DISCOVKHY 



73 



a theory put forward by certain American psycholo- 

 gists under the name of " erotogenesis," which asserts 

 that all religion is merely misinterpretation of sex-feel- 

 ing. Simply on the psychological level, there are 

 many other constituents of religion : group sentiment, 

 the moral conflict, etc.. all of which contribute to 

 religious experience. Moreover, there is nothing in 

 these facts themselves to justify us in concluding that 

 the objects of religion are unreal. The fact that we 

 love God with, in some sense, the same love as that 

 with which we love man, is no evidence that our 

 belief in God is an illusion. We have seen that this is 

 substantially the conviction of such a firm believer in 

 God as Coventry Patmore. 



It is, indeed, possible that investigations into the 

 nature of religious experience along these lines may 

 provide reasons for believing in the reality of its 

 object. Freud considers that one of the causes of a 

 large number of mental diseases is the failure of the 

 psychic energy ' to find satisfaction in an object of 

 love. To a certain extent, it is possible to escape 

 such mental troubles by the redirection of this energy 

 into other valuable channels. This redirection is 

 called " sublimation." Thus, the mind which de- 

 votes its energy to social work or to artistic production 

 is less likely to become diseased through a failure to 

 find happiness in love. If the mind retires too far 

 from the world of realities and finds its sole satisfaction 

 in a phantas}' world of its own construction, it develops 

 a form of insanity. In any very complete redirection 

 of the psychic energy through religious channels, 

 there is also a retirement of the mind from the outside 

 world, but with a different result. The person con- 

 cerned does not become mad. He has found an outlet 

 for his psychic energy which provides him with a satis- 

 factory basis for healthy mental life. There is a 

 possibility that it is legitimate to argue that the satis- 

 factoriness of the religious redirection of the psychic 

 energy is the result of the fact that the object of 

 religious love is real, and not, as many psychologists 

 would have us suppose, a phantasy creation of our 

 own minds. 



We must, therefore, recognise the importance of 

 this transformation of human love as a factor in 

 religious experience. The emotions of the mystic and 

 of the adolescent convert are emotions familiar to us 

 in the sentiment of earthly love. The mystic's alterna- 

 tion of periods of intense emotional fer\our and of 

 reaction or " dryness," his temptation to find the 

 meaning of his experiences in the emotional pleasures 

 themselves rather than in the guided activity which 



' The word used by Freud is " libido." I have preferred 

 to take the term " psychic energy " from Jung, since it is less 

 likely to be given an exclusively sexual meaning. It is used 

 as a term to cover the energy behind all kinds of desire. 



should be their product, may be paralleled on the plane 

 of human love. It is, however, important that the 

 significance of this relationship should not be exag- 

 gerated. Probably we appreciate this significance 

 best when we are led by it to see something sacred in 

 human love, rather than when we find in it a cause of 

 reproach to religious love. 



BOOKS FOR FLRTHliK KE.\DIN(. 

 On the Psychology of Religion 

 The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James. (Long- 

 mans, Green ci Co., lis. net.) 

 The Mystical Element of Religion, by Baron F. \on Huegel, 



2 vols. (Dent, 21s.) 

 The Religious Consciousness, by Prof. J. Bissctt I'ratt. (The 

 Macmillan Company. New York, 1920, 22s.) 



On the Freudian Psychology 



The Psychology of Insanity, by Dr. Bernard Hart. (Cam- 

 bridge University Press, 1918, is. Od.) 



A General Introduction to Psycho-analysis, by Prof. S. Freud. 

 (Boni & Liveright. New York.) 



Metric Systems 



By A. E. Crawley, M..\. 



Author 0/ " Tlic Bmk 0/ llw Hall " and iif " Laii'u Teiuiis," etc. 



.■\t the recent meeting of the British Association the 

 suggestion was made that, in view of the decreased 

 purchasing power of the penny, the pound sterling 

 should be divided into two hundred instead of two 

 hundred and forty pence. This would decimalise our 

 coinage — sixpence would become fivepence, a shilling 

 tenpence, half a crown twentj'-five, and so on. 



Periodical attempts are made to introduce a Bill for 

 changing our system into a decimal system. But why 

 not decimalise our weights and measures also ? 



A uniform world-system of numeration would 

 obviously be a boon to international trade, and other 

 international relations. The Olympic games, recently 

 held, showed once more the inconvenience of conflict- 

 ing national systems of measuring. The 100 metres 

 footrace is 109-36 yards ; the 400 metres race is 37-44 

 yards longer than our classic quarter mile. The 

 equivalent of our mile is the 1,600 metres race of 

 1,6404 yards ; and so on. 



In the relative measurement of dress fabrics, as 

 between, e.g., Switzerland and Great Britain in the 

 silk trade, the reduction of the two systems, so Swiss 

 merchants inform me. is a permanent nuisance, 

 especially as the English yard and the Continental 

 metre are incommensurable. 



The essential points in a convenient system are ease 



