Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



389 



AN ELABORATE RELIGION OF THE MIND. 

 S'lMETHiNG Like a Svmposum. 



Since the Review of Reviews was founded I have 

 ronducted several s)-mposiums or inquiries, in which I 

 luive endeavoured to ascertain the views of leading 

 thinkers of the world upon many subjects. In a few 

 isolated quarters this habit of interrogation of mine 

 has been resented as savouring somewhat of an inquisi- 

 tion. But nothing I ha\e ever done in that line can be 

 compared lor a moment with the exhausti\e series of 

 jnterrogaiives that are being administered at present 

 by the Ca-iwhium, an international review published 

 at Lugano. The conductors of this enterprising 

 periodical announce that, encouraged by the success 

 of the first referendum which they have taken on reli- 

 gious conceptions, they propose to publish in two or 

 three volumes one of the most significant documents 

 of modern thought : — 



A true mirror reflecting faithfully anil brillianily the intimate 

 ideas ami fcclin;;5 of the philosophers of every race and of every 

 creed. And a synthesis of this rclercndum might efiicienlly help 

 to lay the foundations of a true Religion of the mind, accord- 

 ing to modern aspirations. The answers which we have already 

 received make us augur well for those we are still expecting. 



This introduction naturally prepares the mind for a 

 loleralily comprehensive set of inquiries ; but the reality 

 exceeds expeitation, which ma>' be seen by a glance 

 over the following ten heads of inquiry. Not content 

 with this, the editor adds as a postscript that a short 

 religious autoliiography would no doubt be most 

 acceptable to readers of our confessions : — 



1. Do you distinguish between ;v//://<w and tfligwns, between 

 the religious spirit common to all mankind in v.-irious degrees, 

 and the coiife>>iunal spirit which is confined to the dogmas of a 

 particular ciecd '.' In which of these two senses will you use the 

 word religion i[i your contribution to this inquiry ? 



2. Doe^ God occupy a place in your thoughts? If so, how- 

 do you conceive (Jod ! What does this word correspond to in 

 your mind '; \\ hat do you think about prayer 1 



3. What do you understand by religious sentiment ? If you 

 consider it necessary, or at least useful, what means do you 

 think most inditule'l or best adapted to promote it, strengthen 

 ii, keep it pure? Under what circumstances have you ex- 

 perienced religious emoli(jns, and to what categories or what 

 degrees of enioiion do you think the word religious most par- 

 ticularly applies ? 



4. Docs the problem of a future life occupy your mind ? lio 

 you conceive a survival of personality after death ? If so, do 

 you understand it in the figurative sense of the repercussion of 

 your deeds, or in the metaphysical sense of a reality beyond the 

 grave ! 



5. What relation is there, according to you, between religion 

 anil dogma? Is the ore the condition of the other? .And 

 what do you understand by dogma ? 



6. Can belief and science be reconciled? If so, how do you 

 conceive such a conciliation ? 



7. Oo you consider morality independent of religion, or not ? 

 What place li.i^ the idea of a saiiilion in your moral life? Do 

 you admit the lerriis tin and redeiriplion ? Are you convinced of 

 the re.ilily of evil in the sense of a power opposed to good ? Do 

 you believe in necessity and the possibility of conquering evil by 

 our own efTori- or by the help of others? 



8. Do you iljnk that a school without God can truly fulfil its 

 educational purpriM.? Is the l.iy school- or, which is practically 

 the san.e, lie school without confessional religious inspiration — 

 not as well fitlcl for its educational mission as the confessional 



school ? In this case, what woulil you substitute for the missing 

 religious element ? And if, on the other hand, you consider a 

 religious spirit necessary, or at least useful, to what minimum 

 do you think religious forms could be reduced, so that religious 

 inspiration was not made too vague or insulTicient ? 



9. Have you preserved undiminished the faith cf your 

 infancy ? If not, at what age and under what circumstances 

 have you cut yourself off from the tr.idilional religious confes- 

 sion, which we presume was that of your youth ? What effect 

 has thi.s Severance had on your sentiments, on your thoughts, on 

 your conduct ? 



10. Do you approve of relations between .State and Church, 

 and w hat do you conceive these should be V 



WATCHING AN EARTHQUAKE. 

 Mr. John Mvir, in the Cenltoy for March, describes 

 a striking e.xperience in the Yosemite : — 



Before a single boulder had fallen I was convinced that 

 earthquakes were the talus-makers, and positive proof soon came. 

 It was a calm, mooidighl night, and no sound was heard for 

 the Iir5t minute or so save low, muffled, liubbling, underground 

 rumblings, and the whispering and rustling of the agitated 

 trees, as if Nature were holding her breath. Then suddenly 

 out of the strange silence and strange motion there came a 

 tremendous roar. The Eagle Rock, on the south wall, about 

 half a mile up the valley, gave way, and I saw it falling in 

 thousands of the great boulders I had so long been studying, 

 pouring to the valley floor in a free curve luminous from friction, 

 making a lerrib'y sublime spectacle — an arc of glowing, passion- 

 ale fire, fifteen hundred feet span, as true in form and as serene 

 in beauty as a rainbow in the midst of the stupendous, roaring 

 rock-storm. The sound was so tremendously deep and broad 

 and earnest that the whole earth, like a living creature, seemed 

 at last to have found a voice and to be calling to her sister- 

 planets. In trying to tell something of the size of this awful 

 sound, it seems to me that if all the thunder of all the storms I 

 had ever heard were condensed into one roar, it w(iuld not 

 equal this rock-roar at the birth of a mountain talus. Tliink, 

 then, of the roar that arose to heaven at the simultaneous birth 

 of all the thousands oT ancient carbon taUises throughout the 

 length and breadth of the range ! 



The first severe shocks were soon over, and eager to examine 

 the new-born talus, 1 ran up the valUy in the moonlight and 

 climbed upon it before the huge blocks, after their fiery flight, 

 had come to complete rest. They were slowly settling into 

 their places, chafing, grating against one another, groaning and 

 whispering ; lul no morion was visible except in a stream of 

 small fragments pattering down the face of the clilV. A cloitd 

 of dust particles, lighted by the moon, floated out across the 

 whole breadth of the valley, forming a ceiling that lasted 

 until after sunrise, and the air was filled with the odour of 

 crushed Dougl.as spruces from a grove that had been mowed 

 down and mashed like weeds. 



He concludes : — 



.'\ll Nature's wildness tells the same story : the shocks and 

 outbursts of earthipurkes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thunder- 

 ing waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms 

 of every sort, each and all, are the orderly, beauty-making 

 love-beats of Nature's heart. 



This joy in the convulsions of Nature suggests 

 Browning's line about volcanoes, " God takes a 

 pleasure in their uncouth pride." 



Learned NA'iiivsir.s.— In the Quest for April, Robert 

 Eisler endeavours to resolve Jonah and John the 

 Baptist into a variant of Oannes. Fish-God ; and 

 Professor J. Javakhishvili finds the origin of St. George 

 in the Moon-God. 



