THE ARTS AND RELIGION 285 



of scene or place. The fictional arena is a wide one, 

 inviting to all grades of talent ; and if it seems too 

 crowded with mediocrity, it is consoling to know that 

 here, too, the law of biological struggle and survival 

 is active, and must shortly clear the field of all but 

 the presenters of the truth which the world is learn- 

 ing to demand in more and more refined form. If 

 an intense realism prevail for a time, it should excite 

 neither wonder nor apprehension for the fate of the 

 novelists' art. For such realism is needed, by many 

 at some time, by some at all times, to hold the mirror 

 of record to the complexities of human action, and 

 to help to free them from confusion. The guarantee 

 that the idealized versions of thought and conduct 

 will triumph ultimately lies in the fact that the human 

 mind tires of the simply photographic and delights 

 in emphasis of the tendencies and meanings which 

 can only be elicited by the art of sane idealization. 



VIII 



In the foregoing sections some reasons have been 

 adduced which show that in painting, in music, and 

 in literature we have human products that represent 

 the fusion of self -preservative and sexual instincts. 

 It is not difficult to produce evidence that a fusion 

 of these instincts is also perceivable in the religious 

 activities of the human mind. All forms of religion 

 have at least two kinds of devotees: those that are 

 chiefly interested in the outward signs of religion, 



