MYSTICAL RELIGION 339 



of the arrow could be determined by statistical rules, 

 but its significance as a governing fact "making sense 

 of the world'* could only be deduced on teleological 

 assumptions. If physics cannot determine which way 

 up its own world ought to be regarded, there is not much 

 hope of guidance from it as to ethical orientation. We 

 trust to some inward sense of fitness when we orient the 

 physical world with the future on top, and likewise we 

 must trust to some inner monitor when we orient the 

 spiritual world with the good on top. 



Granted that physical science has limited its scope 

 so as to leave a background which we are at liberty to, 

 or even invited to, fill with a reality of spiritual import, 

 we have yet to face the most difficult criticism from 

 science. "Here", says science, "I have left a domain 

 in which I shall not interfere. I grant that you have 

 some kind of avenue to it through the self-knowledge 

 of consciousness, so that it is not necessarily a domain 

 of pure agnosticism. But how are you going to deal with 

 this domain? Have you any system of inference from 

 mystic experience comparable to the system by which 

 science develops a knowledge of the outside world? 

 I do not insist on your employing my method, which 

 I acknowledge is inapplicable; but you ought to have 

 some defensible method. The alleged b4sis of experience 

 may possibly be valid; but have I any reason to regard 

 the religious interpretation currently given to it as 

 anything more than muddle-headed romancing?" 



The question is almost beyond my scope. I can only 

 acknowledge its pertinency. Although I have chosen the 

 lightest task by considering only mystical religion — 

 and I have no impulse to defend any other — I am not 

 competent to give an answer which shall be anything 

 like complete. It is obvious that the insight of con- 



