward. The whole universe has operated in bringing spiritual life intoexistence. Are there any reasons whatever for concluding that the wholeuniverse is not co-operating _now_ in its further development? Life, civilisation, culture, morality, and religion are proofs that this lifeof the spirit is moving onward and upward. It does not move withoutchecks and entanglements [p. 131] from without and within, but in every"long run" it is gaining some new ground and tilling it as its own. Itdare not turn back; it dare not throw away the pack of the _Sollen_ (theOught) off its shoulders. The over-individual norms have plantedthemselves too strongly in the heart of humanity to be ever uprooted. The meaning and value of life now lie in a _beyond_. It is not a_beyond_ within any physical region that _was_; neither is it, so far aswe know, a _beyond_ in any physical region that _is to be_. It is a_beyond of the spirit_; and as it is the most real and most requisitepossession of man, how can it have anything less than a _cosmic_significance? The future of spiritual life is therefore governed not bysomething that is _to be_ in the cosmos, but by something that is _now_present in it--by the acknowledgment, assimilation, and appropriation byman and humanity of spiritual norms which are far beyond their presentactual situation. The whole meaning here is that something _sub specie aeternitatis_ hasto take the foremost place in life. We are beings who perpetually_move_. Eucken and Bergson are both emphasising this to-day. But thelatter deals with the movement alone; he has no notion whither we aregoing, nor can he possibly have until he revises very largely hisconception of the function and meaning of intellect in life. [45] But[p. 132] Eucken states that we do know whither we are going. What are theover-personal spiritual norms and standards but stars by which to steerthe direction of our course over the tempestuous sea of time? Everyonewho guides his life in connection with reason guides it by means of somenorm or other. Even the daily avocation requires this in order to befulfilled. And the norms which furnish guidance to the spiritual lifehave originated and are utilised in precisely the same manner as thoseof the daily avocation. The only difference is that there is moremeaning and value in the former than in the latter. But each is a_Sollen_ and constitutes a _beyond_. This _Sollen_ is a certainty; itexists, and its existence is _in itself. _ It is the star for the_Wollen. _[46] The Will is our own; the Ought is not our own; the factthat we possess it as an idea is no proof that it has become apossession of the whole of life. In this sense the Ought has anobjectivity and a subsistence of its own. The Will has to travel in thedirection of the Ought, and its course is mapped out by this Ought atevery step of its progress. Hence, in order to reach towards the_Sollen_ the nature of the _Sollen_ must become known. As noticed inprevious chapters, such a movement towards so high [p. 133] a goalbecomes a difficult task--a task which demands the activity of the wholespiritual nature. Man's dependency and the meaning of his life are thusset before his eyes, and the aspects of momentary existence are valuedas of secondary importance. Unless this meaning of the norm becomesclear, life will revolve around the reality nearest-at-hand, and willconsequently fail to unfold the deeper spirituality of its nature. "Andif all depended on the brief flash of the moment, which endures but thetwinkling of an eye, only to vanish into the dark of nothingness, thenall life would mean a mere exit into death. Thus, without eternity thereis no spirituality, and without connection there is no content of life. But what is enthroned in itself above Time becomes for the man who winssuch a spirituality, first of all, an immense task which allows itselfto be grasped on the field of Time alone; and, also, the Eternal whichworks within us and which hovers before us on the horizon of Eternitycan become our full possession only through the movement of Time. Towish to check the course of Time means not to serve Eternity, but toascribe to Time what belongs to Eternity. "[47] It is not said by Eucken anywhere in his writings that the _natural_sources at which Life drinks must be abandoned. These remain with us aslong as we are in this world of space and [p. 134] time. But these arenot found in the same place, neither is the same importance attached tothem, once the meaning and value of the over-personal norms and thepotency of spiritual creativeness have come into union with one another. What Eucken means by universal religion is the establishment of thisindependency and supremacy of spiritual life over all else in the world. We have already dealt with this aspect in former chapters; theconclusion was reached that everywhere the presence of a life of thespirit made itself felt, and gave a meaning and interpretation to alllife and existence. That is the conclusion Eucken arrives at in his_Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt. _ The problem of religion _qua_religion is hardly touched. But, indeed, what other than religion canall these conclusions mean? Norm and potency are emphasised. Anelevation above the world and above the "small self" has taken place. But something still has to be done before we have entered into the veryheart of the matter. The problems which arise after all the conclusionspreviously arrived at are acknowledged must be taken into account. Having come so far in regard to the value and meaning of spiritual life, we are bound to go _farther_. No point occurs where we can find aterminus. Though we have already been constrained to grant the norms areality of their own, we have only just touched, here and there, [p. 135]upon their _cosmic_ significance. The matter thus reaches a furtherpoint than we have yet touched. What justification is there for grantingspiritual life this cosmic significance? Attention has already been called to the fact of a distinction betweennature and spirit. But attention has now to be directed to the necessityof emphasising the reality of spirit. The nature of spirit is revealedmost clearly in the life and content of human consciousness. Noanthropomorphic standard from without can come to our aid to establishthe existence of spirit. The standard is to be found within theconsciousness itself. A distinction has to be made between _nature andspirit_. However much they resemble each other in the beginnings oflife, spirit has travelled far beyond nature or matter. It has developedfor itself an essence which may be designated as _substance_. The chiefcharacteristic of matter is that it occupies space; but spirit, thoughconnected with, and largely conditioned by, matter as it exists inspace, is now something quite other--something which has to be grantedan existence of its own, and which forms the beginning of a _new kind ofworld_ and unfolds a _new kind of reality_. The reality of spiritual life is not discovered in anything which isexternal to life; it is to be found in life itself. The reality isrevealed and, indeed, created by an act of the spirit of man. Such anact must be the act of one's [p. 136] own deepest being. But althoughsuch a new reality is not to be found in anything external to life, yetthe very revelation points, as we have already observed, to somethingwhich is over-individual. Even the meaning of the reality itself, fromits _immanent_ side, is something quite other than the natural life andits contents. It is something revealed, but not as yet possessed; it ishard to be reached; and even within the man's own nature obstacles andhindrances of various kinds are to be found. But the new realitypersists in the midst of the hindrances; the man discovers himself asthe possessor of a deeper kind of truth than was present and operativein the ordinary life. A cleavage is therefore made between the "smallself" and the spiritual life. In the degree the former wins through thecalling forth of the deepest activities of the soul, in that degree doesthe transcendent aspect of the new reality urge itself upon man. Andwhen the two aspects--immanent and transcendent--of the reality arefirmly grasped by the soul, the soul moves upward in the exploration andpossession of its new world. The failure to enter into this region of religion is due to the factthat men often attempt to construct religion on certain so-calledfaculties of the soul. Some attempt to discover and establish religionthrough the power and conclusions of the intellect. It is evident thatwhen the knowing aspect of consciousness [p. 137] takes such a leadingpart, and deliberately ignores the affective and active aspects, no morethan a segment of the reality can be discovered, and such a segmentleaves out of account important elements of human nature. If theaffective aspect takes the lead at the expense of the other two aspects, we are here again in a region where only certain fragments of our natureare touched. If the active aspect busies itself without carrying alongwith itself the content of meaning and value to be discovered inconsciousness, the true element of the greatness of the reality ismissing. Eucken shows in his _Truth of Religion_ that there must be apoint in the soul, at some deeper level than any of the three, where thethree are working conjointly. [48] It must be so, because what is now atstake is more than knowing a thing; it is to _be_ the thing we know we_ought to be. _ It is unfamiliarity with such a truth that brings adifficulty into the mind when face to face [p. 138] with the problem ofreligion. The mind has not learned how to attend to the truth in its ownself-subsistence, but posits this truth in its relation to theconditions in the external world which brought it forth. [49] Thus theconception of truth is made up very largely of its history on itsphysical side, and this history of the truth comes to possess the entiremeaning of the truth itself! The road to religion, in its deepest sense, is barred to everyone who fails or refuses to grant the deeper realitywhich presents itself within the soul _a self-subsistence. _ The onlyexistence of such a reality can be its own self-subsistence. The realityis now conceived as something quite other than an existence in space; itexists for consciousness and can persist within consciousness. When reality is conceived as a substance subsisting in itself, thepassage to the Absolute is opened. This Absolute is the most universaland complete meaning and value which the soul is capable of possessing;its very nature forces itself upon man as being true; and its value hasrevealed itself in its being the only power which will carry farther thespiritual evolution of the soul. If such an Absolute is left out ofaccount, it is evident that the most universal [p. 139] truth whichpresents itself to life as absolutely necessary cannot enter into thedeepest recesses of the soul; it cannot be more than a subsidiaryelement accompanying lower intellectual elements of life, which are moreclosely allied on such a lower level with physical processes of the bodyand with the physical world. And when truth is treated in this manner, it cannot possibly make its abode and become a power in the soul. Consciousness hesitates to create a further cleft within itself becausethe evidence of truth at such a height as this does not lend itself tothe senses. The result is that the full power of the truth fails toproduce effects on the consciousness, and thus keeps it on practicallythe same level as that on which it has been accustomed to work. Thehigher truth--the higher spiritual life--has not become anything morethan a fact of knowledge or a probability. It has not become one's ownlife. It is only when this higher aspect of spiritual life becomes_one's own life_, and is acknowledged and used, that it is ever possiblefor man to become the possessor of an original energy, of an independentgoverning centre, and so to realise himself as a co-carrier of a cosmicmovement. This is the presupposition of religion: it testifies thatwithin man's soul there appears something higher than sense orintellect, but which remains surrounded by alien elements which imposechecks to its further development. It is quite evident that theappearance of [p. 140] truths which are absolute and complete within thelife is in direct antagonism to much that was previously present withinit. This fundamental fact, however, is not evident without a great dealof attention paid to the nature of the higher elements which presentthemselves. Without comparing the values of the higher and the lowerelements, how is it ever possible to know what they are and what theymean? When the whole being attends to both elements--higher andlower--there is no possibility of making a mistake concerning the_different_ values of what are presented. A higher grade of realityreveals itself over against all that had been previously gained. Thesoul is forced to admit that something of a higher nature than ithitherto possessed seeks admission. And this Higher, if it enters intothe whole of life, so far from revealing itself as a continuation ofwhat had already happened, reveals itself as something which isdiscontinuous with the ordinary life, and superior even to the highestattainments of the intellectual life. And it is this aspect whichproduces the conviction of such a revelation as being _objective_ in itsvery nature. It belongs to something or somebody outside our ownindividual experience or achievement. That there is much which ismysterious in all this, is only what might be expected. But the veryfact that the Higher comes with such power when the soul expects, assimilates, and appropriates it [p. 141] is a proof of its existencesomewhere at the core of the universe. It cannot mean an illusion; itbrings changes of too fundamental a nature to be no more than that. Itsvery value and the enormous difficulty of turning it from being an ideainto being a possession demand too much energy of the soul to allow ofits being dismissed without any more ado. It contains elements sodifferent in their nature from the ordinary life of the hour as torender it impossible to be considered of no more than of subsidiaryimportance. For it has to be borne in mind that the values and normsfarthest removed from the regions of sense and intellect appear onlywhen man follows the drift of his own higher being; it is not when heremains effortless and satisfied with the life of the hour that suchvalues and norms appear. They appear when the ordinary life is seenthrough as no more than a stage for the further evolution of the soulthrough the grasping of a higher kind of reality than has as yetpresented itself to it. As Eucken says: "Religion proves itself akingdom of opposites. When it steps out of such opposites, it destroyswithout a doubt the turbidity and evanescence of ordinary commonplacelife, and separates clearly the lights and shadows from one another. Itsets our life between the sharpest contrasts, and engenders the mostpowerful feelings and the most mighty movements; it shows the dark abyssin our nature, but also [p. 142] shows illumined peaks; it opens outinfinite tasks, and brings ever to an awakening a new life in itsmovement against the ordinary self. It does not render our existencelighter, but it makes it richer, more eventful, and greater; it enablesman to experience cosmic problems within his own soul in order tostruggle for a new world, and, indeed, in order to gain such a genuineworld as its own proper life. "[50] All this is not a matter of speculation, but of fact. And it is in therecognition of this fact that Eucken's philosophy of religionconstitutes a new kind of idealistic movement--a movement tending moreand more in the direction of Christianity. But he differs here againfrom the absolute idealists and the pragmatists. The former base theirAbsolute upon the demands of logic, whilst Eucken bases all upon thedemands and potencies of life; the pragmatists emphasise the primaryplace of the will in the development of the inner life, but they havecertainly ignored the presence of over-individual norms, as the goal ofvolition, whilst Eucken holds to the necessity of both. With theabsolutists the relation of the Absolute with the will is not clearlyperceived, and consequently the Absolute becomes merely an object ofthought and contemplation; and in all this the individual does notbecome aware of a burning desire to move in the direction of the goal. [p. 143] The pragmatist leaves the individual at the mercy of themomentary content of consciousness; this content is quite as likely tobe trivial as to be great; and hence there is no absolute standardpresent to determine the nature and value of this content of the moment, and consequently no more than a life of effortless drifting can issueout of all this. This blend of absolutism and pragmatism is richer in its content thaneither of the two. Each has missed something of importance, and it ishere supplied by Eucken. Norms and potency become two indissoluble factors in the evolution ofthe higher life. As already stated, the norms have an objectivity oftheir own, and consequently when they enter into life, life becomesconscious of their being something _given_ and not brought intoexistence by its own potency. It is out of this conclusion to which lifeis forced that the doctrine of Grace, found in some way or other in allreligions, is to be accounted for. And it is out of the consciousness ofthe interval between norm and achievement that the sense of _guilt_follows man whenever he penetrates deeply into the deeper experiences ofthe soul. Grace and guilt--naming only two experiences of the soul--arenot remnants of a traditional theology, but essential elements whichaccompany the deepest experience of the soul. When they are wanting, itis most probable that the soul has not plumbed its own [p. 144] existenceto its very depths, but has rather chosen to be satisfied with what liesbut a little way beneath the surface--with what does not cause too muchuneasiness, but is sufficient for a life to persist as a good member ofthe society by which it is surrounded. Only half a religion can becomethe possession of any individual who does not at least pay as muchattention to the nature and value of over-individual norms as he pays tothe nature of the environment and of the ordinary life. It is always asign that humanity is drifting to the shallows of life when it looksupon religion as the flowering of the mere natural life of good custom, earthly happiness, and ease. Whenever the tragedy born in the conflictbetween norms and ordinary life is absent, the very elements whichconstitute greatness and the "taste of eternity" are also absent. It ison account of this fact that Eucken insists that no individual or nationthat loses its own deeper religious experience can be really great ortrue; for the purest spring of human life and conduct is wanting, andthe whole life issues from a shallower stream. It is impossible here toenter into the truth of this matter; but our individual observationconcerning men and communities is almost enough of itself to verify thestatement. That such a higher spiritual life is a reality may beevidenced further through its effects. It changes the whole relationshipof the man [p. 145] who has experienced it to everything he comes incontact with. New convictions and new points of view have now actuallyoccurred within his soul; man has become conscious of a spiritualinwardness, brought forth through the presence of an over-personalspiritual life coupled with his own spiritual needs. With the possessionof such spiritual elements, how is it possible for him any more to lookupon the world and human life with the same eyes as before? The dawningof a new reality has made him a new creature; he is now compelled by hisown deeper nature to preserve and to reflect the light which is withinhim; and all this brings prominently forward the need of something otherfor the progress of the world than the first look of things is able toshow. It is in such manner as this that we must account for all theideals which have moved mankind from the level of animalism and greed tothe level of civilisation, culture, morals, and religion. The work isfar from being completed: the world still clings to the old level ofordinary life, and is so slow to grasp the value of the life ofspiritual ideals. Still, something has been accomplished in the courseof the ages; and although, probably, the progress has not beencontinuous, there has been a gain in the "long run. " But the point tobear in mind is that it is the power of the over-individual ideal whichhas carried the race along. Ideals have been perverted, it is true; theyhave been [p. 146] drawn down and mixed with what was inferior in itsnature, yet they have never been completely destroyed in this evilprocess. They have still a marvellous power of disentangling themselvesfrom human perversions, and of revealing themselves once more in theirpristine power and glory. "But the spiritual life declares its abilityalso positively within the human province through a persistent effort tomove outside the 'given' situation, through a tracing out and a holdingforth of ideals, through a longing after a more complete happiness and amore complete truth. Why is not man satisfied with the relativity whichso obstinately clings to his existence? Why has he a longing for theAbsolute in opposition to such relativity, and through this plungeshimself into the deepest sorrows and distractions? This has happened notonly in special situations of individuals, but in the whole process ofculture; indeed, the upward march of culture would have been impossiblewithout a striving of man from a level above his 'given' position andeven above himself. Was not subjective satisfaction more easily reachedby him in the semi-animal stages of his existence than in culture andcivilisation with all their toils and tangles, and does the progress ofculture and civilisation with all their mechanical appliances make himin the merely human sense happier? What else could compel him to stepinto this perilous track but the necessity of his own nature [p. 147]revealing to him the presence of a new order of things?"