2l8 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



Then granting-, in contrast, the reality and the 

 supremacy of reason, it is conceivable that reason 

 and religion might be declared incompatible in the 

 opposite sense. It might be said that reason neces- 

 sarily puts an end to religion ; that religion is only 

 another name for superstition ; that men who 

 heartily accept the authority and guidance of reason 

 must dismiss religion from the field of reputable 

 intelligence and real motive, and must relegate all 

 interest in it to the field of archaeology or of mental 

 pathology. Nor is this view any more a mere 

 hypothesis than the former. Rather, it is in a 

 certain sense the youngest actual view ; and with 

 the natural vigour, the verve, and the assurance of 

 youth, it braves the world in the confidence that it is 

 the only true view, and alone commands the future. 

 One must no doubt admit, for candour's sake, that 

 it is the view of men in a stage of comparative 

 development, the view of ages comparatively recent 

 and enlightened. Sooner or later it has made 

 its appearance in every civilised community. It 

 came to its head in our eighteenth century, and we 

 should hardly be extravagant in saying that it was 

 then the characteristic view of the minds that made 

 themselves most prominent, especially in France, 

 in England, and in Germany ; in fact, it is the tone 

 of the eighteenth-century Zeitgeist. From the spirit 

 of that age it has been transmitted to our own ; it 



