102 THE LIGHT OE DAY 



without being clad in some tangible faitb. The 

 mass of the people are indifferent rather than skepti- 

 cal. They are undoubtedly drifting away from the 

 creeds of their fathers, but they have not yet en- 

 tirely lost sight of them. " The various modes of 

 worship which prevailed in the Koman world," says 

 Gibbon, " were all considered by the people as 

 equally true ; by the philosopher as equally false, 

 and by the magistrate as equally useful." This is 

 probably very much the case amid all nations, at all 

 times. 



Men of large action, too, generals, statesmen, sea 

 captains, explorers, usually share the religion of 

 their contemporaries. Frederick the Great is per- 

 haps the most notable exception to this rule. A 

 popular religion is always definite and practical, 

 clothes itself in concrete forms, and appeals to the 

 active temperament. The man of action has little 

 time for reflection, to return upon himself and en- 

 tertain intellectual propositions. Faith is an earlier 

 and in many ways a healthier act of the mind than 

 reason, because faith leads to action, while reason 

 makes us hesitate and put off a decision. The 

 church has always had trouble with philosophers 

 and physicians, with men who wanted to know the 

 reason of things and trace the connection of cause 

 and effect. There was little skepticism in Greece 

 until after the sophists appeared, the critics, men of 

 ideas, who directed a free play of thought upon all 

 objects and subjects, a type of mind which begat the 

 philosophers of Athens, but not the great poets and 