[51] The whole of this movement is from within without. Even the physicalworld has to enter into consciousness before it can be known andinterpreted; even the over-individual norms have to be accepted andinterpreted by the spiritual potency before the reality which theypossess in themselves can become our own personal reality. We receivefrom without on the plane of Nature and on the planes of mentality andspirituality. The consciousness does not evolve its content on any levelof its progress from itself alone. Material from without has to enterinto it. But the whole of this material will become one's own possessionin the degree it is attended to after it has entered consciousness;something has to happen to the material _within_ consciousness; it hasto awaken a potency, and has to distil its own content within thatpotency. But as this potency is not of the same nature entirely as whatpresents itself as possessing value, it is clear that the higher elementwhich presents itself has to enter into a struggle for the throne oflife with elements of a lower order. As this all-important fact has beendealt with in a previous chapter, there is no need to dwell on it again;but it is well to bear in mind that the fact [p. 148] constitutes animportant element in Eucken's conception of "universal" religion. "Universal" and "Characteristic" religion do not constitute twodifferent religions, but two grades of the one religion. In "Universal"religion Eucken deals very largely with the intellectual grounds ofreligion. He is aware that it is necessary for us to carry our wholepotencies into religion. Intellect is one of these, and we cannot affordto construct our religion on what comes into perpetual conflict withintellectual conceptions. Eucken has shown that intellectualconclusions, if they are carried far enough and include the whole oftheir own meaning, lead us into religion. We have already noticed howthe presence of norms and standards were necessitated by the very theoryof knowledge itself. It is a great gain for man to know that this isso--that in so far as knowledge testifies anything in regard to religionand spiritual life it affirms more than it negates. It is of enormousadvantage to be assured that knowledge is on our side in the quest forsomething that is deeper than itself. Further, Eucken conceives it as the function of religion on this"Universal" level to present, on the other hand, the actual situation. What but knowledge can reveal to us the difference between spiritualnorms and ordinary life, between intellect working alone and intellectmerged with the spiritual potency of one's [p. 149] being? We are boundto know these and a hundred other things. They all go to prove thatthere is justification for the movement of spiritual life in thedirection of an over-world, and in its hope for the possession of a newgrade of reality. It is well and necessary to affirm all this before weenter on the "grand enterprise. " When an affirmation, based uponinsight, is made, there will be present within the soul a greater powerto resist hunting after shadows or slipping to a lower level when we arein the very midst of the quest. And, indeed, on this very level of"Universal" religion something besides the mere knowledge of religionhas taken place. Values which are intellectually true are bound toexercise some influence on the life. Thus, something of the nature ofthe higher reality has touched the soul and will of man. We _know_ inwhat we have believed. This is a stage which must be passed through, forwe can never feel certain upon a higher altitude unless we are certainof what had led to it. And although, on the higher altitude, there isthe merging of intellectual truth in something higher than itself, stillwhat is discovered on this higher level is richer in content if we cancall up at times intellectual affirmations for its support. But "Universal" religion has its limitations, and has to pass intosomething more characteristic, specific, and personal. The over-personalnorms, which are spiritual in their very nature, [p. 150] have not onlyto be interpreted, they have also to be appreciated and reverenced. The_How_ of their appearance, after it is settled, takes a secondary place, and the norms in their own value and subsistence are attended to. Thus, they become not merely ideas having some kind of reality of their own, but also become revelations of the very nature of the world; they becomethe source of all creation; the one spring of all being. In other words, they are made to mean the Godhead; they mean the creation and sustainingpower of all life. A communion with the Godhead now takes place, and manfinds himself in possession of experiences brought about without theintervention of the world. Thus "Universal" religion culminates in a"Characteristic" or personal religion. And to this culmination, as it ispresented by Eucken, we now turn. * * * * * CHAPTER IX [p. 151] CHARACTERISTIC RELIGION On the level of "Universal" religion great changes have taken place inlife. The consciousness and conviction of the reality of a new kind ofworld have arisen; the sensuous, and even partially the intellectual, domains have been relegated to a secondary place: other values, higherin their nature and more universal in their scope, have attracted theattention of mind and soul. In all this a change has taken place in thedisposition as well as in the will. Prior to this change the characterhad not become conscious of its own inwardness, but remained subservientto the norms of social and moral inheritance. Some amount of moralityand good will have issued forth in this manner, and, indeed, the gaincannot be overestimated. But it is evident that something further has tohappen if the movement of society is to proceed onward and upward, andif the energy for such a movement is to be discovered within the soul. The whole material which enters into consciousness has to obtain adeeper meaning [p. 152] than it hitherto possessed. And this happens onthe level of "Universal" religion. The _spiritual_ is now recognised asthe highest manifestation of life; and this spiritual is seen to besomething which has to be gained through a struggle which calls thewhole nature into activity. Such a movement from the less to the morespiritual proceeds side by side with the _freedom_ of the individual. Freedom has now taken a new meaning. Hitherto it meant little more thanthe consciousness of the individual moving along the line of leastresistance. The effort to move in such a direction is generallypleasurable; and when it tends to become painful the individual gives upthe effort. The highest norms were not present with a categoricalaffirmation of their reality and value. But when they are present, thewill is turned from the direction of ordinary life and its ease to theconception of the meaning and value of the highest norms. Something, appearing as of intrinsic value, now makes itself felt, and stirs thewhole nature. Thus, a _new movement_ begins; the _passive_ attitude ofthe soul gives way to an _autonomous_ attitude and movement. The will, consequently, is conscious of a deeper need than any hithertoexperienced, and therefore calls into being some deeper elements of itsown in order to reach its goal. The whole nature has now affirmed the_idea of the good_, which had dawned upon it as an imperative. It is in[p. 153] such a moment that the real nature becomes free--it becomesconscious, through and through, of the possibility of leaving its oldworld and of ascending into a new one. This is, in Eucken's words, thereal spiritual evolution (_Wesensbildung_) of human nature. Thisevolution, which, prior to this, was considered very largely as a kindof gift of the environment, is now perceived as capable of realisationonly in so far as the spiritual norms are willed. When we examine theprogress of humanity, we discover that it has taken place in thismanner; a task had to be set and the whole nature had to be called forthto realise it. The result is that a new creation takes place in thehistory of the world. Such a creation becomes a new norm in the moralworld, as well as a possession in the life of the individual who hasstruggled to realise it. Such a spiritual process, after something of its nature has beenrealised, finds necessities laid upon it on all hands. Once we havestepped into the very centre of spiritual norms and ideals they begin toreveal with a wonderful rapidity and impressiveness their own intrinsiccontent and value. "Universal" religion has enabled us to realise thatwe are dealing with "grounds" which are a demand of the deepest nature, and with convictions which seem, without a doubt, "to ring true. " Theman has found a shelter in the midst of all the chaos and welter of thenatural process, [p. 154] and his deepest reason has not failed to cometo the assistance of his spiritual need. He now becomes conscious ofsecurity and even of victory in the enterprise before the battle hasreally begun on an arena outside his own nature; a conviction is beingbrought into being within his deepest soul that the best and strongestelements in the universe are on his side. Although hindrances andentanglements of all kinds increase in number, the increase in spiritualcertainty, and faith in the final issue of his life, have grown at agreater ratio. Such a man has settled his destiny; he has come to thegreat spiritual affirmation of life--an affirmation which has to berepeated so often, and which each time distils something of a higherorder within the soul. It is evident that such an affirmation of the reality of spiritualideals, which have now an existence of their own, should lead usfarther. If they mean so much, why cannot they mean more? If theysubsist in themselves, they must be what they _are_. They are to usmeaning and value of infinite significance. But such and other spiritualcharacteristics are _not things_, and, as we have seen, not mereprojections of our own individual selves. There is nothing short ofpersonality and over-personality by which they can be even partiallydesignated and determined. We are forced to this conclusion if they areto be objects of communion and union: and we are forced [p. 155] furtherto gather the Many into the One. That was what was done on all lowerplanes. Why stop short here, because infinitely much happens when theMany find their points of union and meaning in the One?[52] We have saidthat infinitely much happens when the Many find their meaning in theOne. A need of the nature has arisen which demands this, and it hasarisen at its _highest possible level alone_. Such a nature will neverbecome absolutely certain of the meaning and value of all that has ledup to this until the One obtains a self-subsistence. If this effortfails, the whole effort of development towards unity and inwardnessfails. And when such a chain of effort snaps at its highest link ofspiritual development, everything that had entered into the process atall the levels below it snaps along with it in so far as it had anyvalidity whatever in the light of what is higher than itself. But the fact that this conception of the One, conceived as AbsoluteSpiritual Life, has produced so many effects of the highest kind is aproof of its existence. Qualities come into being which can never comewith such power in any other way. The spiritual experiences, revealed atsuch a level, have something to say on this matter. These experiences, [p. 156] although aware of the meaning of universal concepts, have becomeaware of something higher still: Knowledge has given place to Love; aregion has been reached beyond all the contradictions of the world andbeyond all the dialectics of knowledge. It is a region which includesthe good of all without injuring the good of any; and all the meaning ofthe world and of life is interpreted from this highest standpoint. Thisis the essence of "characteristic "or specific religion. On the level of"universal" religion, God was seen from the standpoint of the world; in"characteristic" religion the world is seen from the standpoint of God. The appearance of the world is consequently different from eachstandpoint. All must now be viewed and valued from the standpoint of"characteristic" religion, from the standpoint of the One--the Godhead;and if humanity is ever to be brought to this standpoint, the nature andthe meaning of the One have to be presented to it. And it is this, asEucken shows, which has been partially accomplished by the religions ofthe world. Their founders were personalities who had scaled the heightstowards the "holy of holies" of the One; they descended into the plainsto reveal what they had seen and heard and experienced on the heights. They had been able to commune with the Alone, and their natures had beencompletely transformed. In passing thus from the stage of "universal"[p. 157] religion to the higher stage of "characteristic, " men havediscovered a further security and spiritual evolution of their wholebeing. Their views of man and the world have become changed; they nowlong to make mankind the possessor of the "vision splendid" which hasmeant all for them. Communion with the One as Infinite Love has revealedto them a peace and a power which are far beyond all the lower unities. It is of value, in the midst of all the complexities of life, of thepartial interpretations of the various branches of knowledge, to havepassed through the several stages below the One. Some must guard thehighest citadel of religion and keep open the avenues to Infinity, Eternity, and Immortality. And the greater the number who are able to dothis, the better for the world and for the individual. But a taste ofthis Infinite Love can be obtained without all this. Just as some of usare able to walk without a knowledge of the bodily mechanism and to eatand digest without a knowledge of the history of our bread, so thedeeper spiritual potencies inherent in man are able to find a vastamount of satisfaction by resting upon and trusting in a Love Absolute, Eternal, and Infinite. Here, man is in a region of infinite calm beyondthe distractions of the world and of knowledge. He cannot remain herefor any great length of time; he has to return to the world, but he isnever [p. 158] again the same being after having scaled the "mount oftransfiguration. " "Religion holds as certain and conclusive that thisnew inner foundation is the greatest thing of all and the wonder ofwonders, because it carries within itself the power and certainty of theovercoming of the old world and the creation of a new one; it is onaccount of this that religion longs for the conviction of the whole man, and brands the denial of this as pettiness and unbelief. The world maytherefore remain to the external view as it appeared before--a kingdomof opposition and darkness; its hindrances within and without may seemto nullify everything else; they may contract and even seemingly destroyman and his spiritual potencies; all his acts may seem fruitless andvain, and his whole existence may seem to sink into nothingness andworthlessness. Yet, through the entrance of the new life and a newworld, everything is transformed from within, and the clearness of thelight appears all the more by contrast with all the depth of thedarkness. Indeed, in the midst of all the mysteries of existence, hopeand conviction and certainty will consolidate our experience, so thatultimately evil itself must serve the development of the good. "[53] Orin the words of Luther: "This is the spiritual power which reigns andrules in the midst of enemies, and is powerful in the midst [p. 159] ofall oppression. And this is nothing other than that strength isperfected in weakness, and that in all things I can gain life eternal, so that cross and crown are compelled to serve and to contribute towardsmy salvation. "[54] Eucken shows how this idea of God comes from the Life-process itself. The Godhead is present, not as an external revelation but as the everfuller meaning and experience which have been carried along in the soulin its passage from the natural level to the highest spiritual plane. Atits summit the development unfolds its true spiritual content of Love. The Highest Power--however much there still remains dark concerningit--has had communication with man, is present within his soul, hasbecome his own life and nature, as well as his self-subsistence overagainst the order of the world. Here Love is raised up into an image ofthe Godhead--Love as a self-communication and as an essential elevationof the nature, and as an expression of inmost fellowship. [55] "Thereoriginates a mutual intercourse of the soul and God as between an I anda Thou. " It has already been stated that Eucken insists that no closedetermination, in an intellectual form, should be given to thisconception and experience of God. The idea of a personality of God isnot an intellectual idea presented in any doctrinal form; it is an idea[p. 160] born _within_ the _Life-process_ on its highest levels. On suchlevels it becomes obvious and indispensable. Man may be clearlyconscious of the symbolism of the idea, and yet, at the same time, graspin it an incontestable intrinsic truth which he knows to be far aboveall mere anthropomorphism. Eucken shows that it is not merely a humangreatness that has been transferred to the Divine, but that the wholemeaning here is a return to the source of a Divine Life and its mutualcommunication with man; and therefore the whole process is not anargument of man concerning the Divine, because the Divine has to beapprehended through the Divine within us. "All opposition to the idea ofthe Divine personality is ultimately explained by the fact that anenergetic Life-process is wanting--a Life-process which entertains thequestion not so much from without as from within. Whenever such aLife-process is found, there is simultaneously found, often in overtcontradiction to the formal doctrinal statement, an element of such apersonal character of God. "[56] But this _immanent_ aspect of the ideaof God is accompanied by a _transcendent_ aspect. We have noticedalready that the very nature of the _Ought_ included a transcendent andobjective aspect. [57] The same fact becomes evident in [p. 161] religiousexperience. The two poles--immanence and transcendence--arecomplementary. The former shows that something of the Divine nature hasbeen implanted within human nature; the latter shows that more is inexistence than we have already possessed. Spiritual norms never decreasebut increase in splendour the nearer man is to their attainment. Something is here discovered which is not found in the world; it is akind of transcendent summit, a mysterious sublimity. And an approachtowards this summit produces experiences never to be possessed in anyother kind of way. As Eucken himself puts it: "If this sublimitysuperior to the world secures an abode in the soul, and, indeed, becomesthe inmost and most intimate part of our being, and enables us toparticipate in the self-subsistence of infinity, it opens up within us afathomless depth, in which the existence that lies nearest to our handsis swallowed up, and it makes us a problem to ourselves--a problem whichtransforms the whole of life--whilst it enables us to understand and tohandle what at the outset appeared to be its whole life as a mere phaseand appearance. Thus it is the same religion which opens out from God toman and which simultaneously opens itself out in man himself and becomesa great mystery to him. Therefore, in the idea of God the intimate andthe ultimate must both be present if religion is to reach its fulldevelopment and to [p. 162] avoid the dangers which everywhere threatenit. "[58] Both these aspects interlace in one Life-process; the unity ispresent in the manifold, and the ultimate present in the intimate. According to Eucken, it is out of such an experience as we have noticedthat the idea of immortality becomes a firm belief and faith within thesoul. The idea cannot be proved scientifically, simply because itsspiritual content is greater than anything which is _below_ it. Thewhole proof lies within the experience itself at this, its highestsummit. "The Infinite Power and Love that has grounded a new spontaneousnature in man, over against a dark and hostile world, will conserve sucha new nature and its spiritual nucleus, and shelter it against allperils and assaults, so that life as the bearer of life eternal cannever be