of
Reason has been singularly abortive. Those within the pale of each
religion may prevail upon themselves to express satisfaction with its
results, thanks to a fond partiality in reading the past and generous
draughts of hope for the future; but any one regarding the various
religions at once and comparing their achievements with what reason
requires, must feel how terrible is the disappointment which they have
one and all prepared for mankind. Their chief anxiety has been to offer
imaginary remedies for mortal ills, some of which are incurable
essentially, while others might have been really cured by well-directed
effort. The Greek oracles, for instance, pretended to heal our natural
ignorance, which has its appropriate though difficult cure, while the
Christian vision of heaven pretended to be an antidote to our natural
death, the inevitable correlate of birth and of a changing and
conditioned existence. By methods of this sort little can be done for
the real betterment of life. To confuse intelligence and dislocate
sentiment by gratuitous fictions is a short-sighted way of pursuing
happiness. Nature is soon avenged. An unhealthy exaltation and a
one-sided morality have to be followed by regrettable reactions. When
these come, the real rewards of life may seem vain to a relaxed
vitality, and the very name of virtue may irritate young spirits
untrained in any natural excellence. Thus religion too often debauches
the morality it comes to sanction, and impedes the science it ought to
fulfil.

[Sidenote: Its approach imaginative.]

What is the secret of this ineptitude? Why does religion, so near to
rationality in its purpose, fall so far short of it in its texture and
in its results? The answer is easy: Religion pursues, rationality
through the imagination. When it explains events or assigns causes, it
gives imaginative substitute for science. When it gives; precepts,
insinuates ideals, or remoulds aspiration, it is an imaginative
substitute for wisdom--I mean for the deliberate and impartial pursuit
of all good. The conditions and the aims of life are both represented in
religion poetically, but this poetry tends to arrogate to itself literal
truth and moral authority, neither of which it possesses. Hence the
depth and importance of religion become intelligible no less than its
contradictions and practical disasters. Its object is the same as that
of reason, but its method is to proceed by intuition and by unchecked