in these days must be not only religious, but also Christian. The history of religions is a long record of man's effort to be rid of the contradiction, the sin, inherent in his being. The yearning for God is not a mere contemptible superstition. No philosophy which regards it as such can do more than explain it away. Its origin lies deeper than aught else in human nature. The individual possesses personality only in relation to his fellow-men and to God. He yearns to be at one with both. Hence the gradual evolution of the religious consciousness which culminated in Christianity. There a religion at once divine and human burst upon the dying pagan world. To all mankind it was then practically demonstrated, that union of finite and infinite was possible, that I, the poor, sinful, half-grown individual, could, by attempting to re-live the ideal life realised in Christ, become a new creature. Philosophy, in discussing these points, sees in them not a barren recrudescence of mythological absurdities, but a reproduction, in a special sphere, of the entire prior and contemporary movement of civilisation, that is, of universal spirit. Thought is evertrying to overcome its own imperfection. So, too, the thinker, in his religion, which implies thought, is always striving to overcome the contradiction of the present, to reach the blessed peace and admirable rest of fully realised personality. He, as a reasonable being, finds God in all thought, just as he makes Him the indispensable supposition of religion. Taken together, the two teach that the universe rests for recognition upon the selfconsciousness of man, and that the self-consciousness of man, like the universe, derives reality from the absolute being. There is here no opposition, but a junction, of forces, and this to effect a common purpose. The power of philosophy is to exhibit the ultimate meaning of facts—and religion is the largest fact in man's life, just as Christianity is the bulkiest fact in religion. The power of religion is to induce immediate expansion of spiritual life. The assurance of faith and the reasoned conviction of philosophy are not two things but one. Each contains elements. drawn from the other. Religion brings phenomena to philosophy; philosophy gifts religion with a settled and rational account of first principles. Nay, it finally reveals that phenomena and

principle alike stand indissolubly related to God, of whose nature both are vital expressions.

Despite all this, however, we must remember that philosophy of religion is not to be cramped by sectarian views regarding particular doctrines. Many, no doubt, will be disappointed when they come to philosophy of religion and find that it does not supply them with a gospel. Many more will be even repelled when they discover that it does not make a point of confirming their most cherished articles of faith. Nevertheless, no one ought to have any difficulty in understanding that philosophy of religion is not religion. This is the reason why it preaches no gospel, and caters for the benefit of no particular dogma. Its very rationale is to obtain the universal element in all religions, and that by a special process, which is applied not only to one part, but to the great prior condition of religion itself. Some may deem their faith perfect when they can recite the Apostle's Creed with a little fervency, or conscientiously sign documents such as the Thirtynine Articles or the Westminster Confession. But philosophy has to treat these formularies as part of the unity of religious phenomena with which it has to deal. From its point of view, faith cannot be perfect until reason is present. Not indeed that faith and reason are one, but that philosophy, in its task of comprehending all faiths in order to arrive at their ultimate basis, must proceed by way of reason. Hence the assurance of the rationality of faith, which it seeks, is not attained till reason be satisfied. Consequently, in such an inquiry, individuals must look not so much for authoritative confirmation of this or that article of faith, as for a calm justification of the cognising powers through which man grows in religion, no matter what his religious ideas, and for an explanation of the nature of the absolute being, in so far as that nature can be fathomed from the manifestations of it in religion as a whole. But this in no way traverses the point just urged, that philosophy and religion are not in conflict. It is not the mission of the one to confirm this or that manifestation of the other, but, taking all manifestations, to exhibit the implications without which they could not be designated religious. A philosophy which proposes to dismiss religion by tracing its origin to fear of non-existent ghosts, is not in any way a philo

sophy of religion. It may be an account of particular kinds of phenomena to be found in a specific worship. It does not even touch on the great questions of religion as a whole. To assume religion as a fact, and then to explain it away by religious phenomena is much the same as to say that because light enables us to see the sun there is therefore no sun. In the one case as in the other the explanation has really nothing to do with the subject. Thus it is, that a philosophy of religion, which is adequate to the phenomena presented for consideration, although expressly withholding approval from any religious dogma, at the same time reduces not one whit the truth of religion. Indeed, it preserves this truth in a new form, which is at once more systematic and more conclusive than any dogmatic formulary can possibly be. For, so far as Deity is concerned-and He must be taken as the object of every creed-philosophy has to reproduce, as the result of reflection, what the creed itself proposes in a bald statement. Such a statement, if it do not involve knowledge in the strict acceptation of the term, undoubtedly implies a process of thought directed to a certain end. This process-its nature, validity, and the accuracy of its results, is the subject matter of philosophy. What it states philosophy grounds, not concerning itself with any particular aspect of the dogma put forward, but with the distinctive essence of the integral element by the presence of which it is called religious. Or, from another point of view, the aim of the religious consciousness is also the aim of the philosophy of religion. It penetrates beyond the historical to the principles there manifested, and this it does in every department. The object of religion is God; so too God is the object of philosophy of religion. Indeed, for this very reason, religion is more indissolubly connected with philosophy than is any other department of human consciousness. For, as philosophy seeks the ultimate being in all things, religion consists in worship of the same absolute. In a very special sense then, philosophy does not conflict with religion, but pursues the same path, trying by systematic accuracy to arrive at the point from which religion set out. The final standpoint of thought is one with that of religion. Knowledge of God is a hard-won possession for philosophy, for religion it is a persuasion, sometimes nobly defended, but always

