man's predisposition to believe in the
existence of an invisible, supernatural and miraculous world, a
predisposition which it has been possible to consider sometimes as a
reminiscence of an anterior state, sometimes as an intimation of a
future destiny" (_Traite de l'enchainement des idees fondamentales dans
les sciences et dans l'histoire_, Sec. 396). And it is this problem of
human destiny, of eternal life, or of the human finality of the Universe
or of God, that we have now reached. All the highways of religion lead
up to this, for it is the very essence of all religion.

Beginning with the savage's personalization of the whole Universe in his
fetich, religion has its roots in the vital necessity of giving human
finality to the Universe, to God, and this necessity obliges it,
therefore, to attribute to the Universe, to God, consciousness of self
and of purpose. And it may be said that religion is simply union with
God, each one interpreting God according to his own sense of Him. God
gives transcendent meaning and finality to life; but He gives it
relatively to each one of us who believe in Him. And thus God is for man
as much as man is for God, for God in becoming man, in becoming human,
has given Himself to man because of His love of him.

And this religious longing for union with God is a longing for a union
that cannot be consummated in science or in art, but only in life. "He
who possesses science and art, has religion; he who possesses neither
science nor art, let him get religion," said Goethe in one of his
frequent accesses of paganism. And yet in spite of what he said, he
himself, Goethe...?

And to wish that we may be united with God is not to wish that we may be
lost and submerged in Him, for this loss and submersion of self ends at
last in the complete dissolution of self in the dreamless sleep of
Nirvana; it is to wish to possess Him rather than to be possessed by
Him. When his disciples, amazed at his saying that it was impossible for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, asked Jesus who then
could be saved, the Master replied that with men it was impossible but
not with God; and then said Peter, "Behold, we have forsaken all and
followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" And the reply of Jesus
was, not that they should be absorbed in the Father, but that they
should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel
(Matt. xix. 23-26).

It was a Spaniard, and very emphaticall