wholly lost in the stream of time. " We are here in a regionfarthest removed from sense and understanding; but the remarkable thingis that the conviction of immortality does not dawn on any lower level;it is not on the lower levels a portion of spiritual experience. Itseems as if an element of immortality is only to be gained at a certainheight of the spiritual life. On all levels below, men seek for proofsin the analogies of Nature, in the supposed return of the spirits of thedead, and in the craving found in their own lives. All these proofs haveone thing in common: they [p. 163] are all of a lower order of value thanthe meaning which the content of experience gives to immortality on itshighest level. For at this highest level the proof is not somethinghappening outside the man; it is the deepest part of his own being whichnow actually possesses a taste of life eternal. It seems, then, thatthere is no answer to the problem outside ourselves, because it is notsomething to be known, but something to be experienced after long toiland a stirring of the nature to its lowest depths in the drift of allthat is highest and best. [59] It is sufficient for us to possess a lifewhich is spiritual and timeless in its nature: and when such a life ispossessed, empirical proofs are neither demanded nor desired. It iswithin one's own new and spiritual world that proofs are now discovered, and they are timeless and spaceless in their own intrinsic nature. "Dothis, and thou shalt live. " If the man has to negate all concerning thepreservation of his natural individuality, the new world he has gainedfor his soul will have abundant affirmation within itself, without thesupport of any earthly props. It is his own highest life which testifiesto him that "death does not count" at all. Eucken's whole plea is that spiritual life at the point of its highestmanifestation should not be interpreted by anything below itself. [p. 164] We have already noticed how, on lower levels, spiritual life waseven there interpreted by its _norms_, and not by its connections withwhat was _below itself_. The disappearance of miracle in religion is anindispensable stage which must be passed over. It is necessary only on amid-level of religion, and has really been far more of the nature of asymbol than of a fact. It is at our peril that in religion we give upsuch a symbol until a more "inward wonder" has happened within our ownsoul. When the self-subsistence of the spiritual life and the reality ofthe norms of the over-world, now all united in God, are experienced, allmiraculous manifestations of the Divine, imaginary or real, arerelegated to a secondary place. They all belong to a point which the manhas passed; they are milestones to which he can never return. "An eviland adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no signbe given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. " As Eucken points out, "This is no other than the sign of spiritual power and of a Divinemessage and greatness. " The movement from signs and miracles is amovement from the outward to the inward, from percept to spirituality;and the essence of religion, as a reality in itself and as an experienceof the soul, is to be found by taking such a step. The centre of gravityof life has now been shifted from the outward to the inward. Toaccomplish this means nothing less than a [p. 165] struggle for _thegoverning centre of life_. Unless we succeed in this struggle, the innerlife will reach no independence and subsistence of its own. Even whenthe struggle succeeds in gaining its longed-for depth, it has notremoved for once and for all the contradictions from without and within. Difficulties, from the lower side, will accompany the spiritual life inits higher evolution, but once it has become conscious of its own Divinenature and certainty it will gain sufficiently in content and power torelegate them all to the periphery. Something has happened within thesoul which can never be obliterated. As Eucken says: "The contradictionis now removed from the centre to the periphery of life; it cantherefore only touch us from without, and is not able to overthrow whatis within; it will not so much weaken as strengthen the certainty, because it calls life to a perpetual renewal and brings to fruition thegreatness of the conquest. "[60] * * * * * CHAPTER X [p. 166] THE HISTORICAL RELIGIONS We have noticed in the two preceding chapters how Eucken distinguishedthe two stages of religion--the "Universal" and the "Characteristic"--and how he showed the necessity of both stages. As man cannot escapefrom the conclusions of his intellect, it becomes necessary for him tocome to an understanding with those conclusions; and although suchconclusions do not form a complete account of life in its deepestaspects, still they are indispensable for him in order to know that heis on the path towards a further development of his spiritual nature. Hence the grounds of religion have to be emphasised by the conclusionsof the intellect. But though intellectual conclusions, as we havealready seen, warrant us in holding fast to the presence and reality ofa life of the spirit and to the possibility of an evolution of such alife, all this does not mean that such an evolution is actually reachedthrough the affirmations of [p. 167] the intellect. The road of spiritualdevelopment is marked out, but we have to travel over that roadourselves. Something more than an intellectual acknowledgment of theexistence of such a road is necessary before the actual movement takesplace. When the actual movement does take place, when the intellectualconclusions come in contact with a will arising from our deepest needs, the matter becomes personal--it becomes something that has to beaffirmed by the blending of intellect with the deeper spiritualpotencies. The vision at this higher stage constitutes not only thecertainty of a path for man--a path which leads to higher regions--butbrings forth hidden energies in order to start him on the enterprise. The whole vision is now seen to be possible of realisation only throughpersonal decisions of the whole nature in the direction of theover-personal values which present themselves. These over-personalvalues increase as the soul passes along the upward path and as itgrants a self-subsistence and unconditional significance to thesevalues. There follows here an increase of spiritual reflection; thecontent of the vision is loosened from sense and time; itsself-subsistence becomes more and more real and more and more and moredifferent from all that was experienced on any level below; knowledgesteps into the background, and love and appreciation now guide the wholemovement of [p. 168] the soul. As we have already seen, when thishappens, the idea of God as Infinite Love presents itself, and thesoul's main task is to climb to the summits "where on the glimmeringlimits far withdrawn God made Himself an awful rose of dawn. " Religionis at such a level more than an intellectual insistence upon itsgrounds; the soul looks now rather to its summits. Hence the two stagesof Universal and Characteristic religion become necessary. And it is notalways true that the Universal mode ceases once the Characteristic modeis partially realised. The soul has to descend from the heights into theordinary world below. And as it now sees the world with new eyes, itsees much more to be condemned than was previously possible for it tosee. There comes the constant need of certifying the validity of itsexperience on the heights, and of getting others who have neverattempted the experiment to do so. The man possessed of something of thevision within his own soul proclaims his "gospel, " and conceives of allkinds of ways and means by which humanity can be drawn towards the samegoal. This is the meaning which Eucken attaches to the origin and developmentof the union of universal and specific religions as these have beenrevealed in human history. The intellectual grounds of religion as wellas something of the actual spiritual experiences are presented by thefounders. Every kind of [p. 169] religion has originated in this manner. They are all attempts at showing that a _here and now_ and a _beyond_have united and become potencies of life, and can become actualities. The _here and now_ always points to a _beyond_, and the _beyond_, whenit is realised, returns to the _here and now_ and always transforms it. Thus, we are in the midst of two worlds which are continuous with oneanother just as the valley is continuous with the base of the mountain. Such historical religions do not, then, originate in the collectiveexperiences of humanity, but in what has actually happened in the lifeof unique personalities. These personalities have become, as it were, mediators between God and man. Such religions adopt the most diverseforms, because the personalities have given of the content of their ownpersonal experiences, and no two experiences view anything fromstandpoints precisely identical. The historical religions mayconsequently be narrow in their outlook. The personalities are dependentupon their race, place, training, and inheritance for the particularintellectual presentation of their religion. Thus, each historicalreligion has its own view of the universe and its own morality. But thevalue of no historical religion is to be judged from this standpointalone. Such views of the universe and such morality must have appearedto them somehow as a good--as [p. 170] ways and means to what lay_beyond_. We may have outgrown such ways and means; other ways and meanshigher in their nature may have become our inheritance. But these higherways and means could not have evolved out of their lower stages had notsome element of the _beyond_ instilled itself into them. The historicalreligions could never have flourished on immorality and superstition, however much of these we may discover in them. It is the _beyond, over-personal_ element which has kept them alive, and this element hasalways had a hard struggle to overcome and transform _the here-and-now_elements. Whenever the historical religions are traced back to theirsources, there is discovered an element _above_ the world in the soulsof their founders and of their immediate followers. As Eucken puts it:"To these founders the new kingdom was no vague outline and no feeblehope, but all stood clear in front of them; the kingdom was so real totheir souls and filled them so exclusively that the whole sensuous worldwas reduced by them to a semblance and a shadow if they could nototherwise gain a new value from a superior power. The new world couldattain to such immediacy and impressiveness only because a regalimagination wrestled for a unique picture in the tangled heap of life, and because it invested this picture with the clearest outlines and themost vivid colours. Thus the new world dawns on humanity with [p. 171]fascinating power, rousing it out of the sluggishness of daily routine, binding it through a corporate aim, raising inspiring ardour throughradiant promises and terrible threats, and creating achievementsotherwise impossible. This prepared road into the kingdom of theinvisible, this creation of a new reality which is no merely serene kindof play but a deep seriousness, this inversion of worlds which pushessensuous existence down into a distance and which prepares a home forman within the kingdom of faith--all this is the greatest achievementthat has ever been undertaken and that has ever worked upon human soil. . . . Their works seemed to carry within them Divine energies; wonderssurrounded their paths; their life and being bridged securely the gulfbetween heaven and earth. "[61] Now, Eucken shows that it is of greatimportance to acknowledge these personalities in order that life may bebrought into a safe track. Enough has already been said of theimpossibility of finding a sufficiency for life and death within thespan of ordinary existence. And as this is so, a whole span of past andpresent has to be taken into account. The world cannot move a steptowards the heights of the future without this. The real future is theblend of what _was_ and _is_ forming the standard and the receptacle forwhat is _to be. _ We have already noticed how such a standard [p. 172]evolves; and how, when it is followed to its utmost limits, it mergesinto the conception of God. But as all this is a conception spiritual inits nature--devoid of flesh and blood as its clothing--it becomesextremely difficult for the majority of mankind to hold fast to itsreality in a world where flesh and blood mean so much. Something moretangible is craved for by man as a proof of an over-world and of anover-personal life. Such proof men are able to obtain in the greatreligious personalities of the world without having to go through theintellectual processes of discovering the grounds of religion. Men areable to view this spiritual truth as they view a picture. It becomeseasy to understand how such personalities have been raised beyond allhuman valuations to a likeness to God and even to an equality with God. Such personalities were the highest conceptions which men could possessof the Godhead. This seems to have been a necessary stage in theevolution of the religious life as well as of religious conceptions. Andeven to-day attention is not to be diverted from such personalities. Thequestion whether they were or were not gods has become meaningless. Whatpsychology is able to fathom the soul of any individual? Every attemptat doctrinal formulation states less than was present within the soulsof such personalities. But, on the other hand, it does seem necessary, [p. 173] according to Eucken's teaching, to avoid confusing suchpersonalities with the All. They were great; they possessed elementsabove the world; but none of them possessed the whole that is inexistence. The truth concerning these founders of religion seems to lie in the factthat they realised a depth of life beyond the world, the intellect, andthe span of ordinary life. It is this fact that needs to be broughtprominently forward in our day. And such a fact becomes an experimentalproof of the presence and efficacy of the Divine within the soul andpoints to an upward direction the total-movement of the world. If such afact does not succeed in holding for itself a primary place, othersubsidiary facts will colour and weaken its true spiritual content andvalue. This is the road on which speculative and superstitious ideashave found an entrance into the historical religions. When such is thecase, the spiritual reality is gradually weakened, is lowered to thelevel of intellectualistic dogma, until it ultimately becomes, though inthe guise of religion, the worst enemy which spiritual religion has toencounter. All hard and fixed dogmatic settings of religion usurp thesupremacy of the spiritual life itself. Eucken shows this in connection with religiousinstitutions--institutions which were meant by their founders to beessential but [p. 174] still subservient to the needs and aspirations ofspiritual life. Thus, genuine religion is measured by a doctrinalstandard or by a sacrament. These may possess an incalculable value inreligion, when used as means and not as ends; but they may, and oftendo, issue in its degradation to a stage which is hardly a spiritual one. Every historical religion possesses some absolute truth, but does notpossess the whole truth; and also each historical religion possessessome elements which have to pass away. But this matter will be dealtwith in a later chapter. The main service of the historical religions is to bring home to us thefact that in the course of human history a spiritual life above theworld has again and again dawned on mankind through the experiences andworks of great personalities. To realise intensely such a fact is torealise the fact that all this can happen again in a more concentratedform than is actually presented in the slow and toilsome effects of theresults of the collective life of the community. It may be well to refer here to Eucken's classification of the religionsof the world. This classifications consists of _the Religions of Law andthe Religions of Redemption_. The Religions of Law maintain that thekernel of religion lies in "the announcement and advocacy of a moralorder which governs the world from on high. " God has revealed His willto man; [p. 175] if man obeys, rich rewards await him in a future life;if he disobeys, painful punishment is sure to follow. Man himself has toselect one of the two alternatives, and he believes himself able tochoose. The Religions of Redemption consider such a view false andsuperficial. Now, there is no doubt that the Religions of Law are stageswhich are of value when men are incapable of grasping the difficultiesand complexities of religion. The whole of religion on this level of Lawis a replica of the relations which obtain on a smaller scale between asovereign and his subjects, or between a master and his slave. Authorityis something purely external. The two Religions of Redemption--theIndian and the Christian--seek the meaning of religion in a verydifferent manner. They both agree that human capability, which seems soevident to the Religions of Law, is the most difficult and important ofall questions. They agree further that the essence of religion does notconsist in guiding life for the sake of something that life is toparticipate in or to avoid in the future; they agree that a change musthappen within the soul in this world, and that this change only comesabout through the aid of a supernatural power. But these two religionsdiffer fundamentally in their different ways of looking at the world. Tothe Indian religions, the existence of the world is an evil; the worldis itself a kingdom of illusions. "All in it is transient [p. 176] andunreal; nothing in it has duration; happiness and love are merelymomentary, and men are as two pieces of wood floating on the face of aninfinite ocean which pass by one another, never to meet again. Fruitlessagitation and painful deception have fallen upon him who mistakes such atransient semblance for a reality and who hangs his heart upon it. Therefore it behoves man to free himself from such an unholy arena. Thisemancipation will take place when the semblance is seen through assemblance, and when the soul has gained an insight right into thefoundation of things. Then the world loses its power over man; the wholekingdom of deception with its evanescent values goes to the bottom, allthe excited affections caused by the world are extinguished, and lifebecomes a still and holy calm; it reaches the depth of a dreamlesssleep, enters, through its immersion into an eternal essence, beyond theshadows; it passes, according to Buddhism in its most definiteinterpretation, into a state of entire unconsciousness. "[62] How different a spirit from all this breathes in Christianity! InChristianity the world is good as far as it goes, but it does not go farenough. Something of the revelation of the Divine may be discoveredwithin it, but this is only a segment of a greater whole which comes torealisation within the soul. Here, the world is not cast away, despiteall its limitations, but [p. 177] is perceived as the only sphere wherespiritual experience may exercise itself and draw out its own hiddenpotencies. Tribulation is to be found in the world; but a standpoint_above_ the world, gained by cutting a path right through the world, ispossible. When such a standpoint is reached, the world is seen as itought to be seen and used as it ought to be used. But this aspect of themeaning of the world in the Christian religion will be dealt with later. It is sufficient to state here that Eucken considers Christianitysuperior to all other religions by virtue of the fact that it overcomesthe world, not by fleeing from it, but by transforming it. It views thephysical world as a stage upon which the life of the spirit has torealise all its possibilities; the world and all that is within it takea secondary place: the primary place is now accorded to the world ofideals and values as these merge into love and the conception of theGodhead. The question of the finality of the Christian religion in its purelyhistorical sense has been discussed by Eucken in his _Truth of Religion, Christianity and the New Idealism_, and _Können wir noch Christen sein_?In these three works he arrives at the conclusion that no one religionhas a claim to the name "absolute religion, " because even Christianityitself cannot be more than a partial, though the highest, manifestationof the Divine. And what Christianity has been and is in [p. 178] itselfas a force in the history of the Western world cannot be the same aswhat it was in the personal experience of its Founder. It is notsomething which descended once and for all into the world, and soremains its permanent inheritance. It is the most priceless inheritancewe possess; but such an inheritance has to be discovered again andagain. All this cannot come about without calling up to-day the samespiritual energies as were needful for the tasks that were present whenChristianity started to conquer the world. Its aspects of "world-denialand world-renewal" render Christianity the very religion we need. "It isthe religion of religions, " but a statement of this fact does not meanthe realisation of the fact. The