226 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



have a marked feature in common, which is character- 

 istic of their contrast to the doctrine called the New. 

 It is that they both present religion to each soul on 

 the warrant of authority, albeit the one does this se- 

 verely, with rebuke of reason's pretensions, and the 

 other graciously, with encouragement and support of 

 reason's weakness. Therefore it will be best for the 

 purposes of our discussion to cast them together, and 

 to pit them in their common reliance on authority 

 against the view that proposes to rely entirely on rea- 

 son. The issue we are to consider and weigh will 

 thus be presented in its simplest terms, as an issue 

 between two methods with religion, — the Method of 

 Authority and the Method of Reason, or the Method 

 of Sheer Declaration and the Method of Conviction. 

 Which, now, is the right method .'' What are the 

 grounds on which the Method of Reason must right- 

 fully supplant the Method of Authority, the Method 

 of Conviction the Method of Declaration ? 



II 



In order clearly to define the provinces between 

 which this issue lies as a matter of history, and to 

 avoid misunderstandings as to what historical reli- 

 gious bodies are really involved in our criticism, let us 

 first touch upon a distribution of these doctrines and 

 methods which is natural, if erroneous, and which has 



