166 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. ill. 



characterizes as imprudent, may from a religious point of 

 view be regarded as wrong or sinful. I cite this homely 

 illustration because it leads directly to the pith and centre 

 of the truth which I am seeking to explain. Hedonism, of 

 which the highest principle of action is personal selfishness, 

 regards the individual as having a right to do what he likea 

 with his own body. Eeligion declares that he has no such 

 right, but on the other hand has duties toward himself which 

 he is as much bound to discharge as if they directly con- 

 cerned other people. Eeligion, therefore, extends the rules 

 of right and wrong primarily derived from the relations of 

 the individual to the community, until they cover even the 

 self-regarding actions of the individual. And what is this 

 but establishing rules of action concerning the individual 

 in his relations to what we call Nature or the Universe? 

 Finally, as the organized moral sense takes cognizance of 

 actions injurious to the community, visiting them with the 

 stings of self-reproach without any direct or conscious tracing 

 out of their probable injurious consequences ; so the religious 

 sense takes cognizance of all actions whatsoever which come 

 within the class of mal-adjustments, whether they directly 

 concern the community or not, and the feeling of self-con- 

 demnation arises irrespective of any direct estimate of pro- 

 bable consequences. For the religious sense is primarily 

 based upon the aspiration — the noblest which any creature 

 can entertain — after complete fulness of life ; and auy 

 thought or act, any sin of omission or of commission, in- 

 consistent with such aspiration, awakens the painful con- 

 «;ciousness of shortcoming, without any reference to those 

 -ower considerations of pleasure and pain of which alone 

 hedonism takes cognizance. 



Such, in brief outline, is the theory of religion which seems 

 me most thoroughly consonant with our present knowledge. 

 Scanty justice can be done, in one short chapter, to so great 