same energy and aspiration are needfulto-day as in the days of yore. Christianity, whenever it has lived onits highest levels, has struggled for two tremendous facts at least: theinsufficiency of the world and the regeneration of the world in thelight of the Divine. It is not a repetition of what the Founder saidconcerning religion. What the Founder said cost him enormous labour todiscover and to possess. We shall gain so much and no more of the samespiritual substance as we put the same kind of energy in motion. Inorder that we may unravel the complexities of our day, a spirit similarto his spirit must become ours. When such a spirit ceases to exist, Christianity will become merely a [p. 179] name; its power will havedisappeared, and men can delude themselves into believing that theypossess it when in fact they are the possessors of but little of itsspirit and of much of its form. But the possession of the same spirit asthat of Jesus constitutes the further development of Christianity, andthis further development is nothing other than what we have alreadyseen--the experience and efficacy of an eternal order of things in themidst of all the changes of time. Thus we are thrown back once more, notupon our bare individual selves, but upon the presence of the Divinewithin the spiritual life itself. Christianity is therefore notsomething that has been completed in the past, but the highest mode ofconceiving and of experiencing Life in the present; it becomes aninward, personal and spiritual experience; and its duration andexpansion depend upon the increase and depth of such a spiritualinwardness. * * * * * CHAPTER XI [p. 180] CHRISTIANITY It has been noticed how "Characteristic" or "Specific" religion meansthe carrying farther of the implications of "Universal" religion. It isnot only necessary to know the "grounds" of religion, as these revealthemselves within the conclusions of the intellect: we have to plantourselves upon these "grounds"; we must _be_ what they _mean_. Thus, religion becomes a personal task--something that can never be realiseduntil the whole nature comes to constant decisions of its own and actsupon those decisions in the light of what has expressed itself in theform of those over-personal norms which have further developed into aconception of, and communion with, the Godhead. We have noticed further, how this essence of religion was realised in the lives of greatpersonalities in history, as well as in the religions which they helpedto found. Eucken does not hesitate to affirm that the highest of these religionsis the Christian [p. 181] religion. The core of the Christian religionconsists, as we have already noticed, in its presentation of "aworld-denial and world-renewal" in a far higher degree than any of theother religions, and also in the fact that it presents the union of thehuman and the Divine in a clearer light than before. We have noticed, too, how the Indian religions had to condemn the world in order topenetrate to the very essence and bliss of religion. Mohammedanismaffirmed the world in too strong a manner, and its eternal worldconstituted a kind of replica of the present material world on anenlarged scale. The Jewish religion evolved through a series of stageswhich finally culminated in Christianity. The Roman and the Greekreligions presented too many pluralistic aspects to be able ever toreach the highest synthesis whereby the Many found their meaning, interpretation, and value in the One. Although the Christian religion cannot be designated as absolutereligion, still it may be designated as the highest and most perfectmanifestation of the Divine. The meaning of the term "absolute religion"involves a conception impossible to maintain, on account of the factthat in all religions some spiritual truth is discerned and realised. The term "absolute religion" is also false on account of the fact thatno religion can contain the whole that is to be revealed andexperienced. Christianity [p. 182] is best valued when it is seen, not asa completion of the revelation of the Divine to man, but as a revelationwhich has to be preserved, deepened, and carried farther. In the soul ofthe Founder of Christianity there was doubtless present far more than isexpressed in the Biblical records, and far more than actually filteredinto the individual and collective consciousness of the earliestChristian communities. But we cannot live on what has occurred in thelife of any other individual or community except in so far as thisenters also into our own individual and the collective consciousness. Wehave already touched on this aspect of the impossibility of obtainingsufficient strength for the warfare of the present in anything thatoccurred in the past. Some measure of strength--and no psychology isable to say how much--can be obtained from a vision of the spiritualmeaning and significance of the life of the Founder. But there is verygreat danger in looking here alone for the sole source of all the helpwe need. The spiritual principles of Christianity have been operating inthe world ever since the Master presented the Gospel which he lived anddied for. The problem of Christianity is thus a twofold problem. On theone hand, we have constantly to go back to the Fountain-head, because itis here that the stream is purest. But we have, on the other hand, toenter into the religious current which surrounds us; and this may be notso [p. 183] pure as it was at its source. Alien waters have entered intothe current--waters of very different taste from those which even theFounder expected. These have doubtless polluted the stream. But, on theother hand, good elements--primary and secondary--have entered into thedeepest nature of Christianity itself. These have to be taken intoaccount. They have been necessitated by the new and ever more complexsituations and conditions into which Christianity has had to enter fromgeneration to generation. It was comparatively easy for Christianity inits early beginnings to include within its compass the whole of life. But by to-day life has branched off in so many new directions;perplexing problems of knowledge and life have made their appearance. Wedare not dismiss these to a region outside the sphere of influence ofChristianity. Christianity, if it is to remain and increase as a livingforce, has to interpret these problems; it has to help us to distinguishbetween the chaff and the wheat. What, then, is the true meaning of Christianity? Eucken shows that it isnot possible to determine the nature of Christianity without realisingthat the nucleus common to all religions lies in the fact "that theymanifest and represent a Divine Life, and that such a Life in its inmostfoundation is superior to its external configuration and activity, andis able to withstand all the changes of time, and to [p. 184] maintainwithin itself, in spite of all its curtailment through the humansituation, _an eternal truth_. " This nucleus lies deeper in Christianitythan in any other religion. But even Christianity itself is not a purespiritual nucleus. Much, as we have already noticed, has gathered aroundit--much that reveals a lower grade of spirituality. All thisconstitutes the clothing of Christianity. The clothing has been changedagain and again in the past. What reason is there for affirming that itcannot be changed again? It is therefore necessary to differentiatebetween the _Substance_ of Christianity and its _Existential-form_. TheSubstance constitutes the fundamental Life superior to the world, andhas been present throughout the whole of the Christian era; and it isthis Substance which has raised men beyond the merely human situation;it is the Substance that has enabled men to overcome the world, andafterwards to see the world from the standpoint of the Divine. In thiswork of differentiation we are dependent in a very large measure uponthe results of knowledge. Such results do not grant us the Substance ofChristianity, because this is something which has to be lived into inorder to be possessed. The transformation which occurs on account of achange in the Existential-form may indeed prove helpful to the spiritualnucleus itself, because it represents a truth of the intellect-a truthwhich does not conflict with any [p. 185] knowledge outside its ownsphere. There are many dangers to be discovered in this process ofinterpreting the spiritual nucleus. A mode of interpretation whosemeaning has very largely passed away is bound to prove injurious, because it comes into sharp conflict with a newer and more comprehensivemeaning, and consequently Christianity fails to win the support of thosewho are acquainted with the new Existential-form. And even theindividual who retains the old clothing, and looks upon it as beingsomething of the same nature as the spiritual nucleus, is in danger ofbasing a portion of his religion on a foundation of sand. But, on theother hand, he who is aware of the flaws of the old Existential-formwithout having assimilated the Spiritual Substance which lies beneathit, is in danger of drifting from religion altogether. The only way ofserving best and carrying farther the development of the Christianreligion is to grasp and experience deeply the fact that the SpiritualSubstance is something entirely different from its form of existence. Its form of existence is an attempt to account for the Substance; itconsists of intellectual concepts. And as with everything else in thisworld so with religion; mere intellectual concepts change, and cannot bemore than receptacles used by the human mind to enshrine the thingswhich are presented as meanings and values within the soul. [p. 186] Eucken pays great attention to the necessity of this process ofdifferentiation between the two elements in Christianity. There is aneed to-day of a new form of existence for Christianity; but thesatisfaction of this need will not grant us the spiritual nucleusitself. The spiritual nucleus is something to be gained not by means ofknowledge, but by means of love. Eucken goes so far as to state that theidea of love and love of one's enemy as presented in Christianity formsa new element for the redemption of the individual and of the race. Tograsp this idea and to penetrate into its nature is to solve all theproblems of life and death. This is the Eternal element in the Christianreligion. It is found, it is true, in other religions; but why should welook for it elsewhere when it blossomed with such divine glory in thelife of the Founder? This is the highest spiritual synthesisconceivable. The world has known nothing greater, and nothing greater isto be known. This is the Eternal element in Christianity which has to bepossessed and preserved and furthered. If we ask the question concerningthe success or failure of Christianity in the future, the answer is tobe found by answering the question, Is Love to God and Love to man foundwithin it to-day? If we are able to answer in the affirmative, we arethereby answering the question in regard to the future duration andconquests of Christianity. And if it possesses [p. 187] this elementdeeply enough, it can adopt any existential-form which appears truewithout any kind of alarm. If we have to answer in the negative, thereis no guarantee as to persistence of Christianity in the future. Anything less than the spiritual nucleus of Love is lacking in strengthnecessary to withstand the storms of the future. We thus see that the essence of Christianity and its durability do notlie in any kind of theology: it lies within the Spiritual Substancewhich has abode within it throughout the centuries. Here will the worldfind its peace and power; here will all social complexities be solved;here will the meanings and blessings of the spiritual over-world ofgoodness and love become the possession of man. This is what Euckenmeans by contending that it is not the business of Christianity to dealwith social problems in any light but the light of Infinite Love. Without an experience of this deepest source of Christianity, we do notpossess the equipment for doing anything more than patching andre-patching the evils of the world. And all our patching, when but asmall span of time has passed away, will leave the situation just as itwas, or probably worse. Every solution will give birth to a newcomplexity; the world may be incessantly active in connection with thebetterment of the social situation, 'but we shall never heal the woundsof individuals and of nations until they are [p. 188] brought to thedepth of the spiritual life revealed in Christianity as Eternal Love. "Awarm love towards all humanity runs through Christianity; it longs toredeem every individual; it gives man a value beyond all specialachievements and on the other side of all mental and moral deeds; it hasbeen the first to bring the pure inwardness of the soul to a clearexpression. But it has also, through the linking of the human to aDivine and Eternal Order, raised life beyond all that is trivial andmerely human with its civic ordinances and social interests. He who, with the best intention, views Christianity as a mere means for thebetterment of the social situation, draws it from the heights of itsnature, and deprives it of the main constituent of its greatness--theemancipation from the petty-human within the depths of the human itself. It is essentially the nature of Christianity that it transplants maninto a new world over against the world that is nearest to our hands; ithas planted the fundamental conviction of Platonism of the existence ofan Eternal Order over against the world of Time amongst a great portionof the human race, and has given a mighty impetus to all effort. But ithas, though it separated the Eternal from Time, brought it back againinto Time; and through the presence of the Eternal it has, for the firsttime, proposed to mankind and to each individual a fundamental innerrenewal, [p. 189] and through this has inaugurated a genuinehistory. "[63] Acknowledging such a nucleus as constituting the very substance ofChristianity, Eucken proceeds to show the necessity of preserving andunfolding the nucleus against the changes of Time. The nucleus has to bepreserved over against Nature. It has been noticed in previous chaptershow modern science has presented us with a view of Nature immenselyvaster than that presented in Christian theology. Such a view hasdestroyed for ever a large number of the theological conceptions of thepast. The earth has been reduced to a subsidiary place within thecosmos; and any attempt to return to the old conceptions is bought attoo high a price. A new mode of thought in regard to the interpretationof the physical universe has come to stay, and the sooner the ChristianChurch comes to an understanding with it the better for the Churchitself. And this new mode may be gladly accepted, because it cannottouch the nature and destiny of the _soul_ of man. We are not able toview the perfect circle of things, but we are able to [p. 190] trace asegment of it in the fact of the unmistakably cosmic character of thespiritual life. The progressive intensifying of the Life-process hasmade the fact abundantly clear that Nature is not the final reality itwas supposed to be by the scientific mode of the past, but that itsignifies no more than a "human vista of reality. " And, as we havealready observed in connection with the Theory of Knowledge, the natureof that "vista" is determined by a mental process and a constructionbeyond Nature. Nature appears as no more than an environment when oncethe power of Eternal Life has appeared within the soul. An insistence onthis power and _its_ capacity has raised man to a level from which herecognises the "priority of spirit" in spite of all the "palpableness ofsensuous impressions. " Man thus appears great as against Nature; butthere is more than enough to make him humble when he views himself inthe light of that truth which constitutes the Spiritual and EternalSubstance of Christianity. Not only do we find the two different elements present in theChristianity of our day; they are also apparent in the presentation ofChristianity found within the Gospels themselves. The miraculouselements in the Gospels exhibit a number of contradictions; and an evenmore serious objection to them is the fact that they come into directconflict [p. 191] with the scientific interpretation of Nature. As Euckensays: "To place a miracle in that one situation would mean an overthrowof the total order of Nature, as this order has been set forth throughthe fundamental work of modern investigation and through an incalculablefulness of experiences. What would justify such a breach with the totalmode of reality ought to appear to us with overwhelming, indisputableclearness. Has the traditional fact this degree of certainty, and cannotit be explained in any other way? Who is able to assert this with entireassurance? If the superiority of the Divine was, on this particularoccasion, to be proclaimed in a tangible manner, why did all this happenfor a small circle of believers alone, and why did it not happen toothers? There seems, however, to have been necessary a certain state ofthe souls of the disciples to make them see what they thought they saw;but in all this there is found a psychic and subjective factor inoperation--a factor whose potency is very difficult to define and tomark its boundaries. It would have been a fact of a wonderful nature ifthe souls of the disciples, from within, became suddenly and withoutintermediary convinced of the continuation of the life and the presenceof the Master: all this would have been no sensuous miracle--no break inthe course of Nature. But we have to bear in mind how times of strongreligious agitation and [p. 192] convulsion are so little qualified tojudge concerning external phenomena, and how easily a psychic statesolidifies into a supposed percept! Within and without Christianitythere are numerous examples of the sensuous appearance of a dead personbeing considered to be fully authenticated by the narrower circle offriends. Savonarola appeared more than a hundred times after his death, but always to those whose hearts clung to him; and to fifteen nuns ofthe convent of St Lucia he gave the consecrated wafer through theopening in their _grille_. "[64] Eucken shows that an inability to accept the miraculous element in theGospels need not prevent anyone from being the possessor of theSpiritual Substance. The spiritual content of Christianity is a contentwhich lies beyond the region of physical phenomena, whether thosephenomena are natural or are supposed to be supernatural. Christianityis dragged down to a lower level by confusing its mode of existence withits spiritual kernel. Religion is able to subsist without such aidssimply because it has discovered the true wonder within the spirituallife itself. We do not know what future investigations may reveal fromthe scientific side. It may be that Nature will appear more and moremechanical in many of its manifestations; but even if this should proveto be the case, it can produce no injury whatever to the nature [p. 193]and content of spiritual life. It may be, on the other hand, that thescientific movement now proceeding in the direction of neo-Vitalism willproduce results which will modify and even overthrow the mechanicalconceptions of life, and thus enable the future to construct aMetaphysic of Nature. [65] The battle between these two schools ofscience is proceeding to-day. But even if the final issue should be adecision in favour of mechanism, the destiny of Christianity or of thehuman soul does not depend upon such a decision. If the issue shouldturn in favour of the vitalistic conception, great gains are bound toaccrue to religion; for thus a warrant for a belief in a reality higherin nature than what is termed physical will be established and shown tobe at work in the origin and constant "becoming" of physical phenomena. The main point for us to-day is to hold fast to the superiority ofspiritual life to all that we know concerning the physical universe. Unless this is done, we shall lose the deeper inward connections oflife, and shall be in danger of sinking back to the level ofnaturalism--a level from which the culture and religion of the Westernworld have partially emerged. Further, the spiritual nucleus ofChristianity [p. 194] must be preserved over against the changes ofhistory. Changes in human society threaten Christianity more directlythan even the changes of Nature. These changes, in so far as they arejudged by a spiritual standard to be good, can be accepted byChristianity, but only on the presupposition that Christianity haslearned how to differentiate between its Eternal Substance and itstemporal form of existence. The mere flow of the events of Time isinsufficient to produce a religion of substance and duration, for herewe are dependent upon the content of the moment. This aspect has beenalready dealt with in the chapter on Religion and History. [66] A similarnecessity for differentiating between the Eternal and the temporarywhich Eucken enforced in regard to Christianity applies in his view toall the movements of the world. Whatever form--scientific, philosophical, social, theological--these movements may take, they haveall to find their meaning in a Standard which is Eternal. Whenever sucha Standard has been recognised, mankind was