f, wherein God is both seen and also served. Nor is the part of
philosophy in poetry and religion either ignoble or presumptuous, for,
humanly speaking, "the owl-winged faculty of calculation" is the only
safe and sure means of access to that place on high,

"Where the nightingale doth sing
Not a senseless, tranced thing,
But a divine melodious truth;
Philosophic numbers smooth;
Tales and golden histories
Of heaven and its mysteries."

FOOTNOTES:

[28:1] George Santayana, in his _Poetry and Religion_, p. 176.

[30:2] Santayana: _op. cit._, p. 180.

[42:3] _Appreciations_, p. 59.

[43:4] Letter to Can Grande. See Lowell's _Essay on Dante_, p. 34.

[44:5] _Purgatorio_, Canto XXVII. Translation by Norton.

[45:6] _Paradiso_, Canto I.

[46:7] Edward Caird, in his _Literature and Philosophy_, Vol. I, p. 24.

[47:8] _Paradiso_, Canto III.

[50:9] Observations prefixed to the second edition of _Lyrical Ballads_.

[51:10] _A Defence of Poetry._

[51:11] Quoted by Caird in his _Literature and Philosophy_, Vol. I, p.
60.

CHAPTER III

THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

[Sidenote: The Possibility of Defining Religion.]

Sect. 15. The least religious experience is so mysterious and so complex
that a moderate degree of reflection upon it tends to a sense of
intellectual impotence. "If I speak," says Emerson, "I define and
confine, and am less." One would gladly set down religion among the
unspeakable things and avoid the imputation of degrading it. It is
certain that the enterprise of defining religion is at present in
disrepute. It has been undertaken so often and so unsuccessfully that
contemporary students for the most part prefer to supply a list of
historical definitions of religion, and let their variety demonstrate
their futility. Metaphysicians and psychologists agree that in view of
the differences of creed, ritual, organization, conduct, and temperament
that have been true of different religions in different times and
places, one may as well abandon the idea that there is a constant
element.

But on the other hand we have the testimony afforded by the name
religion; and the ordinary judgments of men to the effect that it
signifies something to be religious, and to be more or less religious.
There is an elementary logical principle to the effect that a group name
implies certain common group characters. Impatience with abstract or
euphemistic definitions should n