ted advance of research of all kinds into
nature, life, and history, has imperceptibly but irrevocably,
revolutionised our traditional outlook upon the world, and one of the
supreme questions before the contemporary mind is the probable issue of
the great struggle now taking place between the religious and the
non-religious conception of human life and destiny. When we look at the
development of this great fundamental conflict we feel that disputes
between rival ecclesiastical systems are of trifling moment; the real task
at the present time before every form of religion is the task of
vindicating itself before a hostile view of life and things.

It is the consciousness of this fact which has led to the translation and
publication in English of Professor Otto's volume. Professor Otto is well
known on the Continent as a thinker who possesses the rare merit of
combining a high philosophic discipline with an accurate and comprehensive
knowledge of the science of organic nature. It is this combination of
aptitudes which has attracted so much attention to his work on Naturalism
and Religion, and which gives it a value peculiar to itself. At a time
when so much loose and incoherent thinking exists about fundamental
problems, and when so many irrelevant claims are made, sometimes on behalf
of religion and sometimes on behalf of hypotheses said to be resting upon
science, it is a real satisfaction to meet with such a competent guide as
Dr. Otto. Although his book is written for the general reader, it is in
reality a solid scientific contribution to the great debate at present in
progress between two different conceptions of the ultimate nature and
meaning of things. As such it is to be hoped that it will receive the
favourable consideration which it deserves at the hands of the
English-speaking world.

W.D.M.

CHAPTER I. THE RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATION OF THE WORLD.

The title of this book, contrasting as it does the naturalistic and the
religious interpretation of the world, indicates that the intention of the
following pages is, in the first place, to define the relation, or rather
the antithesis, between the two; and, secondly, to endeavour to reconcile
the contradictions, and to vindicate against the counter-claims of
naturalism, the validity and freedom of the religious outlook. In doing
this it is assumed that there is some sort of relation between the two
conceptions, and that there is a possibility of harmonis