able to move in an upwarddirection; whenever it was absent, the complexities of knowledge andlife increased and had no light to reflect upon themselves, and no powerto [p. 195] raise themselves to a higher plane. When the Eternal andSubstantial is present at the governing centre of life, all of realitythat can possibly present itself to man is viewed in an entirelydifferent light. Great spiritual movements cannot possibly arise fromany shallower source. There must be present in all such movements aconsciousness of something of Eternal value, and a faith in thepossibility of attaining a higher grade of reality in the midst of allthe fragmentary factors which present themselves. Religion is thusviewed as a movement which takes place not by the side of life, butwithin life itself. A power of immediacy grows within the soul; it isnow able to sift and winnow, to select and to reject; it is able topenetrate into the difference between first and second things, and torelegate all minor things to their lower sphere. [67] It is of no avail to ignore this difference; and neither is it of anyavail to ignore the difference between the _old_ and the _new_existence-forms of Christianity. The old and the new conceptions cannotpossibly flow together. One mode has to take a primary place, and theother a secondary place. The old intellectual presentation ofChristianity has, in many ways, become inadequate. But [p. 196] still itcannot be thrown overboard in any light-hearted manner, if for no otherreason than that it has grown along with the growth of the SpiritualSubstance itself. Some kind of shock, and even loss, may be temporarilyexperienced in parting with it; but this is a process that has to bepassed through; and once it is passed through, the new clothing ofChristianity cannot but help man to see a richer meaning in the Eternal. It may not fit quite so compactly for a time; it may not merge easilywith the Spiritual Substance. We are far less comfortable in a new suitof clothes than in an old one; but comfort is not the only criterion inregard to the things of the body or of the soul. There may be a need fora change, and our needs are of more significance than our comforts. Thechange from old to new can be accomplished when the difference ofSubstance and Form is clearly perceived, and when the Substance ispreserved in the midst of the change. This is one of the greatest tasksset to the Christian Church to-day, and no one is competent to undertakeit if he has not experienced in the very depth of his own soul themeaning of the Eternal as the essence of the Christian religion. Euckenhas grasped this truth in an unmistakable manner; and he sees nothingbut disaster for religion in any attempt to present a new clothing atthe expense of ejecting the Eternal kernel. But still he insists that in[p. 197] theology the claims of the new forms are overwhelminglynecessary and just. When we turn to Eucken's conception in connection with the place of thepersonality of the Founder in the Christianity of the present, we aretreading on very difficult ground. This is a question which cannot bedecided by the cold, calculating intellect. Without a doubt, there ishere something unique in the history of the world--something which nopsychology can fathom and no logic can construct into exactpropositions. But here once again, the two elements--the SpiritualSubstance and its Form--are apparent in the life of the Founder, and inour conceptions concerning his life and death. But we need not fear thatany real loss will accrue if we hold fast to the indisputable fact ofthe presence of a divinity within his life--a divinity which has to berepeated on a smaller scale in our own lives before we are ever able tohave even a glimmer of it. It is out of such a spiritual experience thatthe life of the Master can gain its real value and significance for us. But in the past there has been a tendency to see a good deal of thissignificance in theological constructions which have now ceased tocontain any genuine meaning. At the best these constructions could nevermean more than the best intellectual presentations of good men. Something besides them--deeper than them all--had to appear before anysoul could be [p. 198] converted to the things of Eternal Life. HereEucken shows that metaphysical concepts such as the Trinity have tendedto become purely anthropomorphic and mythological, probably necessary ata certain level of religion, but which have now been superseded by truerconceptions of life and existence. There is no longer any meaning inasking whether the Founder was a "mere man" or a God. He was anintermediate reality between the two. To measure the depth and contentof his soul is a presumption of shallow minds; to determine in aspeculative manner the exact nature of his divinity, and to formulateimposing doctrines out of all this is quite as presumptuous. It issufficient for us to know that he overcame the world, that the Godheaddwelt in a form of immediacy within his soul. All this is anexperimental proof of the working of the Divine upon the plane of Time. But such Divine breaks in pieces if it is subjected to exactdeterminations. Some account of it we must have: the understandingdemands this; but that account must include what the best light ofknowledge has to throw on the subject. But when all is said, somethinginfinitely greater remains unsaid, and yet to be experienced--somethingthat requires the soul to exert itself in order to experience what allthis means. When face to face with the meaning and value of the life anddeath and spiritual resurrection [p. 199] of the Founder of ourChristianity, we are face to face with an eternal reality revealedwithin the soul of the "son of man. " At such a depth of our nature, thepetty questions concerning how much or how little was present disappearinto the background of life, and we are able through such a vision topass to the Father. When emphasis is laid on such a fact as this, Christianity will again become a religion of the spirit--a religionwhich will unite all mankind at a point of unity beneath all closeintellectual determinations and differences. And Eucken points out thatit is not in the life of Jesus alone that we can obtain such a vision. But we do not gain the vision by merely _saying_ this. If we know of anyother character who _was_ so much and who _did_ so much, probably weshall obtain there what we need. But in the Western world at least we do_not_ know any such character; the essence of his life and personalityhas been always connected with the conception of God. But this is notthe sole conception and, as Eucken says, we cannot bind ourselvesentirely to this one point in Christianity. The narrow paths which leadto religion are many; we have to draw help from all quarters where theDivine has been revealed. But the danger lies in merely knowing so manysuch paths while walking on none of them. The personality of Jesus willremain in Christianity, and the world in its darkness will turn againand [p. 200] again to that palpable proof of the Divine seen on such asummit, and endeavour to scale the same everlasting hill of God. "Herewe find a human life of the most homely and simple kind, passed in aremote corner of the world, little heeded by his contemporaries, and, after a short blossoming life, cruelly put to death. And yet, this lifehad an energy of spirit which filled it to the brim; it had a Standardwhich has transformed human existence to its very root; it has madeinadequate what hitherto seemed to bring entire happiness; it has setlimits to all petty natural culture; it has stamped as frivolity, notonly all absorption in the mere pleasures of life, but has also reducedthe whole prior circle of man to the mere world of sense. Such avaluation holds us fast and refuses to be weakened by us when all thedogmas and usages of the Church are detected as merely humanorganisations. That life of Jesus establishes evermore a tribunal overthe world; and the majesty of such an effective bar of judgmentsupersedes all the development of external power. "[68] We may bring this chapter to a close by once more pointing out Eucken'sinsistence on the Spiritual Substance of Christianity and the need of anew Existential-form. The Substance was present in the life of theFounder; mankind has to turn to that fact for one of [p. 201] theexperimental proofs of the Divine. But such a fact is not sufficient. Itis something which happened in _someone else_, and not in ourselves. Thefact is to serve as an inspiration that something similar shall and canhappen _in ourselves_. When this is realised, we become conscious of thepower of the Divine within the soul; and the problems of our own day areseen and interpreted in the same spirit as that in which Jesus faced andinterpreted the problems of his day. Such a spiritual experience willbecome a power to use all the good of life, and thus sanctify it in thevery using of it. The over-personal norms and standards have now becomeour own possession; they enable us to see the world as it ought to beseen and to work for the realisation of the vision; and the norms meaneven more than this, for we have already seen that they point tosomething _beyond_ themselves and yet continuous with themselves. Theypoint to Infinite Love as the very essence of the Godhead. The realityof the over-individual norms and the conception of the Divine asInfinite Love thus induce in us a conviction of the possibility of anevolution of the spirit and of a reality beyond sense and time. TheEternal thus enters into Time and overcomes Time. This is Eucken's finalconclusion in regard to the Christian religion and the destiny of man. But all this has to be experienced before it [p. 202] can be realised. "The task to-day is to work energetically, to labour with a free mindand a joyful courage, so that the Eternal may not lose its efficientpower by our rigid clinging to temporal and antiquated forms, so thatwhat we have recognised as human may not bar the way to the Divine asthat Divine is revealed in our own day. The conditions of the presenttime afford the strongest motives for such work. For once again, inspite of all the contradictions which appear on the surface of things, the religious problem rises up mightily from the depth of life; from dayto day it moves minds more and more; it induces endeavour and kindlesthe spirit of man. It becomes ever plainer to all who are willing to seethat mere secular culture is empty and vain, and is powerless to grantlife any real content or fill it with genuine love. Man and humanity arepressed ever more forcibly forward into a struggle for the meaning oflife and the deliverance of the spiritual self. But the great tasks mustbe handled with a greatness of spirit, and such a spirit demandsfreedom--freedom in the service of truth and truthfulness. Let ustherefore work together, let us work unceasingly with all our strengthas long as the day lasts, in the conviction that 'he who wishes to clingto the Old that ages not must leave behind him the old that ages'(_Runeberg_), and that an Eternal of the real kind cannot [p. 203] belost in the flux of Time, because it overcomes Time by entering intoit. "[69] Eucken is aware of the various Life-systems which present themselves onevery side as all-inclusive. But he sees no hope for a real spiritualeducation of mankind until every Life-system shall seek for a depthbeyond the _natural_ man and all his wants. And such a movement isvisible amongst us to-day. It needs to be possessed and proclaimed. Theredemption of the world depends upon its success. The Christian religionis such a Gospel. "But a movement towards a more essential andsoul-stirring culture--to a progressive superiority of a complete lifebeyond all individual activities--cannot arise without bringing theproblem of religion once more to the foreground. Our life is not able tofind its bearings within this deep or to gather its treasures into aWhole unless it realises how many acute opposites it carries withinitself. Life will either be torn in pieces by these opposites, or itmust somehow be raised above them all. It is the latter alone that canbring about a thorough transformation of our first and shallow view ofthe universe as well as the inauguration of a new reality. Man hasemerged out of the darkness of nature and remains afflicted with theafflictions of nature; yet at the same time, with his appearance uponthe earth the darkness begins to illumine, and [p. 204] 'nature kindleswithin him a light' (Schopenhauer); he who is a mere speck on the faceof a boundless expanse can yet aspire to a participation in the whole ofInfinity; he who stands in the midst of the flux of time yet possessesan aspiration after infinite truth; he who forms but a mere piece ofnature constructs at the same time a new world within the spiritual lifeover against it all; he who finds himself confined by contradictions ofall kinds, which immediate existence in no way can solve, yet strugglesafter a further depth of reality and after the 'narrow gate' which opensinto religion. Through and beyond all the particular problems of lifeand the world, it behoves us to raise the spiritual life to a level offull independence, to make it simultaneously superior to man as anindividual and to bring it back into his soul. When this comes to bethere is at the same time a transformation of his inmost being, and forthe first time he becomes capable of genuine greatness. . . . These finalconclusions strengthen the aspiration after a religion of the spirituallife. . . . Such a religion is in no way new, and Christianity hasproclaimed it and clung to it from the very beginning. But it has beeninterwoven with traditional forms which are now seen through by so manyas pictorial ideas of epochs and times. Earlier times could allow theEssence and the Form to coalesce without discovering any incongruity inthis. But the [p. 205] time for doing this has irrevocably passed away. The human which once seemed to bring the Spiritual and Divine so near toman has now become a burden and a hindrance to him. A keener analysis, amore independent development of the Spiritual and Divine, and, alongwith this, the truth of religion, do not succeed in reaching their fulleffects if religion is looked upon as merely something to protectindividuals, instead of as that which furthers the whole of humanity--as that which is not merely a succour in times of trouble and sorrowbut also as that which guarantees an enhancement in work andcreativeness. The situation is difficult and full of dangers, and smallin the meantime is the number of those who grasp it in a deep and freesense, and who yet are determined to penetrate victoriously into it, sothat the inner necessities of the spiritual life may awaken within thesoul of man. Whatever new tasks and difficulties lie in the lap of thefuture, to-day it behoves us before all else to proceed a step upward inthe direction of the summits and to draw new energies and depths of thespiritual life into the domain of man; for this kind of work willprevent the coming of an 'old age' upon humanity and will breathe intoits soul the gift of Eternal Youth. "[70] * * * * * CHAPTER XII [p. 206] PRESENT-DAY ASPECTS OF PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION In this chapter some of the most important problems of the present daywill be touched upon in the light of Eucken's Philosophy of Religion. Reference has already been made to Eucken's account of the limitationsof various Life-systems, of their struggle with one another, and of thenecessity for a religious synthesis which will include their mostimportant results within itself. [71] The answer as to the possibilityand necessity of such a synthesis constitutes the kernel of Eucken'sPhilosophy of Religion. He has succeeded in a remarkable manner inassessing the results of science, philosophy, sociology, art, andreligion. In them all he has discovered the presence of a reality whichis non-sensuous in its nature, and, which reveals itself [p. 207] injudgments of value that carry within themselves their own _necessity_and _self-subsistence_. This is his conclusion in regard to the work ofthe spirit of man on whatever plane of knowledge or experience thatspirit works. Man's spirit has to carry all its knowledge and experienceinto its own conative spiritual potencies. We thus see that everythingbecomes an aid to the unfolding of an ever greater degree of realitywithin the spirit of man. It is then within the _spirit_ of man thateverything finds its interpretation and value. Whatever interpretationis given to anything apart from the union of the _whole_ potency andcognition of man's spirit is only a partial interpretation. And it is inthe failure to recognise this truth that so many Life-systems have setthemselves against the higher aspects of philosophy and religion. Themost important question has not been asked: What is the relation andvalue of all results in connection with the deepest potency andnecessity of man's spirit? Are these results capable of enriching thatspirit of man when he becomes conscious of them? These are the questionswhich Eucken continually asks and answers in his great works; and it isthis fact which makes his teaching so valuable and superior to all theLife-systems of our day. It is difficult to think of any aspect ofexperience which Eucken has left out of account. He has not, indeed, interpreted [p. 208] in detail all the Life-systems in vogue, and nohuman being is capable of achieving such a task; but he has clearlyperceived the flaws which lie in them all. And this discovery of his hasrevealed a flaw common to them all. That flaw consists in ignoring thepresence of a spiritual life as the great workshop where every form ofreality finds its truest meaning. This flaw is so serious in thatseveral Life-systems have thus over-estimated the importance of theirresults by neglecting to take into account the potentialities andnecessities of man's spirit. Let us, then, try to trace this defect inconnection with some of the most important Life-systems in vogue to-day. When the various systems of _Idealism_ are estimated, they seem topresent aspects of reality with vast portions of human potencies andexperiences left out of account. _Absolute Idealism_ is based upon thedemands and implications of logic. Its doctrines would have taken a verydifferent colouring had it considered that the necessities of Logic haveto be adjusted to the necessities of Life. Such systems are of littlevalue to the soul, because the needs of the soul were not taken intoaccount when they were formulated. This fact was the main cause of thelate Professor James's rebellion against all forms of Absolute Idealism. He felt that they bore no relationship to human life and its needs, andconsequently could not exercise any important [p. 209] influence on life;they could not move the will, for no possibility of reaching theAbsolute was offered to man. All the conclusions were in the realm of an_intellectual universal_ and not in the realm of _spirit_. They must beunreal in the highest sense on account of this very failure. They havepresented their half-gods as realities outside Nature, human nature, thepressing ideals of life, and even God Himself. Eucken shows that any true Life-system has to start with Life itself. There may be interpretations needful which have no implications forLife, and these have a right of their own; but when such interpretationsare carried further, when the subject who _knows_ such interpretationsand who _uses_ them is taken into account, then the interpretationsfound on this level are something quite different from what they werewhen the whole spirit of man was not taken into account. Euckenconsequently comes to the conclusion that philosophy has not completelyfulfilled its vocation until it has become a philosophy of _Life_--untilthe truest meaning of every object is discovered in its relation to allthe necessities of the spirit. And it is here that his teaching comesinto conflict with so much that goes by the name of Idealism. How canany system be more than a half-truth when its final meaning is presentedwith but little attention to the highest aspect we know in the world--to human life in its struggles and conquests, [p. 210] in its livingand loving, and its forward movement towards some distant goal? Thespecial value of Eucken's teaching lies, then, in the fact that itinterprets what happens, can happen, and ought to happen within lifeitself. No system which leaves out the soul with its possibilities iscomplete. This has been done too often in the past, and is being doneto-day. Is it, then, a wonder that philosophy has given so very littlehelp to Life in its complex problems without and its sharp opposites andcontradictions within? Life is more and needs more than a philosophy ofwords, devoid of power, can offer it. Life, when at its best, believesin the all-power of its own spiritual potency; it has faith in thepossibility of ascent from height to height, as well as in thepossibility of an incessant progress not only of individuals but of thewhole of mankind. [72] A System stands or falls according as it is ableto conceive of Life in such a manner. And Eucken has done this asprobably no other living philosopher has done it. If we turn to _Immanent Idealism_, we discover the same