292 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



art from bad — as definitely and as personally. And 

 we are sure that good mysticism, like good art, is 

 somehow of supreme, transcendent importance; but 

 almost always it has remained like a purely symbolic 

 art, not having for others the value which it should 

 have or did have for the mystic himself, because not 

 properly enchained, as the French say, with stern 

 and immutable fact. And of the theologian we feel 

 that he gives us the grammar, not the spirit, that 

 he does not help us toward the supremely important 

 act of experiencing, but only to understanding ex- 

 perience if we chance to have had it. 



One word on the problem of transcendence. The 

 mystic will tell us that transcendence is a hall-mark 

 of religion at its highest. His mode of experience 

 transcends normal experience; things of everyday life 

 become surcharged with new, transcendent values; 

 he has transcended from a plane of disharmony to 

 one of harmony. But the mystic is not alone in this. 

 Familiar examples are best examples: and the trans- 

 cendence of the lover's experience is so familiar that 

 all mankind is divided into those who have it, those 

 who long for it, and those who laugh at it. But the 

 great philosopher too must mediate between the 

 transcendent and mankind, and the true artist also, 

 and the moralist worthy of the name. 



What goes under this technical name of trans- 

 cendence, therefore, is the product of some special 

 psychological mechanism which may be at work in 

 the most diverse spheres. It we wish to substitute 



