RIGHT RELATION OF REASON TO RELIGION 219 



survives widespread in much of the temper of our 

 latest days, is heard in the proclamations of most 

 agnostics, and is felt in the spirit of much evolu- 

 tional philosophy. 



Secondly, at quite the other extreme, reason 

 and religion might be viewed as in one sense or 

 another compatible. They might either be regarded 

 as essentially identical, each the same interior life 

 and reality, uttering itself in two different forms ; 

 or, if not quite this, as at any rate in a tolerant 

 harmony with each other, occupying their several 

 provinces in reciprocal peace, nay, even supplement- 

 ing each other in a sort of friendly alliance ; or, 

 finally, as at least capable of a modus vivendi, a. 

 peaceable compromise of hostilities. 



This irenical view, in its general sense, has un- 

 doubtedly been the opinion of the vast majority of 

 religious minds in all ages of enlightenment. To 

 speak more accurately, it has been the growing con- 

 viction of religious minds as enlightenment has 

 grown, and it has engendered efforts, ever increasing 

 and ever improving, so to understand both reason 

 and religion as to bring their harmony into clearer 

 light and better apprehension. Indeed, the reli- 

 gious history of mankind within the period of enlight- 

 ened human progress, with the vast religious changes 

 that have marked it, is explicable by the persistent 



