LATER GERMAN PHILOSOPHY I19 



theory of socialism and administered in the sociaHstic 

 interest to the remotest detail. 



Finally, pessimism has, as a rounded philosophy 

 must have, its Philosophy of Religion. According to 

 this, religion is the consecration in myth and mystery 

 of the meaning that philosophy puts rationally. Re- 

 ligion therefore undergoes an evolution side by side 

 with the development of philosophy. Accordingly 

 pessimism sees all religions arrayed in two successive 

 groups, — the Religions of Illusion and the Religion 

 of Disillusion. The former break up again in accord- 

 ance with the Three Stages. Paganism is the re- 

 ligion of the first stage ; Christianity, untainted by 

 rationalism, the religion of the second; "free reli- 

 gion," "liberal Christianity," the "positive religion," 

 "ethical culture," the "church of humanity," — all 

 the manifold experiments at making a " religion " 

 whose interest is to be centred in this world alone, — 

 constitute the rehgion of the third. Over against all 

 these stands Hartmann's " religion of the future," 

 the Religion of Intelligence {die Religion des Geistes), 

 as he likes to call it, whose priests are to celebrate 

 the doctrine, solemnise the rites, and inspire the 

 devotees of the great Nirvana — the eternal Silence 

 and Blank. 



These are the main lines of the theory that en- 

 lists the adhesion of the throng of jaded or faded 



