is due to that
faculty's power of realizing what is not perceptually present. Religion
is not interested in the apparent, but in the secret essence or the
transcendent universal. And yet this interest is a practical one.
Imagination may introduce one into the vivid presence of the secret or
the transcendent. It is evident that the religious imagination here
coincides with poetry. For it is at least one of the interests of poetry
to cultivate and satisfy a sense for the universal; to obtain an
immediate experience or appreciation that shall have the vividness
without the particularism of ordinary perception. And where a poet
elects so to view the world, we allow him as a poet the privilege, and
judge him by the standards to which he submits himself. That upon which
we pass judgment is the _fitness of his expression_. This expression is
not, except in the case of the theoretical mystic, regarded as
constituting the most valid form of the idea, but is appreciated
expressly for its fulfilment of the condition of immediacy. The same
sort of critical attitude is in order with the fruits of the religious
imagination. These may or may not fulfil enough of the requirements of
that art to be properly denominated poetry; but like poetry they are the
translation of ideas into a specific language. They must not, therefore,
be judged as though they claimed to excel in point of validity, but only
in point of consistency with the context of that language. And _the
language of religion is the language of the practical life_. Such
translation is as essential to an idea that is to enter into the
religious experience, as translation into terms of immediacy is
essential to an idea that is to enter into the appreciative
consciousness of the poet. No object can find a place in my religion
until it is conjoined with my purposes and hopes; until it is taken for
granted and acted upon, like the love of my friends, or the courses of
the stars, or the stretches of the sea.

[Sidenote: The Special Functions of the Religious Imagination.]

Sect. 36. The religious imagination, then, is to be understood and
justified as that which brings the objects of religion within the range
of living. The central religious object, as has been seen, is an
_attitude_ of the residuum or totality of things. To be religious one
must have a sense for the _presence of an attitude_, like his sense for
the presence of his human fellows, with all the added appreciation tha