failure. Itemphasises the presence within consciousness of what is idealistic andnoble, but it leaves out the objective and imperative character of whatis present. It also forgets that the possession of ideals as ideas isonly the initial stage of such ideals becoming a very portion [p. 211] ofthe deepest substance of soul itself. We may deceive ourselves even withthe contemplation of the best ideals; they can never become truly oursuntil the will is set in motion and the whole nature is stirred to itsdepths in order to press forward to what it perceives as having infinitevalue. Something has inevitably to happen within the depth of the soulbefore its real creation can advance. Eucken here, again, has perceivedthis truth and presents it everywhere with great power. His Philosophyis an _Activism_ of the most powerful type. He is aware that to _know_and to _be_ are so far apart. But his Activism is not a mere movement ofthe individual's will, brought forth by anything that has grown withinit as a private inheritance. The Activism is started and kept going onits course by the over-personal norms and values already referred to. Itis the union of norm and will that constitutes the full action. Life'sgreater meaning and value is, therefore, not a ready-made possession; itis rather something already possessed, and a vision of something _more_in the distance to be possessed. [73] The presence of the Divine withinthe soul is not the same prior to the search and after the search. Thisis [p. 212] one of the most distinctive features of Eucken's teaching, and constitutes a necessary supplement to certain presentations ofImmanent Idealism prevalent in various forms to-day. When we pass to _Materialism_ in its various forms, we find Euckenconscious of its poverty and its caricature of life. It is caused byexcessive absorption in the sensuous object with all its manifoldrelations. But it is possible to believe in all that it states; for itcan never really say anything concerning the deeper meaning of spirituallife if for no other reason than that it cannot penetrate into life'sdeeper experiences. It is a stage in human thought which is passingaway. What will become of it after Professor Haeckel's passing isdifficult to imagine. One thing at least is certain: as a completesystem of the universe or of life it is doomed. [74] A mechanicalinterpretation of the universe is legitimate: we may have to adopt moreof such interpretations in the future. But there is no need for anyalarm from the sides of philosophy and religion. Their citadel is notbuilt upon a _thing_, but upon a _thought_; and the gap between the twoincreases in the degree in which our knowledge of Nature and Manincreases. Eucken has many great things to say on this subject in hislarger works. Doubtless he would agree with some of the [p. 213]advocates of _Naturalism_ in regard to the meaning of the physicaluniverse, but such agreement would not be an admission that _all_ hadbeen said that could be said concerning the need and the possibility ofa _Metaphysic of Life_. The one word _More_ constitutes all the difference. This _More_, withEucken, is the beginning of a new order of existence and of value wherethe physical order ends. His work consists in interpreting this _More_, and we have already seen whither the _More_ leads us: it leads us intospiritual norms and their values, and these in their turn led us intoInfinite Love in the Godhead. The failure to see the value of all thisis due to the inattention of the advocates of Naturalism in regard tothe non-sensuous structure of mind: the _Thing and its relations_monopolise them so completely that they are blind to every realitynon-sensuous in its nature, although they possess some amount of suchreality in their very knowledge and adoration of the _Thing_. Ourtroubles will continue to accumulate, and the prospect of the futurewill grow extremely dark, if the grip which physical things have on theworld to-day be not relaxed. The very physical powers which we havehelped to create, and which hitherto have proved of service to men, willmean our destruction unless something of the _More_ which is beyond thembe found as a possession and an activity within the governing centre oflife. This is Eucken's [p. 214] plea over against the various forms ofthe Naturalism and Materalism of our day. These are not enough for man. But man is so slow in recognising this fact. The appeal of SpiritualIdealism is considered to be something which is vague and useless. Ourdeepest reality and the source of all true energy have been robbed oftheir efficacy by our absorption in scraping together physical elementsof chaff and dust. How often does Eucken show our dire poverty in themidst of all this external plenty! The all-sufficiency of all forms ofNaturalism condemns itself through its failure to pass beyond itself. Had there not been some who did pass beyond the _Thing and itsrelations_ the spiritual values of the race would have been annihilated. "As soon as we demand to pass beyond mere awareness to a genuineknowledge, we discover our deplorable poverty, and must confess thatwhat is termed certain seems on clearer investigation to rest upon atotally insecure foundation. "[75] "It is not natural science itselfwhich leads to naturalism, for, indeed, no natural science could ariseif reality exhausted itself in the measurements of naturalism; but it israther the weakness of the conviction of the spiritual life; it is thefailure of certitude in regard to the presence of a spiritual existence;it is the unclearness concerning the _inner_ conditions of all mentaland spiritual activity which a shallow and popular philosophy [p. 215]presents--it is all this which turns natural science into amaterialistic naturalism. "[76] The strength of materialistic _monism_does not lie in any proof of there being nothing but mechanism in thiswide universe, but in its energetic propaganda against certaintraditional theological forms of ecclesiastical religion--forms whichare rapidly being disowned by the leaders of religious thought. Evenmonism concedes that "it is better being good than bad, better beingsane than mad. " This concession, and the attempt to live according toit, constitute a proof of the presence in some form of a non-sensuousreality and value in the constructions of materialistic monism itself. Hence, Eucken's conception of spiritual life cannot be got rid of afterall. It will remain so long as men live above the animal level andstrive to ascend to something higher still. When the _neo-Kantian_ movement is examined, we find that its long andhonourable history presents us with gains which cannot be measured. Butwe have already noticed that in so far as this movement has specialisedwithin the domain of the connections of mind and body, and has attemptedto reduce psychology to the limits of the relations between the two, itis largely outside the _inner_ meaning and value of the life ofconsciousness. [p. 216] Its work has proved useful in many importantrespects. It has made man realise that the connection of body and mindis not so simple a matter as materialistic naturalism would lead us tosuppose; and it has shown, on the whole, the impossibility of reducingconsciousness to mechanical elements. Even in the various forms ofpsycho-physical parallelism the factor of mind and meaning stands apartin its origin from the factors of bodily movement. But neo-Kantianismhas developed on higher lines than those of physiological psychology. Ithas dealt with the presence of an inner world of thought--a world ofvalues and judgments of values, of norms, imperatives, andideals--realities which are not presented in any scheme of naturalscience. It is impossible to read such a great book as the lateProfessor Otto Liebmann's _Analysis der Wirklichkeit_[77] withoutdiscovering this truth. In this great work, as well as in his _Gedankenund Thatsachen_, Liebmann shows how man is more than a natural product. [p. 217] "Natural science, " he tells us, "is a very useful, and, indeed, an indispensable handmaid to philosophy, but it is in no manner thefirst, the deepest, the most original basis of philosophy. "[78]Liebmann's successors, especially Windelband, Rickert, Münsterberg, Adickes, and Vaihinger, work on similar lines. And there is a great dealin Eucken's teaching which tends in the same direction. But he goes astep further than all the neo-Kantians. We have already noticed how hegives judgments of value and spiritual norms a _cosmic_ significance. Hefinds that when these norms and values have awakened with greatclearness within man's spirit they inevitably lead to the conception ofthe Godhead. And it is in this work that Eucken's Metaphysic of Lifebecomes a _religious metaphysic_. As values and norms mean so much whena reality is granted them by the truest of the neo-Kantians, they cometo mean infinitely more when they are acknowledged as somehowconstituting the foundation and the acme of all existence. Eucken's maindesire is to establish such norms and values beyond the possibility ofdispute and beyond the constant changes of Life-systems. They mean forhim what is present within their spiritual content as a realisation aswell as the _More_ to which they still point. His teaching is notcontradicted by anything in the neo-Kantian movement;[p. 218] he acceptsits transcendental reality and lifts it out of the realm ofindividuality and of history into a cosmic realm. After having followedthe implications of the neo-Kantian movement so far, he feels compelledto take the next step. For unless that next step is taken, some of thedeepest potencies of human nature fail to come to flower and fruit. Whenthe step is taken, they do blossom and bear fruit. Is not this asufficient justification for taking the "next step"? It is; for mancannot allow any potency of his being to remain dormant withoutsuffering a loss; and on this highest level of all the loss must beincalculable. "Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart willnever find its rest until it rests on Thee. " That confession ofAugustine is Eucken's confession also; and it is the implication whichsuch a confession contains that constitutes the significance of hismessage to the world. He is in the line not only of the philosophers butof the prophets and the mystics. The ladder of knowledge reaches, likeJacob's ladder, up to heaven itself--to that pure atmosphere whereknowledge, merged in a deeper reality, becomes something so differentfrom what it was before. An eternal blessedness has now become thepossession of man. Eucken has a great deal to say regarding the _Historical_ Life-systemsof the present day. [p. 219] He is aware that the neglect by Germanthinkers of the fundamental importance of Hegel's teaching on thisquestion has meant a heavy loss. That loss is already perceived, andHegel's value in the realm of the Philosophy of History is beingrediscovered. Men are more and more feeling the necessity of conceding avalidity and objectivity to the concepts of History. The work of thelate Professor Dilthey[79] in this respect is of great importance, andhas strong affinities with Eucken's teaching on the same subject. ButDilthey's objectivity and validity stopped short of religion in thesense in which religion is presented by Eucken. Dilthey gave the normsof History a transcendental objectivity and considered them sufficientfor man. But Eucken, as already stated, while granting all this and eveninsisting upon it, finds that the norms of History do not include thewhole that human nature needs. The "next step" has to be taken whereby areality is revealed beyond the confines of the best collectiveexperiences of the human race. Once more, we are landed in theconception of the Godhead. The step became inevitable, because the best[p. 220] historical concepts, in their totality, pointed to somethingstill beyond themselves. During the past few years Eucken has devoted much attention to theLife-system presented in _Pragmatism_. He is alive to the value of muchof the work of the late Professor William James and of Dr F. C. S. Schiller. He feels that Absolute Idealism is too abstract and too remotefrom life to move the human will. It is too much like placing a manbefore a mountain, and asking him to remove it. The very magnitude ofthe object weakens instead of strengthening the will. Pragmatism has themerit of insisting that the task be done piecemeal, so that man may notlose heart at the very outset. And some kind of goal is present inPragmatism. But Eucken's main objection to Pragmatism is that, howeveradequate it may be at the beginning of the enterprise, it will tend, astime passes, to turn man in the direction of the line of leastresistance, and so be degraded to the level of the ordinary life and itspetty demands. [80] His Activism is entirely different from James'sPragmatism. James depended too much upon the "span of the moment" andits immediate experience. There is in this "span" often no cosmicconviction present in consciousness to proclaim that the action is[p. 221] "worth while" at all costs. While constantly demanding the needof effort in order to experience the deeper potencies of spiritual life, Eucken insists that such effort can enter into a current only in so faras norms and values are clearly perceived as the meaning and goal ofspiritual life. A _universal_ of meaning and value must be perceived, however imperfectly it may be, before the individual can call hisdeepest nature into activity. And what is such a _universal_ butsomething beyond the flow of the moment and beyond the realm of ordinarydaily life? Such a _universal_, too, must have an existence of itsown--an existence and a value which are beyond the opinions of anyindividual or of any group of individuals, even if such a group were toinclude the whole human race. It is clear, then, why Eucken partscompany with Pragmatism. If, finally, we view his attitude towards the _Religious_ Life-systemsof our generation, we find words of warning and of encouragement. Hiswhole work culminates in religion. But he teaches us that we have tolearn from the sides of knowledge already presented in this chapter. Andit may be said that the Christian Church (or any other Church) has yetto learn this lesson. It still seeks to find its revelation in what_was_, and in modes which come constantly into direct conflict with theresults of the various Life-systems already referred to. It wants thefruits of religion without tilling [p. 222] the ground and nurturing itsplants. Its insistence on placing the basis of religion in myth andmiracle dooms it to a greater disaster in the future than even in thepast. Eucken sees no hope for a "revival" of religion in the soul untilan inverted order of conceiving reality takes place. The religioussynthesis from the intellectual side is to be obtained by passingthrough the grades of reality explicit in the various Life-systems, andby abstaining from the imposition of barriers which forbid anyoneroaming and "ruminating" within these. If one condition is obeyed, thisis the most fruitful way to construct a new religious metaphysic whichwill supplant traditional theology. That condition is that the variousLife-systems form a kind of scale which extends from Matter up to theGodhead. The new religious metaphysic will then mean a real philosophyof values. Does this constitute an impossible task for the Christian Church? Itwill remain impossible so long as we look upon the essence ofChristianity as something which descends upon us apart from the exertionof our own spiritual potencies. It is a consolation to know that thehighest reality may be experienced without having to undergo a trainingin the methods and implications of science, history, or metaphysics. Butthe experience here cannot possibly mean so much as the experience whichpasses through and beyond the implications of knowledge to the [p. 223]Divine. Such an experience as the latter must be richer in content. Andeven apart from this, it produces something of value on the intellectualside--something which grants religion a security in the eyes of theworld. When the Church tends in this direction, its faith will come intocomradeship with the various branches of human knowledge as these revealthemselves on level above level. Christianity has nothing to fear, buteverything to gain, from the development of all the branches of humanknowledge. Its source being Spiritual and Eternal, why should oppositionbe presented to any development of the lower realities in science, Biblical criticism, history, and philosophy? This lesson is not yetlearned, and Eucken pleads for its acknowledgment. "If we consider howmuch is involved in such a change in the position of the spiritual life, and if we also present before ourselves what transformationscivilisation, culture, history, and natural science carry withinthemselves, we see clearly the critical situation in which religion isplaced, because these surface-changes are not of the essence ofreligion. Through the mighty expansion and the fissures which thesechanges bring about, the old immediacy and intimacy of the soul havebecome lost, and religion has now receded into the distance, and is indanger of vanishing more and more. The derangement of things which suchchanges cause occurs [p. 224] not only in connection with their own factsand material and against their old forms, but the effect proceeds intothe very character and feelings of man and into his religion. And yet, when we examine the matter more closely, we find that such changes causenot so much a breach with Christianity as with its traditional form, andthat they seek to bring about a fundamental renewal of Christianity. Forwhen we penetrate beyond the motives and dispositions of men to theirspiritual basis, all the changes are unable to contradict what isessential to Christianity, but they even promise to assist thisessential element in its new, freer, and more energetic development. Butwe have to bear in mind that all this will not descend upon us like ashower of rain, but will have to be brought forth through immense labourand toil. It becomes necessary to replace that which must pass away, andto reconsolidate the essentials which are threatened. All this cannotcome about save through an energetic concentration and deepening of thespiritual life, save through a struggle against the superficiality ofTime regardless of all consequences, and save through a vivification andintegration of all that points in the right direction. "[81] [p. 225] This passage illustrates well Eucken's whole attitude regardingChristianity. It is evident that much remains to be done within andwithout the Church. Within, radical changes are to take place; butalways in the light and with the preservation of the spiritualsubstance. Without, the indifference of a vast portion of the civilisednations of the world has to be reckoned with. It is an immense problem, often enough to dishearten good men and women. How can men be moved fromtheir inertia and their resentment against the deeper demands whichspiritual life makes upon every human being? That is the problem ofproblems and the task of tasks to-day. No clear solution of it is yetperceptible. But in the meantime, those who care for Divine things andwho have experienced some of their power within their own souls musthold fast to all they possess, and labour unceasingly to increase thespiritual value of their possession. Probably catastrophes have tohappen in order to bring the world home to religion and God. Rudolf Eucken's gospel is a proclamation of the necessity of religionand the possibility of its possession. This, according to him, is thefinal goal of all knowledge and life. If religion is not this, it is themost tragic deception conceivable. "Religion is either merely asanctioned product of human wishes and pictorial ideas brought about bytradition and [p. 226] the historical ordinance--and, if so, no art, power, or cunning can prevent the destruction of such a bungling work bythe advance of the mental and spiritual movement of the world; orreligion is founded upon a superhuman fact--and, if so, the hardestassaults cannot shatter it, but rather, it must finally prove of servicein all the troubles and toils of man; it must reach the point of itstrue strength and develop purer and purer its Eternal Truth. "[82] The fact that the influence of Rudolf Eucken's personality and teachingis spreading with such rapidity and power from west to east and fromnorth to south is a proof that an increasing number of men and women areaspiring after a religion of spiritual life such as was presented by theFounder of our Christianity. All the Life-systems of our day mustconverge towards such a conception of religion. * * * * * CHAPTER XIII [p. 227] EUCKENS PERSONALITY AND INFLUENCE In this chapter an attempt will be made to present in a brief form someof the most important aspects of Eucken's personality and influence. Histraining and the relation of his teaching to the German philosophicalsystems of the present have already been touched upon in some of theearlier chapters. But no account of Eucken's teaching is completewithout a knowledge of his personality. We cannot understand his personality without bearing in mind Eucken'snationality. He is a man of the North. A mere glimpse of the deep blueeyes reveals this immediately. His