Conclusion 385 



But in religion it is the substance, and not the shadow of Hberty, 

 which is gained in this way." In middle Hfe, petition forms a 

 smaller and smaller proportion of our prayers. Our creed is 

 simplified, and intensified. God becomes for us less an object 

 than an atmosphere. 



Dr. Brown, like all modern psychologists, attaches the greatest 

 importance to the mystical experience, the essence of which is that 

 the soul believes itself to have come into immediate communication 

 with a spiritual power or presence above itself. It may be hoped 

 that we shall have no more attempts, like that of Murisier, to 

 prove that all mysticism is pathological. If the student chooses 

 to take for his examples only the extreme types of ecstasy, it is no 

 doubt easy to show that the subjects of these trances were often 

 in a morbid state of the brain or nerves. Even among visionaries, 

 however, there have been many men and women of robust health 

 and keen intelligence. But if we realise, as is certainly the truth, 

 that what is called mysticism is only a further development of a 

 universal religious practice, that of prayer, we shall put aside these 

 attempts to discredit religion at its base. It is the conviction of all 

 religious people that in prayer we are speaking to One who hears us, 

 and this is the strongest argument that the religious quest is not vain. 

 Dr. Brown mentions that many persons fail to achieve anything 

 like the mystical experience, and regards this as an argument 

 against the value of the mystic's testimony, except to the psycho- 

 logist. But, so far as we can judge, very many persons are 

 religiously ungifted, just as many are indifferent to music. They 

 may be excellent people, but they arc, so to speak, deaf on this side. 

 There are many also who have never given long and concentrated 

 attention to the unseen world ; they do not " practise the presence 

 of God." Such persons do not receive the mystical experience, 

 because they have not earned it. They have not even attempted 

 to climb a mountain which, as all who have climbed it testify, is 

 long, steep, and difficult. There are specialists in the spiritual 

 life, as in other things. Their testimony is of supreme value 

 in their own sphere j and it is an error to say that what they 

 have seen and felt is valid only for themselves, because others 

 cannot share it. It is not thus that we treat the authority of 

 genius in other subjects. 



But there is a question of special interest in the study of 

 mysticism, to which Dr. Brown calls attention. The mystic 



