284 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



progress, must be part of the basis on which future 

 advance in evolution is to build. 



But to apply this to our present point. By organ- 

 izing our knowledge of outer reality after the pattern 

 of a personality, we make it possible for it to inter- 

 penetrate our private personality. If, therefore, we 

 have, in any true sense of the word, ' found religion,' 

 it means that we shall so have organized our minds 

 that, for flashes at least, we attain to a sense of inter- 

 penetration with the reality around us — that reality 

 which includes not only the celestial bodies, or the 

 rocks and waters, not only evolving life, but also 

 other human beings, also ideas, also ideals. 



This, to my mind, is what actually happens when 

 men speak of communion with God. It is a setting, 

 an organizing of our experiences of the universe in 

 relation with the driving forces of our soul or mental 

 being, so that the two are united and harmonized. 

 There is a resolution of conflicts, an attainment of a 

 profound serenity, a conviction that the experience 

 is of the utmost value and importance. 



Up till now, we have been defining and analysing : 

 here we see religion in operation. It is a relation 

 of the personality as a unit to external reality as a 

 unit — and a relation of harmony. First, the inner 

 structure of the mind must be organized into a har- 

 monious unit, then our knowledge of outer reality 

 organized similarly, and finally, in religious experience, 

 the two must be harmonized in interpenetrating union. 



