ous conceptions. Any one
applying these methods may arouse the opposition of many who believe
they are thinking scientifically, but he will know himself, for all
that, to be in full accord with a genuinely scientific method of
thought.

An investigator of this kind must also go beyond a merely historical
examination of the documents relating to spiritual life. This is
necessary just on account of the attitude he has acquired from his
study of natural history. When a chemical law is explained, it is of
small use to describe the retorts, dishes, and pincers which have led
to the discovery of the law. And it is just as useless, when
explaining the origin of Christianity, to ascertain the historical
sources drawn upon by the Evangelist St. Luke, or those from which the
"hidden revelation" of St. John is compiled. History can in this case
be only the outer court to research proper. It is not by tracing the
historical origin of documents that we shall discover anything about
the dominant ideas in the writings of Moses or in the traditions of
the Greek mystics. These documents are only the outer expression for
the ideas. Nor does the naturalist who is investigating the nature of
man trouble about the origin of the word "man," or the way in which it
has developed in a language. He keeps to the thing, not to the word in
which it finds expression. And in studying spiritual life we must
likewise abide by the spirit and not by outer documents.

II

THE MYSTERIES AND THEIR WISDOM

A kind of mysterious veil hangs over the manner in which spiritual
needs were satisfied during the older civilisations by those who
sought a deeper religious life and fuller knowledge than the popular
religions offered. If we inquire how these needs were satisfied, we
find ourselves led into the dim twilight of the mysteries, and the
individual seeking them disappears for a time from our observation. We
see how it is that the popular religions cannot give him what his
heart desires. He acknowledges the existence of the gods, but knows
that the ordinary ideas about them do not solve the great problems of
existence. He seeks a wisdom which is jealously guarded by a community
of priest-sages. His aspiring soul seeks a refuge in this community.
If he is found by the sages to be sufficiently prepared, he is led up
by them, step by step, to higher knowledge, in places hidden from the
eyes of outward observers. What then happens to him is concealed f