in and willing submission to that order, this is all the
religious sentiment needs to bring forth its sweetest flowers, its
richest fruits.

Such is the ample and satisfying ground which remains for the religion
of the future to build upon. It is a result long foreseen by the clearer
minds of Christendom. One who more than any other deserves to be classed
among these writes: "Resignation to the will of God is the whole of
piety. * * * Our resignation may be said to be perfect when we rest in
his will as our end, as being itself most just and right and good.
Neither is this at bottom anything more than faith, and honesty and
fairness of mind; in a more enlarged sense, indeed, than these words are
commonly used."[277-1]

Goethe, who studied and reflected on religious questions more than is
generally supposed, saw that in such a disposition of mind lie the
native and strongest elements of religion. In one of his conversations
with Chancellor Mueller, he observed: "Confidence and resignation, the
sense of subjection to a higher will which rules the course of events
but which we do not fully comprehend, are the fundamental principles of
every better religion."[277-2]

By the side of two such remarkable men, I might place the opinion of a
third not less eminent than they--Blaise Pascal. In one part of his
writings he sets forth the "marks of a true religion." Sifted from its
physical ingredients, the faith he defines is one which rests on love
and submission to God, and a clear recognition of the nature of man.

Here I close these studies on the Religious Sentiment. They show it to
be a late and probably a final development of mind. The intellect first
reaches entire self-consciousness, the emotions first attain perfection
of purpose, when guided by its highest manifestation. Man's history
seems largely to have been a series of efforts to give it satisfaction.
This will be possible only when he rises to a practical appreciation of
the identity of truth, love and life.

FOOTNOTES:

[236-1] _Essay on the use of Anthropomorphism._ Mr. Spencer's argument,
in his own words, is this:--"From the inability under which we labor to
conceive of a Deity save as some idealization of ourselves, it
inevitably results that in each age, among each people, and to a great
extent in each individual, there must arise just that conception of
Deity best adapted to the needs of the case." "All are good for their
times and places." "All were