ancestors lived in close contact withNature, and faced the perils of the great deep. The history of the menof the North has witnessed, along the centuries, a struggle forexistence as severe as any struggle known in the history of our world. Atrait of Eucken's character almost entirely unknown in England is hisdeep sympathy with the small nations [p. 228] of Europe, and especiallywith those of the North. He has written and pleaded on behalf of Poland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. He finds that small nations, whentheir independence is preserved, have the tendency to bring forthoriginal characteristics of thought and life, which are only too apt toget lost in the bustle and mechanism of the great nations. He has shownus on several occasions how much the world is indebted to its smallnations for the ideas and ideals which have shaped its destiny. Hebelieves with his whole soul that _size_ does not necessarily mean_greatness_. When we compare the greatness of Palestine and Greece withthat of the larger countries of the world, the latter sink intoinsignificance when weighed in the balances of the spirit. He has, during the past few years, several times pointed out a danger topersonality and character from the vast organisations which have beencreated in the various departments of life during the latter half of thenineteenth century. The deeper personality of man has receded more andmore into the background through the growth of such organisations. Thisfact is clear in the realms of commerce and of politics. We call anation "great" in the degree in which it succeeds in outstripping othernations in its exports and imports, or in forming alliances with itsneighbouring states or with other nations. A large portion of the gainswhich accrue from such [p. 229] unions is purely accidental, and thesegains cannot possibly touch the essentials of life. The explanation ofthis is the fact that the centre of gravity has been shifted from mentaland moral racial qualities to qualities which are far inferior in mentaland moral potency and content. Thus, we witness the painful inversion ofvalues which has taken place during the past fifty years. Every "smallnation" has to take a secondary place, has to become subservient to anation which may possess for its inheritance but few qualities besidesthose of expansiveness and force. The small nation is forced to submit, to develop on lines entirely alien to its original potencies, and tolabour with might and main to fill the coffers of the rich nation. Theold calm and peace, as well as the originality of the small nations havethus too often been cruelly uprooted; the characteristics of working ontheir own original lines, and of producing something of essential valuein the history of the world, have been largely shorn of their initiativeand freedom in the case of several of the small nations of Europe. Superficiality and indifference to deep national and spiritual traitsbecome the primary things, and the life of the small nations, as timepasses, tends to become mechanical and servile. When we survey the work of the small nations of the Western world, wediscover achievements which have been of immense [p. 230] value in thecivilisation, culture, morals, and religion of Europe. And what adistressing sight it is to witness the attempts of larger nations tocrush the spirituality of the smaller ones! The attitude of Russiatowards Finland and Poland is known to all. A greed for territory and apassion for ready-made values are characteristics which are only tooevident to-day in the case of some of the Great Powers of Europe. Weneed, as Eucken points out, [83] a new standard of valuing the nationalcharacteristics and the relationship of nation with nation. Suchstandard must include moral judgments and human sympathy. It is thepresence of spiritual powers such as these which constitute the reallydeep and durable elements in a nation's progress. "When righteousnessgoes to the bottom, then there is nothing more worth living for on theearth. " Eucken's philosophy cannot be understood apart from his intenseinterest in mankind and its spiritual development. He goes, indeed, sofar as to say that this is the sole goal of philosophy; its message isto create new spiritual values in the life of the individual and of therace. Our systems of philosophy are painfully defective in this respectto-day. Man, as a being with a soul, is little taken into account inmost of them. Is it surprising, therefore, that philosophy has notsucceeded, [p. 231] for centuries, in interesting or influencing theintelligent world at large?[84] It will not succeed in doing this untilthe deepest needs of mankind are taken to be something more than objectsof psychological analysis or of logical generalisations. Eucken's personality is rooted in a deep love for humanity and itsspiritual qualities; and herein lies the essential reason of hischampioning of weak nations and pleading for the preservation of theiroriginal spiritual characteristics. These qualities are pearls of toogreat a price to be lost in a world where so much tinsel passes as whatpossesses the highest value. It is not difficult to see why the small nations of the North feel thatin Eucken they possess a true friend who sees clearly what they feelinstinctively, and who points out to them the path of their spiritualdeliverance. It is impossible, also, to understand Eucken's system of philosophywithout taking into account his religious experience. This aspect hasalready been touched upon, but it requires elucidation from a morepersonal point of view. Eucken's philosophy is the result of theexperience of his own soul. It is something which can never beunderstood until it is lived through. Everything is brought back to itsroots in the needs, aspirations, and inwardness of the soul. One mustbecome "converted" [p. 232] before he can understand Eucken's teaching. Something has not only to be understood but to be lived through; thebody and the external world have to be relegated to a subsidiary place;the intellect has to merge into the spiritual intuition which is deeperthan itself. It is after one has been willing to pass through this fieryfurnace that the great "illumination" begins to appear. And such anillumination will increase in the degree that service and sacrifice arewillingly undertaken for the sake of the infinite spiritual gains whichremain in store. This element in Eucken's personality draws him to everybody he comes incontact with, and draws everybody to him. He has drunk so deeply of theexperiences of Plato and Plotinus, of the great Christian mystics andmoralists of the centuries, that he sees the value of every soul thatcomes to him for help. It is far from Eucken's wish for these matters tobe published. And the present writer will only state the fact thatnobody, however ignorant and obscure, has failed in Eucken to find afather and guide. Hundreds of men who had either lost or had never foundtheir moral and spiritual bearings in life have succeeded in doing sothrough coming into contact with him. The present writer remembers wellmany a conversation among students of six or more differentnationalities, concerning the secret of Eucken's teaching [p. 233] andinfluence. Imagine Servians, Poles, Swedes, Scotch, English, and Welshmeeting together after a philosophical lecture to discuss the questionof the spiritual life and wondering how to discover it! Eucken'spersonality had created in their deepest being a need which could nevermore be filled until the Divine entered into it. In the class-room thegreat prophet makes it impossible for us to content ourselves withmerely preparing for examinations. The teacher's exposition andinspiration are creating a deep uneasiness in us. We feel how limitedand shallow our nature has been when we are face to face with a man whoreveals to us the eternal values of the things of the spirit; and whoreveals them not as they have merely been revealed by the great thinkersof the world, but as he himself has felt and lived them. We all becomeimpressed with the fact that we are in the presence of a power above theworld; and the feeling of pain is changed into a feeling of strongoptimism in regard to the possibilities of our own nature. We feel thatwe, too, in spite of our limitations, can become the possessors ofsomething of the very nature akin to that which our great teacherpossesses. Eucken works a change in every man and woman who remain withhim for a length of time. Many of us understand something of what JesusChrist meant to his disciples; how he created an affection within theirsouls which all the obstacles of the world [p. 234] could neverobliterate. Eucken has done something of the same kind, on a smallerscale, for hundreds of his old pupils. These pupils are found to-day from Iceland in the North to New Zealandin the South, and from Japan in the East to Britain and America in theWest. [85] Many of them have risen to eminence, and all of them haveexperienced something of a spiritual anchorage in the midst of thetempestuous sea of Time; all alike cherish an affection for their old[p. 235] teacher--an affection which is one of their dearest possessions. They have helped to spread his spiritual teaching, and, along with hisbooks, have made his name known in all the civilised countries of theworld. Some of Eucken's most important works have already appeared inhalf a dozen languages. The demand for them increases everywhere. Thisreceptivity is a good omen of better days. The world is beginning to gettired of the mechanism and shallowness of our age, and is once more onthe point of turning to the spiritual fountains of life. Where can itfind a better guide to lead it to the waters of life than in RudolfEucken? * * * * * CHAPTER XIV [p. 236] CONCLUSION It will probably prove helpful at the conclusion to indicate the maincontents of Eucken's greatest works in order that the reader who turnsto them for the first time may be able somewhat to find his bearings. The whole of Eucken's works turn around the conception of the _spirituallife_. This fact must be constantly borne in mind. The term has beenrepeated so often in all the previous chapters that the reader may beinclined to think that some other expression might well have beenexchanged for it. But no other term serves Eucken's meaning, and therecurrence of the term has to be endured in order that it may yield ofits rich content. It has been shown how Eucken establishes a _new world_ with its own lawsand values within the spiritual life. The spiritual life possessesgrades of reality: it reveals itself from the level of connection ofbody and mind and of ordinary life right up to Infinite Love in [p. 237]the Godhead. Such a reality is created within the total activity of thesoul; but it is not mere subjectivism by virtue of the fact that itsmaterial comes to it from without. [86] And Eucken shows that it is thusa life partly given to man, and partly created by him. The "given"elements have to enter into man's soul. This they cannot do without muchopposition. With the persistent energy of the total potency of the soula world of independent inwardness is reached--a world which will have anexistence of its own within the soul, and which will become the standardby which to measure the values of all the things which presentthemselves. It is this superiority of the spiritual life which constitutes theessential factor in the evolution of the individual's personality aswell as in civilisation, culture, morality, and all the rich inheritanceof the race. Such an inheritance can be developed farther by the [p. 238]full consciousness of the spiritual life and by the exercising of itfrom its very foundation. In _The Problem of Human Life_ Eucken sees in the message of every oneof the great thinkers of the ages, however much he may differ from them, the vindication of a life higher than that of sense or even ofin-intellectualism. In one form or another, they all present some worldof values which is born and nurtured within the mind and soul. All thesethinkers stand for something which is great and good. Eucken attempts todiscover this core in their teaching; and in the midst of all thedifferences some spiritual truth and value make their appearance. Thisvolume has undergone many changes, and is now in its ninth edition. In _The Main Currents of Modern Thought_ Eucken deals, in the first partof the book, with _the fundamental concept of spiritual life_ as thisreveals itself in the meanings of Subjective--Objective, Theoretical--Practical, Idealism--Realism. The middle portion of thebook deals with the _Problem of Knowledge_ as this is shown in Thoughtand Experience (Metaphysics), Mechanical--Organic (Teleology), and Law. The third portion of the volume deals with the _Problems of Human Life_as these are presented in Civilisation and Culture, History, Society andthe Individual, Morality and Art, Personality and Character, and theFreedom of the Will. The final portion deals [p. 239] with _UltimateProblems_; and the two chapters on the Value of Life and the ReligiousProblem bring out the deeper meaning of spiritual life. This volume has undergone many changes. When it appeared in 1878 it waslittle more than a history of the concepts we have already referredto. [87] But at the present time it deals with the history of theconcepts, a criticism of these, and finally the presentation of theauthor's own thesis regarding the reality of an independent spirituallife. In _Life's Basis and Life's Ideal_ he analyses the various systems ofthought which have been presented to the world. He finds many of thesedeficient; but although something that is contained in them has to passaway, they possess some spiritual element which requires preservation, and which is valid for all time. None of these systems is final; theyhave to preserve what is spiritual within them, and also merge it insome newer revelation gained for mankind. Every system of the universeand of life has to move; it has perpetually to drop something of itsaccidentals, and continually strengthen and increase its essentials. Everywhere emphasis is laid on the fact that the spiritual element[p. 240] must be preserved and increased at whatever cost, for it is anelement of the highest value for the world, and constitutes the energyof the world's upward march. In the _Einheit des Geisteslebens_, as well as in the _Prolegomena_ tothis, the necessity of a spiritual conception of knowledge comes to theforeground. All systems of Naturalism lack enough spiritual life withinthemselves to meet the deepest needs of the race. Man is _more_ than allsuch systems. Even on the grounds of the Theory of Knowledge itself mancan be proved to be _more_. Eucken deals in these two books with thecontent of consciousness: that content reveals what is a Whole orTotality, what is beyond sense, what includes within itself the isolatedimpressions of the senses or of the understanding, and what is therefore_spiritual_ in its nature. In the _Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt_--a book of the greatestvalue--we find Eucken at his best. His attempt here is to deal with thestruggle for the spiritual life and the certainty of its possession. Heshows how man has emerged out of Nature, and how he has moved in thedirection of gaining an inner world during the long course ofcivilisation, culture, morality, and religion. Through titanic strugglesthis inner world becomes man's possession, and constitutes the truevalue and significance of his life. Man now realises that it is thisworld of spirit and values [p. 241] which constitutes the only reallytrue world. Issuing out of this possession of the ever richer contentsof this inward, spiritual world, the personality constantly becomessomething quite other than it was, and its possession adds to theinheritance of the spiritual ideals of the world. At this source man isin possession of a power of a new kind of creativeness in any field ofknowledge or life he may be obliged to work. Nothing blossoms or bearsfruit without the presence and the power of spiritual life in thedeepest inwardness of the soul. In _The Truth of Religion_ Eucken roams in a vast territory. All theoppositions of the ages to religion are brought on the stage, and aremade to reveal their best and their worst. He shows how every system ofthought, devoid of the experience and activity of the deepest soul, fails to engender religion. He shows over against all this theintellectual warrant for religion, and passes from this to the personalsearch by the soul for what is warranted by the intellect and by thedeepest needs of one's own being. This has been the meaning of thereligions of the world, and this meaning finds its culmination inChristianity. Eucken's smaller books, such as _The Life of the Spirit, Christianityand the New Idealism, Können wir noch Christen sein?_, and _The Meaningand Value of Life_, present certain aspects of the larger volumes in asimpler form. Eucken is at present engaged upon the [p. 242] completion of a work ofgreat importance dealing with _The Theory of Knowledge_. His system hasbeen stated to be in need of this important corner-stone, and he hashastened to meet the demand. The book will deal with the "grounds" ofthe life of the spirit in an even more fundamental manner than any ofhis books. A preparatory work, small in bulk--_Erkennen und Leben_--hasjust appeared in German, and will be issued in English in the spring of1913. In _Erkennen und Leben_ Eucken shows the need of clearness in regard tothe concept of the spiritual life. This work is an introduction to hisforthcoming work--_The Theory of Knowledge_. He shows that the Problemof Knowledge can only be answered through a further clarification of theProblem of Life. It is, therefore, necessary to show what such a Life isand how it may be lived, and, finally, how it makes Knowledge possible. This is the only way by which the final convictions of Life are able topossess greater depth and duration. Knowledge is possible only in so far as man participates in aself-subsistent life. Without such a self-subsistent life manyintellectual achievements are possible, but they do not deserve the nameof Knowledge. Such a self-subsistent life must be operative in the foundation of ournature, but it must constantly receive its material from the most[p. 243] important meanings and values of the world. The self-subsistentlife dare not feed on the mere analysis of consciousness or on thematerial which it already possesses. History shows how a self-subsistent life is not created through the meresuccession of events, but is always found as a life which is superior tothe perpetual changes of Time. Consequently, every real Knowledge hassomething _sub specie aeternitatis_ as its essence, and thisdifferentiates it from all mere relativism. The movement of History culminates alternately in _Concentration_ on theone hand, and in _Expansion_ on the other: _Positive_ and _Critical_epochs alternate. Both aspects are necessary for the growth of life. In modern times the growth of the Expansion-side of life has destroyedin a large measure the equilibrium of life; and the task to-day is toconstruct a new Concentration-side. Such a new Concentration is possible: the experience of Historytestifies to its presence in several epochs; and there is a deep longingfor it in many quarters to-day. In order to attain to such a Concentration the "dead-level" life of thepresent must be overcome, and a turn must take place towards a newMetaphysic of Life. Such is the problem to-day, and no complete answer is to be found in thepast systems of Metaphysics. "The possibilities of Life and [p. 244] ofKnowledge are in no way exhausted, but it is only through our owncourage and actions that the possibilities can become actualities"(_Erkennen und Leben_, p. 161). The various systems of Thought need a synthesis which will include themall. It is difficult to-day to obtain a theory of life which does notleave out of account some essential elements. Is there a possibility ofdiscovering such a synthesis? I believe that Eucken's works answer thisquestion. But we wait eagerly for the appearance of his greatest work, and I think that, when it appears, he will more than ever deserveWindelband's designation of him as "the creator of a new Metaphysic. " * * * * * APPENDIX [p. 245] * * * * * LIST OF EUCKEN'S WORKS 1866. "De Aristotelis docendi ratione. " Pars I. De particularis. This was the Doctor's dissertation at Göttingen University. 1868. "Über den Gebrauch der Präpositionem bei Aristoteles. " 1870. "Über die Methode und die Grundlagen der Aristotelischen Ethik" (Separatabdruck aus dem Programm des Frankfurter Gymnasiums von 1870). 1871. "Über die Bedeutung der Aristotelischen Philosophie fur die Gegenwart" (Akademische Antrittsrede gehalten am 21 November, 1871). This was in Basel. 1872. "Die Methode der Aristotelischen Forschung in ihrem Zusammenhang mit den philosophischen Grundprincipien des Aristoteles. " 1874. "Über den Wert der Geschichte der Philosophie" (Antrittsrede, Jena, 1874). 1878. "Die Grundbegriffe der Gegenwart. " This was translated by Stuart Phelps in 1880, and published by Appleton of New York. The fourth edition has been translated by M. Booth, and has been published by T. Fisher Unwin in 1912. The title of the third German edition was changed to "Geistige Stromungen der [p. 246] Gegenwart. " The English edition is entitled "The Main Currents of Modern Thought. " 1879. "Geschichte der philosophischen Terminologie. " 1880. "Über Bilder und Gleichnisse in der Philosophie": Eine Festschrift. 