accepted with eager joy. But this joy, just on account of its eagerness, may generate doctrines only too ill-adapted for selfdefence. Partial aspects of the divine nature may be over emphasized, the relation of man to deity may be obscured in essentials, the practical life of daily toil may be left to take too much care of itself, and instead excessive attention may be bestowed on dogmatic purity. This and such as this philosophy of religion would purge away. For, above all else, it tries to elucidate that pervasive essence of religion-the union, in normal human life, of a finite self-conscious being with the eternal personality, and this by acts which persons alone can originate, that is, through the self-determination of love. Philosophy investigates theoretically the process presented practically in religion. According to the declaration of the latter, man has communion with God in his spiritual life. Philosophy seeks to discover how far the recorded facts of religion testify to this allegation, and, if confirmation be obtainable, systematises the results which necessarily follow on a concatenated view of the universe thus conditioned. For this purpose philosophy has to examine the succession of religions. It is in no wise opposed to religion, although it may see reason to cast aside this or that specific phenomenon as less intimately connected with the general progress than some others. On the contrary, philosophy is of the highest value to religion; for it enables one to distinguish between the accidental in religions and the permanent in Religion.

Lord Gifford's conviction, that the human soul always was with and in God, and that with Him it shall ever dwell in closer and more conscious union, is the postulate at once of religion and of systematic or final philosophy. For in personality, man's distinctive characteristic, the nature of Deity is pre-eminently revealed, in so far as it can be known here. God may clothe the lilies of the field and sustain the sparrow, but in man He shows forth the crowning mystery of self-consciousness. Not that man and God are co-ordinate, as some appear to think. The Deity, if He be God, has a personality above and beyond all human selfhood. But humanity as a whole, in that it. reaches forth unceasingly to an infinite ideal, is inspired by that divine potency which controls the world, reveals itself in time, and causes all progress;

yet which is more than the world, as you and I are more than our acts, is the condition of time, and the postulate of all individual thought; which constitutes the final end of universal development, and as the full stature of perfection, revealed in Christ, is the goal of the good man's life. By his very nature, man is most closely related to this Being. Thus, in philosophy of religion, although the mind alone, rather than the whole character, is directed towards God, the search and the culminating assurance are of and for the Absolute Personality by whose love all men are winning, and shall one day win, the ultimate 'Sabbath of their lives.' The founder of the Gifford lectureships was profoundly moved by this conviction; he left of his substance to further the kind of search just sketched, and to fix his fellows more in that line of conduct which is inspired by the very presence of Deity. No one of those who are appointed to carry out his last instructions should permit themselves for a moment to forget that, like his close intellectual companion, Spinoza, he was a 'God-intoxicated man.'

R. M. WENLEY.

ART. IV. THE LEGEND OF ARCHANGEL LESLIE.

1. Il Cappucino Scozzese. Di Monsignor Gio-Battista Rinuccini, Arcivescovo e Principe di Fermo. Con licenza de' SS. Superiori. A Macerata. 1644.

2. Il Cappuccino Scozzese in Scena, con la seconda parte, e sua morte, non ancor mai più stampata. Data in luce dal Signor FRANCESCO ROZZI D'ALATRI. Roma, 1673.

3. Le Capucin Escossois. Histoire merveilleuse et tres veritable, arrivée de nostre-temps. Traduitte du manuscript Italien de Monseigneur Jean Baptiste Rinuccini, Archevesque et Prince de Ferme. Par le R. P. FRANCOIS BARRAUT, Procureur general des Pères de la doctrine Chrestienne, residant à Rome. (1st French edition) Paris, 1650.

4. L'Histoire et la Vie merveilleuse du Comte de Lesley, gentilhomme escossois, capucin. Edition nouvelle, corrigée et