vii THE TWO ORDERS 117 



system on any sort or condition of men without regard 

 to their characteristics. There must be either an actual 

 harmony or the conditions of a possible harmony which 

 will grow if the religion is to be a vital part of the social 

 structure. This necessity operates throughout the history 

 of religion. We have seen it at work in the lowest stages 

 of belief. But there it operated without check. As 

 thought in its advance becomes clearer and more articulate 

 a new condition of harmony appears. There must be 

 intellectual or speculative coherence. The deliverances of 

 the religious mind must consist with one another. There 

 must emerge a dogmatic system forming a coherent and 

 ordered whole. But order and coherence are of the 

 essence of logic and reason, and religion must therefore 

 make its account with these factors of mental life. Again, 

 there is a parallel development of ethical feeling, which 

 as it becomes conscious, demands a greater measure of 

 harmony in personal and social life, and the religious 

 system must provide a basis for such harmony and discard 

 elements of teaching that conflict with it. The higher 

 religion therefore sets up a definite and reasoned construc- 

 tion, a theory of the world and of man, an ideal of life, 

 a unified system of thought and action. 



But though there are logical and ethical conditions 

 under which the religions move, they are not based 

 squarely on experience, nor is their practical order educed 

 from an investigation of the actual conditions of harmony. 

 They take up a position above experience, and reasoning 

 downward therefrom determine the destiny of man and pre- 

 scribe the laws of conduct. Their appeal is in the last resort 

 to c faith,' to the inner light or to the wisdom of the illu- 

 minated. They may use historical narratives or miracu- 

 lous signs as buttresses of faith, but at bottom they know 

 that these are only outworks to impress the vulgar. The 

 religious order stands on its own basis. But as the 

 common-sense order is equally firm the result is a virtual 

 recognition of two orders such as may be said roughly to 

 express the attitude of popular Christianity. Here is our 

 world, the world of space and time, of inanimate matter 

 and of conscious human life, the scene of our personal 



