y be
noted the sense of the actuality and nearness of the divine
power, what James calls the "reality of the unseen," and
what is frequently spoken of by religious men as "the presence
of God." James quotes in this connection an interesting
letter of James Russell Lowell's:

I had a revelation last Friday evening.... Happening to say
something of the presence of spirits of whom, as I said, I was often
dimly aware, Mr. Putnam entered into an argument with me on
spiritual matters. As I was speaking, the whole system seemed to
rise up before me, like a vague destiny looming from the abyss. I
never before felt the spirit of God so keenly in me, and around me.
The whole room seemed to me full of God. The air seemed to waver
to and fro with the presence of something I knew not what. I spoke
with the calmness and clearness of a prophet.[2]

[Footnote 2: Lowell: _Letters_, I, p. 75.]

The archives of the psychology of religion are crowded
with instances of men who have felt deeply, intimately, and
irrefutably the near and actual presence of God. This sense
of the reality of an unseen Thing or Power is not always identified
with God. There come moments in the lives of normal
men and women when the world of experience seems alive
with something that is apprehended through none of the five
senses. There are times when things unseen, unheard, and
untouched seem to have, nay, for those concerned, do have,
a clearer and more unmistakable reality than the things we
can touch, hear, and see. Sometimes, in the hearing of
beautiful music, we sense a transcendent beauty which is
something other than, something more real than, the specific
harmonies which we physically hear. In rare moments of
rapture, when the imagination or the affections are intensely
stirred, we become intensely aware of this reality which is
made known to us through none of the ordinary avenues of
experience. The Unseen is not only vividly felt, but is deeply
felt and regarded as a thing of deep significance, and is
experienced in most cases with great inexplicable joy. And, not
infrequently, this significant and beautiful Unseen Somewhat
is identified with God.

The sense of the reality of the divine, is, however, as it were,
only the prerequisite of the religious experience. When an
individual does have this sense, what interests the student of
the psychology of religion is the attitude it provokes and the
satisfactions it gives. These we can the better und