1881. "Zur Erinnerung an K. Ch. F. Krausse" (Festrede, gehalten zu Eisenberg am 100 Geburtstage des Philosophen). 1884. "Aristoteles Anschauung von Freundschaft und von Lebensgütern. " 1885. "Prolegomena zu Forschungen über die Einheit des Geisteslebens in Bewusstsein und Tat der Menschheit. " 1886. "Die Philosophie des Thomas von Aquino und die Kultur der Neuzeit. " 1886. "Beiträge zur Geschichte der neueren Philosophie. " (Second edition, 1906, under the title "Beiträge zur Einführung in die Geschichte der Philosophie. ") 1888. "Die Einheit des Geisteslebens in Bewusstsein und Tat der Menschheit. " This will be published by Williams & Norgate. 1890. "Die Lebensanschauungen der grossen Denker. " The ninth edition appeared in 1911. Changes and additions have been made in each succeeding edition. English translation (1909) by W. S. Hough and W. R. Boyce Gibson under the title "The Problem of Human Life, as viewed by the Great Thinkers from Plato to the Present Time" (published by Charles Scribners' Sons, New York; and T. Fisher Unwin, London). 1896. "Der Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt. " (Second edition, with many changes, 1907. ) A translation of this volume will be published by Williams & Norgate in the spring of 1913. 1901. "Das Wesen der Religion. " (First and second editions. ) This essay was translated by W. Tudor Jones in 1904, and was published for private circulation. It is now out of print, but will soon reappear together with another essay, "Wissenschaft und Religion. " 1901. "Der Wahrheitsgehalt der Religion, " 1901. (Second edition, with numerous changes, 1905; third edition, with changes, 1912. ) The second edition was translated by W. Tudor Jones, and published by Williams & Norgate in 1911 under the title of "The Truth of Religion. " A translation of the third German edition will be published at the close of 1912. 1901. "Thomas von Aquino und Kant: ein Kampf zweier Welten. " 1903. "Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Philosophie und Lebensanschauung. " 1905. "Was können wir heute aus Schiller gewinnen?" (Kantstudien: Sonderdruck). 1905. "Wissenschaft und Religion. " This comprises a chapter in the collection of essays entitled "Beiträge zur Weiterentwickelung der Christlichen Religion. " 1907. "Grundlinien einer neuen Lebensanschauung. " This volume was translated by Alban G. Widgery, and published by A. & C. Black in 1911 under the title of "Life's Basis and Life's Ideal. " 1907. "Hauptprobleme der Religionsphilosophie der Gegenwart. " (First edition, 1907; fourth and fifth editions (with additions), 1912. ) The first edition was translated by W. R. Boyce Gibson and Lucy Gibson under the title "Christianity and the New Idealism: a Study in the Religious Philosophy of To-day. " This is published by Harper & Brothers, London and New York. 1907. "Philosophie der Geschichte. " This is an essay in the volume entitled "Systematische Philosophie" in the series "Kultur der Gegenwart. " 1908. "Sinn und Wert des Lebens. " Third edition (with many additions), 1911. The first edition was translated by W. R. Boyce Gibson and Lucy Gibson under the title of "The Meaning and Value of Life" (Publishers: A. & C. Black). 1908. "Einführung in eine Philosophie des Geisteslebens. " Translated by the late F. L. Pogson under the title of "The Life of the Spirit" (third edition, 1911). 1911. "Religion and Life" (the Essex Hall Lecture for 1911). This is published by the Lindsey Press, London. 1911. "Können wir noch Christen sein?" A translation of this is in preparation. 1912. "Naturalism or Idealism?" (the Nobel Lecture, translated by A. G. Widgery). This is published by Heffer & Sons, Limited, Cambridge. 1912. "Erkennen und Leben. " A translation of this work, by W. Tudor Jones, is in preparation, and will be published by Williams & Norgate in the spring of 1913 under the title of "Knowledge and Life: An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge. " 1913. "Erkenntnistlehre. " This volume will appear early in 1913. The translation will also appear during 1913, and the book will be published by Williams & Norgate under the title of "The Theory of Knowledge. " * * * * * FOOTNOTES: [1] It is not only in Germany, but also in England, that natural scientists forget this important fact. The Presidential Address of Professor Schäfer at the British Association (September 1912) is an instance of attempting to explain life in terms of its history and of its lowest common denominator. And huge assumptions have to be made in order to explain as little as this. [2] A fuller treatment of this subject will be found in my forthcoming volume, _Pathways to Religion_. It is incorrect to state with Professor Sorley (_Recent Tendencies in Ethics_, p. 30) that "her [Germany's] philosophy betrays the dominance of material interests. " [3] An important article on this book appeared in _Mind_ during 1896, and, as far as I can trace, this seems to be the first serious attention which was given to Eucken's writings in England. A translation of the volume will appear shortly by Messrs Williams & Norgate. [4] Cf. _Main Currents of Modern Thought_, translated by Dr M. Booth (1912). [5] _Main Currents of Modern Thought_, p. 259. [6] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 6l. [7] _Ibid. _, p. 62. [8] W. James's _Text-Book of Psychology_, p. 145. [9] William Wallace's _Lectures and Essays on Natural Theology and Ethics_, p. 210. [10] Edward Caird's Introduction to William Wallace's Gifford Lectures, pp. Xxx, xxxi. [11] On this conception of the spiritual as _More, cf. _ Bosanquet's _Psychology of the Moral Self_. [12] _Cf. _ Wicksteed's _The Religion of Time and the Religion of Eternity_, in Carpenter and Wicksteed's _Studies in Theology_. [13] Eucken's best account of this subject is found in Parts I. , II. , and V. Of his _Truth of Religion_ and in _Beiträge zur Weiterentwickelung der Religion_, pp. 240-281. This latter is a volume of ten essays by well-known German religious teachers. [14] The President of the British Association (1912) states in his address that it is not within his province to touch the question concerning the nature of the soul. I take the report of his address from _Nature_, 5th September. Dr Haldane goes much further in the direction of Vitalism (discussion at British Association on the subject). [15] _Cf. _ Driesch: _Philosophy of the Organism_; _Vitalismus als Geschichte und Lehre_; his article in _Lebensanschauung_ (a collection of essays by twenty German thinkers, 1911); Reinke's _Philosophie der Botanik_; McDougall's _Body and Mind_; Thomson's _Heredity, Evolution_, and _Introduction to Science_ (the two latter in the Home University Library). Bergson's _Creative Evolution_ deals with the subject, but the value of this book is greater in other directions. T. H. Morgan's _Regeneration_ is a weighty contribution to the subject. [16] A revival of the study of Kant's first _Critique_ would be of great value to our natural scientists. Green, in his _Prolegomena to Ethics_, has interpreted this aspect in a manner that ought not to be forgotten. _Cf. _ further Edward Caird's _Evolution of Religion_, vol. I. [17] Ward's _Naturalism and Agnosticism_, vol. I. , is a reply to this important question. [18] _Cf. _ Münsterberg's _Psychology and Education_, and his _Eternal Values_; also Royce's _The World and the Individual_. [19] This trans-subjective aspect has been worked out in an original way by Volkelt in his _Quellen der menschlichen Gewisskeit_. [20] The works of Münsterberg and Rickert deal with great clearness on this difference of subject-matter in science and history. [21] The main weakness of Bergson's philosophy seems to be in not recognising this problem. Bosanquet, in his _Principle of Individuality and Value_, has very clearly recognised and interpreted it upon similar lines to Eucken. [22] In this respect Eucken and Bergson seem to agree, although it is difficult to reconcile this aspect of Bergson's with his statements concerning the grasping of reality in the perceptions of the moment. [23] "Hegel To-day, " _The Monist_, April 1897. [24] _Truth of Religion_, p. 328. [25] Green has dealt with this aspect in the first part of his _Prolegomena to Ethics_ in practically the same way as Eucken. _Cf. _ also Nettleship's _Life of Green_ and his (Nettleship's) _Philosophical Remains_. [26] This need of differentiation has been presented by Münsterberg in a powerful manner in his _Psychology and Life, Eternal Values_, and _Science and Idealism_. [27] Münsterberg's _Science and Idealism_, p. 10; _cf. _ also his _Grundsuge der Psychologie_, Bd. I. , 1900. [28] Wundt's _Grundriss der Psychologie_ and the article "Psychologie" in _Philosophie im beginn des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts (Festschrift fur Kuno Fischer_, art. 1). [29] _The Truth of Religion_, pp. 178 _f_. [30] It is a great merit of Bergson, too, to have perceived this fundamental difference. The difference between intellect and intuition, in his larger volumes, is more illuminating on the side of intellect. The relation of both is expressed by him more clearly in his short _Introduction to Metaphysics_ (soon to appear in English). [31] Troeltsch, in his _Psychologie und Erkenntnistheorie_, has perceived the difference very clearly, but in a manner quite different from Bergson. Troeltsch has dealt with the presence of the content of the over-empirical as something which is higher than any psychology of the soul, and which is at the farthest remove from the percept. [32] Richard Kade, in his new book, _Rudolf Euckens noologische Methode_, points out very clearly Eucken's contributions on this point from 1885 downwards. Kade further deals with the later developments of Windelband, Rickert, Troeltsch, and Wobbermin in the same direction. [33] _Historical Studies in Philosophy_, 1912, p. 176. [34] _Cf. _ the two remarkable volumes of Baron von Hügel, _The Mystical Elements of Religion_, 1908, and especially vol. Ii. These books are a mine of rich things, but I have not observed that many in our country have as yet realised this fact. [35] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 456. [36] _Main Currents of Modern Thought_, p. 353. [37] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 59. [38] _Cf. Decadence_, Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture, by the Rt. Hon. Arthur James Balfour, M. P. , 1908. Mr Balfour has perceived the problem in a more optimistic manner than Professor Eucken; but he, too, is conscious that much is required of the people. "Some kind of widespread exhilaration or excitement is required in order to enable any community to extract the best results from the raw material transmitted to it by natural inheritance" (p. 62). [39] _Main Currents of Modern Thought_, p. 398. [40] This aspect has been developed in modern times by Schopenhauer, Ed. Von Hartmann, and others. Bergson seems to me to be greatly indebted to Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer's Will and Bergson's _élan vital_ are practically the same (_cf_. Schopenhauer's _Über den Willen in der Natur, _ and Bergson's _Creative Evolution_). Edward Carpenter, in his _Art of Creation_, has worked out a similar point of view independently of Bergson. [41] _Der Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt_, Zweite Auflage, 1907, S. 331. [42] Sonderdruck, 1905. [43] George Meredith, _The Sage Enamoured and the Honest Lady_. [44] _Cf. _ the closing passages of Bradley's _Appearance and Reality_ for a similar view; also the latter part of Ward's _Realm of Ends_. [45] This weakness of Bergson's philosophy is shown in the whole of Bosanquet's _Principle of Individuality and Value_. [46] It is a great merit of Windelband to have brought this aspect of the _Ought_ prominently forward in contradistinction to the over-importance attached to the _Will_ alone by the Pragmatists. _Cf. _ his _Präludien_. [47] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 175. [48] Modern psychology would agree with such a view, but probably not with the implications given to it by Eucken. The "faculty" psychology as it was presented by Kant has now disappeared, and consciousness is conceived as a unity in which the three aspects referred to are present, and even the single aspect that is in the foreground of consciousness is influenced by the others which are in the background. Another point made clear by Höffding (_cf_. His _Psychology)_ and others is the difference between the activity of consciousness in the "drifting" process of association of ideas and its power to stem the association current, and to turn it into new directions by means of the reflective power of consciousness itself. [49] It is a great merit of Bergson's philosophy to have pointed this out. It is a conception presented several times in the history of philosophy, but there is great need of re-emphasising it to-day, especially as things in space have gripped the soul with such power and disastrous results. [50] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 243. [51] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 200. _Cf. _ also _Können wir noch Christen sein_? pp. 91-141. [52] _Cf. _ Ward's _The Realm of Ends_, chapters ii. And xx. ; also Caird's _Evolution of Religion_ has many valuable hints throughout the two volumes pointing in the same direction. [53] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 436. [54] Quoted in _The Truth of Religion_, p. 436. [55] Cf. _The Truth of Religion_, pp. 429 ff. [56] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 430. [57] This fact is very clearly interpreted by Rickert in his _Gegenstand der Erkenntnis_. [58] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 431. [59] I cannot but believe that the supposed proofs brought forward by Sir Oliver Lodge and others are so empirical as to be of very little value to religion. [60] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 533. [61] _The Truth of Religion_, pp. 367, 368. [62] _The Truth of Religion_, pp. 11, 12. [63] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 545. It is on this fact that Eucken builds his conception of immortality. Such a conception is not a matter of speculation or of scientific proof, but a matter of an experience born on the summit of the evolution of spiritual life within the soul. It is useless to attempt to press such an experience into a conceptual mould. [64] _The Truth of Religion_, pp. 550, 551. [65] Driesch is attempting the construction of such a Metaphysic of Nature, and a similar attempt is to be discovered in Bergson's philosophy, especially in its later developments. [66] Troeltsch has also emphasised this truth in his _Absolutheit des Christentums und die Religionsgeschichte_ and in his _Bedeutung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu für den Glauben_. These two small volumes are of great value. [67] Cf. _Können wir noch Christen sein_? pp. 150 to 210; _Das Wesen der Religion; Life's Basis and Life's Ideal_, p. 332 ff. ; _Christianity and the New Idealism_, chapter iv. ; _The Truth of Religion_, pp. 539 to 616. [68] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 360. [69] _Das Wesen der Religion_, S. 16. [70] The closing sections of _The Truth of Religion. _ A similar aspect is presented in the final chapter of _Können wir noch Christen sein?_ [71] _Cf. _ J. S. Mackenzie's _Outlines of Metaphysics_ on the various constructions of the Universe and of Life. The whole volume is of the greatest value. _Cf. _ also A. E. Taylor's illuminating volume, _Elements of Metaphysics_. [72] Cf. _Der Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt_, S. 98 ff. [73] _Cf. _ Wicksteed's remarkable address _The Religion of Time and the Religion of Eternity_, already referred to. There are some striking similarities between Eucken and Wicksteed, who have, however, worked each quite independently of one another. [74] Men of science themselves feel this, and are conscious of the one-sidedness of the results of the scientific side of materialism. [75] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 103. [76] _Die Lebensanschauungen der grossen Denker_, 9te Auflage, 1911, S. 504. [77] Liebmann passed away in January 1912. He had been Eucken's colleague in Jena for many years. Windelband designates him as "the truest of Kantians and the Nestor of Philosophy. " _Cf. _ my article on his life and work in the _Nation_ for February 3, 1912. The best presentation in England of the Kantian philosophy and its development is to be found in Caird's _Critical Philosophy of Kant_ and Adamson's _Development of Modern Philosophy. Cf_. Also G. Dawes Hicks's valuable articles in the _Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society_ during the past ten years. [78] _Analysis der Wirklichkeit_, 3te Auflage, 1900, S. Vii. [79] _Cf. _ Dilthey's _Erlebnis und Dichtung_; his article "Die Typen der Weltanschauung und ihre Ausbildung in den metaphysichen Systemen" in _Weltanschauung_; _Philosophie und Religion in Darstellungen_, 1911 also, "Das Wesen der Philosophie" in _Systematische Philosophie_ ("Kultur der Gegenwart"). [80] _Cf. _ Eucken's _Hauptprobleme der Religionsphilosophie der Gegenwart_, 5te Auflage, 1912, chapter iv. Also, _Erkennen und Leben_ (1912), ss. 35-51. [81] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 574. Many hints in this and other respects may be found in W. R. Boyce Gibson's valuable work, _Rudolf Eucken's Philosophy of Life_(3rd edition, 1912). [82] _The Truth of Religion_, p. 71. [83] "Gesammelte Aufsätze": _Die Bedeutung der kleiner Nationen_, pp. 47-52. [84] This truth is pointed out most forcibly by L. P. Jacks in his _Alchemy of Thought_, chap. I. [85] Eucken visited England for the first time during Whitsun-week 1911. He had been invited by the Committee of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association to deliver in London the _Essex Hall Lecture_ for the year. A large audience gathered together to see and hear him, and he received a most cordial reception. He spoke in German on _Religion and Life_, and the lecture has since appeared in English. The Rev. Charles Hargrove, M. A. , of Leeds (President of the Association) presided over the meeting, and spoke of the great importance of Eucken's growing influence. Interesting addresses were also delivered by Dr J. Estlin Carpenter, Principal of Manchester College, Oxford; and Dr P. T. Forsyth, Principal of Hackney College. At the luncheon which followed, Professor Westermarck, Dr R. F. Horton, and others spoke. The lecture was repeated at Manchester College, Oxford, during the same week. On Whitsunday Eucken preached in the evening at Unity Church, Islington, London, N. , at the invitation of the writer of this volume. In September 1912 Eucken sailed for the United States of America to deliver a course of lectures at Harvard University covering a period of six months. In both countries he was greeted by a large number of his old pupils, many of whom travelled long distances to see and hear him once more. [86] Eucken follows Kant in the fact that after the union of subject and object has taken place a _new kind of objectivity_ has to be taken into account. This result has to be admitted before knowledge becomes possible at all. Eucken has not dealt in a thorough manner with this problem, although several hints are given concerning the importance of this transcendental aspect in Kant's philosophy. The implications of such a _new_ kind of objectivity avoid the danger of subjectivism, on the one hand, and of empiricism on the other hand. Eucken's forthcoming _Theory of Knowledge_ will deal with this important matter. In _Erkennen und Leben_ certain aspects of the problem are touched. [87] The volume was translated into English and published in the United States of America by Stuart Phelps in 1880. I am not aware that the work exercised any great influence at the time either in England or America. Eucken's "day" had not then dawned. * * * * * INDEX OF NAMES Adamson, R. Adickes. Aristotle. Balfour, A. J. Bergson. Boehme. Bosanquet, B. Boutroux. Bradley, F. H. Caird, E. Carpenter, E. Carpenter, J. Estlin. Class, G. Copernicus. Darwin. Descartes. Dilthey, W. Driesch, H. Fichte. Fischer, Kuno. Forsyth, P. T. Galileo. Gibson, W. R. B. Goethe. Green, T. H. Haeckel. Haldane. Hargrove. Harnack. Hartmann, Ed. Von. Hegel. Hicks, G. Dawes. Höffding, H. Horton, R. F. Hügel, F. Von. Husserl. Huxley. Jacks, L. P. James, W. Jesus, _cf. _ chapters on Historical Religions and Christianity. Kade, R. Kant. Liebmann, Otto. Lipps. Lodge, O. Lotze. Luther. MacDougall, W. Mach, E. Mackenzie, J. S. Meredith, G. Morgan, T. H. Münsterberg, H. Nettleship, R. L. Ostwald, W. Paul. Paulsen, F. Phelps, Stuart. Plato. Plotinus. Reinke. Reuter. Rickert, H. Royce, J. Runeberg. Savonarola. Schäfer, E. A. Schelling. Schiller. Schiller, F. C. S. Schopenhauer. Siebeck, H. Simmel, G. Socrates. Sorley, W. R. Taylor, A. E. Thomson, J. A. Trendelenberg. Troeltsch, E. VaihingerVolkelt. Wallace, W. Ward, J. Westermarck, E. Wicksteed, P. H. Windelband, W. Wundt, W.