of things are
seen as nothing more than preparatory stages and conditions to a life
beyond themselves. To come to a decision, insisted on again and again,
in regard to the reality of life and its content is not possible without
the deepest act of the whole of the soul. Such a conviction concerning
the spiritual kernel of our being is not a mere matter either of thought
or feeling or will. The three make their contribution towards the great
affirmation which takes place, but they are united at a depth in
consciousness which has no psychological name; they come to a kind of
focus within the blending of the over-individual norms and the need and
capacity of the soul for such norms. When this happens, the individual
has created a cleft in his own nature which renders it forever
impossible for him to be satisfied with the mere external aspect
produced by the first impressions of things. An inverted order of things
has come about: the sensuous world is relegated to the circumference,
and a spiritual world [p.99] dawns within the content of the soul. This
is the deepest meaning of religion; and, as we shall see at a later
stage, it constitutes the very nucleus of Christianity with its
announcement of conversion, the regeneration of the soul, and the union
and communion of man with the Divine.

Doubtless all this is difficult of apprehension, mainly on account of
the fact that there is no proof for it in a manner that can be made
intelligible. But the question arises, What is the power that acts and
brings forth proofs concerning anything? It is evidently not the whole
of the potentialities of man's nature: it is no more than the
understanding dealing with the evidence of impressions. But the
understanding, when dealing with the content of the union of individual
potency and over-individual norms, is dealing with a content infinitely
larger and more complex than itself; the material is too great and
intricate for the understanding to handle; it is a fruitless attempt of
the Part to monopolise the meaning and value of the Whole. The proof
rather lies within the domain of the soul itself, and is not something
which may be tacked on to any kind of external, spatial existence; it is
the emergence of a _new kind_ of existence or _self-subsistence._ The
proof (if we designate it by such an insufficient term) is _within_ the
experience and not _without_; it is the spiritual experience itself and
not merely an account, [p.100] in the