t
is proper in the case of an object that is unique in its mystery or in
its majesty. It follows that the religious imagination fulfils its
function in so far as it provides the object of religion with properties
similar to those which lend vividness and reality to the normal social
relations.

The presence of one's fellows is in part the perceptual experience of
their bodies. To this there corresponds in religion some extraordinary
or subtle appearance. The gods may in visions or dreams be met with in
their own proper embodiments; or, as is more common, they may be
regarded as present for practical purposes: in some inanimate object,
as in the case of the fetish; in some animal species, as in the case of
the totem; in some place, as in the case of the shrine; or even in some
human being, as in the case of the inspired prophet and miracle worker.
In more refined and highly developed religions the medium of God's
presence is less specific. He is perceived with

"--a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man."

God is here found in an interpretation of the common and the natural,
rather than in any individual and peculiar embodiment. And here the
poet's appreciation, if not his art, is peculiarly indispensable.

But, furthermore, his fellows are inmates of "the household of man" in
that he knows their history. They belong to the temporal context of
actions and events. Similarly, the gods must be historical. The sacred
traditions or books of religion are largely occupied with this history.
The more individual and anthropomorphic the gods, the more local and
episodic will be the account of their affairs. In the higher religions
the acts of God are few and momentous, such as creation or special
providence; or they are identical with the events of nature and human
history when these are _construed_ as divine. To find God in this latter
way requires an interpretation of the course of events in terms of some
moral consistency, a faith that sees some purpose in their evident
destination.

There is still another and a more significant way in which men recognize
one another: the way of address and conversation. And men have
invariably held a similar intercourse with their gods. To this category
belong communion and prayer, with all their varie